In the Company of Giants (PFRPG) PDF

I have always enjoyed Giants and the lore around them so this was a welcomed idea to me. I recently got to use this class in a campaign of Giantslayer which was rather perfect as my growing size was accommodated by the size of the maps. So having played this class here are some of the things I observed:

- I was able to fully immerse myself in Hill Giant lore. The pdf gives you the option for a wide variety of different giants to choose from including Ettins and even trolls. I went Hill Giant and never felt like I was trying to skin things into place
- It’s a competitive class mechanically. I could see ways that the class could potentially be broken but my build was more as a tank which had high HP and very nice AC. I didn’t dominate the group but was right in line with everyone else and able to hold my own.
- The product itself if very well laid out and a huge bonus for me is that there is a companion Herolab product. So if you’re like me and are nearly dependent upon herolabs, you’ll be in luck.

So overall I would highly recommend this product. Was great for me, I got to be mechanically strong while also partaking in some giant sized RP flavor.

In the Company of Giants

This pdf is 22 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page OGL and 2 pages of advertisements.

That leaves 17 pages of content.
The pdf kicks off in the manner and quality I’ve come to expect of Rite Publishing: We get an in-character introduction to the race that is very flavorful and appeals to the scholar of Scandinavian culture that is yours truly. We get two defining social concepts for the race of Jotunnar,that are described herein.

They are Humanoids who can embrace a birthright and evolve into different kinds of giants via two social roleplaying concepts (and of course, XP). The concepts are called Vird and Osoem. Personally, I love flavorful, beautifully written texts that make me want to play a given race. The general introduction and fluff is 4.5 pages long and a perfect introduction that makes the Jotunnar feel unique and has a nice tie-in with the fluff of the Wyrd.

After that, we get the racial traits as well as the Jotun racial paragon class. The class has, 4+Int skills, a good fort-save, medium BAB-Progression and gains an improving unarmed attack and improving natural armor.

One drawback to this class that limits its usability is that you can’t class in or out of the Jotun paragon class. Once you have taken a level in the class, the awakening elemental powers would tear the Jotun asunder if he/she chose to take a level in another class. While probably necessary to balance the class, I still think it’s a pity.

Your Elemental Power also opens a HUGE selection of 40 abilities, making the class quite versatile. From abilities like Backbreaker to Elemental Auras, Jotunnar have a nice selection ready to surprise their enemies.

Jotun also get a slam attack, natural armor, rock throwing and catching and increases in size, Strength and Constitution. It should be noted that Jotunnar may change their sizes back to smaller sizes via actions so they can continue to adventure with their non-Jotun friends.

After that, we get 18 feats for Jotunnar, most of them dealing either with evolving into a specific kind of Giant or fighting with rocks. While they were nice, I did not find them quite as evocative as e.g. the feats for the Wyrd.

Conclusion:
This pdf is beautiful. The artwork is awesome, the editing and formatting is good (I didn’t catch any mistakes), the prose is extremely atmospheric and the ambition of the project is daunting: Make a giant playable without losing the flavor or OPing it. The pdf accomplishes what it set out to do, although the no-multiclassing-ever-restriction is quite hard to swallow. If you want to play a giant, this is for you. However, if you want to play a Giant Druid or something like that, you can’t do that, which is kind of sad. While the class offers a huge set of abilities, I still would have liked some kind of Jotunnar-racial-PrC that they CAN take without dying (In a future release, perhaps?) or some Giant-specific magic items, though.

Due to the multiclassing restriction as well as the lack of a PrC or e.g. magical Jotun-bags and the like, I’ll rate this 4 Stars. If you don’t mind the multiclass restriction, add a star.

If you’re a DM looking for a refreshing take on Giants, check this out. At the very least you get an awesome read for not even 4 bucks.

First I would like to say a few things about this product. One I got the PDF free for purposes of this review. Second I will honestly say I had no intention of buying this product at first.

This product is 22 pages long. Cover, credits(with a nice dedication to Gray Gygax for Against the Giants) and introduction, each 1 page long. There isn't any chapters but I am breaking it up by chapters so it is easier to review.

Chapter 1 – Jotunnar as a race (4 pages)
This deals with description, society, relations to others, religion, alignment, racial traits, height, weight, etc. There is a nice viking feel here and the society is well written and interesting. They have a choice between 2 sets of stat bonuses. Both are balanced with other races in PFRPG.

Chapter 2 – Racial Paragon Class (9 pages)
It starts off with a page that explain what a racial paragon class is and how they work. One of the things I think will disappoint some people is that. As a Jotunnar you have to choose at 1st level if you want to take a normal class or this racial class. Once you pick you are locked into the racial class forever or if you pick a class, then you can never take the Paragon class. It is done for balance reason but I still think that will disappoint some.

For those that opt not to take the paragon class they avg about 7ft tall and play like any other race. Those that take the paragon class slowly get larger as they level up. Some class information.
HD d8, 4 skills, All simple weapons(no armor or shields), Medium BaB.

At first level you have to choose a elemental power, Air (electricity), Earth(Acid), Fire(Fire), Water(Cold). This will effect what elemental powers you can pick as you level up, since you can only pick the general ones or the ones from your element. They get a power at 1st, 3rd and then ever 3rd level.(there are 40 to choose from). They also start with a natural armor of +4 which goes up every other level and finally Slam Attack which is a natural attack that goes up in damage as they level.

At 2nd level they gain a +2 to str and con stats and every 3rd level after that they can choose one of them to raise by +2 and every 6th level they raise them both again. They gain a few other powers like rock throwing as they level as well. As they increase in size they do not get stat bonuses those are already built in, but you do get mods to AC, CMB/CMD, fly, stealth and move. To allow them to fit in dungeons and such they can take a full round action to shrink down one size.

Chapter 3 – Feats (3 pages)
There are 18 new feats in this chapter. The feats are all for Jotunnar or giants, they seem well thought out and they fit.

Final pages OGL (1 page), ads (2 pages)

Closing thoughts. I mentioned this is not a product I would have normally bought, which is why I am even more glad Rite Publishing sent this to me, cause otherwise I would have missed out on this product. The artwork is very nice in this book and it is layout well, making for a very pretty book. I might not use this book a lot but it is still nice and something that I will use occasionally. If you have always wanted to play a giant or allow giants in your games and be balanced. Then this is the book for you.

I honestly only have one knock on this book, no ability to multi-class cause I know some people are going to want to do that. I wish they had been able to come up with a way to do and keep the balance. The best suggestion I have been able to come up with is, feats that replicate some of the class abilities open to those that opt to take regular classes.

I am giving this book a 4.5 star for what it is. It seems well done and balanced as far as I can tell with out play testing it. What keeps it from being a 5 star to me is no ability to multi-class honestly cause I know some people would have wanted that. I do hope they do more race books along this line honestly especially if they can do multi-class option for other small monster races. I will certainly be keeping a eye out from now on for such books. At 3.75 it is a good buy.

I love giants. I'm not sure why. They seem like a very simple type of monster, and yet I love them. Maybe its the association with Norse and Celtic myths that draw me to these guys.

What you get with this product isn't a race, but actually a race and a hybrid race/class. If you play the "stunted" version of the race, you are essentially a humanoid with a powerful build that has a giantish lineage. To me this works very well for a Celtic or Norse themed game.

On the other hand, if you don't play "stunted" version of the class, you have to take the paragon class, which essentially allows you to customize your character into one of the more traditional giant types, over time.

Essentially you are from a race of giants that kind of has the potential to be any other type of giant.

There are a couple of minor, but understandable, aspects of this product that keep me from rating it higher. I understand from the mechanics viewpoint why a character that isn't "stunted" is locked into the Paragon Class, but the "fluff" part of it just doesn't work as well for me as it could. I'm not quite sure why, but the "advance or die" reasoning isn't as satisfying as it could be.

Also, while it doesn't bother me to end up as a Huge frost/fire/stone giant, if I'm playing this class to emulate one of the "smaller" giant races, I'm not sure I'm as thrilled with playing a gargantuan or colossal giant.

Those certainly aren't game breakers for me, however, and the temptation of playing pretty much any type of giant with lots of "extra" thematic powers via the paragon class, and the added benefit of being able to just play a "giant-blooded humanoid" if I don't want to get into that class, this is a solid offering for me, and since giants are pretty much a standard for most campaigns, a pretty easy concept to slot into a campaign.