D&D 5E (2014) Goliath/Half-Giant - A Race Suggestion for D&D Next

[Stormonu]

I too would like to see a half-giant/half-ogre/troll-blooded (in the Norse sense) character show up in D&D next.

 

[TwinBahamut]

(Broken record...) I like how Fantasy Craft did their races. They include both Giant and Ogre as PC races. The biggest reason they work however, is that the core system removed the Size = better combat (Atk/Dam) problem that d20 had.

Large creature's STR being better than other races is represented more as the ability to carry/lift more rather than bonuses to attacks & damage. Thus a STR 14 giant fighter is equivalent in attack/damage modifiers as a human fighter with the same STR. However, the giant can lift/carry 5 times as much and has other benefits (and penalties) due to their size.

This certainly would work well. The whole double bonus/penalty thing for size differences is just redundant and hurts the game. At the same time, it is better for game balance and variety to do things this way, rather than through giving big creatures innately higher strength and small creatures innately lower strength.

This is especially true considering that, under real world physics, things become relatively weaker as they get bigger, rather than stronger...

 

[shadow]

I would love to see a half-giant race in the core rules. I remember an early Dragon Magazine featuring an "half-ogre" race. (In my homebrew half-ogres are a playable race, replacing the half-orcs.)

Also half-giants are a fairly common archetype in fantasy fiction. (Remember Hagrid from the Harry Potter series?) The books should include rules to play them. I agree with the OP saying that the Goliaths are a little weird; I would rather have a more "generic" half-giant/half-ogre PC race present in the core books.