D&D General Comparing Giant Sizes

Anders Johnson, a Swedish artist over on ArtStation, has an awesome image in which he compares the relative sizes of various D&D giants.

 

[Morrus]

The Jack/Beanstalk giant, as a kid, was pretty big in my head. People came up to its ankle or thereabouts. These days, my head canon has people coming up to its knee. So these aren't too far off for me.

 

[pukunui]

My biggest issue with giant size is that they haven't increased the size of dragons to compensate (like they did in 2e)

Didn't they increase the size of wyrmlings at least? They used to be Small but are now Medium.

I too prefer Hill giants to be large, not huge.

What's the point of having both ogres and hill giants if they're both going to be the same size? They both fill the "big dumb brute" roll ...

... and Giants are one opponent, among very few, that really should have forced-move effects on a hit, to reflect this)

Agreed. I tend to give my giants a knock-back effect on a hit.

That's what I'd see as a Cloud Titan or Elemental - it left Giant behind long ago.

Perhaps. Still, I was glad when they increased the size of giants for 5e.

 

[dave2008]

That's what I'd see as a Cloud Titan or Elemental - it left Giant behind long ago.

Isn’t that kinda how the Greeks thought of giants though? After all the Gigantes (Giants) are described as "These creatures were unsurpassed in the size of their bodies and unconquerable by virtue of their power. "

 

[Salthorae]

Isn’t that kinda how the Greeks thought of giants though? After all the Gigantes (Giants) are described as "These creatures were unsurpassed in the size of their bodies and unconquerable by virtue of their power. "

"Unless you have Platemail, a Great Sword and a Fireball... then you can conquer them."

- Newly discovered Ancient Greek translation of the post script.

 

[Salthorae]

When I think of the iconic storm giant, he is rising from the deep, a whole ship comparable in scale to his face!

Like this right?

 

[thealmightyn]

Even at the current 5e sizes I feel giants seem too small, just from the fantasy and mythological stories that I grew up with around them. In 3E/Pathfinder they're stupidly small. An ogre and a hill giant are not that far off from each other, which is dumb since they're both in the "giant" class with one being a "true" giant and the other being a "lesser" giant, I suppose? So how does that classification even work? Is it really that, what, one foot of size difference that bumps them into the higher category?

No, thank you. The huge size at least cements the threat they pose to a medium sized person. A 10' ogre is notably less intimidating than a big, fat 15' hill giant, but pretty much exactly the same as a 10.5' hill giant.

If you love smaller giants, cool... have fun with 'em! You keep your baby giants, and I'll keep my awesome ones.

 

[DWChancellor]

I like giants at any size. I'll just use them differently if they're reasonable (12-20') rather than mythological (20'+). The size of monsters has really gotten unmoored if you put yourself into your miniature's shoes.

Many wargames focus on big heavy units forming your core. Anime has all sorts of ridiculous size differentials for art purposes. Videogames...

Add to it that most of us don't work with any real scale in our daily life (I don't at least, mostly sit at a desk). If you don't get out much or work with large animals you have to boost table presence hugely to "get a feeling."

One thing I like about theater of the mind. Size stretches to match everyone's mental image and only reach scale is really important.

 

[DWChancellor]

I should probably mention your mileage with giants varies tremendously with your table.

When I've got miniatures and Dwarven Forge set up, the more recent huge-category giants have incredible presence. They're terrifying and only the bravest, most prepared, and dumbest medium-sized NPCs would be willing to stand in their way.

The "merely" large sized giants are just meat for the experience thresher. Not particularly more threatening than mounted cavalry or bears.

If you try to table-up some of the epic sized suggestions here, you'd have the recent Baldurs Gate "miniature" statue versus normal sized miniatures. Makes the oliphants from LOTR puny in comparison.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, I gotta admit, when you plunk down a mini that takes up that much space, you definitely make the party stand up and pay attention.

Count me in on the "bigger is better" team. Thankfully we're past the days of 42 hp giants dropping like flies to a couple of fireball spells.

 

[Shiroiken]

Honestly, It wouldn't matter if I saw 21' tall or a 24' tall Cloud Giant, I'd never be able to tell the difference.

Nor I, as my shorts would be full either way!