The Runic Titan – Barbarian/Fighter Multiclass Build Guide
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For all D&D guides on Nat1gaming, they only use the main sourcebooks (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.
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For spellcasters, you may notice substantial overlap between the spell lists of builds with the same base class. This is due to each guide utilizing a generically good spell list and not considering extenuating factors that will influence how you particularly sculpt your spell list. When creating your own spell list, you should take into account the campaign setting, what spells any other party members are capable of casting, potential overlap (ritual spells tend to overlap so it’s rare you need multiple people capable of casting them), or potential shortcomings in the parties total spell list. While this guide can definitely help point you in the right direction for crafting a spell list, you should use your judgement and preferences to figure out what spells make the most sense for your character.
To that end, please refer to the Spell List and Spell Tier list for any substitutions you’d want to make to the build.
Why Runic Titan?
Combining the Giant Barbarian and the Rune Knight Fighter gives you one distinct ability – to always be large! While this would not normally be that impactful, it can be in two conditions.
The first is if you’re using a polearm so you get more reach which functionally means more movement speed which is great.
The second, though, is that you can much more easily use oversized weapons. Oversized weapons are a bit contentious, but if you use a weapon designed for a large monster, you can deal substantially more damage than you normally would be able to which is really powerful.
Your DM may not use oversized weapons in their campaign which would make this build a bit sad, but even without them, having 10 feet of reach for combat can be really impactful as you’ll be able to maintain large distances between your enemies while still doling out massive damage!
Quick Level Up Guide
| Level | Class Features/Feat |
| 1 – 1 Fighter | Fighting Style (Defense), Second Wind, Weapon Mastery |
| 2 – 2 Fighter | Action Surge (x1) |
| 3 – 3 Fighter (Rune Knight) | Bonus Proficiencies Rune Carver (Fire Rune, Stone Rune) Giant’s Might |
| 4 – 4 Fighter | Feat: Great Weapon Master (STR) |
| 5 – 5 Fighter | Extra Attack, Tactical Shift |
| 6 – 6 Fighter | Feat: Polearm Master (STR) |
| 7 – 1 Barbarian 6 Fighter | Rage, Unarmored Defense, Weapon Mastery |
| 8 – 2 Barbarian 6 Fighter | Danger Sense, Reckless Attack |
| 9 – 3 Barbarian (Giant) 6 Fighter | Giant’s Power, Giant’s Havoc |
| 10 – 3 Barbarian 7 Fighter | Runic Shield Additional Rune (Hill Rune) |
| 11 – 3 Barbarian 8 Fighter | Feat: Mage Slayer (STR) |
| 12 – 3 Barbarian 9 Fighter | Indomitable (x1), Tactical Master |
| 13 – 3 Barbarian 10 Fighter | Great Stature Additional Rune (Storm Rune) |
| 14 – 3 Barbarian 11 Fighter | Extra Attack (x2) |
| 15 – 3 Barbarian 12 Fighter | Feat: Constitution to 18 |
| 16 – 3 Barbarian 13 Fighter | Indomitable (x2), Studied Attacks |
| 17 – 3 Barbarian 14 Fighter | Feat: Constitution to 20 |
| 18 – 3 Barbarian 15 Fighter | Master of Runes Additional Rune (Cloud Rune) |
| 19 – 3 Barbarian 16 Fighter | Epic Boon: Boon of Combat Prowess (STR) |
| 20 – 3 Barbarian 17 Fighter | Action Surge (x2), Indomitable (x3) |
Questions About Multiclassing?
Not every inherent interaction here is going to be mentioned in the guide, so check out the multiclassing guide to help answer any additional questions you may have!
What’s The Game Plan Of The Runic Titan?
This one is a breeze. You’re going to either use your Rage or your Giant’s Might to get big, get extra reach and damage, and smack people with your Halberd. The Runes do add a bit of variety to your plan, but beyond that, this is an extremely straightforward build.
If your DM allows you to use oversized weapons, be sure to pick one up for extra damage!
Important Notes For The Build
- While sad, remember that Great Weapon Master no longer applies to the Polearm Master bonus action attack.
- Be really considerate of your movement – the main draw of this build is the extra reach so getting just out of an enemies reach is really powerful. However, you don’t want to forget the ability to potentially “corner” enemies – getting big enough where enemies can’t get around you can also be super useful to protect your allies.
- If you’re confident that an enemy won’t be able to reach you during a round of combat, you should Reckless Attack as it’s just free to do so!
Level One Build
Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)
Attributes:
| POINT BUY | |
| STRENGTH | 15 (+2 background) = 17 |
| DEXTERITY | 14 |
| CONSTITUTION | 15 (+1 background) = 16 |
| INTELLIGENCE | 8 |
| WISDOM | 10 |
| CHARISMA | 8 |
Class: Fighter
Class Features: Fighting Style, Second Wind, Weapon Mastery
Skill Proficiencies: Insight and Perception
Background: Farmer (Tough)
Starting Equipment: Scale Mail, Scimitar, Short Sword, 10 Javelins, Dungeoneer’s Pack, and 53 gp + 50 gp 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
| POINT BUY | |
| STRENGTH | 15 (+2 background) = 17 |
| DEXTERITY | 14 |
| CONSTITUTION | 15 (+1 background) = 16 |
| INTELLIGENCE | 8 |
| WISDOM | 10 |
| CHARISMA | 8 |
The common stat distribution for Strength based martials who want to wear medium armor.
Proficiencies: Insight and Perception
Just excellent skill proficiencies for any character.
Background: Farmer (Tough)
The best attributes with the best feat for martial characters that care about Strength.
Starting Equipment – Scale Mail, Halberd, 10 Javelins, Dungeoneer’s Pack, and 68 gp + 50 gp from background
You want to pick the starting gold to get this equipment.
Class – Fighter
Rangers get three abilities to start off with in Fighting Style, Second Wind, and Weapon Mastery.
The Fighting Style you’re going to pick is Two Weapon Fighting! Getting your DEX as bonus damage with your offhand attacks is excellent and is going to really ramp up your damage potential.
Second Wind is a cool feature where, for a bonus action, you can heal yourself a bit. This is obviously great for tough fights when you are running low on health and this not only scales with level, but also gets additional features later on.
Weapon Mastery gives you the Mastery property of three weapons and I would recommend taking the properties of whatever weapons you have on hand (which right now is Halberd and Javelin).
The Build Level 2 Onward
Level 2-5
Level 2
Class: 2 Fighter
Class Features: Action Surge, Tactical Mind
Level 2 brings two new features with Action Surge and Tactical Mind.
The Fighter is one of the most popular multiclass options in D&D, and Action Surge is a huge reason why. While you can only use this once every short or long rest (twice at 17), getting an additional action almost always means a whole new slew of attacks. Even at level 2, this is a powerful ability, but once you get multiple Extra Attacks, this becomes an extremely powerful feature that can dole out an obscene amount of damage. In a pinch, this can be used for other actions such as Dash as well which adds to the power and utility of this ability.
Tactical Mind is a neat new feature that allows you to use a Second Wind charge to reroll a failed ability check with a bit of a bonus. While this won’t come up too often, this is a nice feature to have for particularly important ability checks.
Level 3
Class: 3 Fighter (Rune Knight)
Class Features: Bonus Proficiencies, Rune Carver (Fire, Stone), Giant Might
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Stone Rune |
Level 3 brings your subclass, and for this build, it’s Rune Knight! Rune Knight brings you three new abilities immediately with Bonus Proficiencies, Rune Carver, and Giant Might.
Bonus Proficiencies are mostly flavor here as you get proficiency with smith’s tools (not bad with the new crafting system) and you’re fluent in Giant.
Rune Carver is the real reason anyone picks this class. You are able to imbue runes onto your equipment that grant passive effects on top of having a strong activated abilities that you get every short or long rest. While nearly all the runes are really strong, you do only get two to start with and you should pick the best ones in Fire and Stone.
The Fire Rune’s passive effect isn’t that great (double your PB when doing checks with a tool), but the activated is really strong. When you hit an enemy, you can invoke the rune to get bonus damage, potentially restrain them, and they take additional damage each round if they are restrained. This is a really powerful effect for any enemy you need to lock down, whether it’s to prevent them from escaping, keeping them in a CC area, or otherwise.
The Stone Rune has a much stronger passive ability with you having permanent advantage on Insight checks and 120 feet of Darkvision. The activated ability is even stronger than the Fire Rune as you can use your reaction to put an enemy within 30 feet of you into a stupor. While they get a lot of checks to escape it, this is functionally a free chance for strong CC making this excellent for tougher fights where you need to split enemies up.
Your final ability is Giant Might, which as a Bonus Action, gives you a few abilities: you grow to the Large size, you have advantage on Strength checks and Strength saving throws, and one attack each turn deals an additional 1d6. This is a solid ability already, but if your DM allows you to find oversized weapons, this gets much stronger as using oversized weapons without penalty when you’re large is very valuable.
Level 4
Class: 4 Fighter
Feat: Great Weapon Master (STR)
Class Features: None
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Stone Rune |
You get your first feat, and since you’re using great weapons, may as well pick up Great Weapon Master! Additional damage and potential additional attacks is really good unsurprisingly.
Level 5
Class: 5 Fighter
Class Features: Extra Attack, Tactical Shift
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Stone Rune |
Easily the most exciting feature for martial characters, level 5 brings your Extra Attack! Being able to double your damage output is obviously really strong, but since you’re a Fighter, you’ll eventually get even more attacks on top of this!
Level 5 also brings a new feature with Tactical Shift. Now when you use Second Wind, you can move up to half your speed without provoking an opportunity attack. A heal, disengage, and extra movement? Sign me up!
Level 6-10
Level 6
Class: 6 Fighter
Feat: Polearm Master (STR)
Class Features: None
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Stone Rune |
Fighter brings an additional feat at level 6, and since this is a polearm build, I like picking up Polearm Master. The bonus action attack may not come into play too often with this build, but getting the reaction attack is really good, especially with how well you can put space between yourself and your enemies with your extra long reach.
Level 7
Class: 1 Barbarian 6 Fighter
Class Features: Rage, Unarmored Defense, Weapon Mastery
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Stone Rune |
We are now moving over into Barbarians! This build relies on getting 3 levels of Barbarian for most of the game and this is the best time to pick the first level up.
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. Obviously you aren’t hurting for more mastery properties at this point so you can pick whatever.
Level 8
Class: 2 Barbarian 6 Fighter
Class Features: Danger Sense, Reckless Attack
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Stone Rune |
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 9
Class: 3 Barbarian (Giant) 6 Fighter
Class Features: Giant’s Power, Giant’s Havoc, Primal Knowledge
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Stone Rune |
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 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. Furthermore, as mentioned at level 3, if you have access to oversized weapons, then you can really juice up this build considering you now have two distinct ways to make yourself Large. Even if your DM doesn’t allow it, smacking enemies from a distance is always fun.
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 10
Class: 3 Barbarian 7 Fighter
Class Features: Runic Shield, Additional Known Rune (Hill Rune)
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
This level brings an additional rune and a new feature with Runic Shield!
Runic Shield is an interesting ability that can force enemies to reroll their attack roll, but it comes with a lot of downsides. First, this only works as a way to potentially make an enemy miss as you can’t use it to reroll friendly attacks (it only works on hit) nor any other types of rolls. Second, this uses your reaction which you may want to save for your Stone Rune instead. Third and the most problematic, a lot enemies are going to have multiattacks at this point making it difficult for you to even help protect an ally.
While this ability definitely isn’t great, being able to potentially prevent an ally going down, or better yet, making an enemy reroll a critical hit does make this ability somewhat useful still.
For your known Rune, you can pick up the excellent Hill Rune. The Hill Rune gives you natural resistance to poison which is definitely neat, and the activation is really strong too giving you resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage for one minute, functionally the same as a Barbarian‘s Rage. This is simply a strong passive and active ability that you should be happy to have.
Level 11-15
Level 11
Class: 3 Barbarian 8 Fighter
Class Features: Mage Slayer (STR)
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
You get another feat this level, and you can finally get 20 Strength with Mage Slayer. Being able to really mess with casters is nice as a martial character, and getting a functional charge of Legendary Resistance? Incredible! A really strong feat that I have most of my martial characters taking.
Level 12
Class: 3 Barbarian 9 Fighter
Class Feature: Indomitable (x1), Tactical Master
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
This level brings a base Fighter feature – Indomitable! You can reroll a saving throw that you fail and add your Fighter level on top of it which is extremely powerful. As you climb in levels, this will almost be like a player’s version of Legendary Resistance which is super cool.
Tactical Master is a new ability lets you replace a weapon mastery property when you attack with Push, Sap, or Slow. This is yet another great feature as you may not always want the mastery property on the weapon you happen to be using, so having options is always welcome.
Level 13
Class: 3 Barbarian 10 Fighter
Class Features: Great Stature, Additional Known Rune (Storm Rune)
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
| Storm Rune |
10 levels in Fighter brings you an additional known rune and the unfortunate Great Stature.
You can now pick up the Storm Rune which gives you advantage on Arcana checks (boo) and you can’t be surprised anymore (can be ok) as a passive. The activated ability is definitely more interesting as you can enter a state for 1 minute that, using your reaction, can impose advantage or disadvantage on attacks, saving throws, or ability checks. Obviously being able to help allies or hinder enemy rolls is going to be pretty strong overall and gives you more to do than just attack if needed.
Great Stature, on the other hand, is mostly flavor as you grow taller and your additional damage from Giant Stature moves up to 1d8 from 1d6. Definitely disappointing for a high level feature, but extra damage is extra damage.
Level 14
Class: 3 Barbarian 11 Fighter
Class Features: Extra Attack (x2)
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
| Storm Rune |
11 levels in Fighter means an additional attack which is obviously extremely good.
Level 15
Class: 3 Barbarian 12 Fighter
Feat: Constitution to 18
Class Features: None
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
| Storm Rune |
You get another feat and it’s time to start buffing your Constitution! More health and better saving throws is a really good investment for your feat.
Level 16-20
Level 16
Class: 3 Barbarian 13 Fighter
Class Feature: Indomitable (x2), Studied Attack
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
| Storm Rune |
Level 13 brings another charge of Indomitable and a powerful new feature, Studied Attack!
Studied Attack is a super cool feature that, if you miss with one of your attacks against one enemy, you have advantage on your next attack against that same target! Anything that helps you connect with your enemy is always exciting!
Level 17
Class: 3 Barbarian 14 Fighter
Feat: Constitution to 20
Class Features: None
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
| Storm Rune |
Maximizing your Constitution score to get the highest possible health and saving throws is boring, but awesome!
Level 18
Class: 3 Barbarian 15 Fighter
Class Features: Master of Runes, Additional Known Rune (Cloud Rune)
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Cloud Rune |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
| Storm Rune |
Master of Runes is an extremely powerful ability that doubles the strength of your runes as you can activate them twice now! Doubling your best ability is, unsurprisingly, extremely strong.
You also get your final Known Rune, and while you already picked the best four, you can pick up Cloud Rune. The passive ability is pretty whatever for you as advantage on Sleight of Hand and Deception checks aren’t impactful for you. The active ability is neat where you can use your reaction to redirect an enemies attack to another enemy within 30 feet (the attack gets magically transferred so range is otherwise not an issue). This is a neat feature when you really need to prevent an attack and potentially nab other enemies with enemy critical hits, but like with Runic Shield, this is not going to be used too often as multiattacks make this rather unappealing.
Level 19
Class: 3 Barbarian 16 Fighter
Epic Boon: Boon of Combat Prowess (STR)
Class Features: None
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Cloud Rune |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
| Storm Rune |
You now get another feat, and since you’re total level 19, you can pick up an Epic Boon! The Epic Boon choice, as I will pick for every martial character, is the Boon of Combat Prowess. Converting a miss into a hit is functionally getting an Extra Attack, but better, and I will take an additional attack every day of the week.
Level 20
Class: 3 Barbarian 17 Fighter
Class Feature: Action Surge (x2), Indomitable (x3)
| KNOWN RUNES |
| Cloud Rune |
| Fire Rune |
| Hill Rune |
| Stone Rune |
| Storm Rune |
Level 20 is actually an extremely interesting choice between an additional level in Fighter or an additional level in Barbarian. If you go a level in Fighter, you have two Action Surge and 3 Indomitable per short rest which is extremely powerful. However, if you pick up your fourth Barbarian level, you get to get an additional Epic Boon (I would take Irresistible Offense for even more brutal critical hits and 22 Strength). This is a really tough choice, but I think getting the additional Action Surge and Indomitable charges is just a bit too good to pass up.
