Summary

  • Giants in D&D come in 6 subspecies with unique traits.
  • Giants have varying alignments, habitats, and intelligence levels.
  • Roleplay giants accurately to enhance player immersion and experience.

Giants rank among some of the most iconic creatures in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons. Towering tall over most other monsters in the game, they can make for memorable encounters. All in all, there are six different subspecies 💫of giants to keep track of as a DM: cloud, hill, fire, frost, stone, and storm. These subspecies each have different habitats, alignments, behaviors, and abilities.

Related
Dungeons & Drag😼ons:✨ Monsters That Are Perfect Bosses For A Low Level Party

Dungeon Masters may want to choose some of these monsters for their players to face off against🍸 if their levels are still a bඣit low.

So, if you're planning on running giants in your Dungeons & Dragons campaign, there's a lot you'll need to keep track of. That's why we've created this list. Here are some key tips and tricks ♕for running giants in your Dungeons & Dragons adventure.

10 🐈 Understand Type

Everybody's Different

A duo of stone giants leering menacingly in Dungeons & Dragons.
Stone Giants by Robson Michel

As mentioned, giants come in six different varieties depending on their home biome. These types affect everything about giants from personality to abilities and more. So, when it comes to picking a giant type for a combat or roleplay encounter, make sure you'𝓀re selecting the right one for the job.

Luckily, each entry on giants in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the 2025 Monster Manual not only💜 has unique stat blocks for each giant type, but it also features blurbs explaining giants' personali♔ties and desires in greater detail. Make sure you read them all before deciding which giant to insert into your campaign.

9 ♕ 🐼 Alignment Is Important

Lawful, Chaotic, Or Neutral?

A storm giant reaches with lightning from the waves towards adventurers on a boat
Hall of Storm Giants (Variant) by Alex Stone

Depending on the type of giant you select for your campaign, you'll have to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:roleplay different alignments. Giants, a🐻s a species, have a wide range of alignments from evil to good, with all manner of chaotic and lawful natures among them.

This is especially important when it comes to roleplaying a giant, whether in comb🌌at or social encounter. Make sure you understand what your giant type's alignment is and how to play it. This will help make the encounter feel more grounded, as though the party is truly coming face to face with a mystical being.

8 ෴ Habitat Matter♋s

There's No Place Like Home

An NPC giant hears the whispers of a Mind Flayer in Dungeons & Dragons.
NPC Giant by Filip Burburan

More than almost any other creature type in the 2025 Monster Manual, giants need to be placed in the proper environment to make sense. You wouldn't necessarily find a cloud giant wandering through 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Nine Hells now would you?

Related
Dungeꦅons & Dragons: 10 Most Powerful Oozes, Ranke♈d

The species' voracious appetite has come in handy as a cleaning mechanism for lazy▨ wizards, liches, and other dungeon designers.

If you're stuck trying to figure out which giant you should use for your campaign, the first thing you should consider is biome and habitat. Where is your party currently? Where are they going in the coming gameꦇs? This answer should hopefully dictate which giant type makes the most sense.

7 The Right Giant For The Right Party ꧙

Let's Avoid A TPK

Fire Giants at a forge in Dungeons & Dragons.
Fire Giants by Robson Michel

Just in the same way that giants occupy a variety of biomes and alignments, they also have a decent spread in terms of Challenge Rating. When selecting a giant for a combat encounter, make sure you're picking one that has th🦄e proper Challenge Rating for your party, lest you incur an accidental TPK.

When crafting a combat encounter, it might seem like a hill giant or a storm giant might be roughly the same, but storm giants have innate spellcasting and other features that can really up t🐷he ante of an encounter, while hill giants are more brutish and less resistant to player attacks.

6 Roleplay Ups The Immersion ꧃

Get Into Character

Frost giants attacking a village in Dungeons & Dragons.
Frost Giants by Robson Michel

As mentioned, each giant variety has different alignments, stats, environments, and more that are singular to them. When it comes to using giants, even if it's only for a combat enco🃏unter, you'll want to make sure you're roleplaying them correctly so that players get a full sense of immersion.

For example, frost giants are known for being merciless plunderers. If you're using them in a combat encounter, and a party member tries to plead for mercy, a frost giant is far ✃less likely to oblige than a s🌠torm giant, as storm giants tend to be more good.

5 Groups And Individuals 💝

Scale Encounters

A cloud giant sits atop her throne in Dungeons & Dragons.
Cloud Giant by Taras Susak

If you have your heart set on one type of giant, but feel that the creature's stat block is too limited in scope or weak for your party to handle, consider having the giant attack with a group. Conversely, if you're afraid of accidentally wiping out y🌄our whole table, have a more powerful giant attack as an individual.

Related
Dun𓂃geons &a♐mp; Dragons: Most Powerful Beasts, Ranked

Dungeons & Dragons offers up a wide spread of monsters and beasts to summon and do battle against, and here are some of the most fe𓂃rocious.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Using mob combat rules, you can easily scale what might be a low-level encounter with a si♔ngle hill giant into a deathly battle by introducing a horde of hill giants. As mentioned before, just pay attention to the individual Challenge Rating of each creature so you know how to scale the encounter correctly.

4 It's Not All Combat

Let's Talk It Out

Storm Giants attacking ships at sea in Dungeons & Dragons.
Storm Giants by Taras Susak

While, of course, combat is the primary way you may find yourself us🐠ing giants in your campaign, some giants make for excellent social encounter situations, or can serve as arbiters of puzzles, riddles, and more.

Cloud giants are an excellent example of this. Their personalities are often characterized as lofty and influential. They typically believe they can exert their will ꦫover lower beings. If you're interested in running a climactic social encounter, in which the party must deal with a highly intelligent being, clo🐟ud giants can make for a great option.

3 🐬 Cre🌠ate Specific Treasure

Take This, You've Earned It

Dungeons & Dragons image showing Giants in court in the sky holding an ordning.
The Giant Ordning Court by Brian Valeza

Most giants in the 2025 Monster Manual have Armaments as their treasure hoard theme, meanin꧅g that should players defeat them, they should expect to find a hoard of treasure lit𓄧tered with magic items that are useful for battle. However, cloud giants feature arcana treasure hoards, and fire giants have a more specific flavor to their treasure.

It's impo﷽rtant that, when creating rewards for players, you craft specific items that make sense with the giant type you're using. For example, if you're using fire gia💟nts, make sure you create magical weapons of high power and craftsmanship, as fire giants are skilled smiths.

2 Intelligence Varies 🧸 ♏

It's Not Just Dumb And Dumber

A party of adventurers explore a dungeon carved by Giants in Dungeons & Dragons.
A Giant Dungeon by Titus Lunter

Not all giants are going to roleplay the same way, especially if you're using these creatures for a roleplay-based encounter. Hill giants, as an example, are relatively low intelligence, and might not really be able to communicate with the players in any substaওntial way.

Related
Dungeo🌺ns & Dragons: 10 Besﷺt Plants In The 2025 Monster Manual

Trees, and blights, and vines, oh my! These plants will have your Dungeons & Drago🅺ns party scrambling for 𒉰the refuge of a city in no time.

Conversely, storm and cloud giants are highly intelligent, and are more likely to carry on full conversations with the party. Fire gi💛ants might even bargain or ha💫ggle with players, as they are expert craftsmen. Whatever giant you end up using, just make sure you have a strong idea of how to roleplay their intelligence based on stats.

1 Craft๊ Compelling Motivations

What's It All For?

A group of goliaths carrying a large stone obelisk in Dungeons & Dragons.
Goliaths by Hinchel Or

As hinted at previously, some giant types are more prone to grander machinations, while others might just be violent by natureܫ. A cloud giant or even a storm giant, for example, might have a larger scheme in mind when they attack the party, or be aiding and abetting a grander master.

However, hill giants are more blundering, and likely might just be attacking the party at random. Whatever the motivation is for combat or roleplay, make sure it matches the giant type you're using, so th🐓at players feel as though they're dealing with a fully fleshed-out monster rather than just a random encounter.

dungeons-and-dragons-series-game-tabletop-franchise

Your Rating

Original Release Date
1974
Designer
E. Ga🐭ry Gygax, Dave Arneson
Player Count
2+