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

[pming]

Hiya!

One of the "not normal" races I allowed a Player to choose was a Goliath Barbarian named Bearkiller. Typical stereotype; big, dumb, strong. He is the highest leveled character to have ever graced our 5e game since we started playing it when the Starter Box came out; he managed to reach the lofty level of "7th" before he got the two most unlucky draws of the Deck of Many Things (simultaneously Donjon and Void! O_O ).

At one time he was under a curse for a good number of sessions (months in game time) where he was surrounded by a constant rain cloud over head, and even got rained on in 'large rooms'! Oddly enough (or rather ...not...?) he didn't seem to mind much. Everyone around him? Not so happy about the soggy state of things! But at least he was always getting a shower after every fight!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Hexmage-EN]

If no one is playing goliaths why are they one of the few races introduced in 3.5 that appeared in 4E and 5E? Does someone at WotC just really like goliaths?

I will say their default lore is kind of hard to fit into a generic fantasy world. The entire race is dominated by nomads who live on mountain peaks? That's pretty specific.

In Critical Role, at least, Mercer introduced goliaths in the first campaign as being more along the lines of how D&D proper describes them (a nomadic people who live in the mountains), but in the second has had, for example, a female goliath who runs a magic item shop in a major city and a male goliath who is the leader of sea piracy in the region.

 

[Mannahnin]

In case it hasn't been mentioned yet, Goliaths as a PC race appear in Rime of the Frostmaiden (tucked into the Creatures appendix).

They are also tied into the plot, with villages they can come from, NPCs they can be related to, and problems which are personal.

Which really answers the question. If you want PCs to play goliaths, or any of the many other PC lineages beyond the PHB, you need to tie them into the story/setting.

Yep. I'm playing in RotF right now, and we have a Goliath Barbarian in the party. He's great.

 

[the Jester]

I've had goliath pcs in my game in both 4e and 5e, though not lots of them. I think they are more rare because they are not in the PH and because they don't really fill an empty niche- the 'strong guy' race has several contenders already.

 

[jmartkdr2]

If no one is playing goliaths why are they one of the few races introduced in 3.5 that appeared in 4E and 5E? Does someone at WotC just really like goliaths?

I will say their default lore is kind of hard to fit into a generic fantasy world. The entire race is dominated by nomads who live on mountain peaks? That's pretty specific.

In Critical Role, at least, Mercer introduced goliaths in the first campaign as being more along the lines of how D&D proper describes them (a nomadic people who live in the mountains), but in the second has had, for example, a female goliath who runs a magic item shop in a major city and a male goliath who is the leader of sea piracy in the region.

I understand that they're actually pretty popular for a non-core race. (Critical Role plays a part, but they made it into 4e because they went over well in 3e.) But no one plays enough games to really get a sample of how the whole community plays, so OP isn't seeing any

 

[Weiley31]

Cuz there's no Gargoyle lineage in 5E.

I'll see myself out.

 

[Andras]

I've looked at them a few times in 5e but have not yet been convinced to give it a go yet.

Now in 3rd, after RoS came out I played a Goliath Bar/F with Mountain Rage alternate racial ability, so that when he raged, he actually became Large sized for all purposes.

Pair that with the Fighter ACF Dungeon Crasher which, after taking it in place of the 2nd and 6th level fighter feats, allowed you to do 8d6+3x Str if you bullrushed someone into a wall.

Now use the feat chain that let you bullrush someone after you hit them with a weapon, power attack for bonuses on the bullrush str check, and use a 20ft reach weapon with multiple AoOs, any one that moved more then 5ft got smashed into a wall for a total of 10d6+4.5xStr, and then I got my own attacks.

I called him Tang, 'cause that's the sound his weapon makes when he hit opponents.

 

[Markh3rd]

We have several goliaths in our AL Rime of the Frostmaiden game. I'm playing a Goliath Rune Knight, the other is playing a Goliath Glory paladin, and the other group has a Goliath Druid (not sure which kind).

I will say, being able to reduce damage via the racial, combined with second wind, combined with the damage redirect of cloud rune, combined with the damage reduction of heavy armor master, combined with hill giant rune that grants resistance to b/p/s makes for a beefy fighter lol.

 

[see]

Isn't playing a goliath just asking to be killed by a bard armed with a sling?

 

[Eltab]

Isn't playing a goliath just asking to be killed by a bard armed with a sling?

I kinda had that experience (see my post on Page 1)
and I recommend that attack be the one when you use the racial damage reduction.