Half-Giant

Legend has it that, in some lost millennium, a sorcerer-queen used wizardry to beget a union of giant and human in order to create a race of powerful slaves, as a bizarre experiment, or perhaps as some sort of curse. Whatever the truth of this legend, the half-giant race has increased in number and is now fairly common, especially in human-controlled lands near the shore of the Sea of Silt. Half-giants gain great strength, but dull wits, from their giant heritage, and are nearly as agile as their human forebears.

Personality: Because of their artificial origins, there is no half-giant culture, tradition, or homeland. Instead, they live in the human cities or in the wilderness tribes, absorbing the culture of those around them. Half-giants readily imitate the customs of their neighbours. Half-giants often display curiosity, a willingness to learn, and a tendency towards kindness.

Physical: Physically, the half-giant is enormous, standing about 11 1/2 feet tall and weighing around 1,200 pounds. Half-giants have thick hair, which is often kept braided (especially among females) or in a single tail that hangs behind the head and down the back. They dress in garb suitable to their occupation or environment. Half-giants mature at about 24 years of age and can live about 170 years.

Their immense size sets them apart from the other races of the Tablelands. For half-giants, questions such as “can I fit through the door?” are real concerns.

Relations: Half-giants tend to be friendly and eager to please, adopting the lifestyles, skills, and values of those they admire. A half-giant character who encounters a new situation looks around him to see what other people are doing. He then models his behaviour on those who impress him.

Although famous for their slow wits, half-giants are not fools when it comes to understanding how others see them. Most half-giants learn from a young age that smarter folk will often try to take advantage of them, pretending friendship in order to benefit from the half-giant’s great size or strength. Half-giants have learned to be wary of those who go to great lengths to win their approval, and do not forget those who abuse their trust.

Lands: Half-giants are most often found in the city-states, serving as gladiators, labourers, soldiers, and guards. A few half-giants collect into wilderness communities, often adopting the culture and customs of neighbouring beings. The rare half-giant community often attaches itself to a charismatic or successful leader (not necessarily a half-giant) who demonstrates the tendencies they admire.

Language: All half-giants speak the common speech of slaves. Whatever tongue she speaks, the half-giant’s voice is pitched so low as to occasionally be difficult to understand.

Half-Giant Society: Half-giants seem to be a fairly young race, perhaps only a few tens of centuries old. There is no common half-giant culture. Having insufficient history and overall intelligence to have their own culture, half-giants readily adopt the cultures of other creatures they admire or associate with. Half-giants are very imitative creatures, eager to fit into new situations as they present themselves.

Half-giants sometimes collect into communities of their own, though they most often adopt the customs of others nearby. When near an elven nation, for instance, half-giants will form their own hunting and raiding parties, adopting the ways of the elven marauders. In most instances, imitative half-giant communities will compete directly with the race that they are likening themselves to. It is their great size and combat prowess that keeps their competitors at a safe distance.

Unlike some other bastard races, half-giants can reproduce. A single offspring is produced from half-giant unions after almost a year of pregnancy. Half-giants tend to damage objects and buildings around them through accidents of size alone. Some considerate half-giants camp outside city walls to avoid causing too much damage, but the draw of a city’s culture and the below-average intellect of most half-giants limits the number of half-giants who do so.

Role-playing Suggestions: Always remember how much bigger you are than everyone else. Take advantage of your height in combat but remember the disadvantages. Between your size and your lesser wits (even if you are a relatively intelligent half-giant, people will assume you to be dull), you find yourself an object of comic relief. You are used to being teased and endure more witty remarks than most people, but when you have been pushed too far your personality can suddenly shift, and you can unleash astonishing violence on your tormentors and any who stand in your way. Less frequently, these shifts happen without provocation – you just wake up with a different ethos and altered disposition.

Remember you are influenced by powerful personalities, and can shift your personality. You tend to imitate the tactics, clothes and demeanour of your “little master”. You can switch your attitudes very quickly, taking on new values to fit new situations. A half-giant whose peaceful farming life is disrupted by marauders may soon adopt the morals of the very renegades who sacked his village. A half-giant character who is presented with a new situation should examine the roles of the people there, determine where he might best fit in, and then start performing the tasks necessary.

This is not to say that you are strictly bound to perform as those you see around you, nor are you restricted from moving on. If the situation is not beneficial or if you would not perform well (living in the trees like the halflings, for instance), you won’t imitate it. Also, you are not bound to a piece of work or a lifestyle the way other races are – you seldom have regrets or reminiscences about what has gone before. You simply aren’t as emotionally attached to your life or works.

The following game statistics apply to the half-giant

player character:

Half-Giants Racial Traits

+6 Strength, +2 Constitution, –2 Intelligence, –2 Wisdom, –2 Charisma: Half-giants are very strong, but they can be dim, unreceptive, and inhospitable.
Monstrous Humanoid: Half-giant are monstrous humanoids.
Normal Speed: Half-giant have a base speed of 30 feet.
Large: Half-giants are Large and take a –1 size penalty to their AC, take a –4 size penalty on Stealth checks, and gain a +1 size bonus on combat maneuver checks and to combat maneuver defense.
Brutish Health: Half-giants double their Hit Dice rolls no matter what their character class. Add any bonus for a high Constitution score after doubling the roll of the die.
Axis Alignment: One aspect of a half-giant’s alignment is fixed and chosen during character creation. The other half must be chosen when they awaken each morning. They are only bound to that alignment until they sleep again.
Enormous Pants: All personal items such as clothes, armour, weapons, food, etc. cost double for half-giant characters. Other considerations, such as transportation or lodging, are also considerably more expensive when they are available at all. In areas not dominated by half-giants, things such as buildings, furniture, wagons, boats, etc. aren’t made to support their weight. Even in cities, they tend to camp outside to avoid destroying things.
Increased Water: Half-giants require four gallons of water per day when active.
Languages: Half-Giants begin play speaking common. A Half-Giant with a high Intelligence score can choose from the following: Elven, Dwarven, Gith, and Halfling.

Favoured Class Options

Alchemist: Add +1/2 to the number of bombs per day the alchemist can create.
Barbarian: Add +1 to the barbarian’s total number of rage rounds per day.
Bard: Add +5 feet to the range of one of the bard’s bardic performances (max +30 feet to any one performance).
Cavalier: Add a +1/2 bonus on Intimidate checks and Ride checks.
Druid: Add +1/2 to the damage dealt by the druid’s animal companion’s natural attacks.
Fighter: Add +2 to the fighter’s Constitution score for the purpose of determining when he dies from negative hit points.
Gladiator: Add 1/4 to the brawler’s effective level to determine her unarmed strike damage.
Magus: Add +1/4 point to the magus’s arcane pool.
Monk: Add a +1/4 bonus on combat maneuver checks made to bull rush or grapple.
Oracle: Add +1/2 to the oracle’s level for the purpose of determining the effects of one revelation.
Ranger: Add +1/4 to a single existing favored enemy bonus (maximum bonus +1 per favored enemy).
Rogue: Reduce the penalty for not being proficient with one weapon by 1. When the nonproficiency penalty for a weapon becomes 0 because of this ability, the rogue is treated as having the appropriate Martial or Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat for that weapon.
Summoner: Add a +1/4 natural armor bonus to the AC of the summoner’s eidolon.
Templar: Add a +1/2 bonus on Intimidate checks and Knowledge checks to identify creatures.
Wizard: Select one arcane school power at 1st level that is normally usable a number of times per day equal to 3 + the wizard’s Intelligence modifier. The wizard adds +1/2 to the number of uses per day of that arcane school power.

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