Negative LA-Assignment : Resurrection, but no diamond here

[Beni-Kujaku]

Dusk Giant

The Dusk Giant, standing between the Sun Giant and the Moon Giant, and weaker than them both. This creature is most well-known for the industrial amount of cheese that it produces when you try to Polymorph into one. Cannibalize means you can gain as many HD as you want and qualify for any number of feats before the end of the Polymorph effect, while also somehow gaining Charisma. Suffice to say, such an ability can never be allowed in normal play, and was immediately asterisked.

Without cannibalize, the dusk giant is still a giant with overall much better stats for its number of RHD, especially in its mental scores (as seems to be a motif in Heroes of Horror) and even a few SLAs for the greater versions. They also get a weird aura akin to the No Light cantrip, but also giving -2 to saves to people in the area. Won't probably ever be game-changing, but flavorful. So, what do we have here:

Least Dusk Giant, 6 RHD: This is one of the very few Medium-sized giants in the game. It has pretty good ability scores for its number of RHD, with +10 Str, +2 Dex, +8 Con, +4 Int, +4 Wis, +4 Cha, +6 Natural armor. Its aura only has a 10-ft radius. 2 claws, one bite, and Rend on its claws. There is nothing particularly useful here, and being Medium sized is not ideal for something that clearly wants to be in melee. But the stats are really good, and I would easily see a paladin or ranger Least Dusk Giant. 5 RHD, DLA-0

Lesser Dusk Giant, 12 RHD: The authors of Heroes of Horror learned from their predecessors' errors and made the advanced version of their monsters actually much more powerful than the lesser one. +24 Str, +0 Dex, +14 Con, +4 Int, +4 Wis, +6 Cha. Now we're talking melee. Compared to a frost giant, you have -4 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Con, +4 Int, +6 Cha, +2 natural armor, and you get Enervation and Ray of Enfeeblement 1/day. Much stronger than a Frost Giant, and more on par with a Cloud Giant's level. Let's go with 9 RHD, DLA-2.

Greater Dusk Giant, 18 RHD: And the biggest of them all, Huge in size, with an impressive +38 Str, +22 Con (stronger than a Great Gold Wyrm! I didn't think the Wyrms would be outmatched that quickly), but not much else to show. The SLAs are nice, notably Energy Drain, but most of the time you'll just go in melee and start hitting stuff. Still better than a Storm Giant, but not having the continuous Freedom of Movement is a problem. 13 RHD, DLA-3

It's nice to see good mental scores on martial characters once in a while, and Heroes of Horror delivers on the subject. Apparently, you have to be smart to be efficiently evil. And the next monster (and last of the book) will certainly not go against that principle. See you next time for the Phantasmal Slayer!