Giant Barbarian Build Guide – Utilize Unlimited Reach – 2024 Update

For all D&D guides on Nat1gaming, they only use the main sourcebooks (2024 Player’s Handbook, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) as well as Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (mostly for Silvery Barbs) as those tend to be the most commonly used books at tables. Always be sure that if you’re following a guide that you’re adhering to your tables rules about what sourcebooks you are allowed to follow. Furthermore, be sure that you’re using the most current edition of the rules, especially as some 2024 Player’s Handbook rules are updates on Tasha’s or Xanathar’s rulings.

Any spell, class, feature, or other game item that is linkable on this website is covered by the 5th edition Open Games License and will be in the Player’s Handbook, but not everything in the Player’s Handbook will be linked to. All other materials that aren’t linked to are from other sourcebooks or aren’t allowed to be linked to per the 5th Edition Open Games License, so please refer to the appropriate sourcebooks for that information.

For the purposes of this guide, it will be assumed that you would not be multiclassing. While multiclassing can be excellent for many of these, this is for those who want to play the build all the way through in the same class. Guides that use multiclassing will be separate from these.

Have you ever played a melee character and needed to hit someone who was just out of reach and you had the awkward turn where you needed to Dash instead of attack? I think we’ve all been there. Why worry about range ever again when you can just play a Path of the Giant Barbarian!

With the inherent feature to get longer reach, this build utilizes Polearm Master/Sentinel extremely well as you can hit enemies from substantially further away than any other melee build making this class inherently mobile and very annoying for any enemies that are looking to get up close!

Giant’s Power (Level 3) – D- Tier – Functionally if not completely useless.

Giant’s Havoc (Level 3) – B- Tier – This is a neat ability that gives you better thrown weapons and reach with your weapon. Both are a bit niche, but it’s not too difficult to make this a good ability.

Elemental Cleaver (Level 6) – B+ Tier – Extra damage and the ability to attack at a distance is quite nice, even if Barbarians are traditionally supposed to be in the thick of combat.

Mighty Impel (Level 10) – B- Tier – This is decent for repositioning allies and being able to toss the occasional enemy, although most enemies at this point are likely to be pretty large.

Demiurgic Colossus (Level 14) – B- Tier – More reach and more damage is nice, but may not necessarily feel that impactful.

Not seeing the build you would want from this guide? This article can help!

Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)

Attributes:

Class: Barbarian

Class Features: Rage, Unarmored Defense

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics and Perception

Background: Farmer (Tough)

Starting Equipment: Glaive, 2 Handaxes, Explorer’s Pack, and 35 gp + 50gp from background

Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)

For any martial character, it’s hard to justify not going for Goliath as the Hill Giant topple is so incredibly good to get advantage on attacks. There are other solid options for species as well like Human for an additional origin feat or Aasimar as they are just generally strong, but Goliath is generally going to be my choice.

Attributes

Barbarians are always going to prioritize Strength and Constitution so they are the ones who get the buff. Barbarians also only need 14 DEX as, as tempting as it is to stick with unarmored defense, Medium Armor is going to be better most of the time.

Proficiencies – Athletics and Perception

The classic proficiency choices for Barbarians.

Background – Farmer

While I would’ve preferred getting a background with Alert, but getting additional Strength and Constitution is very important for Barbarians. That being said, Tough is still an excellent feat for Barbarians and will help you stay alive in the face of your lower average AC compared to other martial characters.

Starting Equipment – Glaive, 2 Handaxes, Explorer’s Pack, and 35 gp + 50gp from background

Since you want to use a Polearm, you need to grab the starting gold rather than the normal starting equipment.

Starting Class – Barbarian

Barbarians come with three inherent features that is emblematic of Barbarians in general – Rage, Unarmored Defense, and Weapon Mastery.

Rage is a bonus action activated ability that gives you a big boon in combat a few times a day (that will incrementally climb as you level up). While Raging, you have advantage on all Strength checks and saving throws, you gain bonuses to your Weapon damage, and you have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. You can maintain this powerful state for 10 minutes as long as you keep attacking, force an enemy to make a saving throw, or you use your bonus action to actively maintain it. You start with 2 Rage charges per day, but once per day after a short rest, you get one charge back which is a nice change from 5e. An absolutely excellent ability overall.

Unarmored Defense is easy, your AC is 10 + CON modifier + DEX modifier. So for level 1, your AC will be 15 which is solid, but nothing special.

Weapon Masteries are the new feature coming in One D&D that gives you a weapon’s mastery property when you select it. I would pick Greataxe and Javelin initially, but you should change them as you find new weapons.

Level 2

Class Features: Danger Sense, Reckless Attack

Equipment: Try to pick up some Medium Armor at this point or sometime soon, Scale Mail being your cheapest option.

Now you have access to Danger Sense and Reckless Attack!

It’s hard to know how often Danger Sense will come into play, but it is an excellent class feature as traps can be very dangerous in lower levels.

Reckless Attack is a mixed bag as giving yourself advantage on attacks for a turn at the cost of everyone having advantage on attacks against you can be a scary tradeoff. While this is definitely risky when there’s a lot of enemies or you aren’t raging, this is a strong feature when you just care about maximizing your damage, especially after you get your Extra Attack!

Level 3

Subclass: Giant

Class Features: Giant’s Power, Giant’s Havoc, Primal Knowledge

Now that you get your subclass, you get two new subclass abilities to work with as well as a base class ability.

Giant’s Power, while a cool name, is functionally just flavor. It doesn’t matter which spell you pick here and the odds of this coming up often are extremely unlikely.

Giant’s Havoc, on the other hand, is definitely a nice feature. More damage to thrown weapons is niche, but fine as you have your Handaxes and Javelins to work with if that’s necessary, but the increase to reach is what you’re really after. Since you’re already using a Polearm, you’ll be able to attack enemies from really far away which is super strong and let’s you maneuver around the battlefield much easier as you can hit from way further away.

For your base class feature, Primal Knowledge gives you more proficiencies from the base Barbarian class, and this is a solid time to pick up Intimidation, but it’s really up to you what you want at this point.

Level 4

Feat: Polearm Master (STR)

As you are going to be using a Polearm, there’s no better feat than Polearm Master! Getting more uses of your reaction on top of a free bonus action attack when you have nothing better to do makes this the perfect feat for this build.

Level 5

Class Features: Extra Attack, Fast Movement

Extra Attack and Fast Movement are huge for this class!

Extra Attack literally doubles your potential damage and is the best feature that any martial class could pick up.

Fast Movement is a nice movement boost to help you navigate the battlefield, something martial characters would always be happy to have.

Level 6

Class Feature: Elemental Cleaver

Elemental Cleaver has a lot of effects, and all of them are pretty strong!

The elemental damage and damage buff is obviously awesome and consumes no additional resource beyond you just need to be raging to get it.

The thrown weapon part is pretty unique and gives you yet another ranged option if you want it, and of course, it synergizes quite well with the Crushing Throw half of Giant’s Havoc from level 3.

Overall, this is an incredible buff to your damage output.

Level 7

Class Features: Feral Instinct, Instinctive Pounce

Advantage on Initiative rolls!? Unreal! Being able to go earlier in the turn order is naturally incredible, but it’s even better on this subclass than normal! Getting to go before an opponent who may attack one of your squishier party members to intercept them and potentially lock them down is incredibly strong.

If you use the Instinctive Pounce optional ruling, you get a nice movement speed buff on turns you Rage. Not super important for this class, but it’s good to have!

Level 8

Feat: Great Weapon Master (STR)

Level 8 brings another feat and I really like picking up Great Weapon Master! Getting extra damage to your attacks, and potentially extra attacks in a turn, is obviously excellent!

Level 9

Class Features: Brutal Strike

Reworked from Brutal Critical, Brutal Strike is a nice ability that lets you trade advantage on an attack (perfect for your Reckless Attack or when you knock your enemy prone with your species ability) for extra damage, the ability to push an enemy 15 feet and follow them, or to reduce their speed by 15 feet for the turn. This gives the Barbarian surprisingly decent CC options on top of just getting extra damage by sacrificing accuracy, which is reminiscent of the old Great Weapon Master. Overall, this is a great ability that you’ll use often, especially on enemies with a lower AC.

Level 10

Class Features: Mighty Impel, Primal Knowledge – Survival

While hurling allies and enemies alike is more funny than practical, this does use your bonus action which, beyond Raging, is generally unused for most Barbarians. Being able to reposition people is strong, but you will need to be closer to enemies than you may necessarily want to be as they have to be within your reach, not your weapons reach.

You also get your second round of Primal Knowledge, and if you don’t have a strong opinion, I would just pick Survival.

Level 11

Class Features: Relentless Rage

One of the strongest abilities not just for Barbarians, but just in general, Relentless Rage lets you keep fighting even when you were supposed to go unconscious by passing an ever increasing Constitution saving throw. While you used to just stay at 1 health, you now heal twice your Barbarian level instead making it less likely that everything that hits you just forces this save again making what was one of the strongest Barbarian abilities even better!

Level 12

Feat: Mage Slayer (STR)

You get another feat this level, and you can finally max out your Strength with Mage Slayer! Messing up spellcasters is always nice, but having a functional charge of Legendary Resistance once per day is the real draw to this feat!

Level 13

Class Features: Improved Brutal Strike

You get new options to use on your Brutal Strike – Stagger and Sunder. Stagger gives enemies disadvantage on their next saving throw as well as robbing them of opportunity attacks for the turn which can be absolutely devastating when you have an ally ready to blast them with some potent CC. Sunder, on the other hand, gives an attack against that enemy +5 until the beginning of your next turn. While you could use this to set up your next attack (that you just gave up your Advantage to do which is a little counterintuitive), this is good to help an ally connect if they have a strong attack you really want them to connect with.

Level 14

Class Features: Demiurgic Colossus

Level 14 brings your subclass capstone ability – Demiurgic Colossus!

More reach and more damage is a fine way to round out the subclass features. Nothing too special, but just the things you already like doing are even better.

Level 15

Class Features: Persistent Rage

Do you find yourself running out of Rage charges often? Now with Persistent Rage, that’s less of a problem! Once per day when you enter a combat, you get all instances of Rage back. This is really good as it sucks having to fight without your Rage and also lets you use your Intimidating Presence more as you’re less afraid of accidentally running out of Rage!

Level 16

Feat: Constitution to 18

Since this is your final feat, it’s best to just bump up your Constitution for extra health. Make it that much harder to kill you and make your Relentless Rage checks a bit easier to pass!

Level 17

Class Features: Improved Brutal Strike

Your final improvement to Brutal Strike – the extra damage is now doubled and you can use two Brutal Strike effects simultaneously. Obviously, this is very strong as doubling the output of an already strong ability will be good.

Level 18

Class Features: Indomitable Might

Indomitable Might is a weird class ability as Strength checks and saving throws are pretty rare, but not being able to roll less than a 20 on them is nice for what it’s worth.

Level 19

Epic Boon: Boon of Combat Prowess (STR)

Especially since you may be giving up accuracy for more damage, being able to turn a missed attack into a hit is extremely powerful and will let you get all those additional effects that your Brutal Strike affords you. This Boon is an absolute necessity for Barbarians if not just for every martial class.

Level 20

Class Features: Primal Champion

While it’s tempting to multiclass into Fighter for a few levels to get a Fighting Style and Action Surge, Primal Champion is a compelling reason not to. This is equivalent to FOUR ability score improvements which is a tremendous boost. Get that incredible strength and constitution.