How would you build a Hulking Hurler in 5e?

[PangolinPie]

So I have a player in my game who wants something simple but fun to play. We came up with this idea to just be a big dude (probably a Goliath) who excels at throwing stuff; axes, swords, hammers, rocks…chairs…barrels…people…basically anything he can lift. I remember the wonders of the infamous Hulking Hurler PRSC from 3.5 and was wondering it there was a way to replicate it or at least come relatively close to it.

Apart from a home brew “Improvised Weaponry Master” feat I found that would let him use basically anything offensively and the obvious fighting style offered by fighter and a few feats, I’m not QUITE there yet.

[heavyfuel]

I wouldn't.

Not being facetious. 5e simply does not support this kind of build.

What exactly does this homebrew feat do? The one I found (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Improvised_Weapon_Master,_Variant_(5e_Feat))is vastly underpowered.

Since HB is on the table, I'd consider a feat similar to the "Throw Anything" feat from 3e.

- Your Str score increases by 1;
- You are considered proficient with any object you throw, which are treated as a weapon that deals 1d8 bludgeoning damage and have a range of 20/60ft. If the object requires two hands to throw, the damage increases to 1d10. The DM might rule that a particular object deals a different type of damage;
- You can use your reaction to deflect or catch the missile when you are hit by a ranged weapon attack. When you do so, the damage you take from the attack is reduced by 1d10 + your Strength modifier + your level

And this is still extremely underpowered, as you'll lack access to Magic Weapons, which means you'll be useless against a lot of monsters.

[PangolinPie]

Well he’d also be a grappler style character as well, not just throwing stuff since he’d need to grapple if he wants to throw an unwilling target (LOL). And there aren’t many magic thrown weapons out there? Seems like it wouldn’t be too hard to cook some up like with the returning property or something.

[heavyfuel]

And there aren’t many magic thrown weapons out there?

Sure, but then you're not building a Hulking Hurler, you're just building a regular thrower :smallconfused:

[PangolinPie]

Yeah I guess…I’m just trying to leave options open for the player if he decides to pick up and throw the enemy rather than hit him with a magic axe of returning.

[OvisCaedo]

I think the only official returning property in 5e is... an artificer infusion? It's certainly not hard to extrapolate that into being a kind of magic item that exists, though.

[heavyfuel]

Yeah I guess…I’m just trying to leave options open for the player if he decides to pick up and throw the enemy rather than hit him with a magic axe of returning.

That's not what fits mine (or the book's) definition of a Hulking Hurler. Throwing a returning axe is more along the lines of the Bloodstorm Blade, but it does make your build more practical.

Allow me to remake the previous feat:

Throw Anything

- Increase your Str by 1
- You are considered proficient with any object you throw, which are treated as a weapon that deals 1d8 bludgeoning damage and have a range of 20/60ft. If the object requires two hands to throw, the damage increases to 1d10. The DM might rule that a particular object deals a different type of damage;
- If you manage to successfully grapple an enemy, you can make a special attack by hurling the creature at a target. Treat the thrown creature as a weapon as per the rules above. You must still hit the attack to damage the target, but the thrown creature takes the full amount of damage regardless of the outcome of the attack roll. Instead, the thrown creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 8 + Str + Prof), and take only half the damage on a success.

[Unoriginal]

So I have a player in my game who wants something simple but fun to play. We came up with this idea to just be a big dude (probably a Goliath) who excels at throwing stuff; axes, swords, hammers, rocks…chairs…barrels…people…basically anything he can lift. I remember the wonders of the infamous Hulking Hurler PRSC from 3.5 and was wondering it there was a way to replicate it or at least come relatively close to it.

Apart from a home brew “Improvised Weaponry Master” feat I found that would let him use basically anything offensively and the obvious fighting style offered by fighter and a few feats, I’m not QUITE there yet.

Rune Knight Fighter with the Tavern Brawler feat and the Thrown Weapon Fighting fighting style?

[Monster Manuel]

So, throwing a melee weapon that doesn't have the "thrown" property makes it into an improvised weapon. It only does 1D4 bludgeoning damage, with a normal range of 20' and a long range of 60'. Definitely not a great start. Maybe a DM will allow a heftier object to do more damage, the rules are somewhat light on this. They'll want to pick up the Tavern Brawler feat, which will give proficiency in improvised weapons, and also support the grappling brute fighting style they seem to be leaning towards.

The rules on improvised weapons don't explicitly say that throwing a random thing turns it into a ranged weapon (it just says that if you throw a melee weapon without the Thrown property, it becomes an improvised weapon with XXX stats), but I think that's reasonable to assume. If that's the case, once they are proficient in Improvised Weapons via the Tavern Brawler feat, they can use Sharpshooter on a thrown chair or whatever, now doing 1d4+10 damage, which helps.

Thrown Weapon fighting style gets them an additional +2 damage, and the Archery style gives a +2 to hit with ranged weapons, so they'll want to pick a class that gets multiple fighting styles (fighter champion), some flavor of multiclass, or the extra fighting style feat. This build is already getting pretty feat-heavy. Since throwing an improvised weapon doesn't give it the Thrown property, you can't "draw" the weapon as part of the attack with the Thrown Weapon fighting style, you have to use your object interaction to pick something up. This'll make multiple thrown attacks per round tricky, unless you throw a pot initially, and then follow up with actual thrown daggers or darts.

Goliath is a great choice for race, because of the powerful build trait. You can lift things as if you are a Large creature, and if you can lift bigger things, you can throw bigger things. Again, the DM may permit a 4-wheeled cart thrown at someone from 20' away to do more than 1d4 bludgeoning damage; it would seem reasonable.

Crazy build idea, which is arguable at best, is to go with a strength-based Way of the Kensei monk, and chose Improvised Weapon (melee) and Improvised Weapon (thrown) as your kensei weapons. They have to be a simple or martial weapon that lacks the "heavy" or "special" properties. Technically, improvised weapons lack both those things. It's serious cheese, but it might work. This lets you parry with anything you happen to have in your hand, can do an extra 1d4 damage on a throw as a bonus action, you do your Monk base damage, instead of the 1d4, and you can spend ki to make them count as magical, to get past resistance.

Goliath fighter/kensei monk with the brawler feat, sharpshooter, and Thrown/Archery fighting styles? It might work. It's certainly not the monster that the Hulking Hurler was in 3.5. You're probably going to need some amount of homebrew to make it viable. But this might be a start...

[Lavaeolus]

You'd usually want Tavern Brawler for the improvised weapon proficiency, although you seem to have your own homebrew alternative here and you could drop it regardless if you're fine hurling/carrying a bunch of handaxes or other assorted weapons. As to throwing things in general, it's tougher to make work but there are a few options I can think of. First, Tasha's introduced the 'Thrown Weapon Fighting' Fighting Style:

You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon.
In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll.

This character could conceivably be a Fighter, but you could also pick this up through a dip or the Fighting Initiate feat. It helps with one issue with thrown weapons -- that constantly having to draw them will interfere with Extra Attack -- but obviously leaves you still potentially having to either carry a load of weapons or having to retrieve them on the battlefield. It also means your character can start out unarmed, for grappling purposes, but still attack with weapons. (I'll leave it up to you decide whether it works with improvised weapons, but generally I don't think anything would be broken by allowing them.)

Other options include having an Artificer enchant a weapon with the Returning Weapon infusion:

This magic weapon grants a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with it, and it returns to the wielder’s hand immediately after it is used to make a ranged attack.

This is useful, but sort of changes you into specialising into one specific weapon. You'd also have to take two Artificer levels if you don't want to rely on a party member (who very well might have their own desires for their infusions).

As a final option for throwing, the Soulknife Rogue gets the Psychic Blades feature:

Whenever you take the Attack action, you can manifest a psychic blade from your free hand and make the attack with that blade. This magic blade is a simple melee weapon with the finesse and thrown properties. It has a normal range of 60 feet and no long range, and on a hit, it deals psychic damage equal to 1d6 plus the ability modifier you used for the attack roll. The blade vanishes immediately after it hits or misses its target, and it leaves no mark on its target if it deals damage.

After you attack with the blade, you can make a melee or ranged weapon attack with a second psychic blade as a bonus action on the same turn, provided your other hand is free to create it.

Like the Artificer, this might not fit the flavour you want, but I figured I'd mention it.

I think Rune Knights and Battle Masters would worth looking into, depending on how you envision the character. Rune Knight mainly for the ability to turn large and get advantage on Strength checks.

[ender241]

The rules on improvised weapons don't explicitly say that throwing a random thing turns it into a ranged weapon (it just says that if you throw a melee weapon without the Thrown property, it becomes an improvised weapon with XXX stats), but I think that's reasonable to assume. If that's the case, once they are proficient in Improvised Weapons via the Tavern Brawler feat, they can use Sharpshooter on a thrown chair or whatever, now doing 1d4+10 damage, which helps.

RAW a melee weapon that is thrown does not become a ranged weapon. I believe JC has confirmed this. So the same would logically hold true for an improvised weapon that is thrown. But if you're already on the path of homebrewing, then sure, why not.

[Skrum]

So, throwing a melee weapon that doesn't have the "thrown" property makes it into an improvised weapon. It only does 1D4 bludgeoning damage, with a normal range of 20' and a long range of 60'. Definitely not a great start. Maybe a DM will allow a heftier object to do more damage, the rules are somewhat light on this. They'll want to pick up the Tavern Brawler feat, which will give proficiency in improvised weapons, and also support the grappling brute fighting style they seem to be leaning towards.

The rules on improvised weapons don't explicitly say that throwing a random thing turns it into a ranged weapon (it just says that if you throw a melee weapon without the Thrown property, it becomes an improvised weapon with XXX stats), but I think that's reasonable to assume. If that's the case, once they are proficient in Improvised Weapons via the Tavern Brawler feat, they can use Sharpshooter on a thrown chair or whatever, now doing 1d4+10 damage, which helps.

Thrown Weapon fighting style gets them an additional +2 damage, and the Archery style gives a +2 to hit with ranged weapons, so they'll want to pick a class that gets multiple fighting styles (fighter champion), some flavor of multiclass, or the extra fighting style feat. This build is already getting pretty feat-heavy. Since throwing an improvised weapon doesn't give it the Thrown property, you can't "draw" the weapon as part of the attack with the Thrown Weapon fighting style, you have to use your object interaction to pick something up. This'll make multiple thrown attacks per round tricky, unless you throw a pot initially, and then follow up with actual thrown daggers or darts.

Goliath is a great choice for race, because of the powerful build trait. You can lift things as if you are a Large creature, and if you can lift bigger things, you can throw bigger things. Again, the DM may permit a 4-wheeled cart thrown at someone from 20' away to do more than 1d4 bludgeoning damage; it would seem reasonable.

Crazy build idea, which is arguable at best, is to go with a strength-based Way of the Kensei monk, and chose Improvised Weapon (melee) and Improvised Weapon (thrown) as your kensei weapons. They have to be a simple or martial weapon that lacks the "heavy" or "special" properties. Technically, improvised weapons lack both those things. It's serious cheese, but it might work. This lets you parry with anything you happen to have in your hand, can do an extra 1d4 damage on a throw as a bonus action, you do your Monk base damage, instead of the 1d4, and you can spend ki to make them count as magical, to get past resistance.

Goliath fighter/kensei monk with the brawler feat, sharpshooter, and Thrown/Archery fighting styles? It might work. It's certainly not the monster that the Hulking Hurler was in 3.5. You're probably going to need some amount of homebrew to make it viable. But this might be a start...

The real problem with this is the attacks are going to be made with dex. Ranged attack default to dexterity - the thrown property lets you use strength. So a hulking hurler that's actually a....acrobatic assailant, or something.

[Kane0]

So I have a player in my game who wants something simple but fun to play. We came up with this idea to just be a big dude (probably a Goliath) who excels at throwing stuff; axes, swords, hammers, rocks…chairs…barrels…people…basically anything he can lift. I remember the wonders of the infamous Hulking Hurler PRSC from 3.5 and was wondering it there was a way to replicate it or at least come relatively close to it.

Apart from a home brew “Improvised Weaponry Master” feat I found that would let him use basically anything offensively and the obvious fighting style offered by fighter and a few feats, I’m not QUITE there yet.

Tavern brawler works for getting you proficiency in throwing random items.
Powerful Build racial trait doubles what you can lift, from eg Goliath.
Go fighter and take the thrown fighting style. You can use STR for any thrown weapon by default, or DEX if its a finesse weapon.

Then all you have to do is pick a subclass. You could houserule arcane archer to work with thrown weapons as well as or instead of bows and just use 'bursting arrow', thats free aoe damage when you toss things plus later the ability to redirect missed throws and your improvised weapons counting as magical. Not super strong but simple and effective, plus fighter has extra room for feats like crusher, lucky, resilient, alert/observant, etc.

Edit: skill expert for athletics (grappling), grappler feat itself sorta sucks.

[Skrum]

You can use STR for any thrown weapon by default, or DEX if its a finesse weapon.

No, it doesn't. It's very silly in the case of throwing giant rocks but -

"The ability modifier used for a melee weapon Attack is Strength, and the ability modifier used for a ranged weapon Attack is Dexterity. Weapons that have the Finesse or Thrown property break this rule."

Using strength for thrown weapons is the exception, and only applies to weapons with the thrown property. So a high str score and powerful build will let you pick up a gigantic rock, but you'll be attacking with Dex, and dealing (improvised rock damage, whatever the DM decides) + dex.

The RAW is extremely clear, though I would personally make an exception if I was the DM. This build is going to be half homebrew anyway, so why not just put this on the pile of exceptions.

[Kane0]

No, it doesn't.

Sorry i should have been more specific. Thrown weapons are ususally melee weapons with the thrown property and thus use strength, with the exception of darts that are ranged weapons with the thrown property and thus use dexterity.

When you use an improvised weapon the DM will usually decide if its melee, ranged, improvised version of a regular weapon, etc.

[ender241]

Sorry i should have been more specific. Thrown weapons are ususally melee weapons with the thrown property and thus use strength, with the exception of darts that are ranged weapons with the thrown property and thus use dexterity.

Darts have the finesse property and can therefore use Str or Dex.

[Khrysaes]

RAW sharpshooter doesnt work with thrown weapons except for darts as the throwing of the melee weapon with the thrown property does not make the weapon a “ranged weapon” and it therefore wouldnt qualify for the “Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with…” Darts are by default simple ranged weapons so they work. Maybe boomerangs but they arent in the phb.

Also. If homebrew is allowed the taldorei reborn and taldorei campaign setting have a thrown weapon feat.

[Khrysaes]

Darts have the finesse property and can therefore use Str or Dex.

Yes, same with daggers.

However by default the javalin, handaxe, light hammer, trident, and spear are melee weapons with the thrown property but no finesse, and therefore use strength.

On the otherhand the net is a ranged weapon with the thrown property and uses dex.

Interestingly, at least according to dnd beyond, the boomerang is a simple ranged weapon in the basic rules, and has the ranged property, but despite being described as thrown does not have the thrown property.

[loki_ragnarock]

So I have a player in my game who wants something simple but fun to play. We came up with this idea to just be a big dude (probably a Goliath) who excels at throwing stuff; axes, swords, hammers, rocks…chairs…barrels…people…basically anything he can lift. I remember the wonders of the infamous Hulking Hurler PRSC from 3.5 and was wondering it there was a way to replicate it or at least come relatively close to it.

Apart from a home brew “Improvised Weaponry Master” feat I found that would let him use basically anything offensively and the obvious fighting style offered by fighter and a few feats, I’m not QUITE there yet.

On his end, tell him to take the Tavern Brawler feat so that he's good with improvised weapons. Have him take the thrown weapon style as an investment towards the idea.

On your end, improvise. He throws an axe? Rule that it does a d8 damage + his strength. Bam. He throws a cart? Rule that it does 2d6 damage + str and can hit the target and the target adjacent. He throws an elephant? The elephant does some amount of damage to all the peeps in a radius, and also itself. Everything in the elephants area where it lands takes 2d10 damage, dex save for half.

Your dude wants to do cool stuff? AWESOME! Have him sink the ideas to specialize into it, but just work with him from there with favorable DM rulings. You don't even have to be consistent; the character is improvising and can't possibly know what to expect when he does the crazy move of creatively disarming himself of a chaise lounge.

But no, there isn't really a way to simulate an infinite damage loop like with the 3e Hulking Hurler. And that's fine. You can simulate the cool stuff by being a dope DM in your ad-hoc rulings.

[PangolinPie]

Actually found a really good sub-class for Fighter from Valda’s Spire of Secrets called “Brawler” that gives proficiencies in improvised weaponry and bonuses to unarmed combat and grappling. That with “Throw Anything” feat, “Thrown Weapon Master” feat and throwing fighting style and it looks pretty damn solid. I’ll definitely suggest to the player that they take SkIll Expert (Athletics) for their next feat. Thanks for the help guys 😁