John Cooper
Explorer
The Slayer's Guide to Giants
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP0022
Ian Sturrock
128 pages, $19.95
The Slayer's Guide to Giants is the third of the "supersized" books in the "Slayer's Guide" line, after The Slayer's Guide to Dragons and The Slayer's Guide to Undead. Both of those previous works were written by Gary Gygax himself (with d20 assistance by Jon Creffield). Now Ian Sturrock steps up to the plate with some big shoes to fill.
For the most part, Ian does just fine. Of course, he's no newcomer to the d20 field, as he's written not only a "Slayer's Guides" before (The Slayer's Guide to Medusas), but a title in the "Encyclopaedia Arcane" line (Blood Magic) and even has entire RPGs (Slaine, Armageddon: 2089) to his credit!
The Slayer's Guide to Giants is broken down into the following sections:
The rest of the artwork in the book is 52 black-and-white pieces by 5 different artists. All is at least average, with some that really stand out - especially the cute giant baby cuddling up with the fullgrown dwarf that it already overtowers (page 11), the civilized giant talking to a group of humans on a balcony (page 10), and the amused, fat, bald giant sitting on a house (page 114). Upon closer examination, all three of these pieces were done by Alejandro Villen - nice job, Alejandro! And, lest we forget that this is a Mongoose book, there's the obligatory "nipple art" on page 27, this time depicting a sea giantess.
Some of the giant races really took me by surprise. I suppose this is because I've seen many of the "new" giant races in previous editions of the AD&D game: mountain giants, fomorians, half-giants. However, the mountain giant presented here shares little but a name with the mountain giant in WotC's Monster Manual II, nor does the ocean giant from that work have much in common with the sea giant here. The fomorians from Monster Manual II are the misshapen monstrosities I'm used to, so to find out that the fomorians in this book are fat, dark-skinned, giant pirates was quite a shock. I suppose Ian has taken the mythological approach (and he's much more well-versed in Celtic and Hebrew myths than I am, so I'll take his word on the origins of some of his giant races), but the result is rather jarring to someone who gained most of his giant lore from playing AD&D. I almost wish Ian had renamed some of his giants, so I wouldn't have to keep my various versions of fomorians and mountain giants straight.
As far as the half-giant template goes, while I wasn't expecting the old Dark Sun version, I was rather surprised to learn that the template could be placed on "any creature of Medium size or larger." Again, Ian's taking the mythological approach - in Norse mythology, gods and giants ended up fathering all kinds of creatures, from giant wolves and serpents to 8-legged horses - but in this case I think the result is rather problematic. Just how, I ask, does a giant mate with an ooze or a plant? (Never mind, I don't think I really want to know...) Similarly, by the rules Ian's presented here, a giant could sire offspring with a construct or an undead creature. The rules provided here allow for a giant to mate with a dragon, celestial, or fiend, but then does the offspring apply the half-giant template or the half-dragon, half-celestial, or half-fiend template? The rules don't say. Also, the final sentence in this section (on page 17) is cut off in the middle. (This isn't the only typo/missing punctuation problem, but it's certainly the most prominent.)
The land giant is the most surprising of all the new giant races. I never in my wildest dreams imagined somebody would actually do up the statistics for a creature ten miles tall - at the shortest! This looks to be accurately done by the d20 rules (I admit to not checking the math to make sure), but I question who really needs a 200d8+2000 HD creature (3,960 hit points on average!) running around in their campaign world? When it comes to a stomp attack that covers a half-mile by quarter-mile area and does 20d20+40 points of damage (but you only take half-damage if you make the DC 140 Reflex save!), I just have to shake my head and chuckle. I guess this is why I was never really interested in playing Epic Level games.
A final grumble against the selection of new giant subraces is the sea giant. Now, I like the idea of a sea giant, and I don't even particularly mind if the sea giant in question is going to significantly differ from the WotC version. But why-oh-why does the Mongoose Slayer's Guide to Giants sea giant differ from the Mongoose Seas of Blood sea giant? You'd think Matthew Sprange (who wrote Seas of Blood and edited Slayer's Guide to Giants) would have said something, or at least addressed the difference. Maybe they're related subraces or something (besides the differences in size, appearance, and special abilities), but couldn't they at least have been given different names?
I realize I've been airing my complaints up front, and I don't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy this book, so I'll mention the very last thing I didn't like about this book and then move on to the good stuff (which really outnumbers the things I didn't like by a very substantial margin). The short adventure that's provided takes up 7 full pages. You would think, wouldn't you, that the map would be included? I'm sure this is a layout problem (and not an oversight on Ian's part, as he clearly mentions the map several times in the text: "Just outside the door, at point (b) in the corridor, is a lone guard" and "King Thrym can be found at point (c)," etc.), and that the map was accidentally bumped and not noticed until it was too late. Still, this is easily fixed, if Mongoose will just place tha adventure map on the "Free Material" section of their website. (I think I'll email them with the suggestion.)
Okay, moving on to the good stuff: despite the above gripes, the new giant races are well done from a mechanics standpoint, and they could certainly add to the flavor of a campaign. Even the rime giants, which I at first dismissed as merely bigger frost giants, have a well-thought-out role in a campaign. And the fomorians are kind of tricky because 10% of them have an innate ability to cast one specific (but random for each giant) spell - that'll certainly keep the players guessing! I was especially pleased to see that Ian wrote up a "Tactics Round By Round" section for his new giant races.
The Giant King template was a nice idea, and I really like the way Ian handled it: almost like a prestige class, in that the template gives the base creature new abilities at each odd level. Furthermore, I love the way the template adds different abilities to each of the giant races. This was really the best possible way to go with this concept that I can imagine, and I credit Ian for coming up with such a hybrid concept.
The "Cloud Island Beans" rules were fantastic! Again, Ian's love for folklore and mythology is coming through here, because these are a solid d20 rules mechanic that creates the magic beans from "Jack and the Beanstalk," and does it in a way that makes perfect sense! That's no small feat - absolutely brilliant!
The giant tactics section was very nicely done, and the two diagrams on pages 74-75 stand up against any of the combat diagrams in the Player's Handbook. The new feats and grappling rules spell all kinds of trouble for PCs, but there's nothing unbalanced there, and I imagine DMs will really enjoy the "impale and fling" tactics giants often employ. (I know I will!) I really enjoyed the "Jack the Giant-Killer" section, especially after seeing how many different ploys can be used to outthink a giant. Of course, these will probably work better agiant your average hill giant or mountain giant than your average cloud giant, but it's good to see such thought put into the section nonetheless. The "Giants' Bags" section was very inventive, with all sorts of cool things showing up in those bags, many of them almost begging to be used as a short adventure hook in and of themselves.
All in all, The Slayer's Guide to Giants is a worthy addition to the "supersized" line, standing proudly among those penned by Gary Gygax himself. It looks like he's having absolutely no problems filling those "giant shoes" I mentioned earlier.
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP0022
Ian Sturrock
128 pages, $19.95
The Slayer's Guide to Giants is the third of the "supersized" books in the "Slayer's Guide" line, after The Slayer's Guide to Dragons and The Slayer's Guide to Undead. Both of those previous works were written by Gary Gygax himself (with d20 assistance by Jon Creffield). Now Ian Sturrock steps up to the plate with some big shoes to fill.
For the most part, Ian does just fine. Of course, he's no newcomer to the d20 field, as he's written not only a "Slayer's Guides" before (The Slayer's Guide to Medusas), but a title in the "Encyclopaedia Arcane" line (Blood Magic) and even has entire RPGs (Slaine, Armageddon: 2089) to his credit!
The Slayer's Guide to Giants is broken down into the following sections:
- Introduction: Explaining the "Slayer's Guide" line
- Giant Lore: Nutshell descriptions of the various giant races, including several new ones
- The Physiology of Giants: Notes on their diets and lifecycle
- Giant Races: Statistics for each new giant race (anakim, fomorians, land giants, mountain giants, nephilim, rime giants, sea giants, and spirit nephilim, plus the half-giant template)
- Giant Kings: An all-purpose template to create leaders of the various giant races
- Habitat: Typical lairs for each of the giant races (including cloud islands!)
- Giant Society: The role of giant women, courtship and marriage, child-rearing, giant leaders, family/tribe/band structure, kingdoms, social class, a prestige class (the Comitatus Warrior - elite bodyguards of the giant leader), religion, the Giant and Electricity domains (including 7 new Giant spells and 4 Electricity spells), other religions, arcane magic, and giant-giant relations
- Methods of Warfare: Group strategy, organized giants, giant mobs and rabbles, and specific methods of warfare by giant race, including new grappling rules, combat feats, war magic, weapons (including siege weapons), and armor
- Jack the Giant-Killer: Overcoming giants, not necessarily by overpowering them in combat
- Giants' Bags: Sample bags for the different giant races, holding more than just throwing rocks
- The Ice King's Bride: A short, giant-based adventure with a "folklore" feel
- Appendix I: Giant Names: Broken into three different "clumps" of associated giant races
- Appendix II: Giant Quick Reference: Ready-to-use statistics for members of each giant race
The rest of the artwork in the book is 52 black-and-white pieces by 5 different artists. All is at least average, with some that really stand out - especially the cute giant baby cuddling up with the fullgrown dwarf that it already overtowers (page 11), the civilized giant talking to a group of humans on a balcony (page 10), and the amused, fat, bald giant sitting on a house (page 114). Upon closer examination, all three of these pieces were done by Alejandro Villen - nice job, Alejandro! And, lest we forget that this is a Mongoose book, there's the obligatory "nipple art" on page 27, this time depicting a sea giantess.
Some of the giant races really took me by surprise. I suppose this is because I've seen many of the "new" giant races in previous editions of the AD&D game: mountain giants, fomorians, half-giants. However, the mountain giant presented here shares little but a name with the mountain giant in WotC's Monster Manual II, nor does the ocean giant from that work have much in common with the sea giant here. The fomorians from Monster Manual II are the misshapen monstrosities I'm used to, so to find out that the fomorians in this book are fat, dark-skinned, giant pirates was quite a shock. I suppose Ian has taken the mythological approach (and he's much more well-versed in Celtic and Hebrew myths than I am, so I'll take his word on the origins of some of his giant races), but the result is rather jarring to someone who gained most of his giant lore from playing AD&D. I almost wish Ian had renamed some of his giants, so I wouldn't have to keep my various versions of fomorians and mountain giants straight.
As far as the half-giant template goes, while I wasn't expecting the old Dark Sun version, I was rather surprised to learn that the template could be placed on "any creature of Medium size or larger." Again, Ian's taking the mythological approach - in Norse mythology, gods and giants ended up fathering all kinds of creatures, from giant wolves and serpents to 8-legged horses - but in this case I think the result is rather problematic. Just how, I ask, does a giant mate with an ooze or a plant? (Never mind, I don't think I really want to know...) Similarly, by the rules Ian's presented here, a giant could sire offspring with a construct or an undead creature. The rules provided here allow for a giant to mate with a dragon, celestial, or fiend, but then does the offspring apply the half-giant template or the half-dragon, half-celestial, or half-fiend template? The rules don't say. Also, the final sentence in this section (on page 17) is cut off in the middle. (This isn't the only typo/missing punctuation problem, but it's certainly the most prominent.)
The land giant is the most surprising of all the new giant races. I never in my wildest dreams imagined somebody would actually do up the statistics for a creature ten miles tall - at the shortest! This looks to be accurately done by the d20 rules (I admit to not checking the math to make sure), but I question who really needs a 200d8+2000 HD creature (3,960 hit points on average!) running around in their campaign world? When it comes to a stomp attack that covers a half-mile by quarter-mile area and does 20d20+40 points of damage (but you only take half-damage if you make the DC 140 Reflex save!), I just have to shake my head and chuckle. I guess this is why I was never really interested in playing Epic Level games.
A final grumble against the selection of new giant subraces is the sea giant. Now, I like the idea of a sea giant, and I don't even particularly mind if the sea giant in question is going to significantly differ from the WotC version. But why-oh-why does the Mongoose Slayer's Guide to Giants sea giant differ from the Mongoose Seas of Blood sea giant? You'd think Matthew Sprange (who wrote Seas of Blood and edited Slayer's Guide to Giants) would have said something, or at least addressed the difference. Maybe they're related subraces or something (besides the differences in size, appearance, and special abilities), but couldn't they at least have been given different names?
I realize I've been airing my complaints up front, and I don't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy this book, so I'll mention the very last thing I didn't like about this book and then move on to the good stuff (which really outnumbers the things I didn't like by a very substantial margin). The short adventure that's provided takes up 7 full pages. You would think, wouldn't you, that the map would be included? I'm sure this is a layout problem (and not an oversight on Ian's part, as he clearly mentions the map several times in the text: "Just outside the door, at point (b) in the corridor, is a lone guard" and "King Thrym can be found at point (c)," etc.), and that the map was accidentally bumped and not noticed until it was too late. Still, this is easily fixed, if Mongoose will just place tha adventure map on the "Free Material" section of their website. (I think I'll email them with the suggestion.)
Okay, moving on to the good stuff: despite the above gripes, the new giant races are well done from a mechanics standpoint, and they could certainly add to the flavor of a campaign. Even the rime giants, which I at first dismissed as merely bigger frost giants, have a well-thought-out role in a campaign. And the fomorians are kind of tricky because 10% of them have an innate ability to cast one specific (but random for each giant) spell - that'll certainly keep the players guessing! I was especially pleased to see that Ian wrote up a "Tactics Round By Round" section for his new giant races.
The Giant King template was a nice idea, and I really like the way Ian handled it: almost like a prestige class, in that the template gives the base creature new abilities at each odd level. Furthermore, I love the way the template adds different abilities to each of the giant races. This was really the best possible way to go with this concept that I can imagine, and I credit Ian for coming up with such a hybrid concept.
The "Cloud Island Beans" rules were fantastic! Again, Ian's love for folklore and mythology is coming through here, because these are a solid d20 rules mechanic that creates the magic beans from "Jack and the Beanstalk," and does it in a way that makes perfect sense! That's no small feat - absolutely brilliant!
The giant tactics section was very nicely done, and the two diagrams on pages 74-75 stand up against any of the combat diagrams in the Player's Handbook. The new feats and grappling rules spell all kinds of trouble for PCs, but there's nothing unbalanced there, and I imagine DMs will really enjoy the "impale and fling" tactics giants often employ. (I know I will!) I really enjoyed the "Jack the Giant-Killer" section, especially after seeing how many different ploys can be used to outthink a giant. Of course, these will probably work better agiant your average hill giant or mountain giant than your average cloud giant, but it's good to see such thought put into the section nonetheless. The "Giants' Bags" section was very inventive, with all sorts of cool things showing up in those bags, many of them almost begging to be used as a short adventure hook in and of themselves.
All in all, The Slayer's Guide to Giants is a worthy addition to the "supersized" line, standing proudly among those penned by Gary Gygax himself. It looks like he's having absolutely no problems filling those "giant shoes" I mentioned earlier.
