Specifically, a problem with distinguishing the flavors of various giant species. Hill giants and ogres are easy to conflate, trolls often just come across as really angry ogres without the nailbiting habit...Me, I love me some giants, and it's important to me that each one have a distinct flavor and reason to exist.
How do you like to flavor the following giants?
1. Hill giants. What is their point? Seriously, hill giants. Right now, you're just less interesting ogres. Get it together.
2. Ogres. Do you favor the "evil redneck" characterization?
3. Trolls. Talking owlbears? Dire bugbears? Goat gobblers? This thread is closely connected.
4. Any other giants you really like?
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Hill giants are just misunderstood. They wouldn't really be evil if they hadn't fallen in with a bad crowd. Honestly, society's to blame.
Ogres are depraved, sadistic bullies. They are beyond redemption.
Trolls are clever like a fox, and love ambushes and traps - not the mechanical kind, but the kind where hapless wanderers fall into their hungry jaws. Then again, I recall different flavors of troll as well. That would take a whoile nother thread.
Fire giants and frost giants have that whole Nordic flavor thing going. Fire giants are like huuuuge dwarves, at least as far as drinking, smithing and projecting their taciturn and curmudgeonly character.
Cloud giants have the toga-wearing Greek feeling about them, and love architecture, music and other forms of beauty. Which doesn't stop some of them from enjoying roast human snacks, but hey.
I picture ogres as the ogres from the Gummi Bears. And goblins like the little ogre from the Gummi Bears.
For trolls, I imagine evil fey and dark forest dwellers and hag minions.
Hill giants, I think are big dumb bullies.
Stone Giants I imagine are slightly xenophobic nomads. I picture then wandering around mountains and caves. And kind of cold and calculating.
Fire and Frost Giants have a Viking flavor for me.
Cloud Giants remind me more of the Renaissance than ancient Greece.
Storm Giants are Ancient Greek wannabe Titans.
all my trolls have two options for personality snarling beast or World of Warcraft Jamaican trolls.
Ogres I always considered dumber then hill giants (not by much) but more apt to use a group of ogres then a group of hill giants. I don't know if its cannon but I feel hill giants are more aloof.
Storm giants are my favorite, stone is my second raining boulders down from a distance. then fire giants you know who are bigger angrier dwarfs.
Trolls I find are fairly unique due to the whole regeneration and weakness to fire/acid thing. I see them as being more of a nasty beast that are superficially similar to the other giants but much more dangerous than the other two if you take them lightly.
Ogres vs Hill Giants: This is trickier, but the way I see it, Hill Giants are real people. Like, they have a culture, they have the ability to form meaningful connections with others, the fact that they're also brutish monsters is just an unfortunate part of them. Ogres, on the other hand, notably lack a culture. I've never thought of them as redneck so much as "savage" (which has it's own problems but...). I suppose you could say that Ogres aren't developed enough to really have a sense of self beyond basic survival needs and basic cruelty, while Hill Giants just barely have that sense of self and culture, enough to be interesting people instead of monsters for adventurers to kill.
I connect Hill Giants with the other Giants, which usually have some noble traits. I connect Ogres with orcs and gnolls, which are generally portrayed as savage monsters. A Hill Giant is a dumber Giant, while a Ogre is a bigger orc.
Ogres always seemed more of the 'backwood serial killer' compared to other giants. They specifically have a feat, nightstalker, that lets them ignore size penalties to stealth (it doesn't have a race requirement, but it specifically references ogres in the flavor text; fairly clear intent of connection).
Hill giants appear as more organized tribes. Still not very bright, still picks on 'the little guy', but they are not meant so much as 'monster' as an ogre is. They fit into a similar niche as the local barbarian tribe that raids the town/caravans for supplies. It is just that they justify their perceived stronger position based off of fairly obvious physical differences.
What do people think of sun and moon giants? do they really add anythng or do they seem a bit forced? I only leaned about them when I bough the bestiary 5 pawns and was disappointed by there being multiple identical pawns; not even 2 male and 2 female but all identical which I think makes including multiple sun or moon giants just that bit awkward.
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My thought is "wait they have sun and moon giants?"
A friend of mine played a half-ogre named Gob who wore a barrel. He was simple-minded and kind and I think he main weapon was a giant wrought iron street lamp or something.
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I often have common folk refer to most giants simply as "giants." Those ogres? "Giants." Those Stone Giants? "Giants." The Storm Giant who helped establish the kingdom ages ago and whose face adorns the obverse side of the coins? "A giant."
More nuanced takes:
Ogres-Generally evil and crazy, not interested in refinements
Hill giants- Not all THAT organized, but less congenital insanity. More method to their madness.
Fire Giants- While many giants look like big humans, these guys clearly look like big dwarves, at least in Pathfinder-land. I often make a point of how well-made every single tool or weapon they use is.
Frost Giants- Big nasty raiders, but not uncultured. I also make them genuinely brave, as opposed to being simple bullies- yeah, they raid smaller species, but they also throw down with dragons, and respond to dangerous foes as worthy challenges they'll sing about once they've won.
Stone Giants- Not evil (HUZZAH!) but standoffish. I make them the spiritual types, who, if you understand and respect them, make good neighbors most of the time, but who can also utterly ruin your day if they feel you've crossed them.
Cloud Giants- I honestly find little use for these guys. The good/evil split can be fun to tapdance around, but I do that with Stone Giants, too...
Storm Giants- I cannot think that I've EVER used them outside of their presence in published materials I've employed.
Marsh Giants- Creepy swamp monsters. I am a fan.
Trolls- Fill a different mechanical niche thanks to their use of claws over clubs and their regeneration. More bestial. I play up their sort of pack-based society when they're actually spoken to-more savage than ogres, but less crazy.
Rune Giants- Thassilon-specific in origin, they work wellfor expalining "armies of giants."
Taiga Giants-While I could just as easily use reskinned Stone Giants,I like these guys as nomads who want to be left alone. Lends them narrative versatility.
Most other types never see use by me. Since we now live with a system that makes giving them class levels easy, I have less need of snap to fit giants for a given challenge or environment.
You could maybe make ogres or trolls into fey creatures. Might serve to differentiate them from more "traditional" giants.
For the primary Giant races, have you tried Giants Revisited?
It doesn't cover Ogres or Trolls, but does give depth to a bunch of the other varieties of Giant that were around when it was printed.
Ogres and Trolls are covered in Classic Monsters Revisited.
I thought desert giants would be interesting to explore as a character: nomadic, yet territorial, they travel all over the desert? The "Why?" Is what I'd like to know more about, but they have some elements of character: they can endure the elements of the desert for weeks at a time, and yet when they do consume resources, they spurn alcohol and similar products. Now what could be going on there?
Ash giants are also interesting to me, as they come from locations that are said to have wild magic or abilities that can warp people into eldritch forms. They seem cruel, especially with their sense of humor, but they aren't evil. Knowing what the heck is going in their heads would be an interesting experience.
And nobody has mentioned the Eclipse Giants? Considering that they have awesome powers with little explanation as to how they got them, on top of their characters being entirely variable, I see a huge amount of potential in them!
As a redneck, I'm cool with the "evil redneck" flavor. But then I am cool with many offensive flavors, so long as they aren't intended to be a direct criticism or attack on the original culture.
As for the rest, I don't have much to say, as you make a fair point. Though trolls in general are more feylike than giants, when you do a comparison of all troll subtypes against true giants.
I guess you could say trolls are the marsupials of the giants!