Strike of the Giants 5e

Published on August 1, 2023

Strike with the power of the giants with this new feat from Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants!

Randy Vargas - Wizards of the Coast - Vow of Lightning

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What Is Strike of the Giants 5e?

Strike of the Giants is a feat introduced in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants that allows you to choose one of six abilities that triggers when you hit with a melee weapon attack or using a thrown weapon.

Each of these options represent the power of one of the giantkind of the ordning, storm, cloud, fire, ice, stone, and hill. This feat serves as a prerequisite to a cycle of 6 feats also included in this book, each of which are thematic to a sub-type of giants and can be taken at 4th level or higher.

How Does Strike of the Giants Work?

When you choose this feat, you choose from one of six options that triggers when you hit with a melee weapon attack or using a thrown weapon:

Cloud Strike: Deal 1d4 thunder damage and turn invisible to the creature you hit if they fail their Wisdom save. This is an awesome ability to trigger advantage on subsequent attacks, though produces the least damage right off the bat. Another caveat is you’re only invisible to the creature you hit and become re-visible on your next turn, or if you take another attack or cast a spell.
Fire Strike: Simple, straightforward, and powerful. Deal an extra 1d10 fire damage when you hit.
Frost Strike: Deal an extra 1d6 cold damage and reduce your target’s speed to 0 if they fail a Constitution save. This is a good ability for builds that want to keep their enemies within range, unfortunately targeting Constitution makes this a bit clunky.
Hill Strike: Extra 1d6 damage of your weapon’s damage type and potentially knock your target prone if they fail a Strength save. This is straight up amazing for Strength-based martials that want to follow up with additional attacks with advantage.
Stone Strike: Deal an extra 1d6 force damage and push your target back in a straight line 10 feet if they fail a Strength save. While the damage type is good, pushing your enemy back isn’t nearly as good as knocking them prone.
Storm Strike: Extra 1d6 lightning damage and give your target disadvantage on attacks rolls against you if they fail a Constitution save. The effect is powerful, especially if you have a goad ability to keep your enemy from attacking a party member. Unfortunately, it targets Constitution, which most monsters have a good save ability in.

You can activate this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus (pb) per long rest. For abilities that require saves, you can choose from Strength or Constitution.

Prerequisites

You need to either have a proficiency in martial weapons or take the giant foundling background to choose this feat.

Is Strike of the Giants Good?

In our 5e Feats Tier List, Strike of the Giants was given a B Tier rating, making it a niche feat that can improve some builds in D&D 5e.

This feat has a number of solid options that can boost the power of any Strength-based martial character. Unfortunately, the DC of the save abilities is limited to Strength or Constitution, which can limit its effectiveness for Dexterity builds.

Strike of the Giants 5e Interactions

In order to take one of the cycle of six 4th-level giant feats also introduced in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, you’ll need to take this feat. Which ability you choose dictates which of the 4th-level feats you can take. Before deciding which Strike option you’re going to pick up, it’d be worthwhile checking out our other feat guides to ensure the 4th-level feat will fit with your playstyle.

Cloud Strike – Guile of the Cloud Giant
Fire Strike – Ember of the Fire Giant
Frost Strike – Fury of the Frost Giant
Hill Strike – Vigor of the Hill Giant
Stone Strike – Keenness of the Stone Giant
Storm Strike – Soul of the Storm Giant

Critting With Strike of the Giants

If your martial character crits, it’s almost always worthwhile to pop a usage of Strike of the Giants because you’ll double your damage dice.

Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Strike of the Giants?

The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Strike of the Giants 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

This is a solid feat for martials that will be swinging a melee weapon more than once a turn and focusing on Strength or Constitution. One thing to keep in mind is you’ll need a martial weapon proficiency to take this feat. This shouldn’t be an issue in most cases, as Strength-based martial builds usually pick up martial weapon proficiencies with their class features. If you’re going to be playing a build without this proficiency, you can always take the giant foundling background.

Artificer: While some artificer subclasses will be using melee weapons, their Constitution likely won't be high enough to make the options that force saving throws worth it. If you're going to be solely focused on melee weapon attacks, the Fire Strike option might be worth it, but most of the time you'll get more out of a feat like Fey Touched.

Barbarian: Not only are some of these effects amazing for barbarians, you'll have the perfect ability scores to make the save effects hurt. The Hill Strike is likely your best bet so you can use subsequent attacks to get advantage on prone enemies. This also paves the way to the 4th-level giant feats, most of which are stellar for barbarians.

Bard: Bards won't be making melee weapon attacks nearly enough for this feat to pay off. Even if you go Valor or Swords bard, your Strength or Constitution won't be high enough to make the save effects count.

Cleric: Most clerics won't be making melee weapon attacks nearly enough for this feat to pay off. If you're going into a martial cleric build and will be pumping your Strength modifier, you might be able to pull this off. Seeing as you'll be splitting ASIs between Strength, Wisdom, and Constitution, your best bet will likely be the Fire Strike option which just outputs damage without needing a save.

Druid: Even shillelagh druids won't have use for this because they'll need a Strength or Constitution for the save effects. Wild Shape druids might be able to make use of it, especially the Hill Strike so they can follow up attacks on prone enemies with advantage.

Fighter: The wide variety of effects you have to choose from can help your fighter specialize into a playstyle. Hill Strike or Fire Strike will likely be your best bet, but Storm and Frost Strike can help with tanking playstyles. Make sure to check out which 4th-level giant feat you'll want to take, because the Strike option you take when you pick this feat will dictate what's available.

Monk: If you have a respectable Constitution modifier, the Hill Strike ability will be amazing cause all your subsequent attacks have advantage. Unfortunately, the 4th-level hill giant feat isn't particularly good for monks, so if you're looking to build your character around these feats, I'd go for Fire Strike. Also, to meet the requirements of this feat, you'll have to pick up a martial weapon proficiency somehow, like by choosing the Way of the Kensei subclass, or take the giant foundling background.

Paladin: The wide variety of effects you have to choose from can help your paladin specialize into a playstyle. Hill Strike or Fire Strike will likely be your best bet, but Storm and Frost Strike can help with tanking playstyles. Make sure to check out which 4th-level giant feat you'll want to take, because the Strike option you take when you pick this feat will dictate what's available.

Ranger: This will work best on melee Strength-based rangers, because only melee weapon attacks trigger the effects and the saves require Strength or Constitution. Hill Strike is likely to going to be your best bet because of all the extra attacks rangers usually have access to.

Rogue: Unfortunately, these abilities need Strength or Constitution to be effective. If you stack into Constitution high enough, Cloud Strike could be interesting to get access to limited invisibility. Plus, the 4th-level cloud giant feat is a pretty fun upgrade for rogues. Otherwise, Fire Strike is a good boost to damage and the 4th-level fire giant feat offers a solid AoE damage and debuff ability. Unfortunately, to meet the requirements of this feat, you'll have to pick up a martial weapon proficiency somehow or take the giant foundling background.

Sorcerer: Sorcerers won't be making melee weapon attacks nor will be they be stacked into Strength or Constitution. Skip this feat.

Warlock: Most warlocks won't be making melee weapon attacks nor will be they be stacked into Strength or Constitution so they can skip this feat. Hexblades might want to take Fire Strike to boost their weapon damage, which can lead into another good feat in Ember of the Fire Giant at 4th level.

Wizard: Most wizards won't be making melee weapon attacks nor will be they be stacked into Strength or Constitution so they can skip this feat. Bladesingers might want to take Fire Strike to boost their weapon damage, which can lead into another good feat in Ember of the Fire Giant at 4th level.

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.