Sand Giants

This is going to be my last giant article for a while.  I promised I'd do one of the more exotic types (not void giants though, they're magical enough already).  Maybe I'll come back to this topic at a later date.

Artist: David Hueso

D6 Sand Giant Powers

1– Burrow Through Sand

Can burrow through sand at the same rate at which it moves.  Has to move at walking speed to avoid creating noticeable ripples in the sand.  Can sense heavy footsteps or loud noises within 20-100 feet depending on weight/volume.  Can burst out and attack on the same turn, or grapple people and pull them under, causing them to drown at the normal rate.

2– Choking Sandstorm

The giant summons a sandstorm that covers a 200 foot radius.  The sand will choke anyone who doesn't cover their mouths and irritate the eyes of anyone who doesn't cover their eyes with goggles or a thin cloth.  The giant can see 30 feet through the sand.

3- Sand Devil Form

Can transform into a sand devil– a little tornado of sand.  Moves ten feet faster than normal speed in this form; automatically inflicts d8 damage to anyone nearby each round, which isn't much for a giant.  Mainly uses this to scout or sneak attack by seeming like a normal sand devil, or to escape.  Can de damaged by wind in this form. 

4- Control Scorpions

Will have d4+1 scorpion swarms under its control.  Will often have these hide under the sand, waiting for a command to jump out and attack.  Might also have them in a bag.  Note that this controls scorpions but doesn't summon them out of nowhere; it can often be nullified by not fighting the giant on ground it has prepared.

At the referee's discretion, may also apply to giant scorpions or even Scorpions.

 


5- Desiccate

The giant can draw all of the fluids out of nearby air and objects and into itself.  After activating this power, the air around it for 20 feet begins getting noticeably drier.  Starting on the giant's next turn, any human-sized creatures within 20 feet take 2d6 damage per round as the water is sucked out of their bodies; halfling-sized or smaller creatures take 2d4, and horse-sized or larger ones take 2d8.

This works on all fluids, not just water.  Fluids kept in airtight containers are unaffected, but it can backfire quite badly if there's an open container of poison or oil nearby.  This power lasts up to a minute, and there's a one-round delay in deactivating it early.

6- Sands of Time

There's a giant hourglass the size of a barrel.  If the giant places it so that the sand is on top, it takes one minute for all of the sand to run to the bottom.  When it does, the giant is returned to the state it was in when it placed the hourglass– standing next to it, all wounds suffered in the last minute are removed, etc.  This can even bring the giant back to life.

The hourglass is nearly indestructible, but tipping it over will prevent the effect.

It can be used by player characters too, with difficulty.  You have to place it by hand, without benefit of telekinesis or a crane.  It's a heavy barrel-sized object (around 100 pounds) that a person can can only carry short distances.

Other Articles in This Series

Storm Giants
Frost Giants
Fire Giants
Stone Giants
Cloud Giants

Storm Giants Are Not To Be Messed With

Storm giants are the toughest giants in most editions of D&D (I think anyway), although some OSR games have even more exotic giant types.  I'll write up at least one of those exotic giant types soon; this is my last entry for the more well-known giant types.

Other Giant Articles
Cloud Giants
Stone Giants
Fire Giants
Frost Giants
Sand Giants

Artist: Jane Li

To make a storm giant more interesting, give it one of these six powers.

1.  The nail that sticks out gets zapped down.  Call down a lightning strike.  The lightning will hit the tallest thing in the general area around the giant, unless there's something a bit shorter but far more conductive.  This will usually be the giant itself, who is immune to lightning.  

The lightning inflicts 6d6 damage on whatever it hits directly, and half that (save for half) on anything within a 10 foot radius.  This power has a 1 in 6 chance of recharging each round.  

2.  Static charge.  The giant's body is electrically charged– does 2d6 lighting damage to anyone who hits the giant with a metal weapon; assume any attack that comes within 4 of the giant's AC hit but didn't penetrate the armor.  Insulating gloves prevent this damage.  

The giant can also conduct this damage through metal objects like railings, or through large puddles or small ponds or pools, and will try to use the terrain to get in sneaky hits like this.  This power is permanently on as long as the giant wants it to be.  

3.  Ride the Lightning.  The giant can cast lightning bolt, as per the spell, with a range of 100 feet.  Immediately after casting, it can teleport to any point along the path of the lightning bolt.  Recharges on a one in six.  

4.  Electrical sense.  Sense electrically conductive objects within a radius depending on the size of the object– a few tens of feet for people, fifty feet for coins, a couple hundred feet for a sword, up to a quarter mile for plate armor.  

5.  Storm Summoning.  As the weather control spell, but can only be used to cause storms.  The giant is unaffected by lightning and storm winds (though not by hail or slippery footing) and can see through any rain, clouds or fog it creates.  

6.  Aquatic.  Can breathe water, swim at running speed, and adjust its buoyancy at will to float even if wearing plate armor.  Can launch itself about twenty feet out of the water, as if jumping on land.    

Cloud Giant Powers

So after this I'm doing storm giants, and then I've been talked into doing at least one of the more exotic giant types.

Other articles in this series:
Stone Giants
Fire Giants
Frost Giants
Sand Giants
Storm Giants

For more interesting cloud giants with abilities that allow for interesting tactics beyond "throw boulders and smash them really hard," give a cloud giant one of these d6 abilities:

1.  Levitation.  Can levitate at will.  Moves up and down at normal walking speed, but can only move horizontally at ten feet per round.  Can throw boulders while levitating, but has disadvantage on the throw due to not being anchored– the force will send it briefly spinning before it rights itself.  Can usually carry three boulders while levitating, unless it has a giant backpack to hold more.  Dispel magic will disable the levitation ability for a turn, possibly making the giant fall to its death.

2.  Fog Control.  At will, can summon an obscuring fog to conceal it.  This fog can move with it at very low speeds only; if it decides to run, it outpaces, the fog.  Can also cast fog cloud once per hour.

3.  Reduce Gravity.  At will, can reduce the pull of gravity on itself, allowing the giant to jump five times as far and high.  Does not reduce the giant's mass, just gravity.  Also acts as featherfall, but only if the giant spreads its body out while falling like a skydiver.

4.  Gaseous Form.  Can turn into a cloud, as gaseous form, once per day.

5.  Cloud Sight.  Can close its eyes and shift its viewpoint to see out of the surface of any cloud within its line of sight.  While doing so, can zoom its view somewhat– usually enough to make out groups of people, but not recognize faces or exactly what equipment they're carrying. 

6.  Solidify Clouds.  At will, can solidify clouds or mist within line of sight and within a quarter mile.  This allows the giant to walk on clouds, or turn a fog bank into an impenetrable barrier.  This solidified mist has a spongy texture with some give to it, a bit like a wrestling mat.  People inside a solidified cloud are trapped in a five foot bubble of the stuff; they don't suffocate but will have a hard time getting out.  The effect is temporary, and ends when the giant leaves the area, stops concentrating on it, or if the giant fails a save after taking damage.

Stone Giants, Re-Imagined

Next up on the list: stone giants.  After this it's cloud and storm giants and that will probably be it.  I might come back and do more exotic giant types in the future, but after five giant articles in a row I'm going to need a break from this.

Source: Viktor Lozanov

Other articles in this series
Fire Giants
Frost Giants
Cloud Giants
Sand Giants
Storm Giants

If you want a stone giant to be extra interesting, give it one of these six powers.

1.  Burrowing.  The giant can burrow through nonmagical, unworked earth or stone, at half its normal walking speed.  While doing so it barely disturbs the matter it travels through, leaving only slight ripples.  It can't breathe inside stone though, so it has to come back out within a few minutes.


2.  Meld Into Stone.  The stone giant can meld into any piece of stone that is larger than it is, kind of like the 5E spell.  Unlike with burrowing, it can't move inside the stone, but can breathe.  It can't see anything while inside the tone, but can hear what happens outside the stone just fine.

There is no inherent duration limit to this, other than people's natural inability to stay confined and still forever; in practice, this usually means an hour or less when awake, or 8-10 hours if used to sleep.

3.   Tremorsense.  As long as it is in bodily contact with earth or stone (giants with this power usually go barefoot), the giant can sense vibrations from anyone moving on a surface connected to the surface it's touching.

It can sense goblins within 200 feet, humans within 500, ogres within 2000, and giants within a mile.  This distance can be shorter if someone is moving stealthily or longer if they're jumping or stomping; total invisibility to this sense requires padded shoes and deliberately minimizing impact on the ground, meaning you'd probably have to know how this sense works.  Giants with this ability will use it to send Morse code messages to each other.

4.  Fuse Rocks.  With a wave of its hand, the giant can fused rocks together as if they were mortared together.  The same power can be used to un-fuse rocks that were joined with this power.  Stone giants use this power to create fortifications, block off chokepoints, and lead ambushes through previously-sealed passages.

5.  The Statue of the Big Grey Dude.  This giant has crated a magical, incredibly life-like statue of itself which has as many hit points as the giant does.  Any damage inflicted on the giant is transferred to the statue; when this happens, a distant rumble will be heard coming from wherever the statue is.  Once the statue loses all HP it is destroyed and the giant can be attacked normally.

The power does not work if the giant is in the same room as the statue. The giant can repair the statue for one die of hp per day by working on it with a chisel, hammer and mortar, but if it touches the statue with its bare skin, all of the statue's damage is immediately transferred to the giant.

6.  Boomerang Boulders.  The giant has three enchanted boulders that it carries.  It throws them like normal boulders, doing normal damage.  On its turn instead of either moving or attacking, the giant can recall a thrown boulder, causing it to fly back into the giant's hand.  Anyone directly in the path of the returning boulder must save or be hit and take 3d6 damage.

More Magical Fire Giants

Someone in my last article about frost giants pointed out that the random powers made them feel more like ice elementals than giants.  That was a good point and it made me realize I should clarify something– unlike my articles about trolls or dragons, I don't think this way of doing giants is clearly superior to the standard way.

Standard giants are great if you want giants to mostly just be big hulking brutes; this is for if you want giants to be more exotic, more magical, and probably less numerous to compensate for that.  These are maybe a bit less like D&D fire giants and a bit more like Norse mythology fire giants.  

So, more magical fire giants.  Give them one or two of the following six powers.  

1.  Flame Aura.  The giant is surrounded by a flaming aura that reaches about five feet beyond it's skin.  Anyone standing within five feet must save or take d6 damage each round.  Anyone who attacks the giant with a non-reach weapon automatically takes the damage, as does anyone who the giant grapples or hits with an unarmed attack.  Giant-sized swords and axes are more than 5 feet long so people hit by them don't take automatic damage.  

2.  Melt Stone.  The giant can turn a small patch of stone– about 5x5x1 feet– to lava once per combat round.  The lava takes one exploration turn– 10 minutes– to cool to the point where it can be safely walked on by humans again.  The giant itself can walk through lava just fine.  Anyone knocked into the lava takes d20 damage, and an additional d20 per round until they get out, and must make a strength check to escape the sticky lava.      

3. Lava Bomb.  The giant can heat boulders right before throwing them, turning them into shells of cool stone with a gooey hot lava center.  These boulders shatter on impact, spraying the nearby area with lava.  The boulder does one extra die of damage.   If damage types matter, consider this half impact and half heat damage.   

Anyone within 10 feet of the impact point must save or take 2d6 lava damage.  A person hit by the boulder doesn't take this extra damage– it's already factored into the "direct hit" damage (extra damage for the lava, but less damage for the boulder being less hard).  Optionally, on missed hits roll a d8 for direction and d4 for distance to see where the boulder actually lands.  

4.  Flaming Sphere.  Similar to the 5E spell, the giant can conjure a floating ball of fire.  Every combat round it can move this ball of fire up to 30 feet, and may make an attack roll to try to ram it into someone, dealing 3d6 damage.  This is in addition to, not instead of, the giant's normal actions.

The flaming sphere emits light in a 60-foot radius which reveals anything and anyone hidden or invisible.  Giants with this power will often command squads of humanoid archers, using their flaming sphere to illuminate enemies for the archers to attack.  

5.  Eyes of Ignition.  With a gaze, the giant may ignite any highly flammable substance it looks at, such as paper, oil, dry leaves, or alcohol.  Wood, cloth armor and human skin aren't flammable enough, but a lot of non-treated cloth is, and hair might be. Oil sealed into airtight containers won't work either; there needs to be oxygen.  Giants with this power will try to fight in areas pre-seeded with innocuous-looking flammable materials.  

6.  Firewalk.  As it moves, the giant may leave a trail of fire in its wake.  This fire reaches ten feet high (the giant can see over it unless it crouches) and is several feet across, as thick as the distance between the giant's left and right feet.  The fire lasts ten minutes, and the giant may only have a sixty-foot length of it going at one time.  Anyone who runs through it takes 4d6 damage; anyone in the space occupied by the fire when it starts can save to dive to one side and avoid it.   

Giants will usually use this power in one of three ways: either to cover their retreat, to create a barrier that prevents enemies from closing to melee range while allowing them to throw boulders over it, or more aggressive fire giants may even get behind an enemy and use it to cut off their retreat.  

Other articles in this series

Frost Giants

Cloud Giants
Stone Giants
Sand Giants
Storm Giants

Frost Giants Re-Imagined

In my previous articles about trolls and dragons, I expressed the idea that even "standard" monsters could be made interesting and surprising by giving them some randomized powers.  Those are my most popular articles so it seems I was onto something.

So now I'm going to do the same thing for giants, one type of giant at a time.  There are many, many types of giants across all the different OSR games and D&D editions, so I'll start with the common types that made it into 5E: frost, fire, stone, cloud and storm (hill giants don't get special powers).  After that maybe I'll get into the more exotic ones.

They're not just giants; they're also vikings.  

As with trolls, apply these powers on top of the base stats from whatever system you're using.  If you need giant stats, here are the ones from Sword and Wizardry, and here's a monster generator for Labyrinth Lord.

So, frost giants.  They all have stats as per one of those two games, and they're all immune to cold damage.  If you want to distinguish between regular frost giants and frost giant lords, the regular ones have one less HD, and the lords have one more.

All frost giants additionally have one of the following six powers, and frost giant lords or shamans have two.

1.  Cold aura.  The giant is surrounded by a chilling aura with a 5 foot radius.  Anyone within this radius must save or take 1d6 damage and be slowed until the round after the leave the aura.

2.  Icy shell.  The giant's skin is covered by a thin layer of ice.  Reduce all damage (other than poison, psychic or anything that logically wouldn't be affected by it) by two.  A fireball, or hot weather, will melt this shell off, and it takes at least a half hour to re-form.

3.  Frost strikes.  All melee attacks inflict an extra die of frost damage, and anyone hit must save or be paralyzed.  They can save against each round to break the paralysis.

4.  Conjure ice.  The giant can conjure a block of ice equal in volume to a five foot cube once per combat round.  Giants with this power will mostly use it outside of combat, to build fortifications or prepare the battlefield with chokepoints and kill zones.

5.  Freeze water.  As a combat action, the giant can freeze a few cubic feet of water that it can see within 120 feet.  Giants with this power will try to get enemies wet, often fighting in the rain or an area with a lot of puddles, so they can use this power to freeze enemies in place.

6.  Ice javelins.  The giant can conjure and throw a javelin of ice as a normal attack action.  These javelin do the same damage as thrown boulders normally would, but they travel twice as far, and anyone struck must save or be paralyzed, as with the frost strikes power.

Other Articles in This Series
Fire Giants
Cloud Giants
Stone Giants
Sand Giants
Storm Giants