After describing how I hunkered down and braced behind it, I once blocked a Fire Giants swing with a mithral shield. My DM ruled that while I succeeded in blocking the blow, all I effectively did was turn their sword into a club and I got launched almost 15ft straight into a stone wall, and knocked prone. Atleast I didn't get cut in half. That DM is pretty good at turning your attempts at Role-playing into disasters. Loved that campaign.
Ran a modified version of Hall of the Fire Giant King that fit into my campaign. My players had to settle for a negotiated exit from the Hall and then ran for their lives, and they were 15th level to the best of my recollection. The giants' tactical intelligence was an unpleasant surprise for them. Entertaining for everyone involved!
I loved the part about Fire Giants using their environment to their advantage. There’s nothing as terrifying as a Fire Giant doing a cannonball into a pool of lava to create waves of lava to melt a adventuring party. A fun encounter with Fire Giants shouldn’t just include a patrolling band with a few Hellhounds, but an elite raiding party riding Fire elemental Tyrannosaurs accompanied by a Giant Pyromancer(Psionics Handbook class).
Great video, AJ. When DMing Fire Giants, focusing on their environment is a must for real immersion. I had some cocky players. The cockiest player ran a red half-dragon (80s homebrew version of mine), essentially fireproof. He was a musketeer (flint-lock rifleman, the advanced version of the Arquebus in the PHB was used). The other two were a mage and a cleric loaded with fire resistance magic. Upon entering the area, they saw two Fire Giant guards. As they came near, heat washed over the party. The red half-dragon's everything burst into flames (he felt that his innate fire and heat immunity applied to everything he carried). All of his powder and shot detonated as well as some bombs he fashioned. He was reduced to single-digit HP's and so did the mage next to him. The mage opened up his scroll tube to read a teleport scroll to have the party make a quick exit. Upon leaving the tube, that scroll flashed into almost instant ashes. The party looked up to see the giants laughing as hellhounds came from within the gates to charge. The party turned tail and ran and the fire giants whistled for the hell hounds to just return. The outer gate has a magical barrier that kept most of the heat in so they did not have time to deal with incrementing heat and noticing something about to go bad. If they bothered to read the mission scroll they were given, they would have known that. They went back a couple levels later and discovered that going into a fire giant hellhole means you have to have more than just fire resistance, so they got owned. The fire giants even toyed with them and offered them a chance to surrender. And that is where the role-playing as fire giant's slaves started. Yes, instead of giving up on their enslaved characters, they insisted on still playing them. I had to invent some fire giant culture because there were no sources for that yet. Here's the thing, every gamin's session, one of the fire giants jested about the explosive meeting of that trio of slaves... the only time fire giants ever smiled.
@@AJPickett Thanks, bro! Not bad for a teenage version of me, eh? Did you laugh at the moment the fire giants did? Oh, I DM'd similar type environments with other heat-based lairs too. Cocky (and RPG computer game players) tend to not think about the superheated environments on those.
One of my favourite encounters I've run was a 3.5 game, the players had been sneaking through a fire giants newly established mine keeping combat surprisingly quiet using silence spells and coordinated attacks until they reached the Giants personal quarters and surprised the giant in his 'bath', a swirling pool of lava. He stood and grabbed his spear and as combat continued the stone hardened, gradually increasing his AC as the players initial momentum stuttered and stalled and now they faced a rock-clad and ANGRY giant
I got the idea of a sea adventure where Fire Giants sailors in massive metal ships capture young Brass Dragons to use them as pets as Frost Giants do with White Dragons, treating them as a mixture of parrots and hunt falcons.
Thank you so much for providing this information. I've gained so many more players for the game after introducing them to your work. Many of my friends and other make their game so much better now that they can provide more in depth backgrounds and lore for their games. They also send their thanks. They can answer more questions from their player characters and quench the thirst for information and lore on different areas monster and races. God bless you Mr.Pickett and please keep up the great work sir.
Would love a deep dive into the Giant/Dragon war, as well as the Vonindod. (already foreseeing a reassembly of this construct to deal with a Tarrasque, possibly reigniting the Giant/Dragon war)
You know I would love to join a campaign with a focus on Norse mythology. As a Scandinavian it has a special place in my heart and exploring a realm based on Muspelheim with a rich culture of Fire Giants would be metal as hell.
"Throw off the yoke of savory! Eat the dirt! Eat. The. Dirt!" - One mad fire giant druid too deep in his cups Yes, a fire giant druid... obviously insane. Also... might need to make that the villain some day... so much fire! :D
So the restart of the war between Giants and Dragons is going to look like the scene from Avengers endgame. With multiple portals opening and legions of fire giants marching out. All shouting the fire giant version of the Spartan battle cry from 300. Probably have Vonidod come bursting out of the side of a near by mountain. Bad day to a dragon.
@@draxthemsklonst Serfs are legally bound to work for the lord of the land they have been allotted. This is a form of indentured servitude, but, they are free to leave if they want, and lose their land. These days, we call this "Renting". It's cute the building owner is still called a Land Lord though.
Prob my favorite type of giant honestly . i think cloud giants are interesting and i like them too but something about fire giants lol they're so cool to me
Lol that's a good one 😂 But to be fair we need more elements of realism in our fantasy games not more PC culture I'd rather here a great story with all it's faults than being told to play it "safe" in regards to offending someone in my fantasy game
I think sometimes it can be hard to imagine what meeting some creatures would be like, like you know a giant is giant but it doesn't always hold the same gravitas of a dragon. You think of a giant dragon & you can easily imagine your whole body reacting to its might & presence. But I think fire giants are like that too, you don't really struggle to imagine how crazy it would be to meet one.
I find myself wondering if the Fire Giants do march out, would rival Giant kin consider intervening, would they join in or just watch. I can't see Cloud Giants aiding for example. I imagine Hill Giants would get swept up for labor if nothing else.
Cloud giants would certainly get involved, as the amount of wealth to be plundered from the civilizations of the smallfolk would greatly increase their status, plus, their flying castles are a huge strategic advantage.
@@AJPickett The alternative is just as likely. The worshippers of Memnor would be a prime candidate to buck the ordening and place a band of plucky adventurers in the middle of a fight without realizing the true gravity of the situation.
Vid mentioned that Fire giants have very sizable population in Plane of Fire. Do other giants have same reserves? If not they can be in trouble too without the Ordening.
Timestamps and Spoilers Below! 0:18 Intro, Subscribe and Become a Member! 1:00 Fire Giants Overview: 1:45 Annam's Divine Children, Surtr, and Muspelheim 4:21 Cult of Surtr, more on Muspelheim, and Worship 6:12 Annam's Terrestrial Children and Masud 8:15 Hartsvale 9:14 Description 11:15 Weapon Training, blacksmiths, and Slaves 13:01 Dangers in the Lair, chemicals, and textiles 16:30 Other Creatures in the lair 17:13 Craftsmanship, Runemagic, and Vonindod 19:17 Draco-rage, Annam breaks the Ordning 21:32 Zalto and the might of the Fire Giants 24:04 Fire Giants on Ebberon Like, Share, Comment, Subscribe, hit the bell icon, and join us on the discord! I was part of the way through this video when i realized that Ironslag and the story of Zalto sounded really familiar, before realizing that it was on Dice, Camera, Action and that is probably one of the stories in Storm King's Thunder. Makes sense. In anycase, running a bit behind on videos, took a week or two for myself and come abck to find like five videos. Funny how that happens following an active TH-camr. Dont forget to Like, Share, Comment, and Subscribe, and maybe tell us some of your fun Fire Giant stories below!
This is up there with the best vids you've made this far, AJ! Not just content, but audio, good use of visuals (on topic with the audio). It's killing me, though, to see fire giants. As they tried to keep their old ways, more so than other giants, and are very much into metallurgical craftsmanship. Also, the rune magic affinity. Reminds me of dwarves. I understand dwarves learned rune magic from the giants, but why do dwarves *look* like fire giants (and Azers, for that matter)? Am I being superficial, or is there more to that? Did the dwarves ever worship giant deities? Are there any dwarven links to giants, besides being "prisoners with jobs" and rune magic?
Aside from their own mythology, what do we really know about the evolution of dwarves? They are not native to Toril, they arrived some time during the Elven crown wars?
I was actually wondering when you were going to mention the shattering of the Ordning. I personally think giants are actually much more interesting as characters this way. Individuals are far more compelling than archetypes imho.
If anyone (DM or player) is interested: For additional artwork of FANTASY (not high tech mech-style) robots, like Vonindod, check out the Guardian (and other constructs) from the Darksiders series of video games.
Dont you think that instead of wearing furs, fire giants would wear their metal armor in cold environments? With all their body heat I think the metal would work better. And I dont see how furs wouldn't burn, but that's just me.
If a Fire Gaint came across an adventurer with a Belt of Fire Giant Strength, would they be offended? Would they be flattered? Same question goes for all giants I suppose and their belts!
I guess that they would fell flattered, it acknowledges the Giant's strength and it is not made of a giant's body parts, it doesn't change that the Fire Giant would want the belt for himself, to use it as a bracer or necklace.
I tend to give them a bit of Polynesian flavor in my games, whole war dances and things. My players came across Pahoehoe abd his wife Aa named after two Hawaiian words for lava.
"I love the smell of AJ Dnd videos in the morning" Although I like in England so it's evening for me, but sometimes my sleep schedule is back to front so it feels like it's morning sometimes.
Something just occured to me. While dragons and giants have been at war. They are very philosophically opposed. Giants knowing their place in the ordaining, while dragons are typically very covetous.
In my homebrew, Giants are the first creation of the God of Order, while Dragons are the eldest lords of the uber-Darwinian plane created by the God of Chaos; and the whole game world is the result of the two separate totalities of creation crashing into each other and war being de facto invented, with petty difference such as 'Good' and 'Evil' being later and much more minor tendencies. So, long story short: I'm 100% with you on the philosophic differences. ;^)
Fought a pair of these backed up by a few Hill Giant mooks a few sessions ago. We were lucky they showed up late to the fight. Even after clearing out most of the Hill Giants, the arrival of the Fire Giants nearly killed us. My Hexblade and our Barbarian were separated from the group and both had to spend a couple rounds going mano-a-mano with the big guys. The party has some seriously potent magic equipment, but we're still only level 8, so we were hard-pressed to say the least. If they had opted to coordinate rather than taking one opponent each, we'd both be super dead. As the situation stood, we were able to buy just enough time for the party to finish off the blockading Hill Giants and come to our rescue. My opponent was rolling quite poorly against me (though he clearly still had the upper hand), so the Barbarian went down first. I subsequently had to activate my Tomb of Levistus invocation to avoid going down, and the pair broke through it, knocked me out, and fed me 2 failed Death Saves out of what was probably spite before the party was able to intervene. Even then, it was a very close fight. Neither I nor my character will be forgetting that battle anytime soon. It was a good reality check for a group that had been relatively dominant in combat for a while.
@@AJPickett I've kind of been on a Mulharandi kick due to a current character I've been playing in what started as a Lost Mines and now SKT (didn't know about the second) and that led to the desert and sand giants among other things that come out of the area...
@@kendrickrochelanzot2053 Oooo the controversy... I am inclined to throw caution to the wind and make Mountain Giants 80 feet tall, just because THEY SHOULD BE... however, probably just on other worlds, as that would royally screw up the Ordning.
Awesome video AJ!! I'm excited to see what's coming next! Have you ever considered streaming some games that you DM? I think a lot of people would love watching games run by a DM with such a vast knowledge!
So here’s a technical and mechanical question. Does the extra fire(or other) dmg that is on their weapons come from the giants’ innate fire ability or is it because of giant magic runes carved into their weapons. Cause you mentioned that they’re good with runes and ice giants don’t add cold dmg to their attacks. So makes me question things.
by seeing the CR of their greatest subraces, I do still think that the Dragons have beaten the Giants in their ancient war. while Ancient Reds, Golds, Blues, & Silvers are either the same CR as Empyreans (Titans) or higher, the Dragons have stayed in the Material Plane, while Titans fled to the Outer Planes, which looks like something a losing party would do. let's also not forget that all Ancient & Adult Dragons are of CR higher or equal to that of the apex of the Ordening who haven't left the Material or the Inner Planes: Storm Giants.
while it is true that dragon especially older dragon are more powerful that many type of giants remember that giants where a civilization and had armies and heroes. imagine a hunting party compesed of 4-6 giants with player levels and you start to understand that even if not exactly a match for the olders dragon they are more than a treath to everything else not to mention that the titans were also capable of being nearly equal to the strongest dragons also one other point dragons are solitary egoistical and arrogant creatures that are by thier very nature always fighting each other over loot and territories giants were a unified civilization with a highly ordered society were the Ordnung of Annam the allfather make them obey a set of law, social custum and social hierarchy if a storm giant ordered something the lesser giants would obey him as part of thier cultural mentality at the end both races empires were shattered also keep in mind that in many version of the lore titans were banished or escaped to other planes not becasue of dragons, but because they fought the gods or betrayed Annam
@@AJPickett if you want to check out something really nuts, take a look at the Dungeon adventure Threshold of Evil. It might be even nastier than Tomb of Horrors (which I survived twice). Never last long in Threshold though
I've been playing and DMing since 1982. About 15 years ago I converted Against the Giants to 3.5 using Epic rules. The nastiest encounter I've ever run was against a cloud giant archmage. Two sessions, 78 rounds, one survivor.
To my understanding chain mail wasnt meant to stop arrows, it was primarily for stopping slashing blows from swords and axes. You would usually have a layer of gambeson alongside it to try and reduce damge from other sources with the thicker variants of gambeson being very effective.
Fire giants look like ganondorf from Zelda, Guess they will use the power of DORIYAAAAAAH! To smash there enemies into submission and take over the world.
AJ Pickett Oh man I get alot of inspiration for characters/monsters/settings from Zelda. It's ripe with so much lore and interesting worldbuilding. I seriously recommend.
Great vid and random question, wasn’t Annam exiled from having any interaction with the material plane until his one of his sons restored Ostoria? Would him clearing the Ordning violate that, or does he not care anymore for one reason or another?
My guess is that some giants may band together on a plane of only giants to create a civilization and ergo result in new breeds of giants. Not to mention there could be mysteries uncovered that reveals that some humanoids, humans in particular, could have untapped giant ancestry. Ergo an eager artificer could find a way to transform humanoids into giants via alchemy and runes.
@@zacharygadzinski3147 When I get to the story of Annam's last son on Toril, Hartkiller, it will interest you greatly I think, and also raise a lot of questions about the Goliath and Firbolg.
One of the main reasons that Adventurers need not worry about the long term consequences of something like asbestos, is the fact that they knew it wasn't a career you went into expecting a LONG life, but instead an EXCITING one. Let's face it most adventurers WON'T get the chance to retire & most know it going in, if they wanted a LONG life they would have been craftsmen or farmers not guys who go LOOKING for orcs & other monsters. I can imagine a misfit fire giant who becomes fascinated with mathematics once one of the little folk demonstrates the practical applications of algebra when it comes to calculating trajectories for siege weapons. A well placed scaled up trebuchet shot could easily be a one hit kill for a dragon. Imagine the mountain sized boulders a team of giants could hoist into one, such a shot might be enough to hurt even a giant threat like Tiamat.
The 3.5 MM lists Trolls as part of a Fire Giant Clan in the organisation list, can anyone shed some light on this? Im pretty sure its because slaving is a thing, but it just feels off. Trolls like cold mountains and FGs like volcanoes, Trolls dislike burning (a reasonable opinion tbh) but FGs dont care so much. They just seem so far seperated, if its just the "giant" aspect there are other (better?) options. That said FGs being the crafters and runesmiths they are, as well as the war minded tacticians we know them to be, maybe training a troll to wear full plate and enchant it with ImmFire and ImmAcid sounds like the perfect fighting force, hell, just chain shirts tip trolls OTT IMO.
With creatures this powerful and borderline malevolent it’s amazing smaller creatures are able to build civilization at all. You would think the giants and dragons would just take over the planet.
It has diminished the great glacier, Vaasa, Damara and Narfell have a long history of shadow magic and demonology, there may also be ancient sites of magic uncovered by a retreating glacier, like perhaps a Batrachi teleportation circle hewn out of huge rocks like Stonehenge.
I am picturing a party of adventurers and their prized treasure of a pair of fireproof Fire Giant underwear used to shield them against all kinds of flames.
I ran a game where I had seven players make two characters, one fire giant & one frost giant. Had them raiding Dwarves and other fortified keeps and then eventually had them doing a long quest for religious reasons(for the frost giants) and for revenge(fire giants). Had a long twisted intrigue story where they were suppose to find out that they were secretly working against each others clans and in the end the players slaughtered each other instead on the fourth game session. Funny, now that thirteen years have passed. But i was so pissed off at the moment lol
Surter does no guard Muspelheim! Surter is the destroyer or initiator of the destruction of the nine realms, he doesn't appear until Ragnarok. I found this annoying so I needed to leave a comment, but no matter it's whatever.
@@AJPickett whoa whoa... Did I miss something cus I gave been worshiping Mielikki for years by dancing around trees in the woods. Not sure if I got it from the actual Finnish myth or from the D&D...ah well, does not matter.
They can't say the word 'slaves.' Gods I hate the verbal puritans. At least when the religious nuts were the ones whining, they didn't bow to them and edit demons out of the game.
Love ur vids...but please we r americans we dont know anything about the metric system please use pounds for weights and feet and miles for distance...the metric system ruins most entertainment i could possibly get
After describing how I hunkered down and braced behind it, I once blocked a Fire Giants swing with a mithral shield. My DM ruled that while I succeeded in blocking the blow, all I effectively did was turn their sword into a club and I got launched almost 15ft straight into a stone wall, and knocked prone.
Atleast I didn't get cut in half. That DM is pretty good at turning your attempts at Role-playing into disasters. Loved that campaign.
Ran a modified version of Hall of the Fire Giant King that fit into my campaign. My players had to settle for a negotiated exit from the Hall and then ran for their lives, and they were 15th level to the best of my recollection. The giants' tactical intelligence was an unpleasant surprise for them. Entertaining for everyone involved!
Gotta get that Red Tunic if you wanna play around in Death Mountain.
Always give your henchman a last name.
I loved the part about Fire Giants using their environment to their advantage. There’s nothing as terrifying as a Fire Giant doing a cannonball into a pool of lava to create waves of lava to melt a adventuring party. A fun encounter with Fire Giants shouldn’t just include a patrolling band with a few Hellhounds, but an elite raiding party riding Fire elemental Tyrannosaurs accompanied by a Giant Pyromancer(Psionics Handbook class).
www.artstation.com/artwork/2x1LA designspartan.com/presentation/le-legendaire-concept-artist-adrian-smith/
@@AJPickett Wayne Reynolds is still my favorite fantasy artist, but DAMN if these aren't fantastic and right up my alley.
Great video, AJ. When DMing Fire Giants, focusing on their environment is a must for real immersion. I had some cocky players. The cockiest player ran a red half-dragon (80s homebrew version of mine), essentially fireproof. He was a musketeer (flint-lock rifleman, the advanced version of the Arquebus in the PHB was used). The other two were a mage and a cleric loaded with fire resistance magic. Upon entering the area, they saw two Fire Giant guards. As they came near, heat washed over the party. The red half-dragon's everything burst into flames (he felt that his innate fire and heat immunity applied to everything he carried). All of his powder and shot detonated as well as some bombs he fashioned. He was reduced to single-digit HP's and so did the mage next to him. The mage opened up his scroll tube to read a teleport scroll to have the party make a quick exit. Upon leaving the tube, that scroll flashed into almost instant ashes. The party looked up to see the giants laughing as hellhounds came from within the gates to charge. The party turned tail and ran and the fire giants whistled for the hell hounds to just return. The outer gate has a magical barrier that kept most of the heat in so they did not have time to deal with incrementing heat and noticing something about to go bad. If they bothered to read the mission scroll they were given, they would have known that. They went back a couple levels later and discovered that going into a fire giant hellhole means you have to have more than just fire resistance, so they got owned. The fire giants even toyed with them and offered them a chance to surrender.
And that is where the role-playing as fire giant's slaves started. Yes, instead of giving up on their enslaved characters, they insisted on still playing them. I had to invent some fire giant culture because there were no sources for that yet. Here's the thing, every gamin's session, one of the fire giants jested about the explosive meeting of that trio of slaves... the only time fire giants ever smiled.
Perfection. I'd say you nailed it.
@@AJPickett Thanks, bro! Not bad for a teenage version of me, eh? Did you laugh at the moment the fire giants did? Oh, I DM'd similar type environments with other heat-based lairs too. Cocky (and RPG computer game players) tend to not think about the superheated environments on those.
A tale to be told for generations. That time a half dragon blew himself up, hilarious
If I were that half-dragon I would have been humbled, surprised, pissed(at myself for being dumb), and impressed all at once.
@@Birbucifer That was pretty close to his reaction. He was also not obliterated because the dice favored him. He had a lot of boom-boom stuff on him.
One of my favourite encounters I've run was a 3.5 game, the players had been sneaking through a fire giants newly established mine keeping combat surprisingly quiet using silence spells and coordinated attacks until they reached the Giants personal quarters and surprised the giant in his 'bath', a swirling pool of lava. He stood and grabbed his spear and as combat continued the stone hardened, gradually increasing his AC as the players initial momentum stuttered and stalled and now they faced a rock-clad and ANGRY giant
question to the dm
"by grabbing his spea"r you mean his actual weapon right?
dm reamain silent and makes a wicked grin
........right?
I got the idea of a sea adventure where Fire Giants sailors in massive metal ships capture young Brass Dragons to use them as pets as Frost Giants do with White Dragons, treating them as a mixture of parrots and hunt falcons.
Thank you so much for providing this information. I've gained so many more players for the game after introducing them to your work. Many of my friends and other make their game so much better now that they can provide more in depth backgrounds and lore for their games. They also send their thanks. They can answer more questions from their player characters and quench the thirst for information and lore on different areas monster and races. God bless you Mr.Pickett and please keep up the great work sir.
Thank you!
First i ever heard of the titan of death. Nice presentation!
AJ always nails it. In my campaigns, the titan of death is a bit nicer and his name is Thanatos.
Iron slag? You know my ex wife?
- Glad to know cancer isn't a thing in the D&D realms😂
Would love a deep dive into the Giant/Dragon war, as well as the Vonindod. (already foreseeing a reassembly of this construct to deal with a Tarrasque, possibly reigniting the Giant/Dragon war)
You know I would love to join a campaign with a focus on Norse mythology. As a Scandinavian it has a special place in my heart and exploring a realm based on Muspelheim with a rich culture of Fire Giants would be metal as hell.
A Fire Giant Haka would be amazing.
I thought the same thing!
It'd be cringe. How about Cloud Giant flamenco dancing?
@@maghrebforever2012 How would it be cringe?
*Relevant and Supportive Comment*
Pretty sure the algorithm is set to ignore/disregard these comments, now. It's a waste of effort. Put a real comment, if you want to be supportive.
Matt Lynn I'm going to sue TH-cam for their bigotry towards the traditional greeting of my people.
(On a more serious note, God damnit.)
@@LurkerDaBerzerker
Yeah. It sucks and blows simultaneously, somehow.
*Off on a tangent humorous reply after agreeing with your comment*
"Throw off the yoke of savory! Eat the dirt! Eat. The. Dirt!"
- One mad fire giant druid too deep in his cups
Yes, a fire giant druid... obviously insane. Also... might need to make that the villain some day... so much fire! :D
I did say savory, lol!
There are circle of wildfire druids...
Well this just poped up in the game before were going into the mountains to murder fire giant slavers, perfect.
So the restart of the war between Giants and Dragons is going to look like the scene from Avengers endgame. With multiple portals opening and legions of fire giants marching out. All shouting the fire giant version of the Spartan battle cry from 300. Probably have Vonidod come bursting out of the side of a near by mountain. Bad day to a dragon.
Just a bad day for anything in their path really.
They are "prisoners with jobs"
Thewrittenwordremain “You’re not a slave, you’re an involuntary employee.”
Ya'll need to learn what Indentured Servitude means.
@@AJPickett
Serfs?
@@draxthemsklonst Serfs are legally bound to work for the lord of the land they have been allotted. This is a form of indentured servitude, but, they are free to leave if they want, and lose their land. These days, we call this "Renting". It's cute the building owner is still called a Land Lord though.
Yes. Good video. Algorithm working. Phenomenal cinema. I like. Excellent job. Yes.
At first when I saw the thumbnail about a fire giant the first thing that came to mind was Yhorm the giant from dark souls 3
I hear dark souls is just like Dark Souls.
Prob my favorite type of giant honestly . i think cloud giants are interesting and i like them too but something about fire giants lol they're so cool to me
The PC term for slaves is Human Resources :)
Lol that's a good one 😂
But to be fair we need more elements of realism in our fantasy games not more PC culture
I'd rather here a great story with all it's faults than being told to play it "safe" in regards to offending someone in my fantasy game
More true than we realize👏
I think sometimes it can be hard to imagine what meeting some creatures would be like, like you know a giant is giant but it doesn't always hold the same gravitas of a dragon. You think of a giant dragon & you can easily imagine your whole body reacting to its might & presence. But I think fire giants are like that too, you don't really struggle to imagine how crazy it would be to meet one.
I recall my older sisters stomping around the house, driving their heels into the floor... Now, that x1500.
I find myself wondering if the Fire Giants do march out, would rival Giant kin consider intervening, would they join in or just watch. I can't see Cloud Giants aiding for example. I imagine Hill Giants would get swept up for labor if nothing else.
Cloud giants would certainly get involved, as the amount of wealth to be plundered from the civilizations of the smallfolk would greatly increase their status, plus, their flying castles are a huge strategic advantage.
@@AJPickett The alternative is just as likely. The worshippers of Memnor would be a prime candidate to buck the ordening and place a band of plucky adventurers in the middle of a fight without realizing the true gravity of the situation.
Vid mentioned that Fire giants have very sizable population in Plane of Fire. Do other giants have same reserves? If not they can be in trouble too without the Ordening.
Timestamps and Spoilers Below!
0:18 Intro, Subscribe and Become a Member!
1:00 Fire Giants Overview:
1:45 Annam's Divine Children, Surtr, and Muspelheim
4:21 Cult of Surtr, more on Muspelheim, and Worship
6:12 Annam's Terrestrial Children and Masud
8:15 Hartsvale
9:14 Description
11:15 Weapon Training, blacksmiths, and Slaves
13:01 Dangers in the Lair, chemicals, and textiles
16:30 Other Creatures in the lair
17:13 Craftsmanship, Runemagic, and Vonindod
19:17 Draco-rage, Annam breaks the Ordning
21:32 Zalto and the might of the Fire Giants
24:04 Fire Giants on Ebberon
Like, Share, Comment, Subscribe, hit the bell icon, and join us on the discord!
I was part of the way through this video when i realized that Ironslag and the story of Zalto sounded really familiar, before realizing that it was on Dice, Camera, Action and that is probably one of the stories in Storm King's Thunder. Makes sense. In anycase, running a bit behind on videos, took a week or two for myself and come abck to find like five videos. Funny how that happens following an active TH-camr. Dont forget to Like, Share, Comment, and Subscribe, and maybe tell us some of your fun Fire Giant stories below!
Underrated comment, well done!
This is up there with the best vids you've made this far, AJ! Not just content, but audio, good use of visuals (on topic with the audio).
It's killing me, though, to see fire giants. As they tried to keep their old ways, more so than other giants, and are very much into metallurgical craftsmanship. Also, the rune magic affinity. Reminds me of dwarves.
I understand dwarves learned rune magic from the giants, but why do dwarves *look* like fire giants (and Azers, for that matter)?
Am I being superficial, or is there more to that?
Did the dwarves ever worship giant deities?
Are there any dwarven links to giants, besides being "prisoners with jobs" and rune magic?
Aside from their own mythology, what do we really know about the evolution of dwarves? They are not native to Toril, they arrived some time during the Elven crown wars?
I was actually wondering when you were going to mention the shattering of the Ordning. I personally think giants are actually much more interesting as characters this way. Individuals are far more compelling than archetypes imho.
Love them. They are the most fun I had to roleplay
A masterpiece! Who's ready for VONINDOD!?!
If anyone (DM or player) is interested:
For additional artwork of FANTASY (not high tech mech-style) robots, like Vonindod, check out the Guardian (and other constructs) from the Darksiders series of video games.
Dont you think that instead of wearing furs, fire giants would wear their metal armor in cold environments? With all their body heat I think the metal would work better. And I dont see how furs wouldn't burn, but that's just me.
I agree
Back to painting. Fire giant figure primed and ready to go. But first , time to stop by here and have a listen to the lore of this terrible foe.
If a Fire Gaint came across an adventurer with a Belt of Fire Giant Strength, would they be offended? Would they be flattered? Same question goes for all giants I suppose and their belts!
I guess that they would fell flattered, it acknowledges the Giant's strength and it is not made of a giant's body parts, it doesn't change that the Fire Giant would want the belt for himself, to use it as a bracer or necklace.
I tend to give them a bit of Polynesian flavor in my games, whole war dances and things. My players came across Pahoehoe abd his wife Aa named after two Hawaiian words for lava.
You just gave me a cool idea for a Goliath with Fire Giant ancestry...
I love waking up to fresh uploads from AJ much love brother
"I love the smell of AJ Dnd videos in the morning"
Although I like in England so it's evening for me, but sometimes my sleep schedule is back to front so it feels like it's morning sometimes.
Awesome - one of your best videos yet! :-)
Wow, thanks!
Why was the yakfolk poisoned when the adventurer gave it a loaf of bread?
Silly-yak disease
Something just occured to me.
While dragons and giants have been at war. They are very philosophically opposed. Giants knowing their place in the ordaining, while dragons are typically very covetous.
True. However, Giants do have a built in system where they can challenge another for their place in the Ordning.. now though, who knows?
In my homebrew, Giants are the first creation of the God of Order, while Dragons are the eldest lords of the uber-Darwinian plane created by the God of Chaos; and the whole game world is the result of the two separate totalities of creation crashing into each other and war being de facto invented, with petty difference such as 'Good' and 'Evil' being later and much more minor tendencies.
So, long story short: I'm 100% with you on the philosophic differences. ;^)
Just stopping by to get some knowledge before our live stream tonight, lol. Cheers, see ya soon!
Hacks!
Fought a pair of these backed up by a few Hill Giant mooks a few sessions ago.
We were lucky they showed up late to the fight. Even after clearing out most of the Hill Giants, the arrival of the Fire Giants nearly killed us.
My Hexblade and our Barbarian were separated from the group and both had to spend a couple rounds going mano-a-mano with the big guys. The party has some seriously potent magic equipment, but we're still only level 8, so we were hard-pressed to say the least. If they had opted to coordinate rather than taking one opponent each, we'd both be super dead.
As the situation stood, we were able to buy just enough time for the party to finish off the blockading Hill Giants and come to our rescue. My opponent was rolling quite poorly against me (though he clearly still had the upper hand), so the Barbarian went down first. I subsequently had to activate my Tomb of Levistus invocation to avoid going down, and the pair broke through it, knocked me out, and fed me 2 failed Death Saves out of what was probably spite before the party was able to intervene. Even then, it was a very close fight.
Neither I nor my character will be forgetting that battle anytime soon. It was a good reality check for a group that had been relatively dominant in combat for a while.
That sounds like one hell of an encounter! Suitably epic 😊
Imagining a human scientist explaining fire and metallurgy to the Fire Giants in terms of chemistry and physics :)
"Squeak squeaker squeaky squeak" ... *giant leans forward and bellows* "SPEAK UP".. *little humanoid dies of radiation exposure from giant breath*
The evil Giants which include Frost, Fire and Dum Dum Hil Ones are considered to be threats to the natural world.
I concur
Send in the medieval god of logic terminaters.
I have a half Stone Giant in my PC’s list and I can’t wait to see you do that! I love your channel!
One giant that I'd be interested in a bit of info on in the Desert Giant, one that's outside the Ordening, but I can't find much on them
Oh we shall cover the desert giant, fear not.
@@AJPickett I've kind of been on a Mulharandi kick due to a current character I've been playing in what started as a Lost Mines and now SKT (didn't know about the second) and that led to the desert and sand giants among other things that come out of the area...
@@AJPickett and mountain giants?
@@kendrickrochelanzot2053 Oooo the controversy... I am inclined to throw caution to the wind and make Mountain Giants 80 feet tall, just because THEY SHOULD BE... however, probably just on other worlds, as that would royally screw up the Ordning.
Awesome video AJ!! I'm excited to see what's coming next! Have you ever considered streaming some games that you DM? I think a lot of people would love watching games run by a DM with such a vast knowledge!
Fire giant @ frost giants "Mister heat miser, I'm mister sun.."
really enjoy your videos! The fire giants are pretty epic! Coolest video i watched so far!
Glad you enjoyed it :)
Funny how I just watched the Spurt scene from Critical Role before watching this.
"I win!"
So here’s a technical and mechanical question. Does the extra fire(or other) dmg that is on their weapons come from the giants’ innate fire ability or is it because of giant magic runes carved into their weapons. Cause you mentioned that they’re good with runes and ice giants don’t add cold dmg to their attacks. So makes me question things.
Usually both
by seeing the CR of their greatest subraces, I do still think that the Dragons have beaten the Giants in their ancient war. while Ancient Reds, Golds, Blues, & Silvers are either the same CR as Empyreans (Titans) or higher, the Dragons have stayed in the Material Plane, while Titans fled to the Outer Planes, which looks like something a losing party would do. let's also not forget that all Ancient & Adult Dragons are of CR higher or equal to that of the apex of the Ordening who haven't left the Material or the Inner Planes: Storm Giants.
while it is true that dragon especially older dragon are more powerful that many type of giants remember that giants where a civilization and had armies and heroes. imagine a hunting party compesed of 4-6 giants with player levels and you start to understand that even if not exactly a match for the olders dragon they are more than a treath to everything else
not to mention that the titans were also capable of being nearly equal to the strongest dragons
also one other point
dragons are solitary egoistical and arrogant creatures that are by thier very nature always fighting each other over loot and territories
giants were a unified civilization with a highly ordered society were the Ordnung of Annam the allfather make them obey a set of law, social custum and social hierarchy
if a storm giant ordered something the lesser giants would obey him as part of thier cultural mentality
at the end both races empires were shattered
also keep in mind that in many version of the lore titans were banished or escaped to other planes not becasue of dragons, but because they fought the gods or betrayed Annam
King Snurre's throne room is one of the nastiest encounters ever
It's spicy
@@AJPickett if you want to check out something really nuts, take a look at the Dungeon adventure Threshold of Evil. It might be even nastier than Tomb of Horrors (which I survived twice). Never last long in Threshold though
Fire giants have the best aesthetics to them. I can't take skinny clown mask wearing cloud giants serious.
That's racist😳
@@docop8926 Like giants care what us "lesser races" think of them...
Well, Cloud Giants aren’t default antagonists
I've been playing and DMing since 1982. About 15 years ago I converted Against the Giants to 3.5 using Epic rules. The nastiest encounter I've ever run was against a cloud giant archmage. Two sessions, 78 rounds, one survivor.
Good to “cut my teeth” on the new video. Loved it. (Hope you are well)
Question A suit of chain mail made by fire giants would have to be truly immense how does it stop arrows
lot's of small rings maybe? the suit has to be bigger but the actual chain mail links are likly still small.
@@shanavalkyria3438 they can’t make something that small so they’d need to have dwarf slaves or efreeti make it
I dont think arrows would really bother them that much. Perhaps it would be built to stop seige ballista?
Chain mail us good again swords too.
To my understanding chain mail wasnt meant to stop arrows, it was primarily for stopping slashing blows from swords and axes. You would usually have a layer of gambeson alongside it to try and reduce damge from other sources with the thicker variants of gambeson being very effective.
Nice work on the video! Excellent ❤
Thank you very much!
Fire giants look like ganondorf from Zelda,
Guess they will use the power of DORIYAAAAAAH! To smash there enemies into submission and take over the world.
I've never played a Zelda game in my life.. I hear they are popular though.
@@AJPickett
It was more of a smash Bros refrance.
@@UNSCMarine117 *smiles and nods*
AJ Pickett Oh man I get alot of inspiration for characters/monsters/settings from Zelda. It's ripe with so much lore and interesting worldbuilding.
I seriously recommend.
@@Birbucifer
HYAAAAAH!
I am curious where the "white lady in chains" art came from, book or artist would be welcome if you have it. Thanks
i.pinimg.com/originals/0f/c4/84/0fc4845c1cbb5dc0ba7f9825a7e7e10d.jpg
@@AJPickett Thank you so much, Sir!
@@AJPickett , How much fantasy art do you have on your computer? I have the feeling its a lot.
Reverse image search suggests it's by an artist going by depingo? www.deviantart.com/depingo/art/Valles-508164120
@@error5202 I have detailed files.
Damn aj I've only been awake for an hour
Great vid and random question, wasn’t Annam exiled from having any interaction with the material plane until his one of his sons restored Ostoria? Would him clearing the Ordning violate that, or does he not care anymore for one reason or another?
It was an agreement, he was not exiled per se.
My guess is that some giants may band together on a plane of only giants to create a civilization and ergo result in new breeds of giants.
Not to mention there could be mysteries uncovered that reveals that some humanoids, humans in particular, could have untapped giant ancestry. Ergo an eager artificer could find a way to transform humanoids into giants via alchemy and runes.
@@zacharygadzinski3147 When I get to the story of Annam's last son on Toril, Hartkiller, it will interest you greatly I think, and also raise a lot of questions about the Goliath and Firbolg.
One of the main reasons that Adventurers need not worry about the long term consequences of something like asbestos, is the fact that they knew it wasn't a career you went into expecting a LONG life, but instead an EXCITING one. Let's face it most adventurers WON'T get the chance to retire & most know it going in, if they wanted a LONG life they would have been craftsmen or farmers not guys who go LOOKING for orcs & other monsters.
I can imagine a misfit fire giant who becomes fascinated with mathematics once one of the little folk demonstrates the practical applications of algebra when it comes to calculating trajectories for siege weapons. A well placed scaled up trebuchet shot could easily be a one hit kill for a dragon. Imagine the mountain sized boulders a team of giants could hoist into one, such a shot might be enough to hurt even a giant threat like Tiamat.
Well... that's a thing now... fire giant ballistics.
Imagine math applied to rune magic. or to designing giant fire golems.
Or a giant fire giant ballista which shoots giant fire giant golems
Is it possible that Desert and Sun Giants may be offshoots of Fire Giants?
Is there enough info on Vonindod to do a whole video on it?
very cool
The 3.5 MM lists Trolls as part of a Fire Giant Clan in the organisation list, can anyone shed some light on this? Im pretty sure its because slaving is a thing, but it just feels off. Trolls like cold mountains and FGs like volcanoes, Trolls dislike burning (a reasonable opinion tbh) but FGs dont care so much. They just seem so far seperated, if its just the "giant" aspect there are other (better?) options.
That said FGs being the crafters and runesmiths they are, as well as the war minded tacticians we know them to be, maybe training a troll to wear full plate and enchant it with ImmFire and ImmAcid sounds like the perfect fighting force, hell, just chain shirts tip trolls OTT IMO.
It's was very interesting video, thanks.
You're welcome :)
good video AJ
This may be a forbbidin question but is there any lore at al on mongrol dragons or mongrol giants?
I'll be happy to make videos about Dragons and Giants with parents from different lineages after I complete the remastered series on both species.
"The yoke of savoury"
What a cruel life
😂😂😂😂
I ran Storm King's Thunder, and Fire Giants ended up being major players. They were definitely fun to roleplay.
With creatures this powerful and borderline malevolent it’s amazing smaller creatures are able to build civilization at all. You would think the giants and dragons would just take over the planet.
SnorgonOfBorkkad they tried but they’re too busy killing each other. Not to mention incredibly powerful wizards, blood hunters, and sorcerers
Ah (around 22:52) - kinda sure I saw Chris Perkins send some Waffles into that furnace :)
So I read that AO returned all the dead Gods to life?
My main question is Ulutiu back as well? Would that diminish the great glacier? Thanks!
It has diminished the great glacier, Vaasa, Damara and Narfell have a long history of shadow magic and demonology, there may also be ancient sites of magic uncovered by a retreating glacier, like perhaps a Batrachi teleportation circle hewn out of huge rocks like Stonehenge.
Forge clerics and wildfire druids
Fog giant? That sounds very interesting
he put out a video on them not long ago, and you're right, it was.
@@handlebarfox2366,thanks for the info, see I would've thought that but I'm not able to find it when I look it up, is it called fog giants?
@@stevenfarley208 I was thinking of his Cloud Giant video from a couple of weeks ago, which talks about fog giants as well.
@@handlebarfox2366, ok, I'll cheack it out, thanks man.
Oh my, quote like the difference in editing this time around.
ha! hot headed, I get it
...where would one find info on none traditional giant like the fog giant? If you deem me worthy of such knowledge.
Beard Bear Aside from what was discussed in his cloud giant video, I have no idea.
@@LurkerDaBerzerker lol ya that's my only reference as well.
www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/fog-giant Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio Volume 1 , pg. 10
@@AJPickett thank you good sir
I am picturing a party of adventurers and their prized treasure of a pair of fireproof Fire Giant underwear used to shield them against all kinds of flames.
Yeah, think about their women.....The term "Fire-Crotch" has new meaning.
Yay!
Fire giants are some of the coolest mythical creatures, still does not hold a candle to Red Dragons but awesome still,
I ran a game where I had seven players make two characters, one fire giant & one frost giant. Had them raiding Dwarves and other fortified keeps and then eventually had them doing a long quest for religious reasons(for the frost giants) and for revenge(fire giants). Had a long twisted intrigue story where they were suppose to find out that they were secretly working against each others clans and in the end the players slaughtered each other instead on the fourth game session. Funny, now that thirteen years have passed. But i was so pissed off at the moment lol
:( where's the Frost giants? i don't see it in the playlist.
im waiting on a zelda joke
The Yolk of Savory.
COMMENTS FOR THE COMMENT GOD!!! PAY HOMAGE TO THE KEEPER OF LIKES!!!
HELL......
и снова накрутка просмотра и комментария для алгоритмов ;) ! лайк прилагается 3
leagues are a measurement of depth, not horizontal distance.
The original meaning of a league is the distance a person could walk in an hour. READ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_(unit)
@@AJPickett so 3-4 miles
Surter does no guard Muspelheim! Surter is the destroyer or initiator of the destruction of the nine realms, he doesn't appear until Ragnarok. I found this annoying so I needed to leave a comment, but no matter it's whatever.
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS MYTHOLOGY IS NOT ACTUAL NORSE MYTHOLOGY. There, we both have little things that bother us :)
@@AJPickett whoa whoa... Did I miss something cus I gave been worshiping Mielikki for years by dancing around trees in the woods.
Not sure if I got it from the actual Finnish myth or from the D&D...ah well, does not matter.
They can't say the word 'slaves.' Gods I hate the verbal puritans. At least when the religious nuts were the ones whining, they didn't bow to them and edit demons out of the game.
Ba'ator, Tanar'ri, Yugoloth...
Tieflings weren't outright children of devils and demons until 4th edition. I mean everyone knew, but everyone also knows what Serfs are.
Agreed
@@malhawkeye6427 it's still bullshit, watch in 30 years they will ban the word serf
Love ur vids...but please we r americans we dont know anything about the metric system please use pounds for weights and feet and miles for distance...the metric system ruins most entertainment i could possibly get
I include both.
Aj uses feet, inches and miles all the time.
This may just be the most American post I have ever seen in my entire life.
Is being too dumb to realize he DID include pounds and feet an American thing, too?
There are things on your phone that are able to do conversions as well.