D&D 5E Half Giant And Kreen(Darksun)

[Zardnaar]

Hello Everyone. I am working on a 5E Darksun game. In one of our games the DM has houseruled that everyone get a feat at level 1 and it seems a popular houserule. It did lead me to a way to make faithful adaptation (hopefully) of the 2E Darksun half giants and Kreen. These are more powerful than the standard PHB races of course (a'la 2E) but every other mundane race is going to get a bonus feat while the Kreen and Half Giant do not. Perfect balance is not required (some PHB races kinda suck) as long as everyone doesn;'t go "I wanna be a Kreen/Half Giant" due to their power.

Half Giants
Half Giant Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 4, and your Constitution score increases by 2.

Durable Your hit point maximum increases by 2. Whenever you gain a level thereafter, your hit point maximum increases by an additional 2 hit points.

Extraordinary Physique Half giants may increase their constitution and strength scores to 22. Level 20 Half Giant Barbarians can reach 26.

Large Size. Half Giants are large sized and stand between 10’-12’ tall. You may use two handed and heavy weapons in one hand.

Natural Athlete. You have proficiency in the Athletics skill.

Languages. You can speak Common and Giant.



Thri Kreen

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your wisdom score increases by 1.

Natural Armor Thri Kreen have a natural AC of 13. They are unable to wear armour but can use shields.

Natural Weapons The Thri Kreens bite deals 1d6 points of piercing damage and the claws deal 1d4 slashing damage. They are treated as finesse weapons that the Thri Kreen is proficient with.

Multiattack. As an action the thri-kreen makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.

Standing Leap. Once you reach level 3 you may make a standing leap. The thri-kreen's long jump is up to 30 feet and its high jump is up to 15 feet, with or without a running start.

Poisonous Bite A thri-kreen can use a venomous saliva against opponents when he reaches 5th level. Those struck by the thri-kreen's bite must make a constitution save (DC8+proficiency bonus+ constitution modifier) saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the target is also paralyzed while poisoned in this way. The poisoned target can repeat the saving throw on each of its turns , ending the effect on itself on a success.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Um, on first glance, you just might get everyone wanting to play a half-giant barbarian. Those ability bonuses and 'caps' might be too good.

The weapons idea also doesn't cover all bases. What about 2-hand weapons, or any weapon for that matter, actually made for Large creatures. The MM makes it very simple. Each size category doubles the damage dice. So a longsword for a Large creature deals 2d8 damage. I would stick to what is there for that. But of course, that is a danger of making a Large-sized race

Why have a feature that just grants extra hps too (and word it oddly - about max hp)? Already given them bonus to CON, and clearly made Barbarian a no-brainer.

I am not sure of building a thri-kreen like a monster with things like Multiattack is a good idea either. Could get messy with classes that grant extra attacks.

Making the bite and claws deal the same damage would also make things a lot easier.

I have written up a lot of races for 5E, but haven't done the kreen yet. Need to be very careful how to deal with extra limbs. 4E might be the way to go, but that simply allowed extra 'manipulate/draw/stow objects'.

If interested, under Giant-kin, on our Races page (http://connorscampaigns.wikidot.com/d-d-races) we have a half-giant of sorts. Still size Medium, and not a literal translation of 2E one I know, but check it out if you wish.

I will work on the kreen one day, but you have some interesting ideas there.

 

[abirdcall]

I agree about the Half-Giant being too powerful and the Kreen too weak.

I would model the Kreen's extra attack off of the UA Minotaur. Make it a bonus action.

 

[epithet]

For the half-giant, I would dial those bonuses down to +2 str, +1 con. I would leave the ability to raise Str to 22, but not Con. For your "durable" trait, I wouldn't give bonus hit points but I would give a bonus of 1 to armor class for a thick skin (like the UA warforged.)

I wouldn't give an automatic athletics proficiency--just because you're big doesn't mean you're in shape. In fact, I would add a negative trait: "Cumbersome. Your size makes you strong, but it is difficult to be nimble. You cannot gain proficiency in Acrobatics; if your background gives you proficiency in Acrobatics you may choose any other skill on your class list, instead."

That large size is a big deal. (Hur, hur, hur.) Not only will the damage dice potentially double, but you'll have advantage on strength checks in many circumstances. That's an almost overwhelming racial advantage, but I do agree that you simply have to make a half-giant's size Large. The very-big-medium cop-out of the goliath and the PC minotaur just doesn't cut it. To offset that, you have to be pretty stingy with the other goodies.

For the thri kreen, I wouldn't give multiattack but I would give their unarmed strike a d6 slashing. Make the bite at level 5 a bonus action, d6 piercing + poison. I would give them advantage on grappling attacks if they use more than two hands, and I would start them off at level 1 with the Dual Wielder feat.

 

[Unwise]

Simply being Large increases the threatened squares of a character enormously. That alone makes them great defenders. I am picturing a guy with a reach weapon covering a huge portion of the battlefield. If a weapon has a 10' reach, a large one would likely be at least 15'. That would be a 25' square of threat. The reach on a large pike would be insane.

I can't picture any of my PCs turning down the option of playing a guy dual-wielding greatswords. Or using a 4d6 greatswords for that matter. I suspect that any melee guy is going to feel that he is at a disadvantage if he picks something other than Half-Giant.

 

[epithet]

It becomes slightly less attractive when the feral cannibal halfling makes an acrobatics check to use the half-giant as terrain, granting advantage to everyone around him. But still... a "big" deal.

 

[Azurewraith]

I think the half giant is insane and you will have a party full of them. Those bonuses to stats are a tad to high i would dial them back to maybe 2/2. I feel there needs to be some drawback to them being large as well it gives them double damage and extreme reach. Could so something such as make them require double rations to stay alive and make them auto fail dex saves to avoid AoE damage

 

[The Human Target]

Half giant is crazy powerful, Thri-kreen is eh, both are awkwardly built.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

For Half Giants I'm a bit wary of just having them deal double weapon dice. Reach, a higher racial Str max, add up. I went with a bonus damage die rather than a flat damage boost to make crits more fun. I was also a big fan of 4E's weapon breakage rule that put the choice in the player's hands, so incorporated it here as well.

+4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity. A Half Giant's Maximum Strength is 22 rather than 20.

Large - At 10 - 12 feet tall, Half giants are large sized creatures. Their large size allows them to wield bigger weapons than other creatures. They add d4 to all damage dealt with weapons. This increases to 1d8 for heavy weapons. Half Giants require triple the amount of food and water per day, and any armor or clothing they purchase generally costs twice as much.

Thick Skinned - Half giants add 1 to their armor class due to their tough hide and dense musculature.

Brute Force - Half Giants have advantage on any Strength/Athletics checks to break, smash or move objects. If the optional Reckless Breakage rule is used, Half Giants must re-roll unless they are using weapons specifically made for large creatures.

Born to Obey - Half Giants have a poor sense of self identity, and make all Charisma saving throws and saving throws against charm effects at disadvantage.

Optional Rule - Reckless Breakage: When you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll, your weapon has a chance to break. You can accept the result, and miss as usual. Alternately, you may re-roll the attack. A non-metal weapon breaks once the attack is complete. A metal weapon breaks only if you roll a natural 5 or less on the re-roll.