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.

 

[Salthorae]

But really, think about how huge Thanos or The Hulk is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Think about how gigantic those hands and fists and heads are. And then think, Thanos and The Hulk are basically just Ogre sized. Thanos is about 8' 2".

Why go that size? Because anything bigger and you start to have problems putting him into human context.

A 12' tall humanoid towers over Thanos or the Hulk.

You mean like... Ant-Man when he flips the switch and becomes Giant-Man instead? He was something like 40' tall or taller in those scenes where he grows giant.

They did a pretty good job depicting combat and scale for Giant-man vs. normal-sized people in those movies I thought.

Movies with Giant-Man: Civil War, Ant-Man 2, End Game

Just imagine basketball between a LeBron and a Hill Giant and you'll see what I mean.

And that's the small end giants.

And now I can think of nothing else...

On the plus side, LeBron would run circles around the hill giant, and probably get them to fall on their heads because hill giants are stupid.

 

[Celebrim]

Me, I look at those sizes, and think of the usual depictions seen for Jack and the Beanstalk...

40'-60' high? Jack's giant is usually outrageously big, and animated, and tends to change size from scene to to scene - whether he's animated or drawn. Granted, we don't know how tall Jack is, so its hard to tell, but then the physical size of the giant is usually unimportant to the story.

See also the actual size of Paul Bunyan, which varies by an order of magnitude between stories about him. One moment he's about twice the size of a man. The next moment his axe is gauging out the Grand Canyon.

....in which Jack is lucky if he comes up to the giant's knee, and rather often only comes up to the giant's ankle. That mythic referent...

Which sort of proves my point about how the physical reality of the giant tends to diminish the bigger that they are conceived. Great, now you have a giant suitable for children's stories. Much as fairy tales have a direct impact on my conceived fantasy, Jack's giant and the PC as Mickey Mouse or equivalent is precisely what I don't want.

 

[dave2008]

It's not only going to be twice as tall, it's probably going to be once you account for the need for more bone mass something like 10 to 12 times as heavy as a typical human.

But really, think about how huge Thanos or The Hulk is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Think about how gigantic those hands and fists and heads are. And then think, Thanos and The Hulk are basically just Ogre sized. Thanos is about 8' 2".

Why go that size? Because anything bigger and you start to have problems putting him into human context.

A 12' tall humanoid towers over Thanos or the Hulk. If a hill giant of them is a basketball center, the crown of their head is at the top of the backboard. They basically fill up the whole lane by themselves. A giant of a man like LeBron James leaping up to slam dunk the ball encounters a wall of living flesh. LeBron and similar NBA stars that tower over people, are diminished to childlike figures. Isn't that big enough if you want to imagine a melee combat between a mere mortal and a giant? Just imagine basketball between a LeBron and a Hill Giant and you'll see what I mean.

And that's the small end giants.

I get you. I posted in a little up thread about how big a 12' tall humanoid* is (I am also very familiar with the square-cube law of mass to height). My biggest issue with giant size is that they haven't increased the size of dragons to compensate (like they did in 2e)

I guess I just don't see your preference as much of a change. I assume giants (like humans) come in a range of sizes. If humans can be 5'-7' tall then a 5e Storm giant could reasonably be 22'- 30' tall. You preferred height falls basically within that range.

* And now I see you quoted me! Sorry - I read to quickly

 

[Celebrim]

You mean like... Ant-Man when he flips the switch and becomes Giant-Man instead? He was something like 40' tall or taller in those scenes where he grows giant.

They did a pretty good job depicting combat and scale for Giant-man vs. normal-sized people in those movies I thought.

Probably closer to 60'. Big for sure. In End Game, his final form is around 110'. The nice thing about being shape changing, is the artists have a good excuse for not drawing him the same scale in every scene.

But when Ant-Man is in that titan form, he's operating on such a different scale than the other characters that they general don't show direct combat between him and anyone else. Either he's destroying something his size, or everyone else is just trying to evade him. In the Civil War scene they end up doing the whole AT-AT thing to him, and the entire scene goes by without really a lot of direct interaction between him and anyone else. Instead, the interaction largely takes place through the intermediary of large objects.

Also, comic book. As well done as the MCU stuff is, we're still dealing with a medium where any sort of consistency or realism takes a back seat to visual impressions. How strong is Captain America? Exactly as strong as needed for this particular scene.

 

[Bitbrain]

It's not only going to be twice as tall, it's probably going to be once you account for the need for more bone mass something like 10 to 12 times as heavy as a typical human.

In my campaigns, the real world implications of the Square-Cube Law take a back seat and give control of the wheel over to “Rule of Cool Stupid Awesome”.

Why go that size? Because anything bigger and you start to have problems putting him into human context.

A 12' tall humanoid towers over Thanos or the Hulk...Isn't that big enough if you want to imagine a melee combat between a mere mortal and a giant?

Not really. I just ask my players if they’ve ever seen Attack on Titan season 1, or played Shadow of the Colossus.
Even if they haven’t, they still immediately understand just how small their PCs are in relation to the larger-sized monsters I throw at them.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Celebrim]

In my campaigns, the real world implications of the Square-Cube Law take a back seat and give control of the wheel over to “Rule of Cool Stupid Awesome”.

LOL. I get what you are saying, but...

Not really. I just ask my players if they’ve ever seen Attack on Titan season 1, or played Shadow of the Colossus. Even if they haven’t, they still immediately understand just how small their PCs are in relation to the larger-sized monsters I throw at them.

For that, I'd need a bigger rule book. Also, even more superhuman PCs.

 

[dave2008]

@Celebrim how does giant size “realism” vs damage bother you? By this I mean, to be dynamically similar to a human a 12’ tall giant should be approximately 8x as strong. Therefore, it should do about 8d8 damage instead of 2d8 damage. Does it bother you that giant monsters don’t do anything remotely close to “realistic” damage?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Wow, when a fire giant punches you with a forearm as big as your whole body, it really calls their Strength 25 into question. The must be moving incredibly slowly, in order for that much mass to result in that little destructive power.

 

[Lanefan]

@Celebrim how does giant size “realism” vs damage bother you? By this I mean, to be dynamically similar to a human a 12’ tall giant should be approximately 8x as strong. Therefore, it should do about 8d8 damage instead of 2d8 damage. Does it bother you that giant monsters don’t do anything remotely close to “realistic” damage?

The flip side of this is that, due to sheer scale, most Giants won't be able to attack nearly as quickly/frequently as PC-size people could; and so the reduced damage kind of evens it out (doing 2d8 more often instead of 8d8 not as often).

Works for me...

What doesn't work as well for me, and here I rather agree with Celebrim, is the up-scaling of Giants' sizes. I come from a 1e perspective, where Ogres are 9' tall, Hill Giants are 10-12' tall and it's about another foot or two in height for each gradation up from there. That's usually more than big enough to pose a threat (particularly if there's lots of 'em!); and if I need something bigger there's always Titans (which can be big enough to underpin entire mountain ranges, if needed), Elementals, or whatever I can dream up on my own.