D&D: New ‘Unearthed Arcana: Giant Options’ Lets You Toss the Halfling as a Bonus Action
WotC unveiled a giant-sized, giant-themed playtest earlier: Unearthed Arcana: Giant Options. Toss your friends, toss your enemies, reject humanity, return to big.
Giants play a big role in D&D 5E’s lore, pun intended. From the heart of Storm King’s Thunder, to the rune-based magic that fuels one of the more exciting Fighters, Giants do a lot. Especially now. WitC unveiled a new Unearthed Arcana: Giant Options, featuring three new subclasses and a host of new feats. Wizards, Druids, and Barbarians get fun new toys in the latest playtest.
What does it mean? Are giants about to be back in a big way? We saw Dragon options give way to Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons. But around the same time we got Multiverse Options, which led to Spelljammer: Adventures in Space.
Whatever form they’ll take, these new subclasses introduce some exciting new options. Let’s check them out!
Unearthed Arcana: Giant Options – Subclasses
Three new subclasses make up the heart of the new playtest:
- Barbarian – Path of the Giant
- Druid – Circle of the Primeval
- Wizard – Runecrafter
Each introduces a swath of new options. But perhaps best of all is the new Barbarian.
The Path of the Giant is a new Barbarian subclass. As the name suggests, it’s all about drawing on the primeval power imbued in giants. Elemental energy and literal giant growth are at the heart of it. It starts with Giant Power, which gives you the about to speak Giant and access to either Thaumaturgy or Druidcraft (your choice).
But the heart and soul of the subclass is in Giant’s Havoc, which empowers your rage.
Not only do you get to extend your reach and become Large, you also get to add your rage damage to thrown weapons. This stacks with the new Thrown Weapon fighting style and can really go off starting at 6th level with Elemental Cleaver, an ability that makes your rage elemental. When you rage, you can infuse your weapon with 1d6 extra elemental damage.
And on top of that, it gains the thrown property and immediately reappears in your hand after it hits or misses a creature, so you can keep attacking and throwing as much as your build allows.
At 10th level though, the subclass towers over everyone else though. Mighty Impel lets you use a bonus action to throw a Medium or smaller creature up to 30 feet. Which is amazing. Not for the mechanical benefit, but, for the sheer awesomeness of it alone.
And sure, an unsettling creature gets a save, but if they fail, you can throw them anywhere. Even off of a cliff, or into lava.
Druid Circle of the Primeval
This Druid subclass draws one again on primeval power, this time to summon a primal spirit. Your Primeval Companion is the heart of it all. This feature uses your wild shape ability to summon a primeval spirit:
As with most “pets” post-Tasha’s Cauldron, you can command them as a bonus action to attack or take another action.
The rest of the class is all about leveling up your spirit and you getting empowered by it in turn.
At 6th level, Prehistoric Conduit lets you channel spells through your spirit. And if you accidentally clip them in a area spell, they gain evasion. And at 10th level, Titanic Bond makes your spirit grow to Large Size when they are summoned. They in turn give you the ability to frighten people when you hit them with an attack or spell.
Finally, at 14th level, you gain the ability to use a spell slot to empower your spirit:
Runecrafter Wizard
Finally, Wizards get up to some Wiz Biz. The Giant’s affinity for runes defines this subclass. And they use runes to great effect! With Runic Empowerment, you can add a rider any time you cast a spell using a spell slot:
And on its own, the would be pretty great. But you also gain Sigils of Warding, which grants you Legendary Resistance in exchange for a use of Runic Empowerment. Being able to turn a failed save into a success is going to feel real good.
At 10th level you can recover Runic Empowerment uses along with Arcane Recovery, and at 14th, you gain the ability to invoke a Rune of Enmity on your foes:
All in all there’s some cool stuff here. You can really feel WotC stretching their design legs. Here’s hoping these subclasses make it through testing and into the game.
What do you think of these new options?
