Best Feats for Giant Barbarian 5e
by Prince Phantom
Newly released in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, the Path of the Giant is a barbarian subclass that aims to fulfill the fantasy of being large and in charge, but how well does it do on that front? Well, it’s got the large part down, and if the Rune Knight Fighter has shown us anything, it’s that there are substantial benefits to being large sized. In terms of being in charge, there are some issues with the core design of this subclass. While this subclass advertises itself as a way to throw around Greatswords for massive damage, the sad truth is that throwing a weapon means it doesn’t qualify for Great Weapon Master. This means we are best off ignoring everything about thrown weapons and only use it as a fallback option for when we can’t get within melee of our target.
Ignoring that, this subclass does a lot to make the Barbarian better at what it already excels at, damage and area control through grappling and throwing our opponents. You won’t find any substantial utility or defensive improvements here, this is a subclass that wants to hit stuff above all else, and I can definitely see the appeal in that. The higher level abilities to throw enemies and grow to even greater heights are honestly some of the best high level barbarian subclass abilities I’ve seen in awhile, giving a genuine reason to stick with a class that most people look to abandon before level 10. All this being said, you’re here to find out what feats to take with your brand new character, so let’s get into the list. I’ll also denote what level you should be looking to take each feat, as some are definitely a higher priority than others.
Best Feats for Giant Barbarian 5e
Polearm Master/Great Weapon Master (ASAP): This is the standard set of feats that make up the backbone of 95% of optimized Barbarian builds. This subclass actually rewards us for making an extra attack with Polearm Master with an extra d6 of damage on each attack we make, upgrading to 2d6 at level 14. We’re also already getting an extra 5ft of reach when we rage, meaning holding a reach polearm like a Glaive or Halberd will give us a total of 15ft of reach at level 3. Play as a Bugbear and now you’re up to 20ft of reach with your melee attacks, which is absolutely ludicrous, genuinely making throwing your weapons worthless as the maximum range for thrown weapons without having disadvantage on the attack is 20ft. Oh and at level 14 we get another 5ft of reach because why not? The play is simple, take Polearm Master first (ideally at level 1 by taking a race that grants a feat), then grab Great Weapon Master with your next feat selection. This will make you a damage machine that can melt a boss monster’s HP in only a few rounds. This might be the Barbarian subclass with the highest damage potential.
Sentinel (Lv 8): It’s impossible to look at a character with a 15ft reach who’s already taken Polearm Master and not heavily consider also taking Sentinel. We have such a massive threat range, as big as a Cleric’s Spirit Guardians, meaning we will be making opportunity attacks thanks to Polearm Master almost every turn, and locking foes down when we hit those will protect ourselves and our allies. Sentinel just gets better and better the larger our reach, so this Barbarian is perfect for this feat.
Crusher (Lv 8): This subclass already has a theme of moving creatures around the battlefield once they reach level 10, so why not lean into that? The 5ft shove from this can be triggered by the butt-end attack from Polearm Master, or you could swap to a Maul on turns where you plan to use Mighty Impel as your bonus action instead of the bonus action attack. Either way, it allows us to reposition an enemy, and thanks to our long reach we can push enemies away from our allies, essentially granting our friends a free disengage. This is just one of many potential uses, and you really have to play with Crusher to understand just how useful it is.
Resilient Wisdom (Lv 12): Barbarians traditionally struggle with mental saves, and wisdom is by far the most common mental save. Grabbing this makes us substantially better at those, which is very important going into the late game where the DCs we have to save against can often exceed 20. Be a good party member and don’t let yourself get mindcontrolled. There is nothing more terrifying than a 20ft tall raging barbarian with the ability to throw their own party members into the lava pits that dot the boss arena.
Savage Attacker (Lv 16): I don’t normally recommend this feat, as for most characters, not enough of our damage is coming from our dice to make this have any really impact on our average damage. However, assuming we are using a polearm, our attacks are dealing 1d10+2d6 damage. This makes Savage Attacker marginally better for us at this level, but this still isn’t a great feat. I’d only take it if my Strength was already at 20 and I didn’t have any better feats to take.
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