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.
