For a culture that respects strength so much I like the idea of a Frost Giant wizard. Clearly arcane spellcasting isn't that common anymore in Frost Giant society since the dragon wars, but I'd love to see a Frost Giant Frost Mage(Frostburn pg.58). It would be the ace in the hole for any tribe by backing up melee troops with summoned ice creatures, and casting devastating "ice-type" spells on enemies. Controlling the terrain of the battlefield with ice walls and freezing fog, then raining down barrage of icy magic missiles. Give it a polar bear familiar and it's a formidable threat.
I would say magic is valued, it is just not many have the talent for wizardry and have a culture of brawn. Runes, after all, originate from giants. So I imagine the rare wizard does exist but usually serves directly under a chief as an advisor. Maybe an apprentice could be adventuring as a kind of rite of passage.
The best part of that story is when Thor throws off his disguise and starts kicking ass, having been pissed off more and more by the deception. The compliments paid him by his increasingly nervous hosts before the big reveal are very entertaining. You can imagine a bunch of warriors telling it to raucous laughter and applause around a warm hearth, before toasting the Friend of Man and his exploits.
You saying we’re basically bees to giants makes me picture the “NOT THE BEES!” scene, but Nicholas Cage is a frost giant and the bees are people. It’s a very comedic image, I must say.
"And now we pour the humans into your helmet. Ooooh, it looks like they are awfully mad. Hear that buzzing noise? (Damn giants! Ill teach you to Cage me, you bastards! Time to drain the old stinger... hey, an eyeball shaped privy!)" "No! Not the little men! Not the puny weaklings! Not the... nice men? GAAHHH IT DIDNT WORK, THEY ARE STILL STINGING ME WITH THEIR TINY STINGERS!!!"
@@AJPickett Hulabaloo: Carnivorous plant/fungus: A deep cave dwelling fungus that grows on the ceilings and grows creepers down walls and floors, if disturbed it releases spores (poison/confuse save) from the fleshy ceiling. Just invented it on the spot.
This was such a cool video. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be if a Viking long ship the size of a cruise liner ran ashore and started taking sh!t😂
@@AJPickett haha, I wonder if bees are aware enough to know they're being kept at any level. Like humans would eventually realize/find a pattern in the raids. "Ok, these giants seem to come *this* often, during *these* seasons"
@@dropdead234 Find some old Marvel comic issues " Tales of Asgard," then use the rule books for D&D and Star Wars. 3.5e was cools since you could pit your favorite D&D character vs Darth Vader.
Have you ever considered doing a little nugget on Harshnag? Frost giant hero who adventurers encounter in Storm King's Thunder He is a fun character for folks to encounter
Is it wrong that I literally laugh out loud when you say things like "not to mention the extra bludgeoning damage from being picked up and used as a weapon to beat your fellow party members" Absolutely slays me
I've always loved Ice Giants. They have this 'salt of the earth' element that I really enjoy. So many of the 'greater' races are planning to take over the world or some other high-minded goal. Ice Giants just wanna have fun!
Band of female frost giant bards singing Madonna song " US Girls Just Want to Have Fun. " As they rip the roof off of the tavern to get access to the barrels of ale/beer. They are not .. evil .. they just act like teenagers given their younger smaller siblings crap and a hard time.
This is amazing, thank you so much for these videos. We’ve just made an ally of a lone frost giant so this gives me a lot more insight. Also the 13th warrior is one of my favourite movies, it’s so underrated!!
@@AJPickett ahhhh that’s great! It’s so sad that the studio couldn’t resolve the differences between the two directors. Still it’s a wonderful film and probably one of my most watched ( along side Jurassic Park, Jaws and The Fifth Element ). So glad you like it!
Great video AJ. I used these giants a LOT in my campaigns. The humans that live near them usually believe in a Norse or Norse-inspired divine hierarchy. I also have some fun relative to their size to make them more intimidating and realistic. One particular Frost Giant BBE loves to grab "puny" enemies and just toss them far away or, if very heavily armored, use them as a club to whack other "puny" enemies. Can you imagine being a hero, covered in armor, leader of your party, bravely approaching the titanic blue humanoid, only to have him grab you by your legs and clobber your party with you as the club doing it? Or, you being the "boulder" he tosses at your spellcaster or precious cargo you are protecting. The party quickly snaps out of murder hobo mode and goes right into respecting the super-strong giant as if they were facing some kind of super-strong giant... because that's what giants are.
Yep, in the cloud giant video I talk about what sort of effect a fully laden merchant's caravan wagon has as a thrown missile :D the Giants Craft sourcebook goes into some detail on humanoids being used as clubs and missiles by very large giants, including a very unfair tactic where the giant simply grabs a humanoid with one hand, and then runs it through with the weapon they are carrying in their other hand, like they are shoving meat onto a skewer stick.
I loved when 3rdE came out with skill points and ranks, even when the books gave non-human-oids int penalty such as -3skill/ranks to a given race/species. It was free range custom tailer personalities with a given skill ranking. Such as rogue1/bard1 +2CR barely if that and having the skill preform( any type of given humor or insult ) at 8 ranks. With AD&D Planescape box setting and the 3rdE Manual of the Planes, the frost giants worship the one called the Trickster. So instead of running frost giants as murderous brutes the F.G will always try to pull some form of prank or insult on the other beings they meet. Since the multiclassing system has change from 3rdE along with how ever the magic system works. I will just list some prank tools/equipment they will use .. a.) Fishing pole, twice the length of the F.G. but only a ten or so foot long rope nose. Roll to hit weapon such as using a Lasso to catch a n/pc and lift them off the ground then they stick the pole in the ground and leave their victim dangling in the air about 15ft or so off the ground. To roast with a series of insults or fire cook depending on the DM story telling. b.) The F.G. have a pet skunk, honey bagger, or wolverine to skunk musk spray the PCs with. Growing up country style I know how bad skunk musk spray smells like. Once that stuff gets into your eyes a few times the pepper spray and mace law enforcement use is nothing in comparison. Your brain will shut down just not to have to deal with the smell and burning watering eyes. Granting partial blindness where everyone turns into a moving shadow mass. As for the taste of food, that doesn't return fora few days. It is not Hp dmg, but it does effect you five senses for a few days. No matter how much soap and hot water you used, psychology to your brain the stuff will not come off. Mental feed back memory will produce the .. taste .. effect for a few weeks after wards. c.) Deer snare, make a rope noose tied to a tree branch, for giants they just pull back the whole tree. As for leg/joint pull dmg, it is up to the DM. For slap stick effect. The less than common Norse stories, all the Jotun were known for play playing .. crule .. mean pranks on humans till the gods had to step in to run the Jotun off. 2.) Did a mini campaign, where a F.G little girl grade school age child ran/ sled down the mountain from the glacier to play around the human farming village and stole a wizard cape of Alter Self. Took her two days for her mother to walk her home. The gaming shop's owner daughter had an oversize stuff ferret as her imaginary friend. So you had a little girl barely 3ft tall standing on a chair looking down on the adult players pretending to be a frost giant princess holding her talking ferret which was larger than she was, with her school mates role playing fairies/pixies with wizard/cleric wands. Under handed seven year old little girl says, " Knock them down in the mud and them freeze them into place to club ! " Then watch her try five times in a row to say hyperthermia from the cold. Couple of years later, an eight year old girl wanted to role play a white dragon and told how pretty she is all the time. Along with blowing freezing air on people telling them to Chill Out. Her nine year old brother want to also play a young white dragon as a 3rd-level rogue with 6ranks in playing card games " magic the gathering." Gaming shops with a dozen grade school age children is a trip to be in. 13 year old girls role playing young red dragons with 3level of rogues are completely underhanded in their game play. Two of them tag team/flank a 28 year old player running a 13th-level paladin. The paladin was grabbed and treated as a Wish Bone and had his legs rip off.
@@AJPickett XD well if im playing Bruenor I just plant my feet and weather the storm....lol not sure how different the dwarfs from warhammer are too DnD
Frost Giants and White Dragons are each my favorite of those races. The eternal war between the Giants and the Dragons can make for some epic storytelling for Goliath and Dragonborn players if you let it. If you're interested in Giant minis, I suggest looking at the selection on offer by Reaper. Their Frost Giant minis are absolutely outstanding.
NOTE: The tactics used by Huge/Flying/Strong creatures is completely overlooked by WotC. I wrote an encounter for two Hill Giants that accounts for their ability to throw boulders called "Pull!". They simply throw the party straight up into the air for their max boulder range. Calculate THAT damage.... Giants are severely misunderstood as threats for these reasons. Hurling a guard against his own fortification would be world ending. Sweeping an axe through an entire line of guards should be possible. If a simple Hill Giant picked up one character in each hand and slammed them into each other like pots, the damage would be devastating. It would be like being hit by a car. Imagine, then, if a larger and stronger giant did so. Fire Giants should be setting forest fires before engaging with whomever lives within and so on.
I really enjoy viking settings for campaigns. The boast, and introductions are great ways of building up settings, and handing information to players, never know when a major piece of game play puzzle is offered as introduction to a worthy foe.
Absolutely. When the Frost Giant nods his head and says "Ah, I heard tale of this runts ancestor, he killed Haafstag of Hartsvale, his magic sword was buried in a cairn next to a hot spring there, they say it could split a rock with one swing and never dull its blade!" and the player is like "... Wait what? Where is that?"..... bingo.
Forgotten homebrew campaign rule, .. Back with 3e, frost giants had a high enough Charisma to have levels in the Sorcerer class, and some with the Int for a few levels of wizard. In a couple of frost giant tribal families, you were not consider an adult till you reach 4th-level as a sorcerer and can cast Alterself. The spell is not just useful to barely pass oneself of as a ogre, let alone a normal human, but to make one's self larger in combat for intimidation practice. Ran a few games of tundra alpine mountain barbarian tribes that practice ice magic that fight against dwarves and goblins, later to let my players find out they were frost giants. After a few such games as that type, when we got a new player into the shop that joke that they wanted to play a .. giant .. the DM said, " ok." As for CR, when PC get up high enough in level we re add up their HD. Such as 4d4 becomes 2d8. So once their total HD equals that of a Titan, they gain the CR of a Titan of game balance Xp gain. Mostly we went with " role " playing, and all the draw backs any half civilized giant will have living around human size buildings. Humans = dwarves. Dwarves = pain in the azz goblins. goblins = insect/ rodents. Gives the DM a chances to run the same setting with a different point of view for their players. The DM at my game shop would have one village/ town setting and run six different PC groups around a single time line till a given set of events come to pass. It gives the location a sense of history and a chance to kill off their own characters in a political power struggle.
One player back from the day," I'm not playing a sheep herding cyclopes in one of your games !" Me," Of coarse not, everyone draws around of cards for different group actions to play. The oversize beehive is placed in a chicken coup that the gnomes get to wrestle honey bees half their size. So who is up to raiding the frost giant goat cheese house ?" Remember it takes 80 years till a dwarf reaches adult hood, and when a child is born, their parents and relatives put barrels of mead, beer, and whisky up to age till that child becomes an adult. So other races want to .. tax .. raid dwarven strongholds for their booze. Don't believe me ? Just look at how humans in the real world try to tax and control alcohol over the pass three hundred years. Ever heard of the USA " Whisky Rebellion," .. ? Then you have the Marvel comics/ MCU frost giants, they control space ships and Stargates. D&D3.5e " Planar hand book," prestige class : Planeshifter, at high enough level they can do a Planar Swap where they move a few hundred sq ft from one plane to another for a full week. Which they move armies to the top levels of the lower planes for the Blood War. It all depends on how Epic of a game you want to run, and how .. mythical .. you want the giants and heroes to be in play. Frost giants may be .. evil .. but they don't want to eat or keep the skulls of .. cowards .. for trophies.
Hit the party with a Frost Giant with Sorcerer levels who kicked their butts. Upset, afterwards they asked about it, were even more upset that the CR was not way, way higher. I told them that caster levels were ‘non aligned’ (or similar term) so we’re worth 1/2. So a CR 9 Frost Giant only goes to CR 13 with 8 levels of Sorcerer. Players were even more upset, accused me of breaking the rules because there was no way that caster levels were not 1 for 1 added to any monster, etc. I pointed out that a Frost Giant with Sorcerer levels was literally the example given in the Monster Manual. They were still upset but quieted down.
@@Vahktang I started playing AD&D around thirty some years ago, been through 3.5 and even 4e which was a hot mess. There have always been problems with the monster manual. As my last gaming shop freewheeling doctrine was, " whatever makes a good story." I always like to have my monstrous humanoids with a few spellcaster levels so they can have their own unique magic items for a given story. 2.) Problems with players for the past forty years I have met, they want to kill monsters like Xp snacks and video game npc, then complain about the lack of role play story in their games. Side note on spellcaster levels, the first four levels of wizard/sorcerer of being 4d4hp with only a +2atk is so weak that they are not even worth counting as a +CR adjustment unless they have Invisibility item. Then again, I have not read through or played 5e only listen to some overviews of the game. For an 8th-level sorcerer frost giant, I given them the spell options of Polymorph Other/Self, Wall of Ice, Dispel Magic, and Fire Ball as a Freezing Sphere. Besides my DMs had .. recurring villains, so giants, dragons, and devils were never regarded as one-shot monsters to kill.
@@krispalermo8133 Your games sound awesome and I would love to play in them. But a Frost Giant caster ought to have Fire spells, since most of the most dangerous opponents would have vulnerability to that. Also, since fire would be used against him, protection from, etc spells. Add in the Searing feat to go past Fire Resistance is tres bon, too.
@@Vahktang Thank you very much. Growing up I was into a lot of myths and sadly must people limited education in the US has a mis concept of frost and fire giants due to Marvel comics and grade school Viking books. Jotun doesn't mean giant in Old Norse it meant Devourer. English mistranslation, " the fire giant feed on the forest." To Old Norse, " The fire Jotun (devour/ate) the forest." Jack azz modern people, " Those silly primitives believed forest fires were created by fire giants." Or forest fires are fire giants. Then argue over current forty years of D&D lore compare to what I had up till 2008, along with studying historic folk lore and witchcraft books. In short Forst giants are Ice/cold Elementals. D&D 4th-level spell Fire/Ice Shield creates a barrier aura around the caster protecting them from opposite elemental energy. Ice Shield protects from fire dmg. along with doing dmg to anyone grappling with said caster. Bear hug someone to ash or turn them ice solid. Other than Moth to a Flame, I have no problem of a frost giant using fire magic. Human children are taught not to .. play .. with dangerous things, and as adults become afraid of such things. 2.) On the physics of such matters, cold/freezing objects is slowing down or stripping heat from a given target. While fire/heat is speedy up creating friction within a given target or around it. Fire base attacks of thermal/heat are which that causes said target atoms/molecule to vibrate to a state of friction to vaporize itself to ash/steam vapor. So frost giant teenagers would use Cantrip/ Prestidigitation to turn a pint of water into ice then into a steam cloud follow with turning the said amount of water into a freezing mist. Frost giant elders/lich will freeze nitrogen. Ever been out past midnight during middle of winter and have your mouth go dry and start coughing cause the mucus in your throat/lungs start freezing ? Spit or take a pizz on the ground and watch it freeze within half the time it takes to smoke a cig ? So cold your eyes start to hurt. Minus -20 below zero wind shear suchs. Extreme cold cramps your muscles, at least heat/fire makes you want to run. b.) On the flip side regards to fire giants, fire elements, and fire genie they can .. cool .. heated objects consuming the thermal heat from another target. Plasma is hyper energized steam vapor, so on the plane of fire human PC travelers are breathing an atmosphere of vaporized rock ash and the lighter noble gas which humans breaths are a scorching burning hurricane of a storm. c.) Trick is creating a story around mythological elemental theme. Anyways, base on the age groups of the players, and DM/players of both sexes in their mid to late twenties can run a very raunchy game. DM, " Your wizard stumbles across a female frost giant bathing, what do you do ?" Player, " Roll initiative to run for his Life !" Female player, " Why are you running from a hot, uhmm .. I mean a Cold pair of legs ? Does she have great Legs ?" Other player, " Relax she is trying to .. eat .. you." Female player, " Come on, frost giants have high charisma. You can at least have some .. small .. talk." After a few more levels wizard learns Polymorph Self. d.) Since AD&D campaign box setting " Council of Wryms," and WotC3e with half-dragons, .. anytime a wizard/ sorcerer can cast Polymorph Self and became .. know .. for turning into a given type of dragon. Dragons will start turning up to court said spell caster to create a half-dragon as a dragon social status symbol. Somewhat like a neutral evil PC start having devil & demons showing up to recruit to the 9hells or the Abys. Thank you for writing, and hope you have a good weekend.
Frost Giants are fast ascending the ladder of my favorite D&D species! Thank you for these informative videos! I watched this twice and listening again now! I have started I'll be watching your other Giant Lore videos soon and the one on Sigil! As i am making a campaign in the frozen northeast of Faerûn, in which giants and relics of Ostoria feature prominently. Good to know my NPCs & players should at least make names & deeds of their parents & grandparents!
Frost giants, Spelljammers, 3rd edition open system d20 D&D/Star Wars. My last gaming shop did put frost giants into Iron Man power suites and invaded Star Wars.
2:25 Nah man, my take, that's how they beat the square cube law. They're stronger and faster (both physically and mentally) than they should be while also being lighter, that's the real gift of their divine progenitor. If you think about it, as they become less powerful, and descend the ordening, they become more and more bound to physics (I mean, as close as Faerun and the like approach). You go from Storm Giants and Titans (absolutely massive humanoids, who laugh at physics, and are nearly godly in their physical properties) and such, down through the Cloud (gigantic humanoids who can frequently float, and live in the sky, lighter than clouds), Fire, Ice, (massive, but basically idealized humanoids with limitations, they wield giant sized tools/weapons and live in giant sized buildings) and right around when you get to hill giants (mostly fat and hanging skin, elephantine proportions, slow both in wits, and in body, constantly eating to keep everything running, often sort of collapsing under their own weight, nearly unable to create any kind of material culture, in part because they can't eat all the time and do that stuff, weapons and clothes, if any, made from found materials) things start to begin making sense. By the time you get to ogre's you're basically at the size of the largest known apes, and you've started to be more bound to physics as we know them. Larger body, they're either sleeping, eating, or mating, or on their way to accomplish one of those. Lazy, can't waste energy, kinda slow cognitively, but still able to problem solve, and at the limits of humanoid shape, so often hunched and using the forelimbs to help with movement, they tend not to waste time thinking, so they can do some aggressive things quickly, and mostly are trying to fuel their big bodies so they can keep doing things. They're godly origins allow them to break the rules of the world (or rather, his influence allows them to reshape the laws to suit them) and as it wanes, their glory fades. Dragons? One of the other physics breaking species of divine origin, they compete for...cognitive plausible space, both of them trying to redefine the world to suit them, and place them at the top. Neither should exist, and on some level they both know it, and so there by being in conflict they both reinforce their own plausibility (if they are real enough to fight each other, the question of how they exist becomes less relevant, they exist, because the conflict exists, as it always has) and conversely seek to extinguish the other, lest they take up too much "plausibility". (This is just my take, but I think it makes some sense with the lore, intentional or not.) Also, I make this sort of "gravity is just a concept, man." thing the reason giants always have boulders, they literally carry around cool rocks, and throw them, and then they can call the rock back to their hand. I also make all giant attacks AOE, because my brain couldn't grok how the frost giant was attacking the halfling rogue in the middle of the party, and only the halfling rogue in the middle of the party, without everyone else having a bad time when an axe the size of a cart comes their way. Also, knock back, you get hit by one of these, you go flying, and they love it.
@@AJPickett Well, yeah lol, but I find it interesting how as they go down the chain, they lose the magic and become more "mundane". Frost giants sit right in the middle, and the most magical thing about them (other than being impervious to ice) is that they're basically human form functions at the scale it does.
Age of Giants was about 30k years ago. Living about 250 years, that is 120 life times. The same as putting humans back to 10k BC, when the first stone tools were being made. Not even getting into generations, there is no way a verbal history is going to have much accurate information, even with magic and divine shenanigans. Either way, fantastic video! Im working on a high-fantasy technofeudal spelljammer/space viking mecha game... that apparently needs Ice Giants now...
Giants life spans have been decreasing, so, some of the oldest giants around currently are over a thousand years old, whereas giants born now have a lifespan of some 350 years or so.
Years ago I got stuck at a game shop with a bunch of grade school age children. At lest they didn't whine like the 20 something year olds cause they can't think of what theme of game to play. Two girls & three boys, so what is there to do, ok. Thor was napping with a fishing pole and five little frost giant children run off with Thor's hammer. One of the kids, " Wait a minute, everyone knows only the Worthy can lift Thor's hammer ! So what are you trying to pull ?" Me, " Does Mjolnir said to have a spirit mind of it's own ?" Other kid, " Uh, .. hmm .. yes ? So what are you getting at ?" Me, " Mjolnir wants to play. So let your imagination run wild." So there was a story of five frost giant children flying around with the Power of Thor, as Thor sleep napping waiting to catch a fish. When Thor return to Asgard with his sad excuse for dinner, he was told some wild tales. Loki roll his eyes saying, " Why didn't .. I ... think of this ?"
Thank you Pickett. Obviously not speaking for anyone but own self, but I for one would love to see you revitalize some of your older content into your newer format. You are very talented in this medium and seem to have really hit your stride in the last 15 months or so.
Fun fact: Ice giants (Hrímþursar / jötnar) from the irl Ásatru lore aren't called that because they're made of- or have some sort of ice powers but rather because their forefather, Ýmir, was born when the primordial rime from Niflheim melted in the heat from Múspellsheim. ... And then a bunch of other people were born from his sweat... Some of which became the Ice giants.
I found your channel and I started listening to your lore videos while painting minis. The descriptions and behaviours are great inspiration for the colour schemes and bases. Thanks for all the great content 👍
To be fair, the Companions of the Hall are true heroes. Bruenor specifically is perhaps the mightiest of them all so... Spoiler: I mean his last battle was soloing a god damn Balor and a mad lich at once. Sure he was channeling Moridain's power at the time but it speaks volumes that it wasn't the Balor or the lich that felled him and indeed he won that fight, but the Primordial Fire Elemental that was raging nearby as it threw lava about. It took a raging fire god to kill him. A feat not many else can claim.
I always got the impression that frost giants were fierce but crafty - They tricked Thor and Loki a number of times. Perhaps out-tricked in kind, sure... But being able to match wits with Loki from time to time is one hell of an accomplishments.
I'm curious, is this an updated version of the Frost Giant ecology video you posted 5 years ago? Frankly, this video is differently more entertaining than the first version. Kudos to you!!
Last weekend the party I was in fought two Hill giants. My clerk was able to cast call lightning and kept blasting one of them every round because it was a random outdoor encounter. My bird kept using vicious mockery to give the other giant a disadvantage in his battles. Your videos are helping to improve me as a player.
@@billcox8870 Sometimes typos make reading a story more entertaining. An Awaken blue jay bird eating chips off the ground watches an ogre walks up to a gas station/ trading post and thinks to itself, " Ah, I now have a new victim to insult."
Back in the 1990's with 2nd E. and then in the 2000's to 2010, I ran a Marvel game using D&D rules. Plot : Rescue a one frost giant chieftain's four year old daughter from a rival frost giant clan strong hold. Characters: Thor, Spiderman, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider. Side mission for Wolverine, rescue the frost princess' play mate from a different holding area. The little princess won't leave with out her friend, her bed clothes smell just like the princess so she can be tracked down by scent. *The Catch: The princess' play mate is a stuff doll. Scene: Giant workshop. A dozen giants at work notice a lanky dwarf run through their area carrying a girl's doll and heads strait out the door on the other side. 1st giant.) I am going to check up on the children. 2nd. giant.) Ok, who spiked my water ? 3rd giant.) yeah I had enough beer. I'm with you on checking up on the kids. 4th giant waking in through the door.) Was it just me, or is their a yellow/ blue dwarf in the keep with a girl's doll ? 5th giant ) So, .. I was not seeing things ?!
Also you just have to give Logan a chance to head dive in a giant's mug of ale. End of the story, a few Xmen go to see Wolverine in his guest house/cabin outside from the Xmansion. Gambit, " Hey Wolvie what is with the barrels of beer and all the smoked beef ?" Logan," It's Ale, mead, and smoke rain deer."
The weight of giants has always been weird to me. I've had people try to explain it to me in as "Giant Humanoids need to be light or they'ed break their own bones." but that just never seemed right. Nice to know I'm not alone in thinking that Giants need to be more....giant.
Thanks. Finally it's been seven months! Why don't you like the Fey Hobgoblins? Their a lot more like the real life folklore hobgoblins then the dnd one's.
Because there is some stats and a pinch of fluff text, but where is the details on their culture, their history, the fey lords they are influenced by, the relationship between them and the goblinoid pantheon... the information is just not there, so, how is anyone going to run a character that is not just "Look at me, my nose changes colors and my hair is fluffy, wheeee!".
@@AJPickett Meaby the devs haven't figured out their place in the dnd world yet and their still trying to figure that out. One idea I come up with is that this is how they used to be before big M came and killed 3/4 of their phantion and the classic hobgoblins are the descendents of colonizers who wanet to turn the material plane into their new home but fell victim's to Mag's influence do to them being more vulnerable to it there then in the Feywilde.
@@nicolaezenoaga9756 Well, Hobgoblins started out in Greyhawk, the original AD&D setting, so, its a bit more complicated. At least your idea takes things into consideration and provides me with some interest.. the UA offering is just some mechanics and a cosplay costume.
In my Kingmaker 2e campaign I was able to get a Frost Giant to switch sides I was only able to do this because I am playing as a Jadwiga winter witch who's great grandmother is Baba Yaga so now my party has a Frost Giant as a ally
I always ran them as smarter, higher charisma (forceful personalities), and less wise than the canon - I tried to match their mental aspects to the Norse myths (instead of giant vikings, they were the vikings giants). I don't recommend doing so without letting your players know, because it REALLY messes with CR balance - (Intelligence, teamwork, and number encountered never seem to scale well IMO - it gets worse than the numbers show, faster than the numbers show) It was a fun campaign, and Icewind Dale made a great backdrop for a Norse adventure saga. (I was surprised at how little adaptation was required, it's almost "plug and play" - change the few things the myths & setting share to match the myths, and you have a near perfect Norse campaign setting with mechanics, encounters and macguffins already in place)
Hello AJ, great video! Learned more in one video about Frost Giants, than a lifetime of playing. The 13 Warrior, as you know, great movie! That movie does show how to use tribesman and how dangerous numbers can be. Wish WotC could make an adventure out of that movie. Thanks AJ, you have a great day.
hehe each of these make me remember a tv show where people were running around with " modern day giants" living life sigh late 70's,early 80's sigh i dont remember the name ,, but i still have the same questions, like would gnomes take up residence with giants as "borrowers"? and so on i know basic stuff but still helps me think of story lines
@@AJPickett i have a few who would see it as a worth challenge at least in short hit & runs for things. at least one of them would absolutely try it long term, I can already hear him" dragon bone soup all the time" he takes the mac feegle aspect to height's that would have nanny Ogg flabbergasted.
Treat white dragons as the cartoon character " Scooby Doo," Frost giants as ice /cold elementals that practice frost/cold magic that make unique magic items. Other than being raiders they are stone carvers decorating mountains with magic runes. Then throw in the gnomes as " borrowers," having a different elemental cosmic view from the Asgards. Just up scale the vermin and cattle to meet the needed CR rating for the giants to grow in class levels for their variant environment. A " Doll House," within a frost giant lair is inhabited by gnomes that baby sit and educate the giant young as their parents deal with adult affairs. From a distance your party see a group of reindeer herders, then when they get closer they realize they are now within range of the frost giant archers/slingers. Cast Reduce/Shrink on a gnome then sling cast them at a given target location, the gnomes survive the kinetic impact by a well place Feather Fall spell and land on target with both enchanted short swords/ long dagger pulled. Unless you are a gnome, dwarf, or goblin .. frost giant berry wine Is poisonous to elves, orcs and humans.
A excellent video as always aj! Keep it up! Also do you suppose frost folk/frost men could just be humans with frost giant ancestry? Also how do you think frost giant would view frost folk?🧙♂️
Not sure really, I think the Frost giants would have a smidge more respect for their ability to thrive in freezing temperatures, but, they are still just puny humans.
Based upon a cubic relationship between height and mass, assuming roughly equivalent density and proportions between humans and frost giants, using a fairly muscular 6ft, 200 lb human as the base creature, a 21 ft giant of similar build would weigh 8,575 lb. If scaled up to 24 feet, the giant would weigh 12,500 lbs.
A needle in an egg in a duck in a hare in a chest under a tree on an island? Where do I remember that from? I think there’s a monster from tomb of beasts that has that trait
@@AJPickett officially, sure. I don't like a lot of what I've seen of official 5e art, but there's such a wider fanbase that the fan-made stuff is usually really good. That said, there is that one Paizo artist that makes everything look like it's carved out of stone. I didn't like his art when he drew for 3rd edition books, and when I switched over to PF I was dismayed to see him do so much of Paizo's stuff. Just occurred to me, Paizo released an adventure path centered around Baba Yaga, and she has a lot of frost giant minions so it would make sense that there's a lot of art for them.
Currently Running water deep dragon heist leading into dungeon of the mad mage, do you have/would you do one on water deep? Or maybe the yawning portal?
Well I’m surprised the only giant word I know is Jarl. So it sounds like the best way to deal with them is pointing them in the direction of a White Dragon or trading as much raw leather that you have to them or just give it to them as an offering. Also it sounds like they don’t like electrical magic or possibly intense fire magic.
I would say yes as well, but each side is far from its prime and they know it. Also the smaller folk have proven capable of doing terrible things if threatened. So I imagine both dragons and giants are cautious eyeing all sides to see how things will play out.
Better hide that infant from the Yarls of either husleyder, because if they get their hands on it, it's dead. So, that child forces whatever parent raises it, to be effectively banished. Having that baby is seriously Maug, the child will never have any standing in the Ordning. So what would it be? Lonely.
creature weight/mass and the square/cube law - that kind of stuff never works out. Imagine the results if it did, most large creatures would turn out very different!
Let's forgive the weight miscalculation, I love D&D but it has its flaws. Let's not forget this is the same game that mistakes brigadine armor for leather with studs.
Is it wrong if I also subscribe to the esoteric notion that if humans get strong enough, they'll just become giants? NGL, it's a cool thing to imagine that the Age of Giants was really the first age of humans, and imagining the fascinating social dynamics between giants and "little ones" during peak giant culture. I bet ancient humans would have venerated giant gods, creating or finding new gods after the giants fell.
Well, there are gods with Strength as a portfolio, so, I see no reason why they would not provide the Blessing of Gigantism to such a gifted mortal. Have at it.
@@AJPickett I appreciate the suggestion! I'll probably leave out the god portfolios though. Maybe it's never been explained well to me, but that has to be my least favorite DnD lore. "Gods incorporated, CEO Ao" is something I dump from my setting even before alignment mechanics... Eh this is where my Eberron or Elder Scrolls lore gets blended into FR a bit.
@@AJPickett Not going to lie, that is better. I can get behind the circular chicken/egg interplay of the things mortals emphasize and their empathic gods who champion these notions - where it's impossible to tell whether gods champion specific ideals important to their lives, or whether they and their mythic background were formed by a culture's collective notions and ideals. Just as long as you don't have some random manager dude above the sky who says "no, you are the god of #ArbitraryThing#, don't do #OtherThing# because that's Janice's job. We can't have two gods in charge of #BreakfastCereal#!"
Biggrin? More interesting to me was the frost giantess Gerti Orelsdottir, who allied with the infamous orc warchief Obould Many-Arrows during his attempt to conquer Mithral Hall and establish a proper orc kingdom. During a heated disagreement, she attempted to kill the warchief. Obould by that time had been granted Gruumsh's direct blessing, so after dodging Gerti's blows, Obould grabbed her by the hip and flipped her. This very tall, many tons of weight woman, and he flipped her like a pancake, causing her to land very unceremoniously on her rear. She wasn't seriously hurt, but the sheer shock of the moment left her utterly stunned, and it is in large part the reason she eventually betrayed Obould to Drizzt.
You know, I never thought about this before, but are the various types of giant able to interbreed/hybridize? Coupling under normal circumstances would be incredibly rare because of the caste system of the Ordning rigidly enforcing separate cultures and societies, but with the recent events of the Ordning being dismantled because of Anam's displeasure with his children, the loss of social station from one parent and their half-breed children would be much reduced. I was thinking the child of an everlasting one frost giant and a fomorian would be quite a ghastly creature, both in terms of power and appearance.
I know this kinda out of nowhere but do the giants in pathfinder follow the same deities and the ordning(sorry about spelling)? Also, on the subject of pathfinder, are the qlippoths related to the oberyth or an offshoot or entirely different? I know in pathfinder lore qlippoths are the original inhabitants of the abyss, hate all demons, and the demons drove the qlippoths to near extinction. I also know that qlippoths can drive mortals crazy just by viewing their true forms and that they are insanely powerful.
@@AJPickett Ok, so they would not normally hunt humanoids for food, but might make an exception if very, very hungry. Makes sense. I suppose plump halflings might be especially tempting...
In my world the war between dragons and giants is back on due to both bahamut and Tiamat gaining avatars on the mortal plane. The Dragonborn and dwarves due to attacks and history with them are on the dragons side. The others are divided between giant and dragon allegiance and there is constant fighting at the boundaries of territory. And the highest treasure that can be gained is a slave giant for a dragon kept passive by a tattoo on the back of the neck or roof of the mouth. For reason of stronger magic and more troops the dragons have a distinct advantage
Being the nitpicky sort, I always wanted to know how all these great icy beasts feed themselves, especially if they live away the ocean. In a real world situation, there simply wouldn't be enough protein to sustain all the giants, ogres, white dragons, Remorhaz, etc. I know it's stupid, because, yea, it's a fantasy game, don't worry about it, but my mind often drifts to those kinds of questions when I think about ecologies in extreme environments. The same sort of thing bugs be about the spelljammer setting and the creatures found there. What in the hell forms the base of the food chain in such a place?
Remember, with gates to the plane of water that the oceans population of natural fish is virtually infinite. With a food chain base like that large predators are inevitable.
@@Zasek2112 How often are monstrous communities in remote and otherwise barren environments going to have regular access to gates to the Plane of Water, and be able to breath in water so as to go fishing there? Extreme magical solutions to the problem of no apparent food supply are fine for the occasional adventure setting, but it couldn't really explain how an entire population of creatures feed themselves in a place with an insufficient base to the food chain.
@@chadlynch1551 I'm not talking about monsterous communities having access to gates, just any gates anywhere on the ocean floor. A fantasy solution to a fantasy problem.
Frost giant bodybuilders: *hurling a screaming elf to the far horizon* "DO YOU EVEN LIFT?!?!"
5'11 vs 6ft
"The Frost-Giant's Daughter" is such a great story.
For a culture that respects strength so much I like the idea of a Frost Giant wizard. Clearly arcane spellcasting isn't that common anymore in Frost Giant society since the dragon wars, but I'd love to see a Frost Giant Frost Mage(Frostburn pg.58). It would be the ace in the hole for any tribe by backing up melee troops with summoned ice creatures, and casting devastating "ice-type" spells on enemies. Controlling the terrain of the battlefield with ice walls and freezing fog, then raining down barrage of icy magic missiles. Give it a polar bear familiar and it's a formidable threat.
I would say magic is valued, it is just not many have the talent for wizardry and have a culture of brawn. Runes, after all, originate from giants. So I imagine the rare wizard does exist but usually serves directly under a chief as an advisor. Maybe an apprentice could be adventuring as a kind of rite of passage.
Or Eldritch Knight or Bladesinger Wizard
Ah yes, one of my favourite of the Norse myths: The one with Thor in a dress.
My fav is where he is duped into lifting the midgard serpent, and drinking so much sea water the ocean lowers an inch.
@@AJPickett Yes! Come to think of it, that one has giants in it too. I wonder if that's D&D canon...
@@rubyamateurtactician4354 Has to be.
The best part of that story is when Thor throws off his disguise and starts kicking ass, having been pissed off more and more by the deception.
The compliments paid him by his increasingly nervous hosts before the big reveal are very entertaining. You can imagine a bunch of warriors telling it to raucous laughter and applause around a warm hearth, before toasting the Friend of Man and his exploits.
And somehow pulls it off
"They come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.
Well, mostly" ROFLOL
You saying we’re basically bees to giants makes me picture the “NOT THE BEES!” scene, but Nicholas Cage is a frost giant and the bees are people. It’s a very comedic image, I must say.
LOL, I don't want to be stuck in a wicker cage with angry humans, I can only imagine it would be so much worse for a giant.
"And now we pour the humans into your helmet. Ooooh, it looks like they are awfully mad. Hear that buzzing noise? (Damn giants! Ill teach you to Cage me, you bastards! Time to drain the old stinger... hey, an eyeball shaped privy!)"
"No! Not the little men! Not the puny weaklings! Not the... nice men? GAAHHH IT DIDNT WORK, THEY ARE STILL STINGING ME WITH THEIR TINY STINGERS!!!"
LOL
05 Command just added a rule that you're disallowed from attempting to create anomalies for this effect, Dr. Bright.
the only good nicolas cage movies just so happen to be the ones where he is set on fire
Thanks AJ! I love frost giants. Thrown boulder size ice balls can be a real problem!
Snowball fight from Hel. Yes, the spelling is correct.
Well the last time i was this early the dragons and giants where having a bit of a kerfuffle
Bit of a dust up, dare I say, a rather serious fray.
@@AJPickett Indeed
@@Scortch-lo3xy I'd go as far as to call it a hullabaloo.
@@Zasek2112 That is an excellent name for a home brew monster.
@@AJPickett Hulabaloo: Carnivorous plant/fungus: A deep cave dwelling fungus that grows on the ceilings and grows creepers down walls and floors, if disturbed it releases spores (poison/confuse save) from the fleshy ceiling.
Just invented it on the spot.
This was such a cool video. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be if a Viking long ship the size of a cruise liner ran ashore and started taking sh!t😂
Yep, just grab your bug out bag and run for it.
@@AJPickett haha, I wonder if bees are aware enough to know they're being kept at any level. Like humans would eventually realize/find a pattern in the raids. "Ok, these giants seem to come *this* often, during *these* seasons"
Add some modern Nordic death metal influence, and the game can almost write itself.
@@dropdead234 Find some old Marvel comic issues " Tales of Asgard," then use the rule books for D&D and Star Wars.
3.5e was cools since you could pit your favorite D&D character vs Darth Vader.
Using undead templates on giants. I had not thought of that. Wights are alright, but think of the carnage a vampire or mummy ice giant would wreck.
Yeah, they are seriously bad news.
7:37 "they dont take coins" : Don't they wanna take any metal?
its like being paid in glitter.
@@AJPickett that's fair. Nice comparison
Have you ever considered doing a little nugget on Harshnag? Frost giant hero who adventurers encounter in Storm King's Thunder
He is a fun character for folks to encounter
good call
Imagine some giant specific lycanthrope out of some of the largest beasts
Weremammoth, wereorca, werewalrus, weregiraffe, werehippo.
Read that first one wrong as Weremoth.
@@AJPickett and i thought the ones around my firepit were big
There are older edition frost giants who were dire werewolves
Is it wrong that I literally laugh out loud when you say things like "not to mention the extra bludgeoning damage from being picked up and used as a weapon to beat your fellow party members" Absolutely slays me
I always imagine Samuel l Jackson commenting on it. 😅
I've always loved Ice Giants. They have this 'salt of the earth' element that I really enjoy. So many of the 'greater' races are planning to take over the world or some other high-minded goal. Ice Giants just wanna have fun!
Band of female frost giant bards singing Madonna song " US Girls Just Want to Have Fun. "
As they rip the roof off of the tavern to get access to the barrels of ale/beer.
They are not .. evil .. they just act like teenagers given their younger smaller siblings crap and a hard time.
This is amazing, thank you so much for these videos. We’ve just made an ally of a lone frost giant so this gives me a lot more insight. Also the 13th warrior is one of my favourite movies, it’s so underrated!!
One of the best movies of ALL TIME. In fact, I am going to watch it right now...
@@AJPickett ahhhh that’s great! It’s so sad that the studio couldn’t resolve the differences between the two directors. Still it’s a wonderful film and probably one of my most watched ( along side Jurassic Park, Jaws and The Fifth Element ). So glad you like it!
Great video AJ. I used these giants a LOT in my campaigns. The humans that live near them usually believe in a Norse or Norse-inspired divine hierarchy. I also have some fun relative to their size to make them more intimidating and realistic. One particular Frost Giant BBE loves to grab "puny" enemies and just toss them far away or, if very heavily armored, use them as a club to whack other "puny" enemies. Can you imagine being a hero, covered in armor, leader of your party, bravely approaching the titanic blue humanoid, only to have him grab you by your legs and clobber your party with you as the club doing it? Or, you being the "boulder" he tosses at your spellcaster or precious cargo you are protecting. The party quickly snaps out of murder hobo mode and goes right into respecting the super-strong giant as if they were facing some kind of super-strong giant... because that's what giants are.
Yep, in the cloud giant video I talk about what sort of effect a fully laden merchant's caravan wagon has as a thrown missile :D the Giants Craft sourcebook goes into some detail on humanoids being used as clubs and missiles by very large giants, including a very unfair tactic where the giant simply grabs a humanoid with one hand, and then runs it through with the weapon they are carrying in their other hand, like they are shoving meat onto a skewer stick.
I loved when 3rdE came out with skill points and ranks, even when the books gave non-human-oids int penalty such as -3skill/ranks to a given race/species. It was free range custom tailer personalities with a given skill ranking. Such as rogue1/bard1 +2CR barely if that and having the skill preform( any type of given humor or insult ) at 8 ranks.
With AD&D Planescape box setting and the 3rdE Manual of the Planes, the frost giants worship the one called the Trickster. So instead of running frost giants as murderous brutes the F.G will always try to pull some form of prank or insult on the other beings they meet. Since the multiclassing system has change from 3rdE along with how ever the magic system works. I will just list some prank tools/equipment they will use ..
a.) Fishing pole, twice the length of the F.G. but only a ten or so foot long rope nose. Roll to hit weapon such as using a Lasso to catch a n/pc and lift them off the ground then they stick the pole in the ground and leave their victim dangling in the air about 15ft or so off the ground. To roast with a series of insults or fire cook depending on the DM story telling.
b.) The F.G. have a pet skunk, honey bagger, or wolverine to skunk musk spray the PCs with. Growing up country style I know how bad skunk musk spray smells like. Once that stuff gets into your eyes a few times the pepper spray and mace law enforcement use is nothing in comparison. Your brain will shut down just not to have to deal with the smell and burning watering eyes. Granting partial blindness where everyone turns into a moving shadow mass. As for the taste of food, that doesn't return fora few days.
It is not Hp dmg, but it does effect you five senses for a few days. No matter how much soap and hot water you used, psychology to your brain the stuff will not come off. Mental feed back memory will produce the .. taste .. effect for a few weeks after wards.
c.) Deer snare, make a rope noose tied to a tree branch, for giants they just pull back the whole tree. As for leg/joint pull dmg, it is up to the DM. For slap stick effect.
The less than common Norse stories, all the Jotun were known for play playing .. crule .. mean pranks on humans till the gods had to step in to run the Jotun off.
2.) Did a mini campaign, where a F.G little girl grade school age child ran/ sled down the mountain from the glacier to play around the human farming village and stole a wizard cape of Alter Self. Took her two days for her mother to walk her home. The gaming shop's owner daughter had an oversize stuff ferret as her imaginary friend. So you had a little girl barely 3ft tall standing on a chair looking down on the adult players pretending to be a frost giant princess holding her talking ferret which was larger than she was, with her school mates role playing fairies/pixies with wizard/cleric wands.
Under handed seven year old little girl says, " Knock them down in the mud and them freeze them into place to club ! "
Then watch her try five times in a row to say hyperthermia from the cold.
Couple of years later, an eight year old girl wanted to role play a white dragon and told how pretty she is all the time. Along with blowing freezing air on people telling them to Chill Out. Her nine year old brother want to also play a young white dragon as a 3rd-level rogue with 6ranks in playing card games " magic the gathering."
Gaming shops with a dozen grade school age children is a trip to be in. 13 year old girls role playing young red dragons with 3level of rogues are completely underhanded in their game play. Two of them tag team/flank a 28 year old player running a 13th-level paladin. The paladin was grabbed and treated as a Wish Bone and had his legs rip off.
cube square law. double the height, octupple the weight. quick low math way, x10 weight. 5 foot 200 lb human, 10 foot 2,000 lb giant, 20 foot 20,000 lb giant. just swap the zeros for random numbers and presto custom weight/height giant.
Can't argue with math.
This will be worth the listen. Im running icewind dale ! Haha
Same here!
This is how I imagine the Frost Giants in Norse Mythology would look
My favorite giants since seeing the Frazetta painting!
Do you think it would be possible for a human town to raise a orphan frost giant baby like the story of paul bunyan?
Yes.
Yes GIANTS! Fee Fi Foe Fum! I smell the blood of tiny runts!
I cannot wait to fight legions of these guys in Dark Alliance ! its going to be badass
Get used to running backwards a lot :D
@@AJPickett XD well if im playing Bruenor I just plant my feet and weather the storm....lol not sure how different the dwarfs from warhammer are too DnD
@@Troupe_Master You really want to avoid the burst area damage from the frost giant fights.
Frost giants discover bodybuilding. Us: WE ARE DOOMED!
Sir AJ Pikett yet again you have left the community in awe with you knowledge of the Dungeons & Dragons Lore thank very much Sir Pickett
Frost Giants and White Dragons are each my favorite of those races. The eternal war between the Giants and the Dragons can make for some epic storytelling for Goliath and Dragonborn players if you let it. If you're interested in Giant minis, I suggest looking at the selection on offer by Reaper. Their Frost Giant minis are absolutely outstanding.
NOTE: The tactics used by Huge/Flying/Strong creatures is completely overlooked by WotC. I wrote an encounter for two Hill Giants that accounts for their ability to throw boulders called "Pull!". They simply throw the party straight up into the air for their max boulder range. Calculate THAT damage.... Giants are severely misunderstood as threats for these reasons. Hurling a guard against his own fortification would be world ending. Sweeping an axe through an entire line of guards should be possible. If a simple Hill Giant picked up one character in each hand and slammed them into each other like pots, the damage would be devastating. It would be like being hit by a car. Imagine, then, if a larger and stronger giant did so. Fire Giants should be setting forest fires before engaging with whomever lives within and so on.
Right!? Giants are terrifying.
@@AJPickett And should be treated as such
I really enjoy viking settings for campaigns. The boast, and introductions are great ways of building up settings, and handing information to players, never know when a major piece of game play puzzle is offered as introduction to a worthy foe.
Absolutely. When the Frost Giant nods his head and says "Ah, I heard tale of this runts ancestor, he killed Haafstag of Hartsvale, his magic sword was buried in a cairn next to a hot spring there, they say it could split a rock with one swing and never dull its blade!" and the player is like "... Wait what? Where is that?"..... bingo.
Forgotten homebrew campaign rule, ..
Back with 3e, frost giants had a high enough Charisma to have levels in the Sorcerer class, and some with the Int for a few levels of wizard.
In a couple of frost giant tribal families, you were not consider an adult till you reach 4th-level as a sorcerer and can cast Alterself. The spell is not just useful to barely pass oneself of as a ogre, let alone a normal human, but to make one's self larger in combat for intimidation practice.
Ran a few games of tundra alpine mountain barbarian tribes that practice ice magic that fight against dwarves and goblins, later to let my players find out they were frost giants. After a few such games as that type, when we got a new player into the shop that joke that they wanted to play a .. giant .. the DM said, " ok."
As for CR, when PC get up high enough in level we re add up their HD. Such as 4d4 becomes 2d8. So once their total HD equals that of a Titan, they gain the CR of a Titan of game balance Xp gain. Mostly we went with " role " playing, and all the draw backs any half civilized giant will have living around human size buildings.
Humans = dwarves.
Dwarves = pain in the azz goblins.
goblins = insect/ rodents.
Gives the DM a chances to run the same setting with a different point of view for their players. The DM at my game shop would have one village/ town setting and run six different PC groups around a single time line till a given set of events come to pass. It gives the location a sense of history and a chance to kill off their own characters in a political power struggle.
One player back from the day," I'm not playing a sheep herding cyclopes in one of your games !"
Me," Of coarse not, everyone draws around of cards for different group actions to play. The oversize beehive is placed in a chicken coup that the gnomes get to wrestle honey bees half their size. So who is up to raiding the frost giant goat cheese house ?"
Remember it takes 80 years till a dwarf reaches adult hood, and when a child is born, their parents and relatives put barrels of mead, beer, and whisky up to age till that child becomes an adult. So other races want to .. tax .. raid dwarven strongholds for their booze. Don't believe me ? Just look at how humans in the real world try to tax and control alcohol over the pass three hundred years. Ever heard of the USA " Whisky Rebellion," .. ?
Then you have the Marvel comics/ MCU frost giants, they control space ships and Stargates.
D&D3.5e " Planar hand book," prestige class : Planeshifter, at high enough level they can do a Planar Swap where they move a few hundred sq ft from one plane to another for a full week. Which they move armies to the top levels of the lower planes for the Blood War.
It all depends on how Epic of a game you want to run, and how .. mythical .. you want the giants and heroes to be in play. Frost giants may be .. evil .. but they don't want to eat or keep the skulls of .. cowards .. for trophies.
Hit the party with a Frost Giant with Sorcerer levels who kicked their butts.
Upset, afterwards they asked about it, were even more upset that the CR was not way, way higher.
I told them that caster levels were ‘non aligned’ (or similar term) so we’re worth 1/2. So a CR 9 Frost Giant only goes to CR 13 with 8 levels of Sorcerer.
Players were even more upset, accused me of breaking the rules because there was no way that caster levels were not 1 for 1 added to any monster, etc.
I pointed out that a Frost Giant with Sorcerer levels was literally the example given in the Monster Manual.
They were still upset but quieted down.
@@Vahktang I started playing AD&D around thirty some years ago, been through 3.5 and even 4e which was a hot mess. There have always been problems with the monster manual. As my last gaming shop freewheeling doctrine was, " whatever makes a good story."
I always like to have my monstrous humanoids with a few spellcaster levels so they can have their own unique magic items for a given story.
2.) Problems with players for the past forty years I have met, they want to kill monsters like Xp snacks and video game npc, then complain about the lack of role play story in their games. Side note on spellcaster levels, the first four levels of wizard/sorcerer of being 4d4hp with only a +2atk is so weak that they are not even worth counting as a +CR adjustment unless they have Invisibility item. Then again, I have not read through or played 5e only listen to some overviews of the game.
For an 8th-level sorcerer frost giant, I given them the spell options of Polymorph Other/Self, Wall of Ice, Dispel Magic, and Fire Ball as a Freezing Sphere. Besides my DMs had .. recurring villains, so giants, dragons, and devils were never regarded as one-shot monsters to kill.
@@krispalermo8133 Your games sound awesome and I would love to play in them. But a Frost Giant caster ought to have Fire spells, since most of the most dangerous opponents would have vulnerability to that. Also, since fire would be used against him, protection from, etc spells. Add in the Searing feat to go past Fire Resistance is tres bon, too.
@@Vahktang Thank you very much.
Growing up I was into a lot of myths and sadly must people limited education in the US has a mis concept of frost and fire giants due to Marvel comics and grade school Viking books. Jotun doesn't mean giant in Old Norse it meant Devourer. English mistranslation, " the fire giant feed on the forest."
To Old Norse, " The fire Jotun (devour/ate) the forest." Jack azz modern people, " Those silly primitives believed forest fires were created by fire giants." Or forest fires are fire giants.
Then argue over current forty years of D&D lore compare to what I had up till 2008, along with studying historic folk lore and witchcraft books. In short Forst giants are Ice/cold Elementals. D&D 4th-level spell Fire/Ice Shield creates a barrier aura around the caster protecting them from opposite elemental energy. Ice Shield protects from fire dmg. along with doing dmg to anyone grappling with said caster. Bear hug someone to ash or turn them ice solid.
Other than Moth to a Flame, I have no problem of a frost giant using fire magic.
Human children are taught not to .. play .. with dangerous things, and as adults become afraid of such things.
2.) On the physics of such matters, cold/freezing objects is slowing down or stripping heat from a given target. While fire/heat is speedy up creating friction within a given target or around it. Fire base attacks of thermal/heat are which that causes said target atoms/molecule to vibrate to a state of friction to vaporize itself to ash/steam vapor. So frost giant teenagers would use Cantrip/ Prestidigitation to turn a pint of water into ice then into a steam cloud follow with turning the said amount of water into a freezing mist. Frost giant elders/lich will freeze nitrogen.
Ever been out past midnight during middle of winter and have your mouth go dry and start coughing cause the mucus in your throat/lungs start freezing ? Spit or take a pizz on the ground and watch it freeze within half the time it takes to smoke a cig ? So cold your eyes start to hurt. Minus -20 below zero wind shear suchs. Extreme cold cramps your muscles, at least heat/fire makes you want to run.
b.) On the flip side regards to fire giants, fire elements, and fire genie they can .. cool .. heated objects consuming the thermal heat from another target. Plasma is hyper energized steam vapor, so on the plane of fire human PC travelers are breathing an atmosphere of vaporized rock ash and the lighter noble gas which humans breaths are a scorching burning hurricane of a storm.
c.) Trick is creating a story around mythological elemental theme.
Anyways, base on the age groups of the players, and DM/players of both sexes in their mid to late twenties can run a very raunchy game.
DM, " Your wizard stumbles across a female frost giant bathing, what do you do ?"
Player, " Roll initiative to run for his Life !"
Female player, " Why are you running from a hot, uhmm .. I mean a Cold pair of legs ? Does she have great Legs ?"
Other player, " Relax she is trying to .. eat .. you."
Female player, " Come on, frost giants have high charisma. You can at least have some .. small .. talk."
After a few more levels wizard learns Polymorph Self.
d.) Since AD&D campaign box setting " Council of Wryms," and WotC3e with half-dragons, .. anytime a wizard/ sorcerer can cast Polymorph Self and became .. know .. for turning into a given type of dragon. Dragons will start turning up to court said spell caster to create a half-dragon as a dragon social status symbol. Somewhat like a neutral evil PC start having devil & demons showing up to recruit to the 9hells or the Abys.
Thank you for writing, and hope you have a good weekend.
Frost Giants are fast ascending the ladder of my favorite D&D species!
Thank you for these informative videos! I watched this twice and listening again now! I have started
I'll be watching your other Giant Lore videos soon and the one on Sigil!
As i am making a campaign in the frozen northeast of Faerûn, in which giants and relics of Ostoria feature prominently.
Good to know my NPCs & players should at least make names & deeds of their parents & grandparents!
Frost giants, Spelljammers, 3rd edition open system d20 D&D/Star Wars.
My last gaming shop did put frost giants into Iron Man power suites and invaded Star Wars.
2:25 Nah man, my take, that's how they beat the square cube law. They're stronger and faster (both physically and mentally) than they should be while also being lighter, that's the real gift of their divine progenitor. If you think about it, as they become less powerful, and descend the ordening, they become more and more bound to physics (I mean, as close as Faerun and the like approach).
You go from Storm Giants and Titans (absolutely massive humanoids, who laugh at physics, and are nearly godly in their physical properties) and such, down through the Cloud (gigantic humanoids who can frequently float, and live in the sky, lighter than clouds), Fire, Ice, (massive, but basically idealized humanoids with limitations, they wield giant sized tools/weapons and live in giant sized buildings) and right around when you get to hill giants (mostly fat and hanging skin, elephantine proportions, slow both in wits, and in body, constantly eating to keep everything running, often sort of collapsing under their own weight, nearly unable to create any kind of material culture, in part because they can't eat all the time and do that stuff, weapons and clothes, if any, made from found materials) things start to begin making sense. By the time you get to ogre's you're basically at the size of the largest known apes, and you've started to be more bound to physics as we know them. Larger body, they're either sleeping, eating, or mating, or on their way to accomplish one of those. Lazy, can't waste energy, kinda slow cognitively, but still able to problem solve, and at the limits of humanoid shape, so often hunched and using the forelimbs to help with movement, they tend not to waste time thinking, so they can do some aggressive things quickly, and mostly are trying to fuel their big bodies so they can keep doing things.
They're godly origins allow them to break the rules of the world (or rather, his influence allows them to reshape the laws to suit them) and as it wanes, their glory fades. Dragons? One of the other physics breaking species of divine origin, they compete for...cognitive plausible space, both of them trying to redefine the world to suit them, and place them at the top. Neither should exist, and on some level they both know it, and so there by being in conflict they both reinforce their own plausibility (if they are real enough to fight each other, the question of how they exist becomes less relevant, they exist, because the conflict exists, as it always has) and conversely seek to extinguish the other, lest they take up too much "plausibility".
(This is just my take, but I think it makes some sense with the lore, intentional or not.)
Also, I make this sort of "gravity is just a concept, man." thing the reason giants always have boulders, they literally carry around cool rocks, and throw them, and then they can call the rock back to their hand. I also make all giant attacks AOE, because my brain couldn't grok how the frost giant was attacking the halfling rogue in the middle of the party, and only the halfling rogue in the middle of the party, without everyone else having a bad time when an axe the size of a cart comes their way. Also, knock back, you get hit by one of these, you go flying, and they love it.
So.. "magic".
@@AJPickett Well, yeah lol, but I find it interesting how as they go down the chain, they lose the magic and become more "mundane". Frost giants sit right in the middle, and the most magical thing about them (other than being impervious to ice) is that they're basically human form functions at the scale it does.
Excellent content thank you for posting. I particularly like the section of the video, describing the bardic & boasting traditions!
Age of Giants was about 30k years ago. Living about 250 years, that is 120 life times. The same as putting humans back to 10k BC, when the first stone tools were being made.
Not even getting into generations, there is no way a verbal history is going to have much accurate information, even with magic and divine shenanigans.
Either way, fantastic video! Im working on a high-fantasy technofeudal spelljammer/space viking mecha game... that apparently needs Ice Giants now...
Giants life spans have been decreasing, so, some of the oldest giants around currently are over a thousand years old, whereas giants born now have a lifespan of some 350 years or so.
Years ago I got stuck at a game shop with a bunch of grade school age children. At lest they didn't whine like the 20 something year olds cause they can't think of what theme of game to play. Two girls & three boys, so what is there to do, ok. Thor was napping with a fishing pole and five little frost giant children run
off with Thor's hammer.
One of the kids, " Wait a minute, everyone knows only the Worthy can lift Thor's hammer ! So what are you trying to pull ?"
Me, " Does Mjolnir said to have a spirit mind of it's own ?"
Other kid, " Uh, .. hmm .. yes ? So what are you getting at ?"
Me, " Mjolnir wants to play. So let your imagination run wild."
So there was a story of five frost giant children flying around with the Power of Thor, as Thor sleep napping waiting to catch a fish.
When Thor return to Asgard with his sad excuse for dinner, he was told some wild tales.
Loki roll his eyes saying, " Why didn't .. I ... think of this ?"
3:14 thats amiri! im literally playing pathfinder kingmaker as im watching this! HA!
Thank you Pickett. Obviously not speaking for anyone but own self, but I for one would love to see you revitalize some of your older content into your newer format. You are very talented in this medium and seem to have really hit your stride in the last 15 months or so.
I really should.
@@AJPickett considering your massive body of work and the frequency and quality you always provide. At any rate. Big fan. Keep it up!
Fun fact: Ice giants (Hrímþursar / jötnar) from the irl Ásatru lore aren't called that because they're made of- or have some sort of ice powers but rather because their forefather, Ýmir, was born when the primordial rime from Niflheim melted in the heat from Múspellsheim.
...
And then a bunch of other people were born from his sweat... Some of which became the Ice giants.
What we need, and I think we will all agree with me here... is more primordial space cowbell.
@@AJPickett Yup. You took it right from the tip of my tung.
I found your channel and I started listening to your lore videos while painting minis. The descriptions and behaviours are great inspiration for the colour schemes and bases.
Thanks for all the great content 👍
I'm really enjoying the remastered giants series. The production value and organization of information have improved a lot since the old ones. 👍
WE'RE BACK TO GIANTS, BABY!!!!
They didn't set off a very good impression when Battlehammer was hacking them up like horror movie school girls.
To be fair, the Companions of the Hall are true heroes. Bruenor specifically is perhaps the mightiest of them all so...
Spoiler:
I mean his last battle was soloing a god damn Balor and a mad lich at once. Sure he was channeling Moridain's power at the time but it speaks volumes that it wasn't the Balor or the lich that felled him and indeed he won that fight, but the Primordial Fire Elemental that was raging nearby as it threw lava about. It took a raging fire god to kill him. A feat not many else can claim.
I love that I'm from Australia and this was dropped 2 hours ago
Thanks AJ.
I always got the impression that frost giants were fierce but crafty - They tricked Thor and Loki a number of times. Perhaps out-tricked in kind, sure... But being able to match wits with Loki from time to time is one hell of an accomplishments.
Mythic frost giants of the heroic outer realms yes, the backwoods yokels in northern Faerun? Not so much *makes suggestive banjo noises*
@@AJPickett lmao. Good point. Also great comparative description.
I'm curious, is this an updated version of the Frost Giant ecology video you posted 5 years ago? Frankly, this video is differently more entertaining than the first version. Kudos to you!!
Yeah, quite a difference :)
Last weekend the party I was in fought two Hill giants. My clerk was able to cast call lightning and kept blasting one of them every round because it was a random outdoor encounter. My bird kept using vicious mockery to give the other giant a disadvantage in his battles. Your videos are helping to improve me as a player.
Oops, that should be my Bard and not bird. Also my cleric and not clerk. I am glad you can read typos. LOL
@@billcox8870 Sometimes typos make reading a story more entertaining.
An Awaken blue jay bird eating chips off the ground watches an ogre walks up to a gas station/ trading post and thinks to itself, " Ah, I now have a new victim to insult."
@@krispalermo8133 I will keep that in mind ☺️ have a great day!
@@billcox8870 You are welcome, hope you had a good weekend.
@@krispalermo8133 I did. I worked as a food delivery driver made some good coin and now I'm going to relax and have a cup of tea
"HELLO BEES!!" _Jester Lavorre has entered the chat_
*casts sending* Hellooo Duke! I like your new profile pic. And like it's very nice of you to remember to mention Jester and I hope you have a-
_Fjord counting down with his fingers_
CR stands are weird
Dragon/Giant war on Toril would be great.
Gerti Orlsdottr is a great example of a frost giant mage
Back in the 1990's with 2nd E. and then in the 2000's to 2010, I ran a Marvel game using D&D rules.
Plot : Rescue a one frost giant chieftain's four year old daughter from a rival frost giant clan strong hold.
Characters: Thor, Spiderman, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider.
Side mission for Wolverine, rescue the frost princess' play mate from a different holding area. The little princess won't leave with out her friend, her bed clothes smell just like the princess so she can be tracked down by scent.
*The Catch: The princess' play mate is a stuff doll.
Scene: Giant workshop.
A dozen giants at work notice a lanky dwarf run through their area carrying a girl's doll and heads strait out the door on the other side.
1st giant.) I am going to check up on the children.
2nd. giant.) Ok, who spiked my water ?
3rd giant.) yeah I had enough beer. I'm with you on checking up on the kids.
4th giant waking in through the door.) Was it just me, or is their a yellow/ blue dwarf in the keep with a girl's doll ?
5th giant ) So, .. I was not seeing things ?!
Also you just have to give Logan a chance to head dive in a giant's mug of ale.
End of the story, a few Xmen go to see Wolverine in his guest house/cabin outside from the Xmansion.
Gambit, " Hey Wolvie what is with the barrels of beer and all the smoked beef ?"
Logan," It's Ale, mead, and smoke rain deer."
So excited to have this remastered, been waiting on this one! Thank you!
This video reconfirms my love for Amiri. Giant evil vikings are terrifying.
Awesome as always AJ
The weight of giants has always been weird to me. I've had people try to explain it to me in as "Giant Humanoids need to be light or they'ed break their own bones." but that just never seemed right. Nice to know I'm not alone in thinking that Giants need to be more....giant.
If you follow the physics strictly speaking giants would very swiftly overheat and die from being cooked from the inside out.
I think it could be chalked up to gravity. Perhaps gravity is lighter in D&D worlds than earth.
@@AJPickett I figured there was a reason the bigger Giants tend to stick to boreal environments, with the exception of Fire Giants.
@@zenvariety9383 But people and other animals that exist on Earth and Toril weigh the same, so gravity is probably equivalent.
@@Im-Not-a-Dog Its not gravity, its metabolic.
Awesome stuff. Thanks.
Thanks.
Finally it's been seven months!
Why don't you like the Fey Hobgoblins? Their a lot more like the real life folklore hobgoblins then the dnd one's.
Because there is some stats and a pinch of fluff text, but where is the details on their culture, their history, the fey lords they are influenced by, the relationship between them and the goblinoid pantheon... the information is just not there, so, how is anyone going to run a character that is not just "Look at me, my nose changes colors and my hair is fluffy, wheeee!".
@@AJPickett Meaby the devs haven't figured out their place in the dnd world yet and their still trying to figure that out.
One idea I come up with is that this is how they used to be before big M came and killed 3/4 of their phantion and the classic hobgoblins are the descendents of colonizers who wanet to turn the material plane into their new home but fell victim's to Mag's influence do to them being more vulnerable to it there then in the Feywilde.
@@nicolaezenoaga9756 Well, Hobgoblins started out in Greyhawk, the original AD&D setting, so, its a bit more complicated. At least your idea takes things into consideration and provides me with some interest.. the UA offering is just some mechanics and a cosplay costume.
@@AJPickett Thanks
In my Kingmaker 2e campaign I was able to get a Frost Giant to switch sides I was only able to do this because I am playing as a Jadwiga winter witch who's great grandmother is Baba Yaga so now my party has a Frost Giant as a ally
11:16 you made my day! just the conzept if powerlifing giants that do insta pics with there buddy! xD
I always ran them as smarter, higher charisma (forceful personalities), and less wise than the canon - I tried to match their mental aspects to the Norse myths (instead of giant vikings, they were the vikings giants). I don't recommend doing so without letting your players know, because it REALLY messes with CR balance - (Intelligence, teamwork, and number encountered never seem to scale well IMO - it gets worse than the numbers show, faster than the numbers show)
It was a fun campaign, and Icewind Dale made a great backdrop for a Norse adventure saga. (I was surprised at how little adaptation was required, it's almost "plug and play" - change the few things the myths & setting share to match the myths, and you have a near perfect Norse campaign setting with mechanics, encounters and macguffins already in place)
So, Frost Giants are actually Huge, Ice Viking Marauders...?
Pretty much.
Hello AJ, great video! Learned more in one video about Frost Giants, than a lifetime of playing. The 13 Warrior, as you know, great movie! That movie does show how to use tribesman and how dangerous numbers can be. Wish WotC could make an adventure out of that movie.
Thanks AJ, you have a great day.
Love the video. Would love to see you finish redoing the giants series
hehe each of these make me remember a tv show where people were running around with " modern day giants" living life sigh late 70's,early 80's sigh i dont remember the name ,, but i still have the same questions, like would gnomes take up residence with giants as "borrowers"? and so on i know basic stuff but still helps me think of story lines
Those would be some extremely brave/stupid gnomes :D
@@AJPickett i have a few who would see it as a worth challenge at least in short hit & runs for things. at least one of them would absolutely try it long term, I can already hear him" dragon bone soup all the time" he takes the mac feegle aspect to height's that would have nanny Ogg flabbergasted.
Treat white dragons as the cartoon character " Scooby Doo,"
Frost giants as ice /cold elementals that practice frost/cold magic that make unique magic items. Other than being raiders they are stone carvers decorating mountains with magic runes.
Then throw in the gnomes as " borrowers," having a different elemental cosmic view from the Asgards.
Just up scale the vermin and cattle to meet the needed CR rating for the giants to grow in class levels for their variant environment.
A " Doll House," within a frost giant lair is inhabited by gnomes that baby sit and educate the giant young as their parents deal with adult affairs.
From a distance your party see a group of reindeer herders, then when they get closer they realize they are now within range of the frost giant archers/slingers.
Cast Reduce/Shrink on a gnome then sling cast them at a given target location, the gnomes survive the kinetic impact by a well place Feather Fall spell and land on target with both enchanted short swords/ long dagger pulled.
Unless you are a gnome, dwarf, or goblin .. frost giant berry wine Is poisonous to elves, orcs and humans.
Great stuff as always AJ love the videos i dont get to play D&D much these days but the lore is fascinating
What kind of caster class would a frost giant be, a druid of the artic circle?
jeeZ. makes you wonder: what else arent they telling us, you know?
For many things they are not telling you, check out MrRheXx's D&D lore videos :)
A excellent video as always aj! Keep it up! Also do you suppose frost folk/frost men could just be humans with frost giant ancestry? Also how do you think frost giant would view frost folk?🧙♂️
Not sure really, I think the Frost giants would have a smidge more respect for their ability to thrive in freezing temperatures, but, they are still just puny humans.
Based upon a cubic relationship between height and mass, assuming roughly equivalent density and proportions between humans and frost giants, using a fairly muscular 6ft, 200 lb human as the base creature, a 21 ft giant of similar build would weigh 8,575 lb. If scaled up to 24 feet, the giant would weigh 12,500 lbs.
Yeah, but they are on Keto, so...
A needle in an egg in a duck in a hare in a chest under a tree on an island? Where do I remember that from? I think there’s a monster from tomb of beasts that has that trait
Folklore
@@AJPickett which one
@@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar Koschei I think, the needle is in an egg, in a duck, in a rabbit, in a chest under a tree on an island in that
I see a lot of Pathfinder art in this video!
Paizo has better artists... there, I said it.
@@AJPickett officially, sure. I don't like a lot of what I've seen of official 5e art, but there's such a wider fanbase that the fan-made stuff is usually really good.
That said, there is that one Paizo artist that makes everything look like it's carved out of stone. I didn't like his art when he drew for 3rd edition books, and when I switched over to PF I was dismayed to see him do so much of Paizo's stuff.
Just occurred to me, Paizo released an adventure path centered around Baba Yaga, and she has a lot of frost giant minions so it would make sense that there's a lot of art for them.
Well for bees, we make homes for them and make sure they are safe and healþy
Also we don't eat the bees themselves
Good video AJ
Currently Running water deep dragon heist leading into dungeon of the mad mage, do you have/would you do one on water deep? Or maybe the yawning portal?
I can look into it for you.
These frost giants needs to chill
Been needing this to know how they would react to a certain in game event good thing I've been doing it right
Well I’m surprised the only giant word I know is Jarl. So it sounds like the best way to deal with them is pointing them in the direction of a White Dragon or trading as much raw leather that you have to them or just give it to them as an offering. Also it sounds like they don’t like electrical magic or possibly intense fire magic.
The Ordening is broken, the Dracorage Mythal is broken. Has the time of their age old war come again?
*shakes magic eight ball of Mordenkainen* Most likely Yes.
I would say yes as well, but each side is far from its prime and they know it. Also the smaller folk have proven capable of doing terrible things if threatened. So I imagine both dragons and giants are cautious eyeing all sides to see how things will play out.
WereOrcas and WereSeals, I would like to know more.
Indeed, tell us more about how one can become sea doggo.
What happens if a frost giant and a flame giant have a baby together? What would it be?
Super strong ettin, half fire half ice.
Better hide that infant from the Yarls of either husleyder, because if they get their hands on it, it's dead. So, that child forces whatever parent raises it, to be effectively banished. Having that baby is seriously Maug, the child will never have any standing in the Ordning. So what would it be? Lonely.
@@AJPickett or a start of a new giant race.
@@AJPickett but it would be fun to have in a campaign!
YAY I SAY UNTO THEE: *NEVER LET MECHANICS OR EXISTING LORE STAND IN THE WAY OF FUN AT THE GAMING TABLE!*
Should probably scale up the weights of large creatures in D&D but how far do we fight fantasy? Creatures of this size rarely existed for reasons.
creature weight/mass and the square/cube law - that kind of stuff never works out. Imagine the results if it did, most large creatures would turn out very different!
Yep, Giants would overheat and die very quickly.
Let's forgive the weight miscalculation, I love D&D but it has its flaws. Let's not forget this is the same game that mistakes brigadine armor for leather with studs.
Ice giants are actually very interesting... Especially the troll eating lol.
Is it wrong if I also subscribe to the esoteric notion that if humans get strong enough, they'll just become giants? NGL, it's a cool thing to imagine that the Age of Giants was really the first age of humans, and imagining the fascinating social dynamics between giants and "little ones" during peak giant culture. I bet ancient humans would have venerated giant gods, creating or finding new gods after the giants fell.
Well, there are gods with Strength as a portfolio, so, I see no reason why they would not provide the Blessing of Gigantism to such a gifted mortal. Have at it.
@@AJPickett I appreciate the suggestion! I'll probably leave out the god portfolios though. Maybe it's never been explained well to me, but that has to be my least favorite DnD lore. "Gods incorporated, CEO Ao" is something I dump from my setting even before alignment mechanics...
Eh this is where my Eberron or Elder Scrolls lore gets blended into FR a bit.
@@monsieurdorgat6864 Portfolios are simply "Things that mortals put a lot of belief into that gods can draw power from", if that helps.
@@AJPickett Not going to lie, that is better. I can get behind the circular chicken/egg interplay of the things mortals emphasize and their empathic gods who champion these notions - where it's impossible to tell whether gods champion specific ideals important to their lives, or whether they and their mythic background were formed by a culture's collective notions and ideals.
Just as long as you don't have some random manager dude above the sky who says "no, you are the god of #ArbitraryThing#, don't do #OtherThing# because that's Janice's job. We can't have two gods in charge of #BreakfastCereal#!"
How much would it pics off a giant if you shrunk them with Reduce? It's too bad reduce only shrinks by one size category.
Oh, they would be very upset about that.
"Kostchtchie" = either "KO-shay" or "ko-SHEE-chee" depending on what part of early-medieval Russia you're in.
Could you type out the name of the demon who refuses to accept he is one? I would love to do more research on him.
Kostchtchie
Biggrin? More interesting to me was the frost giantess Gerti Orelsdottir, who allied with the infamous orc warchief Obould Many-Arrows during his attempt to conquer Mithral Hall and establish a proper orc kingdom. During a heated disagreement, she attempted to kill the warchief. Obould by that time had been granted Gruumsh's direct blessing, so after dodging Gerti's blows, Obould grabbed her by the hip and flipped her. This very tall, many tons of weight woman, and he flipped her like a pancake, causing her to land very unceremoniously on her rear. She wasn't seriously hurt, but the sheer shock of the moment left her utterly stunned, and it is in large part the reason she eventually betrayed Obould to Drizzt.
You know, I never thought about this before, but are the various types of giant able to interbreed/hybridize? Coupling under normal circumstances would be incredibly rare because of the caste system of the Ordning rigidly enforcing separate cultures and societies, but with the recent events of the Ordning being dismantled because of Anam's displeasure with his children, the loss of social station from one parent and their half-breed children would be much reduced. I was thinking the child of an everlasting one frost giant and a fomorian would be quite a ghastly creature, both in terms of power and appearance.
Hi Aj how are you it has been a while since I commented, how is your day going this fine weekend how do you feel are you stressed or happy
I'm great thanks Mr Cy
I know this kinda out of nowhere but do the giants in pathfinder follow the same deities and the ordning(sorry about spelling)? Also, on the subject of pathfinder, are the qlippoths related to the oberyth or an offshoot or entirely different? I know in pathfinder lore qlippoths are the original inhabitants of the abyss, hate all demons, and the demons drove the qlippoths to near extinction. I also know that qlippoths can drive mortals crazy just by viewing their true forms and that they are insanely powerful.
Sorry, Pathfinder is not my area of expertise.
Hmm? I never heard of any giant eating humanoids, except maybe Hill Giants. Yes, I can totally see a Hill Giant eating basically anything.
Frost giants rarely do... but they are pragmatic and have food requirements 11 times greater than a human.
@@AJPickett Ok, so they would not normally hunt humanoids for food, but might make an exception if very, very hungry. Makes sense. I suppose plump halflings might be especially tempting...
@@SebastienlovesCookieswirlc Halflings are more likely to get eaten, yes, they have a well-deserved reputation for tasting delicious.
Well, it is the halflings fault for seasoning themselves. It is like sitting a steak before a wolf and expecting that steak to still be there.
13th warrior good movie seen it at the movie theaters in the first came out
Frost giant gym bro's. I can't unsee it.
Stay frosty
In my world the war between dragons and giants is back on due to both bahamut and Tiamat gaining avatars on the mortal plane. The Dragonborn and dwarves due to attacks and history with them are on the dragons side. The others are divided between giant and dragon allegiance and there is constant fighting at the boundaries of territory. And the highest treasure that can be gained is a slave giant for a dragon kept passive by a tattoo on the back of the neck or roof of the mouth. For reason of stronger magic and more troops the dragons have a distinct advantage
Had to chuckle with the were seals. Anyone got a club +3 Vs .....
Being the nitpicky sort, I always wanted to know how all these great icy beasts feed themselves, especially if they live away the ocean. In a real world situation, there simply wouldn't be enough protein to sustain all the giants, ogres, white dragons, Remorhaz, etc. I know it's stupid, because, yea, it's a fantasy game, don't worry about it, but my mind often drifts to those kinds of questions when I think about ecologies in extreme environments.
The same sort of thing bugs be about the spelljammer setting and the creatures found there. What in the hell forms the base of the food chain in such a place?
I have the answer to this question coming very soon... look for the Ripplebark video when I upload it.
Remember, with gates to the plane of water that the oceans population of natural fish is virtually infinite. With a food chain base like that large predators are inevitable.
@@Zasek2112 How often are monstrous communities in remote and otherwise barren environments going to have regular access to gates to the Plane of Water, and be able to breath in water so as to go fishing there? Extreme magical solutions to the problem of no apparent food supply are fine for the occasional adventure setting, but it couldn't really explain how an entire population of creatures feed themselves in a place with an insufficient base to the food chain.
@@chadlynch1551 I'm not talking about monsterous communities having access to gates, just any gates anywhere on the ocean floor. A fantasy solution to a fantasy problem.
so these giants should not be let with near the internet at all.
Absolutely not.
@@AJPickett At least they might eat some of the trolls. 🤣
@@Zasek2112 especially the ones that rant about social justice who are lawful evil and relish in destroying others with tyranny.
@@zenvariety9383 *sprays D20 flavoured air freshener* eww, politics.
Where did you get the pictures, I need some for my game. Would really appreciate the site or archive.
Mainly sites like Artstation, where you can kink back to the artists gallery of work with the names on the screen.