Ember of the Fire Giant 5e
Prerequisite: 4th Level, Strike of the Giants (Fire Strike) Feat
You’ve manifested the fiery combat emblematic of the fire giants, granting you the following benefits:
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Strength, Constitution, or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Born of Flame. You have resistance to fire damage.
Searing Ignition. When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace a single attack with a magical burst of flame. Each creature of your choice in a 15-foot-radius sphere centered on you must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + the modifier increased by this feat). On a failed save, a creature takes fire damage equal to 1d8+ your proficiency bonus, and it has the blinded condition until the start of your next turn. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage only. You can use your Searing ignition a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus (but no more than once per turn), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
If you’re looking for a reason to take the Fire Strike attack, there is none better than Ember of the Fire Giant. It turns out that sticking a +1 onto a relevant ability score, which can net you a +1 modifier on odd scores by flipping them up to even, paired with a damage resistance and incredibly flexible ability is exactly what I want on my martial characters.
Searing Ignition is a super ability. It hits a selective area around you with a blind, which in turn can give allies advantage on their attacks against the blinded creatures on top of imposing disadvantage on the blinded creature’s strikes. If this cost an action, it’d be tricky to find the best use out of it on characters like Barbarians and Monks. When it just takes up one attack instead, it becomes a really appealing option to have on your sheet to mix in with your own attack rolls. The more you make, the easier this gets to use, making options like Monk and Fighter love this kind of ability, especially when any successful blinds empower subsequent attack rolls while also taking a bit of fire damage. It all comes together cleanly and easily and has just enough uses you’ll want to use them sparingly across two or three encounters when you need them most.
The only thing holding this back is needing to commit a feat into Strike of the Giants for a proficiency bonus amount of d10 fire smites, which isn’t particularly riveting. If you’re into this thematic, though, and can spare two feats, Ember of the Fire Giant is excellent .
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