D&D 5E Why are 5E Giants Huge size?

[Voadam]

Thanks for the post Voadam.

5E Giants seem on par with that illustration from Basic D&D.
1E scaled them down.
2E scaled them back up.
3E scaled them down again.
4E kept them scaled down...but added the titans.
5E scaled them back up but removed the titans.

To keep the chronology straight remember that B/X (the picture and giant stats are from the Cook Expert set) came after 1e.

Also the size categories change across editions, 1e only had S, M, L, 0e and B/X did not have size categories. 4e only provides size category in the MMs without a feet description, and 5e has size categories for most monsters, but helpfully a size chart in feet for giants specifically. Some editions do size categories specifics differently too.

Hill giants
0e 12'
1e 10.5'
X 12'
2e 16' H
3.5 10.5 L
4e L
5e 16 H

Stone Giant
0e 15'
1e 12'
X 14'
2e 18' H
3.5 12' L
4e L
5e 18' H

Frost Giant
0e 18'
1e 15'
X 18'
2e 21' H
3.5 15' L
4e L
5e 21' H

Fire Giant
0e 12'
1e 12' L
X 16
2e 18' H
3.5 12' L
4e L
5e 18 H

Cloud Giant
0e 20'
1e 18' L
X 20'
2e 24' H
3.5 18' H
4e
5e 24' H

Storm Giant
0e (GH) 24'
1e 21' L
X 22'
2e 26' G
3.5 21' H
4e L
5e 26' H

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Thanks very much Urriak, very helpful.

The Snurre encounter looks like CR 22 ish (off the top of my head) which isn't too bad, but its notable they only have 3 Fire Giants in the encounter. Wonder is there any in the whole adventure where you can face 4 or more?

As @Parmandur references in that art piece he provided, there are a few encounters with many fire giants at once. In total, there are 105 Fire Giants across the dungeon... which is a lot, but it's also an adventure for level 12 PCs, which are pretty dang tough.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Thanks again Voadam.

To keep the chronology straight remember that B/X (the picture and giant stats are from the Cook Expert set) came after 1e.

Also the size categories change across editions, 1e only had S, M, L, 0e and B/X did not have size categories. 4e only provides size category in the MMs without a feet description, and 5e has size categories for most monsters, but helpfully a size chart in feet for giants specifically. Some editions do size categories specifics differently too.

Hill giants
0e 12'
1e 10.5'
X 12'
2e 16' H
3.5 10.5 L
4e L
5e 16 H

Stone Giant
0e 15'
1e 12'
X 14'
2e 18' H
3.5 12' L
4e L
5e 18' H

Frost Giant
0e 18'
1e 15'
X 18'
2e 21' H
3.5 15' L
4e L
5e 21' H

Fire Giant
0e 12'
1e 12' L
X 16
2e 18' H
3.5 12' L
4e L
5e 18 H

Cloud Giant
0e 20'
1e 18' L
X 20'
2e 24' H
3.5 18' H
4e
5e 24' H

Storm Giant
0e (GH) 24'
1e 21' L
X 22'
2e 26' G
3.5 21' H
4e L
5e 26' H

Averages:
Hill Giant = 12' (using 10' for 4e)
Stone Giant = 14' (using 12' for 4e)
Frost Giant = 17' (using 13' for 4e)
Fire Giant = 14' (using 11' for 4e)
Cloud Giant = 19' (using 14' for 4e)
Storm Giant = 22' (using 15' for 4e)

 

[Parmandur]

Not sure if anyone knows where to find it, but James Wyatt certainly must have covered the Giants in his Wandering Monsters series during D&D Next, when they were testing the generic Bible for D&D 5E monster type by monster type.

 

[Upper_Krust]

As @Parmandur references in that art piece he provided, there are a few encounters with many fire giants at once. In total, there are 105 Fire Giants across the dungeon... which is a lot, but it's also an adventure for level 12 PCs, which are pretty dang tough.

Effective firepower of a Group of four Level 12 PCs is approx. CR 21 (rising to 22 for five PCs).

1 Fire Giant = CR 9
2 Fire Giants = CR 16
3 Fire Giants = CR 21
4 Fire Giants = CR 22
5 Fire Giants = CR 23
6 Fire Giants = CR 24
7 Fire Giants = CR 26
8 Fire Giants = CR 27
9 Fire Giants = CR 27.5
10 Fire Giants = CR 28
11 Fire Giants = CR 30

Individually each PC should be just about a match for 1 fire giant. Obviously tactics and teamwork could swing things but you have to think 6 or 7 and you are staring at a TPK.

 

[Parmandur]

Effective firepower of a Group of four Level 12 PCs is approx. CR 21 (rising to 22 for five PCs).

1 Fire Giant = CR 9
2 Fire Giants = CR 16
3 Fire Giants = CR 21
4 Fire Giants = CR 22
5 Fire Giants = CR 23
6 Fire Giants = CR 24
7 Fire Giants = CR 26
8 Fire Giants = CR 27
9 Fire Giants = CR 27.5
10 Fire Giants = CR 28
11 Fire Giants = CR 30

Individually each PC should be just about a match for 1 fire giant. Obviously tactics and teamwork could swing things but you have to think 6 or 7 and you are staring at a TPK.

Think of those more like guidelines.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Think of those more like guidelines.

Absolutely, but it gives us a nice ballpark to practice at.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Effective firepower of a Group of four Level 12 PCs is approx. CR 21 (rising to 22 for five PCs).

1 Fire Giant = CR 9
2 Fire Giants = CR 16
3 Fire Giants = CR 21
4 Fire Giants = CR 22
5 Fire Giants = CR 23
6 Fire Giants = CR 24
7 Fire Giants = CR 26
8 Fire Giants = CR 27
9 Fire Giants = CR 27.5
10 Fire Giants = CR 28
11 Fire Giants = CR 30

Individually each PC should be just about a match for 1 fire giant. Obviously tactics and teamwork could swing things but you have to think 6 or 7 and you are staring at a TPK.

Now I'm confused... are you advocating for making Fire Giants weaker? I don't believe level 12 pcs should be able to curbstomp a whole clan of Fire Giants!

 

[Upper_Krust]

Not sure if anyone knows where to find it, but James Wyatt certainly must have covered the Giants in his Wandering Monsters series during D&D Next, when they were testing the generic Bible for D&D 5E monster type by monster type.

Those articles all seem to have been deleted. I checked several.

 

[Parmandur]

Those articles all seem to have been deleted. I checked several.

Yeah, they are not on Wizards site anymore, but there must be somewhere they can be found in the wayback machine or something.