Build Help: Rune Knight Fighter and Giant Soul Sorcerer Multiclass

[Ronin8252]

Apologies if this is the incorrect place or way to do this as I'm new here. I was looking for some opinions/help on an idea I had to do a rune knight fighter/giant soul sorcerer multiclass to focus, thematically, on giant magic. I'm hoping to find a way for this to work super well in combat and be able to do some cool stuff.

Thanks for any help.

[Bobthewizard]

Here's a few thoughts.

I like the hill, fire and stone runes for the fighter.

For the sorcerer level 6 abilities, I like Cloud (short at-will teleport with minor illusion) and Hill (at-will BA shillelagh to shove 2 creatures).

For leveling up, I'd pick one and get it to level 6 for either the second ASI for fighter or the sorcerer level 6 abilities. Then multi class into the other to level 6. If I started sorcerer, I'd probably go cloud since I like their spells better. If I started fighter, I might go Hill sorcerer.

Adding Enlarge/Reduce on to Giant Might would make you Huge, so you could make an argument for going 3 fighter/3 sorcerer and making a grappler. Start with a Goliath and you would be Gargantuan for purposes of carrying something. You could carry a house. Then add a level of rogue for athletics expertise. Too bad barbarian rage doesn't work with self-cast enlarge/reduce.

[Sherlockpwns]

I assume you've cleared this with your DM, but I think the build decision comes down to what your "gimmick" is going to be and understanding that it kind of doesn't come online in full until mid levels (Level 6 min, but realistically more likely level 8).

There are a LOT of options here to unpack, though the nice part is once you've picked the option you're going with it's all pretty straight forward. I see little reason to start as a sorcerer other than RP reasons (which is a fine reason, just to be clear), but by starting fighter you're gaining heavy armor and still get a con save.

At the simple level the question has to be asked: What are you getting from the sorcerer origin? The way I see it, you have to pick between STR (Or dex but I don't know if that really fits the giant theme) or CHA as your primary attack method. I think there's some arguments to be made for both, but the real pain point comes from the waiting. So lets explore two ways to get the build up and running:

For a melee build I'd go:
Fighter 1 / Sorc 1 and then Fighter to 4, Sorc to X.

Here we have the basic STR based Booming Blade or GFB fighter. By level 2 you are able to cast your melee attack spell. You can have heavy armor. You can bust out shield or a similar non-CHA based spell. You leave your CHA fairly low and focus on spells that give buffs / help outside combat / don't have saves or attack rolls based on CHA. You don't care about multi-attack since your damage will scale from your overall level (TBD by your DM if you can quicken Booming Blade for extra melee action). I'd go with Storm and Cloud, but Hill is also a viable fighter choice.

At Sorc 3 (Level 7) you pick a giant type. For thematic reasons I'd stick with Storm, Cloud, or Hill, but no rule prevents you from having different giant heritages than your fighter part. Hill and Cloud probably get my vote here if you limit yourself to those three. Frost is also a contender if you don't.

So ignoring the stat block I'd see myself in heavy armor, maybe with a polearm and Sentinel (Since you'll be able to make yourself Large, this means you can cover a pretty massive area). Use shield as your primary defense spell and BB (you'll need to move to 5ft or pick up spell sniper) as your attack. Or just a regular shield and 1H weapon and mobility, so you can smack someone and force them to move to you. Nothing too crazy here.

Str primary
Con secondary
Cha 13 or 14.

Dump anything else as needed.

For a non-melee I'd go:
Fighter 1 / Sorc 6 / Fighter 4 / Sorc to X.

Alternatively, you can focus on CHA based attacks from your Sorc level. The bright side here is a lot of the giant soul abilities proc off casting certain spells, many of which are going to be CHA based. The downside is you don't get it till Sorc 6, which means level 7 if you are starting as a fighter. Till then you'll certainly be doing less damage, but your overall utility is going to go way up, especially at level 7. In particular, Frost, Hill, Storm, and Stone are all super handy. Frost will make you more tanky since it will be often granting decent temp HP and let you fight at range via cantrips and other spells. Hill can let you go melee still. Storm will eventually turn you into an at-will horde breaker (In theory you could expend a ton of resources and cast 4 shocking grasps (twin or quicken) in a single turn, causing not only the grasp dmg but your con modifier to 3 enemies 4 times as well. At +5 that's a staggering 60 damage with no save). Stone will sorta make you the guy always casting Entangle. Potentially disabling multiple enemies and giving yourself a nice AC boost will make you a tough nut to crack even in melee.

The real problem with the CHA focus build is its gonna be a bit dull till level 7. You're basically just a heavily armored sorcerer with a couple extra spells. Nothing wrong with that, but as soon as you hit 7 it's going to start coming together rapidly. Warcaster seems like a must have, since everything except Frost wants to fight on or near the front line and you dont want to lose concentration and you DO want to use your spells to smack folks around.

If I had to pick what sounds like the most fun of these I'd probably go Storm just for the fun of blasting a ton of enemies every now and then.

CHA primary
Con Secondary
Str/Dex (for AC) as needed.
Dump anything else as needed.

I have no idea if this was helpful or not :D