A Story of Giants, Blood Sacrifice, & Corruption
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 มิ.ย. 2024
- Sun giants originally debuted in Pathfinder, but now they're in 5E Dungeons and Dragons! These titans of sunlight have one of the most fascinating stories behind their existence, and when it comes to giant lore they are among the best! Join me as I talk about the lore, ecology, publication history, and abilities of the sun giant! We might even convert it into D&D and go over some plot hooks/story ideas too! (We did).
#DungeonsAndDragonsLore #DnD #MonsterLore
The D&D 5E stat block for this monster - docs.google.com/document/d/1g...
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00:00 - INTRO
00:44 - PART ONE // WHAT IS A SUN GIANT?
06:02 - PART TWO // COMBAT
11:26 - PART THREE // PLOT HOOKS
16:31 - FINAL THOUGHTS // SMOOCHES
19:08 - NEXT TIME ON MONSTER OF THE WEEK!
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If I remember right, D&D did have a "Sun Giant" as the precursor to the sand giants where they were extinct and the survivors were corrupted into the Sand Giants which were undead themselves. But the place being an Egypt based thing, well, undead wasn't entirely an evil thing there
it was a nice video again and is the gray dragon not a time absorber i feel so i read it in the past he absorbing livetime from living beings in his Lair or was it his Region i am not sure but a anwer may is nice.
@@AzraelThanatos There is a Sun Giant in Monster Manual 2. It's basically the same as the Pathfinder version, albeit different spells (wall of stone instead of wall of light, has spike growth, and stone shape). Still uses a spear, immune to fire, etc. Does have desert camouflage though.
@@KevinVideo They might have put them in the extinct category between 3 and 3.5 then...leading to more trimming of the giants that weren't placed in the Ordening
Thanks for the vid
A star walks into a black hole but doesn't seen phased. The black hole then turns to the star and says, "I don't think you understand the gravity of this situation."
take my like
AND GET OUT
I like the joke
I swear I saw this joke before
The Star simply said: “Nah, I’d win”
I like to imagine Sun Giants act a lot like Pride from the Seven Deadly Sins anime; just busting out quotes like "Who said you won?" on deaths door or something super prideful like "We are the Giants who stand above all, you have no chance." This is my headcannon in game.
I love this idea! Escanor was my favorite character from The Seven Deadly Sins, and now I will have all my sun giants quote him constantly
@@princedragon8019 lol, im gonna rewatch all his scenes to practice
my mind went to both this and praise the sun memes not even 3 minuets in lol
my mind just imagines them as a fun mix between Escanor and Solaire least the early ones
personally i think it be fun to run into sun giants who still hold to the old ways of thinking and not the new tyrannical way of thinking
"how could I bear malice toward a being so clearly beneath me?"
To me, it makes sense that Zariel was the cause of the Sun giants fall. When she fell, she took these loyal allies with her.
That's because the Sunblade is really the broken off tip of the last sungiant emperor's sunspear once-called Orichalcus or Dawnbringer. Also: Pelor, the Burning Hate!
WENDIGOOOOOON REFERENCES. Any collab y'all had would be awesome
Ayo, it would be fucking based as hell if Wendigoon and Dungeon Dad collabed. Maybe get some cryptids or some mysteries written up as a one shot of sorts too
@@Dragonlover554 YOOO, brilliant idea
Let's get this upvoted. I need this to happen
There's a lot of cryptids that could use a conversion... or some biblically accurate angels. "BE NOT AFRAID", make a will save. Yeah. You're afraid.
they also look very similar
Oh boy, this one came along at the perfect time. I'm running a homebrew campaign heavily centered around Giants and Dragons, and another giant to add to the repertoire is always welcome
Plus next video you’ll get another dragon.
I know. Dungeon dad always comes in clutch for the homebrew folks. My campaing is gonna end soon with a pretty big ragnarok-esque war between all the gods and this will be a great adittion to the angelic side
Woah are you playing D&D with wendigoon
Your poor players
@Fanciful Prodigy Have you thought about adding empyreans?
Romance between a sun and moon giant. Could throw a cool twist that there's a war between the two races, so the party has to either end it or help the lovers escape. Plus, it could create something like an eclipse giant.
IDEA: If they're supposed to be innate paladins essentially, their actions would mean that any who dies would basically be an Oathbreaker/Death Knight. But the Sun Giants still hate undead, so they'd need some kind of specific method of preventing this when a member of their people dies (like sealing or destroying the body with a special ritual).
Also like - a Giant Death Knight with powers themed around a dead star?
Yeah, black hole giants! Load 'em up with Sphere of Annihilation!
Woah, there. 🤔
Alright. Carry on!🔆
Ooh, imagine a fallen Sun Giant as a lord over a Domain of Dread! They could be a character with a tragic arc/backstory similar to the sun giant empire as a whole, where they slowly became more and more corrupt until the Mists and the Dark Powers finally took them.
Imagine being a bandit looking up and seeing a giant sun javelin with a 9th level smite
[points at Sung Giant society] See, this is what the Word Archons were talking about when they kept being like, “You’re saying that wrong. Stop it.”
You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means!
The fallen empires of Giants is one of my favorite underused lore aspects of D&D. I love giving my group an old tome or ancient spellbook written in giantish and having them puzzle out the secrets of the lost work, launching them into an adventure to uncover more of the hidden secrets of an empire long forgotten by all but the aboleths and the most ancient of dragons.
Sun giants as corrupted protectors will make for an excellent addition to this. :D
The quality of this show has gone through the roof! You even have sneak peaks of future episodes!
Can’t wait for the grey dragon. Before I ever knew about D&D, I got a dragon book as a kid I had no idea was D&D related that featured quite a creepy rendition on them. They’ve been a part of my world’s lore ever since the get go.
I want to see a sun giant fight a death giant. Also imagine a sun giant who somehow became undead, themed around a dead star (black hole themed or super nova themed). The super nova giant could probably send out once per day a massive explosion of undead energy, causing undead to increase in numbers and dealing tons of necrotic damage. Black hole giants would of course have an annihilation orb move or something similar.
Also, can't wait to learn about gray dragons and their weirdness!
Whenever you bring up Pathfinder giants, I always wonder how they would fit into the Ordening.
When you mentioned that the sun giants "roast the shit out of their enemies" during combat I immediately imagined a sun giant fighting someone and making fun of their appearance and character and what not and I was really disappointed when you said they do it with fire
I am in between errands and events on a really busy, stressful day and Wendigoon popping up on one of your videos was really well timed. That is awesome.
Wendigoon is best creepy boy
One of my favorite devil's from pathfinder is the Nemesis Devil! Their lore is that they were entities acting as brutal old gods before the real gods turned their attention to the material plane.
The true gods kicked their asses and while some chose to fade away other sold their souls to become powerful devils to reak vengeance upon the mortals who spurned them.
They are these big ass centaur devils armored in the ruins of their former faith.
Neat. Adding that to the list on D-Dad's monster suggestion discord.
I am a simple man: I see a Wendigoon "GIANTS!" reference, I like
So, given the last few videos, you could totally run a 'huge size rules' campaign where giants and dragons are the major powers. Lesser mortals mostly serve, with a few small enclaves carving out their own lands with Spirit Warriors. Demons like the Death Drinker wait in the wings or are actively increasing the tension. Can our Heroes prevent the fall of ancient empires?
Creating a sun Dart is the perfect ability for a butt of a character.
Just describe the Party meeting the Leader of the evil Sun Giants faction, and the Leader sits lazily on their throne and absentmindedly cleaning their nails. The Party makes their point, while the Leader only listens halfheartedly, looks hella bored and picks their nose, which seems to be of much greater interest to them than whatever reason that brings the Party there. And after the Party ends their case to them, they deliberatelly stay quiet while examining the booger they extractet from their nose and now roll between their fingers, before in a very rude and condescending way declining the Parties objective, and to then add salt to insult, flick that booger at one of the PCs, which in that moment acts as such a Sun dart, hurting the PC.
As a player, it is now my dream to one day equip a Spirit Warrior with a Sun Spear. Come to think of it, you could give the Two Minds As One trait from Spirit Warriors to any giant stat block and get even more epic mechs.
As a GM, the worldbuilding implications of a huge creature that emits sunlight are pretty significant. My first thought is a sun giant can set up shop ruling over a place that doesn't normally get much sunlight could be a huge agricultural boon to the locals. I'm also imagining a scenario where the forces of darkness (specifically vampires) have found a way to permanently block out or outright snuff out the actual sun, thus earthbound sun giants would be some of the only sources of sunlight left making them some of the last sources of hope. Also consider them as residents of the sunny side of a tidally locked planet in a space fairing campaign. Love the content as always!
I dont even play D&D, but these lore vids are really nice. I use these for jogging my brain back into lore writing after not doing so for like 2 years.
These guys remind me of the stereotypical aztecs. you know, the human sacrifice in the name of their sun god.
so maybe as a plothook: the reason they use blood sacriffices is that they god is dying and their blood sacrifices keep him substained, kinda like Huitzilopochtli from aztec mythology. due to lack of woreship their god is going to die, and this terrifies the sun giants, so much that they went to more extreme measures to give him strength, and blood sacriffices are a good way to keep him strong. This could be the acctual god, or just corruption at the top level, in order to get more power for themselves.
The players could either try to stop this sacrifice process and try to teach them another way, or trying to prevent this god from expending their domain, and taking over.
Or maybe the sun god was the lesser of two evils, and he is protecting them from something far more malicious...
A cool plot idea would be to have sun dragons and moon giants to fight sun giants and moon dragons because both parties don’t want giants/dragons on their planets
So here is some fun lore to give inspiration. In Pathfinder the center of a star is a portal to the positive energy plane. So Being the opposite of the Negative energy plane one could say that not only does a Sun Giant have a tiny piece of a sun in them but more over they have a tiny piece of the positive energy plane. Which explains even more their haltered for the Plane of Shadow.
This is "if absolute power corrupted absolutely" was in the form of Giants.
Also Giant PALADINS alone has so much magnitude (no pun intended) alone.
If you're doing pathfinder conversions, check out the fossil golem. Has to have some of the coolest art out there
He's done a few Pathfinder 1e conversions. The fossil golem is definitely on the list. Only one other person has suggested it.
i loveeeee the NGE outros and voiceovers so much. great work as usual dungeon dad
This sort of fallen empire trope reminds me of the warcraft 3 high elves story that eventually led them to become the blood elves and a chunk of the forsaken
i love that the pics of heliod started coming out during the fall
You saying "May the odds be ever in your favor" just made me think of having an adventure where the characters have to participate in a Hunger Games style competition run by Sun Giants the whole thing could be a blood sacrifice to some god of combat that they worship
I'm guessing the blood sacrifices are a reference to Aztec mythology so you can also look there for inspiration.
I would love to see him go over the Dodkong, a stone giant lich that unfortunately never got printed
Never got printed, but he does have stats. He came about during 3.5 and is a lich stone giant sorcerer 10.
Loving these guys. I always like adding a twist to these monsters, so I would probably develop a Spelljammer-ish crossover and have their aging and lifespan reflect that of real-life stars on the nova and/or supernova evolutionary paths (look up HR diagrams if you're not a scientist!). Creating a societal structure around that concept would be super fun. There are also lots of ways to make the dazzling light effect act differently depending on the age of the giant.
Also, Teletubby Sun God would be an absolutely terrifying deity in DnD. Keep it up, Dad! And bring on more Doxy-voiced Evangelion-inspired sneak peeks!
The Tzitzimitl be like: "Hey I'm from Pathfinder too!"
"Really? That's cool!"
"Anyways what's your deal?"
"Oh, not much. I embody the sun's power and whatnot. How about you?"
*Murderous stare intensifies.
They fight but then realize that they actually have a lot in common with the whole feasting on the blood of mortals thing they have going.
I've been binging you for the past few days and I initially said "He's like a D&D Wendigoon" and then this video made me realize why I thought that. GIANTS
I imagine fighting a sun giant would look like Blinkin from Robin Hood: Men in Tights, fighting the wooden pole.
When I ran Strahd a long time ago I had the Sun Sword be forged a long time ago by a Sun Giant kingdom that used to lord over the land Barovia was in.
There are so many old creatures, absolutely awesome creatures, from past editions that these videos bring back to life. Truly doing the hobby a great service with these videos!
Thanks so much!
Been reading a lot of Starfinder recently and didn't even think about Sun Giants living in the Sun. I mean... that definitely just tracks.
Incredible video as always dude, and also I truly love these anime endings.
I imagine that hypothetical lone sun giant descended from the ancient kings being, well, old. Maybe whatever granted them eternal youth requires blood sacrifice and led them deep into corruption
Ya know, there's this idea in one of the Pathfinder books that I really liked... The gist is that the planes of positive and negative energy can sometimes have holes in the material plane.
These holes are thought to be what suns and blackholes are respectively.
That Starfinder module sort of breaks this because the plane of positive energy is, ironically, actively harmful to most life. Basically, if you were to go there without the right spells, you would get so blasted with life you would over-heal and then explode.
I mean, unless it was just jyoti in the sun with some manasuptra for good measure because that's mostly what there is.
I love the idea of Dazzling Light, and I never understood why it wasn't more of a thing in PF _or_ 5e. I like radiant/light based enemies anyways; its always fun to subvert player expectations with a dangerous creature of "good."
The reference to the other internet dad is comedy gold.
You should do the Stahnk/undead beasts. Large undead monstrous beasts like these are often represented in fiction but for some reason have been oddly absent from D&D ever since it's AD&D 2E appearance many years ago. Their sometimes draconic appearance may confuse NPCs into thinking it's some kind of lesser dracolich, or it's simple desire to destroy all life may leave eerily abandoned and smashed villages in it's wake. It's ability to trap players or NPCs within it's ribcage and burn or pierce with barbs or green flame while their allies fight on is unique compared to dragons. It can additionally organically fill a midboss role in an undead themed campaign filling the power gap between lowly undead, and liches of all varieties, while better communicating it's power to players than death knights due to it's size and menacing appearance. Players won't hold back on this thing thinking, "oh, it's just a skeleton in armor" like the death knight.
Funny enough, someone else requested that and the other undead beast, gholor. They're both on the list for D-Dad to convert. Saw your suggestion and put another tick beside the stahnk.
I watched 5 years of your content in 3 weeks. The only thing that sucks about that, is now have to wait for your amazing content. Keep it up! 5 more years!
"GIANTS!!!" -Wendigoon
I really like pathfinders giants, the marsh giant is one of my favorites
Was not expecting an Evangelion reference in the Sun Giants video.
A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.
I love the use of the old Star Fox 64 track
One of my favourite games!
Im gonna make a homebrew dnd item called sunscreen scroll that prevents damage from radiant and fire based sources by 60% specifically to mess with sun giants.
Can you do a video on Shadow Giants? They're not the most well known, but I like the idea of them having some sort of gimmicky power relating to the shadow they cast. Like they can make a touch attack against any creature currently within their shadow or something.
Definitely on the list. Hopefully they'll get done sooner than later. Put another tick beside the requesters. There are a few people who want to see this get converted.
I've suggested making the Herculoids into D&D monsters a few times before, which would be a surprisingly good fit in a Spelljammer-type setting; the real problem would be which of the Herculoids to start with first. To my knowledge and understanding, the Herculoids have never appeared in any official D&D or Pathfinder materials. Still, they have likely inspired quite a few monsters in modern Fantasy due to predating the original Dungeons and Dragons. Although, the Herculoids, as a series, first aired back in the 1960s, so it's a bit more simplistic than most people are used to these days, and the first edition of D&D debuted in 1974, there's almost a decade between the original Herculoids and D&D debuting; I said original Herculoids because there were actually new episodes of the Herculoids that aired back in the 1980s, what many consider the original heyday of D&D, so there's a good chance the people that played D&D then went on to be part of its design teams, even today, have been influenced by the Herculoids in some way.
These are PERFECT for my homebrew world. Thanks!
Hello random Wendigoon. Should have expected him in a video about GIANTS.
Literally the siren call of the wendigoon is mentioning giants
And now that I've watched the video:
Another option if you want to be on the opposite side of the Blood War is the Pathfinder demon lord Nurgal, The Shining Scourge, demon lord of deserts, senseless warfare, and the sun.
In fact, the blood war playing out in proxy between a set of sun giants devoted to Nurgal and another clan devoted to Zariel could be an interesting plot hook.
Intro had me thinking it was surprise collab video
I WISH. Just a meme unfortunately lol
Since you're covering solar-powered giants, may I humbly request a short video on forest trolls. Truly underrated giant from the 3rd-edition Monster Manual 3. Their abilities aren't very unique, but the lore implications presented by them are great. Fast-breeding, super-tough, highly-adaptable trolls that are as smart as men would make for a genuine threat to the kingdoms of the demi-humans if they could gain access to a supplier of better arms and armor. An well-trained and well-equiped army of forest trolls would crush any similar force, especially if the spellcaster support was the same. They heal back their wounds (which would make a phalanx devastating), they secrete their own poison, their skin is far tougher than a demi-human, and they can eat the fallen of the enemy army. In a war of attritrion the opposing side is doomed.
Great video as always, keep it up!
Could you please do a video on these giants I just learned about, they’re, ash giants, reef giants, and fog giants!! They seem awesome and seeing one of your videos on any of them would be amazing !! Thank you again so much for the content you release, it’s truly expanded my knowledge and play in dnd 5e
Ash giants and reef giants can definitely be done, but fog giants already exist in 5e. They're in Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio Volume 1. However, ash giants were only given a stat block in Pathfinder. Ash giants are just a subrace of stone giants, and mechanically aren't any different.
Fascinating lore! Some nice depth and lots of potential for adventures or even campaigns!
Thanks for making these, love the documentary/deep dive into D&D monster lore. I'd personally love to see you take on the campestri, 2nd edition's wacky little mushroom people.
The campestri are already in 5e. Their stat block can be found in the adventure, "The Wild Beyond the Witchlight".
3.5e Monster Manual 2, page 111, I believe is the first appearance of sun giants. though, it's pretty threadbare as far as lore goes, so I get the oversight. Literally the best form for a Master of Many Forms pre-MoMF7
Giants.
Lots of ❤for this one!
I’ve been spare timing a cosmology that doesn’t have the Angel/Devil axis and works the djinn/giant/genie angle. These fellas are at the apex of that focus! Beauty!!
and thanks to you, sir
I binged all your videos, now I'm patiently waiting for my next fix, which happens to be today! Keep up the great work Dungeon Dad!
Really looking forward to the Gray Dragon. A dragon that likes to play with their prey before it devours them. That sounds absolutely sinister and I love it. For a future video I would propably suggest Cobalt Dragons. Also, there seems to be another species of Yellow Dragon, but unlike the Salt-Breathing counterpart which you have already covered, this one breathes a high-speed blast of super-heated air and sand. It was available in 2e as far as I know.
Cobalt is definitely on the list. Just be a matter of time. Yellow dragons are unfortunately already done, so he likely won't do a second video with a different stat block. Can definitely make a variant version with two breath weapons, just one does less damage and blinds targets instead. The gray dragon has three different breath weapons over three editions, plus there's the fang dragon, but his version of the gray dragon doesn't have any of the breath weapons. He picks and chooses.
Another cool patreon for the sun giants, and a very underutilized character would be Mephistopheles.
The guy is the second strongest in the Nine Hells, the only one above him in power is Asmodeus. He is the Lord of Fire and is known for being flamboyant and out there and again he is very powerful.
He is also the creator and wielder of hell fire, a fire that would make the sun giants very interested in since it ignores fire immunity and resistance.
Love the videos keep up the good work
Appreciate it!
I swear I had a similar idea in my campaign independently.
Six seconds in, and you've already slapped a smile on my face.
'Very unique' always grinds my gears LOL
Great video! Thanks for all your content and the work you put into it! :D Been on a bit of a binge and really enjoying it even though I don't play D&D anymore! You really make great stuff and I hope you feel proud of what you have and keep going and growing!
this channel is perfect
i dont do DND but i get cool lore and info to shove directly into my skull
AND HE WATCHES WENDIGOON!??!?!
amazing creator
Your videos are one of the highlights of my day
Sun Giants also appear in 3.0/3.5 monster manual 2 page 110. I'm actually surprised that wasn't the source pulled he from when I heard he was going to do this video.
Originally, when he looked it up, he could only find a Starfinder stat block.
@@KevinVideo My guess he didn't look far or only looked in pathfinder.
Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the Sun Giant. But, Mama, that's where the fun is!
That radiant dawn music at the plot hooks part goes off
Dude really showing off those Amonkhet cards
We need a video about the Phane!!! AJ did one about 3 years ago and that’s about all there is about them on TH-cam. Sick nasty time creature that lives in dead gods!!!
This is perfect. I'm running Theros rn and this is the absolute perfect final challenge for one of my players Sun Soul Monk, chosen by Heliod.
I am ALSO going to be using a sun giant in my Theros campaign, that's awesome!
WE GOT THE WENDIGOON "CROSSOVER"
YEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!
i really hope you talk about prismatic dragons someday
Definitely going to happen some day. They are on the "maxed out suggestion" list. Lots of people want to see it.
Good vid. I can see the improvements. If you are tapping into PF and all of the bestiaries... even with the overlap there is a ton to cover. Looking forward to watching you highlight more beasties and baddies DD style.👍
Love the outros!
great video! you should do one of these about the worm that walks!
The worm that walks was renamed in 5e to the Star Spawn Larva Mage, found in Monsters of the Multiverse and Tome of Foes.
You could use so much from Elden Ring to help flesh out the aesthetics of Sun Giants.
I think a restoration quest would be pretty neat, especially when you can use them as a reinforcing ally during a darkest hour moment.
A literal breaking of the dawn given what an army of Sun Giants cresting the horizon would look like.
A very thematic victory of light over dark, no waiting for a change of cycles but a big force of good going out to kick evil ass.
I just discovered you recently and have been enjoying your dragon videos! If I were to request one MotW (or two), it would be more Dragons! In particular, the Gray and Brown Dragons. I also wouldnt mind the Pink one getting more love too.
Pink was definitely done and is on the channel. Brown dragons should come out later this year. He's hoping to be done all chromatic dragons before the end of the year.
Used a sun titan image for sun giant. Very nice.
12:42 "You can essentially play kingmaker"
Or, given this is Pathfinder, you could literally play Kingmaker.
Something to add for rune knights, maybe they are similar to kotal from mortal kombat
I imagine a sun giant as a bard using vicious mockery to give sick burns 🔥
Great wedigoon reference
You know, I have always wondered what the stats of moon lord would be, if you don't know Who Moon Lord, he is the final boss of the game terraria, and he looks pretty cool.
LORD WENDIGOON SHOUTOUT!
Dad and Dad just merged.
Great video
Good video I’m really proud of you dad
Working on a homebrew in which Lumi are a reoccurring enemy do to a faction of them having allied with some angels that want to purge the world of sin. The sun giant stat block will be great for an upgraded late game Lumi encounter.
Bro wendigoon popped up immediately after i asked myself who would win in a twerk off covered in oil