Giants available as PCs

[KrimsonNekros]

So I've been considering playing a giant, but the one's presented in the Monster Manual have an obscene number of racial HD and a couple have LAs on top of it. Are there any variants that have lower HDs that I could look at or is the MM the only source for giants?

[Karl Aegis]

Half-Giants (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/halfGiant.htm) have the giant type and no racial hit dice.

[Vizzerdrix]

Eneko are a playable giant too. 0HD and +1LA.

[KrimsonNekros]

What book are the Eneko from?

[WhamBamSam]

Seems I was swordsaged, but Half-Giants are in the XPH, which is to say the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/halfGiant.htm). It's a solid LA+1, being pretty much the same as a Goliath, but with a slightly smaller Str bonus, and some natural psionics instead.

Some Dragon Magazine or other (EDIT: Dragon Magazine 323) has Cyclopeans, which are medium-sized LA+0 giants. They're pretty decent. There are two varieties, one a bit more fightery, the other a little more castery.

There's also the Primordial Giant template in Secrets of Xendrik, which is good if you're looking to do caster type things with your giant.

[JyP]

Half-Ogre in Races of Destiny is a Giant type with LA +2, no RHD

[nyjastul69]

What book are the Eneko from?

I believe it's some sort of mongel ogre race from Secrets of Sarlona, an Eberron setting book.

Edit: I'm not very familiar Eberron. I could be mistaken.

[Vizzerdrix]

What book are the Eneko from?

Secrets Of Sarlona. Page 109. An Eberron book.

[DrMotives]

Taer from Unapproachable East are medium-sized giants intended as a PC race, although they do have 2 RHD and +1 LA. They're basically mini-yeti.

[NomGarret]

You could also play through those Racial HD and LA by using the monster classes from Savage Species.

[ShurikVch]

1. Take some LA +0 humanoid (for example, Orc)
2. Slap on Half-Ogre or Half-Minotaur - to make him Large
3. Now Dustform - to make him into construct
4. Incarnate Construct. Now you got playable giant without racial HD and with LA +1

[Maglubiyet]

Ogre is "only" LA +2.

[Sian]

my favorite would be Incarnate Construct (Savage Species) Maug (Fiend Folio) ... 2RHD +1LA and great facepunching stats while still having decent mental stats. And RHD skill points 8+ (explicitly so)

[Metahuman1]

I honestly always felt like Giants were overburdened with the LA and Racial Hit dice assigned to them. I'd pick a Giant you feel would be fun and see if you can talk the DM into cutting the LA and Racial Hit Dice down something fierce.

[Flickerdart]

WotC really overestimated how strong melee types are/how valuable Strength is. Giants have a lot of Strength and are Large, which looks really powerful when viewed in that light. While Large creatures are disproportionately strong in the first few levels, they quickly fall short. If I were allowing a giant PC, I would have them start as Medium (perhaps with Powerful Build) and gradually grow as they gained levels.

[Curmudgeon]

1. Take some LA +0 humanoid (for example, Orc)
2. Slap on Half-Ogre or Half-Minotaur - to make him Large
3. Now Dustform - to make him into construct
4. Incarnate Construct. Now you got playable giant without racial HD and with LA +1
Dustform template says:
Hit Dice: Change all current and future Hit Dice to d10s.
Incarnate Construct template says:
Hit Dice: The creature’s Hit Die type changes to d8.
All the racial HD remain through this process; they're just altered to be even less desirable (no feats, no skills).

[Judge_Worm]

Dustform template says:
Incarnate Construct template says:
All the racial HD remain through this process; they're just altered to be even less desirable (no feats, no skills).

None of those templates add hd though. And orc only has 1, which is to say none (when adding any class levels)

[KrimsonNekros]

What is the half-ogre's type? The table says giant, but this seems to conflict with the text of the Giant Blood ability that allows them to count as giants. Would they be humanoids? Monstrous humanoids?

[Curmudgeon]

There are two different Half-Ogres. The Half-Ogre race is a Giant; it's in Races of Destiny on pages 96-98. The Half-Ogre inherited template is in Dragon # 313 on pages 95-96. That template doesn't change the base creature's type. The Half-Ogre template is the one with Giant Blood.

[xkaliburr]

Arcana Evolved has a giant playable race. The book was written by Monte Cook, and is d20. Maybe this would work.

[KrimsonNekros]

There are two different Half-Ogres. The Half-Ogre race is a Giant; it's in Races of Destiny on pages 96-98. The Half-Ogre inherited template is in Dragon # 313 on pages 95-96. That template doesn't change the base creature's type. The Half-Ogre template is the one with Giant Blood.

So is the one in Savage Species the inherited template then?

[Troacctid]

So is the one in Savage Species the inherited template then?

No, it's a race (not a template) and it was superseded by its 3.5 update in Races of Destiny.

[xkaliburr]

I found some info on the Arcana Evolved Giant. Apparently they start off level 1 as medium, and there are three levels you can take at any time to become a large size creature. +2 strength, -2 dex for stat adjustments, and a few interesting skill bonuses.

[Solaris]

Ogre is "only" LA +2.

And four RHD, because WotC doesn't know balance.

[Chronos]

Although, to be fair, giant RHD at least have full BAB, which is probably the most important thing for the sorts of characters likely to be interested in playing an ogre.

[Thurbane]

Although, to be fair, giant RHD at least have full BAB, which is probably the most important thing for the sorts of characters likely to be interested in playing an ogre.

Actually, they don't.


Features
A giant has the following features.

8-sided Hit Dice.
Base attack bonus equal to ¾ total Hit Dice (as cleric).
Good Fortitude saves.
Skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die.



You might be thinking of Monstrous Humanoids?

[drrockso20]

personally I'd just ignore Level Adjustment on pretty much any race that doesn't have a bunch of magical abilities, cause as far as I can tell most races don't really add anything that really justifies level adjusting above 1 or 2 levels, of course if one wanted to play a 3.X derivative that actually does exotic races well, I'd say just run Fantasycraft