Giants in the Earth

Hearkening back to the earliest issues of Dragon Magazine, there was the Giants in the Earth column with AD&D versions of favorite fantasy characters from fiction. I've always liked a tiny smattering of Alternate Prime Material Planes adventures and cameos from my favorite heroes and heroines.

Does anyone else like to haul out a fantasy favorite for an appearance in their homebrew campaigns? Has anyone developed 5E versions of their faves? Any anecdotes about recent party interactions with these 'Giants in the Earth' type NPCs?

I'm launching a homebrew in a week or two and am already thinking about guest appearances. I'll probably settle on just a few - it's easy to overdo this sort of thing and has to be handled carefully. One doesn't want the party to acquire Stormbringer after all.

I've been watching a lot of Xena lately, while not a literary heroine, Xena is an great fantasy figure on par with any hero out of a novel. She'd be a fun one - Strength and Dexterity both above 20, probably Constitution as well, the Chakram is a nice ranged magic weapon. Xena is a high level fighter, but has the skills of a monk (tell me 'the pinch' isn't a lot like the Quivering Palm) and, well, Xena has 'many skills.'

So who has made or might make an appearance in your campaign?

I used to toss an artifact into my campaigns from time to time called "The Horn of Heroes" which could be used three times to summon a mighty hero to help the party for a limited amount of time. The fun part was the party never knew what they were gonna get. One time they got The Tick, another time Commander Worf. If it seemed like things were going too easy on them with the extra help, I would add the caveat that the horn also brought along some archenemy of the hero who would show up at some point.

Anyways, just an idea of how you could introduce various heroic figures into the game.

That sounds fun. Klingons would make a great D&D race.

A lot of times the heroes we love don't turn out to be, in game terms, all they were in the books. For instance, I remember seeing a version of Gandalf in which he is about a 5th level fighter and maybe a 7th level magic user, +1 sword, with a moderately powered magic staff and ring. Not shabby, but definitely not anything extraordinary.