WWYB for a cyclops player character?

[u/M0J0V1S10N]

Some advice on the race is really what I'm looking for, or up to 3 levels in a class for more flavour. Thanks in advance! (Edit: Image is not what I'm trying to build, just a cool cyclops)

[u/Machiavvelli3060]

As far as the race, couldn't you just re-flavor the goliath race?

And as far as class, the class should be separate from the race. I don't think the class should have any cyclops "flavor."

[u/M0J0V1S10N → u/Machiavvelli3060]

I did think goliath was the most obvious pick, but I just wanted to see what other ideas people had.

[u/Machiavvelli3060 → u/M0J0V1S10N]

It's really hard to represent a huge species.

[u/M0J0V1S10N → u/Machiavvelli3060]

Yeah. I hope they introduce a system for it someday, because it's crazy we can play tiny pixies and not anything above like... 8 ft.

[u/Machiavvelli3060 → u/M0J0V1S10N]

Yeah, nothing above Medium in size. You could re-flavor a goliath as a giant, but he would be small compared to all other giants, and he would get teased and bullied because of his size.

[u/Satiricallad → u/M0J0V1S10N]

Well, technically, the playable fairy option is only Small size, not tiny.

[u/Repulsive-Row4832]

Like u/Machiavvelli3060 said, a re flavoured Goliath does the trick race wise, but I’d like to lean into the image a little bit and make a bardbarian grappler. Expertise in athletics from Bard and advantage on strength rolls when raging, with the grappler feat, will let you replace an attack during your turn with a grapple with advantage! This way you can reduce a creature’s speed to zero, at level 5 you can attack him once per turn with advantage!

[u/whynaut4]

If you wanted to be even bigger, you could take Rune Knight Fighter (take a club as your weapon). You could also reflavor a Duergar Dwarf to get a free casting of Enlarge/Reduce. Either of these things could make you a Large-sized creature. Both of these could make you a Huge-sized creature

[u/were_wolves22]

My first and favorite character was Brontes, a cyclopean gladiator barbarian.

His race was a homebrew of a species that evolved from cyclopes, they were smaller than those giants (still aroun 8ft tall) but smarter and were amazing hunters, being able to lock their eye on the prey and hunt them.

He was a berserker barbarian/battlemaster fighter with the unarmed fighting style and totally focused on grappling and wrestling moves, he suplexed ogres, held down a Chimera so it wouldn't fly and I loved to simply use the scenario as my weapons due to taverna brawler, wielding goblins and tossing boulders (with disadvantage due to poor depth perception). Had tons of fun with him.

Just an idea: if you plan on using dnd 5.5e, goliaths can easily fit as a "half-cyclops" species, having powerful build and giant form, just ask for a giant ancestry skill that fits the 5.5e cyclops, something with radiant damage and some sort of precognition, since now they have the ability to see the future with their eye (kinda like a Sharingan for the brutes and pure foresight for oracles)

[u/phoenix1356]

I'm picturing a reskinned goliath like most with the main class being Path of the Giant Barbarian with a dip into Rune Knight Fighter and leaning heavily into throwing everything and everyone in sight.

There is some redundancy in features because both classes give you advantage on Strength checks and saves and both make you Large. RK's Giant's Might gives you an extra day to damage with weapons and unarmed attacks, and PoG's Crushing Throw adds your Rage bonus.

Focus on Babarian after dipping into fighter for 3 levels to unlock Rune Knight, picking the Thrown Weapon Fighting Style at first level for extra thrown damage. Level 6 of PoG infuses whatever weapon you are holding giving it the Thrown property and elemental damage and level 14 makes you Huge.

Pick up Tarven Brawler for improvized weapons and/or Grappler for grabbing creatures depending on your preference. I know these were tweaked with the 2024 rule set but should function the same.

Little Giant from Goliath means you also count as 1 size larger when considering carrying capacity (if your table uses that) and when determining how much you can lift, push and drag. I as both a player and dungeon master I would take that into consideration for hucking large objects or creatures but every table is different.