There seems to be a vague and unstated connection between this book and the current Magic: the Gathering set The Wilds of Eldraine, which is inspired by fairy tales. I know Alice in Wonderland is not technically a fairy tale, but it's pretty close. The connecting creature in GotG is the giant goose, which is from Jack and the Beanstalk-a fairy tale that features a giant.
@@UselessKobold I try to. The recent play tests have a revised version of _Shocking Grasp_ that specifically stops the target from making Opportunity Attacks rather than robbing it of its Reaction, so I believe they're going to give monsters multiple reactions a turn instead of Legendary Actions. I guess it's to make monsters more streamlined? I still think 4e got its version of Legendary Actions right. Specific actions on different initiatives and if it starts its turn with the inability to take an action somehow (stunned, dazed, incapacitated, etc) it gave up one or two Legendary Actions that round to end the effect.
Personally I kinda like the bit about the fomorian noble not knowing about their kin's plight. The way I see it, they're so long lived, arrogant, and focused on their own projects that they don't care about what happens to the peasants of the kind, let alone the lives of the pathetic smaller races. They could be the last of their kind and they wouldn't even care. The cursed fomorians hate them with a passion, and the nobles don't even care to recognize them.
They personally sound to me that they are just out of the loop. They spend most of their time in their settlements, don't stay in the Feywild for very long, and time has made them distant to the whole affair especially since unlike those who got themselves cursed due to a detrimental desire for power the nobles aren't fuming with vengeance and hate.
11:16 The reason they do this is so that the giants qualify for magic items that require you to be a specific class, despite not having any cleric features.
@NoNamesLeft0102 still an easy way to signal what kind of items the creators intended for you to pair with them (even if you end up not using it like anything else)
Also, this creature existed before but the lore was different. It was basically a troll cannibal and the eaten trolls had regenerated through the body of the troll that ate them.
Oldschool D&D parties lived or died depending upon having a functioning cleric to heal, remove conditions, and turn undead. There were no short rests, no self-healing through spending hit dice, long rests just restored hp equal to your level, no repeated saving throws at the end of each of your turns, no death saving throws. Undead could drain off your class levels. Poisons, diseases, and other effects could damage or permanently drain ability scores. It was brutal.
@ericjensen7580 - Most should. In my game 25 years ago the undead were by far the worst possible scenario. Every kind of undead survived by draining your positive energies at least to some degree. Even Zombies would leave faint burnt footprints in the grass after a few days. I added the Stat "Life Points". Paladins (and priests, necromancers) would always have them equal to their hit points. But a high level warrior (say 20th level) would only have life points of a typical human, 2 plus 1d8. A few hits (claws or bites) from a Zombie/Skeleton would do physical damage but also life drain points. Those do not heal without priest positive energy healing. Powerful undead (vampires, mummies) gave off this negative energy at a radius. They would continue to get sick, not rest, until they found some cure or positive energy healing magic. You could not be raised, resurrected if killed by undead by life drain. It made undead make sense and actually bring back horror to medieval times. Undead in my game were never random encounters.
When I saw the fomorian noble I knew I had the perfect template for a villain. Made some small tweaks, tossed an armor of invulnerability and the Blackrazor his way, and boom! Perfect stat block for an ancient fomorian king with one big chip on his shoulder over the curse
WOTC is all but confirmed to be getting rid of legendary actions. Vecna himself didn't get legendary actions and instead got "3 reactions" they can use on certain situations, and onednd is even purposefully nerfing abilities that get rid of reactions entirely to instead only stop op attacks because getting rid of reactions is "too powerful" which suggests that reactions are replacing legendary actions. Which is so weird to me because it's legendary resistance that is the anti fun mechanic not legendary actions and they keep making monsters that have 5 of those, and now 11!
I love to see you go over more books like this going over like a different monsters and things just reviewing them by going over everything is included subclasses Quest things like that and then saying how you critique them and change them up in your style
The lack of legendary actions might be because these are (mostly) supposed to be regular giants that have some extra features, they're meant to be in a party with other giants, while legendary actions are usually reserved for solo boss-monsters, like liches, dragons and the like
I'm somewhat surprised th' Athach didn't make it into this book, but non-cursed formorians getting stats is definitely cool, I dont tgink any other edition has done that.
I get the sense that Wizards of the Coast has really gotten lazy with their monster descriptions, and yet greedier in what little they offer in more obscene costs.
26:30 okay this does actually have a cleric ability, a subclass ability to be exact. The trickster domain cleric has a similar illusionary duplicate ability. Also by 5e's definition a cleric doesn't have to heal at all, they just need to receive magic from a god they worship.
HEY esper!! i love your content, i would absolutely love to see you review kobold press's tome of beast's books for their monsters with your rating system and lore analysis
Let me ask you, what did you think of the length? Between parts 1 and 2, it's a total of 84 minutes, so quite long for a viewer and quite labor-intensive for me to produce. I just wonder if such a long, detailed analysis is better than a shorter, leaner video.
The length is a benefit for sure. There is a large group of RUclipsrs that fall asleep to lore content or lengthy videos, myself included, and even if that sounds condescending that your content could ever lull people to sleep, think of it more like you have great storyteller talent. Some of us need bed time stories, and you can absolutely fill that niche. @@esperthebard
i think your nit picking alot with the "mystery X damage". something dont have to be said cos theyre common sense. for example, i am a fire giant, i am attuned from the day im born to the day i die with the element of fire. my hair is made of literal fire so my body is pretty hot. my weapon needs to be able to handle my heat without warping. what do you know, my big mace is now super heated and deals additional fire damage on a hit cos of hot hand/body. same thing for the other giant elements. freezer burn for frost giant, static shock for storm, vibrations for cloud giants, etc. it doesnt have to be stated for it to make sense. not everything has to be explained cos it should just be infered.
(49:00) Who wants to bet that WotC put this paragraph in at the start of the bestiary as a way to cut corners and save money and maximize profits on producing this tiny book?
I would agree that 3.5e was getting out of hand with everything that a DM and player needed to know, but 5e was made by morons for people that did not want to use their brain to think
6:49 see? That's what I've been saying. If all it takes for you to like a thing is to scratch off a word, line, or even ability then that's the ideal monster statblock. There's more IF YOU WANT IT but there's plenty to work with even if you don't. It feels like you get a little too tied up in the details with earlier entries in this rating of giants saying 'oh it's good but why does it have X' or '...why does it have x instead of Y?' Those are such minor changes I can't even imagine getting hung up on them as a DM who is already getting in and messing with the very bones of encounters to make them fit your vision.
I guess the mysterious force damage in so many creatures is an attempt to balance it out against other types of damage. But, I wish they tried to give it SOME explanation in the lore. In some cases the force damage is nonsensical I also found that there is...an interesting amount of psychic damage for creatures that have a strong base on elements, but this may be to balance it with the gems dragon from fizzban? or just the following the trend on the far-realm related creatures/effects/plots
Honestly I kinda wish Death Giants at least had a teleport legendary action or at the very least a shadow step, that would make them a ton better maybe even summoning shadows or specters as a legendary action?
[17:18] If you look closely at the Death Giant Shrouded One, it could get clear, why none of the monsters in GotG have legendary actions. They are not considered one of its kind. They are many. I think this book is for parties that can approach more than one giant at a time. Or at least that is what I think of it.
Man, if I had to find a complaint you didn't at least touch on then it would be that every single anti-caster feature involved an intelligence save. So wizards will be hindered but mostly fine but God help all the wisdom and charisma casters.
@@kolrengenify I just feel there are more elegant solutions to resolving that issue than taking the most powerful class and countering it the least of all casters.
@@johnarnold8485 - Elegance and 5e is not really a thing, even if I see your point. I'd still take any "buff" to Intelligence and, quite frankly, Cha. based casters already have way to much utility from just one stat, so them getting a slight "nerf" with these specific monsters is not a problem, at all, for me.
I just assumed the force damage is due to the size and strength of Giants, like, a Giant hitting me with a battleaxe would have more force behind it and ought to do damage beyond simply piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning, right?
@CooperAATE yeah, it's weird. I don't understand why, it's basically the same thing as dragons doing their element damage as well with their bites. So unless he has issues with that too I don't understand his issue there
Succinctly put. Sometimes I want ready made stuff so I can focus efforts elsewhere or alter details as needed to fit the campaign as opposed to making everything up wholecloth. I miss previous installments of rpgs where they paid their writers for writing and not 'game design'. Frameworks are great, don't get me wrong, and whatever lore is written can be cast aside or otherwise ignored if I don't care to include it...but at least give me the option.
Can we write a petition or something to say to the Witch that we want to have spells in the statblock and better arts than AI devils in The Chains of Asmodeus and this animation-alike designs for dragons and giants?
Maybe it's time you created a new system. I can't think of anyone more suitable for the task than you. You have already published your own source book and are well on the way to publishing your second. You have the experience of countless sessions across many campaigns and several systems. Your lore writing and storytelling capabilities have never disappointed, to my knowledge at least. Furthermore, you have the unique advantage of starting out with a dedicated fan base that can give feedback at any time you want it.
Creating a whole new system from scratch is a big undertaking, and even for someone as experienced as Esper would be a tall order. MCDM are doing it, but they have an entire team of writers, designers, playtesters etc, and Colville himself has decades of game design experience. It's a very different ball game to creating homebrew content for an existing system, however good that content may be. Not saying he can't do it, just saying it's probably something he'd need to hire a team to help out with and dedicate all his efforts to rather than something done on the side along with D&D content, and that's a big risk to take.
Hahahahaha, I usually agree with the majority of the analysis and rankings, but when you said "A Cleric who cannot heal is no Cleric at all" and all I could think was *OK BOOMER*
Hey esper, you probably won't see this comment cause the video is so old, but could you or anyone else tell me what type of giant that female one with the purple scythe is? Time stamp is 50:20 she looks badass and I'd like to run her someday
I remember when this book was being shown off pre-release and got bombarded with backlash for having AI art, being overly-cartoony, the retcon of a major DnD character, and how trash the writing is. Then it was released and everyone was even angrier at the price vs the content, and the fact that a good few designs in this book are almost blatent rip-offs of non-official/fan-made works. This book is just one of several nails in WOTC's coffin over the past year, I know I wont be adding it to my collection anytime soon, I'd rather just use the old 3rd edition content and update it for 5E use. Or, better yet, just homebrew some stuff myself.
Don’t agree with everything in this video or the last but real respect the expertise and where you’re coming from. As someone who’s always been a big fan of the Giants in D&D I walked away very satisfied with this book.
How is it so hard to wrap your head around the fact that sometimes a monster themed around an element may do extra damage with that element? But I do agree with you about the lack of legendary actions.
He's not saying they can't have that bonus damage, but rather that they should explain how so many monsters are able to achieve an identical effect (and for that matter, why are there scant ways for players to learn such techniques). There were identical monsters abilities like that in older editions, but there certainly weren't hundreds of them. So few you could count them on one hand (many of them fiends for whatever reason). Speaking for myself, I strongly dislike when a monster and a player doing the same activity are wildly different for no adequately explained reason. Especially when it screws over (most) barbarians and spellcasters to a lesser extent.
I HATE the direction 5e is taking with its design of spellcaster NPC character stat blocks. Just giving them random energy blasts and a trivial assortment of utility spells instead of actual full spell lists.
There’s plenty of reason to be pessimistic of WoTC, a “Disney DnD” isn’t progress. Lore is too important to treat poorly, it is highly effective consumer retention because it is sacred.
It’s nice to see them making more interesting high cr monsters. I’m still not buying this book, for $60 there’s no excuse for this book to be as thin as it is.
Imagine telling someone they're playing the wrong game for wanting said game to be better and not rely barebone scraps. So you're satisfied with overpriced books with shallow content? You want to do extra work to figure out how some monster mechanics work? I can understand generalizing monster profiles for the sake of whatever setting you're putting them in, but its really helpful to have examples to get the mind working. A Forgotten Realms Fire Giant is going to function a lot differently then a Mystaran Fire Giant in terms of lore, I'd wager.
5e writing has largely moved away from giving monsters or npcs proper spell lists, instead giving them a handful of battle spells per day. This of course is just one example of them both dumbing the game down in an attempt to make it more "accessible" and video game-like, and because WoTC are a bunch of lazy jerks who give us half-finished products. Ironically this had made using these stupid monsters even harder, since they rarely have magic for anything bur combat. This is also why they didn't give the creatures with classes any class features; they want it to run like a video game rather than role play. Simple, stupid, easy for the masses to enjoy.
I like that it's really easy to re-add though. Since the hill giant is classified as a cleric but has no cleric abilities I can very easily give it X levels in cleric if I wish.
I don't like the Fomorian Noble story at all. In my D&D world the Fomorians are all cursed (none escaped) giants of extreme vanity and arrogance, some more intelligent fomorians kept searching for ways to become powerful/beautiful again and ended up into other monsters. Enter. Plague Spewer = Fomorians who were cursed with undead (Vecna promised a cure to them but cheated them to gain powerful new undead minions) while searching for ways to get their beautiful forms back, they turned into horrid undead giants spitting out clouds of vermin and their horrid touches spread the most horrid of diseases, they are still intelligent and are disgusted by themselves and try to take every other creature with them in their self pity and hate. Protean = Fomorians who traveled to the far realm to find ways to become beautiful again ended up as Proteans, formless blobs of purple flesh who can take on any form they desire, while this enables the fomorians to become beautiful again, they are still disgusted by their true Protean forms and the Far Realms madness took it's toll on their minds, Proteans are extremely powerful monsters and can turn into most other creatures even red dragons, BUT they can't copy the magical abilities only the physical abilities of other creatures they copy. Eldritch Giant = The true name and race of giants the Fomorians were called before being cursed is Eldrich Giant, beautiful purple-skinned giants which skin is covered in magical tattoos, they are the most magic-orientated giants out there, even more powerful than Storm Giants. They are extremely rare and they are those few Fomorians who found the secret way to revert back to their beautiful selves, they rule over/boss around other Fomorians, but never share their secret magic of turning back into an Eldritch Giant, as they are selfish extreme and love being rare, they often torture/ridicule and boss their Fomorian minions around. Two things however remained ugly with the Eldritch Giants, their soul is tained with selfish energy, and their right eyes are still a bit deformed and another color than their left eye, this annoys the Eldritch Giants to no end and they still want to find a way to become 100% perfect reflections of their true self.
I feel like the video would be so much better if you stopped pulling me out of it by complaining about the new way conditions are inflicted. We get it, you don't like the change. Move on
@caiqueportolira why? Dnd has so much nuance and deep meaning. The "Cutest things" are that base layer if fluff where mist peoole exist. The Baldurs gate style is the next darker level, and the deep lore shows the intimidating and dark world that exists in the forgotten realms. People who want dar will get dark out of this universe, they just need look for it. Making a surface that everyone lives, and a deep tissue area that only those who seek it out live- is perfect
@@djpine6299 I appreciate his unique point of view, I don't want him censoring himself. The fact he has opinions is why I come to this channel. Disagree with him all you want but don't take his spontaneity
The more I hear about 5E.... the more I think it is dead. Everything it makes needs revamping 90% or more to even make sense. Otherwise it seems the extent of their creativity is "Hill Giant with feather fall. Stone Giant with Feather Fall. Fire Giant with Feather Fall.... but everything has a diff color." There was a player in my OP game that had time to do spell research. His contribution was to make a 2nd level thru 9th level version of magic missile, cold, fire, acid and lightning damage. Not impressive to me at all. Just roll dice. It's like the new Godzilla movies. Red Godzilla, blue Godzilla, pink..... and each one gets 50 feet bigger. 😕 Blah, blah, blah. 🤢🤮 Creativity has died. Everyone must be smoking weed because their brains are dead.
Geez so many types of fire, frost, stone, cloud, hill and storm giant variants and next to no other new monsters or even giant species.... dnd 5e really has the worst monsters for me... They not even have used the Destrachan yet
I’m getting really suspicious of WOTC, all coincidental monsters that are similar in design and titles. From not only your books but Monster Manual Expanded.
They literally produced a Magic the Gathering set called Ikoria after I had been livestreaming D&D adventures in my homebrew world of Ichoria for a year (same pronunciation). Could that actually be a coincidence?
@@esperthebard A bunch giant titles you name off were also in Monster expanse. Like forge caller and all other class based ones. But it sounds like MME version is way better than what they carbon copied. They have actual have spells. The one storm herald giant with the tentacles. That is the same as MME storm giant kraken warlock.
I've never played League or other such games, but I believe I do see some similarities. Like the Stalker of Baphomet that calls giant stone spikes up from the ground, but instead of them remaining for a while and providing a dynamic terrain shift, they just instantly fade away.
I'm.. not sure why a Cheshire cat reference is in a book chiefly concerned with giants and other large monsters, but I'm not complaining.
Seems like giants are being made to be more whimsical given that some giants have Celtic origins much like the the fey.
Cloud giants deal with the more exotic animals from the fey wild like giant geese and such
Probably to fit with the fey-related Giants.
There seems to be a vague and unstated connection between this book and the current Magic: the Gathering set The Wilds of Eldraine, which is inspired by fairy tales. I know Alice in Wonderland is not technically a fairy tale, but it's pretty close. The connecting creature in GotG is the giant goose, which is from Jack and the Beanstalk-a fairy tale that features a giant.
Yeah, that feels more like a monster that's be featured in Whitchlight Carnival.
I feel like WoTC fears two things when it comes to monster design now: legendary actions and spells on monsters.
Did they ever say why they're moving away from Legendary Actions?
@@clarkside4493 Maybe. I never really keep track of D&D news.
@@UselessKobold I try to. The recent play tests have a revised version of _Shocking Grasp_ that specifically stops the target from making Opportunity Attacks rather than robbing it of its Reaction, so I believe they're going to give monsters multiple reactions a turn instead of Legendary Actions.
I guess it's to make monsters more streamlined? I still think 4e got its version of Legendary Actions right. Specific actions on different initiatives and if it starts its turn with the inability to take an action somehow (stunned, dazed, incapacitated, etc) it gave up one or two Legendary Actions that round to end the effect.
I'm not a fan of steering away from legendary actions. They add so much to monsters.
@@spoon1710 Agreed. They also add some level of complexity to the monster mechanically.
Personally I kinda like the bit about the fomorian noble not knowing about their kin's plight.
The way I see it, they're so long lived, arrogant, and focused on their own projects that they don't care about what happens to the peasants of the kind, let alone the lives of the pathetic smaller races. They could be the last of their kind and they wouldn't even care.
The cursed fomorians hate them with a passion, and the nobles don't even care to recognize them.
They personally sound to me that they are just out of the loop. They spend most of their time in their settlements, don't stay in the Feywild for very long, and time has made them distant to the whole affair especially since unlike those who got themselves cursed due to a detrimental desire for power the nobles aren't fuming with vengeance and hate.
i feel like the elemental damage on the runic giants isnt actually mysterious or random like with the rest of the monsters
Ikr
11:16 The reason they do this is so that the giants qualify for magic items that require you to be a specific class, despite not having any cleric features.
As though DMs have never ignored that for monsters
@NoNamesLeft0102 still an easy way to signal what kind of items the creators intended for you to pair with them (even if you end up not using it like anything else)
Nice vid, your takes are always so grounded its honestly refreshing.
Hello dear how are you doing.
@@MichaelNovogratz-vm3us what?
I could see the fomorian nobles not realizing about their cursed brethren believing that they are perhaps a different species of giants entirely.
22:16 You missed a key part of their regeneration feature, where they can gain more mutations as time goes on.
Great catch! That's so easy to overlook, as it's at the end of the regeneration feature.
Also, this creature existed before but the lore was different. It was basically a troll cannibal and the eaten trolls had regenerated through the body of the troll that ate them.
@@TheMightyBattleSquid That also exists in 5e, they're called Dire Trolls
26:26 “a cleric that cannot heal is no cleric at all” old school evil clerics beg to differ.
Oldschool D&D parties lived or died depending upon having a functioning cleric to heal, remove conditions, and turn undead. There were no short rests, no self-healing through spending hit dice, long rests just restored hp equal to your level, no repeated saving throws at the end of each of your turns, no death saving throws. Undead could drain off your class levels. Poisons, diseases, and other effects could damage or permanently drain ability scores. It was brutal.
Old-school dnd parties ran when they saw undead. At least mine did 😂
@ericjensen7580 - Most should. In my game 25 years ago the undead were by far the worst possible scenario. Every kind of undead survived by draining your positive energies at least to some degree.
Even Zombies would leave faint burnt footprints in the grass after a few days. I added the Stat "Life Points". Paladins (and priests, necromancers) would always have them equal to their hit points. But a high level warrior (say 20th level) would only have life points of a typical human, 2 plus 1d8. A few hits (claws or bites) from a Zombie/Skeleton would do physical damage but also life drain points. Those do not heal without priest positive energy healing. Powerful undead (vampires, mummies) gave off this negative energy at a radius.
They would continue to get sick, not rest, until they found some cure or positive energy healing magic. You could not be raised, resurrected if killed by undead by life drain. It made undead make sense and actually bring back horror to medieval times. Undead in my game were never random encounters.
When I saw the fomorian noble I knew I had the perfect template for a villain. Made some small tweaks, tossed an armor of invulnerability and the Blackrazor his way, and boom! Perfect stat block for an ancient fomorian king with one big chip on his shoulder over the curse
WOTC is all but confirmed to be getting rid of legendary actions. Vecna himself didn't get legendary actions and instead got "3 reactions" they can use on certain situations, and onednd is even purposefully nerfing abilities that get rid of reactions entirely to instead only stop op attacks because getting rid of reactions is "too powerful" which suggests that reactions are replacing legendary actions.
Which is so weird to me because it's legendary resistance that is the anti fun mechanic not legendary actions and they keep making monsters that have 5 of those, and now 11!
I love to see you go over more books like this going over like a different monsters and things just reviewing them by going over everything is included subclasses Quest things like that and then saying how you critique them and change them up in your style
The names of your tiers (and the musical references) are always awesome. TMBG tracks were hilarious. Love it. Thanks :)
I used to listen to your vids all the time while I worked :p I forgot about this channel this video just popped up on my homepage
Welcome back!
Been waiting for this since part 1 these are fun videos for those of us who don't have access to the books
The lack of legendary actions might be because these are (mostly) supposed to be regular giants that have some extra features, they're meant to be in a party with other giants, while legendary actions are usually reserved for solo boss-monsters, like liches, dragons and the like
You’re doing a great job with these videos. Thank you!
A cleric who can not heal is still a cleric and I will die on this hill
Yes you will die on that hill, because there is no cleric to heal you 😜
After you died on that hill maybe a druid can reincarnate you...
Imagine thinking clerics have to heal, couldn't be me lol
@@obiwankenobi9439 Like they did Bigby at the start of this book (that Esper apparently skimmed)?
I always look forward to these types of videos; they're super cool to listen to!
Thank you very much!
You used the picture of Maze of Ith Esper and I had violent flashbacks lol
Thanks for making the video. I'm not going to buy any more 5E content so after watching both parts i really don't feel like I am missing out on much.
I'm somewhat surprised th' Athach didn't make it into this book, but non-cursed formorians getting stats is definitely cool, I dont tgink any other edition has done that.
4:10 Peace was never an option.
I get the sense that Wizards of the Coast has really gotten lazy with their monster descriptions, and yet greedier in what little they offer in more obscene costs.
26:30 okay this does actually have a cleric ability, a subclass ability to be exact. The trickster domain cleric has a similar illusionary duplicate ability. Also by 5e's definition a cleric doesn't have to heal at all, they just need to receive magic from a god they worship.
HEY esper!! i love your content, i would absolutely love to see you review kobold press's tome of beast's books for their monsters with your rating system and lore analysis
Troll amalgam fits like glove into mad scientist laboratory. Imagine raiding such place and scientist unleashes this onto you.
I would assume the random classes attributed to some of the giants is probably for the purposes of giving them magic items
I want a giant goose, not for the trinkets and golden eggs, but to ride. Druid on a goose. "Baby just call me mother."
My favourite was the goose. Peace was never an option.
A someone who lives in a city that has been overrun by Canadian geese, I can concur.
Sorry about that. They're supposed to absorb Canadian rage.@@esperthebard
I think Esper missed the Untitled Goose Game reference...
“Troll mutate?” Yeah they do that sometimes
What's with the change to passive tense for conditions?
Dumbing it down for the massas. DnD is going the Mcdonalds way. Everybody eats it but nobody really Mcloves it.
Because active tense is too aggressive for the soy pronoun loving slurs DnD loves to cater to now.
@12:14 there is art for this creature, they are in the same picture as the fensir devourer.
Great list as usual! Cant wait for the next one
Love DnD. Love List-based media. Easy like.
Let me ask you, what did you think of the length? Between parts 1 and 2, it's a total of 84 minutes, so quite long for a viewer and quite labor-intensive for me to produce. I just wonder if such a long, detailed analysis is better than a shorter, leaner video.
The length is a benefit for sure. There is a large group of RUclipsrs that fall asleep to lore content or lengthy videos, myself included, and even if that sounds condescending that your content could ever lull people to sleep, think of it more like you have great storyteller talent. Some of us need bed time stories, and you can absolutely fill that niche. @@esperthebard
this is not dnd.
The disdain on the passive writing and missed opportunities seems entirely justified and made me chuckle each time you clarified something
Nothing here I can't live without.
Certainly not enough to get me drawn back in to WoTC clammy clutches.
i think your nit picking alot with the "mystery X damage". something dont have to be said cos theyre common sense.
for example, i am a fire giant, i am attuned from the day im born to the day i die with the element of fire. my hair is made of literal fire so my body is pretty hot. my weapon needs to be able to handle my heat without warping. what do you know, my big mace is now super heated and deals additional fire damage on a hit cos of hot hand/body.
same thing for the other giant elements. freezer burn for frost giant, static shock for storm, vibrations for cloud giants, etc. it doesnt have to be stated for it to make sense. not everything has to be explained cos it should just be infered.
(49:00)
Who wants to bet that WotC put this paragraph in at the start of the bestiary as a way to cut corners and save money and maximize profits on producing this tiny book?
Yes! Love these videos
Someone needs to run a giant campaign where players only play as small size PCs
Jesus Christ, Time Stop?! That’s a devastating ability, and I’m glad Storm Giants are Good-Aligned.
Tha lack of legendary actions is supplanted by extra reactions and honestly boosted direct damage
I would agree that 3.5e was getting out of hand with everything that a DM and player needed to know, but 5e was made by morons for people that did not want to use their brain to think
consider this video to have the liked condition
imagine if the son of the giant god king is reborn as the gargantua from a runt to a giant ultra chad in his new life
6:49 see? That's what I've been saying. If all it takes for you to like a thing is to scratch off a word, line, or even ability then that's the ideal monster statblock. There's more IF YOU WANT IT but there's plenty to work with even if you don't. It feels like you get a little too tied up in the details with earlier entries in this rating of giants saying 'oh it's good but why does it have X' or '...why does it have x instead of Y?' Those are such minor changes I can't even imagine getting hung up on them as a DM who is already getting in and messing with the very bones of encounters to make them fit your vision.
If it's _any_ sort of magic boomerang, I want it! Even if it's just a ranged 1d3 bludgeoning that returns when thrown.
I guess the mysterious force damage in so many creatures is an attempt to balance it out against other types of damage. But, I wish they tried to give it SOME explanation in the lore. In some cases the force damage is nonsensical
I also found that there is...an interesting amount of psychic damage for creatures that have a strong base on elements, but this may be to balance it with the gems dragon from fizzban? or just the following the trend on the far-realm related creatures/effects/plots
Honestly I kinda wish Death Giants at least had a teleport legendary action or at the very least a shadow step, that would make them a ton better maybe even summoning shadows or specters as a legendary action?
I heard lightning blade! Adds in Naruto sound effects
[17:18] If you look closely at the Death Giant Shrouded One, it could get clear, why none of the monsters in GotG have legendary actions. They are not considered one of its kind. They are many. I think this book is for parties that can approach more than one giant at a time. Or at least that is what I think of it.
Out of curiosity, have you seen any of Phandelver and Below? It looks horrifying to me.
I haven't checked it out yet, though I need to. What's your take on why it's bad?
@@esperthebard Ah sorry, I meant horrifying in the Edgar Allan Poe sense.
Weird that the Goliath Giant's extra damage from Hill Giants is Piercing. Why not Bludgeoning...
Man, if I had to find a complaint you didn't at least touch on then it would be that every single anti-caster feature involved an intelligence save. So wizards will be hindered but mostly fine but God help all the wisdom and charisma casters.
Int. is such an underpowered ability in 5E as is, so I actually think that is a great move.
@@kolrengenify I just feel there are more elegant solutions to resolving that issue than taking the most powerful class and countering it the least of all casters.
@@johnarnold8485 - Elegance and 5e is not really a thing, even if I see your point. I'd still take any "buff" to Intelligence and, quite frankly, Cha. based casters already have way to much utility from just one stat, so them getting a slight "nerf" with these specific monsters is not a problem, at all, for me.
Giant goose: I choice violence
I just assumed the force damage is due to the size and strength of Giants, like, a Giant hitting me with a battleaxe would have more force behind it and ought to do damage beyond simply piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning, right?
The problem with that is force damage is supposed to represent magical but not elemental damage, stuff like magic missile and disintegrate
@@2g33ksgamingttv3 and yet Esper seems confused that all these creatures *that are magical in nature* deal force (and elemental) damage?
@CooperAATE yeah, it's weird. I don't understand why, it's basically the same thing as dragons doing their element damage as well with their bites. So unless he has issues with that too I don't understand his issue there
Thank you esper
The wording of a lot of these monsters and abilities seems a lot like they were designed for a video game or for the programing of a vtt.
Succinctly put. Sometimes I want ready made stuff so I can focus efforts elsewhere or alter details as needed to fit the campaign as opposed to making everything up wholecloth. I miss previous installments of rpgs where they paid their writers for writing and not 'game design'. Frameworks are great, don't get me wrong, and whatever lore is written can be cast aside or otherwise ignored if I don't care to include it...but at least give me the option.
Can we write a petition or something to say to the Witch that we want to have spells in the statblock and better arts than AI devils in The Chains of Asmodeus and this animation-alike designs for dragons and giants?
[Mentions its use of runic magic]
["mystery thunder damage"]
Hmm.......
11:44
You can't put a big enough emphasis on that comma between 'Hunting', and 'Women and Children'
Disappointed the goose was not silly 😅
I want to see a video about SHITTY MINIS! The same you made about shitty D&D art. Great video as always!
Maybe it's time you created a new system. I can't think of anyone more suitable for the task than you. You have already published your own source book and are well on the way to publishing your second. You have the experience of countless sessions across many campaigns and several systems. Your lore writing and storytelling capabilities have never disappointed, to my knowledge at least. Furthermore, you have the unique advantage of starting out with a dedicated fan base that can give feedback at any time you want it.
Creating a whole new system from scratch is a big undertaking, and even for someone as experienced as Esper would be a tall order. MCDM are doing it, but they have an entire team of writers, designers, playtesters etc, and Colville himself has decades of game design experience. It's a very different ball game to creating homebrew content for an existing system, however good that content may be. Not saying he can't do it, just saying it's probably something he'd need to hire a team to help out with and dedicate all his efforts to rather than something done on the side along with D&D content, and that's a big risk to take.
i think the magic item in this book is the real reason to buy it
Hahahahaha, I usually agree with the majority of the analysis and rankings, but when you said "A Cleric who cannot heal is no Cleric at all" and all I could think was
*OK BOOMER*
Cloud giant,s are my favorite too
Easy like ❤
Hey esper, you probably won't see this comment cause the video is so old, but could you or anyone else tell me what type of giant that female one with the purple scythe is? Time stamp is 50:20 she looks badass and I'd like to run her someday
They keep saying prone, but the pictures show the person as supine.
I remember when this book was being shown off pre-release and got bombarded with backlash for having AI art, being overly-cartoony, the retcon of a major DnD character, and how trash the writing is. Then it was released and everyone was even angrier at the price vs the content, and the fact that a good few designs in this book are almost blatent rip-offs of non-official/fan-made works. This book is just one of several nails in WOTC's coffin over the past year, I know I wont be adding it to my collection anytime soon, I'd rather just use the old 3rd edition content and update it for 5E use. Or, better yet, just homebrew some stuff myself.
Don’t agree with everything in this video or the last but real respect the expertise and where you’re coming from. As someone who’s always been a big fan of the Giants in D&D I walked away very satisfied with this book.
How is it so hard to wrap your head around the fact that sometimes a monster themed around an element may do extra damage with that element? But I do agree with you about the lack of legendary actions.
He's not saying they can't have that bonus damage, but rather that they should explain how so many monsters are able to achieve an identical effect (and for that matter, why are there scant ways for players to learn such techniques). There were identical monsters abilities like that in older editions, but there certainly weren't hundreds of them. So few you could count them on one hand (many of them fiends for whatever reason). Speaking for myself, I strongly dislike when a monster and a player doing the same activity are wildly different for no adequately explained reason. Especially when it screws over (most) barbarians and spellcasters to a lesser extent.
@@johngleeman8347 I will say you have a fair point about it weakening barbarians. Barbarians do need a buff, not a nerf.
11:17 Ugh, the 5e Firbolg.
I HATE the direction 5e is taking with its design of spellcaster NPC character stat blocks. Just giving them random energy blasts and a trivial assortment of utility spells instead of actual full spell lists.
Totally agree
Missed Frostmourn.
Pretty sure that was in part 1.
@@DrLipkinfound out why I missed it, the artwork used for the tier ranking doesn't match the art for the creature.
4:53 pfft thunder huonk
Destiny gambler that runs a casino. Uses its counter spell ability to prevent magical cheaters.
There’s plenty of reason to be pessimistic of WoTC, a “Disney DnD” isn’t progress.
Lore is too important to treat poorly, it is highly effective consumer retention because it is sacred.
Are you going to go over the new class Facebook brought out
What is that?
@esperthebard New sub class "this book" brought us. Text to speech issues.
11:44 hunting women and children? THOSE FIENDS! 😆
You really shouldn't have to look for a new game or system for consistent and good lore. It should be present in D&D, and that used to be the case.
It’s nice to see them making more interesting high cr monsters. I’m still not buying this book, for $60 there’s no excuse for this book to be as thin as it is.
You paid $60? I got my book for about half that.
It's sold at 60. Your anecdote isnt the norm.
@@obiwankenobi9439 It’s pretty normal if you live in modern times. I got mine digitally.
Imagine telling someone they're playing the wrong game for wanting said game to be better and not rely barebone scraps. So you're satisfied with overpriced books with shallow content? You want to do extra work to figure out how some monster mechanics work?
I can understand generalizing monster profiles for the sake of whatever setting you're putting them in, but its really helpful to have examples to get the mind working. A Forgotten Realms Fire Giant is going to function a lot differently then a Mystaran Fire Giant in terms of lore, I'd wager.
Instead of "mysterious," you ought to say "barbarian screwjob" damage. XD
5e writing has largely moved away from giving monsters or npcs proper spell lists, instead giving them a handful of battle spells per day. This of course is just one example of them both dumbing the game down in an attempt to make it more "accessible" and video game-like, and because WoTC are a bunch of lazy jerks who give us half-finished products. Ironically this had made using these stupid monsters even harder, since they rarely have magic for anything bur combat.
This is also why they didn't give the creatures with classes any class features; they want it to run like a video game rather than role play. Simple, stupid, easy for the masses to enjoy.
I like that it's really easy to re-add though. Since the hill giant is classified as a cleric but has no cleric abilities I can very easily give it X levels in cleric if I wish.
Ym not happy with your idia of good art but eh all have ther preferance
I don't like the Fomorian Noble story at all. In my D&D world the Fomorians are all cursed (none escaped) giants of extreme vanity and arrogance, some more intelligent fomorians kept searching for ways to become powerful/beautiful again and ended up into other monsters.
Enter.
Plague Spewer = Fomorians who were cursed with undead (Vecna promised a cure to them but cheated them to gain powerful new undead minions) while searching for ways to get their beautiful forms back, they turned into horrid undead giants spitting out clouds of vermin and their horrid touches spread the most horrid of diseases, they are still intelligent and are disgusted by themselves and try to take every other creature with them in their self pity and hate.
Protean = Fomorians who traveled to the far realm to find ways to become beautiful again ended up as Proteans, formless blobs of purple flesh who can take on any form they desire, while this enables the fomorians to become beautiful again, they are still disgusted by their true Protean forms and the Far Realms madness took it's toll on their minds, Proteans are extremely powerful monsters and can turn into most other creatures even red dragons, BUT they can't copy the magical abilities only the physical abilities of other creatures they copy.
Eldritch Giant = The true name and race of giants the Fomorians were called before being cursed is Eldrich Giant, beautiful purple-skinned giants which skin is covered in magical tattoos, they are the most magic-orientated giants out there, even more powerful than Storm Giants.
They are extremely rare and they are those few Fomorians who found the secret way to revert back to their beautiful selves, they rule over/boss around other Fomorians, but never share their secret magic of turning back into an Eldritch Giant, as they are selfish extreme and love being rare, they often torture/ridicule and boss their Fomorian minions around.
Two things however remained ugly with the Eldritch Giants, their soul is tained with selfish energy, and their right eyes are still a bit deformed and another color than their left eye, this annoys the Eldritch Giants to no end and they still want to find a way to become 100% perfect reflections of their true self.
What they did to Firbolgs makes me wanna throw up.
I feel like the video would be so much better if you stopped pulling me out of it by complaining about the new way conditions are inflicted. We get it, you don't like the change. Move on
Please don't listen to this guy and keep complaining
@caiqueportolira why? Dnd has so much nuance and deep meaning. The "Cutest things" are that base layer if fluff where mist peoole exist. The Baldurs gate style is the next darker level, and the deep lore shows the intimidating and dark world that exists in the forgotten realms. People who want dar will get dark out of this universe, they just need look for it. Making a surface that everyone lives, and a deep tissue area that only those who seek it out live- is perfect
@@djpine6299 I appreciate his unique point of view, I don't want him censoring himself. The fact he has opinions is why I come to this channel. Disagree with him all you want but don't take his spontaneity
The more I hear about 5E.... the more I think it is dead.
Everything it makes needs revamping 90% or more to even make sense. Otherwise it seems the extent of their creativity is "Hill Giant with feather fall. Stone Giant with Feather Fall. Fire Giant with Feather Fall.... but everything has a diff color."
There was a player in my OP game that had time to do spell research. His contribution was to make a 2nd level thru 9th level version of magic missile, cold, fire, acid and lightning damage. Not impressive to me at all. Just roll dice. It's like the new Godzilla movies. Red Godzilla, blue Godzilla, pink..... and each one gets 50 feet bigger. 😕 Blah, blah, blah. 🤢🤮 Creativity has died. Everyone must be smoking weed because their brains are dead.
Firbolg, known for hunting woman and children
That order of words is suspicious...
Geez so many types of fire, frost, stone, cloud, hill and storm giant variants and next to no other new monsters or even giant species.... dnd 5e really has the worst monsters for me... They not even have used the Destrachan yet
I give this book a solid meh. Thumbs down for $60.
AYAYA
I’m getting really suspicious of WOTC, all coincidental monsters that are similar in design and titles. From not only your books but Monster Manual Expanded.
They literally produced a Magic the Gathering set called Ikoria after I had been livestreaming D&D adventures in my homebrew world of Ichoria for a year (same pronunciation). Could that actually be a coincidence?
@@esperthebard A bunch giant titles you name off were also in Monster expanse. Like forge caller and all other class based ones. But it sounds like MME version is way better than what they carbon copied. They have actual have spells. The one storm herald giant with the tentacles. That is the same as MME storm giant kraken warlock.
"ichoria" is a common fantasy name, the monsters are often based on common fantasy trops, some might be based on monsters from older editions
@6:32 The monster design in 5e atm is just trying to be League of Legends. You wanted to play an rpg instead of a video game? Tough luck.
I've never played League or other such games, but I believe I do see some similarities. Like the Stalker of Baphomet that calls giant stone spikes up from the ground, but instead of them remaining for a while and providing a dynamic terrain shift, they just instantly fade away.
I know they said they cut the AI artwork out of this book, but they should have focused on the AI generated text instead.