Bigby Presents: Glory of Giants (Dungeons & Dragons Expansion Book)

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A skilled dungeon master could build an entire giant-themed campaign with these monsters and other resources in mind, in the same vein as Storm King's Thunder. Whether the DM modifies an existing campaign or homebrews a new one where giants shine in the spotlight, Glory of the Giants has the right monsters for the job. These monsters have it all, from intriguing lore and personalities to deadly and exciting gameplay stats and fantastic illustrations to bring them to life.

of the Giants 5e | DnD Feat Optimization Guide Strike of the Giants 5e | DnD Feat Optimization Guide

The feats are all quite strong, as most of the 4th-level feats come with an ASI and a full feat’s worth of benefit. But, as we’ve seen with the latest 5e content and 2024 Player’s Handbook playtests, they also come with a feat tree-esque restriction system, which should balance things out a bit. We’ve reviewed each of these feats in-depth in our separate feat guides: A D&D party might come across a tempest spirit and either slay it to end its suffering, or offer to help it reverse this dark transformation in return for favors. In other cases, a storm giant whom the players knew becomes a tempest spirit partway through a campaign, so the party must fight a monstrous version of a former friend. Frost giant ice shapers are physically as hardy as any other warriors in their enclave, but they surpass the others by harnessing the sheer elemental power of air and water. This extra layer of power on top of their physical strength usually leads ice shapers to claim positions of leadership among their enclaves. Frost giant ice shapers summon their power from frost rune-inscribed ice or similar objects that act as the source of some of their most potent abilities. Because the damage is “extra damage”, it is multiplied on a critical hit. It can be very tempting to reserve Strike of the Giants for crits, but usually it’s more impactful to use it for the rider effect.The only issue I see with most of this information is giants will have to be a huge part of your campaign for you to start worrying about how many giants live together in a settlement versus a steading. Wizards of the Coast has worked hard to ensure no Giant encounter feels stereotypical or same-y. It’s clear these creatures are more than just lumbering behemoths, with no fate other than the end of an adventurer’s blade. The speed debuff is neat and could keep enemies from moving out of your reach, which can be helpful for a Defender. However, at PB/day uses you won’t be able to use this enough to build your tactics around it, so you still want things like Sentinel. Vigor of the Hill Giant The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Strike of the Giants 5e feat is for a specific class/subclass. The “Invoking” system they’ve come up with is pretty neat. Essentially, each magic item has a passive ability, but you can also invoke the rune inscribed on the item to produce a once-a-day effect that recharges at the next dawn. This makes for interesting resource management, but be careful with these items. They could easily skew the power level of your players if you’re playing in a campaign that doesn’t frequent multiple encounters per day. Giant Bestiary

DnD Glory of the Giants review – strong but slim | Wargamer

Shield of the Blazing Dreadnought is a powerful magical item found in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. It's a legendary shield that provides the usual +2 to AC and a whole lot more, starting with not just fire resistance, but fire immunity that can be activated with a bonus action. The shield can also burn away one target's disease or condition, including blinded, charmed, defeaned, or poisoned. Editor's Note: On August 4, we became aware that an artist used AI to create artwork that appears in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants and that previously appeared in this article.Read our statement on the use of AI here.

Huge options for a small number of fans

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants also takes some familiar faces from D&D and adds new monster builds and interpretations. Take, for example, our old pals, the frost giants. The book builds on their inspiration from Norse mythology and mixes in some new lore that’s unique to D&D. They can also expand your pool of spells known, which can be helpful for classes like the Bard and the Sorcerer, who get a strictly limited number of spells known. You might weigh that benefit against spellcasting feats like Fey Touched, but remember that Runeshaper is expected to be in line with Skilled or Tough, which aren’t stunning powerful feats. While they’re often viewed as heretical within the ordning, Evil Water giants will often keep their allegiance a secret and attempt to push their communities toward the behaviors that appease Olhydra’s lust for violence. For their service, Olhydra grants her giants the ability to breathe water, making them a threat on land as well as underwater. Armor of Safeguarding is a very rare magic item in Bigby Presents that requires attunement and can appear in a variety of armor types, such as ringed mail and splint. Aside from the normal AC bonus, Armor of Safeguarding boosts the wearer's HP by 10 plus their level, excellent for melee characters like fighters, barbarians, and paladins. Guile of the Cloud Giant is definitely the best feat in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, even if it requires Strike of the Giants first. The +1 to STR/CON/WIS is just the start -- this feat grants incredible defensive options that can get any player character out of trouble.

What Is Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants? A Huge

Strike of the Giants provides some on-hit damage and usually a rider effect, offering some versatility for martial classes looking to do more than damage. At PB/day uses these won’t dominate your tactics, but they do give you a fun button to push a few times per day. However, in my opinion, I prefer setting sourcebooks, like Mythic Odysseys of Therosor Van Richter’s Guide to Ravenloft, to monster-focused supplements such as these. Death giants were once cloud giants who traveled to the eerie world of Shadowfell to preserve what remained of their empire and way of life. They eventually morphed into today's death giants, and in particular, the Shrouded Ones have mastered death magic in service of the Raven Queen. In fact, even their runes are death-themed, being a giant's skull with etchings on it.The book does a good job of presenting giants as a complex society rather than just a monster to be killed. The wizard Bigby personally crafted this magical bracelet, and like most artifacts, it will have an assortment of randomly chosen properties, some positive, some negative. Aside from that, this excellent magical item allows the user to cast a variety of useful spells outside of combat, starting with Mage Hand, a spellcaster staple.

Glory of the Giants The Best DnD Magic Items in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants

Quality will always trump quantity, and Glory of the Giants offers exciting new options for players and DMs alike. But with such limited player options and such a narrow focus on high-level adventures, it’s tough to recommend Glory of the Giants to the majority of D&D players. Strike of the Giants' main advantage is not its sheer power, but the flexibility with its sub-options. Any character who takes this feat can choose one strike option, and use it once per turn at no cost of actions or bonus actions. Among those options, stone strike and cloud strike are standouts, the former pushing a monster 10 feet away and the latter turning this feat's user invisible. This feat has a number of solid options that can boost the power of any Strength-based martial character. Unfortunately, the DC of the save abilities is limited to Strength or Constitution, which can limit its effectiveness for Dexterity builds. Strike of the Giants 5e Interactions

Varied though these monsters be, most of them have one thing in common: a hefty challenge rating. This, combined with encounters designed for levels 11 and onwards, means Glory of the Giants mainly caters to high-level D&D parties. The Bloodshed Blade is a ferocious new magic item in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants that can appear in a variety of sword types, from greatswords to rapiers. Whatever this weapon's form, it has the same effect of using Hit Dice and the user's CON modifier to boost damage output. That makes it ideal for classes like paladin, barbarian, and fighter. from you in a straight, horizontal line. But that’s not what they wrote. “pushed 10 feet directly away from you” was right there.• Storm Strike: It’s on a Constitution One of them is a free longer adventure, Lost Mine of Phandelver, L1-5, the others are "one-shot" adventures, intended to be played and completed in a single session.