No creatures demonstrate smaller races’ relative insignificance better than the eerie and awe-inspiring giants, whose humanoid visages and cyclopean strengths exude an aura of both familiarity and terror. Standing in the long shadows of these colossi, smaller races can witness a form of primordial power that shakes the earth, churns the skies, and roils the waves.
Giants Revisited explores the traits and habitats of the biggest and meanest humanoids ever to tread the earth, towering beings whose motives and behaviors are as varied as their origins and amazing abilities. Each giant race’s entry examines the creature’s ecology and habitat, its interactions with other giants and races, advice on how to implement the behemoth in your game, unique stat blocks, and more.
Inside this 64-page book, you’ll find goliaths such as:
Hill giants, the primitive, blundering brutes who plague valley communities and roving caravans in their endless search for food and destruction.
Cyclopes, the one-eyed behemoths whose ancient empire’s ruins still dot tropical coasts.
Taiga giants, nomads who commune with ancestral spirits to guide them.
Rune giants, who were created long ago to enslave all of giantkind.
Marsh giants, froglike beings who conspire with otherworldly sea-spawn sent from their foul demon lord.
Cloud giants, whose mythical cloud cities are as much a thing of legend as their own lofty race.
Other herculean heavyweights such as the industrious fire giants, barbaric frost giants, capricious storm giants, and stoic stone giants.
Giants Revisited is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be used in any fantasy game setting.
by Jesse Benner, Ryan Costello, Brian R. James, Jason Nelson, Russ Taylor, and Ray Vallese
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-412-2
Note: Due to a printer error, the font used for much of the OGL Section 15 Copyright Notice on page 64 was corrupted in the print edition. It should read as follows:
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Giants Revisited is Paizo's latest offering in their Pathfinder Campaign Series (intended to support Paizo's campaign setting); it's also a "Revisited" book, where Paizo's writers and creative folks take a fresh look at classic D&D monsters (re-booting, re-freshing, re-imagining ... or just simply re-visiting them, as they feel necessary).
My first exposure to giants in an RPG setting was when a good friend ran Steading of the Hill Giant Chief for me and my two brothers (a long, long time ago!). So I was interested in seeing how Paizo handled giants as monsters in-and-of themselves (Hey, Rune Giants, I'm talking to you!), as well as how they'd re-work the various giant races in terms of their campaign setting.
I'm totally satisfied with this book. "Classic" giants (such as Hill, Frost, and Fire) are treated respectfully in terms how they've been presented in RPGs over the past 30 years, "new" giants (Tiaga, Rune, and Marsh) are fleshed out and described such I'm interested in them enough to consider tossing them at players, and "mythic" giants (Cyclopeses, Cloud, and Storm) are presented in the context of the campaign setting that echo towards the past while heralding the future.
I've always been emotionally-attached to stone giants, so I'm totally recusing myself from commenting on them in this review. I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of them though soon.
I was totally on the fence as far as how many ★s for this product: I wasn't sure if I "Really Liked it" or "Loved it."
I had some issues with the tenor and tone of the text as a whole (there were multiple contributors for this project, and it reads that way in places).
Artwork was mixed: some was the absolute best I've ever seen. Some screamed "BEHOLD my ninja-like badassery, for I have a sword that I couldn't lift without CGI help!" I'm also old enough that my brain stumbles a bit when I see a frost giantess called a "Jarl," but I know that's my brain.
For me to be "satisfied" with an RPG product means it's pretty good to start with. It wasn't until I grabbed my hardcopy to leaf through it ... and noticed the type in the word "Giants" was several point sizes bigger than any I'd recalled seeing in any of the Revisited books I own.
A quick trip to the bookcase confirmed ... I love this book. Folks that pay attention to "tiny" things like font sizes pay attention "bigger things."
