DCC Bestiary - Mountain Giant

 

So, what do giants look like in my game?  I decided early on I didn’t want fire giants, and frost giants and sea giants and moss giants, and so on … I really wanted one really iconic kind of giant.  Now that being said, I LOVED the stone giants from my earliest D&D days, Trampier's art showing them, their depiction in story of The Hobbit, and the idea of basing my game's giants on Norse/Germanic myth of jotunn/eotten.  There’s no reason I couldn’t use these inspirations as the basis for my ‘giants’ in my campaign world.  So here you go!

In the D&D Expert Box set, a stone giant has 9 Hit Dice, an armor class of 4, and do damage as 3d6.  Seems kind of light.  They have a throwing rock ability, but really that’s all – that’s kind of dull, don’t you think?  Fighting a giant should be up there with fighting a dragon if it’s a giant with a capital ‘G’.  There should be scooping up foes in it’s meaty fist and swallowing them whole.  There should be throwing rocks that can crush a warrior with one blow, there should be some qualities that make them mythological, epic, and just plain scary.

Now, In the DCC core rulebook, a potion of Giant Strength gives a +8 to hit and damage, and there are the various types of giants listed, but again, it doesn’t seem epic enough for, you know, A GIANT.  Here’s the rulebook stats for a Stone Giant: 

Giant, stone (14’ tall, 1,500 lbs.): Init +1; Atk club +18 melee (3d8+10) or hurled stone +10 missile fire (1d8+10, range 200’); AC 17; HD 12d10; MV 40’; Act 1d24; SP infravision, 50% chance of 1-2 cave bear companions, crit on 20-24; SV Fort +12, Ref +6, Will +8; AL N.

So taking what we know, I’m building a better, taller, meaner giant.  Also, I’m creating Cave Bears (based on my AD&D Monster Manual as a reference) to include since the DCC Core Rulebook says stone giants may have cave bears, but there are no stats for them anywhere.

Will I have more types of giants in my world?  Possibly, a Boggard is a giant-like creature in my game, and I may have a few different giant-ish species, but they’ll all be unique… got some ideas from your campaign or your giant-slayer characters?  Drop me a note over at archadethered@gmail.com.

MOUNTAIN GIANT

Tales of giants are legendary, but no one has seen one in recent memory – it is said they hide in the mountains, living in caves, and taking bears as pets much as a farmer would take a dog.  They are told to stand three times as tall as a man, and possess terrible strength, capable of ripping trees from the ground, rocks from the earth to hurl, and limbs from would-be giant-slayers.
     Mountain giants appear hairless, with greyish skin, and wear fur pelts, wielding tree trunks like a person might wield a stout club.  Their mottled grey skin is extremely durable, and has a stone-like texture, blending in with the rocks around them.  While they may seem brutish and primitive, some prosperous mountain giant chiefs have even been known to have their clans make them hide armor (AC 20) and forge metal axes appropriate to their size (doing 2d12 damage).  When a mountain giant dies, they return to the rocks from which they sprang forth.

Mountain Giant: Init +1; Atk tree trunk +18 melee (2d8+8) or clutching hand +26 melee (1d8) or hurled stone +10 missile fire (2d8+8, range 50’/100’/200’); AC 16; HD 9d12+18 (77 hp); MV 40’; Act 1d24; SP death throes (turn to rock), devastating blows (Critical Hits on rolls of 20-24), eats people, like a rock (+8 to hide in rocky environments), mountain folk (+10 to climb checks for mountains or rocky surfaces), nightvision 120’, unrelenting flesh (-2 hit points damage from any non-magical attack), 50% chance of 1-2 cave bear companions, crit on 20-24; SV Fort +12, Ref +6, Will +8; AL N.
     A giant can choose to grab an opponent rather than strike them, with an opposed Strength check and the giant rolls 1d24+16 – should they succeed, the opponent is pinned until they make an opposed Strength check on their turn.  The giant can squeeze the opponent each round doing 1d8 damage without taking an action.
     If the giant is feeling hungry, or a foe has angered them, they can take an action with a grabbed opponent and swallow their victim whole -- the victim is now trapped in the giant’s gullet. The character automatically takes an additional 3d8 damage each round thereafter from suffocation, constriction, and stomach acids. If the character succeeds in a DC 18 Strength check he can fight against the crushing strength of the giant’s stomach, allowing an attack of some kind (e.g., drawing a dagger to try to cut his way out), but he cannot be freed until the giant is killed and he is cut out.
     Should a giant be slain, it’s skin turns a deeper grey and becomes like rock – any grappled foe becomes trapped within it’s stony grasp.  Further the giant’s body may topple if in a precarious stance, striking any opponent in melee range with it’s body (+6 attack roll, 4d6 damage) before shattering into pieces. 

Cave Bear: Init +2; Atk claw +6 melee (1d8+2) and claw +6 melee (1d8+2) and bite +6 melee (2d6+2); AC 14; HD 6d8+6 (33 hp); MV 40’, Climb 20’; Act 3d20; SP climbing (+6 skill check), rending; SV Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +3; AL N
     If a cave bear strikes with at least two attacks, they get a further rending attack of 3d6 damage.