do giants exist in dark sun?

messy · Mar 5, 2009

allo

there are half-giants in dark sun, of course, but i've seen no mention of giants. and if there are no giants, then where did the half-giants come from?

so, are there giants in dark sun?

messy

Stormborn · Mar 5, 2009

Aren't there giants that wade through the silt seas?

DaveyJones · Mar 5, 2009

half-giant from the 2edADnD Dark Sun days equals playable race. supposedly.

giants are monsters.

Klaus · Mar 5, 2009

messy said:
allo

there are half-giants in dark sun, of course, but i've seen no mention of giants. and if there are no giants, then where did the half-giants come from?

so, are there giants in dark sun?

messy

Yes, there are. They had the maximum allowed Str (equal to a Storm Giant), but were dumb. Some were animal-headed. Giant hair is used to make the best ropes in Athas.

Irda Ranger · Mar 5, 2009

Klaus said:
Giant hair is used to make the best ropes in Athas.

Indeed. And the hair from their back makes an excellent Sea Dragon Turtle harness.

Kobold Avenger · Mar 5, 2009

There were 2 types of giants, the humanoid-heads and beast-heads.

They tended to live on small islands in the Sea of Silt.

Xyxox · Mar 5, 2009

Kobold Avenger said:
There were 2 types of giants, the humanoid-heads and beast-heads.

They tended to live on small islands in the Sea of Silt.

According to the Second Edition AD&D MC 12 Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix, there were three types of Athasian Giants; Desert, Plains, and Beast head.

Desert and Plains Athasian Giants were the most common and were 20-25 feet tall.

Beast head Athasian giants were the ones that lived on small islands in teh Sea of Silt. They also had innate psionic abilities. There were several types of heads on teh Beast head giants:

Eagle
Goat
Wolf
Id fiend
Kirre
Braxat

Dragonblade · Mar 5, 2009

Xyxox said:
According to the Second Edition AD&D MC 12 Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix, there were three types of Athasian Giants; Desert, Plains, and Beast head.

Desert and Plains Athasian Giants were the most common and were 20-25 feet tall.

Beast head Athasian giants were the ones that lived on small islands in teh Sea of Silt. They also had innate psionic abilities. There were several types of heads on teh Beast head giants:

Eagle
Goat
Wolf
Id fiend
Kirre
Braxat

Yep. Also, half-giants were originally magical creations of the sorcerer-kings for labor and military purposes. They magically combined humans and non-beast head giants. Half-giants now are their own race and can have children and so on. 3e really nerfed them, I thought. In 2e, a half-giant had +4 strength and if you had the slave gladiator kit you could get one more +1. One player in my group played a half-giant slave gladiator with strength 25, the highest possible in 2e.

3e really wussified them, giving them only a +2 to strength. They should have had +4 to +8, IMO. Yes, that would have made them nasty, but they were nasty in classic Dark Sun. They are supposed to be nasty. Part of the coolness of the setting, IMO, is the over the top PC power, balanced with the lethality and brutality of combat and the monsters you faced in the setting.

Xyxox · Mar 5, 2009

Dragonblade said:
Yep. Also, half-giants were originally magical creations of the sorcerer-kings for labor and military purposes. They magically combined humans and non-beast head giants. Half-giants now are their own race and can have children and so on. 3e really nerfed them, I thought. In 2e, a half-giant had +4 strength and if you had the slave gladiator kit you could get one more +1. One player in my group played a half-giant slave gladiator with strength 25, the highest possible in 2e.

3e really wussified them, giving them only a +2 to strength. They should have had +4 to +8, IMO. Yes, that would have made them nasty, but they were nasty in classic Dark Sun. They are supposed to be nasty. Part of the coolness of the setting, IMO, is the over the top PC power, balanced with the lethality and brutality of combat and the monsters you faced in the setting.

I had a long running 2E Dark Sun campign. I realy loved the setting.

Due to the lethality, I had every player roll up three different characters so they always had one prepared in case of death.