This Build is based off my character Thok Ironspine. The idea I had with this character was to serve as our parties tank and have fun doing so. This guy is a towering 7'8 400 pound monster! Do you want to oneshot goblins with your fist? Do you want to be strong enough to ram through walls like the kool aid man? Do you want to grapple dragons and give them noogies? Then this is the build for you!
Thok was born into the Alkatho Herd a wondering Goliath Tribe that roamed the Spine of the World. An endless, nearly impassable range of high, jagged, perpetually ice-covered mountains. On the winter days when the white snow covered faces of the peaks meet the iron-grey of the sunless winter sky, it appeared as though it was holding up the sky. A beautiful, but dangerous place to call home. Thok was raised as a hunter warrior of his people. Often leaving with his father and other Goliath's of great stature to brave the large unforgivable creatures of this ice wasteland. Rarely Thok would accompany other warriors to raid weak Barbaric tribes that tend to settle down instead of roam the icy mountains.
Thok always did his part and more as to impress the tribe. His deeds never amounted to much, for his good friend Hjarg always stood a step above the rest For he was the Chiefs son and undoubtedly the next chief of the tribe. One night Thok and Hjarg were on watch, but instead of actually keeping a eye out they were training in single combat. Hjarg obvious won more times than not. Until they hard loud cacophonous booms and the ground shaking under their feet. They run back to the tribe to find two huge Frost Giants stomping over to their camp.
Hjarg didn't even hesitate, he charged straight towards them at a blinding speed. Thok after regaining his senses followed closely behind. Both of them letting out loud warcry's as they bot stuck down at them landing blows on the huge bags of frozen meat, barely leaving a scratch. The giants looked down on us and snickered before swinging down with his icy club knocking both of us backwards. Thok was thrown into the camp landing on a pile of supplies, getting a few iron arrows and a skinning dagger pierced into his back . He slowly raised his head and looked forward to see the unconscious body of Hjarg that got sent flying right at a tree and flopped over onto the ground. Thok jumped to his feet and started running over to his friend, just to watch the same Giant crush his body right before Thoks eyes.
Thok no longer felt the pain of iron piercing his bones, he felt no sadness, he just felt a unimaginable rage filling him. He jumped to his feet and charged at this giant with no weapons in hand. He grabbed the foot of his huge creature trying to lift it off his friend. Then out of no where he a sound and looked up to see a javelin in-bedded into the chest of this Giant. With all rest of his strength he lifted the now distracted Giants foot and thrust it up knocking it on it's ass. Thok looked back and seen the horrified face of Chieftain Jurg HammerHand. Jurg in a furious rage like Thok charged at the other Giant. Thok not knowing what to do he picked up Hjarg's Battle axe and slammed it into the head of the Giant that killed his friend over and over. He didn't stop until his rage ended and looked up to see the sight of Jurg Hammerhand, his father Lok, and a few more warriors bodies were laying flat on the ground with not a sign of life between them. He turned around towards the camp to see the blank faces of his people.
After this the Tribe only knew they needed to appoint a new leader. Thok was thrust into the fray as a candidate. Mostly due to him being the only survivor of what happened that night. Him and a few others were sent away from the spine of the world to bring back a great trophy to prove who was the worthiest to lead the tribe. So Thok left carrying Hjarg's Battle axe to claim the right to rule in his best friends stead.
(Frost Giant)
Race: Goliath. These humaniods stand between 7-8 feet tall and weigh anywhere from 280 to 340 pounds. These guys are Medium Creatures, but concidered Large Creatues when determining carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. Meaning you can grapple creatures that are concidered Huge. Their life span is the same as Humans. Goliaths are competitive by nature and always play fair. They also are strong believers in survival of the fittest.
-Ability Score Increase: +2 to Strength, +1 to Constitution
-Natural Athlete: Natural proficiency with the Athletics Skill
-Stone's Endurance: You can focus yourself to occasionally shrug off injury. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to roll a d12. Add your Constitution modifier to the number rolled, and reduce the damage by that total. After you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
-Mountain Born: You’re acclimated to high altitude, including elevations above 20,000 feet. You’re also naturally adapted to cold climates, as described in chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Alignment: Lawful Neutral. He believes in fair play. Never bringing dishonor to his herd or himself. At the same time he only sticks his neck out for his friends or for gold.
Background: Folk Hero. This gives you proficiencies in Survival and Animal Handling. Meaning you can track enemies easier and be kind of a animal whisperer. Also it gives you a tool proficiency, I like woodcarvers tools. I think it would be a good hobby for him to carve out figures of himself grappling what he did that day.
Class: Barbarian. These are savage warriors, they typically don't wear armor. They channel their rage in combat giving them strength and damage resistance. They are natural tanks, but they also deal a decent amount of damage.
-Totem Warrior: This subclass channels your rage through a spirit animal and makes you more in tune with Nature. The spirit aniimal for this build is the Bear. This makes a barbarian even stronger and more resilient than he already is.
Strength: Second priority, this will allow you to hit more often with your battle axe and increase your chances of grappling your opponets.
Dexterity: Third priority, this will amplify your armor class and initiative.
Constitution: First priority, this will increase your total Health per level and will raise your armor class. Barbarians must have high health pools, while raging you take half damage. Which praticly doubles your health.
Intelligence: Sixth priority, barbarians don't really need to know how to read.
Wisdom: Fourth priority, this will increase your perception, survival, and animal handling.
Charisma: Fifth priority, this will allow your chances to intimidate people. Always fun to have.
(Ability Score example using the point buy system)
Animal Handling: This is more of a roleplay factor. Totem Warriors get access to ritual cast Speak with Animals, Beast Sense, and Commune with nature. I found it all too fitting to have this to increase my odds with a animal giving me the time to ritually cast these spells.
Athletics: The most important skill for this Character. You will be using this every time you attempt a grapple. Rendering the poor sole in your grasp unable to move and all your allies have advantage on hitting it.
Intimidation: Whats better than grappling a Ogre? Making it shit itself and run in fear! Also it's handy for getting information out of someone with tight lips.
Perception: In my opinion the most useful skill in the whole game. This will allow you see things others would miss. You can spot traps in dungeons, spot enemies before they get a surprise round, hidden treasure, and so much more!
Survival: Being a man of the wild comes with knowing how to track your prey and find their nest. This will Allow you to do just that. It also helps you find your way when you're lost.
Woodcarvers Tools: This is great for a small hobby. I like to make small figures and sell them for some gold on the side. Also if you have a archer in your party you can craft arrows for them and save then a bit of coin.
Weapons: Theres no way to go than with a trusty battle axe! Using this as a one handed weapon while grappling someone is a great stratagy. You're doing plenty of damage while keeping your allies safe. Also your trusty dagger helps you skin any beast you slay. Do not forget the body is a weapon! When against weaker enemies feel free to use a unarmed strike for extra brutality.
Armor: You wear no armor, but you might have a shield on you. I suggest using one if you didn't roll very well on your stats and have a bad armor class.
Tools: Woodcarvers Tools. This is great for a small hobby. I like to make small figures and sell them for some gold on the side. Also if you have a archer in your party you can craft arrows for them and save then a bit of coin.
Packs: Barbarians aren't really given a choice of what pack to choose, but the Dungeoneers pack is the most useful for them anyway.
(Fun fact when you ritually cast Commune with nature your spirit animal will apear before you and fill you with the knowledge you seek.)
Unarmored Defense: This Ability lets you charge into battle naked if you choose. Your armor class is determaned by your Dexterity and Constitution. (Level 1)
Rage: The bread and butter to Barbarians. You can start to rage as a bonus action. While raging you are resistant to Slashing, Bludgeoning and Piercing damage. Reducing those incoming attacks by half. This also gives you advantage on rolling strength checks. Just want we need for our Grappler. It even comes with extra damage with Strength attacks.(Level 1)
Reckless Attack: I only use this ability when we face one creature. This allows you to make attacks with advantage, but this also leaves you open to be attacked with advantage. It can hurt you more than it can help in certain situations. (Level 2)
Danger Sense: This ability lets you dodge aoe spells and single target dexterity based attacks easier. Perfect for fighting Dragons and spell casters. (Level 2)
Primal Path: Here you want to take Totem Warrior. This allows you to Ritually cast Speak with Animals and Beast Sense. Apart from that you get to choose between 3 Totem Spirits Bear, Eagle, and Wolf. Pick bear because it gives you resistance to ALL damage except for Phychic damage. Giving yet another reason for Dragons and Spell casters to run away. (Level 3)
Ability Score Improvement: Here you can pick between increasing your stats or picking a feat. At this level you want to take the Tough feat. Giving you a extra 2 hit points per level. At max level this will give you 40 hit points! (Level 4)
Extra Attack: Simple enough this lets you attack twice per round instead of once. Since a grapple is concidered a attack, you can grapple someone and slice them with your battle axe in the same turn. (Level 5)
Fast Movement: This will increase your movement speed by 10. Very helpful for getting up in archers face. (level 5)
Path Feature: Here you get to choose between your 3 Totem Spirits again. Yet again we're going bear, because it doubles your carrying capacity and give you advantage on strengh checks while you aren't raging. Meaning you have advantage on grappling someone in town without burning a rage. (Level 6)
Feral Instinct: This gives you advantage on initiative. Meaning you get higher in the turn order. Having the Grappler go first can win those close fights. (level 7)
Ability Score Improvement: From here on out you want to focus on increasing your stats. Increasing Constitutino to 20 is a must, after that focus on strength! (level 8)
Brutal Critical: If you roll a critical strike against your opponet you can roll another weapon attack against that creature. Not useful for grappling, but having a bloody axe is always a welcoming sight. (level 9)
Path Feature: At this level you can now ritually cast Commune with Nature. This spell can help you get the lay of the land and creatures living in it. (level 10)
Small Encounter: During a run of the mill easy battle don't even bother drawing your Battle Axe. During your first turn you want to bonus action rage and charge in. You make them Goblins catch some hands. Throwing punches and headbutts are always fun. If there is a leader amongst them simply grapple him with one arm and beat his face in. With extra attack you can grapple then punch in the same turn. On your next turn you can punch him twice while he's still grappled. The odds of a mini boss being able to escape your grapple is slim to none.
Large Encounter: While facing enemies that are decently difficult you don't want to go in without having your weapon ready. You want to immidiatly take position to protect your allies. Make sure you are always between your friends and danger. I like to chop down as many people as I can weilding my battle axe as a two handed weapon. until someone triggers a attack of oppertunity by running by me. That is when I pounce, I immediatly grapple them. Keeping them from getting closer to my allies. Next round if another enemy tries the same you can grapple two people at once. Taking two enemies out of the fight gives your allies a major upperhand in the battle. Letting them focus on killing everything else while you tank damage and stop as many enemies as you can.
Boss Battles: When facing a big bad this is where this build truely shines. Ignore their minions and charge right at the Boss. As long as it's no larger than a huge monster you can grapple that guy and render him motionless. This will allow your allies to kill the minions if there are some or gain advantage against the boss. If the boss is larger than huge instead of standing between your allies and it stand on the other side of the boss and try to keep it's attention locked on you. Usually Boss's tend to have a big ego so insulting them during combat tends to work often than not.
Ideal Party: When playing as the Grappler your best friend will be a bard. They can use the Enlarge Reduce spell to increase your size making you able to grapple Gargantuan Creatures. Which is pretty badass. They can also give you inspiration if you're having trouble grappling something, making it a decent bit easier. Another spell they can use is Heroism which gives someone 4 temporary hp per round. Health has twice the ecconomy for barbarians meaning you practicly get 8 health points per round, because of your resistances. There are countless other things bards can do that would enhace this build.
I'd like to Thank Dragonborn1921 for helping me with the formating and details I should include with D&D builds.
This Build is based off my character Thok Ironspine. The idea I had with this character was to serve as our parties tank and have fun doing so. This guy is a towering 7'8 400 pound monster! Do you want to oneshot goblins with your fist? Do you want to be strong enough to ram through walls like the kool aid man? Do you want to grapple dragons and give them noogies? Then this is the build for you!
Thok was born into the Alkatho Herd a wondering Goliath Tribe that roamed the Spine of the World. An endless, nearly impassable range of high, jagged, perpetually ice-covered mountains. On the winter days when the white snow covered faces of the peaks meet the iron-grey of the sunless winter sky, it appeared as though it was holding up the sky. A beautiful, but dangerous place to call home. Thok was raised as a hunter warrior of his people. Often leaving with his father and other Goliath's of great stature to brave the large unforgivable creatures of this ice wasteland. Rarely Thok would accompany other warriors to raid weak Barbaric tribes that tend to settle down instead of roam the icy mountains.
Thok always did his part and more as to impress the tribe. His deeds never amounted to much, for his good friend Hjarg always stood a step above the rest For he was the Chiefs son and undoubtedly the next chief of the tribe. One night Thok and Hjarg were on watch, but instead of actually keeping a eye out they were training in single combat. Hjarg obvious won more times than not. Until they hard loud cacophonous booms and the ground shaking under their feet. They run back to the tribe to find two huge Frost Giants stomping over to their camp.
Hjarg didn't even hesitate, he charged straight towards them at a blinding speed. Thok after regaining his senses followed closely behind. Both of them letting out loud warcry's as they bot stuck down at them landing blows on the huge bags of frozen meat, barely leaving a scratch. The giants looked down on us and snickered before swinging down with his icy club knocking both of us backwards. Thok was thrown into the camp landing on a pile of supplies, getting a few iron arrows and a skinning dagger pierced into his back . He slowly raised his head and looked forward to see the unconscious body of Hjarg that got sent flying right at a tree and flopped over onto the ground. Thok jumped to his feet and started running over to his friend, just to watch the same Giant crush his body right before Thoks eyes.
Thok no longer felt the pain of iron piercing his bones, he felt no sadness, he just felt a unimaginable rage filling him. He jumped to his feet and charged at this giant with no weapons in hand. He grabbed the foot of his huge creature trying to lift it off his friend. Then out of no where he a sound and looked up to see a javelin in-bedded into the chest of this Giant. With all rest of his strength he lifted the now distracted Giants foot and thrust it up knocking it on it's ass. Thok looked back and seen the horrified face of Chieftain Jurg HammerHand. Jurg in a furious rage like Thok charged at the other Giant. Thok not knowing what to do he picked up Hjarg's Battle axe and slammed it into the head of the Giant that killed his friend over and over. He didn't stop until his rage ended and looked up to see the sight of Jurg Hammerhand, his father Lok, and a few more warriors bodies were laying flat on the ground with not a sign of life between them. He turned around towards the camp to see the blank faces of his people.
After this the Tribe only knew they needed to appoint a new leader. Thok was thrust into the fray as a candidate. Mostly due to him being the only survivor of what happened that night. Him and a few others were sent away from the spine of the world to bring back a great trophy to prove who was the worthiest to lead the tribe. So Thok left carrying Hjarg's Battle axe to claim the right to rule in his best friends stead.
(Frost Giant)
Race: Goliath. These humaniods stand between 7-8 feet tall and weigh anywhere from 280 to 340 pounds. These guys are Medium Creatures, but concidered Large Creatues when determining carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. Meaning you can grapple creatures that are concidered Huge. Their life span is the same as Humans. Goliaths are competitive by nature and always play fair. They also are strong believers in survival of the fittest.
-Ability Score Increase: +2 to Strength, +1 to Constitution
-Natural Athlete: Natural proficiency with the Athletics Skill
-Stone's Endurance: You can focus yourself to occasionally shrug off injury. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to roll a d12. Add your Constitution modifier to the number rolled, and reduce the damage by that total. After you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
-Mountain Born: You’re acclimated to high altitude, including elevations above 20,000 feet. You’re also naturally adapted to cold climates, as described in chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Alignment: Lawful Neutral. He believes in fair play. Never bringing dishonor to his herd or himself. At the same time he only sticks his neck out for his friends or for gold.
Background: Folk Hero. This gives you proficiencies in Survival and Animal Handling. Meaning you can track enemies easier and be kind of a animal whisperer. Also it gives you a tool proficiency, I like woodcarvers tools. I think it would be a good hobby for him to carve out figures of himself grappling what he did that day.
Class: Barbarian. These are savage warriors, they typically don't wear armor. They channel their rage in combat giving them strength and damage resistance. They are natural tanks, but they also deal a decent amount of damage.
-Totem Warrior: This subclass channels your rage through a spirit animal and makes you more in tune with Nature. The spirit aniimal for this build is the Bear. This makes a barbarian even stronger and more resilient than he already is.
Strength: Second priority, this will allow you to hit more often with your battle axe and increase your chances of grappling your opponets.
Dexterity: Third priority, this will amplify your armor class and initiative.
Constitution: First priority, this will increase your total Health per level and will raise your armor class. Barbarians must have high health pools, while raging you take half damage. Which praticly doubles your health.
Intelligence: Sixth priority, barbarians don't really need to know how to read.
Wisdom: Fourth priority, this will increase your perception, survival, and animal handling.
Charisma: Fifth priority, this will allow your chances to intimidate people. Always fun to have.
(Ability Score example using the point buy system)
Animal Handling: This is more of a roleplay factor. Totem Warriors get access to ritual cast Speak with Animals, Beast Sense, and Commune with nature. I found it all too fitting to have this to increase my odds with a animal giving me the time to ritually cast these spells.
Athletics: The most important skill for this Character. You will be using this every time you attempt a grapple. Rendering the poor sole in your grasp unable to move and all your allies have advantage on hitting it.
Intimidation: Whats better than grappling a Ogre? Making it shit itself and run in fear! Also it's handy for getting information out of someone with tight lips.
Perception: In my opinion the most useful skill in the whole game. This will allow you see things others would miss. You can spot traps in dungeons, spot enemies before they get a surprise round, hidden treasure, and so much more!
Survival: Being a man of the wild comes with knowing how to track your prey and find their nest. This will Allow you to do just that. It also helps you find your way when you're lost.
Woodcarvers Tools: This is great for a small hobby. I like to make small figures and sell them for some gold on the side. Also if you have a archer in your party you can craft arrows for them and save then a bit of coin.
Weapons: Theres no way to go than with a trusty battle axe! Using this as a one handed weapon while grappling someone is a great stratagy. You're doing plenty of damage while keeping your allies safe. Also your trusty dagger helps you skin any beast you slay. Do not forget the body is a weapon! When against weaker enemies feel free to use a unarmed strike for extra brutality.
Armor: You wear no armor, but you might have a shield on you. I suggest using one if you didn't roll very well on your stats and have a bad armor class.
Tools: Woodcarvers Tools. This is great for a small hobby. I like to make small figures and sell them for some gold on the side. Also if you have a archer in your party you can craft arrows for them and save then a bit of coin.
Packs: Barbarians aren't really given a choice of what pack to choose, but the Dungeoneers pack is the most useful for them anyway.
(Fun fact when you ritually cast Commune with nature your spirit animal will apear before you and fill you with the knowledge you seek.)
Unarmored Defense: This Ability lets you charge into battle naked if you choose. Your armor class is determaned by your Dexterity and Constitution. (Level 1)
Rage: The bread and butter to Barbarians. You can start to rage as a bonus action. While raging you are resistant to Slashing, Bludgeoning and Piercing damage. Reducing those incoming attacks by half. This also gives you advantage on rolling strength checks. Just want we need for our Grappler. It even comes with extra damage with Strength attacks.(Level 1)
Reckless Attack: I only use this ability when we face one creature. This allows you to make attacks with advantage, but this also leaves you open to be attacked with advantage. It can hurt you more than it can help in certain situations. (Level 2)
Danger Sense: This ability lets you dodge aoe spells and single target dexterity based attacks easier. Perfect for fighting Dragons and spell casters. (Level 2)
Primal Path: Here you want to take Totem Warrior. This allows you to Ritually cast Speak with Animals and Beast Sense. Apart from that you get to choose between 3 Totem Spirits Bear, Eagle, and Wolf. Pick bear because it gives you resistance to ALL damage except for Phychic damage. Giving yet another reason for Dragons and Spell casters to run away. (Level 3)
Ability Score Improvement: Here you can pick between increasing your stats or picking a feat. At this level you want to take the Tough feat. Giving you a extra 2 hit points per level. At max level this will give you 40 hit points! (Level 4)
Extra Attack: Simple enough this lets you attack twice per round instead of once. Since a grapple is concidered a attack, you can grapple someone and slice them with your battle axe in the same turn. (Level 5)
Fast Movement: This will increase your movement speed by 10. Very helpful for getting up in archers face. (level 5)
Path Feature: Here you get to choose between your 3 Totem Spirits again. Yet again we're going bear, because it doubles your carrying capacity and give you advantage on strengh checks while you aren't raging. Meaning you have advantage on grappling someone in town without burning a rage. (Level 6)
Feral Instinct: This gives you advantage on initiative. Meaning you get higher in the turn order. Having the Grappler go first can win those close fights. (level 7)
Ability Score Improvement: From here on out you want to focus on increasing your stats. Increasing Constitutino to 20 is a must, after that focus on strength! (level 8)
Brutal Critical: If you roll a critical strike against your opponet you can roll another weapon attack against that creature. Not useful for grappling, but having a bloody axe is always a welcoming sight. (level 9)
Path Feature: At this level you can now ritually cast Commune with Nature. This spell can help you get the lay of the land and creatures living in it. (level 10)
Small Encounter: During a run of the mill easy battle don't even bother drawing your Battle Axe. During your first turn you want to bonus action rage and charge in. You make them Goblins catch some hands. Throwing punches and headbutts are always fun. If there is a leader amongst them simply grapple him with one arm and beat his face in. With extra attack you can grapple then punch in the same turn. On your next turn you can punch him twice while he's still grappled. The odds of a mini boss being able to escape your grapple is slim to none.
Large Encounter: While facing enemies that are decently difficult you don't want to go in without having your weapon ready. You want to immidiatly take position to protect your allies. Make sure you are always between your friends and danger. I like to chop down as many people as I can weilding my battle axe as a two handed weapon. until someone triggers a attack of oppertunity by running by me. That is when I pounce, I immediatly grapple them. Keeping them from getting closer to my allies. Next round if another enemy tries the same you can grapple two people at once. Taking two enemies out of the fight gives your allies a major upperhand in the battle. Letting them focus on killing everything else while you tank damage and stop as many enemies as you can.
Boss Battles: When facing a big bad this is where this build truely shines. Ignore their minions and charge right at the Boss. As long as it's no larger than a huge monster you can grapple that guy and render him motionless. This will allow your allies to kill the minions if there are some or gain advantage against the boss. If the boss is larger than huge instead of standing between your allies and it stand on the other side of the boss and try to keep it's attention locked on you. Usually Boss's tend to have a big ego so insulting them during combat tends to work often than not.
Ideal Party: When playing as the Grappler your best friend will be a bard. They can use the Enlarge Reduce spell to increase your size making you able to grapple Gargantuan Creatures. Which is pretty badass. They can also give you inspiration if you're having trouble grappling something, making it a decent bit easier. Another spell they can use is Heroism which gives someone 4 temporary hp per round. Health has twice the ecconomy for barbarians meaning you practicly get 8 health points per round, because of your resistances. There are countless other things bards can do that would enhace this build.
I'd like to Thank Dragonborn1921 for helping me with the formating and details I should include with D&D builds.
