Player Character Race: Half-Giants

I enjoy 2nd Edition D&D quite a lot, so I enjoy writing about it and discussing it. Some may say that 2e is not sufficiently "oldschool", but I choose to believe otherwise.

With that, I have followed the Dungeon Master Guide's rules for creating a new player race to a degree I found reasonable, and, being someone who enjoys playing fighters and other combat-oriented classes, I chose to make a race that is very good at fighting.

Rolling for exceptional strength is an aspect of 2e that is equal parts compelling and frustrating. In order to have a chance of getting the much-coveted 18/00 strength, which grants the person +3 to their melee attack rolls and +6 to their melee (and ranged with appropriate bows) damage rolls, you must be extremely lucky. You have a flat 1 in 216 chance of rolling an 18 in any given stat if you're playing by "Method 1" of rolling your ability scores (3d6 with no adjustment). You now have to roll a 100 on a d100, which further decreases the odds.

Of course, rolling an 18 in strength is a clear guarantee you're going to have a very respectable score as a warrior class, but I wasn't satisfied with this. I wanted to create a player character race that got an 18 in strength every single time, and rolled on the d100 table every single time.

Such a race would also need to be written in true 2nd Edition style or as close as I could get to that.

Not to be confused with the Dark Sun version, MY Half-Giants are Different.

Half-Giants

Height in inches: 96/94 +1d12 (Size: L)

Weight in pounds: 380/360 +3d20

Age: Base 17 +1d8 || Middle Aged: 60 || Old: 80 || Venerable: 120 || Max: 120 +2d20

Classes and Level Limits: Barbarian 12, Fighter 12,

Ability Score Limits: Str 16/18, Dex 6/17, Con 11/18, Int 3/17, Wis 3/17, Cha 3/18

Ability Score Adjustments: +2 STR, -1 DEX, +1 CON, -1 INT, -1 WIS

(All Half-Giants roll for exceptional strength. Add +10 to the 1d100 roll for every unused bonus STR point. The maximum strength possible at character generation is 18/00.)

Half-giants are a people trapped between two worlds, neither to which they can hope to truly belong. Some believe their name implies they are a product of giants interbreeding with another race, but this is a common misconception. The “half” in “half-giant” refers to them being about half as tall as a hill or mountain giant, and indeed, they are an evolutionary offshoot of the giants. They are sometimes mistaken for verbeeg giants, but it is considered an insult against both kinds of giant to do so. Verbeeg consider half-giants to be weak and soft, while half-giants consider verbeeg to be cruel and cold-hearted. They tend towards a tribal societal structure and usually lean towards a Neutral Good alignment. They are notably more intelligent than their mountain giant cousins and may be of any alignment. Their history is shrouded in legend, as half-giants have an oral tradition in their tribes that has altered the truth of their creation and inception. Most tribes would agree that their race and humans have interacted and traded for thousands of years before the onset of agriculture. For this reason, they can speak human common and the common language of all giants. Their nomadic nature allows them to choose any additional languages they are entitled to for high intelligence.

Half-giant fighters are those who have broken away from the traditional tribes and endeavor to stay in more civilized and structured lands. Most of these individuals are fighters using the barbarian kit, but it is not required. Half-giants of the barbarian class are those who keep to their cultural traditions, and plan to go back to a tribal life after retiring from a life of adventure.

They are met with anywhere from suspicion to outright hostility in the lands of other humanoids, and it’s nearly impossible for them to hide or get lost in the crowd, especially since they are so rare as it is. Despite this, many understand how useful a creature of such great size and strength can be, and they are often hired as mercenaries or bodyguards. They have a natural wanderlust and, if they are Good-aligned, a more social attitude than other giants, making them similarly suited to a life of adventure as humans and demi-humans are. Half-giant appearance depends on their tribe, but generally they appear as massive, powerfully-built humans with odd features. Their skin tones range from fair to reddish brown. Their hair color ranges from bright red to lustrous black, with most bearing a shade of brown. Eye colors are more varied than a human’s, as yellow, red, and orange eyes are as common as blue, green, and brown.

Half-giants may not multi-class or dual-class.

Half-giants are fantastically strong and hardy, but somewhat clumsy and simple. They gain a +2 bonus to strength and +1 to constitution, but -1 to dexterity, intelligence, and wisdom. They can wield large sized weapons with one hand, as well as medium sized weapons, but are unable to wield small sized weapons properly. For instance, a bastard sword wielded by a half giant in one hand would deal 2d4 damage, just as if a medium sized creature wielded it in two hands. Huge/Giant-kin sized weapons appropriately can be wielded by a half giant using both hands.

Being large sized creatures, they are appropriately subjected to a weapon’s damage dice against large creatures, making longswords or larger blades and lances far more dangerous to them. Their base movement speed is raised by 3 because of their longer stride, but they are unable to ride animals smaller than huge size. Shields are treated as one fewer size category for half-giants. Large shields are treated as medium, medium as small, and small as bucker. Half-giants may not use bucklers as shields.

Because of their heritage, half-giants have a natural armor class of 6 and gain a +6 bonus to their starting hit points only in addition to any constitution bonus. They gain +1 AC if wearing armor with an AC equal to their natural AC, but their natural armor is not factored in if they wear armor better than AC 6. Armor worse than AC 6 has no effect. Because of their size, armor is harder to make for them. Leather armor is twice as expensive and metal armor is three times as expensive (at minimum). Encumbrance values are the same. Because of their great size, they must eat and drink twice as much as a human to get full nutrition. They can fit into buildings made for medium-sized creatures, but only with some difficulty. They may need to stoop low to avoid hitting their head on the ceiling, and accommodations such as chairs and beds made for medium sized humanoids will be difficult to use without discomfort or breakage. When half giants fight in enclosed spaces where their size limits their mobility, they suffer a -2 to their attack rolls and move at half speed.

Half-giants, in addition to their height allowing them to see over obstacles, also have greater depth perception than other playable races. Their ranged attack penalties for long range are all halved. Huge/Giant-kin bows colloquially referred to as “greatbows” are usable by half-giants. These bows employ “great arrows” that deal 1d10 damage each, or sheath arrows. Half-giants cannot use shortbows properly.

A half-giant must take great care not to find himself or herself surrounded by enemies, as they are more vulnerable to flanking attacks than smaller creatures. While a medium sized creature can be attacked in melee by 3 enemies at once, a half-giant can be attacked in melee by 4 enemies at once, with two of the enemies getting a flanking bonus.