Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants

Chapter 6: Bestiary

At Mordenkainen's side, I thought of giants as a brutal menace threatening the very existence of the world I knew. Diancastra showed me just how small that world was. My eyes have been opened to a world that is much larger and far more ancient than I imagined.

Across the multiverse, giants are shaped by ancient traditions and a powerful connection to the Elemental Planes. This chapter describes dozens of giants and related creatures for use in your game. For guidance on how to use a creature's stat block, consult the introduction of the Monster Manual.

Herein you'll find weapons that deal unusual damage types and spellcasting that functions in atypical ways. Such an exception is a special feature of a monster and represents how it uses the weapon or casts its spells; the exception has no effect on how a weapon or a spell functions for others.

If a stat block contains the name of a class in the monster's name or in parentheses under the name, the monster is considered a member of that class for the purpose of meeting magic item prerequisites.

The monsters in this chapter are arranged in alphabetical order for ease of reference. Here's an overview of the creatures herein:

• Extended Family. This chapter introduces death giants, fensirs from the Outer Planes, and the monstrous gargantuas, as well as primordial scions of the giant gods.
• Magic-Using Giants. Each of the giants of the ordning has new variants in this chapter. The cloud giant destiny gambler, fire giant forgecaller, frost giant ice shaper, hill giant avalancher, stone giant rockspeaker, and storm giant tempest caller all wield the traditional rune magic of their kind. They are joined by the death giant shrouded one and the fomorian warlock of the dark, giants outside the ordning that nevertheless wield rune magic.
• Giant Cultists. Other variations include giants that follow the cults of "interloper gods." Some of these are Fiends transformed by their devotion to demon lords or archdevils, including the echo of Demogorgon, the fire hellion, the fury of Kostchtchie, the maw of Yeenoghu, and the stalker of Baphomet. Others are cultists of Elemental Evil: a cloud giant of Evil Air, a fire giant of Evil Fire, a frost giant of Evil Water, and a stone giant of Evil Earth. The fomorian deep crawler and the storm herald—a storm giant transformed into a monstrous Aberration—round out this category.
• Other Giant Variations. The unfallen form of fomorians is here, along with a variant ettin (the ettin ceremorph) and two versions of trolls (the troll amalgam and the troll mutate).
• Elemental Hulks. Withered branches of the giant family tree, the elemental hulks (cinder, dust, lightning, mist, mud, and rime hulks) are Elemental creatures descended from giants.
• Undead Giants. Undead forms of the giants of the ordning appear in this chapter: barrowghasts, cairnwights, firegaunts, frostmourns, spectral clouds, and tempest spirits.
• Gigantic Animals. Dinosaurs and other enormous creatures are often found in giants' enclaves. These include four Gargantuan dinosaurs (aerosaur, altisaur, ceratops, and regisaur), giant geese, giant lynxes, giant oxen, giant rams, giant ticks, gigants, grinning cats, spotted lions, storm crabs, and titanotheres.
• Humanoid Giant Kin. Firbolgs and goliaths appear here in a few different varieties.
• Others. Two enormous Constructs appear here (the flesh colossus and the runic colossus), as well as an Ooze that lives in giants' bags—the aptly named bag jelly.

Tables at the end of this chapter list all the creatures herein by giant kind, challenge rating, and creature type.