D&D General Brobdingnag

[Indagare Nogitsune]

Inspired by the small setting thread I got to thinking about the opposite. A setting where the players are all giants. The setting itself would be just as gigantic. As a size comparison, I have a table of giants from different settings below (yes, I'm aware Hill Giants and Fire Giants are different sizes in different places).

Mountain Giant	14 feet (4.3 meters)
Hill Giant	16 feet (4.9 meters)
Reef Giant	16 feet (4.9 meters)
Desert Giant	17 feet (5.2 meters)
Fire Giant	18 feet (5.5 meters)
Stone Giant	18 feet (5.5 meters)
Forest Giant	18 feet (5.5 meters)
Jungle Giant	18 feet (5.5 meters)
Frost Giant	21 feet (6.4 meters)
Ocean Giant	22 feet (6.7 meters)
Cloud Giant	24 feet (7.3 meters)
Fog Giant	24 feet (7.3 meters)
Storm Giant	26 feet (7.9 meters)

The main thing to keep in mind is that Medium species range from 4 to 8 feet in height, so the Giants are about three times that: 12 to 24 feet with the Storm Giants being a bit outside it. This means that animals and plants in this type of setting would be resized to match, at about three times their base size. Of course, this would be a pretty rugged setting, perhaps like Ysgard.

I'm not sure how the size categories would work, since Large is 8 to 16 feet, and Huge is 16 to 32 feet so would Large be the new small?

Thoughts?

 

[Tonguez]

if everything is big including the common creatures encountered and the environment around them then havent you you really just shifted Medium to the taller numbers ? (ie Medium x 4 = 16' to 32 ft.)

I'd think the fun of being big protagonist is that the world around you is 'normal' sized and you are able to do things like pulling trees from the ground to use as clubs, flinging boulders and knocking down castle walls as standard.
You still get challenged by things that are too small for you to enter easily and Medium sized creatures can still be a threat en masse, and theres always other large and gargantuan creatures around to provide a challenging fight

 

[Umbran]

If everything is bigger, then what's the point of the exercise?

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

if everything is big including the common creatures encountered and the environment around them then havent you you really just shifted Medium to the taller numbers ? (ie Medium x 4 = 16' to 32 ft.)

I'd think the fun of being big protagonist is that the world around you is 'normal' sized and you are able to do things like pulling trees from the ground to use as clubs, flinging boulders and knocking down castle walls as standard.
You still get challenged by things that are too small for you to enter easily and Medium sized creatures can still be a threat en masse, and theres always other large and gargantuan creatures around to provide a challenging fight

nods This is why I'm looking for advice. While playing as a giant seems exciting, it's a bit problematic in other regards.

It'd certainly be fun to do a lot of the "Hulk smash!" stuff as a giant, but much less fun to come across a dungeon you literally can't fit into.

Different sized opponents are certainly going to be a challenge as well. Dragons and giants, for instance, have a known rivalry in some cases. But, as you point out, even smaller beings can pose a challenge en masse.

If everything is bigger, then what's the point of the exercise?

Trying to figure out how to make a world where the PCs are giants exciting and challenging.

 

[overgeeked]

It’ll be way easier to adjust the PCs’ stats rather than everything else, so having giant PCs with giant stats just works easier.

You could push the Gulliver’s Travels theme and read or re-read the book and pluck out anything that looks fun. Mix and match the locations. A Brobdingnagian in Lilliput could be fun. The Little-Endian vs Big-Endian feud could spill over. Maybe the Yahoos and Houyhnhnms show up.

Flipping the script and having a group of medium-sized adventurers invade the giant’s domain could be fun.

There’s lots of easy faction play to be had between the giant clans. The 5E giant book is a decent primer.

If nothing else, look at old giant-based modules and use those. Either straight the PCs are a rival giant clan out to stop the other giants or flip it so the PCs are the giants from the module.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The thread title gives it away. The point of Brobdingnag is that the protagonist, Lemuel Gulliver, is not a giant. If everything is a giant, giant is just medium sized. Just as if everyone is small, that is medium sized (as in Lilliput before Gulliver arrives). "Giant" and "small" are defined relative to your viewpoint character(s) - the PCs in D&D.

 

[Tonguez]

Some considerations of having Giant PCs

Str +4 Con +2
Spd 40

Racial Traits - should Giant PCs get them?
Elemental Resistance (choose one)
Elemental Affinity (Fire, Ice, Storm, Earth etc)
Special attacks - Rock throwing, Shove, Trample, Smash

1. Large creatures stand 10 to 15 ft tall and occupy 10 feet by 10 feet of space. You have more reach in melee and can block a 10x10 corridor but you have Disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws while in spaces less than 10 feet by 10 feet. (so you could try to navigate a 5x5 dungeon but it will be difficult terrain (squeezing) and impose disadvantaged- so as a DM use 10x10 0r larger dungeons and 5x5 as a hazard) (Huge creatures occupy 15x15 space and stand up to 20 ft tall - personally Id stick to Large giant PCs only)
2. Weapons designed for Medium creatures are considered improvised for you, so only do 1d4 damage plus your Strength modifier. However You can wield weapons with the Heavy property without disadvantage.
3. Large Weapons do double damage when weilded by a large giant (as per Enlarge spell its w+1d4 damage), you can use Huge weapons which do 3x damage
4. Your size makes you a bigger target. (imc Giants are also less nimble than smaller races so disadvantage on dodge and acrobatics)

Environment

1. Besides narrow corridors other environment hazards include collapsing bridges and floors due to increased weight, as well as generally breaking stuff that you bump or step on.
2. Giants are big and loud so trying to find cover and use stealth is difficult

Social Interaction

1. Finding accommodation and transport is much harder
2. Smaller races are inherently frightened of you (intimidation advantage, but persuasion disadvantage?)

Food and Sleep

1. IMC giants must sleep longer than medium species (12 hours for large, 16 hours for Huge)
2. Giants do eat more than medium species - however imc Giants have slower metabolisms and so have to eat less often - ie they'll eat in one meal the same as a human does in one day but that is the only meal they need, the rest of the time they are slowly digesting (this partly explains why they sleep longer and why they are less motile)

Special Abilities

• Rock Throw (Large): You can throw a rock 30/90 feet as a ranged weapon attack dealing 2d6 + Str bludgeon damage.
• Creature Toss (Large): As an action, you can grapple a Medium or smaller creature. If you succeed, you can use a bonus action to toss the creature up to 10 feet away, dealing 1d6 + Strength modifier bludgeoning damage and knocking it prone. A willing creature can opt to be tossed and make a Dex save to take no damage.
• Shove (Large): As an action, you can shove a creature within 5 feet of you. If you succeed, you can push the target 10 feet away or knock it prone.
• Trample (Large): As part of your movement, you can move through the space of a Medium or smaller creature, forcing it to make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 2d6 + Strength modifier bludgeoning damage and is knocked prone.
• Smash (Large): As an action, you can make a melee attack against an object or structure, dealing double damage to it.

 

[Stormonu]

Might want to throw Ogres in as the "small" sized race of Giants. Large effectively becomes the new "Small", Huge becomes "Medium" and sort of work up from there. The question becomes do you want to rejigger and shift the whole game to the new sizes (sort of like how Humblewood handles things) or wrestle with the extra HD and such for the larger sizes and either adjust starting level or somehow factor in CR + level for the giant characters.

This seems very much along the lines of the old Council of Wyrms campaign - though there the players were dragons, not giants. However, giants were one of the main antagonists in that campaign. I'd love to see Council redone in a way that is playable with the 5E D&D rules, and it should lend itself to the issue of PC giants and/or scaling any other creature/race that doesn't fit the power scale of a Medium-sized Humanoid.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I agree that if you're playing giants you should still be bigger than everyone else.

But for some reason I think this would combine well with a prehistoric setting like Planegea. Giants + lower tech feels thematically right.

Edit to add: also, I think you'd need to do a lot of homebrewing (or find some online) to make giants into workable pc races. And to make them balanced against each other.