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I'm considering playing a Goliath barbarian, Path of the Beast. As I've played mostly arcanists since D&D 3.0, and when I DMed I trusted my players with their PC rules, I'm having a bit of a problem grasping purely melee interactions.

What I want to know is if, and how, these three features interact:

The goliath's Powerful Build trait:

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

The Path of the Beast barbarian's Form of the Beast feature (TCoE, p. 24):

Claws. Each of your hands transforms into a claw, which you can use as a weapon if it’s empty. It deals 1d6 slashing damage on a hit. Once on each of your turns when you attack with a claw using the Attack action, you can make one additional claw attack as part of the same action.

The Tavern Brawler feat (PHB, p. 170):

When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike or an improvised weapon on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to grapple the target.

The rules on Moving a Grappled Creature state:

When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you.

So, could I attack a goblin or halfling with claws two times, after one of them (if successful) grapple a Small creature, and then drag it somewhere at full speed because I count as Large so goblins or halflings count as two sizes smaller?

If that matters, we play using standard array, and our expected levels of play are 5 to 10.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't understand the downvote. Even if the answer is "no" and I am mistaken at some point, I believe I have written this question in a clear way, possibly useful for other readers. I asked specifically because it looked a bit too good to be true. If there are other issues than that, please let me know and I'll try to fix them. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mołot
    Jan 13 at 11:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ I think this question is downvoted because it boils down to "Do Goliaths count as one size larger when grappling?" which has been already asked over here. \$\endgroup\$
    – Slaves_of_the_Coast
    Jan 13 at 13:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ @flaszlok If that is why someone downvoted, they should educate themselves better in the appropriate use of their privileges. Duplicates are a good thing in the Stack system, and certainly not an inherent reason to downvote. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Jan 13 at 15:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ @flaszlok I didn't see duplicate votes when this question was downvoted. Plus I wanted to know if this falls apart at any step and it didn't occur to me to phrase it the way you did. I won't argue duplicate votes, but I hope my question will help others to find the answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mołot
    Jan 13 at 19:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't know the 5e well but does the claw attack count as an "unarmed strike or an improvised weapon" ? I'm unsure the "Tavern Brawler" feature would activate \$\endgroup\$
    – Tessa
    Jan 14 at 15:58

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Powerful Build only say it work for carrying capacity and weight you can push, drag, or lift. Nothing more, nothing less. So it don't affect moving a grappled creature.

So RAW it don't work. But if as a DM you do the rule of cool you may consider it ok.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Grapple says "you can drag or carry the Grappled creature", guess that's where I was mistaken \$\endgroup\$
    – Mołot
    Jan 13 at 11:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ I understand the wording can be confusing. But it mean that the PC can carry an heavier creature than what an other PC with the same stats would be able to. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rorp
    Jan 13 at 11:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ That's why I asked, wasn't sure. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mołot
    Jan 13 at 11:12

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