Ettins to me seem to be nothing but crazy two headed giants (because they are crazy two headed giants).
Doubtless there's ancient mythology I could look into, but I've attempt to come up with a concept to build some background for the double headed. Feedback is welcome.
Ettins were the first chronomancers. Ettins are inexplicably linked to the flow of time. Their appearance reflects this, the right head sees into the future, whilst the left sees into the past (The makes the present quite a conundrum for them, hence why they often see quite mad and confused about where they are).
Fighting an ettin gets complicated once you realize it can see all possible futures and predict where you may next strike....
Ettins taught the first chronomancers the secrets of time travel, for reasons known only to themselves. Ettins themselves very rarely time travel, if only for a back or forward a few hours. The reasons for this also unknown, only that they must have done something bad enough to the timeline to tear down their own civilization....
So yeah, I figure time travelling giants would be a fun way to mind screw my group. Also me and a friend are planning to write up rules for time ettins, as well as making rules for giving wizards and other magical classes minor time based spells...
Interesting.
With the line of "Fighting an ettin gets complicated once you realize it can see all possible futures and predict where you may next strike....", as long as it is not fluff, I recommend adding the Cyclops ability of Flash of Insight to your creations.
Flash of Insight (Su) Once per day as an immediate action, a cyclops can peer into an occluded visual spectrum of possible futures, gaining insight that allows it to select the exact result of one die roll before the roll is made. This effect can alter an action taken by the cyclops only, and cannot be applied to the rolls of others.
Then, once per day as an immediate action, they can force another to roll twice and take the worse result, mimicking their ability to look into the future and see when to dodge, etc.
Thanks for the advice.
And its not just fluff, I fully plan on fleshing it out.
Another line of inspiration would be the Ogres of the WarCraft universe, which often have 2 heads, of which one is often cyclopic (to tie in to Swashbucklersdc's idea above of using Cyclops' Flash of Insight). They are usually dumb (and in WarCraft II, they say appropriately funny stuff), but can upgrade to Ogre Mages (which are unrelated or barely related to the Ogre Mages of D&D/Pathfinder) that can cast some decent spells (really good in WarCraft II, only passable in WarCraft III), but unfortunately don't have lines that are as funny (as is the case for all of them in WarCraft III, unfortunately).
