D&D (2024) How's the adoption of the new Goliath types going?

[Henadic Theologian]

I want to see some serious setting lore for them before judging, so far only the Stone Goliath has any serious lore for it.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

So I made a connection in my mind with the Polynesian-themed Storm Goliath that's depicted as the Circle of the Sea Druid in the PHB with the Pillars of Eternity II: Dreadfire companion Tekēhu. As a Godlike he's technically a Water Genasi in D&D terms but is of Aumaua background which is sort of the stand-in for Orcs in Eora the setting of Avowed and Pillars of Eternity. But the Aumaua are big enough to be Goliaths, at least the way Kai is depicted in Avowed.

But anyways I now sort of associate Tekēhu with that PHB Storm Goliath now.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I mean something to lean into for fleshing out the details of Goliath both what matters to them collectively and how to fit them into a world if you are drawing a blank.

Do you think about GL worried about how wookiees fitted into the world and what mattered to them when he wrote Star Wars, or did he base his big guy sidekick on his dog?

There is lore on Goliath society in the FR, Rime of the Frost Maiden is a good source, but it’s created whole cloth, not based on a literary or mythological source. Big Guy is the archetype, everything else is just window dressing.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I’ve little desire to play any of the new variants, and I refuse to run them as giant descended, just as I refuse to run Dragonborn that way. They’re both independent species.

But I have no issue with running Goliaths of all types as simply a species with many presentations due to a primordial and chaotic nature, more closely related to Genasi than to giants in some ways.

(I also run Genasi as mortals of a species who evolved in the elemental planes and places closely tied to them.)

 

[Aurel Guthrie]

We started a campaign with 2024 rules and one of my players is playing a Storm Goliath. He seems to be having a great time, and we weaved his Goliath's tribe storm powers seamlessly into the lore of the setting as well. I'm also putting different Goliath tribes on different biomes and giving them powers related to them which I find very flavorful (Storm up the mountains, frost in the snow, fire by the active volcano, etc)

I don't really mind that Goliaths more closely resemble their giant ancestries now, and I don't see it as an issue either since you have the Stone Ancestry or Hill Ancestry options, both with abilities that are very typical for Goliaths to have (knock someone prone or reduce damage taken) with almost no need for reflavor: You're just a Goliath! It's what you do.