Giant

Template:Infobox Greyhawk creature Giants are humanoid-shaped creatures, usually of great strength and size. "Giant" is also a creature type in the third and 3.5 edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Though all true giants are considered to be of the Giant type, not all Giant type creatures are considered true giants. To avoid confusion in this article, the word "giant" will be capitalized when discussing the Giant type.

Ecology

Environment

Giants are found throughout the Flanaess. A Giant's environment generally depends on which race or subrace it belongs to.

Typical physical characteristics

Giants come in all shapes, though most are of at least size Large. All Giants have low-light vision.

Alignment

The alignment of a Giant generally depends on its race or subrace.

Society

Religion

Most giants pay homage to at least one member of the giant pantheon, consisting of the following deities:

• Annam, the creator god.
• Diancastra, goddess of trickery.
• Stronmaus, patron of storm giants and good cloud giants.
• Grolantor, patron of hill giants and ettins.
• Hiatea, goddess of nature.
• Iallanis, goddess of love.
• Karontor, patron of fomorians and verbeeg.
• Memnor, patron of evil cloud giants.
• Skoraeus Stonebones, patron of stone giants.
• Surtr, patron of fire giants.
• Thrym, patron of frost giants.

Other deities worshipped by Giants include Baphomet, [[[Cegilune]], [Erythnul]], Kostchtchie, and Vaprak.

=True giants

There are six types of classic "true giant" in the core Dungeons & Dragons game:

• Cloud Giant: A giant race that believes itself superior to all other giants (save for storm giants). Usually neutral good or neutral evil.
• Fire giant: A militaristic giant that looks somewhat like a huge dwarf. Based on Jotun and Surtr. Usually lawful evil.
• Frost giant: A giant who lives in areas frozen year-round and participates in raids. Based on rime (frost) giant. Usually chaotic evil.
• Hill giant: A selfish giant inhabiting hilly regions. Usually chaotic evil.
• Stone giant: A shy giant that is nevertheless dangerous when aroused to anger. Usually neutral.
• Storm giant: A gentle giant that lives mainly on cloud islands. Usually chaotic good.

Other creatures of the giant type

• Cyclops
• Ettin
• Firbolg
• Fomorian
• Ogre
• Troll
• Groll

Giants beyond the Monster Manual

• Craa'Ghoran Giant: Rare stone giant offshoots created when earth elemental energy warped and twisted their ancestors. They can glide and walk right through stone like Earth Elementals and raise walls of stone from the ground with their supernatural powers. They resemble tanned, bestial and deformed versions of stone giants.
• Desert giant
• Death giant
• Eldritch giant: Powerful scions of arcane lore, these ancient giants spend their years seeking out fragments of knowledge. Though selfish and cruel, they are smart enought to bargain fairly when they must and perceptive enough to know that open conflict distracts them from their studies. They hate Storm Giants, though they are too involved with their pursuit of magical power to bother fighting other creatures. Eldritch Giants resemble burly but serious and wise looking Storm Giants. They have purple skin. This skin is covered with tattoos and runes. Unlike most giants, they are quite good and capable of casting spells and other magic.
• Fog giant
• Forest Giant: An elfin giant that is amongst the tallest species of giant.
• Jungle giant
• Mountain Giant: A brute that is amongst the largest species of giant, and loves to squash people under boulders.
• Ocean Giant: A merfolk-like giant that can assume a more humanoid form to walk on land.
• Reef giant
• Sand giant
• Sun Giant: A grim, nomadic desert-dwelling giant that survives by raising livestock.
• Other giants: When turned to life as incarnate constructs, Large sized or larger artificial humanoids, such as golems, are defined as giants.

References

• Bonny, Ed, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, Skip Williams, and Steve Winter. Monster Manual II (Wizards of the Coast, 2002).
• Eckelberry, David, Rich Redman, and Jennifer Clarke Wilkes. Savage Species (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)
• Williams, Skip, Jonathan Tweet, and Monte Cook. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, 2000).