Random plot idea: Earth is a Collossus woman named Gaia who grew so large she became a Planet herself, with her daughter Luna randomly breaking off of her when she herself grew big enough living on/in her mother. Centuries later Gaia wakes up, not feeling the touch of her daughter anymore and uses her gravitational field to pull Luna back into her loving embrace. the players, feeling the energy shifting the moons movement have to either stop this reunion from happening or find another way to save the lives of everything living on the Planet
Make it an imminent collision, three days from the start of the campaign, but also give the players a handy heavenly artifact that resets time to the dawn of the first of the three days, now they have to rush to get the mcguffins that'll awaken the other sleeping colossi on the planet to stop the crash, also the BBEG has a cool cursed mask.
There are enough giants with Flying Castles in various settings that the idea that the floating rock they're on is actually one of their ancestors is pretty fun.
"Othea! Piper down. Some of us are working ere!" The Fire giant turns towards the raging wildfire. "As I was saying Logi, dis dragon claimed to burn down that orrest. Could you image dat?" The Wildfire howls, "That nerve of that lizard! I was there! I was the fire!" "Yeah, I know..."
@@DucksAndCatnip The Fire giant turns toward the speaker. "Ey! Logi! This one not know the Jötunn." The wildfire merges into a single form. The body of massive giant emerges. "I am Logi. I am the Fire! Some know me as Halogi!"
Also an Irish person, not mad just disappointed he didn't show off his Irish accent. I forget the name but it reminds of the Spanish footballer who learned English in Ireland (I want to say it was somewhere like Navan) but all he picked up was "Tesco car park" in the accent of the area he went to as a teen.
100%! I always laugh when non-Irish are like “oh Ireland is just endless rain, oh wait that’s offensive”…. its not offensive, it’s just true. And tbh, it’d be weird if there was less rain
There was a post, if I'm not mistaken, on Reddit, where a GM was asking for advice on how to get out of this: in his lore, there was a giant mountain in the center of the continent, but it wasn't on the map. And his players wondered where the mountain had gone. Most of the comments on the post voted for "The mountain just went away."
14:40 The reason why the 5th edition art of Firbolgs is so weird is because its depicting a subrace called fey touched firbolg, in older editions all firbolg art depicted them as just tall men.
That still doesn't really explain where it comes from, and nothing comes from nowhere in D&D lore, as the video seems to insinute. D&D always takes mythology and runs it through a blender to make its stories, in this case Irish and Scottish mythology, with a little Roman history thrown in. While the Firbolgs are one of the mythological proto-peoples of Ireland, their blue skinned and red haired appearance in 5e is based on the Scottish Picts, the real proto-people of Scotland who mixed with Gaul immigrants to create the modern Scots. However the Firbolg's appearance in 5e is based on the Pict's romanticized appearance as told by roman soldiers, rather than any accurate historical appearance. The Romans who came to Scotland described "giant blue demons", a native people they called the Picts who were large and red haired, entering battle naked save for blue woad bodypaint. However none of what the roman soldiers described is supported by archaeological or historical evidence, falling squarely in myth, and no one is really sure why the soldiers made these stories up, or if they didn't, what people they were actually describing.
19:00 I was just thinking that d&d giants actually aren't big enough and that's might be why they aren't as popular. 8 meters for the average Storm Giant and 5 meters for almost all the others isn't really that much, there are a lot of monsters whose entire gimmick isn't just being big that are around those sizes. So It's a nice twist the having giants continuously grow, but I'll also make them bigger by default in my games
First note: I have a firbolg player in the campaign I’m running. His name is Kai, and we love him. He recently threw a manhole cover across the country we’re parading around, unintentionally shattering the kneecaps of the bartender from the tavern we met at. Second: I say “certified Pointyhat free” when talking about free things now. Thank you, Pointyhat.
I'm a huge giant fan & you've hit on a lot of the ideas I've been thinking about for a long time! My least favorite thing about d&d giants is that they're usually shorter than dragons, thats dumb. I love the idea of giants who never stop growing. I put an undead giant in one of my campaigns, one who had "died" but was still technically "alive" so has been growing all this time. They were underwater, laying on a ruined castle, their arm as long as the largest castle. Then the party remembered "wait... there are Ostoria ruins in these waters... THIS GIANT IS BIGGER THAN AN ANCIENT GIANT CASTLE!" It was a very cool scene. Also, I have what I think is a fun take on the "Annam is the creator of everything" stuff. In the giant barbarian subclass, one of their abilities uses the word "demiurge". That confused me so much, until I had the random thought "what if Annam is the Demiurge", & then I got to thinking on that & I love it so much! Annam didn't create all of existence, he just thinks he did & passes that knowledge down to him creations. Giants are all about the Ordning, & Annam believes he's at the top, but there are those above him, his creators & their creators.
This also works with the new lore provided from the Bigsby' book on Giants, specifically the Scion forms (I think that's what its called; the forms giants take that makes them part of the natural environments).
@@cameronsitton501 the chef is another player, the contested heir to a noble merchant family renown for their hospitality empire. He's in a race with his cousin to create a culinary masterpiece and secure his birthright. Myself, I was thinking a low INT Dragonborn who just wants to eat a dragon, because he thinks it'll make him one.
Once I finish my current long campaign, am planning to pivot to short campaigns and non-DnD games, and one of these was to figure out a Giants mini campaign since they're the creature type I've yet to really use, so this is perfect!
My grancle told me when I was young that the mountains and hills of Alicante were all giants that lay to sleep. Thank you to make me remember those days!!
The highest CR giants in Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants are actually sleeping in a "cradle" that you have to fight before you wake the giant and fight it. So the whole "getting so big they eventually become a planet" actually has some mechanics to back it up.
This actually works so well for the Celtic/norse inspired setting I’m creating! In Norse mythology, the body of the giant Ymir was used to create the Earth
You've written a lot of bangers, Antonio, but this is I think your best idea yet. The ever-growing giants, the Collosi becoming planets, the second coming of the giant/dragon wars - sick as hell!
I'm just picturing an entire continent in ruins as multiple living mountains woke up and are waging continual war against each other. All while there are whole tribes of survivors living on these giants as they live and walk and fight because building anything on the ground simply isn't safe enough in the long term anymore.
I miss the OG “hellooo” intros, petition to request considering adding those again. This is my fav YT channel ever, it’s been a surreal experience watching your channel grow so well and so quickly! 👏🏾
Really like your idea for giants! It reminds me both of Discworld Trolls and a place called Sleeping Giant State park nearish to where I live, according to a legend of the Native Quinnipiac people a stone ridge that looks a bit like a man sleeping on his back is the Giant Hobbomock who was put to sleep by magic.
I thought it was just a drawing on mythology thing, I know loads of stories where people have said that mountains were actually giants & thats why you can sometimes see “faces” in them
@@MrCheese270 Do you not know Hilda!? She was a Norse mythological figure that created the northern mountain range after imprisoning the last giant under the ground. This was their explanation as to why the mountains would seemingly change at will, actually caused by snow and landslides. Surprised you didn’t know
@@davialmeida4442 I don’t study or know anything about Norse mythology, but that’s pretty interesting. I find Greek and Roman mythology interesting, so maybe I’ll look into the Norse.
THIS! This is what was missing from one of my own homebrew races! I have a race of rock people with several subraces. THIS is the endgame I was missing for the species!! Thank you for this. It's fantastic!
Of all the tips and twists we've seen from this channel in the past two years, this is the coolest one yet. I love the idea of there being a giant taking a nap in the middle of the moon.
As a lifelong mythology nerd, I appreciate the shoutout to Nobody. Also, the reference to giantists. It is important to recognize the contributions of those who practice the giantific method.
Giant fan here- I’m currently playing a SKT (storm kings thunder) campaign and my character is a Goliath rune knight who has the blood of hartkiller and is trying to unite all giants including giant kin to restart the “Great War” to make annam proud and come back
I've always liked the idea of Firbolgs being more cow-like now lorewise because they experienced exposure to the Feywild and it changed them over the centuries
5:05 It was Garyx, the Dragon deity of Chaos, Destruction and Renewal who led this war, according to the Dragonomicon. Pretty cool god, almost entirely forgotten nowadays.
OK, I've enjoyed many of your imaginings of the d&d lore. But this is next level. Adding this to the established giant lore is the PERFECT jump from worldly adventures to epic stuff BIIIIG THANK YOU
omg i love the thought of this, i was always enamored with the idea of mountains just being sleeping giants when i was little, making them literal planets in due time with potential to make their own eco systems is such a beautiful thought in the long run
That is sooo cool. Honestly, I had no idea where the thought of "take their thing of being big and make it bigger" was going to go but I love. Such an inspiring and create twist. I never cared for giants before (as you said basically just big people) but this is awesome. Thank you so much!
This is SICK! Having entire MOUNTAINS being a sleeping giants sound so EMBLEMATIC! Imagine the fight against a literal mountain! A Gigantic monster so big, the players have to climb its body and fight while ont him God of war Cronos style. And this turns them into forces of nature's more than monsters when they are old enough. Imagine trying to wake up a sleeping giant juste to destroy the city built on it. Or trying to save your town from the doom of an angry fire collosi, Who's volcano is burning everything around it. That's sick!
You're so good at what you do. Somehow, you manage to come up with wildly unique but also simple and actionable ideas that always sparks my imagination. Thanks for sharing your creativity with us, Mr. Hat!
So stoked you finally did a video on Giants! Been waiting for this for ages and I gotta say I love this twist! If I can add something I think that maybe another reason Giants aren't super popular in D&D is because they're kinda boring to run and fight. For the most part they're just escalating sacks of HP with a melee attack and a ranged attack. I think they might be more popular if they were more interesting to run and to fight. Here are a couple ways I do it in my games 1. Give them an AOE stomp attack kinda like the Earth Tremor Spell 2. Let them throw your players similar to how the Kraken throws things or like the Stone Giant Variant in the back of Storm King's Thunder 3. Have their attacks not just deal big damage but also be able to Push your players back or knock them Prone 4. Make their attacks AOE instead of single target. Either have the Giant make a single attack roll against all creatures in that AOE or have all creatures in that AOE make a Dexterity Save to avoid getting squashed 5. When a Giant falls Prone or Dies it falls in a direction of the DM's choosing. Each creature in a 15 foot AOE in the direction the Giant falls must make a Dexterity Save or take Bludgeoning damage and become Prone and Restrained 6. You could also add elemental damage and effects to their attacks. For example instead of throwing rocks a Hill Giant might throw a handful of mud turning the area around the target into difficult terrain, a Frost Giant might throw a ball of ice that shatters on impact dealing Cold damage in an AOE kinda like the Ice Knife spell, a Fire Giant could throw handfuls of molten lava that deal Fire damage and harden on impact Restraining the target, a Cloud Giant could call forth gusts of wind to Push players back and deal Force damage, and a Storm Giant could call down lightning dealing Lightning damage and causing targets to become Stunned 7. Giants might even have other elemental traits such as a Fire or Frost Giants having an AOE centered on themselves that deals Fire or Cold damage to any creature in the AOE at the start of each of their turns, a Hill Giant might be able to Burrow under the ground or have a Tremor Sense or Regenerate while in contact with the ground, a Stone Giant may have Resistance to Piercing and Slashing damage due to its stone-like skin, a Cloud Giant could summon fog or turn into a mist, a Storm Giant may even be able to see into the future predicting any attacks your players might make
I’ve got some mileage from doing Hill Giants similar to Titans from A.o.T just the visceral horror of a giant monster sometimes even a dozen of them just ripping through a village and eating people like grapes with some of them playing with their food. Also on the Xenoblade Chronicles point I’ve actually done something similar but closer to Metru Nui from Bionicle where the continent is shaped like a humanoid laying on their back.
For stats, you can use those of the scions of the giant gods in bigby’s book. The idea that they really are standard giants that have grown past their standard lifespans is great. Maybe their lives were made endless by their mastery of rune magic.
I loved it!! It made me think of a analogy of the war between giants and dragons like the duality of space/time. Giants representing space, like the giants god's body being the universe, and giants being geological formations, and dragons being a representation of time and processes and change.
13:55 If anyone still doubts that Matt Colville has been waaay into D&D for a looong time, here's the art from when he first appeared in the Fiend Folio...
So cool to see the project we've been working on for so long in a Pointy Hat video! It's been in production for a while now so it's wild to be where we are now. Big thanks to the Pointy Hat team for working with us! Oh, and hope you're all enjoying the free subclass! :)
Or, they could be counters to the Genius Loci. Maybe there is an unknown ongoing war between them. That could explain Natural Disasters stuff like Earthquakes, Mud Slides, Volcanic Eruptions, etc.
@@troybaxter or the Loci are actually a parasitic species that preys on giants! Perhaps there is a smaller parasite that is actually a young-stage loci that infect giants when young and develop as they do! Or what if the MOON is a Genius Loci that ate the colosi planet’s lunar child! And that’s why it’s hurtling towards the planet since it wants to parasitize the planet too!
Hey, big fan, but as a mythology nerd [especially Irish myth] I wanted to ramble a bit about the Firbolg! Firbolg are pronounced like "fear-bel-eg" [and it's plural, the singular is Fearbolg, pronounced like "far-bel-eg"]-- it's also very much up in the air whether they're normal humans. Myths often painted them as related to the pretty monstrous sounding Fomorians, but Irish poets and storytellers often loved embellishing details without too much worry about consistency. I think most stories have them first coming to Ireland after their "internship" in Greece, waaaaay back in ancient times-- predating the arrival of not only the Irish but also the fairies who inhabited the island before them. Overtime, they mixed with the Irish population and are said to be the origin of the Irish [or specifically Connacht] reputation for being quarrelsome and short tempered, at least according to Lady Grey.
He briefly mentioned ''killing giants so that humans can use their carcass as a landmass to live on ''. I was reminded of the Titan from the Owl House show.
Never had I actually been inspired to an entire world before. The story you hypothesised was so stunning I actually feel like I could run a game now. I’ve never felt inspired enough to run a world. But knowing this high-level story is enough to inspire so much out of any world that takes influence from it!
imagen a Collossus waking up hearing the call of the void and jumping into space. Together with the party and the magical city they are in. Its now a Spelljammer Campain
Yes! Another common pointyhat win . Ancient giants eventually becoming part of the land is such a nice tie in to the creator god Annam & gives more meaning to them all being categorised by lands & weather. +its using the common folklore of mountains being sleeping giants fantastically
Okay, I enjoy all Point Hat vids, but this is the first one that immediately solves a problem I was having in my homebrew. The twist of giants becoming mountains is exactly what I needed, when I needed it. Copy/pasting now.
I think they were trying to make Firbolgs into the D&D version of the Ogier from the Wheel of Time books. I am speaking specifically of the books because I refuse to acknowledge the complete abomination Amazon called a show.
I'm starting a new campaign tonight with my DnD group. I've planned to create a Goliath warlock. You have just given me the best idea as to why they have taken the Old One Pact! LOL!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
The only problem I have with these videos is that there isn’t enough of them. I’ve already rewatched the entirety of Which Lich six times, and it’s almost getting old
This is it. I've spent literal years trying to make Giants "fit" in my campaign worlds. I've played with them being fey or being elementals or a dozen other things. But this is it. And I think this solves the issue I had with dragons and gold and could even work with Goliaths and Firbolg connecting to giants while I break off trolls, ogres and ettins... I think this solved SO many problems I was having!
The kaiju fight idea at 23:16 reminds me of a Warframe area on deimos called the cambion drift where two enourmous wyrms battle with one regenerating every twenty minutes and killing the other, representing effectively a day and night cycle. Awesome video, Mr Pointy!
As a long time WoW and FFXIV player, I find it really funny that you not only reference XIV when talking about dragons here, but also that your twist on giants is very similar to WoW cosmic lore. In WoW, many (but not all) planets have a World Soul inside them, which can be shaped by the energies of the six WoW Cosmology points (Order, Life, Light, Chaos, Death, and Shadow) and awoken as a planet-sized being of immense power aligned with the power that most affected them. The WoW Titans that are known are mostly Order based, because the Order aligned Aman'Thul was the first to awaken, and he decided to explore the universe in search of others like himself and "order" them and awaken them. Others in the Titan Pantheon include more purely Order aligned ones like Norgannon, Golganneth, and Khaz'goroth; the more Life aligned (but still Order leaning) Eonar, the more Chaos aligned (but still Order leaning) Sargeras and Aggramar, and the more Death aligned Argus. Now the planet WoW takes place on is the "strongest World Soul in existence", and every Cosmological point is fighting for her, trying to push the others back and get their chance at altering her to their side; and Azeroth herself has started to wake and has been psychically calling to her living inhabitants to aid and defend her from the Cosmological powers.
Nice video, can definitely see the possible inspiration from the Cradle of the Scions. You definitely inspired me to make the giants in my campaign a lot more than just big guys.
no ok this twist is one of the best takes on lore i have ever seen. This is now forever canon in my campaigns, you surpassed yourself mister pointy hat, incredible volcano of wonderful ideas that you are
This is amazing! Your content is always so creative, inspiring, and most importantly, usable! One of rhese days you should consider compiling all of these awesome ideas into a physical book. I'd back that as a crowdfunder from the first second!
What's doubly fascinating is Hidetaka Miyazaki went a similar route in Dark Souls and Elden Ring, but where stone and mass were synonymous with dragons! (The smithing stones are their scales.) Dark souls 2 featured giants, but more as avatars of primordial trees, so they were enemies of Fire and rivals to mankind.
The lore you used for Giants is what I have for dragons in my campaign setting. Dragon's just keep growing until eventually they become continents and so on, and from within them, that is where new dragons are born.
Ok, you got me with the mountain-sized guys but doubled down with the planetary level. This is sick! By the way, I especially like the warlock angle at the end. In ancient Japan every mountain and river was seen as the domain of a god, so it would be interesting to link that to them being more or less awake giants, some with magic powers to lend to adventurers or their own local tribal cult.
Thanks for the video! I agree, for such lore-filled beings they hardly make an appearance. I think that, as you stated, apart from the obvious they're just regular sentient beings that require extra planning. I've only ever referenced them in game, and haven't ever actually used them. Very interesting take!
This is very, very awesome. :D And you gave me a way to include flying mountains without it feeling silly to me. (Yes, I'm weird.) Added note: I didn't see the links to the other videos you mentioned at the end of this video in the video, like we normally do.
I literally tomorrow will propose a mini arc with giants to our DM (wanted to do it for a while now), and this video is exactly in time, holy moly! This idea with neverending growth is intriguing, will bring that up too and share the result here if anything of note happens
I love firbolgs!! One of my favorite PCs is a female firbolg named Freiya, who is a wildfire druid with a fire moth as her companion. She is very kind and motherly and is always the one in charge of the group, always looking out for the other members.
Imagine two colosal giants decide to have a baby, but since the baby is too small for them not to squish it by accident, they leave it to some random adventurers and promise to come back in a few years. That could be an entire campaign of its own!
Giant-loving freaks ftw! Though I did change their lore a fair bit for my game... another game I played in just had the OG giants *be* the now-absent gods of the world
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum 😤
I smell the blood of an English man
I wanna watch your pet man child green screen his ass up a bean stalk IMMEDIATELY!
I wanna watch your human familiar green screen up a bean stalk NOW!
@@Latverian-Citizen-8172Be he alive, or be he dead
@@minraxbeasimp1976I'll grind his bones
to make my bread
Missed opportunity to title the video "D&D's Giant Problem"
he can change the title.
That would have been wicked
Dangit
YEAH
Hilarious
Planet giants are NOT where I thought this video was going but I love it. I’m taking that for my homebrew setting immediately
Random plot idea: Earth is a Collossus woman named Gaia who grew so large she became a Planet herself, with her daughter Luna randomly breaking off of her when she herself grew big enough living on/in her mother.
Centuries later Gaia wakes up, not feeling the touch of her daughter anymore and uses her gravitational field to pull Luna back into her loving embrace.
the players, feeling the energy shifting the moons movement have to either stop this reunion from happening or find another way to save the lives of everything living on the Planet
Make it an imminent collision, three days from the start of the campaign, but also give the players a handy heavenly artifact that resets time to the dawn of the first of the three days, now they have to rush to get the mcguffins that'll awaken the other sleeping colossi on the planet to stop the crash, also the BBEG has a cool cursed mask.
Ngl that story prompt is sick as FUCK
@@jotunr A majora-ly cursed mask? 😊
"Luna come here for a second."
That’s pretty much Greek mythology
There are enough giants with Flying Castles in various settings that the idea that the floating rock they're on is actually one of their ancestors is pretty fun.
that makes the term "ancestral home" take on a new meaning. it's a good idea
Beanstocks optional.
Othea being like: “is it me? Am I the drama? I don’t think I’m the drama… Maybe I am. Am I the villain? I don’t think I’m the villain.”
"Othea! Piper down. Some of us are working ere!" The Fire giant turns towards the raging wildfire. "As I was saying Logi, dis dragon claimed to burn down that orrest. Could you image dat?"
The Wildfire howls, "That nerve of that lizard! I was there! I was the fire!"
"Yeah, I know..."
@@uzunaruMelonness who is logi?
@@DucksAndCatnip
The Fire giant turns toward the speaker. "Ey! Logi! This one not know the Jötunn."
The wildfire merges into a single form. The body of massive giant emerges. "I am Logi. I am the Fire! Some know me as Halogi!"
@@uzunaruMelonness ha, logi. what a whimiscal and name. hello!
14:18 - Irish person here. Not even remotely mad - the cloudy skies and endless rain? You clearly know our lands well!
Also an Irish person, not mad just disappointed he didn't show off his Irish accent. I forget the name but it reminds of the Spanish footballer who learned English in Ireland (I want to say it was somewhere like Navan) but all he picked up was "Tesco car park" in the accent of the area he went to as a teen.
Ah but that sounds delightful to some
100%! I always laugh when non-Irish are like “oh Ireland is just endless rain, oh wait that’s offensive”…. its not offensive, it’s just true. And tbh, it’d be weird if there was less rain
Dat's why she's green.
There was a post, if I'm not mistaken, on Reddit, where a GM was asking for advice on how to get out of this: in his lore, there was a giant mountain in the center of the continent, but it wasn't on the map. And his players wondered where the mountain had gone. Most of the comments on the post voted for "The mountain just went away."
14:40 The reason why the 5th edition art of Firbolgs is so weird is because its depicting a subrace called fey touched firbolg, in older editions all firbolg art depicted them as just tall men.
I thought the 5e firbolgs felt vaguely fey-themed! They seem so out of place otherwise but I love them anyway
@@NoahOMorainRushThey're explicitly fey themed, not vaguely I'd say
Tis another case of 5e only touching on a small part of a really cool subject
That still doesn't really explain where it comes from, and nothing comes from nowhere in D&D lore, as the video seems to insinute. D&D always takes mythology and runs it through a blender to make its stories, in this case Irish and Scottish mythology, with a little Roman history thrown in.
While the Firbolgs are one of the mythological proto-peoples of Ireland, their blue skinned and red haired appearance in 5e is based on the Scottish Picts, the real proto-people of Scotland who mixed with Gaul immigrants to create the modern Scots. However the Firbolg's appearance in 5e is based on the Pict's romanticized appearance as told by roman soldiers, rather than any accurate historical appearance. The Romans who came to Scotland described "giant blue demons", a native people they called the Picts who were large and red haired, entering battle naked save for blue woad bodypaint. However none of what the roman soldiers described is supported by archaeological or historical evidence, falling squarely in myth, and no one is really sure why the soldiers made these stories up, or if they didn't, what people they were actually describing.
@@NoahOMorainRush My brother in the feywild they literally had Fey Ancestry as a trait
There's no way you just said "Giantists" at 22:20 and thought you were gonna get away with it
I came into the comments to say this was the best part of the video
19:00 I was just thinking that d&d giants actually aren't big enough and that's might be why they aren't as popular. 8 meters for the average Storm Giant and 5 meters for almost all the others isn't really that much, there are a lot of monsters whose entire gimmick isn't just being big that are around those sizes. So It's a nice twist the having giants continuously grow, but I'll also make them bigger by default in my games
You have read my mind. I'm putting together a campaign based around giants right now! Thank you!
First note: I have a firbolg player in the campaign I’m running. His name is Kai, and we love him. He recently threw a manhole cover across the country we’re parading around, unintentionally shattering the kneecaps of the bartender from the tavern we met at.
Second: I say “certified Pointyhat free” when talking about free things now. Thank you, Pointyhat.
I'm a huge giant fan & you've hit on a lot of the ideas I've been thinking about for a long time!
My least favorite thing about d&d giants is that they're usually shorter than dragons, thats dumb. I love the idea of giants who never stop growing. I put an undead giant in one of my campaigns, one who had "died" but was still technically "alive" so has been growing all this time. They were underwater, laying on a ruined castle, their arm as long as the largest castle. Then the party remembered "wait... there are Ostoria ruins in these waters... THIS GIANT IS BIGGER THAN AN ANCIENT GIANT CASTLE!" It was a very cool scene.
Also, I have what I think is a fun take on the "Annam is the creator of everything" stuff. In the giant barbarian subclass, one of their abilities uses the word "demiurge". That confused me so much, until I had the random thought "what if Annam is the Demiurge", & then I got to thinking on that & I love it so much! Annam didn't create all of existence, he just thinks he did & passes that knowledge down to him creations. Giants are all about the Ordning, & Annam believes he's at the top, but there are those above him, his creators & their creators.
This also works with the new lore provided from the Bigsby' book on Giants, specifically the Scion forms (I think that's what its called; the forms giants take that makes them part of the natural environments).
Bro no way, literally 30 minutes ago I was workshopping a barbarian butcher who's helping his chef friend perfect his signature dish.
That sounds like a cool idea, very creative!
Sweeney Todd???
@@cameronsitton501 the chef is another player, the contested heir to a noble merchant family renown for their hospitality empire. He's in a race with his cousin to create a culinary masterpiece and secure his birthright.
Myself, I was thinking a low INT Dragonborn who just wants to eat a dragon, because he thinks it'll make him one.
This is lovely because in mexico we have mountain call the sleeping lady.
There is a Sleeping Giant Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada and I think I was shown another "Sleeping Giant" somewhere on the east coast as a child.
It can also apply to Don Goyo
Once I finish my current long campaign, am planning to pivot to short campaigns and non-DnD games, and one of these was to figure out a Giants mini campaign since they're the creature type I've yet to really use, so this is perfect!
My grancle told me when I was young that the mountains and hills of Alicante were all giants that lay to sleep. Thank you to make me remember those days!!
The highest CR giants in Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants are actually sleeping in a "cradle" that you have to fight before you wake the giant and fight it. So the whole "getting so big they eventually become a planet" actually has some mechanics to back it up.
I love how the silliest references on those vídeos like "THE WAR" triggers my echolalia VEEEERY hard
This actually works so well for the Celtic/norse inspired setting I’m creating! In Norse mythology, the body of the giant Ymir was used to create the Earth
You've written a lot of bangers, Antonio, but this is I think your best idea yet. The ever-growing giants, the Collosi becoming planets, the second coming of the giant/dragon wars - sick as hell!
Best dnd content creator strikes again. Bless you pointyhat
I'm just picturing an entire continent in ruins as multiple living mountains woke up and are waging continual war against each other. All while there are whole tribes of survivors living on these giants as they live and walk and fight because building anything on the ground simply isn't safe enough in the long term anymore.
I miss the OG “hellooo” intros, petition to request considering adding those again. This is my fav YT channel ever, it’s been a surreal experience watching your channel grow so well and so quickly! 👏🏾
Really like your idea for giants! It reminds me both of Discworld Trolls and a place called Sleeping Giant State park nearish to where I live, according to a legend of the Native Quinnipiac people a stone ridge that looks a bit like a man sleeping on his back is the Giant Hobbomock who was put to sleep by magic.
I can tell the HEAVY inspiration from Hilda with the whole "giants become mountains"
I thought it was just a drawing on mythology thing, I know loads of stories where people have said that mountains were actually giants & thats why you can sometimes see “faces” in them
Who is Hilda?
@@MrCheese270 Hilda is a show on netflix that utilizes this idea. OP is not is not referring to a person.
@@MrCheese270 Do you not know Hilda!? She was a Norse mythological figure that created the northern mountain range after imprisoning the last giant under the ground. This was their explanation as to why the mountains would seemingly change at will, actually caused by snow and landslides. Surprised you didn’t know
@@davialmeida4442 I don’t study or know anything about Norse mythology, but that’s pretty interesting. I find Greek and Roman mythology interesting, so maybe I’ll look into the Norse.
New measurement metric of “wine barrels tall” is hilarious!
You mean intuitive right?
Have you ever looked up the actual definition of a "butt ton"?
@@NoahOMorainRush *checks notes*
"Butt" was a medieval unit of measurement for wine. Technically, a "butt-load" of wine is 129 gallons (475 liters).
@@thatHARVguy Huzzah! A man of culture!
THIS!
This is what was missing from one of my own homebrew races!
I have a race of rock people with several subraces. THIS is the endgame I was missing for the species!!
Thank you for this. It's fantastic!
Of all the tips and twists we've seen from this channel in the past two years, this is the coolest one yet. I love the idea of there being a giant taking a nap in the middle of the moon.
As a lifelong mythology nerd, I appreciate the shoutout to Nobody. Also, the reference to giantists. It is important to recognize the contributions of those who practice the giantific method.
Okay, "was forced to pass away" is one heck of a euphemism. XD
Your mythology joke was also phenomenal, well done. :P
Giant fan here- I’m currently playing a SKT (storm kings thunder) campaign and my character is a Goliath rune knight who has the blood of hartkiller and is trying to unite all giants including giant kin to restart the “Great War” to make annam proud and come back
I've always liked the idea of Firbolgs being more cow-like now lorewise because they experienced exposure to the Feywild and it changed them over the centuries
I appreciate you using a measurement system I can actually intuit.
5:05 It was Garyx, the Dragon deity of Chaos, Destruction and Renewal who led this war, according to the Dragonomicon. Pretty cool god, almost entirely forgotten nowadays.
"giantist" is so beautiful and perfect and you just slip it in there and move right on. Incredible
OK, I've enjoyed many of your imaginings of the d&d lore.
But this is next level. Adding this to the established giant lore is the PERFECT jump from worldly adventures to epic stuff
BIIIIG THANK YOU
omg i love the thought of this, i was always enamored with the idea of mountains just being sleeping giants when i was little, making them literal planets in due time with potential to make their own eco systems is such a beautiful thought in the long run
I was instinctively preparing for a World Anvil sponsor on that ending
That is sooo cool. Honestly, I had no idea where the thought of "take their thing of being big and make it bigger" was going to go but I love. Such an inspiring and create twist. I never cared for giants before (as you said basically just big people) but this is awesome.
Thank you so much!
This is SICK!
Having entire MOUNTAINS being a sleeping giants sound so EMBLEMATIC!
Imagine the fight against a literal mountain! A Gigantic monster so big, the players have to climb its body and fight while ont him God of war Cronos style.
And this turns them into forces of nature's more than monsters when they are old enough. Imagine trying to wake up a sleeping giant juste to destroy the city built on it. Or trying to save your town from the doom of an angry fire collosi, Who's volcano is burning everything around it.
That's sick!
You're so good at what you do. Somehow, you manage to come up with wildly unique but also simple and actionable ideas that always sparks my imagination. Thanks for sharing your creativity with us, Mr. Hat!
So stoked you finally did a video on Giants! Been waiting for this for ages and I gotta say I love this twist!
If I can add something I think that maybe another reason Giants aren't super popular in D&D is because they're kinda boring to run and fight. For the most part they're just escalating sacks of HP with a melee attack and a ranged attack. I think they might be more popular if they were more interesting to run and to fight. Here are a couple ways I do it in my games
1. Give them an AOE stomp attack kinda like the Earth Tremor Spell
2. Let them throw your players similar to how the Kraken throws things or like the Stone Giant Variant in the back of Storm King's Thunder
3. Have their attacks not just deal big damage but also be able to Push your players back or knock them Prone
4. Make their attacks AOE instead of single target. Either have the Giant make a single attack roll against all creatures in that AOE or have all creatures in that AOE make a Dexterity Save to avoid getting squashed
5. When a Giant falls Prone or Dies it falls in a direction of the DM's choosing. Each creature in a 15 foot AOE in the direction the Giant falls must make a Dexterity Save or take Bludgeoning damage and become Prone and Restrained
6. You could also add elemental damage and effects to their attacks. For example instead of throwing rocks a Hill Giant might throw a handful of mud turning the area around the target into difficult terrain, a Frost Giant might throw a ball of ice that shatters on impact dealing Cold damage in an AOE kinda like the Ice Knife spell, a Fire Giant could throw handfuls of molten lava that deal Fire damage and harden on impact Restraining the target, a Cloud Giant could call forth gusts of wind to Push players back and deal Force damage, and a Storm Giant could call down lightning dealing Lightning damage and causing targets to become Stunned
7. Giants might even have other elemental traits such as a Fire or Frost Giants having an AOE centered on themselves that deals Fire or Cold damage to any creature in the AOE at the start of each of their turns, a Hill Giant might be able to Burrow under the ground or have a Tremor Sense or Regenerate while in contact with the ground, a Stone Giant may have Resistance to Piercing and Slashing damage due to its stone-like skin, a Cloud Giant could summon fog or turn into a mist, a Storm Giant may even be able to see into the future predicting any attacks your players might make
I’ve got some mileage from doing Hill Giants similar to Titans from A.o.T just the visceral horror of a giant monster sometimes even a dozen of them just ripping through a village and eating people like grapes with some of them playing with their food.
Also on the Xenoblade Chronicles point I’ve actually done something similar but closer to Metru Nui from Bionicle where the continent is shaped like a humanoid laying on their back.
What I got from this is that there's potentially a Dwarf-and-Elf-style ancient enmity between Firbolg/Goliaths and Dragonborn/Draconic Sorcerers.
For stats, you can use those of the scions of the giant gods in bigby’s book. The idea that they really are standard giants that have grown past their standard lifespans is great. Maybe their lives were made endless by their mastery of rune magic.
saw this was uploaded a few minutes ago and caught myself whispering 'oh boy oh boy' aloud while settling in for another pointy hat banger.
I loved it!! It made me think of a analogy of the war between giants and dragons like the duality of space/time. Giants representing space, like the giants god's body being the universe, and giants being geological formations, and dragons being a representation of time and processes and change.
Glad you enjoyed Ireland. Your description is accurate!!! 🇮🇪
13:55 If anyone still doubts that Matt Colville has been waaay into D&D for a looong time, here's the art from when he first appeared in the Fiend Folio...
So cool to see the project we've been working on for so long in a Pointy Hat video! It's been in production for a while now so it's wild to be where we are now. Big thanks to the Pointy Hat team for working with us!
Oh, and hope you're all enjoying the free subclass! :)
So this is essentially "what if giants turned into Genius Loci" and tbh I am so here for it
Or, they could be counters to the Genius Loci. Maybe there is an unknown ongoing war between them. That could explain Natural Disasters stuff like Earthquakes, Mud Slides, Volcanic Eruptions, etc.
@@troybaxter or the Loci are actually a parasitic species that preys on giants! Perhaps there is a smaller parasite that is actually a young-stage loci that infect giants when young and develop as they do!
Or what if the MOON is a Genius Loci that ate the colosi planet’s lunar child! And that’s why it’s hurtling towards the planet since it wants to parasitize the planet too!
2:06 Zeus is quaking in his boots!
Hey, big fan, but as a mythology nerd [especially Irish myth] I wanted to ramble a bit about the Firbolg!
Firbolg are pronounced like "fear-bel-eg" [and it's plural, the singular is Fearbolg, pronounced like "far-bel-eg"]-- it's also very much up in the air whether they're normal humans. Myths often painted them as related to the pretty monstrous sounding Fomorians, but Irish poets and storytellers often loved embellishing details without too much worry about consistency.
I think most stories have them first coming to Ireland after their "internship" in Greece, waaaaay back in ancient times-- predating the arrival of not only the Irish but also the fairies who inhabited the island before them.
Overtime, they mixed with the Irish population and are said to be the origin of the Irish [or specifically Connacht] reputation for being quarrelsome and short tempered, at least according to Lady Grey.
8:23 I was unreasonably happy to see Hilda the Series get some attention!!
He briefly mentioned ''killing giants so that humans can use their carcass as a landmass to live on ''. I was reminded of the Titan from the Owl House show.
20:00 hydrogen, they’re made of hydrogen.
Severely underrated pun in "Giantist"
Never had I actually been inspired to an entire world before. The story you hypothesised was so stunning I actually feel like I could run a game now. I’ve never felt inspired enough to run a world. But knowing this high-level story is enough to inspire so much out of any world that takes influence from it!
8:33 I see Hilda and my brain gets happy
imagen a Collossus waking up hearing the call of the void and jumping into space. Together with the party and the magical city they are in. Its now a Spelljammer Campain
Im running storm kings thunder rn, this is so helpful ❤
Yes! Another common pointyhat win .
Ancient giants eventually becoming part of the land is such a nice tie in to the creator god Annam & gives more meaning to them all being categorised by lands & weather.
+its using the common folklore of mountains being sleeping giants fantastically
16:44 you're also a one eyed giant of the youtube dnd community yourself, aren't you now?
Awesome! I love Greek mythology and Pointy Hat.
Okay, I enjoy all Point Hat vids, but this is the first one that immediately solves a problem I was having in my homebrew. The twist of giants becoming mountains is exactly what I needed, when I needed it. Copy/pasting now.
I think they were trying to make Firbolgs into the D&D version of the Ogier from the Wheel of Time books. I am speaking specifically of the books because I refuse to acknowledge the complete abomination Amazon called a show.
I'm starting a new campaign tonight with my DnD group. I've planned to create a Goliath warlock. You have just given me the best idea as to why they have taken the Old One Pact! LOL!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
The only problem I have with these videos is that there isn’t enough of them. I’ve already rewatched the entirety of Which Lich six times, and it’s almost getting old
This is it. I've spent literal years trying to make Giants "fit" in my campaign worlds. I've played with them being fey or being elementals or a dozen other things.
But this is it. And I think this solves the issue I had with dragons and gold and could even work with Goliaths and Firbolg connecting to giants while I break off trolls, ogres and ettins...
I think this solved SO many problems I was having!
"Divine Jerry Springer" sounds amazing
The kaiju fight idea at 23:16 reminds me of a Warframe area on deimos called the cambion drift where two enourmous wyrms battle with one regenerating every twenty minutes and killing the other, representing effectively a day and night cycle.
Awesome video, Mr Pointy!
GUYS WAKE UP, THE POINTY HAT MAN POSTED!!!
As a long time WoW and FFXIV player, I find it really funny that you not only reference XIV when talking about dragons here, but also that your twist on giants is very similar to WoW cosmic lore.
In WoW, many (but not all) planets have a World Soul inside them, which can be shaped by the energies of the six WoW Cosmology points (Order, Life, Light, Chaos, Death, and Shadow) and awoken as a planet-sized being of immense power aligned with the power that most affected them.
The WoW Titans that are known are mostly Order based, because the Order aligned Aman'Thul was the first to awaken, and he decided to explore the universe in search of others like himself and "order" them and awaken them. Others in the Titan Pantheon include more purely Order aligned ones like Norgannon, Golganneth, and Khaz'goroth; the more Life aligned (but still Order leaning) Eonar, the more Chaos aligned (but still Order leaning) Sargeras and Aggramar, and the more Death aligned Argus.
Now the planet WoW takes place on is the "strongest World Soul in existence", and every Cosmological point is fighting for her, trying to push the others back and get their chance at altering her to their side; and Azeroth herself has started to wake and has been psychically calling to her living inhabitants to aid and defend her from the Cosmological powers.
Pointy hat right before my dnd session >>>
This is honestly fantastic and i would put this on the same level as your twist on Liches and on Dragons, great stuff!!!
Wow. Can "Fun fact" be a part of every info dump now? That made me so happy every time :)
These videos are one of the few things that actually brings me a genuine smile nowadays. I love every single one.
This is extremely cool. I started the video wondering what you could possibly do to make them interesting, and boy did you deliver.
Nice video, can definitely see the possible inspiration from the Cradle of the Scions. You definitely inspired me to make the giants in my campaign a lot more than just big guys.
You have given me an avenue to make Xenoblade Chronicles (One of my favorite franchises ever) in DnD, and for that? I thank you.
You’ve solved a key problem I was having with an Anchorome campaign I’m writing. Thank you, dang I love these videos!!
22:46 "Every planet is alive, and has a will of its own" When the Gaia hypothesis becomes a fact 🌎
no ok this twist is one of the best takes on lore i have ever seen. This is now forever canon in my campaigns, you surpassed yourself mister pointy hat, incredible volcano of wonderful ideas that you are
This is amazing! Your content is always so creative, inspiring, and most importantly, usable! One of rhese days you should consider compiling all of these awesome ideas into a physical book. I'd back that as a crowdfunder from the first second!
What's doubly fascinating is Hidetaka Miyazaki went a similar route in Dark Souls and Elden Ring, but where stone and mass were synonymous with dragons! (The smithing stones are their scales.)
Dark souls 2 featured giants, but more as avatars of primordial trees, so they were enemies of Fire and rivals to mankind.
I love this! It makes me think of the norse creation myth, Where the realms are made out of the dead body of the giant Ymir.
"manic panic hair dye". OMG I dyed my hair green when 16 using the bottle I found in Hot Topic in 2001 called Manic Panic... Wild! 😅
The lore you used for Giants is what I have for dragons in my campaign setting. Dragon's just keep growing until eventually they become continents and so on, and from within them, that is where new dragons are born.
Love the Collosi's parallel with norse mythology where Odin and his brothers formed the world out of Ymirs remains
Ok, you got me with the mountain-sized guys but doubled down with the planetary level. This is sick! By the way, I especially like the warlock angle at the end. In ancient Japan every mountain and river was seen as the domain of a god, so it would be interesting to link that to them being more or less awake giants, some with magic powers to lend to adventurers or their own local tribal cult.
Thanks for the video! I agree, for such lore-filled beings they hardly make an appearance. I think that, as you stated, apart from the obvious they're just regular sentient beings that require extra planning. I've only ever referenced them in game, and haven't ever actually used them. Very interesting take!
This is very, very awesome. :D And you gave me a way to include flying mountains without it feeling silly to me. (Yes, I'm weird.) Added note: I didn't see the links to the other videos you mentioned at the end of this video in the video, like we normally do.
Wow, you really outdid yourself with this idea, Antonio. It's incredible and full of potential.
I literally tomorrow will propose a mini arc with giants to our DM (wanted to do it for a while now), and this video is exactly in time, holy moly! This idea with neverending growth is intriguing, will bring that up too and share the result here if anything of note happens
I think you really outdone yourself this time Antonio. I'm honestly thinking about including this on my own ongoing campaign's lore.
I love firbolgs!! One of my favorite PCs is a female firbolg named Freiya, who is a wildfire druid with a fire moth as her companion. She is very kind and motherly and is always the one in charge of the group, always looking out for the other members.
As someone who measures using lengths of items and not that non sense metric system, I appreciate using a real frame of measurement
Imagine two colosal giants decide to have a baby, but since the baby is too small for them not to squish it by accident, they leave it to some random adventurers and promise to come back in a few years. That could be an entire campaign of its own!
Giant-loving freaks ftw! Though I did change their lore a fair bit for my game... another game I played in just had the OG giants *be* the now-absent gods of the world