Frost Giant as a Character? Help?

[Ixahinon]

So I can find the process of how to make a Stone Giant as a Character, and a Hill Giant as a Character. Can someone point me to where I can find the statistics block of how to make a Frost Giant as a Character?

[Kylarra]

So I can find the process of how to make a Stone Giant as a Character, and a Hill Giant as a Character. Can someone point me to where I can find the statistics block of how to make a Frost Giant as a Character?

You can just extrapolate backwards from the other two.
14 RHD
LA +4
-------
18th level character

Large
40' movement
+9 Nat armor
Immunity to cold, low-light vision, rock catching/throwing, vulnerability to fire
+18 Str, -2 dex, +10 con, +4 wis
5 feats, 2+int skills for the 14 hd, fort good save, and 3/4 BAB
# Proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as any natural weapons.
# Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium or heavy) it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Giants not described as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Giants are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.

[Eldariel]

So I can find the process of how to make a Stone Giant as a Character, and a Hill Giant as a Character. Can someone point me to where I can find the statistics block of how to make a Frost Giant as a Character?

Monster Manual or SRD. Monstrous creatures always have their base array of 11/10/11/10/11/10 so to get their racial adjustments, just subtract 11 from odd numbers and 10 from even ones. Then, check how many racial Hit Dice they've got (listed under "Hit Dice"); that's how many levels in the monster class you have to start with. Then check Level Adjustment and apply it on top of all that to determine your Effective Character Level before taking character classes.

Frost Giant has +18 Str, -2 Dex, +10 Con, +0 Int, +4 Wis and +0 Cha. He has 14 levels of "Giant" to start with, and Level Adjustment of 4. So a Frost Giant character without class levels is an ECL (Effective Character Level; the one used to determine to what single-classed standard race character it'd match) 18, or you could either be a Barbarian 18 or a Frost Giant without levels (but again, you build a Frost Giant character like any other and thus apply the stat bonuses to normal ability score generation progress and gain feats from your Giant-levels [not Level Adjustment though] and so on; no ability score increases though as those are included in the racial adjustments, apparently).

So yeah, Frost Giant Fighter 1 is a level 19 character. Oh, and on Giant-levels you gain BAB, saves, HP & skills according to the Giant-type. All the types and their abilities are actually listed behind Monster Manual.

So level 14 Giant has level 14 Fighter's base Fort, Will & Ref-saves (good Fort, bad Ref & Will), Ranger Hit Dice, level 14 Cleric BAB and 2+Int skills for each Giant-level with Spot, Craft, Intimidate, Jump & Climb being in class.


EDIT: Ninja'd. On the plusside, I outlined the process of figuring it out oneself so this is not entirely wasted a post.

[Runestar]

Savage species has a frost giant monster class which lets you play one from 1st lv. Oddly enough, the hill giant entry is missing...

[Alvrick]

unfortunately, the giants in the monster manual are unwieldly because of their massive racial HD + LA combo, making them essentially unplayable without a high level campaign or savage progression. if you want the flavor of a frost giant but don't want all the hubbub about having a sky high level adjustment, then I'd suggest changing the half-giant's abilities to be cold based rather than fire and play one with blue skin. you have only a +1 LA for powerful build, strength and constitution bonuses, and a small hit to dexterity. with LA buyoff, the +1 level adjustment becomes a moot point at level 3, making it one of the best melee-centric races in the game

[Ixahinon]

But can you break that down further? Such as what a Frost Giant would obtain at 1st level? I don't have Savage Species, and I don't know if there is an online link to a source, but what I'm looking for is a Frost Giant, but not a full blown frost giant...if that makes sense.

[Kylarra]

But can you break that down further? Such as what a Frost Giant would obtain at 1st level? I don't have Savage Species, and I don't know if there is an online link to a source, but what I'm looking for is a Frost Giant, but not a full blown frost giant...if that makes sense.

You'd have to get savage species or extrapolate based on a number of web progressions and work something out with your dm.

[Runestar]

The frost giant's progression can be found here.

http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfile...iestables.html

courtesy of sean k reynolds.

[deuxhero]

Monster Manual or SRD. Monstrous creatures always have their base array of 11/10/11/10/11/10 so to get their racial adjustments, just subtract 11 from odd numbers and 10 from even ones. Then, check how many racial Hit Dice they've got (listed under "Hit Dice"); that's how many levels in the monster class you have to start with. Then check Level Adjustment and apply it on top of all that to determine your Effective Character Level before taking character classes.

Do monsters not get a +1 to a stat every 4 levels?

[Alvrick]

that's a general thing for all characters. but it only happens once every 4 hit dice, not character levels. monster classes don't start out with their full stat bonuses, so those are built up over the course of the progression class

[Geiger Counter]

Play a half giant with cold resistance to make things easier for everyone.

[Eldariel]

Do monsters not get a +1 to a stat every 4 levels?

Page 290 in Monster Manual:
"Ability Score Improvement: Whenever a monster reaches a number of Hit Dice divisible by 4, it improves one ability score by 1 point. For example, a lammasu of 7 Hit Dice increased to 14 Hit Dice gains an ability score improvement at 8 HD and another one at 12 HD. Monsters do not gain ability score increases for levels they “already reached” with their racial Hit Dice, since these adjustments are included in their basic ability scores."

[Ixahinon]

I don't know...I'm at an impass now. I'm trying to determine which would be better (More fun):

7th level Frost Giant:

+8 Strength, +4 Constitution, -2 Dexterity
Rock Throwing and Catching
+6 Natural Armor
Cold Subtype
2 Feats (Do I still get the standard feats at 1, 3, and 6? If so 5 Feats)

Or...

Half White Dragon/3rd Fighter.


Continuing on Frost Giant just seems fun, though

[Alvrick]

no, you get a feat every third character level, which in this case is monstrous HD, so you only have the two feats

personally, I'd go for the half-dragon. but, as you can see from my avi, I'm rather biased toward half-dragons

[Ixahinon]

I like Half-Dragon, too..but you gain next to nothing from it other than Stat increases, unless you put the template on a monster.

Your Breath Weapon save is going to suck, since it goes off racial HD, not class HD. So it's basically 10 + Con...which is never going to get very high.

You can't even use the awesome 6 + Intelligence skill points...unless you have Racial HD. I say 6+ Intelligence is awesome..because compared to a fighter's 2 + Intelligence, it's like gold.

Don't get me wrong +8 Strength rocks...but eating a +3 LA just for +8 Strength seems a rip off.

[Alvrick]

first off, +8 str and a once per day Breath weapon is not all you get out of it. that breath weapon can get you metabreath feats, and dragon breath from the races of the dragon book make it so you can use it every 1d4 rounds. plus, you have immunity to that element; if you're half white you can go walking naked in the mountains, for all the weather does to you. natural armor, natural weapons, and a flavorful enough race that they included an entire chapter in a book about them and their more human descendants

EDIT: alternately, some DMs have allowed me to drop the LA to +2 by getting rid of the breath weapon

[Eldariel]

I'd personally just go Dragonborn 'cause I despise Level Adjustment and find it the worst part in the pickle that is the poorly mangled 3.5 system, but out of those two, I'd probably prefer the Half-Dragon, if only 'cause Dragons are cooler than Giants (if only barely).

Dragonborn has a functional breath weapon, no level adjustment and all manners of good stuff.

[Ixahinon]

Possibly, I don't know. Any feats in that book to dramatically increase Breath weapon DC?

EDIT: I find Level Adjustment a drag, sure...but when worked right, it doesn't bother me. I generally find that I can go up to LA +6 without getting too flustered, and still create a character that keeps up.