The Problem with Giants in D&D

[@pointyhatstudios]

Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum 😤

[@Latverian-Citizen-8172]

I smell the blood of an English man

[@spacybird606]

I wanna watch your pet man child green screen his ass up a bean stalk IMMEDIATELY!

[@spacybird606]

I wanna watch your human familiar green screen up a bean stalk NOW!

[@minraxbeasimp1976]

@@Latverian-Citizen-8172Be he alive, or be he dead

[@magmati55]

​@@minraxbeasimp1976I'll grind his bones to make my bread

[@gunplasm86]

Missed opportunity to title the video "D&D's Giant Problem"

[@Corvus-Xoriat]

he can change the title.

[@HoodSamurai300]

That would have been wicked

[@sunshines4898]

Dangit

[@diageesen4468]

YEAH

[@keiroty7187]

Hilarious

[@yoshikoizumi7851]

Random plot idea: Earth is a Collossus woman named Gaia who grew so large she became a Planet herself, with her daughter Luna randomly breaking off of her when she herself grew big enough living on/in her mother. Centuries later Gaia wakes up, not feeling the touch of her daughter anymore and uses her gravitational field to pull Luna back into her loving embrace. the players, feeling the energy shifting the moons movement have to either stop this reunion from happening or find another way to save the lives of everything living on the Planet

[@jotunr]

Make it an imminent collision, three days from the start of the campaign, but also give the players a handy heavenly artifact that resets time to the dawn of the first of the three days, now they have to rush to get the mcguffins that'll awaken the other sleeping colossi on the planet to stop the crash, also the BBEG has a cool cursed mask.

[@NoahOMorainRush]

Ngl that story prompt is sick as FUCK

[@digitaljanus]

​@@jotunr A majora-ly cursed mask? 😊

[@Jest1447]

"Luna come here for a second."

[@keiroty7187]

That’s pretty much Greek mythology

[@ShadestheMothman]

Planet giants are NOT where I thought this video was going but I love it. I’m taking that for my homebrew setting immediately

[@asurafire5386]

Othea being like: “is it me? Am I the drama? I don’t think I’m the drama… Maybe I am. Am I the villain? I don’t think I’m the villain.”

[@uzunaruMelonness]

"Othea! Piper down. Some of us are working ere!" The Fire giant turns towards the raging wildfire. "As I was saying Logi, dis dragon claimed to burn down that orrest. Could you image dat?" The Wildfire howls, "That nerve of that lizard! I was there! I was the fire!" "Yeah, I know..."

[@drewforchic9083]

There are enough giants with Flying Castles in various settings that the idea that the floating rock they're on is actually one of their ancestors is pretty fun.

[@jonasscheftner8545]

that makes the term "ancestral home" take on a new meaning. it's a good idea

[@cosmonaut2684]

14:40 The reason why the 5th edition art of Firbolgs is so weird is because its depicting a subrace called fey touched firbolg, in older editions all firbolg art depicted them as just tall men.

[@NoahOMorainRush]

I thought the 5e firbolgs felt vaguely fey-themed! They seem so out of place otherwise but I love them anyway

[@Filloax]

​@@NoahOMorainRushThey're explicitly fey themed, not vaguely I'd say

[@ParmesanTries]

Tis another case of 5e only touching on a small part of a really cool subject

[@Silencedmage708]

That still doesn't really explain where it comes from, and nothing comes from nowhere in D&D lore, as the video seems to insinute. D&D always takes mythology and runs it through a blender to make its stories, in this case Irish and Scottish mythology, with a little Roman history thrown in. While the Firbolgs are one of the mythological proto-peoples of Ireland, their blue skinned and red haired appearance in 5e is based on the Scottish Picts, the real proto-people of Scotland who mixed with Gaul immigrants to create the modern Scots. However the Firbolg's appearance in 5e is based on the Pict's romanticized appearance as told by roman soldiers, rather than any accurate historical appearance. The Romans who came to Scotland described "giant blue demons", a native people they called the Picts who were large and red haired, entering battle naked save for blue woad bodypaint. However none of what the roman soldiers described is supported by archaeological or historical evidence, falling squarely in myth, and no one is really sure why the soldiers made these stories up, or if they didn't, what people they were actually describing.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

@@NoahOMorainRush My brother in the feywild they literally had Fey Ancestry as a trait

[@VictorLHouette]

14:18 - Irish person here. Not even remotely mad - the cloudy skies and endless rain? You clearly know our lands well!

[@RoBoDaN91]

Also an Irish person, not mad just disappointed he didn't show off his Irish accent. I forget the name but it reminds of the Spanish footballer who learned English in Ireland (I want to say it was somewhere like Navan) but all he picked up was "Tesco car park" in the accent of the area he went to as a teen.

[@atsukana1704]

Ah but that sounds delightful to some

[@peaderdoyle7095]

100%! I always laugh when non-Irish are like “oh Ireland is just endless rain, oh wait that’s offensive”…. its not offensive, it’s just true. And tbh, it’d be weird if there was less rain

[@Giosuke_Giogashikata]

First note: I have a firbolg player in the campaign I’m running. His name is Kai, and we love him. He recently threw a manhole cover across the country we’re parading around, unintentionally shattering the kneecaps of the bartender from the tavern we met at. Second: I say “certified Pointyhat free” when talking about free things now. Thank you, Pointyhat.

[@Psilo-gn1sx]

Bro no way, literally 30 minutes ago I was workshopping a barbarian butcher who's helping his chef friend perfect his signature dish.

[@HitDieProductions]

That sounds like a cool idea, very creative!

[@cameronsitton501]

Sweeney Todd???

[@Psilo-gn1sx]

​@@cameronsitton501 the chef is another player, the contested heir to a noble merchant family renown for their hospitality empire. He's in a race with his cousin to create a culinary masterpiece and secure his birthright. Myself, I was thinking a low INT Dragonborn who just wants to eat a dragon, because he thinks it'll make him one.

[@davialmeida4442]

I can tell the HEAVY inspiration from Hilda with the whole "giants become mountains"

[@Thorin-eg2yv]

I thought it was just a drawing on mythology thing, I know loads of stories where people have said that mountains were actually giants & thats why you can sometimes see “faces” in them

[@MrCheese270]

Who is Hilda?

[@prometheus9732]

@@MrCheese270 Hilda is a show on netflix that utilizes this idea. OP is not is not referring to a person.

[@davialmeida4442]

@@MrCheese270 Do you not know Hilda!? She was a Norse mythological figure that created the northern mountain range after imprisoning the last giant under the ground. This was their explanation as to why the mountains would seemingly change at will, actually caused by snow and landslides. Surprised you didn’t know

[@MrCheese270]

@@davialmeida4442 I don’t study or know anything about Norse mythology, but that’s pretty interesting. I find Greek and Roman mythology interesting, so maybe I’ll look into the Norse.

[@jameswils100]

There's no way you just said "Giantists" at 22:20 and thought you were gonna get away with it

[@Kurotekken]

I came into the comments to say this was the best part of the video

[@eddvultures40]

This is lovely because in mexico we have mountain call the sleeping lady.

[@ka_tan6203]

You have read my mind. I'm putting together a campaign based around giants right now! Thank you!

[@andrewdowns3673]

This also works with the new lore provided from the Bigsby' book on Giants, specifically the Scion forms (I think that's what its called; the forms giants take that makes them part of the natural environments).

[@lugusss]

I love how the silliest references on those vídeos like "THE WAR" triggers my echolalia VEEEERY hard

[@4_Fox_Sake]

New measurement metric of “wine barrels tall” is hilarious!

[@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket]

You mean intuitive right?

[@NoahOMorainRush]

Have you ever looked up the actual definition of a "butt ton"?

[@jalalslade9909]

I miss the OG “hellooo” intros, petition to request considering adding those again. This is my fav YT channel ever, it’s been a surreal experience watching your channel grow so well and so quickly! 👏🏾

[@bifflechips-t5r]

Once I finish my current long campaign, am planning to pivot to short campaigns and non-DnD games, and one of these was to figure out a Giants mini campaign since they're the creature type I've yet to really use, so this is perfect!

[@UlfFormynder]

Of all the tips and twists we've seen from this channel in the past two years, this is the coolest one yet. I love the idea of there being a giant taking a nap in the middle of the moon.

[@FreeFenrirWorks]

My grancle told me when I was young that the mountains and hills of Alicante were all giants that lay to sleep. Thank you to make me remember those days!!

[@csmaine5326]

Best dnd content creator strikes again. Bless you pointyhat

[@AegixDrakan]

Okay, "was forced to pass away" is one heck of a euphemism. XD Your mythology joke was also phenomenal, well done. :P

[@jillianbaillesderr-roy9275]

You've written a lot of bangers, Antonio, but this is I think your best idea yet. The ever-growing giants, the Collosi becoming planets, the second coming of the giant/dragon wars - sick as hell!

[@HitDieProductions]

So cool to see the project we've been working on for so long in a Pointy Hat video! It's been in production for a while now so it's wild to be where we are now. Big thanks to the Pointy Hat team for working with us! Oh, and hope you're all enjoying the free subclass! :)

[@Liethen]

I appreciate you using a measurement system I can actually intuit.

[@MrSomethingred]

I was instinctively preparing for a World Anvil sponsor on that ending

[@ThomasWilson-yc7ht]

THIS! This is what was missing from one of my own homebrew races! I have a race of rock people with several subraces. THIS is the endgame I was missing for the species!! Thank you for this. It's fantastic!

[@AndrewWebbGames]

You're so good at what you do. Somehow, you manage to come up with wildly unique but also simple and actionable ideas that always sparks my imagination. Thanks for sharing your creativity with us, Mr. Hat!

[@ChristnThms]

OK, I've enjoyed many of your imaginings of the d&d lore. But this is next level. Adding this to the established giant lore is the PERFECT jump from worldly adventures to epic stuff BIIIIG THANK YOU

[@erinkarp]

So this is essentially "what if giants turned into Genius Loci" and tbh I am so here for it

[@troybaxter]

Or, they could be counters to the Genius Loci. Maybe there is an unknown ongoing war between them. That could explain Natural Disasters stuff like Earthquakes, Mud Slides, Volcanic Eruptions, etc.

[@jemm113]

@@troybaxter or the Loci are actually a parasitic species that preys on giants! Perhaps there is a smaller parasite that is actually a young-stage loci that infect giants when young and develop as they do! Or what if the MOON is a Genius Loci that ate the colosi planet’s lunar child! And that’s why it’s hurtling towards the planet since it wants to parasitize the planet too!

[@The.Homebrewer]

This is SICK! Having entire MOUNTAINS being a sleeping giants sound so EMBLEMATIC! Imagine the fight against a literal mountain! A Gigantic monster so big, the players have to climb its body and fight while ont him God of war Cronos style. And this turns them into forces of nature's more than monsters when they are old enough. Imagine trying to wake up a sleeping giant juste to destroy the city built on it. Or trying to save your town from the doom of an angry fire collosi, Who's volcano is burning everything around it. That's sick!

[@yolkcheeks]

saw this was uploaded a few minutes ago and caught myself whispering 'oh boy oh boy' aloud while settling in for another pointy hat banger.

[@zorber101]

5:05 It was Garyx, the Dragon deity of Chaos, Destruction and Renewal who led this war, according to the Dragonomicon. Pretty cool god, almost entirely forgotten nowadays.

[@gavinboyer4634]

2:06 Zeus is quaking in his boots!

[@nettlesandsnakes9138]

20:00 hydrogen, they’re made of hydrogen.

[@gavinmcgraw]

13:55 If anyone still doubts that Matt Colville has been waaay into D&D for a looong time, here's the art from when he first appeared in the Fiend Folio...

[@robotchef769]

Giant fan here- I’m currently playing a SKT (storm kings thunder) campaign and my character is a Goliath rune knight who has the blood of hartkiller and is trying to unite all giants including giant kin to restart the “Great War” to make annam proud and come back

[@lorisuprifranz]

19:00 I was just thinking that d&d giants actually aren't big enough and that's might be why they aren't as popular. 8 meters for the average Storm Giant and 5 meters for almost all the others isn't really that much, there are a lot of monsters whose entire gimmick isn't just being big that are around those sizes. So It's a nice twist the having giants continuously grow, but I'll also make them bigger by default in my games

[@mikeyallen6758]

Severely underrated pun in "Giantist"

[@Baaluluna]

I'm a huge giant fan & you've hit on a lot of the ideas I've been thinking about for a long time! My least favorite thing about d&d giants is that they're usually shorter than dragons, thats dumb. I love the idea of giants who never stop growing. I put an undead giant in one of my campaigns, one who had "died" but was still technically "alive" so has been growing all this time. They were underwater, laying on a ruined castle, their arm as long as the largest castle. Then the party remembered "wait... there are Ostoria ruins in these waters... THIS GIANT IS BIGGER THAN AN ANCIENT GIANT CASTLE!" It was a very cool scene. Also, I have what I think is a fun take on the "Annam is the creator of everything" stuff. In the giant barbarian subclass, one of their abilities uses the word "demiurge". That confused me so much, until I had the random thought "what if Annam is the Demiurge", & then I got to thinking on that & I love it so much! Annam didn't create all of existence, he just thinks he did & passes that knowledge down to him creations. Giants are all about the Ordning, & Annam believes he's at the top, but there are those above him, his creators & their creators.

[@Doveknight-n8t]

Glad you enjoyed Ireland. Your description is accurate!!! 🇮🇪

[@BelIa42]

That is sooo cool. Honestly, I had no idea where the thought of "take their thing of being big and make it bigger" was going to go but I love. Such an inspiring and create twist. I never cared for giants before (as you said basically just big people) but this is awesome. Thank you so much!

[@keirtheashby2]

Wow. Can "Fun fact" be a part of every info dump now? That made me so happy every time :)

[@trollsmyth]

This is very, very awesome. :D And you gave me a way to include flying mountains without it feeling silly to me. (Yes, I'm weird.) Added note: I didn't see the links to the other videos you mentioned at the end of this video in the video, like we normally do.

[@BHil-pm5xm]

What's doubly fascinating is Hidetaka Miyazaki went a similar route in Dark Souls and Elden Ring, but where stone and mass were synonymous with dragons! (The smithing stones are their scales.) Dark souls 2 featured giants, but more as avatars of primordial trees, so they were enemies of Fire and rivals to mankind.

[@m-yday]

Never had I actually been inspired to an entire world before. The story you hypothesised was so stunning I actually feel like I could run a game now. I’ve never felt inspired enough to run a world. But knowing this high-level story is enough to inspire so much out of any world that takes influence from it!

[@AndyUpchurch]

Okay, I enjoy all Point Hat vids, but this is the first one that immediately solves a problem I was having in my homebrew. The twist of giants becoming mountains is exactly what I needed, when I needed it. Copy/pasting now.

[@TheRogueCommand]

8:23 I was unreasonably happy to see Hilda the Series get some attention!!

[@SebastienGendron-uk4po]

He briefly mentioned ''killing giants so that humans can use their carcass as a landmass to live on ''. I was reminded of the Titan from the Owl House show.

[@Drnajs]

These videos are one of the few things that actually brings me a genuine smile nowadays. I love every single one.

[@billyeyelash3604]

The kaiju fight idea at 23:16 reminds me of a Warframe area on deimos called the cambion drift where two enourmous wyrms battle with one regenerating every twenty minutes and killing the other, representing effectively a day and night cycle. Awesome video, Mr Pointy!

[@joshuaalexander143]

I'm starting a new campaign tonight with my DnD group. I've planned to create a Goliath warlock. You have just given me the best idea as to why they have taken the Old One Pact! LOL!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

[@bizarrestars]

"giantist" is so beautiful and perfect and you just slip it in there and move right on. Incredible

[@Orengelable]

I loved it!! It made me think of a analogy of the war between giants and dragons like the duality of space/time. Giants representing space, like the giants god's body being the universe, and giants being geological formations, and dragons being a representation of time and processes and change.

[@fabiopino5496]

no ok this twist is one of the best takes on lore i have ever seen. This is now forever canon in my campaigns, you surpassed yourself mister pointy hat, incredible volcano of wonderful ideas that you are

[@HyperactiveHarpy]

You’ve solved a key problem I was having with an Anchorome campaign I’m writing. Thank you, dang I love these videos!!

[@rekcroom]

You have given me an avenue to make Xenoblade Chronicles (One of my favorite franchises ever) in DnD, and for that? I thank you.

[@GadolElohai]

This is extremely cool. I started the video wondering what you could possibly do to make them interesting, and boy did you deliver.

[@danilopez1365]

Ok, you got me with the mountain-sized guys but doubled down with the planetary level. This is sick! By the way, I especially like the warlock angle at the end. In ancient Japan every mountain and river was seen as the domain of a god, so it would be interesting to link that to them being more or less awake giants, some with magic powers to lend to adventurers or their own local tribal cult.

[@glacialgrizzly8487]

So stoked you finally did a video on Giants! Been waiting for this for ages and I gotta say I love this twist! If I can add something I think that maybe another reason Giants aren't super popular in D&D is because they're kinda boring to run and fight. For the most part they're just escalating sacks of HP with a melee attack and a ranged attack. I think they might be more popular if they were more interesting to run and to fight. Here are a couple ways I do it in my games 1. Give them an AOE stomp attack kinda like the Earth Tremor Spell 2. Let them throw your players similar to how the Kraken throws things or like the Stone Giant Variant in the back of Storm King's Thunder 3. Have their attacks not just deal big damage but also be able to Push your players back or knock them Prone 4. Make their attacks AOE instead of single target. Either have the Giant make a single attack roll against all creatures in that AOE or have all creatures in that AOE make a Dexterity Save to avoid getting squashed 5. When a Giant falls Prone or Dies it falls in a direction of the DM's choosing. Each creature in a 15 foot AOE in the direction the Giant falls must make a Dexterity Save or take Bludgeoning damage and become Prone and Restrained 6. You could also add elemental damage and effects to their attacks. For example instead of throwing rocks a Hill Giant might throw a handful of mud turning the area around the target into difficult terrain, a Frost Giant might throw a ball of ice that shatters on impact dealing Cold damage in an AOE kinda like the Ice Knife spell, a Fire Giant could throw handfuls of molten lava that deal Fire damage and harden on impact Restraining the target, a Cloud Giant could call forth gusts of wind to Push players back and deal Force damage, and a Storm Giant could call down lightning dealing Lightning damage and causing targets to become Stunned 7. Giants might even have other elemental traits such as a Fire or Frost Giants having an AOE centered on themselves that deals Fire or Cold damage to any creature in the AOE at the start of each of their turns, a Hill Giant might be able to Burrow under the ground or have a Tremor Sense or Regenerate while in contact with the ground, a Stone Giant may have Resistance to Piercing and Slashing damage due to its stone-like skin, a Cloud Giant could summon fog or turn into a mist, a Storm Giant may even be able to see into the future predicting any attacks your players might make

[@cannoneermike]

I want to give props to your editor, they are hilarious

[@dhavaram8064]

This is amazing! Your content is always so creative, inspiring, and most importantly, usable! One of rhese days you should consider compiling all of these awesome ideas into a physical book. I'd back that as a crowdfunder from the first second!

[@loganswalk8621]

I’ve got some mileage from doing Hill Giants similar to Titans from A.o.T just the visceral horror of a giant monster sometimes even a dozen of them just ripping through a village and eating people like grapes with some of them playing with their food. Also on the Xenoblade Chronicles point I’ve actually done something similar but closer to Metru Nui from Bionicle where the continent is shaped like a humanoid laying on their back.

[@Untaramar]

Your giant idea at the end is so freaking good!

[@jamesc.1026]

Giant-loving freaks ftw! Though I did change their lore a fair bit for my game... another game I played in just had the OG giants *be* the now-absent gods of the world

[@JulianLopez-rt6kp]

Wow, you really outdid yourself with this idea, Antonio. It's incredible and full of potential.

[@zachpayton1079]

Thanks for the video! I agree, for such lore-filled beings they hardly make an appearance. I think that, as you stated, apart from the obvious they're just regular sentient beings that require extra planning. I've only ever referenced them in game, and haven't ever actually used them. Very interesting take!

[@PaxtonReeve]

Nice video, can definitely see the possible inspiration from the Cradle of the Scions. You definitely inspired me to make the giants in my campaign a lot more than just big guys.

[@arlay3513]

I literally tomorrow will propose a mini arc with giants to our DM (wanted to do it for a while now), and this video is exactly in time, holy moly! This idea with neverending growth is intriguing, will bring that up too and share the result here if anything of note happens

[@Vast3.14]

"manic panic hair dye". OMG I dyed my hair green when 16 using the bottle I found in Hot Topic in 2001 called Manic Panic... Wild! 😅

[@theshamonk668]

8:33 I see Hilda and my brain gets happy

[@theodor3gabriel]

I think you really outdone yourself this time Antonio. I'm honestly thinking about including this on my own ongoing campaign's lore.

[@Ellie-jx8jt]

I love this! It makes me think of the norse creation myth, Where the realms are made out of the dead body of the giant Ymir.

[@MiniCountessIsme]

This kind of reminds me of the Owl House, where the literal land the characters live on is the carcass of a Titan. And the magic system was developed by it's decaying body. With different Titans developing different magic systems. The concept was honestly VERY cool and I am sad that, thanks to Disney cancellig it, this concept will likely never be explored more.

[@Kylailao]

Exciting twist!! Never thought I could feel excited about giants lol. I love the possibility of a giant awakening due to EVENT and going ham.

[@id9907]

Huh, was kind of expecting a Lich vid since Halloween was last night, but this works too! I actually have a Giant Kingdom in my current campaign I was trying find plot hooks for ironically enough. I will have to tinker with these for a bit... Awesome as always Pointy Hat!

[@dogfromotgw]

dang this ended up way cooler than i expected. really inspiring video

[@Hoivey]

I do appreciate the alternative measurements. It really helps me understand the scale of these giants. *"eagle" screech*

[@thegoldenpath326]

Huge fan of the lore at the end. Much appreciated!

[@advisingassable]

Yes! Another common pointyhat win . Ancient giants eventually becoming part of the land is such a nice tie in to the creator god Annam & gives more meaning to them all being categorised by lands & weather. +its using the common folklore of mountains being sleeping giants fantastically

[@lexington.]

I've been running a Storm King's Thunder campaign for my players and we have our final session tonight. I am ending it in with a war between the giants and dragons that will see the players have to interject between two warring demigods in order to stop it. But also, secretly, the kraken Slarkrethel has orchestrated the whole thing in order to jump in at the last moment to steal the spark of one of the demigods so he can ascend.

[@tobyd.8064]

Awesome concept! Very niche and specific and I feel like it will only really make sense to use giants like this, if your entire campaign revolves around them being planets and what not... but still cool!

[@shadiafifi54]

Well, this was certainly a video with some really big ideas :P Seriously though, that was both entertaining and educational (I hadn't read up on Giant Lore).

[@Chaosmancer7]

This is it. I've spent literal years trying to make Giants "fit" in my campaign worlds. I've played with them being fey or being elementals or a dozen other things. But this is it. And I think this solves the issue I had with dragons and gold and could even work with Goliaths and Firbolg connecting to giants while I break off trolls, ogres and ettins... I think this solved SO many problems I was having!

[@Dualtails]

Loved the reference to Xenoblade. That was absolutely what I was imagining as you came up with the giants becoming living land masses idea.

[@joshwi4193]

Kind of a tangent, but in the Malazan Book of the Fallen novel series, the planet they reside on is a sleeping goddess named Burn, and time in the series is measured in years since she has fallen asleep (eg. year 1129 of Burn's Sleep). One of the characters travels inside the planet and sees giant-like beings holding up her ribcage to keep the planet stable. This isn't even a main plot point, just some neat world-building.

[@MWhaleK]

Really like your idea for giants! It reminds me both of Discworld Trolls and a place called Sleeping Giant State park nearish to where I live, according to a legend of the Native Quinnipiac people a stone ridge that looks a bit like a man sleeping on his back is the Giant Hobbomock who was put to sleep by magic.

[@slakinof]

Ok, I know you wrote Dragon Stew (KS backer here), but with Collosi... you have cooked... *chefs kiss*

[@atelalafford4794]

omg i love the thought of this, i was always enamored with the idea of mountains just being sleeping giants when i was little, making them literal planets in due time with potential to make their own eco systems is such a beautiful thought in the long run

[@francoruiz3195]

I audibly screamed when the GoddessBoys were referenced. The amount of random media that Antonio includes in these videos (that I happen to know) makes me feel so seen 😂👌🏽

[@DungeonsLover]

Thanks for that, Mr.Hat, it's a very neat idea. You know, I think you're getting up there. I think you're getting into "A river to your people" territory. ❤

[@goesifmacrae7389]

As a gnome isn't the giant problem just that they exist.

[@anikanele7958]

OMG, this would be perfect for my idea of a stargate campaign: For centuries, all species on your planet were living a simple but happy life, thinking they were the only sentient creatures in the universe. But then Archeologists find a round, magical portal encased in a Rock that looks strangely like a closed fist. They manage to activate it and open a gateway to a network of other inhabited planets. Your players are one of multiple teams sent through the gates to explore. (Making it possible to play as a Westmarch campaign, too) They have some funny adventures navigating unknown cultures and environments until they meet the first vessel. The planets you visited so far were dead Collossi, but many planets out there are still sentient. Since Collossi are so big they cant move, they chose one or more individuals among their inhabitants to carry out their will. This is often seen as a big honor, as Colossi try to chose the strongest, smartest and most powerful as their vessel. But the Vessel also loses all autonomy, basically becoming a puppet to their Colloss. Many Collossi are at war with each other, competing for ressources, access to planets who lost their sentience and of course potential vessels. To them, sentient species are just another ressource, for them to control, exploit and breed. The party learns that their home planet is a Colloss, too. One infamous for taking pity on the people living under the Collossi´s rule. When their rebellion failed, he retreated far into outer space and closed the portal to keep his people safe. Not willing to choose a vessel and enslave one of his loyal followers, he went dormant. And as Centuries passed, his inhabitants forgot their past. Now that the portal is opened again, the other Collossi will be drawn to its ressources, wanting to destroy the Rebellion once and for all. Now your players have to protect their home planet. - Have them find a way to wake up their home Colloss and speak to him. Maybe they can voluntary become a part time vessel, giving up part of their autonomy to gain the knowledgs or power of their planet. - They can try to find allies among rebell groups living on dead planets, maybe they can find other Collossi willing to change. Maybe there are other beings out there whose power rivals the Collossi. - Have them accidentally visit a sentient planet and one of them (or a friendly NPC) gets chosen as a vessel. Now they have to subdue their friend and find a way to cure them, if there even is one. - You can plug in almost any module or oneshot as them just exploring random dead worlds. - Have dragons travel between stars like sentient spaceships. Maybe they serve the Collossi or even are vessels themselves. Maybe they fight them. Maybe they can form bonds with sentient species and their loyalty lies with who they bonded with. Maybe they are split in two opposing factions. Have spaceship fights with dragons instead of spaceships. Have your players free a dragon forced to serve the Collossi. Have them bond Dragons to travel without the stargate. Have giant stargates floating in space that dragons can pass though. - Take a character from one of these "this DnD built is completely broken" videos, make them a vessel who was bred and raised for that purpose, and have your party fight them.

[@xBlackDawnx]

I DMed the campaign, Against the Giants. And over the course of a year, they have become one of my favorites. The giant Tribes scattered after their defeat by the dragons and the fall of their immortal "intern" empire. Their god, Anam has abandoned them for their weakness or for their cruelty. They all long to prove themselves and rebuild their infinite empire so Anam will return to them. I love giving them dragon "interns" or dragon skin cloaks etc because of their hatred of dragons. Hill giants are hulking hungry monsters. Frost Giants are metal af. They ascend by proving their strength to one another. Stone giants and cloud giants have literally no damaging spells besides being a spellcaster. And Fire giants being collossal smiths means that they can make +2 weapons and armor to wear or unique creations. Plus there is a whole faction of giants that believe that their divine missive is to protect the smaller races and that Anam abandoned them because of their cruelty. It sets up a really good conflict to explore. Giants have runes that were given to them by Anam, but most of them cannot read, scribe, or use them instead using Dwarven script but their language. I could lore dump for hours 😂

[@wrongeden3420]

I like the idea that the colossal could change the nature of the world they sleep on. Like a sleeping storm colossal has a violent storm eternally hovering over it, or a forest of "torch trees" ever burning on top of a fire colossal. They could become a domain of magical landscapes with the laws of physics bending around it. This could extend to spell jammer creating totaly alien planets from the dreams of the colossals.

[@grizzysiatsu]

I like that you earlier said that you mithology child and to twist the concept of giants you probably were inspired by Ymir from norse mythology and that his dead body became Midgard. Really cool concept, have a nice day Pointy.

[@AegixDrakan]

Oh wow! I'm actually surprised that D&D Giant lore lines up remarkably close to my own setting's Giant Lore. Everything from them being the first living beings, to their creation motif, to them having a major beef with the Dragons. Although, in my setting the giants *made* the Dragons, specifically to use as smaller scale terraforming tools. The Dragons, however were the first beings to have true "free will" and eventually started getting very angry about their effective "internship", and proceeded to wage and win all-out war against the Giants so they could do as they pleased. XD

[@drewforchic9083]

The in-universe reason Firbolgs have changed over the editions to go from redheaded mountain-man types seen at 14:34 to the fuzzy blue hippies at 14:39 is because they immigrated to the Feywild, and have been charged by the fey energies over time to become more "Lorax-y," like those other fey-touched races you used as examples. Now they fill the niche of Summer-Court Fey-Giant, against the Fomorians (who live in the Feywild Underdark) as the Winter Court Fey-Giants.

[@CoyoteGris]

In my setup world, giants not only have CLASSES same as adventurers. But also pack tactics, the reason beign that they hunt dragons, and by CR you need a ton of them to hunt an ancient, NOPE, i made them kill parties, with ancient knowledge in combat and hunt. Now I can have 2-3 giants hunting drwgons like the party yunting bears. I have a lot of other lore around them. But this is my main change.

[@trently89]

LOVE ALL THESE IDEAS AND PLAN ON USING ALL OF THEM!!! THANK YOU!!