D&D General How do you use giants in your game?

[Stormonu]

They exist in my world, but in 18 years, I think they've shown up once. I feel if you have them anywhere local to where small folk live, they're going to have to naturally dominate the area around them, with at least an implicit threat.

So I mostly have them existing waaaaaay off the western edge of the map, in lands of their own. Some may wander east for various reasons, but there aren't big societies of them locally.

This has been the way of things for me as well. I remember an encounter I did back in 3E with a wandering Storm Giant who gave others gifts for solving his riddles, but I can't think of any other time I've used a humanoid larger than an Ogre in an adventure.

They are semi important in the mythical parts of the various campaign worlds I've made, I've just never brought them on-stage in encounters. Always seems there's something "more interesting" I can pit the party against, rather than towering humanoids that throw rocks.

That said, I think I've enjoyed the recent Bigby giant book more than Fizban's dragon book - and I love a good dragon.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Honestly, I'm of the mind that the core isn't where you put specific themed stuff. But it's the way they try to make every book contained fragments of things a player or DM would want instead of doing whole books with a theme is to blame here.

It'd be really cool if we had a Large and In Charge book, an Elemental Powers book, a Sad Lovecraft Ripoff book, etc full of player options.

Plenty of fey stuff in the 5.5 core though.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That would actually totally rock, even if the grognards would start darkly muttering the hated term "splatbook". Honestly, I'll say it now, I never hated splatbooks - I kind of loved splatbooks. I bought loads of splatbooks, and if they were cool, I'd do it again!

I love splatbooks! I don't think disliki g them is a grognard thing. Plenty of people (not me) approved of 5e's super slow product rollout, for example.

 

[Vaalingrade]

That would actually totally rock, even if the grognards would start darkly muttering the hated term "splatbook". Honestly, I'll say it now, I never hated splatbooks - I kind of loved splatbooks. I bought loads of splatbooks, and if they were cool, I'd do it again!

Aside from the 4e DMG1, I don't think any non-splatbook is in my top 25 D&D books of all time.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Plenty of fey stuff in the 5.5 core though.

I'd move them to splats too and let the core be a baseline for the game.

 

[Emerikol]

I think the giants have gotten taller in the new editions. Is this true?

AD&D
Hill giant 10.5' tall 8HD+1-2hp
Stone giant 12' tall 9HD+1-3hp
Frost giant 15' tall 10HD+1-4hp
Fire giant 12' tall 11HD+2-5hp
Cloud giant 18' tall 12HD+2-7hp
Storm giant 21' tall 15HD+2-7hp

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the giants have gotten taller in the new editions. Is this true?

AD&D
Hill giant 10.5' tall 8HD+1-2hp
Stone giant 12' tall 9HD+1-3hp
Frost giant 15' tall 10HD+1-4hp
Fire giant 12' tall 11HD+2-5hp
Cloud giant 18' tall 12HD+2-7hp
Storm giant 21' tall 15HD+2-7hp

Better nutrition and health care, I believe, are the traditional reasons given.

 

[Lanefan]

I think the giants have gotten taller in the new editions. Is this true?

AD&D
Hill giant 10.5' tall 8HD+1-2hp
Stone giant 12' tall 9HD+1-3hp
Frost giant 15' tall 10HD+1-4hp
Fire giant 12' tall 11HD+2-5hp
Cloud giant 18' tall 12HD+2-7hp
Storm giant 21' tall 15HD+2-7hp

Possibly. What they have certainly become in the newer editions is tougher and meaner, which they badly needed as the 1e versions (particularly post-UA) were far too spindly.

A Frost Giant would average 58 h.p., rounding up. A specialized mid-level Fighter with a 2-handed sword and decent AC could chop one down in two rounds and maybe only take one hit in the process, which for what should be an apex-level opponent is pathetic.

 

[Voadam]

Here is my prior size comparison by edition:

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

 

[Voadam]

I generally keep giants out of the main human area of my mashup setting, more in wilderness/barbarian lands and outer planes but they have shown up a bunch in various adventures I have run. Sort of a Greyhawk Crystalmist set up.

A decent Norse feel for a bunch which fits in well with the viking cultures and some of the planar stuff.

I like having a bunch of elements in my setting and it not be entirely clear to inhabitants of the world what is true.

So Giants may be from Norse Muspelheim and Jotunheim who have crossed over into the world in areas.

There are hints of past giant ancient civilizations. So Forgotten Realms and Goodman Games Known World backgrounds and even Eberron Xendrik.

Also Giants may be Dawn War creations of titans who worked for Primordials who shaped the world and had Dwarven slaves and have homes in both the Elemental Chaos and the World so 4e combining both of the latter themes.

Giants as cursed dwarves ala Dark Sun or Dwarves as cursed giants ala Arcanis. In 3e I had dwarvish be a dialect of giant (or vice versa) with both groups having historical enmity and denying any real connections.

Not clear if my ancient Uraq city states (fairly fantasy Sumerian/Babylonian) were ruled by magically powerful giants.

Ptolus has a history of ancient giants who left the area, and I had rumors of a continent to the west ruled by giants who sailed from the East long ago (providing Diamond Throne options).

Hill Giants in my Numeria region (Thundar the Barbarian land) may be mutated degenerate remains of ancient 40K space marines who crashed there.

Some in world theology posits that some foreign gods were just euhemerized giants, so Zeus may have been a past specific storm giant and not actually divine, Hephaestus a fire giant, Hera a cloud giant, Hades a death giant, etc.

Fire Giants showed up in my 3.5 game when I ran Lord of the Iron Fortress as a major LE faction in the militarized planar gate city of Rigus next to Acheron.

Frost Giants showed up a bunch when I ran Pathfinder 1e Reign of Winter in northern barbarian lands.

Hill Giants and mutant giants showed up when I ran my 5e game of Iron Gods set in Numeria.

These and other giants have also showed up as lore discoveries or background at various points in game.