Goliath (2024) Guide 5e

What is this guide?

This guide is meant to give you an idea of whether or not the goliath (2024) will be right for your 5e character build.

The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good that option will be for your goliath (2024). This color coding isn’t a hard and fast rule; there are plenty of sub-optimized options out there that will be viable to your party and will be fun to play.

• 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 : A good option
• Blue : A great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
• Sky Blue: An amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

What are Goliaths in 5e?

Descended from giants, goliaths tower over most other folk, reaching an average of 7-8 feet in height. Their ties to giant-kin also bears them a supernatural boon that takes the form of additional resiliency, affinity with a certain element, or increased strength.

Goliaths are a solitary race, choosing to live on the most treacherous of mountain peaks away from prying eyes. Their large stature, great strength, and resistance to the elements has allowed them to survive in extreme frigid conditions. Goliaths have strong ties to their nomadic tribes, and are driven by a fierce competitive nature that leaves no room for weakness or remorse for those who do not contribute.

Due to their beliefs, goliaths tend to not understand the hierarchical power structures of typical societies and value strength and fair competition above all else.

Goliath (2024) 5e Traits

Size: Medium is the typical size of most races, and is neither good nor bad.

Speed: Goliaths have an increased walking speed of 35 feet, which may not seem like much, but can be a big deal when you need to close the gap with foes (or escape them.)

Giant Ancestry: This feature allows you to choose an ability from the list below. Each option has a solid use case, and you can tailor your selection to what you expect to face each adventuring day, which makes it incredibly powerful. You can use the chosen ability a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest:

• Cloud’s Jaunt: Essentially Misty Step, which is always a great option to navigate the battlefield. This is the only racial ability in the 2024 Player’s Handbook that offers a teleportation ability at level 1, which will make it very popular with casters.
• Fire’s Burn: Focuses on raw damage output and has the highest damage dice (1d10). Can be used multiple times in a turn if you want to go nova.
• Frost’s Chill: Much less damage than Fire’s Burn (1d6) but imposes a Speed debuff. Will likely only be used by ranged builds that like to kite enemies, and even then, the Slow mastery property already exists.
• Hill’s Tumble: Knock an enemy Prone on hit, no save required. Great option if you’re a melee martial with multiple attacks per turn.
• Stone’s Endurance: Essentially 1d12 of healing when you get hit, but slightly worse because you can’t heal yourself up from Unconcious. Good look for Barbarians who essentially get to double the Hit Points they reduce (thanks to Rage’s Resistances).
• Storm’s Thunder: A mini Hellish Rebuke for 1d8 Thunder damage. This does net extra damage, but seeing as you can only take one Reaction per turn, you’re likely better off with the Fire’s Burn.

Large Form: Advantage on Strength checks and an increased Speed is an boost, especially because there’s no Concentration requirement and it can be activated as a Bonus Action. Unfortunately, Grappling and Shoving a creature is no longer dependant on a Strength (Athletics) checks, so the Advantage on Strength checks is much less potent in the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

Powerful Build: Not everyone plays with strict carrying capacity limits, but Powerful Build can let you get away with some nonsense if you are a hoarder. Being able to push, drag, or lift more weight is more interesting and is likely to come up in a campaign. This also gives you Advantage on escaping the Grappled condition, which will certainly come in handy in certain situations.