Philosophy can be defined as the pursuit of answers to permanent questions, and there is no finer example than the question of the best type of D&D giant.
Vote for your own favourite in the comments; I will keep all comments unpublished for 36 hours or so. This is a scientific exercise and the results are of the most fundamental importance. The options, taken from the AD&D 2nd edition Monstrous Manual, are:
Cloud
Cyclops
Cyclopskin
Desert
Ettin
Firbolg
Fire
Fog
Formorian
Frost
Hill
Jungle
Mountain
Reef
Stone
Storm
Verbeeg
Wood
Ettin
ReplyDeleteFormorian
ReplyDeleteFog Giant (because of Russ' illustraion in the Fiend Folio; Mountain Giant a close second)
ReplyDeleteHill Giant is best purely because its so vanilla: just an archetypal big ugly fairy tale-esque Giant when you need something beefier than an Ogre.
ReplyDeleteStone
ReplyDeleteBased on the 1e MM art of my youth, stone giant. Based on the fact that my son went by "ettineater" online throughout much of his youth, ettin. Please take this double vote however you like.
ReplyDeleteFormorian
ReplyDeleteEttin. There's just something fun about a two-headed giant.
ReplyDeleteEttin, because setting the heads to arguing with each other is both fairytale whimsy and classic D&D tomfoolery.
ReplyDeleteHill
ReplyDeleteHill
ReplyDeleteFrost
ReplyDeleteFomorian
ReplyDeleteHill
ReplyDeleteFire, then frost. Both have the cultural cachet of being from actual mythology, but right now Fire looms larger in my mind.
ReplyDelete"In this din shall the heaven be cloven, and the Sons of Múspell ride thence: Surtr shall ride first, and both before him and after him burning fire; his sword is exceeding good: from it radiance shines brighter than from the sun; when they ride over Bifröst, then the bridge shall break, as has been told before. The Sons of Múspell shall go forth to that field which is called Vígrídr, thither shall come Fenris-Wolf also and the Midgard Serpent; then Loki and Hrymr shall come there also, and with him all the Rime-Giants. All the champions of Hel follow Loki; and the Sons of Múspell shall have a company by themselves, and it shall be very bright."
Fire Giant, obviously.
ReplyDeleteI have a special love for the Fomorian. Within just the "True Giants" my favorite is Fire.
ReplyDeleteHill, they're just what a giant is supposed to be. Honorable mention to Frost and Fire for the Norse mythology connection.
ReplyDeleteFrost Giants.
ReplyDeleteCloud giant all the way. Then hill, then frost.
ReplyDeleteFrost giants, for the association with jotunn. I predict this will be the most popular pick.
ReplyDeleteHill, like the simple brutality.
ReplyDeleteCloud giants. Mysterious and complex.
ReplyDeleteFrost giants are the epitome of giantdom. You can visualize them in their glaciers and ice palaces, brooding and scheming how to kill those pesky asgardians gods and how to marry those beutiful vanir goddesses.
ReplyDeleteThe cover ilustration of the old gamebook Mountain of Mirrors by Rose Estes is to me the perfect example of how a frost giant should look like (pet white dragon included).
Hill
ReplyDeleteFrost. Fire a close second...
ReplyDeleteCyclops
ReplyDeleteThe correct answer is the Frost Giant.
ReplyDeleteStorm.
ReplyDeleteStorm
ReplyDeleteHill Giant. G1 for the win!
ReplyDeleteStone.
ReplyDeleteEttin
ReplyDeleteHonestly? Ettins. I'm a sucker for two-headed giants as an archetype.
ReplyDeleteFrost giants all the way
ReplyDeleteFavorite to use? Favorite to run? Favorite to look at? Giant with favorite memory attached?
ReplyDeleteI seem to throw a lot of fire giants into adventures these days, and hill giants are a great antagonist in terms of a "ramp-up" from ogres. However, I think my FAVORITE is probably the frost giant. Yeah, definitely the frost giant. Love everything about them, really.
Though cloud giants DO have those swell cloud castles....
; )
in the absence of any sort of Crystal Giant nonsense to vote for, my vote goes to Reef 😌
ReplyDeleteCloud Giants. I like the business with the cloud castles.
ReplyDeleteCyclops by a mile!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think frost giants have the most cultural cachet behind them, with cyclopes coming in second.
ReplyDeleteCyclops- classic. The one eye bit somehow brings out the "wacky schemes" part of players rather than just stabby stab.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise hill. Probably a G1 hangover.
Cloud, for their flexibility even in the standard depiction -- they can be Good or Evil, they evidently have political divisions, and a lot of fun scenarios suggest themselves when you combine the classic "giant living in the clouds" with any manner of specific relationships with the small folk. They're an aerial aristocracy; they have to inherently fit into the location in a more complex way than matching terrain type -- they have to come pre-packaged with a sense of how they fit culturally and socially. It's inherently easier, I'd say, to come up with ideas for interacting with (or even simply being aware of) them that aren't simply "fight/steal from a giant".
ReplyDeletestorm
ReplyDeleteI assume you are collecting this data so that you can assign the top vote-getters to assorted internet luminaries who will then fashion giant-of-the-month-themed modules and so set into motion the anthology series “Sickle of Adamant,” a kind of a reverse G1-2-3, D1-2-3, Q1 in which one ascends from base rolling hills all the way to the thundercloud, cutting through a procession of Tlatoanis, Wirzas, and Khagans tucked into their board-and-shingles, alcazars, trelleborgs, and other evidence of gross Gygaxian thesaurus abuse. Needless to say, SoA will offer too the simultaneous ritual banishment of DL1-14, so that while each fortification will indeed offer a path up and into its numerical successor, such will serve just as well as a tentpole from which to explore a table-populated surrounding sandbox.
ReplyDeleteAs such, Stone Giants all the way. Bears baby!
Hill Giant. Nothing fancy - what a giant should be.
ReplyDeleteThe humble hill giant is the best one because it's fat and British and goes bonk with a big club. Not sure what the function is of other types of giants.
ReplyDeleteCloud giants are my favorite. I enjoy D&D monsters that hew closely to their mythology depictions, and cloud giants are based on the "fee fi fo fum" giant with a castle in the clouds from Jack and the Beanstalk.
ReplyDeleteFor me it must be the frost giant.
ReplyDeleteCyclops, has more classic vibe.
ReplyDeleteCloud definitely. The AD&D 2nd edition world I have in my head has a Cloudy Empire ruled by a decadent cloud giant family in floating castles.
ReplyDeleteCyclops is #1; hill and then stone take the rest of the podium if that matters.
ReplyDeleteFire
ReplyDeleteFrost #1 Stone #2 Fire#3
ReplyDeleteI know that I am late, but I'll go with the Cloud giant anyway
ReplyDeletefire
ReplyDelete