Sentient Giant Animals

[Catullus64]

Out of the many Giant beasts in the Monster Manual, three of them, namely the Giant Eagle, Giant Elk, and Giant Owl, are weird: they speak languages (they speak Giant Eagle, Giant Elk, and Giant Owl respectively) and understand others; they have alignments, which most other beasts lack, and they have writeups with special explanations of their relationships to other sentient creatures. Giant Vultures lack their own language, but understand common and have an alignment. Worgs and Winter Wolves, though more overtly magical and not Beasts in creature type, are pretty similar.

The other giant animals, who are mostly just regular animals bumped up a Size category or two, strike me as an enormous missed opportunity by comparison. If all giant animals had their own languages, then it would be possible, without any magic, to learn how to talk with them, and that would be awesome. (Assuming your DM is cool enough to allow you access to a trainer who speaks Giant Eagle.) And wouldn't it contribute so much to a mythic feel in a setting if all the giant beasts have stories and personas just like any other monster? Giving them alignments creates such an interesting cosmology, and puts it in line with just about every folklore ever, where animals display and embody moral characteristics.

Not much else to say, really; just something I find cool and wish there were more of.

[P. G. Macer]

I’ve home-brewed an intelligent Giant Raven for the capstone of my revised version of the Warlock of the Raven Queen.

Spoiler: Giant Raven Stats

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Giant Raven
Large beast, lawful neutral

Armor Class 13
Hit Points 30 (4d10 +8)
Speed 10 ft., fly 60 ft.
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STR 11 (+0)
DEX 16 (+3)
CON 14 (+2)
INT 11 (+0)
WIS 13 (+1)
CHA 10 (+0)
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Saving Throws Wis +3, Cha +2
Skills Deception +2, Perception +3, Stealth +5
Senses passive Perception 13
Languages understands Common and Elvish but can’t speak
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Keen Sight. The raven has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Mimicry. The raven can mimic simple sounds it has heard, such as a person whispering, a baby crying, or an animal chittering. A creature that hears the sounds can tell they are imitations with a successful DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) check.

Actions
Multiattack. The raven makes two attacks, one with its beak and one with its talons
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d6 + 3 piercing damage
Talons. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2d4 + 3 slashing damage

I also noticed that with the exception of the Giant Elk, all of the Intelligent Beasts are Birds of Prey. As a newcomer to D&D, I’m guessing that the NG Giant Eagle came first, as an homage to (or ripoff of, depending on your outlook) Tolkien, and the others followed as alignment grid-filling of sorts, given that Giant Owls are TN and Giant Vultures are NE. I slightly broke with the pattern in my Giant Raven homebrew in that ravens are not birds of prey, but otherwise looked to the other three for inspiration.