D&D 5E Why does no one play Goliath?

[Salamandyr]

They're not human.

Rename em Suel or Aesir or Cimmerian and I'll play them every time.

Playing a man who is mighty as a bear is pretty cool. Playing a bear who is mighty as a bear is considerably less cool.

 

[pukunui]

One of the players in my Tyranny of Dragons campaign is playing a goliath druid with a bear theme. FWIW.

 

[Tallifer]

The Goliath race was very popular for players who played Fighters and Barbarians in our old 4E campaigns. Not only did the mechanics work well, but the fluff was appropriate. We have just recently felt compelled to switch to 5E, so we shall see.

 

[Tallifer]

There is nothing mythic or legendary about a goliath. In mythology, Goliath was just a really big guy. A human guy.

I and the other players whom I have seen play Goliaths roleplay them based on such stories as Golfannon the smith, a Sidh giant from Michael Moorcock's Bull and Spear series, or Andre the Giant's half-giant. However we have all enjoyed and included the fluff about a stone-based race with bits of stone sticking out of their skin: very elemental and exotic.

As for Goliath in the Bible, although orthodox hermeneutics would deduce that he is a gigantic man, more imaginative interpretations have occurred over the millennia, including the idea that he was descended from the wayward Nephilim, the "sons of God" who were "giants in the earth in those days." The recent Noah movie went full-on fantasy with that.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I've DMed for 30+ and played with another 20+ different people over the past year and no one even considers rolling up a Goliath. Before I inject my own preconceptions/prejudices, I'd like to hear why others think they are so rarely played.

1. They're not in the core rules, so players probably assume they can't play one unless the DM explicitly allows it.
2. They're not endemic to fantasy, so players probably wouldn't even consider it as an option unless the DM explicitly presents it as such.
3. Many people consider them a little cheesy and non-D&D. Also they were mostly a 4e thing. These two statements may or may not be related.
4. Nobody knows what the hell a goliath is, unless they've read one of three esoteric D&D supplements.

 

[The Human Target]

There are Goliath's in 5e?

In 3e/4e we have a guy who's played a couple.

 

[sydbar]

There aren't a whole lot of well known goliath characters out there, other than Grog from Critical Role. The goliath is one of those races that don't fit well into most fantasy worlds, and not being core means that many dm's won't allow them.

 

[pukunui]

There are Goliath's in 5e?

They're in the Elemental Evil Player's Companion.

 

[Mephista]

I think its primarily the fact that we have the race in an odd place, and we are spoiled for choices when it comes to big strong manly races. I disagree with the idea that there's no fantasy equivalent to the goliath - goliath are just a renamed half-giant race. Maybe if they had a Large size instead of Medium, they'd be more attractive as somethign that stood out, but as it is, they just kind of blend in with the crowd in 5e.

 

[Ganymede81]

They're not human.

Rename em Suel or Aesir or Cimmerian and I'll play them every time.

Playing a man who is mighty as a bear is pretty cool. Playing a bear who is mighty as a bear is considerably less cool.

I'm surprised they didn't just resurrect the Firbolg as a player race. They could have simply ported over everything thematic about the Goliath without having them awkwardly named after a Hebrew villain.