Keenness of the Stone Giant 5e

Published on August 1, 2023

Chuck magical stone giant-infused rocks at your enemies!

Ryan Pancoast - Wizards of the Coast - Pharagax Giant

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What Is Keenness of the Stone Giant 5e?

Keenness of the Stone Giant is a feat introduced in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants that provides a bonus action ability where you can pelt your enemies with magical rocks, as well as some other goodies.

There are a cycle of 6 feats included in this book, each of which are thematic to a sub-type of giants. With Keenness of the Stone Giant, your character will be able to see in the darkness of underground caverns while also wielding rocks with the skill akin to a stone giant.

How Does Keenness of the Stone Giant Work?

Like all of the 4th-level Bigby feats, Keenness of the Stone Giant provides an Ability Score Increase (ASI) to one of three thematic choices based on the giant type this feat stems from. In this case, you can choose to increase your Strength, Constitution, or Wisdom by 1.

You also get 60 feet of darkvision, or an upgraded 120 feet of darkvision if you already have the usual 60 feet.

Finally, you get access to a bonus action ability where you can throw rocks to great effect at your opponents. These attacks have a range of 60 feet, deal damage akin to a heavy crossbow (1d10), and can knock targets prone, making it an extremely useful ability for martials and casters alike.

Prerequisites

This feat is reserved for 4th-level and above characters, and also requires that you take the Strike of the Giant (Stone Strike) feat before you gain access to this one.

Is Keenness of the Stone Giant Good?

In our 5e Feats Tier List, Keenness of the Stone Giant was given an A Tier rating, making it an excellent pickup for specific classes.

While the darkvision isn’t anything to get excited about, the stone-throwing bonus action is a huge damage boost for just about any class that doesn’t want to be in melee distance of their opponent.

Not only that, it’s also a magical attack which can skirt around damage resistances and can knock your target prone, which is hugely beneficial when you have martial party members around.

Unfortunately, the main limiting factor is that you can’t pump Dexterity, Charisma, or Intelligence with the ASI, thus limiting the bonus action’s effectiveness to builds that are stacked into Wisdom, Strength, or Constitution.

Keenness of the Stone Giant 5e Interactions

There are a couple interactions worth discussing for this feat:

Keeness of the Stone Giant + Magic Stone

The magic stone spell states you can imbue rocks with magic and make a ranged spell attack to do 1d6 bludgeoning damage + your spellcasting ability modifier. Seeing as Keeness of the Stone Giant says the attack is also a ranged spell attack, there’s nothing here that explicitly means you can’t combine magic stone with Keeness of the Stone Giant.

This means you can imbue 3 stones with magic stone before combat, then launch them at your enemies using Keeness of the Stone Giant’s Stone Throw ability for 1d10 force damage + 1d6 bludgeoning damage + your spellcasting ability modifier.

Ranged Spell Attacks in Melee

Be careful using this ability if you’ve got an enemy within melee distance as your attack will have disadvantage.

Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Keenness of the Stone Giant?

The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Keenness of the Stone Giant 5e feat is for a specific class/subclass.

Red isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
Orange Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
Green is a good option
Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

While this feat’s effectiveness is limited based on the ASIs the feat hands out, there are still quite a few builds that can make use of it.

Artificer: If you're playing an artificer with a decent Constitution bonus, firing off a rock that can deal 1d10 and knock a target prone can be a relatively effective use of your bonus action. Better yet, cast magic stone on your rocks before combat and fire off these rocks as a bonus action for 1d10 + 1d6 + Intelligence modifier.

Barbarian: While the ASIs are great and you'd love to knock enemies prone, this ability won't be useful while you're within melee range of enemies, which most barbarians plan to be.

Bard: Seeing as the only ability you'd be able to use this with is Constitution, your attack rolls and the DC of the prone ability will be relatively weak. Plus, this may interfere with doling out Bardic Inspiration.

Cleric: While this can boost your Wisdom and gives you an awesome bonus action option, clerics will likely still want to use spiritual weapon instead of the stone throwing ability.

Druid: Pump Wisdom, grab darkvision, and get access to an incredibly powerful bonus action ability. Plus, there are a bunch of Wild Shape forms that can throw rocks, which makes the bonus action useable even when transformed. This also combos extremely well with the magic stone cantrip.

Fighter: While the 1d10 + prone stone throw is a great bonus action for fighters to have, they'll be hard-pressed to hit if they're attacking from within melee range. Ranged Dexterity-based fighters with a decent Constitution can make great use of this to output extra damage and control the battlefield.

Monk: While the ASIs are great, monks need their bonus action for Martial Arts or Ki moves and usually want to be in close range, making this feat a bit clunky.

Paladin: While the 1d10 + prone stone throw is a great bonus action for paladins to have, they'll be hard-pressed to hit if they're attacking from within melee range. Paladins aren't really effective at long-distance, but spending an entire feat to remedy that is too much investment.

Ranger: This is a solid feat for ranged Dexterity-based rangers who have a decent Constitution or Wisdom modifier. Hunter's mark may get in the way of using Stone Throw all the time, but the combination of the two is potent enough for the investment to be worth it.

Rogue: Rogues already have enough uses of their bonus action. Plus, the ASI spread isn't great.

Sorcerer: If you have a high enough Constitution, this can be a decent way to stretch your damage and battlefield control abilities. While you do have access to Quickened Spell for a bonus action slot, you won't be using it consistently enough for Stone Throw to interfere.

Warlock: If you have a high enough Constitution, this can be a decent way to stretch your damage and battlefield control abilities. Hex may get in the way of using Stone Throw all the time, but the combination of the two is potent enough for the investment to be worth it. This also combos extremely well with the magic stone cantrip.

Wizard: If you have a high enough Constitution, this can be a decent way to stretch your damage and battlefield control abilities.

Mike Bernier

Mike Bernier is the lead content writer and founder of Arcane Eye. He is a Adamantine best-selling author of Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery on DMs Guild and is a contributing author at D&D Beyond. Follow Mike on Twitter.