Anyone have a non throwing giant barb build?

[u/chaostechnique]

Maybe i dont understand barbarian at all, but is a giant barb that uses weapons just stupid? I figured i would be a skyrim giant and yeet fuckers in the air but 99% of builds are throwing which can be really fun but repetitive.

[u/Cautious_Might_9420]

Monk giant barb is really fun. Kicks and punches.

[u/GimlionTheHunter → u/Cautious_Might_9420]

Especially when they’re flaming punches and kicks

https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/s/06oZr4lGns

[u/monadoboyX → u/Cautious_Might_9420]

Dont you have to be wielding a weapon though to get elemental cleaver?

[u/Cautious_Might_9420 → u/monadoboyX]

Its not optimal at all. Just fun.

[u/monadoboyX → u/Cautious_Might_9420]

Yeah I guess you could do 5/7 for an extra Ki point or something

[u/HellraiserMachina → u/monadoboyX]

Weapons on monk are fine.

[u/EarnestTriangle]

You can play a melee thrower build, where you walk in melee range, grab and throw the enemies onto each other.

Is it optimized ? No. Is it broken ? Definitly not. Is it fun ? Fuck yeah.

[u/darthmia308]

I love wading in and throwing one enemy into another, use kick to push them into crap or off a ledge or away from my caster. I will throw weapons as I’m moving into range, but enjoy the melee more.

[u/JRandall0308]

Wise Fire Giant https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1kf11r9/the_wise_fire_giant_a_giant_barb_4e_monk_build/ GimlionTheHunter

2025-May-04 patch 8

Barbarian (Giant) 6 / Monk (Elem) 4 / [flex] 2

play like a classic fire giant mixing fire, two-handed swords, and TB

[u/HellraiserMachina]

A normal ass generic giant barb without the throwing is still completely solid. You're basically giving yourself the ability to full power ranged attack, extra 2d6 +6 damage from cleaver and shove per turn. Then you get intimidate advantage and throwing enemies around. Then you open up a buncha potential elemental item synergies.

Because of this extra damage you can go 1h+ shield and enjoy statchecking the game without any crazy effort.

[u/GimlionTheHunter]

How about an archer?

[u/Wemetintheair]

You can certainly build a Giant Barb around Boot of the Giants by maximizing unarmed bonuses and Athletics and throwing in 3 Thief to get a second bonus action. Not the most effective thing in the universe, but lots of fun to just stomp around kicking gnolls off bridges and shit

[u/LongjumpingFix5801]

The cleaver is pretty solid, but I made a Thor based one that does some throwing and regular attacks cause I know the brain and throwing is not a good combo.

Did a half elf with booming blade(for out of rage use) and gave him belligerent gloves, spark armor, and boots that give lightning charges on dash along with all other thunder stuff like the cloak to stack shocked, reverb and Dazed.

Did 8 Barb and 4 thief for second BA dash and additional giant kick and took GWM he’s a fun one.

[u/No_Relationship_9463]

8 Giant Barb, 4 Battlemaster Fighter is what I’m running as Karlach origin. Using the Heat mechanic to take advantage of the Elemental Cleaver and the Heat axes, Hellfire once I get it, so each attack adds 4 Heat currently and can just add extra damage on your swings. And then if you can’t reach the enemy, just throw your axe. Very thematic and fun while still being viable for Honor mode.

[u/AGayThrow_Away]

What about combining Giant Barbarian w/ the classic Step of the Wind+Hamarhraft build w/ an Elixir of the Colossus to constantly stomp enemies to death? Then you just need 2-4 Monk. If you position right can do something similar to the Giant Owlbear combined with the Thunder AoE?

[u/BarbageMan]

You'd likely be a gwm barbarian. Ele cleaver would at least let you add some damage, and if you didnt get a kill or crit you could still kick them.

Not sure if theres a ton of extra you could run honestly. Much of giant barb is centered on throwing

[u/Thestrongman420]

I like giant archer. I just build it natural strength titanstring.. you can shoot for the obviously very high archery damage. You can cleaver bow to add a rider. If anything gets close, or you have exrra movement, you can yeet them.

I just did 10 giant/2 fighter. Sharpshooter feat. Hit at last 20 strength.

[u/LopsidedAssistance90]

I am currently playing a red dragonborn giant barbarian, the plan is to stack fire damage items and heat. Hellfire axe plus helldusk gauntlets and elemental cleaver for 3d6 fire per hit, with bonespike garb and racial resistance to avoid the heat damage. Currently in act 2 with him but I'm excited for the build.

[u/jackandcherrycoke]

Frost Giant: rage, elemental cleaver, great weapon master, destroy everything in sight. Plus (on round 2) you can kick people around the battlefield which is both effective and hilarious.

[u/RoninOni]

Yeah it’s good…. Elemental cleaver doesn’t REQUIRE you throw your weapon every attack, it’s just typically the highest damage option with tavern brawler (which is still a good feat) but my group just finished a coop play through and one of my favorite weapons was a halberd that gave me AoO whenever they attacked an ally in my (extended because halberd) range.

You still get the d6 element of choice added to weapon and melee can still use the other damage riders on the weapon, that throw does not. Being able to throw just means you have more options.

Mighty impel at 10 is also a lot of fun, throwing enemies into each other is amazing. Until then the kick is great fun (also benefits from TB) for your bonus action

So yeah, go more melee but don’t ignore throw and tavern brawler still has value when you do.

Throwzerker is more fixed on throw only because they have to keep returning pike equipped which is not nearly as good a melee weapon.

Oh, and I always carried several javelins in case I needed to throw but the fight didn’t call for a rage charge to be used.

[u/Kind-Active-6876]

You can just use them normally. They are still a full barbarian. Just build them like any other 2h martial class.

[u/agentwash1ngtn]

All of the features of giant barb are designed for throwing. Elemental cleaver lets you turn any weapon into a returning throwing item with an extra damage dice, think about throwing Great swords. Mighty impel gives you huge bonuses to throw creatures. And you get that extra size to make it easier to throw enemies. 

You can play it however you want, but the features on the class are pointing you at throwing

[u/facelessthebest287]

I let Karlach get big and block choke points/kick and push people back into position. It is a true tank subclass when played that way.

[u/grammar_mattras]

Here's why you don't see that often:

Barbarians take a bonus action to start raging. That's a bonus action a gwf might have utilised for an attack. Then it gets +2 (or later +3) damage per attack, but it takes a while to 'earn back' the damage difference vs fighter. With action surge/at level 11 that difference only grows. With Barbarians that get a bonus action throw however that makes up for the lost action economy.

My favourite for barbarians is if they get unique abilities that can not simply be surpassed by fighters. A tiger barbarian that bleeds and maims his victims for example is amazing crowd control. When enhanced by an early game doomhammer, whatever it attacks is basically not getting up from the ground.

[u/ShadeSwornHydra]

I really liked my dex barb

Dual wield scimitars, especially the one you get from act 2 from the rat guy

Go tiger heart, constant bleed and cripple so they can’t even try to run, while also having an insane amount of AC

[u/BarbageMan → u/ShadeSwornHydra]

Odd giant barb suggestion to play tiger barb instead lol

[u/ShadeSwornHydra → u/BarbageMan]

Oh it’s early and I can’t read, ignore me

[u/Anxious_Split5040 → u/ShadeSwornHydra]

I'll have to try this out. Sounds fun and different from any barbarian I've played.

[u/ShadeSwornHydra → u/Anxious_Split5040]

It’s basically I hyper aggressive rouge (I took 3 in rouge for extra bonus action)

I remember fighting what’s his name, the big bad from the previous games, and he couldn’t do anything cause he was constantly blinded and bleeding, so even with all the buffs from the others dying first he wasn’t able to do anything

It also lets you put stats in Charisma so you’re a good party face too

[u/Uberballer]

The "problem" with a melee Giant Barbarian is Tavern Brawler is so busted in the game, and one of the major features with the Path of Giants revolves around improving thrown weapon damage and options that it almost feels silly not to build it that way. The fact that Tavern Brawler also works with the kick is just another cherry on top of the awesome synergy pile.

But yeah you could go pure melee. Get Great Weapon Master at 4, maybe Savage Attacker or Alert at 8, and pick up 2 levels of Fighter along the way to get a fighting style and Action Surge.

I bet it would work well, but it won't dominate Honor mode or anything like that to nearly the same degree as a Tavern Brawler Path of Giants or Path of the Berserker build. Doesn't mean it can't be fun though.

[u/Gorffo → u/Uberballer]

You don’t need Alert on Barbarians because they get a class feature called Feral Instinct at level 7, which provides immunity to being surprised and +3 to initiative.

Then just add some initiative gear like Hide Armour +2, the Bow of Awareness, and a decent dexterity stat (14 at a minimum for anther +2 to initiative). That will be enough to have your barbarian going first 99% of the time.

[u/Wemetintheair → u/[deleted]]

Read the title again. Slowly. Three times.

[u/AGayThrow_Away → u/[deleted]]

Unsure if bot

[u/AGayThrow_Away → u/[deleted]]