D&D (2024) D&D Monster Manual (2025)

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Is the Ordning interesting? It was just a racial caste system that basically said “the higher CR giant types are also higher ranked in giant society.” The most interesting thing 5e did with it was get rid of it (Storm King’s Thunder).

Well, having a giant society is interesting. I remember picking up the G series modules as they came out and beyond frost giants being vaguely Nordic, there wasn't really any sense of how these folks lived or how they fit together as a community, beyond the fact that they don't normally work together. (The G series is really light on background and lore, even for adventures of the time.)

A caste system isn't the most interesting place one could take giants, but at least it takes giants somewhere. And it's better than the woo-woo "cloud giants are into philosophy and illusions" thing which doesn't seem particularly interesting or well-articulated in the books I've read. (I don't own Storm King's Thunder or Bigby's Big Book of Giants, which seem like they might explain more.)

 

[Parmandur]

To be honest, because of how it was presented in the 2014 MM, I had assumed the Ordning wasn't just FR-specific. I mean, there's no Ordning in Eberron that I'm aware of, but I had assumed that other settings like Greyhawk used it as well. Apparently not?

It was introduced in a 2E FR game product, Giantcraft, and some novels by Troy Denning, then brought back in 2014 for the MM and eventually Storm King's Thunder.

It is also back in Bigby's, still.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

The Ordning featured heavily in Bigby's, so making it setting-specific again would be a significant about face (though I'd be fine with it).

 

[Parmandur]

The Ordning featured heavily in Bigby's, so making it setting-specific again would be a significant about face (though I'd be fine with it).

Bigby's is a Setting specific book. Metasetting, granted, but it is basically a Setting expansion.

 

[Chaltab]

Honestly kind of glad it's setting specific because I really prefer to do my own thing with giants. In my setting there's a section of the largest city called Giant Town which is exactly what it sounds like. Everything from the hot dog vendors to the towers are bigger. It's like a little fragment of Coruscant.

Also the gnome PC in the party was a former police officer and her partner on the force was a frost giant because I just love that mental image.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The Ordning  is mentioned in the 2025 MM, in a quote by Bigby in the Fomorian entry. So it apparently hasn't been discarded yet.

 

[Parmandur]

The Ordning  is mentioned in the 2025 MM, in a quote by Bigby in the Fomorian entry. So it apparently hasn't been discarded yet.

Yeah, it just isn't detailed heavily.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I'm skipping ahead a lot with this, but apparently Ogres now spring forth from the earth due to supernatural evil influences. I think that's the first bit of new lore that I'm just going to ignore. There's no mention of a supernatural origin for ettins, BTW.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm skipping ahead a lot with this, but apparently Ogres now spring forth from the earth due to supernatural evil influences. I think that's the first bit of new lore that I'm just going to ignore. There's no mention of a supernatural origin for ettins, BTW.

These kinds of changes make it very hard for me to see this as the same game as 2014 5e, no matter what they say or how similar the math is.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

These kinds of changes make it very hard for me to see this as the same game as 2014 5e, no matter what they say or how similar the math is.

I do not take lore into the equation of the “is it a new edition” debate.