I’ve interpreted the individualism as a need to prove oneself in some way or another and that’s where the adventuring Goliath comes from. Go out, find your own little “tribe,” prove you can protect and provide for them, come back to the main tribe a proud and tested champion.
I would add to that that some classes fit better the "left my tribe" theme. Alien meteor falls - Goliath becomes Sorcerer. Tribe is spooked- Goliath says they leave for the tribe's safety and to study how to put those powers to better use.
Inca culture with massive mountain top terrace cities, if the Dwarves are under the mountain Goliaths are atop it as means to be closer or as close as they can to skyfather
My Goliath was a Noble Barbarian that was our group's motivational speaker. Think The Rock being your motivational speaker. He just wore his fancy clothes into battle and basically said Escanor's "Who decided that?" whenever he used Stone's Endurance. Mountainback the Boastful will always be a favorite of mine.
I played a one-shot were the players were all camp counselors. The goliath was our P.E. instructor, and he ran those kids into the ground. He was still better than the lizardfolk lifeguard.
@@maxx8362 LF Lifeguard: I am afraid the boy will not make it. Other counselors: He's coughing out water. Lifeguard: Oh, those are death throes. I'll dispose of the corpse myself, no need to thank me.
The benefit of recording multiple episodes at a time, you can keep on schedule . At least that seems to be how they do it, take a day to record and then edit and space out the final results. That or the game store just let them keep coming back for a few weeks
I made stones endurance usable a number of times per rest equal to your CON modifier. Also on a suggestion from another commenter, Give them Cold resistance to build on the mountainborn I play extremely high-power games though, so everyone use their own discretion
In my home setting, dwarves live under/in the mountain, orcs live in mountainous terrain below the tree line, and goliaths live on mountains near the summit.
Goliaths could be the reincarnations of Giants who have betrayed the Ordning during their life. Instead of being reborn under Annam's graces, they are severed from their giant-kin lineage and cursed to live as a tiny non-giant. The drive to compete and exile any stragglers comes from their constant sense of being "out of place" but no matter how pure or perfect their Goliath society it will never please the Allfather. Now they exist as the souls of unworthy giants trapped within small grey forms, and no amount of training or toughening will ever bring back their glory or rank in the Ordning. Still they try, only torturing themselves in a vain and misguided cultural attempt at rejoining their former kin in a future reincarnation.
Goliath hasn't come up in any of my campaigns yet but maybe Goliath is to Giant as Dragonborn is to Dragon? With the history of wars between Giant's and Dragons, maybe each was the foot solider and there is an idea for a storyline there?
Goliaths are the evolution of Dark Sun's Half-Giant. People who wanted to play a giant-kin but not disrupt the game, as the dragonborn are for those who want to play dragons but not disrupt the game. The guy on the left taking all "giant" mythology out of them and making them just humans who got lost REALLY pissed me off. That and his insistence on trying to shoe-horn fourth edition into everything is why I am not subscribed to this channel.
This is more or less what my DM did in his homebrew setting, even giving his goliaths different subraces based on different types of giants. I have a frost goliath champion fighter with the entertainer/gladiator background in the main campaign for that setting.
When they talked about a Goliath being a Warlock, i thought of a Celestial Patron Goliath Since in religious history, its on top of a high peak where Moses spoke with God, etc. So the Goliath's being the people atop the mountains, its possible for one to encounter an Angel and form a pact. It'd also work with Cleric and even Paladin
I like idea of Goliaths as another culture of the same race as Firbolgs - big, grey, semi-supernatural humanoids, Powerful Build, with some affinity for giants, and attuned to their respective environments (forest/mountains).
I only recent got into DND, with my best friend as the DM. I'm so glad I found this channel, as it is making it so much easier to learn everything. I run a Goliath named Ayden, celtic origins, primarily barbarian (rank 5), but is a multiclass with rank 2 druid, rank 2 bard (bagpipes is musical instrument). Has a companion digester named Shamus, and present campaign is focusing on eldritch monstrosity hunting, with various bounties and contracts taken up in between to increase ranks of the classes. Currently focusing on getting druid and bard ranks up. I've been thoroughly enjoying it, as I've always loved RPG style video games, so I feel even though I'm new to DND, my years of playing story driven RPG games has given me experience with knowing, more or less, what to do in situations.
I took them and turned them into Star Trek Jem'Hadar mixed with XCOM 2 Skirmishers. They're mass-produced soldiers of a wizard empire, but the ones who break free escaped into the mountains to become survivalist guerilla fighters. "Victory is Life" is already basically the goliath motto.
i like the idea of goliaths and i think when you ramp up their environment to a factor of ten or so they really come alive. they dont live in hospitable mountains they live on the harshest most barren mountains almost devoid of life. maybe theres a tree every other mile. barely any vegitation, and the animals that do live there are all carnivors. or maybe its a lush jungle sure once a year the fruit trees bloom but theres poisonis snakes and frogs and insects always trying to infect you maybe its full of dinosaurs. make the goliaths live in the most inhospitable places ever and suddenly their sociaty makes perfect sense its not you have failed you are banished from the tribe. its dude your legs broken and didnt heal properly (cause the book does say they will take care of their sick and wounded for a time) we have to leave you behind or else you will get someone else killed good luck.
It's *absolutely* how they're described, yes. They don't step on dwarf toes like Jim said, they live on the surface in the highest mountain peaks where fuck all lives, and any animals living there are either migrating or terribly lost, with any carnivores there being in the same condition the Goliaths themselves are in - fighting tooth and nail to survive the starved environment. It makes sense that Goliaths would be hardened and survivalistic, it's practically all they know.
I have always seen Goliaths as a race that welcomes adversity and are almost a literal embodiment of "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". They are one of the most driven races to try and be the best at something. I don't think they are harsh in a way of not helping others, but more like they don't want to take away your challenge and cheapen your experience. I like to look at them like they are the Goku of whatever they are doing.
Here's how I view Goliaths: After the war between Giants and Dragons certain Stone Giants who because of their artistic, artisan nature spent the peace time delving into philosophy ended up feeling that The Ordaining that all Giants followed was a segmented class system that got in the way of the true potential of Giants because even if a Stone Giant had the greatest idea on how to lead and regain their empire and approval of Annam, the All-Father it wouldn't matter if a Storm Giant disagreed due to the nature of their classes. They decided to abandon The Ordaining and the Giant brothers that wouldn't listen, leading them to losing the immortality and magic that other Giants gain. To be the inverse of the Stone Giants who stayed in the depths of their underground caves, away from the light, they went to the highest mountains of the planes and became nomadic in opposition to the lush palaces, castles, and complexes that Giants had. Their system of fair play is based on the idea that no matter class or status all creatures should get an equal chance but their competitive nature and quickness to kick people out that don't live up to their standards is because in the end all Goliaths want to prove to Giants that their way is the right way. They'll heal you and give you the best chance they can to become great, but if you fail when given that chance there's not much they can do and your existence makes Goliaths look bad and makes the tribe stray one day farther from the return of the light of Annam. The tribe is everything because while Giants compete for personal wealth and status Goliaths compete because they believe only by finding the best of them can they drive their tribe into prosperity.
One of my favorite characters I made for a one-shot was a goliath barbarian-monk that was essentially Mongo from Blazing Saddles - big hat and all. Grapple (w/ Grappler feat) -> Rage -> Flurry of Blows plus Stunning Strike? Ended up throwing the wizard's own sofa at him, knocked him prone, grappled him the next turn and proceeded to break every bone in his body to finish the adventure ^_^
My second long lived character was a Goliath Paladin, very lawful good, I was allowed to dual wield tower shields and at level 10 he gave me a magical pair that constructed a cannon when brought together
My Goliath, Kenir Uthrax, was born with a Clubfoot, abandoned at the foot of the mountain near a Lizardfolk encampment. Instead of eating the baby, the Druid of the Lizardfolk felt it was sent by Semuanya and raised him as a son. Instead of grey with blue tatoos, he is dark tan with green tatoos. He behaves more as a Lizardfolk than a Goliath, and instead of Stone's Endurance, got Cunning Artisan, and instead of Mountain Born, he got Hunter's Lore. He's been a great addition to our party.
I currently run a game with a Goliath PC. The way I tackled Stones Endurance is by making it similar to the celestial warlock healing. They get a pool of d6s equal to 1+lvl. On a reaction, they can roll a number of d6's up to their con mod to reduce the damage of the triggering attack. It may be OP, but I think it makes more sense for that to scale. A more hesitant way would possibly be to make it a pool of d12s equal to 1+prof mod.
I like the smaller die pool and scaling, but I think the original is already pretty strong. For a level 5 Fighter it would on average represent the equal of having +20% HP if you use it once in a fight. Even at level 10 it would be 10%. The way you have it currently is roughly +40% HP, depending on the Con stat. That could be considered to be almost the equivalent damage resistance to all at the cost of reaction. Bear totem barbarian with the scaling d6 would be pretty nutty.
I have a place for their lore to suggest: Giant-kin. Each race of giant shepherds humanoid races similar to themselves, recognizing the value of humanoid adventurers.
I've actually made goliaths a part of one of my central cultures in my campaign. They derive from an alliance between stone giants and humans that were being oppressed by dragons. The goliath people came about after a "ritual" that solidified the alliance. During the events of the campaign the giants have ether left the area or have been bred out. Now the people of that culture have varying degrees of giant ancestory, from just taller paler humans to giant stone skinned goliaths. And the culture has a great stone giant influence.
I had a Goliath Wizard, once. Went with the Prehistoric Wizard school at first (which is essentially a Sorc-esque subclass) but swapped to the Experimental Magic wizard school later on. He was actually a 'frozen in ice' caveman- one of the first to discover Magic as a learnable discipline, instead of just shamanistic ritual, and he was this enthusiastic, power-of-nature, thunder and fire and ice and time wielding mystic maniac. He was actually REALLY fun to play. Might try and see if I can ever use him in something else.
For a campaign that instantly fizzled I had a player want a Goliath Druid, so I decided he could come from a King Kong-style island with dinosaurs that he could wild-shape into.
To my mind, barring Stone Sorcerers, the best Goliath caster is a Storm Sorcerer. Firstly because it just means they're part storm giant, and secondly because a colossal flying person is awesome.
Have not yet had a chance to play one, but I think the idea of a goliath as a paranoid, neurotic jock, constanrly worried about being outdone by someone at some physical feat, could be a lot of fun. There's narrative hook there as the player accepts his or her group as a trusting, understanding safe space where they aren't being gamed to be gainsaid. Especially if there is someone amongst the group who is demonstrably better at some physical feat, so the goliath's self esteem is perpetually being chewed on.
Not to be "that guy", but weightless and massless are not the same thing. It's easy enough to say the levitate spell perfectly counters gravity so you don't feel it anymore (and are weightless) but you still have mass and inertia and experience all other forces normally.
The Goliaths in our campaign are workers, they and the mountain dwarfs work to build warships and forge the weapons. The backbone of the Country's militia
My biggest complaint with Goliath's, Firbolgs, Minotuars and Centaurs as PC races is that they should be large sized creatures. I understand that it gives them an advantage when it comes to dealing damage in combat. but I think there can be enough penalties from the cost of equipment and social encounters to off set that advantage.
@@Decado1628 yeah, I'm not sure why it is. Maybe they think they'll cause problems for DMs running official adventure modules or adventurer's league stuff? But that's part of the fun of d&d, problem solving. "So, as a 10ft creature, how do you intend on getting into this cave/dungeon complex that only has a 6ft clearance?" I guess it would lead to more house ruling/improving, which I guess someone could argue that we can do that anyway. Have an issue with centaurs, minotaurs, loxodon, Goliaths, firbolg, and other creatures that should be large but get counted as medium for size but large for pretty much everything else? House rule that they are large, I guess.
Logan Chiminera that is exactly what I do in my games. They are large creatures. I also house ruled the enlarge spell so it matches the rules for large creatures.
The idea that they are human barbarians who became the servants of giants, and the elites among this tribe are raised on giant milk, which gives them a heroic myth that they are the greatest of warriors. Gives them a unique feel, and theoretically anyone could turn their child into one, which is interesting. Transformative races are always interesting to play and can be very flavourful, the idea that you're now something more than human... Yeah, that's what I am going with.
A variation on the "God Under the Mountain" theme might be Sun Wukong, who will be your patron as long as you promise to screw with celestials and eventually help him break these darned seals.
My favourite race on Christmas! Thanks guys! Amazing present! With Goliath competitiveness, a good inspiration is the Highland Games. I mean the caber toss is pure Goliath. One serious issue I had with them is this idea of the old and infirm being thrown out like old Inuit walking into the snow. The Inuit only did that during harsh winters when they were running out of food. Exiling a vast repository of knowledge, experience and wisdom just because they can't run as fast as younger people is a completely batshit insane thing to do. Survival of the fittest isn't survival of the most athletic, but the most fit. And the advantage a tribe would recieve from the knowlege and wisdom of their elders FAR outstrips any drain on the Tribe's resources. As the guys say, having strict rules causing exiles is fine, or as a rite of passage, leaving the Tribe to contact others, find new resources etc. is fine. But exiling the old and sick ACTIVELY makes a tribe worse. Canon Goliaths would in reality die out completely within a few generations due to that kind of stupidity.
Perfect timing for a goliath show for me since im currently playing an oathkeeper goliath paladin who comes from an order that uses undead by necessity since its too damn cold outside.
Definitely stealing the "Goliaths as a thing humans can become" deal for my setting, since I already have orcs and dwarves and don't really have a place for goliaths in my setting otherwise. Thanks!
I play a Forge Cleric Goliath who was adopted by dwarves and worships Moradin. He is adventuring because he learned his lifespan is a fraction of what all his family will be, so he must prove himself as great as them in his shorter lifetime.
For a one-shot I once played a level 5 goliath barbarian with the tavern brawler feat. Goliath barbarian+Tavern brawler+Boots of jumping and striding= Grapple enemies and drop them from 20ft in the air and NEVER walk since your standing long jump covers all your forward movement (54/40 ft). It was NOT optimized for damage like I usually like playing my melee chars but it was hella fun and memorable
I've always wanted to play a homebrew race that can change between goliath and one of the smaller races. like playing a goliath sounds fun until you realize none of the buildings could fit your big ass. maybe you squeeze through the front door but no way your fitting in the secret cellar hidden under the rug. the party goes to the nearest inn but the door don't even reach your shoulders so you sleepin' in the stables
My story for where Goliaths came from is that the Dwarves were once enslaved by the Giants, but as the Giants' empire grew the labor that was required to maintain it became too heavy for the Dwarves' small bodies. To fix this problem higher Giants (Cloud and Storm) created a program by which the stone giants, the most even tempered and obedient of all giant kind, would mate with their Dwarven slaves. The products of these pairings were sturdy, hearty beings capable of lifting huge weights and the ancestors of the Goliaths.
My goliath is basically on a "walk about" a rite of passage where he goes to prove himself by finding a big creature and killing it the aim is to find a giant to fight (possibly not kill) seems they are seen as gods to his people.
In my setting I drop their background, attitude, etc, and give them a very Nordic appearance. Called Norn or Nordmen, they come from "across the north sea" and live a fantasy version of a viking lifestyle. Their coastal raids are feared, but they are more than willing to barter for the lives of their captives if you're able to reach their homeland. There are Norn merchants and mercenaries all over the world, but they are rare. It wasn't hard to fit them into my setting.
The thing I like most about goliaths is they are the most straight forward translation of the Keldon Barbarians from MTG. Even in the plane shift article for Dominaria they made the Keldon pc race by taking the goliath stats and swapping cold resistance for cold environment adaptation. Anyone looking to make a Keldon Warlord will find the simplest method is to make a Goliath Zealot Barbarian, and to flavor all the divine subclass powers as coming from their hoarde instead of some god.
Talking about Goliaths being made and warlocks. I really enjoy making my warlocks start as human, elf or dwarf and after their deal they are physically changed to match whatever the being wants. I do it with my clerics to an extent as well, but I like the idea that making the deal fundamentally alters who and what you are. My first warlock was a human that lost a bet with a devil and was forced to form a pact with it, making her a Tiefling
I've had goliath as giants who have yet to become giants through proving themselves and they train towards that in sects. Another version are mortal descendants of titans who did not leave for celestial realms during Annams curse.
In my setting, the plane of water is basically a planetoid called Liquescent where the surface is frozen over with a few mountains rising from beneath the waves. Goliaths hail from the surface of the Liquescent, and are basically eskimo vikings, and druidic warriors. That gave them a nice bit of flavor.
When I wrote them into our campaign world they were more elemental themed and the competitiveness came from being a group culture rather than an individualistic culture. They would consult their leaders before making decisions, they wouldn’t make a vow by themselves, and the whole group would make a vow together. The theme in that adventure was a group of goblins were looking for a new home and was trying to get allies. So, after meeting a Goliath, the whole tribe came to meet them. The goblins (lead by rangers who knew how not to act like goblins around others) gave them a lot of gifts, food, and had a traveling earth genasi in their company. The goliaths considered them to be trustworthy because of these things and they had games the next day, goblins vs. goliaths, and the deal was struck afterwards. The genasi was traveling with the goblins so she took the wrestling match (and actually won), the goblins did better at fine throwing games, the goliaths won at throwing logs, and then the goblins won a drinking game. So, in how we played it, even when there was a competition it was in the context of both the individual and their community being represented. They were also there as an offset to the Orcs who were nearby, and the goliaths saw that the goblins were good hunters. So, in this case, the dexterity of the goblins was still seen as a strength.
i hope this is helpful: im in a Champaign and i play a Goliath. we use Norse in our story line and my character was sent by Odin to help the other players. he is Hymir, a giant in Norse. Goliath's can be used commonly as beings sent by the gods or god to help a group of people.
I played a Goliath Paladin in one of my first games ever who had very high strength and Charisma, but below average Intelligence and Dexterity, so I joked that he only partially spoke Common, and was just so naturally attractive that people liked him anyway. Also when that didn't work, he could always decapitate his enemies with one swing of his greatsword.
Consider the idea of Goliath as young giants. Giants don't start out big, they start out human-ish sized, but instead of aging they just keep growing and growing until they are proper giants.
And as long as we're taking from the Torah, consider keeping that version of the giants cannon. They were the spawn of angels and mortals, with divine power but without divine grace like their younger cousins the aasimar. The ones that survived lived on mountains because they feared the great flood, and they still do.
For Goliaths in my world I went with an idea where the concept of being super competitive and if you can't keep up you're out of the tribe was a mischaracterization by groups outside of Goliath society. That the competitiveness they did have was more of a way of toughening each other up to survive in the harshest environments and that they were all about community and building each other up to the umpteenth level. The idea that they were only as strong as their weakest link and they weren't leaving anyone behind to building everyone up became extremely important and that sometimes Goliaths got a wander lust where they had to prove they could handle themselves before being allowed to leave and go off on their own. They did have a connection to the giants in that they were sort of the cast offs of them, seen as heralds of the giant's power weakening and the runts of giant-kin and told to wander until they "grew up" so to speak but their gods making it clear to them that this freed them from the Ording and perhaps gave them an opportunity they wouldn't have otherwise.
The reasons you criticize gollaths are the same reason I love them. They're not too alien-looking, not too beastial or feral, they're big, brawny, impossibly strong dudes wandering the most desolate lands in the realm looking for a challenge. Orcs, minotaurs, and firbolgs simply don't scratch the itch I have to play that kind of character. Plis, their simplicity allows players and DMs to do the thing that makes D&D so great: it allows for a myriad of potential angles, lore and culture to be built off of them. That's why I grabitated towards them, because of that simplicity and vagueness which allowed me to fill in the gaps. I also don't usually tie goliaths to particular elements or races, though. I'm an advocate of them mirroring the different types of giants rather than stone giants specifically. They live on the tops of mountains because, in my mind, they reflect the collective goliath attitude: big, impossibly tough, and awe inspiring in their strength.
A Goliath was one of the "PC" haracters in the third D&D movie, the direct to home release classic, The Book of Vile Darkness. He was the first evil PC to be truly betrayed by the "hero" of the film. The Goliath, Vimak, was a barbarian motivated by vengeance, desiring to become wealthy and powerful so he could destroy his enemies back home.
I've taken to flavoring Goliaths with dreamcentric cultural trappings, I connect them to rock giants and their viewpoint of the prime material surface being a dreamland. Waking dreamers that view earth magic and bending as actively bending and shifting reality
Mine is a lvl 4 battlemaster fighter from a company of mercenaries, goliath only lead band who are stationed at a evil tower to stop things from entering or leaving the tower.
I dislike how watered down the Goliaths are in 5E. I was intro'd to them via the _Races of Stone_ book in 3.5 (the only 3.5 book I actually have), and there's SO MUCH lore and culture in there. Like the specifics of exile (they have a GODDESS of exile, it's such a large part of their culture), their favorite games, how the deal with other cultures... The Dawncaller is such an interesting take on the Bard, I'd love to see that as a race-specific subclass, like how the Dwarves have Battleragers. And their relationship with Giants- descended from them, taken so often as slaves that they have a deep racial hatred for their larger bretheren. As much of an interesting interaction as that of Dwarves and Orcs. And the thing about them being tribal and nomadic instead of settled- even aside from the whole 'mountains don't have a lot of farmland' thing... They're competitive by nature, and so being able to flex that competitiveness by testing themselves every day against nature itself... And what happened to the importance of their mottled skin markings? That some Goliath soothsayers claim to be able to read the future of a Goliath in the patterns of their skin? Decorating their lithoderms with inset gemstones? The naming conventions- 2-to-3 syllable first name, 5-to-6 syllable last name, no paired consonants, and a middle 'nickname' that is earned when they gain their adulthood. There's SO MUCH solid Goliath lore that was just... ignored. It frustrates me.
I think of the Goliath as a Tauren from wow, with everything being having rules, fair play and worshipping somthing like the "earth mother"... maybe you either have a option to leave and a natural wanderlust that some people become prey to and theres a tribal ceremony when they leave ... and maybe one in 10 come back ... then there is the kick out of tribe route maybe they did somthing or forgot a step to somthing vital
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I would make goliaths have lower birth rates and make them mountain tribles who compete by hunting other beast and othe half giants
Also dont goliaths coexist with mountain dwarfs
I’ve interpreted the individualism as a need to prove oneself in some way or another and that’s where the adventuring Goliath comes from. Go out, find your own little “tribe,” prove you can protect and provide for them, come back to the main tribe a proud and tested champion.
Now I'm picturing a goliath covered in tribal tattoos and scars but is very eager to explain what they are and mean.
no no EXACTLY!
I see them like a mix between Vikings and Samoans
I would add to that that some classes fit better the "left my tribe" theme. Alien meteor falls - Goliath becomes Sorcerer. Tribe is spooked- Goliath says they leave for the tribe's safety and to study how to put those powers to better use.
I can tell this video is going to be big
We see what you did there
I always knew Tom Hanks was a Goliath
U were wrong, unfortunately...
You might even say it's of towering height and size.
Inca culture with massive mountain top terrace cities, if the Dwarves are under the mountain Goliaths are atop it as means to be closer or as close as they can to skyfather
Goliath Rogue is a fun combo.
Swashbuckler with Gladiator background.
Played like Korg from Thor.
My Goliath was a Noble Barbarian that was our group's motivational speaker. Think The Rock being your motivational speaker. He just wore his fancy clothes into battle and basically said Escanor's "Who decided that?" whenever he used Stone's Endurance. Mountainback the Boastful will always be a favorite of mine.
I played a one-shot were the players were all camp counselors. The goliath was our P.E. instructor, and he ran those kids into the ground. He was still better than the lizardfolk lifeguard.
@@maxx8362 LF Lifeguard: I am afraid the boy will not make it.
Other counselors: He's coughing out water.
Lifeguard: Oh, those are death throes. I'll dispose of the corpse myself, no need to thank me.
I had a "who decided that" moment when I used stones endurance on the dungeon boss then hit him back with a crit smite.
A video for us on Christmas? You guys really shouldn't have!
Merry Christmas!
The benefit of recording multiple episodes at a time, you can keep on schedule . At least that seems to be how they do it, take a day to record and then edit and space out the final results. That or the game store just let them keep coming back for a few weeks
@@nomnomgoblin8901 ik how this works, it was just a yuletide joke. 😂
I made stones endurance usable a number of times per rest equal to your CON modifier.
Also on a suggestion from another commenter, Give them Cold resistance to build on the mountainborn
I play extremely high-power games though, so everyone use their own discretion
Being able to use it a number of times equal to your con mod would be pretty nice.
I wish more of these giant-themed PCs got the one ability shared by all giants:
The Ability to Pull Rocks From Nowhere And Throw Them Good.
Perfect for those strength martials. Lol
If I make a Goliath warlock with the great old one patron, is my Goliath a GOOliath?
They were so busy asking if they could they never bothered asking if they should.
They should.
I think you missed the point of that message.
Me: finally were doing goliaths my favourite race!
Nerds: immediately shits on goliaths and tries to find substitutes for them
Me: :(
Ifkr lol
IKR!
Ikr, What a kick in the d***! I really like a few different Goliaths I’ve played but they definitely brushed the whole race off
I truly feel a Goliath Paladin of Glory is perfect.
In my home setting, dwarves live under/in the mountain, orcs live in mountainous terrain below the tree line, and goliaths live on mountains near the summit.
Goliaths could be the reincarnations of Giants who have betrayed the Ordning during their life. Instead of being reborn under Annam's graces, they are severed from their giant-kin lineage and cursed to live as a tiny non-giant. The drive to compete and exile any stragglers comes from their constant sense of being "out of place" but no matter how pure or perfect their Goliath society it will never please the Allfather.
Now they exist as the souls of unworthy giants trapped within small grey forms, and no amount of training or toughening will ever bring back their glory or rank in the Ordning. Still they try, only torturing themselves in a vain and misguided cultural attempt at rejoining their former kin in a future reincarnation.
Creative, I dig this!
That is an awesome idea! Good thinking, kinda like being reincarnated as a worm after a shitty life in Buddhism
Who hurt you? :'(
Goliath hasn't come up in any of my campaigns yet but maybe Goliath is to Giant as Dragonborn is to Dragon? With the history of wars between Giant's and Dragons, maybe each was the foot solider and there is an idea for a storyline there?
Could work well in Eberron
That sounds REALLY good. Really want to use that for my own world building
Goliaths are the evolution of Dark Sun's Half-Giant. People who wanted to play a giant-kin but not disrupt the game, as the dragonborn are for those who want to play dragons but not disrupt the game. The guy on the left taking all "giant" mythology out of them and making them just humans who got lost REALLY pissed me off. That and his insistence on trying to shoe-horn fourth edition into everything is why I am not subscribed to this channel.
I like the idea of them being stone giant sculptures brought to life.
This is more or less what my DM did in his homebrew setting, even giving his goliaths different subraces based on different types of giants. I have a frost goliath champion fighter with the entertainer/gladiator background in the main campaign for that setting.
I played a Goliath War Cleric of Bahamut with a very Paladin attitude, still my favorite character to this day.
Goliaths and Halflings. I heard Colossus and Wolverine!
I feel like wolverine would be a dwarf
@@Zonkerton I can see that, but still think that the wolverine fastball is a perfect combination of Goliath and Halflings
Especially Halflings Rogues
I would love to see a fastball special in D&D
When they talked about a Goliath being a Warlock, i thought of a Celestial Patron Goliath
Since in religious history, its on top of a high peak where Moses spoke with God, etc. So the Goliath's being the people atop the mountains, its possible for one to encounter an Angel and form a pact.
It'd also work with Cleric and even Paladin
I like idea of Goliaths as another culture of the same race as Firbolgs - big, grey, semi-supernatural humanoids, Powerful Build, with some affinity for giants, and attuned to their respective environments (forest/mountains).
Goliath and Firbolg _would_ make for nice sub-races of a single 'large guy' race. Maybe add in a volcanic variant as well.
This is exactly what i started thing in the firbolg video and came here to say it. It’s at least good to know I’m not the only one!
I have a war cleric Goliath. Just started playing him lots of fun. This was helpful thanx
What sorts of spells did you go with? Thinking about this for my next campaign.
@@joshuarivero8014 its was 2 years ago but I had a little healing and mostly offensive
Miss you guys. With the way things are in the dnd sphere currently, you guys are still a beacon in the dark. Hope you’re well.
I only recent got into DND, with my best friend as the DM. I'm so glad I found this channel, as it is making it so much easier to learn everything. I run a Goliath named Ayden, celtic origins, primarily barbarian (rank 5), but is a multiclass with rank 2 druid, rank 2 bard (bagpipes is musical instrument). Has a companion digester named Shamus, and present campaign is focusing on eldritch monstrosity hunting, with various bounties and contracts taken up in between to increase ranks of the classes. Currently focusing on getting druid and bard ranks up. I've been thoroughly enjoying it, as I've always loved RPG style video games, so I feel even though I'm new to DND, my years of playing story driven RPG games has given me experience with knowing, more or less, what to do in situations.
I took them and turned them into Star Trek Jem'Hadar mixed with XCOM 2 Skirmishers. They're mass-produced soldiers of a wizard empire, but the ones who break free escaped into the mountains to become survivalist guerilla fighters. "Victory is Life" is already basically the goliath motto.
i like the idea of goliaths and i think when you ramp up their environment to a factor of ten or so they really come alive. they dont live in hospitable mountains they live on the harshest most barren mountains almost devoid of life. maybe theres a tree every other mile. barely any vegitation, and the animals that do live there are all carnivors. or maybe its a lush jungle sure once a year the fruit trees bloom but theres poisonis snakes and frogs and insects always trying to infect you maybe its full of dinosaurs. make the goliaths live in the most inhospitable places ever and suddenly their sociaty makes perfect sense its not you have failed you are banished from the tribe. its dude your legs broken and didnt heal properly (cause the book does say they will take care of their sick and wounded for a time) we have to leave you behind or else you will get someone else killed good luck.
This makes sense, and I think is in line with how they're described.
It's *absolutely* how they're described, yes. They don't step on dwarf toes like Jim said, they live on the surface in the highest mountain peaks where fuck all lives, and any animals living there are either migrating or terribly lost, with any carnivores there being in the same condition the Goliaths themselves are in - fighting tooth and nail to survive the starved environment. It makes sense that Goliaths would be hardened and survivalistic, it's practically all they know.
I have always seen Goliaths as a race that welcomes adversity and are almost a literal embodiment of "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger". They are one of the most driven races to try and be the best at something. I don't think they are harsh in a way of not helping others, but more like they don't want to take away your challenge and cheapen your experience. I like to look at them like they are the Goku of whatever they are doing.
Here's how I view Goliaths: After the war between Giants and Dragons certain Stone Giants who because of their artistic, artisan nature spent the peace time delving into philosophy ended up feeling that The Ordaining that all Giants followed was a segmented class system that got in the way of the true potential of Giants because even if a Stone Giant had the greatest idea on how to lead and regain their empire and approval of Annam, the All-Father it wouldn't matter if a Storm Giant disagreed due to the nature of their classes. They decided to abandon The Ordaining and the Giant brothers that wouldn't listen, leading them to losing the immortality and magic that other Giants gain. To be the inverse of the Stone Giants who stayed in the depths of their underground caves, away from the light, they went to the highest mountains of the planes and became nomadic in opposition to the lush palaces, castles, and complexes that Giants had. Their system of fair play is based on the idea that no matter class or status all creatures should get an equal chance but their competitive nature and quickness to kick people out that don't live up to their standards is because in the end all Goliaths want to prove to Giants that their way is the right way. They'll heal you and give you the best chance they can to become great, but if you fail when given that chance there's not much they can do and your existence makes Goliaths look bad and makes the tribe stray one day farther from the return of the light of Annam. The tribe is everything because while Giants compete for personal wealth and status Goliaths compete because they believe only by finding the best of them can they drive their tribe into prosperity.
One of my favorite characters I made for a one-shot was a goliath barbarian-monk that was essentially Mongo from Blazing Saddles - big hat and all. Grapple (w/ Grappler feat) -> Rage -> Flurry of Blows plus Stunning Strike? Ended up throwing the wizard's own sofa at him, knocked him prone, grappled him the next turn and proceeded to break every bone in his body to finish the adventure ^_^
My second long lived character was a Goliath Paladin, very lawful good, I was allowed to dual wield tower shields and at level 10 he gave me a magical pair that constructed a cannon when brought together
I used a Goliath when making my newest character, a Lucha Libre wrestler. At level 6 he’s gonna R.A.W. lift 2,400 pounds.
My Goliath, Kenir Uthrax, was born with a Clubfoot, abandoned at the foot of the mountain near a Lizardfolk encampment. Instead of eating the baby, the Druid of the Lizardfolk felt it was sent by Semuanya and raised him as a son. Instead of grey with blue tatoos, he is dark tan with green tatoos. He behaves more as a Lizardfolk than a Goliath, and instead of Stone's Endurance, got Cunning Artisan, and instead of Mountain Born, he got Hunter's Lore. He's been a great addition to our party.
I currently run a game with a Goliath PC. The way I tackled Stones Endurance is by making it similar to the celestial warlock healing. They get a pool of d6s equal to 1+lvl. On a reaction, they can roll a number of d6's up to their con mod to reduce the damage of the triggering attack. It may be OP, but I think it makes more sense for that to scale. A more hesitant way would possibly be to make it a pool of d12s equal to 1+prof mod.
I like the smaller die pool and scaling, but I think the original is already pretty strong. For a level 5 Fighter it would on average represent the equal of having +20% HP if you use it once in a fight. Even at level 10 it would be 10%. The way you have it currently is roughly +40% HP, depending on the Con stat. That could be considered to be almost the equivalent damage resistance to all at the cost of reaction. Bear totem barbarian with the scaling d6 would be pretty nutty.
I would maybe do 1 per con modifier
@@typoko it can possibly be that high, or it could be 1 additional hp.
@@typoko it's understandable to be cautious, but also consider how much harder the enemies will be hitting.
@@T-Mobull Or double that. It's the average.
I have a place for their lore to suggest: Giant-kin. Each race of giant shepherds humanoid races similar to themselves, recognizing the value of humanoid adventurers.
I've actually made goliaths a part of one of my central cultures in my campaign. They derive from an alliance between stone giants and humans that were being oppressed by dragons. The goliath people came about after a "ritual" that solidified the alliance. During the events of the campaign the giants have ether left the area or have been bred out. Now the people of that culture have varying degrees of giant ancestory, from just taller paler humans to giant stone skinned goliaths. And the culture has a great stone giant influence.
This is one Goliath Christmas video!
Thank you guys, have a wonderful holiday with all your loved ones!!!
I had a Goliath Wizard, once. Went with the Prehistoric Wizard school at first (which is essentially a Sorc-esque subclass) but swapped to the Experimental Magic wizard school later on.
He was actually a 'frozen in ice' caveman- one of the first to discover Magic as a learnable discipline, instead of just shamanistic ritual, and he was this enthusiastic, power-of-nature, thunder and fire and ice and time wielding mystic maniac.
He was actually REALLY fun to play. Might try and see if I can ever use him in something else.
For a campaign that instantly fizzled I had a player want a Goliath Druid, so I decided he could come from a King Kong-style island with dinosaurs that he could wild-shape into.
To my mind, barring Stone Sorcerers, the best Goliath caster is a Storm Sorcerer. Firstly because it just means they're part storm giant, and secondly because a colossal flying person is awesome.
They would also make formidable Tempest Cletics esp if your GM concedes that bigger size = faster. TC's flying speed = their walking speed.
You know you have a good show when you can't help but hit the like button because of the intro alone. 10/10.
Have not yet had a chance to play one, but I think the idea of a goliath as a paranoid, neurotic jock, constanrly worried about being outdone by someone at some physical feat, could be a lot of fun. There's narrative hook there as the player accepts his or her group as a trusting, understanding safe space where they aren't being gamed to be gainsaid. Especially if there is someone amongst the group who is demonstrably better at some physical feat, so the goliath's self esteem is perpetually being chewed on.
Not to be "that guy", but weightless and massless are not the same thing. It's easy enough to say the levitate spell perfectly counters gravity so you don't feel it anymore (and are weightless) but you still have mass and inertia and experience all other forces normally.
The Goliaths in our campaign are workers, they and the mountain dwarfs work to build warships and forge the weapons. The backbone of the Country's militia
My biggest complaint with Goliath's, Firbolgs, Minotuars and Centaurs as PC races is that they should be large sized creatures. I understand that it gives them an advantage when it comes to dealing damage in combat. but I think there can be enough penalties from the cost of equipment and social encounters to off set that advantage.
Wizards of the coast is too scared of players blocking off hallways by themselves.
Logan Sanders they do seem afraid to add large sized PC to the game. Even rules for the enlarge spell contradict the rules for larger sized creatures.
@@Decado1628 yeah, I'm not sure why it is. Maybe they think they'll cause problems for DMs running official adventure modules or adventurer's league stuff? But that's part of the fun of d&d, problem solving. "So, as a 10ft creature, how do you intend on getting into this cave/dungeon complex that only has a 6ft clearance?" I guess it would lead to more house ruling/improving, which I guess someone could argue that we can do that anyway. Have an issue with centaurs, minotaurs, loxodon, Goliaths, firbolg, and other creatures that should be large but get counted as medium for size but large for pretty much everything else? House rule that they are large, I guess.
Logan Chiminera that is exactly what I do in my games. They are large creatures. I also house ruled the enlarge spell so it matches the rules for large creatures.
It is not just the hallway thing. It is also how a permanent increase in player size interacts with auras and other such abilities.
The idea that they are human barbarians who became the servants of giants, and the elites among this tribe are raised on giant milk, which gives them a heroic myth that they are the greatest of warriors. Gives them a unique feel, and theoretically anyone could turn their child into one, which is interesting. Transformative races are always interesting to play and can be very flavourful, the idea that you're now something more than human... Yeah, that's what I am going with.
I like the Idea that the first Goliath's were stone giant sculpture's brought to life.
First time I roll up a goliath in ~5 years for a game and just next week yall upload this, it's a christmas miracle
A variation on the "God Under the Mountain" theme might be Sun Wukong, who will be your patron as long as you promise to screw with celestials and eventually help him break these darned seals.
My favourite race on Christmas! Thanks guys! Amazing present!
With Goliath competitiveness, a good inspiration is the Highland Games. I mean the caber toss is pure Goliath.
One serious issue I had with them is this idea of the old and infirm being thrown out like old Inuit walking into the snow. The Inuit only did that during harsh winters when they were running out of food. Exiling a vast repository of knowledge, experience and wisdom just because they can't run as fast as younger people is a completely batshit insane thing to do. Survival of the fittest isn't survival of the most athletic, but the most fit. And the advantage a tribe would recieve from the knowlege and wisdom of their elders FAR outstrips any drain on the Tribe's resources.
As the guys say, having strict rules causing exiles is fine, or as a rite of passage, leaving the Tribe to contact others, find new resources etc. is fine. But exiling the old and sick ACTIVELY makes a tribe worse. Canon Goliaths would in reality die out completely within a few generations due to that kind of stupidity.
Perfect timing for a goliath show for me since im currently playing an oathkeeper goliath paladin who comes from an order that uses undead by necessity since its too damn cold outside.
The Goliath Dawncaller prestige class from 3.5 is pretty close to a 5e Valor Bard. Also Expertise in Athletics pairs fairly well with Powerful Build.
Definitely stealing the "Goliaths as a thing humans can become" deal for my setting, since I already have orcs and dwarves and don't really have a place for goliaths in my setting otherwise. Thanks!
I've loved Goliaths since I read races of stone
So much good lore there.
The same, it is my favorite race in all of D&D
I play a Forge Cleric Goliath who was adopted by dwarves and worships Moradin. He is adventuring because he learned his lifespan is a fraction of what all his family will be, so he must prove himself as great as them in his shorter lifetime.
I want to be a goliath necromancer called the baby yeeter. Dig up child corpses and animate them, just to throw at my enemies
A 30min video about my favorite race? Best gift today!
You could say it's absolutely biblical in proportions.
I like how they reference Medusas when in truth she was part of a race known as Gorgons
Not really a race. Gorgon actually refers to 3 sisters in particular.
For a one-shot I once played a level 5 goliath barbarian with the tavern brawler feat.
Goliath barbarian+Tavern brawler+Boots of jumping and striding= Grapple enemies and drop them from 20ft in the air and NEVER walk since your standing long jump covers all your forward movement (54/40 ft).
It was NOT optimized for damage like I usually like playing my melee chars but it was hella fun and memorable
I've always wanted to play a homebrew race that can change between goliath and one of the smaller races. like playing a goliath sounds fun until you realize none of the buildings could fit your big ass. maybe you squeeze through the front door but no way your fitting in the secret cellar hidden under the rug. the party goes to the nearest inn but the door don't even reach your shoulders so you sleepin' in the stables
The abilities of the Goliath always said Trolls from Terry Pratchett's Discworld to me.
A Goliath Hunter Ranger is one of the best, most fitting race/class pairings I can think of.
My story for where Goliaths came from is that the Dwarves were once enslaved by the Giants, but as the Giants' empire grew the labor that was required to maintain it became too heavy for the Dwarves' small bodies. To fix this problem higher Giants (Cloud and Storm) created a program by which the stone giants, the most even tempered and obedient of all giant kind, would mate with their Dwarven slaves. The products of these pairings were sturdy, hearty beings capable of lifting huge weights and the ancestors of the Goliaths.
My goliath is basically on a "walk about" a rite of passage where he goes to prove himself by finding a big creature and killing it the aim is to find a giant to fight (possibly not kill) seems they are seen as gods to his people.
No one ever thinks Goliath clerics, but honestly it would work.
In my setting I drop their background, attitude, etc, and give them a very Nordic appearance. Called Norn or Nordmen, they come from "across the north sea" and live a fantasy version of a viking lifestyle. Their coastal raids are feared, but they are more than willing to barter for the lives of their captives if you're able to reach their homeland. There are Norn merchants and mercenaries all over the world, but they are rare. It wasn't hard to fit them into my setting.
I play a Goliath Bard. I don't really hit on why he left his clan, it's mostly just how he's lived amongst humans, etc, in his backstory.
The thing I like most about goliaths is they are the most straight forward translation of the Keldon Barbarians from MTG. Even in the plane shift article for Dominaria they made the Keldon pc race by taking the goliath stats and swapping cold resistance for cold environment adaptation.
Anyone looking to make a Keldon Warlord will find the simplest method is to make a Goliath Zealot Barbarian, and to flavor all the divine subclass powers as coming from their hoarde instead of some god.
Had a Barbarian Goliath that used Double Axes and was definitely the Loveable Idiot type, just had the strength to gib people.
Talking about Goliaths being made and warlocks. I really enjoy making my warlocks start as human, elf or dwarf and after their deal they are physically changed to match whatever the being wants. I do it with my clerics to an extent as well, but I like the idea that making the deal fundamentally alters who and what you are. My first warlock was a human that lost a bet with a devil and was forced to form a pact with it, making her a Tiefling
Goliath Paladin, or Goliath Cleric is something I'd like to play.
V Star 1300 Adventures my favorite character has been a Goliath vengeance paladin wielding a glaive
I'm playing a Goliath Tempest Cleric right now... Total badass.
Goliaths paired with Halflings. You sirs have created Master Blaster.
I play a reskinned goliath as a sentient flesh golem! Goliath makes a really good fighter.
In my setting, they live at the highest mountains because even though it's a difficult life, it's easier than a monster-filled, deep jungle.
I've had goliath as giants who have yet to become giants through proving themselves and they train towards that in sects. Another version are mortal descendants of titans who did not leave for celestial realms during Annams curse.
Merry Christmas guys!! Thank you for all of the insightful conversations and hilarity that your channel has provided for us throughout these years!
Thank you Jordan!
In my setting, the plane of water is basically a planetoid called Liquescent where the surface is frozen over with a few mountains rising from beneath the waves.
Goliaths hail from the surface of the Liquescent, and are basically eskimo vikings, and druidic warriors. That gave them a nice bit of flavor.
Wow, you sir just gave me a valid argument to politely ask my GM for a Wis bonus on a Goliath if I ever want to play a Goliath Druid. Thanks
@@destroyerinazuma96 its all in the pitch, as most dm's are willing to make adjustments if they make sense. Also, glad I could help. :)
Happy Holidays you filthy Roleplayers!
Thanks, Dad!
Last time I came this early she was disappointed. Merry Christmas folks
When I wrote them into our campaign world they were more elemental themed and the competitiveness came from being a group culture rather than an individualistic culture. They would consult their leaders before making decisions, they wouldn’t make a vow by themselves, and the whole group would make a vow together.
The theme in that adventure was a group of goblins were looking for a new home and was trying to get allies. So, after meeting a Goliath, the whole tribe came to meet them. The goblins (lead by rangers who knew how not to act like goblins around others) gave them a lot of gifts, food, and had a traveling earth genasi in their company. The goliaths considered them to be trustworthy because of these things and they had games the next day, goblins vs. goliaths, and the deal was struck afterwards. The genasi was traveling with the goblins so she took the wrestling match (and actually won), the goblins did better at fine throwing games, the goliaths won at throwing logs, and then the goblins won a drinking game. So, in how we played it, even when there was a competition it was in the context of both the individual and their community being represented.
They were also there as an offset to the Orcs who were nearby, and the goliaths saw that the goblins were good hunters. So, in this case, the dexterity of the goblins was still seen as a strength.
“Ritual of joining?” Like Dark Crystal’s Mystics and Skeksies?
"Welcome to the levitate show"
i hope this is helpful:
im in a Champaign and i play a Goliath. we use Norse in our story line and my character was sent by Odin to help the other players. he is Hymir, a giant in Norse. Goliath's can be used commonly as beings sent by the gods or god to help a group of people.
I played a Goliath Paladin in one of my first games ever who had very high strength and Charisma, but below average Intelligence and Dexterity, so I joked that he only partially spoke Common, and was just so naturally attractive that people liked him anyway. Also when that didn't work, he could always decapitate his enemies with one swing of his greatsword.
Consider the idea of Goliath as young giants. Giants don't start out big, they start out human-ish sized, but instead of aging they just keep growing and growing until they are proper giants.
And as long as we're taking from the Torah, consider keeping that version of the giants cannon. They were the spawn of angels and mortals, with divine power but without divine grace like their younger cousins the aasimar. The ones that survived lived on mountains because they feared the great flood, and they still do.
Merry Christmas, past Jim and Pruitt
Merry Christmas!
For Goliaths in my world I went with an idea where the concept of being super competitive and if you can't keep up you're out of the tribe was a mischaracterization by groups outside of Goliath society. That the competitiveness they did have was more of a way of toughening each other up to survive in the harshest environments and that they were all about community and building each other up to the umpteenth level. The idea that they were only as strong as their weakest link and they weren't leaving anyone behind to building everyone up became extremely important and that sometimes Goliaths got a wander lust where they had to prove they could handle themselves before being allowed to leave and go off on their own.
They did have a connection to the giants in that they were sort of the cast offs of them, seen as heralds of the giant's power weakening and the runts of giant-kin and told to wander until they "grew up" so to speak but their gods making it clear to them that this freed them from the Ording and perhaps gave them an opportunity they wouldn't have otherwise.
The flavor is that they are SUPER rare.
Gave them +2 to str and con, cold resistance, make stone endurance a passive damage reduction equal to con modifier. Feels a lot better to play
The reasons you criticize gollaths are the same reason I love them. They're not too alien-looking, not too beastial or feral, they're big, brawny, impossibly strong dudes wandering the most desolate lands in the realm looking for a challenge. Orcs, minotaurs, and firbolgs simply don't scratch the itch I have to play that kind of character. Plis, their simplicity allows players and DMs to do the thing that makes D&D so great: it allows for a myriad of potential angles, lore and culture to be built off of them. That's why I grabitated towards them, because of that simplicity and vagueness which allowed me to fill in the gaps.
I also don't usually tie goliaths to particular elements or races, though. I'm an advocate of them mirroring the different types of giants rather than stone giants specifically. They live on the tops of mountains because, in my mind, they reflect the collective goliath attitude: big, impossibly tough, and awe inspiring in their strength.
A Goliath was one of the "PC" haracters in the third D&D movie, the direct to home release classic, The Book of Vile Darkness. He was the first evil PC to be truly betrayed by the "hero" of the film. The Goliath, Vimak, was a barbarian motivated by vengeance, desiring to become wealthy and powerful so he could destroy his enemies back home.
"Twinning Booming Blade" what in the fuck, how does that even work
I’m seeing a monastery of Goliath samurai high up in the mountains
I've taken to flavoring Goliaths with dreamcentric cultural trappings, I connect them to rock giants and their viewpoint of the prime material surface being a dreamland. Waking dreamers that view earth magic and bending as actively bending and shifting reality
Mine is a lvl 4 battlemaster fighter from a company of mercenaries, goliath only lead band who are stationed at a evil tower to stop things from entering or leaving the tower.
Levitate + Cloud of daggers = Barovian Salsa
Goliaths used to be a lot cooler in 3.5 because they could use Large-sized weapons.
Currently playing a goliath lore bard (he's not very bright, but strong and tough). His instrument of choice is a harpsichord...
The grind doesn’t stop for Web DM even on Dec 25th
I dislike how watered down the Goliaths are in 5E. I was intro'd to them via the _Races of Stone_ book in 3.5 (the only 3.5 book I actually have), and there's SO MUCH lore and culture in there. Like the specifics of exile (they have a GODDESS of exile, it's such a large part of their culture), their favorite games, how the deal with other cultures... The Dawncaller is such an interesting take on the Bard, I'd love to see that as a race-specific subclass, like how the Dwarves have Battleragers.
And their relationship with Giants- descended from them, taken so often as slaves that they have a deep racial hatred for their larger bretheren. As much of an interesting interaction as that of Dwarves and Orcs.
And the thing about them being tribal and nomadic instead of settled- even aside from the whole 'mountains don't have a lot of farmland' thing... They're competitive by nature, and so being able to flex that competitiveness by testing themselves every day against nature itself...
And what happened to the importance of their mottled skin markings? That some Goliath soothsayers claim to be able to read the future of a Goliath in the patterns of their skin? Decorating their lithoderms with inset gemstones? The naming conventions- 2-to-3 syllable first name, 5-to-6 syllable last name, no paired consonants, and a middle 'nickname' that is earned when they gain their adulthood.
There's SO MUCH solid Goliath lore that was just... ignored. It frustrates me.
Found you Rno
Just like about everything in 5e.
It's watered down D&D.
Good for newcomers, but not for us who know to calculate THAC0.
I think of the Goliath as a Tauren from wow, with everything being having rules, fair play and worshipping somthing like the "earth mother"... maybe you either have a option to leave and a natural wanderlust that some people become prey to and theres a tribal ceremony when they leave ... and maybe one in 10 come back ... then there is the kick out of tribe route maybe they did somthing or forgot a step to somthing vital
Tortle unarmed barbarian works as well:
Natural Str-based claw attack.
17 AC by default