Mountain Men Of D&D- Goliath| What Does Your Races Say About You

[@SuperDJBling]

My current PC is a Goliath Paladin. Being 8.5ft tall and covered in full plate, there was a situation where in a meeting with a gnome scientist they initially thought I was a small iron golem.

[@Nightmare704RY]

I did a Goliath fighter with two long swords and full plate... he died when got pistoff bi his lich boss and suplex her head into a bucked full of wather (I'm not joking here!)

[@rowandandrea6449]

Goliath is one of my favorite races. in my current game I have been playing a Goliath paladin hermit. he is very friendly to everyone and would describe himself as a healer and not a fighter. when it comes to fighting the "higher" races like human and elves he tries to persuade or intimidate them to not fight. he ended up being the glue for the group. and the leader.

[@sonichalo1527]

the greatest example of a goliath is Grog from Critical role. Also due to his belt he is one of the only goliaths to ever have a beard

[@thefracturedbutwhole5475]

Yeah, i like the fact how the party thought Grog was really savage and brutal (he is) but then they ran into his old tribe and realized he is a cuddly teddy bear in comparison

[@Tywoo]

My Goliath always keeps a tally of the party's kills and treats everything as a competition.

[@Nerdarchy]

Cool. Very goliath like. Nerdarchist Dave

[@joshuafogg6600]

Very Dwarf-like too. Example: Gimli.

[@rustyshovel7179]

*kills tarrasque* IT STILL ONLY COUNTS AS ONE!

[@nathankelley1466]

My first Goliath NPC is a storm sorcerer. It is a pretty cool class/race mix.

[@jestingknight1008]

i play as a Goliath monk named Tiny who was abandoned at birth and raised by halflings. what's that say about me?

[@necromancer0616]

THE MARK MAN! Bout time bro! Good to see ya!

[@KurNorock]

I have a Goliath character in 3.5 rules. I don't remember if it was in the books or if I just made it up, but the Goliath clans read the body markings of infants to sort of predict their fate. In this way, goliaths are sort of assigned jobs and duties in the tribe as they grow up. My character had very abnormal markings and was designated as being "ill fated" meaning that once he was of age, he would become a danger to the tribe. So he was kicked out of the tribe as soon as he was old enough to be expected to fend for himself.

[@burlyd310]

7:40 Thank you, from now on all my Goliaths are going to do a Slav Swat when they're relaxing or trying to look inconspicuous

[@cammacd6426]

Hey Nerdarchy, I wanted to mention that one of the main draws to your channel in the beginning was the artwork you guys have for your video's screenshot, when you're seeing your videos on the menu or sidebar. I noticed it never shows up in your actual videos (I've clicked on them hoping to just see that art closer). Maybe you can find a way to add it in somewhere? Either way, you guys do some really great work and I watch your uploads almost everyday. Thanks so much for everything you guys do for all of your listeners!

[@andyroobrick-a-brack9355]

In my DnD inspired world, Goliaths have two cultures, the typical nomadic tribes, and the domestic, colony based tribes. Colonies typically work with Dwarves, digging tunnels into the mountains and surviving off of ranching and occasionally farming (if their magic is advanced enough, as the air in the mountains is quite weird). The typical stationary colony often follows a monotheistic religion of some kind, along the lines of a Judeo-Christian monastery. These are protected a group of soilders, typically paladins, in case of an invasion. The most common of these religion is Kavakianism, a religion worshipping the Goliath creator, Kavaki. Similar to many Christian monesteries, they usually have a sense of Mercy to the weak, as well as a huge enphesisis on honor and justice. Given their living situation, they can take care of the weak and dying more than a nomadic tribe. Essentially, it's a mix between a Christian Monestary and House Stark from Game of Thrones

[@mcparks1968]

My goliath has a clubfoot and was abandoned in the forest near a lizardfolk lounge, and instead of being eaten, he was adopted and is being raised to be their druid leader, he is currently questing to defeat his natural father in battle to show he is worthy of leading the lizardfolk.

[@AutobotOrso91296]

I'm running as a Goliath Bloodhunter in my friend's game, and I'm playing him as a sort of Witcher/Vampire hunter character. he's pretty brutal.

[@jamescarr9347]

My goliath is like Fezzik from the Princess Bride. He is gentle until he is angered or attacked. He is the blunt instrument of the party.

[@lordeppiothe1]

i'm playing a goliath druid atm, he's like a shaman wearing this giant bear pelt, he has an affinity with megafauna like giant elk, mammoth dire wolf etc. i really enjoy it. kind of a mix between far cry primal and beorn from the hobbit.

[@kylelikeskjvbible]

I made a level one goliath in a new 4e campaign and hes so damn strong, its crazy. one of his at wills is 1w+1d8+Str modifier. as a mainly 5th edition player, this level one guy is a monster compared to the moves of how I remembered my early 5e characters were.

[@clericofchaos1]

I think they're cool. they actually had to resize medium to fit in the goliaths. I think the official size now is like 9'9 or 9'10. I know that a "Large" creatures take up a 10x10 square, so I think the new cut off is somewhere close to 10ft. personality wise, they remind me of the giants from skyrim. normally peaceful creatures but prefer to be left alone, and have a love for competition amongst one another. When I play one, I play it kind of like Drax the destroyer from guardians of the galaxy. no understanding of things like sarcasm or metaphors. that usually ends up being funny.

[@Nerdarchy]

That is kind of how I view them as well. Nerdarchist Dave

[@1Okoya1]

Actually if you look at the difference between Half Ogres which are large and Goliaths which are medium the difference is in the weight , half ogres are on average 100 lbs more than a goliath , my big issue with Goliaths as presented as well as Ogres/half ogres , is their weight should be far closer to the 500 lb mark , look at any real life athlete that could stand in for a Goliath , Shaq is 7'1" and 325 lbs ...a full foot or more shorter than a goliath , while Andre the Giant or Big Show are both 500+ lbs , both of which are still at least a foot shorter than the average 8ft tall Goliath

[@trequor]

The Elemental Evil player's companion states a max height of 8 feet, keeping them just barely within medium.

[@trequor]

I mean it is fantasy, but in keeping with realism I always imagined goliaths as being very lanky. Andre the Giant is enormously girthy. Goliath's even appear very lithe in the photos

[@ARH8585]

I play a goliath barbarian named Trexxx who had deflected a dominate spell and occasionally has genius thoughts then reverts to his "normal" thinking self...

[@Sunseaker-tg9xb]

My first 5th Goliath was nick named Freedom hammer. a criminal, fighter, battlemaster, cg. very strong tuf and a decent dex but strait on mentals haha so much fun. tho he always new the most abcure knowledge.(always nat20 on knowledge check) he was very open and curious. lots of trouble. one of my favorite races feels like me.

[@Candid1ify]

Personally I believe the competitive nature, would come out especially with Fighter types. Rogues, Wizards , Sorcerers, unless the Goliath is one would have the most difficult time with them.

[@citycrusher9308]

Rather than have these non-human races with less diverse personalities, it's better to have offshoots of the human race that are affected by other worldly energies. Example: Rather than elves, have men who live near a fey portal take on elf-like qualities. Roll on a random table for unusual features such as - small size, pointed ears, rare eye color, etc. Goliaths can have so much more versatility as human beings affected by proximity to an elemental plane. 1) enlarged size 2) dense body 3) hard skin 4) resist temperature extremes and so forth. While you retain the versatility of personality that human beings have.

[@thefracturedbutwhole5475]

I hate the fact that pretty much every player race is compared to Humans, and making everything an off-shoot of regular Humans is just lazy and restrictive IMO . . . i would rather come up with an interesting personality and back-story than cop-out and say they are just a variant of Human

[@citycrusher9308]

The Fractured But Whole But it wouldn't be lazy. Dwarves, for example have a more rigid personality type, which is already a human variant. Goliaths and half-orcs suffer the same restrictions. It's very difficult to come up with a truly original non-human personality. This idea allows for much greater versatility to both appearance and personality while keeping the human race fun to play.

[@thefracturedbutwhole5475]

Trevor Cormier the Human is already fun, there is plenty of inspirational material out there to help you there is nothing wrong with playing a Human that is from high up the Mountains and just using Goliath Stats, but saying it is too difficult to come up with with an original idea is nonsense, how do you know what a type of people (i mean IRL Humans) that are reclusive and very rarely interact with other peoples are really like in the first place? you just think "what would i be like if i lived in the mountains?" which is a restrictive way of thinking just inserting yourself into a character IMO that is not role-playing it is just 'playing' for a quick example of the top of my head; if i were to play an Elf that needed to get something done (whatever they may be) i would think "how would i do this effectively" and then i would think of a way to do it that made sense but didn't take into account any of the things i initially thought of . . . . to me that makes a more memorable character than thinking up a character concept or something and trying to make it more Human-like

[@citycrusher9308]

The Fractured But Whole But they are more human like already. There is nothing particularly non-human about the dwarven personality. There are real life human beings that have similar personality traits to fictional dwarves. And if human beings were so fun to play you wouldn't see so many people choose other more exotic races. Check out the video game World of war craft. Look at that world flooded with every race except human beings. They are the least likely race to be played. And if D&D players were polled, it wouldn't surprise me if that turned out to be the case also.

[@flametitan100]

My goliath fighter (Champion) for AL took the "fair play" part of the write up a little too seriously and ends up challenging *everyone* to honourable 1v1 duels.

[@jeffreylucier5266]

almost 20k boys! woot woot

[@wingnut1917]

Working on a Goliath right now Think going go Ranger

[@trealford4990]

My current party has two Goliath’s a smaller Druid and mine the massive barbarian that always treaded the smaller one bad bc he viewed him as to weak to live

[@jimmycryptids]

How could one roleplay a medium-sized (15') frost giant that uses a modified goliath stat set? Any hints? Any tips? Classes or personality traits?

[@joelthune17]

You know, I feel like humans should bend towards neutrality as well, a lot of people assume humans would be good, but I'm not too sure they should. I feel that if neutrality is acting for yourself and your own humans generally fit into that category.

[@voltron736]

With a gnome companion, they could form master blaster and rule barter toen

[@MastertheGamerpg]

I love Goliaths but my players never choose them.

[@thefracturedbutwhole5475]

They are my go to race for a Fighter or Barbarian character . . . a totem of the Bear Goliath Barbarian is probably the most physically strong character you can make, they can nearly match an actual Giant with the amount they can lift and carry etc...

[@jameva1061]

I like a play him like a Conan the Barbarian type character

[@davidshay7280]

I've made three different Goliath characters.

[@trequor]

I had a bear totem Bardbarian. Enlarge+bear totem+powerful build is just insane. Something like 2600lbs carry weight, 5200lbs lifting capacity.

[@joshuafogg6600]

Just wondering, but do you guys know if Selkies are an available Race or no?

[@gregoryfloriolli9031]

I have the same feeling about Goliaths that I have about Tieflings and that is that they are more interesting as a rare one-off rather than as a whole race. I've never liked the look and feel of the Goliath culture. I'd rather the character be some sort of union between a human and giant, obviously with magic involved. Then the Goliath could either be a runt raised among Giants or a giant raised among humans. If the character has magical abilities, it could be because they inherited that from one of their parents.

[@rogerfarley7823]

I have a player playing a goliath barbarian. They make a good alternative to a half-orc barbarian.

[@Nerdarchy]

Yea those two are kind of interchangeable in my opinion. Nerdarchist Dave

[@rogerfarley7823]

+Nerdarchy we flavored his as a low-level, half storm giant. skin color, etc, but no powers per se, and allowed him to use the ordning as his faction

[@Boarian]

They were introduced in Dark Sun I believe.

[@Boarian]

Nope, it was Half Giant in Dark Sun.

[@Nerdarchy]

Boarian Hah, I don't remember if we said this in the vid, but my first recollection of them was a 3rd ed. Psionics Handbook. -Nerdarchist Ryan

[@Boarian]

Ryan, I'll have to take the fifth on that one. I played old school 1st and 2nd edition. Then I moved away from gaming for a long while, but I have returned for 5th edition. Plus a few forays into Pathfinder, which I find a bit too over structured. However, I'm loving your guys' videos and getting some nice insights into how other people run games and handle particular situations.I do find myself talking to the screen on occasion when I disagree, but that's more a sign of old age I think. LOL.

[@tyler111762]

man....i need dave as a beard mentor. i can only get mutton chops and a crustache

[@Nerdarchy]

Check out beard brand on KZbin. Nerdarchist Dave

[@Nerdarchy]

or is it urban beardsman? Nerdarchist Dave

[@DummyUrD]

half giants were originally introduced in dark sun

[@plotholedetective4166]

norse is a good source for Goliath material but so are the tutsie people of africa whom are known for being the tallest tribe of people's in africa. also the Amazonians are a good inspiration.

[@petertumminaro4528]

Use these stats to make him a Minotaur.

[@varietasVeritas]

Link for goliath?

[@Nerdarchy]

Forgot it but it's free from wotc. Nerdarchist Dave

[@thefracturedbutwhole5475]

I got ya - media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/EE_PlayersCompanion.pdf

[@varietasVeritas]

THANKS!

[@danpit2001]

i played mine as super lawfull in every new situation he always asked what is the rule for this? the sorc always had fun with it IE: no no!!! pinkie out and slurp the tea

[@bf7592]

Best race. End of story.

[@RoundRobin0]

A mere Goliath trying to out do the daughter of the Wolf? I doubt that.

[@thefracturedbutwhole5475]

what is "the daughter of the Wolf"?

[@Whatifthisistrue]

I feel like these guy's hate doing plugs for advertisement's. Every plug is always so shamefully awkward.

[@underfire987]

yea again the alignment system in DND I just freaking hate it, so stupid and outdated to paint worlds and settings as black and white, a true sign of weak story telling / writing. but that is just the area DnD and several RPGs tend to get stuck in. lol I just want my Gnolls lol without having to house rule them.