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.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

For me, I'm having a really hard time considering the cultural implications of a race that can change its size to increase its Strength and speed. Though not all Goliaths have access to this ability, it's still a little hard for me to wrap my head around.

Some of the Goliath's other abilities are also head scratchers. Cloud's Jaunt would change the way architecture is designed. Storm's Thunder would seriously change the way children rough-house play.

Overall, I don't feel like I'm getting though support from the PHB to properly integrate Goliaths into my world. Likewise, I'm not seeing a lot of support from players that helps them avoid the "humans in cosplay" trope.

After all, these are no longer different races (of the same offshoot), but now different species, which implies a much more disparate developmental process. Those differing phenotypes would cascade outwards into even more radically different cultural memes. Rhinos do not behave like house cats, after all.

I'd just assume the powers kick in at the point of biological adulthood.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Overall, I don't feel like I'm getting though support from the PHB to properly integrate Goliaths into my world

How do you integrate regular giants into your world? These are a people with complex societies that occupy a huge amount of space, and require a huge amount of food and other resources, and often have inherent magical abilities.

And yet most worlds are dominated by tiny humans and their societies, with giants having little impact.

However you deal with giants, smaller giants must be easier.

 

[Mistwell]

It hasn't been a year yet for the 2024 PHB, but it's been more than a year since they've been included in the playtests and almost a year since we've seen some art for them from the PHB previews? We've definitely had the classic Stone Goliaths as the vision of what Goliaths were since 3.5e, but what about the others like Hill, Frost, Fire, Cloud and Storm Goliaths? Have they been fully embraced yet, in games, your campaign settings or visions of what Goliaths look like now?

I can say in optimization communities, specifically those who create builds on YouTube and through Patreon for a living, I find some version of Goliath is very popular in these builds. Probably because they include an increase to damage fairly often, and damage per round or combat is often something that's tracked by optimizers.

 

[Mistwell]

I have to admit, Goliaths put the lie to the idea WOTC can't or won't do half-races. Goliaths are half-giants. They can dance around that claim however they want, but it says directly they're "distant descendants of giants" that have "physical characteristics that are reminiscent of the giants in their family lines". THAT'S A HALF RACE! The distinction between this concept and an actual half race is sophistry and semantics.

Just re-introduce half-elves, and rename them to Khorvar or something like that. Obviously the concept is acceptable to WOTC with these half-giants, so it must be the "half" name. Fine, rename them and make them "distant descendants of elves" that have "physical characteristics that are reminiscent of the elves in their family lines."

 

[bedir than]

I'd just assume the powers kick in at the point of biological adulthood.

This still gets into the assumption that every member of every species is a hero. The PHB isn't meant to simulate the world. It's meant for gameplay by players of the game.

If every character is made with the PC rules the world gets wildly different than any assumption of any setting.