Giants: How big should they be in an a Fantasy RPG?

[Klaus]

That's WAY too much of a pain in the butt. The game is based on a particular scale and messing with that scale just for one creature type is a bad idea IMO.

As far as boots and stuff to make the room more tactically interesting, that's not really my point. 4 Huge creatures need rooms about 60x60 (12x12) squares to be able to have enough room for 4-6 PC's and the creatures. At a minimum, you cannot go below 30x30. That means that your battle map and your tabletop better be pretty darn big to handle combats.

It's the physical issues that become a problem. It's fine for dragons and a few other creatures because most huge and bigger creatures aren't fighting in groups. But, a group of fire giants isn't all that out of left field. It's a pretty reasonable encounter. A dungeon with, say, 16 fire giants, would need to be extremely big - all corridors are 15 feet wide, all rooms are massive.

The cartography would have an awful lot of blank space for something like that. All IMO of course.

The game is based on 1 inch = 5 feet. Change the relation and presto!, it's done.

For instance, just change it to be 0.5 inch = 5 feet, and print out a grid with the appropriate marking, and you're done.

 

[frankthedm]

It took a half a decade and an entire edition, but wotc is upgrading giants in size.

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum)

 

[Corathon]

Wow, old thread - and I'm not going to read it all, so maybe I'll just be repeating what someone else wrote already...

IMO, the assumption that all large creatures are about the same size, despite their being a factor of 2 range in sizes (and thus about 8 in weights) leads to the idea that large giants aren't significantly bigger than an ogre or a troll. In "reality" a 9' ogre is a runt compared to a 15' frost giant.

 

[Yora]

I think they were already a big too large in 3rd Edition. We're not just talking about height, but also about mass.
A creature that is 12 feet high is eight times as big as a human. And given their proportions, you get closer to twelve times. That's massive.

At 22 feet, you're at about four times the height of the average human or elf and also at about 90 times the mass. About the mass of two grown african elephants. Humans would be reaching just to their knees. That's waaaay too big.

http://wrathofzombie.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/storm-giant.jpg
In this picture, the fire giant is about 10 feet tall and the frost giant maybe 13. That storm giant is about 18 feet. As the size for the smallest giants, that's way too much.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

I let the size of my miniatures decide.

 

[delericho]

Ogres should probably stand around 8-9 feet tall.

The smallest true giants, then, should stand around 10-11 feet tall. And, indeed, most giants should be in the Large scale (or whatever the 5e equivalent is), as these tend to be the most useful in play.

However, I see no reason to have any upper limit at all - if the DM doesn't want giants at 22 feet (or whatever), it's simple enough for him simply not to use them.

 

[Yora]

Just for reference: These are about 12 feet.

At 20 feet, we're talking more about something like this.

 

[DnD_Dad]

If you want a huge giant why not use a Titan?

 

[am181d]

The giants in faerie tales are generally big enough to hold someone in their hand. Maybe 60 feet?

It seems to me like the biggest giants (the Cloud and Storm giants) should be that big, but I understand that this is not a commonly held belief.

Thankfully, the universe invented He-Man action figures, so I don't explicitly NEED miniatures.

 

[frankthedm]

Just for reference: At 20 feet, we're talking more about something like this.

OK! Now we are talking. That is a what a typical D&D giant ought to be IMHO. No weird skin tones, no bizzare bodytype and big enough that you might be eye level to it's kneecap. Maybe he's a bit too cut and defined, but fantasy art is no stranger to fanservice.

On the other hand the current warhammer giant's lankyness kinda fits for a older giant with atrophying muscles and a large ale gut.

Note: I'd say it looks closer to 25'+, if the victim is around 6'.

If you want a huge giant why not use a Titan?

{3.5 Thinking}Because players should not need to be near epic levels just to fight a huge giant. Nor should a bunch of spell like abilities be a prerequisite for a giant to be huge.