Half-giant

Half-giants were a race resulting from the union of humans and giants.^[1]

Description[]

Half-giants were often between 7 and 8 feet (2.1–2.4 meters) tall and weighed roughly 250–400 pounds (113–181 kg), and the males were markedly bigger than the females. They usually had black hair that they tied back tight and deep coppery complexions.^[1]

Personality[]

Many half-giants had the same tendencies as their human ancestors, being curious and keen to cooperate and communicate with other creatures and tending to be kind.^[1]

They also learned very quickly the traditions and morals of societies in the regions that they settled in.^[1]

Abilities[]

Half-giants, because of their heritage, boasted a powerful build that allowed them to carry heavier loads and wield larger weapons, but because of that they were also not that nimble.^[1]

They were also naturally acclimated to fire and hot temperatures, and a few were born that were naturally psionic.^[1]

Society[]

Homelands[]

Half-giants settled in the deepest part of the desert.^[1]

Religion[]

They had a certain disdain for religion and sometimes even spoke badly about deities. However, this was not because they didn't believe in deities, instead that they thought that deities don't always prioritize the best interests of their worshipers. In some cases, however, some half-giants decided to become priests or even clerics.^[1]

Notable Half-giants[]

Courageous Little Kimmabeth.^[2]^{[note 1]}

History[]

Cruel sorcerer-kings of the world of Athas bred the half-giants into existence to become warriors and laborers, and many early half-giants died during childhood. The half-giants that survived childhood had a life of nothing but suffering ahead of them. But a few half-giants discovered that they had a psionic spark through the forced breeding and managed to escape and seek a new home deep in the desert ^[1]

During the late 14^th century DR, a group of adventurers in Faerûn traveling to the city of Ravens Bluff were attacked by a group of bandits led by the wizard Astrid. Among their ill-gotten loot the adventurers found a cursed cubic gate that instantly transported them to the Elemental Plane of Air and eventually the Negative Material Plane.^[3] There the planewalker Rowan Darkwood rescued the adventurers with a word of recall from death by negative energy, taking them to the Astral Plane. Rowan quickly surmised that their cubic gate was cursed and that the adventurers would have to meet a certain requirement at each of its keyed planes if they wanted to get back home. He beseeched his patron deity Heimdall for guidance on the matter, but received only riddles as to how they had to progress.^[4]

After treating the adventurers to a heroes' feast, Rowan let them on their way. They proceeded to be taken by the cubic gate to the planes of Baator, Bytopia, Ysgard,^[4] and finally the world of Athas. There they were thrown into a gladiatorial arena and fought many strange creatures, such as braxat and b'rohg. When the adventurers began their next big match against a team of half-giants the cubic gate finally activated for the last time, plane shifting them to a road just outside of Ravens Bluff.^[5]^{[note 2]}

Appendix[]

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Background[]

The half-giants presented in the 3.5-edition Expanded Psionics Handbook are based on the half-giants of the world of Athas in the Dark Sun setting, with a simplified version of their history and culture for use in other settings. While "half-giants" have been mentioned in Forgotten Realms sources, it is often unclear if these are simple human–giant hybrids like half-ogres or if they are of the psionic Athasian half-giant race. As such, the known mentions in Appearances below should be appraised carefully.

Notes[]

↑ Baldur's Gate III marks Courageous Little Kimmabeth as human, however, he is meant to represent Yaga-Shura, a fire giant, and the in-game model is double the size of other humans. Presumably, Courageous Little Kimmabeth is a half-giant or a similar giant-kin.
↑ An exact name for the Prime Material world visited in Plane Speaking is never given, but everything shown about the world indicates it is most likely Athas, such as the prevalence of psionics, sorcerer-kings in power, a scarcity of metal, a mention of preservers, and the appearance of creatures from the Dark Sun setting.