While it may be a book about Giants, Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants features a menagerie of new monsters for players and DMs (Dungeon Masters) alike to enjoy. Most of these monsters are indeed Giants themselves; however, there are also a fair number of Beasts, Elementals, Undead, and other creature types.
Related:Bigby Presents: Glory Of The Giants – Path Of The Giant Barbarian Build
We’ve compiled the most interesting stat blocks among these new creatures so that you don’t have to spend your valuable time sifting through the pages. There’s quite a variety of creatures here, and many of them make use of bonus actions and reactions, two important actions often overlooked in otherDungeons & Dragonsstat blocks.
8Giant Goose (CR3)
The Giant Goose is a large Fey that is much more interesting as a plot hook than it is as a monster to be defeated. The Giant Goose comes with its very own table of “Egg Contents,” which allows the DM to roll in order to decide what exactly might be inside the golden eggs these geese lay.
Options include powerful potions, magic items, silly jokes, and nothing at all. Alternatively, you could place anything you desire in a Giant Goose’s egg, including an item that’s important to your campaign’s plot. If your players do end up fighting the Giant Goose, it’s most deadly as a sentry as itshigh Perception scoreand Thunderous Honk ability allow it to notify other nearby creatures of intruders with ease.
7Runic Colossus (CR21)
These gargantuan Constructs were supposedly first created to defend important Giant settlements from Dragon attacks back in the earliest ages of many worlds. Standing 30 feet tall, the runic colossus is aggravated by the presence of anything other than a Giant and seeks to destroy all non-Giants unfortunate enough to cross its path.
The runic colossus is resistant to acid, cold, fire, and lightning and immune to poison, psychic, and attacks made with nonmagical weapons. It also has immunity to almost every condition. Its most threatening abilities are its stomp, which restrains a creature beneath its foot, an arcane beam that deals 9d12 force damage, and the ability to reflect spells as a reaction, dealing damage to the caster and potentially canceling the spell.
6Fomorian Deep Crawler (CR10)
Fomorians are Giants that once enjoyed a position in the ordning between Hill Giants and Stone Giants. However, in an attempt to rise through the ranks of the ordning the Fomorians attacked the Feywild in search of greater power and ultimately failed. They were then banished to the Underdark, and their time there has morphed them into strange creatures that are more Aberration than Giant.
RELATED:Dungeons & Dragons: Ways To Gain Advantage
The deep crawler is one such strange Giant whose body has adapted to crawling through the tunnels and low-hanging ceilings of the Underdark. Instead of walking on two feet, it crawls along the ground on all fours and can curse other creatures to do the same.
5Lightning Hulk (CR9)
The hulks are Elementals that were once Giants long ago. These Giants saw their mortal flesh deteriorate in favor of embracing their elemental nature, leaving behind only a husk of their former glory. The lightning hulk in particular is an especially well-designed enemy as it fights unlike any other monster we’ve ever seen printed.
These living lightning bolts deal damage to every creature they pass through. Seeing as they have a speed of 90 feet, that’s probably going to be the whole party. In addition, they have an action that fires an arcing lightning bolt, which bounces from one creature to another and deprives its targets of their reactions. No opportunity attacks for you!
4Troll Amalgam (CR17)
Trolls are among the most imaginative monsters that have been printed in the many bestiaries of Dungeons & Dragons, and this remains true for Glory of the Giants. The Troll Amalgam is the strongest Troll that’s ever been created and consists of a mass of different Trolls that fused together into a single whole due to their regenerative ability.
On top of a regeneration trait that can only be hindered instead of outright stopped, Troll Amalgalms also have access to a bonus action that fires an arm from their mass to grapple, restrain, and repeatedly deal damage to an opposing creature. If the arm survives for long enough, it becomes a full-fledged Troll of its very own.
3Death Giant Shrouded One (CR15)
The Death Giant Shrouded One is the best of a cycle of Giants that use rune magic to gain access to enhanced abilities. Each Giant in this cycle wields a rune inscribed item that can be targeted and destroyed by the players in order to prevent the creature from accessing its most powerful abilities. Now that’s good design.
The shrouded one is the scariest of the cycle thanks to an attack that instantly kills upon reducing targets to zero hit points, the ability to continuously gain a large number of temporary hit points while simultaneously dealing damage, and two powerful bonus actions.
RELATED:Dungeons & Dragons: Best Spells For Gaining Information
The first is a short-range teleport that potentially frightens anyone nearby the area that the Giant teleports to, and the second is an aura that can give nearby creatures disadvantage on their saving throws. There are incredibly few mechanics that give creatures disadvantage on saving throws in Dungeons & Dragons, and it’s because doing so is absolutely busted.
2Gargantua (CR21)
Both one of the most enthralling and mechanically dangerous monsters, the gargantua is an Aberration that is seldom born to Giant parents. The creature is a malformed Giant that grows to 40 feet tall and has strange horns sprouting from its head. Giants are unsure why Gargantua are sometimes birthed but they are looked upon as a blight.
The Gargantua has an aura that deals psychic damageand frightens creatureswithin 30 feet of it. It has two powerful bludgeoning attacks, but that’s hardly what makes it dangerous.
As a bonus action, the Gargantua can potentially incapacitate an enemy or teleport up to 120 feet. For reactions, the Gargantua can flick a creature up to 100 feet away from it (dealing falling damage along the way at DM discretion) or copy a spell of fifth level or lower that another creature casts. This is the kind of action economy that many creatures should have at their disposal.
1Storm Herald (CR17)
While its challenge rating might pale in comparison to some of the other creatures mentioned on this list, make no mistake that the Storm Herald is the most deadly monster in this book aside from maybe the scions of the Giant gods. To put it simply, the storm herald is like a mind flayer that swims.
Its psychic wave ability requires a DC 21 Intelligence saving throw or else stuns three creatures within 90 feet of it. Those creatures remain stunned for the next minute unless they can make the saving throw on a future turn, which is highly unlikely, seeing as Intelligence is the dump stat for almost all character classes.
In other words, this ability basically removes three characters from combat for the next minute. To make matters worse, the storm herald also has a tentacle attack like that of mind flayers, as well as two other attacks it uses every turn. Additionally,a 100 foot swim speedmeans this creature can easily ambush a party with its psychic wave before setting to feasting.
Even if it doesn’t get the drop on you, the storm herald has magic resistance and huge bonuses to all saving throws aside from Dexterity. All things considered, we caution against using this monster at all unless your party enjoys entirely unfair combat scenarios.
