Special Conversion Thread: Finishing off giants and their kin

[Shade]

How about dropping armor altogether, and either replacing animate rope with mage armor, or replacing Alertness with Extra Spell (mage armor)?

[freyar]

Let's replace Alertness. Animate Rope is prereq for the Rope of Climbing (which is CL3). Although, now that I think about it, these might be too heavy to use those ropes given that they're Huge. So animate rope is not such a big deal after all. Still, extra spell might not be a bad use of a feat anyway, given that Alertness probably isn't so good for them.

[Shade]

Let's drop animate rope. I went back and looked at Extra Spell, and it only allows a spell of one level lower than the creature's highest. So, the giant would only get a cantrip.

[demiurge1138]

Is Extra Spell in the SRD?

[Shade]

Nope. That would be a bit of fudging, since the feat is so self-explanatory.

[Shade]

Updated.

These spellcasters use elemental earth and air magic in battle

How's this?

A fhoimorien giant's favored class is sorcerer, and such sorcerers often select air or earth spells. A fhoimorien giant cleric has access to two of the following domains: Air, Destruction, Earth, and Evil.


An adult male fhoimorien giant stands over 16 feet tall and weighs x pounds. Females are generally taller than males. Fhoimorien giants can live to be x years old.

A fhoimorien giant's bag usually contains x.

[freyar]

Looks good.

6000 lb? 200 yr?

[Shade]

Updated.

Any thoughts on the contents of the giant's bag? The fomorian has nothing listed. I'm assuming throwing rocks at the very least.

CR 12? The SLAs and two levels of spellcasting don't add a whole lot, nor does the rock throwing, but together they probably are worth at least a CR.

[freyar]

CR is good, I think.

Rocks and minor magic items, such as a cloak of resistance, hand of the mage, brooch of shielding?

[Shade]

Updated.

All done?

[freyar]

Looks good!

[demiurge1138]

Looks good to me!

[Echohawk]

Looking at the list of unconverted giants on the first page of this thread, I think that there are only four left now. The two Dragonlance ogres have already been converted elsewhere, leaving just these:

• Earth giant (Dragon #256)
• Gigantes (Legends & Lore 2e)
• Spacesea giant (Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix)
• Trow (Dragon #261)

Also, technically, the Trow isn't WotC's intellectual property since it is based on a Myth creature. It can probably be converted anyway though, since it did appear in a Dragon magazine.

There is also one other unconverted giant that isn't WotC's IP -- the Melnibonéan Mist Giant from the original Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia. I'm not sure if that would be fair game for conversion?

[Shade]

I think the trow is fair game, but not sure about the mist giant. The fact that a 3e Elric game exists leads me toward "probably not a good idea".

[Shade]

Earth Giants (Rumblers): AC =8; MV 48; HD 26; THACO -3; #AT 2; Dmg 4d12 (stomp)/3d12 (fist); SD immune to fire and cold, half damage from electricity; MR 50%; SZ G (150’ tall and taller): INT genius (17-18); ML 15; AL N; XP 24,000. The earth giant suffers 2d8 points of damage from stone shape spells, 3d8 from transmute rock to mud spells, and 8d6 from earthquake spells.

The earth giant are creatures so rare that most people have never heard of them. Even within the rarefied circles of creature scholarship, few academics are aware that these powerful creatures ever existed. Certain rare texts state that they wandered Krynn more freely during the Age of Dreams, but this might just be myth. According to these texts, the earth giants (AKA rumblers) are immortal beings. Since there is virtually no record of anyone or anything ever killing an earth giant, it is logical to assume that they live still.

When active, an earth giant is an awesome sight. Short of the great dragons of our age, it is likely that no creature larger than the earth giant has ever walked Krynn. The earth giant stands well over 150 feet tall, and its body consists entirely of rock and stone, a walking mountain of earth. The giant’s form resembles that of a human: two arms, two legs; a bulbous, barrel-shaped torso; and a roughly spherical head. The giant’s feet are solid rock and often have no toes, resembling a foot inside a boot. The hands have two to four large fingers and one opposable thumb. The head is featureless except for a large, toothless rock mouth that is visible only when the giant speaks.

Earth giants apparently have magical senses rather than traditional eyes and ears. According to legend, a moving earth giant is aware of everything that goes on within a mile of it, down to the movement of the smallest insect and the flattening of each blade of grass under its mighty feet. These reports might be exaggerations, but it is certain that while the earth giants have no apparent eyes or ears, they can see and hear. As mentioned above, they can also speak. The voice of an earth giant is like thunder rolling through the mountains. The simplest utterance sends livestock into a panic and drives a stake of fear through the bravest warrior’s heart.

Fortunately for most of those fear-struck warriors, earth giants are not creatures of evil. Said to have existed since Krynn itself came into existence, the earth giants have no malice in their stone hearts. They have no known enemies, primarily because there are few things in existence that could cause them serious harm. Some stories speak of earth giants and dragons engaging in titanic battles, but most of these come from less than reliable sources. Nevertheless, the stories state that in one instance a pack of five great blue dragons managed to smash an earth giant into pieces using repeated blasts of lightning. While the story seems somewhat fantastical, it could be true. If so, it is the only recorded instance of an earth giant dying.

The earth giants are reported to be quite intelligent, although they have a hard time relating to other intelligent beings. Still, on occasion, earth giants and lesser creatures have manage to communicate. The earth giants, with their perfect memories and almost omniscient awareness of their surroundings, are amazing sources of knowledge. A scholar could easily spend the rest of his life speaking with an earth giant and never scratch the surface of the creature’s knowledge. Of course, no earth giant would ever spend that much time talking to mere mortal. When they do deign to speak, they often answer only a few questions. Still, if these are the right questions, the answers can be invaluable.

The obvious question is, if these things exist, where are they? Why has no one seen them for ages? To answer the last question first, there have been a few unconfirmed sightings of earth giants over the past few centuries. In one instance, several centuries ago, an entire village in Ergoth flew into a panic when an earth giant wandered through their fields. Still, such sightings are extremely rare. We seldom see earth giants because, most of the time, they are asleep.

Earth giants spend centuries at a time sleeping. While they rest, they take in energy from the sun and soil around them, much as plants do. Once their resting spot no longer provides the energy they need, they wake and move on. A sleeping earth giant looks exactly like a large, rocky hill. It simply lies down in a field, half buried in the earth. Dirt accumulates on its body, plants grow, and mortals might even build houses on it. None of this activity disturbs the earth giant in the least. Only when someone tries to chip off a large piece of it to make a wall or house does the giant rouse itself from its slumber. Then there might be trouble, or perhaps the giant might simply shift in its sleep, scaring the intruders and discouraging any further “mining.”

Legend has it that certain spells can rouse an earth giant from its slumber. No doubt these spells vanished with the passing of the gods from the land, but even if they remained, it would seem ill advised to awaken such a powerful being. Should you find an earth giant’s resting spot, tread carefully. You might have passed by such a place every day for years without disturbing the buried colossus, yet tomorrow it might wake up.

Originally appeared in Dragon Magazine #256 (1999).

[demiurge1138]

Alright! A truly giant giant!

[freyar]

Originally Posted by demiurge1138

Alright! A truly giant giant!

No joke! Colossal+ maybe even!

These feel like they should maybe have more than 26HD, too.

[Shade]

True. The Huge death giants have 23 HD, eldritch giants 25 HD, and geriviars 26 HD. The Colossal mountain giants have 30 HD.

I'm thinking at least 36 HD.

[demiurge1138]

I like 36 HD. With an enormous Con score on top of that, should be suitably durable.

[freyar]

36HD and very high Con work for me.

Blindsight or blindsense out to a mile?