Building a Goliath Caster

[Yakmala]

A couple of years ago, my play group and I were having a fun discussion about characters with super short origin stories, and I came up with one for a Goliath Wizard.

Goliath Son: "But I don't want to be a hunter, I want to study magic!"

Goliath Father: "Leave, and never return!"

I never did build that Goliath Wizard, but with the updates to Goliaths in MMM, I'm thinking about it again.

Goliaths can now use their Stone's Endurance PB # times per rest instead of just once. This makes them very durable casters, especially when combined with caster subclasses that are durable to begin with.

So, I'm debating the best way to build my durable Goliath caster.

The initial thought is going Abjuration Wizard to combine Stone's Endurance with Arcane Ward. That's pretty straightforward and provides two good layers of protection.

But what if we went for three layers and added in Armor of Agythys? Armor of Agythys could last a lot longer than normal when that damage has to get through both Arcane Ward and Stone's Endurance.

So what is the best way to go about this?

1: Take a Warlock dip. 1 level if we just want Armor of Agathys or 2 levels if we want to pick up Armor of Shadows to quickly recharge the ward.

2: Magic Initiate. We avoid multiclassing but can only cast Armor of Agathys once.

3: Skip Warlock and Armor of Agathys but take Eldritch Adept for Armor of Shadows and the quick ward recharge.

4: Skip Wizard. Just make a Goliath Warlock and run with Stone's Endurance and Armor of Agathys. This would change the character background a bit.

5: Rune Carver Apprentice from UA Giant Options and get Armor of Agathys via the Frost Rune. This is the optimal solution, but alas, the campaign I'd be using this character in does not allow UA materials.

Thoughts? How would you go about making a Goliath caster that's gone against his tribe's wishes to study/acquire magic but still retains the great damage resistance Goliaths are known for?

[J-H]

I'm running a Fighter 1/Warlock (Celestial, blade) 7 Goliath right now. It's an arena campaign, so typically 1 fight/day.
AoA is now up to 20 temporary HP, I can preserve AoA through multiple hits with 1d12+3 damage reduction 3 times, and I have Second Wind for 1d10+1 healing, and a pool of 8d6 healing for others (max 2d6 at a time). He's super tanky, possibly more so than my Abjuration Wizard ever was.

[Psyren]

There's also 6: Dip two levels of Clockwork Soul Sorcerer and grab Armor of Agathys that way. You could dip a 3rd level to Extend it, and if you're going that far you may as well dip 4 for the ASI.

Shame the Frost Rune UA isn't allowed as that is very thematic for your Goliath.

[ew_of_chiswick]

A couple of years ago, my play group and I were having a fun discussion about characters with super short origin stories, and I came up with one for a Goliath Wizard.

Goliath Son: "But I don't want to be a hunter, I want to study magic!"

Goliath Father: "Leave, and never return!"

<snip>

4: Skip Wizard. Just make a Goliath Warlock and run with Stone's Endurance and Armor of Agathys. This would change the character background a bit.
Not sure if you've thought of this, but the backstory might not need much changing if you go with option #4. After being exiled, your young goliath didn't have time to make it on his own and study to be a wizard, so he instead took a shortcut in the form of pact magic.

[Damon_Tor]

There's also 6: Dip two levels of Clockwork Soul Sorcerer and grab Armor of Agathys that way. You could dip a 3rd level to Extend it, and if you're going that far you may as well dip 4 for the ASI.

Shame the Frost Rune UA isn't allowed as that is very thematic for your Goliath.

This is a nice idea because Clockwork Soul sorcerer could add ANOTHER layer of protection as well via Bastion of Law. You'd need 13 cha to qualify for sorcerer, but other than that you could just pick sorcerer spells that don't require a save or roll.

[Yakmala]

Not sure if you've thought of this, but the backstory might not need much changing if you go with option #4. After being exiled, your young goliath didn't have time to make it on his own and study to be a wizard, so he instead took a shortcut in the form of pact magic.

There's a few ways I could see him becoming a warlock. Cast, out, he didn't have the time, money or opportunity to make his way to a big city where he could study, so he found a different kind of teacher, maybe stumbling upon an ancient vessel in the mountains and gaining a Dao as a patron. It might also be the case that this way was always open to him, that an extra-planar being placed the idea of pursuing magical power in his head at an early age, but it was only after he was cast out that the idea became a voice and provided direction and clarity.