Non-Psionic Half-Giants

[Maat Mons]

I’m sorry this is just a quickly-thrown-together, steam-of-consciousness kind of thing, but if anyone is willing to give input, I’d be grateful.



+2 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom, -2 Dexterity
Giant type
Low-Light Vision (feature of Giant type)
Proficient with all Simple and Martial weapons (feature of Giant type)
Medium size
Fire Acclimated
Base Speed 40 feet
Powerful Build
Naturally Psionic (2 bonus power points)
Psi-Like Ability: Stomp 1/day
Rock Throwing: 2d6+Str damage, 120-foot range increment (treat Half Giant as Large size due to Powerful Build)
Rock Catching (treat Half Giant as Large size due to Powerful Build)
Giant Heritage

• Cloud: Scent
• Fire: Fire Resistance 5
• Frost: Cold Resistance 5
• Hill: ???
• Stone: Darkvision 60 feet
• Storm: Swim speed 20 feet, Water Breathing

Automatic Languages: Common, Giant
Level Adjustment: +1



+2 Wisdom: Many of the Planetouched races have a net +4 to ability score, so I figured it’s probably not going to unbalance anything for another +1 LA race to reach that same benchmark. I tend to like well-rounded stats for races, personally. Good Wisdom scores are pretty common across Giants. More common than bad Dexterity scores, even.

Proficiencies: Sometimes I suspect that the game designers forget that creature types give weapon proficiencies. But this is a benefit Hal Giants have always had by RAW. All the Planetouched too, since they’re Outsiders. I don’t think it’s that big a deal, since many characters won’t benefit. Most classes either already give these proficiencies, or they have a chassis that doesn’t really support weapon use anyway. Rogues, Clerics, and Druids jump out as potential use cases. Rogue tends to push people to Dexterity-based builds, for which the Rogue weapon list is already a good fit. Longbow proficiency seems the biggest gain for a typical Rogue. You could also try using a greatsword or something on an unconventional Strength-based Rogue. Druids already have the scimitar, which like all one-handed weapons can be used in two hands. But who’s going to turn down falchion proficiency? Longbows are, again, probably the biggest draw. The issue is, Druids kind of stop using weapons when they gain Wild Shape. Cleric feels like the class that benefits most from martial weapon proficiency.

Speed: Large creatures generally have a land speed of 40 feet. Half Giants are supposed to operate in many ways as if they were Large, so this change made sense to me.

Rock Throwing: The damage I’ve listed seems relatively typical of what large-size Giants deal and is the same as the Half Giant would be dealing with a large longbow. Still, it seems a very flavorful ability to me, and there’s some value to not needing to buy a mighty composite longbow matching your Strength score. To a lesser extent, there could maybe arise situations where carrying your longbow would have been an unrealistic roleplaying choice, not that I’ve generally noticed players giving consideration to that.

Rock Catching: This seems like it would almost never actually come up, but I guess why not throw it in?

Giant Heritage and Loss of Fire Acclimation: Fire Acclimated tied Half-Giants specifically to Fire Giants. I wanted something that could represent multiple different types of Giant. I’ve also never seen Fortitude saves versus hot weather come up in any games I’ve been in. I wanted to give benefits that would be more broadly applicable. I sill have no idea what to give for Hill Giant Heritage though.

No Bonus Power Points: It’s a little hard to determine how big a loss this is. At 1^st level, 2 bonus power points is two extra manifestations of your highest-level powers, which is huge. At high levels, 2 power points is practically a rounding error.

No Stomp: This Psi-Like Ability never really struck me as a big part of the draw of Half-Giant anyway.



Are there different racial features that would be more fitting of a non-psionic Half-Giant? Where does this fall balance-wise as a +1 LA race? I’ve always found races with non-zero LA difficult to balance, since the impact of being behind in levels is very inconsistent depending on the ECL you’re playing at.

[Tzardok]

Giant Heritage and Loss of Fire Acclimation: Fire Acclimated tied Half-Giants specifically to Fire Giants. I wanted something that could represent multiple different types of Giant. I’ve also never seen Fortitude saves versus hot weather come up in any games I’ve been in. I wanted to give benefits that would be more broadly applicable. I sill have no idea what to give for Hill Giant Heritage though.

Half-Giants don't have Fire Acclimation because they are connected to Fire Giants, they have it because they are originally a Dark Sun race, and Dark Sun is a desert (that's also why they are psionic in the first place). To tell the truth, if I had tried to make a half-giant race connected to the "classical" giants of D&D instead of the Athasian giants, I'd have started from scratch instead of modifying this race.

Regarding Hill Giants, as they are supposed to be the barbarians of giantkind, and their patron god is the giant god of the hunt, I could imagine them having racial bonuses to Survival, or Move Silently, or Hide. Or some kind of rage ability?
Alternatively, one could play on their flaws as lazy and gluttonous and make something of that? Or some kind of "Too Stupid to Fool" ability, like a bonus to saves against illusions? I dunno, I'm just Brainstorming a bit.