D&D 5E Storm giants and levitate

Can a storm giant actually levitate itself? By rule the spell only levitates one creature or object that ways less than 500 pounds. I think the giant goes over that by a smidge....

That’s why they ride rocs right?

As you say, by the rules they can't. Even if they did, what is 20 feet up for a storm giant? They probably use it to lift other things up to where they can be seen

I suspect the intent was for them to be able to levitate themselves, but by RAW, you are correct; they can't.

They levitate at the speed of plot. If you need them to, they do. Any player that has a problem with the way the spell works, they do not get the way giants in your campaign use magic.

Perhaps RAW would not allow it, but I suspect RAI would allow it. If we think about what that 500lb limit represents, it is basically short-hand for :you could lift something about twice as heavy as you." Most medium sized characters are in the 90lb - 300lb weight range. So that would put it on average around twice the weight of your average medium sized creature.

So if we follow that line of reasoning, the spell as cast by a larger creature, such as a Frost Giant, would likely still want it to function as it was intended to be used, which is to lift you to somewhere you cannot reach (I know, a rarity for a Storm Giant, but I'm sure in their Ice Castles they have those cupboards that give them issues). And I imagine if a Storm Giant casts levitate, they can lift themselves as well as anyone, and would probably have a far longer range of about 3-4 body lengths (as 20ft works out to about 3-4 body lengths for the average medium sized creature).

Since no players are ever going to be larger than Medium sized per the precedent that WotC seems to be keeping with, there would not need to be any rules more complex than a 500lb weight limit since that will encompass every possible player character. You don't need to calculate the distance in body lengths based on the caster's height because 20ft works as a good shorthand.

At least, that's how I see it.

trentonjoe said:

Can a storm giant actually levitate itself? By rule the spell only levitates one creature or object that ways less than 500 pounds. I think the giant goes over that by a smidge....

That’s why they ride rocs right?

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Well, rocs actually fly. Levitate's just a mime's elevator.

Storm giants probably have it because they've always had it, and maybe to pick up small objects cluttering their cloud castles - like adventures.

I’d say they use it to levitate objects nearer to them. For all that their homes will be built to their scale, the rest of the world isn’t. I’d say it was an ability they learned to help them negotiate their way around the Lilliputian scale of everything else.

Short people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8UVBgUd9GE
have no reason to read the big folk spell books and how big folk do real spells.

aco175 said:

They levitate at the speed of plot. If you need them to, they do. Any player that has a problem with the way the spell works, they do not get the way giants in your campaign use magic.

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Any player that has a problem with that can ask the giants to weigh themselves before casting the spell.