Half Giants?


Pathfinder Second Edition General Discussion

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

Any chance we might be able to see Half Giants in PF2E? I've had a few players asking because they have certain characters they want to build that would be best as Large sized humanoids.

If there's another way to accomplish this, or any word on a future release, please let me know. They'll be excited. I'd also be excited to see Dragonkin and Uplifted Bears now that we've had the Starfinder crossover.

I'm also curious about non-human halfsies, and adding additional options for the other half. Like Dwarven half gnome.

Thanks!


What's this Pathfinder/Starfinder crossover thing? I am the interest.


Automatons and Lizardfolk can be permanently Large with ancestry feats at levels 13 and 17, respectively. Paizo seems reluctant to offer it, between the issues with them physically fitting into scenario maps and what they assume it means power-wise.

I was always fond of D&D 4e’s Goliaths, who got a lot of love across that edition. 4e’s take on Dark Sun borrowed their mechanics for Half-Giants; I’d love something similar in PF2. Orcs are easy enough to reflavor in the meantime.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

There are no baseline options for this at level 1, no. Large size is a pretty significant advantage for many builds. The drawbacks that could balance it out also aren't fun to deal with, like being unable to squeeze into a dungeon or be carried to safety if you get knocked out.

Giant instinct barbarians can use an action to grow during rage from level 6 onwards, and the extra reach is generally considered to be their big advantage to make up for their doubled AC penalty-- they also hit harder than any other build, but not THAT much harder than other barbarians.

Lizardfolk can take a feat to become permanently large... At level 17.

So if you hand this out, be prepared for it to distort things a bit.


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There is also the Beastkin's ability to become large at 13th level when in their hybrid form.


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Free "Large" at level 1 is not going to be a thing they're giving out with an ancestry, since reach is pretty important in a game where melee combat is super important. Starfinder can handle large PCs better since that game is tilted more towards ranged combat with your disentegrators, disruptors, plasma casters, gauss rifles laser cannons, etc. giving everybody a solid chance to just wreck the person on the other side of hangar bay.


I could see something like half giants existing and still being medium. Goliaths from 5e come to mind


The chance of a half-giant heritage is quite good. The half-giant character Rubeus Hagrid of the Harry Potter series would make the heritage marketable. Lyris Titanborn of Elder Scrolls Online is another human character with giant lineage. And some people would want to simply play a Large NPC.

The heritage would likely be a half-human heritage like half-elf and half-orc, because the fictional examples of half-giants are also half-human. The versatile heritages tend to be planar, elemental, or related to creatures that pass for other species.

The Half-Human Half-Giant heritage would give Large size. It might give reach to weapons and unarmed attacks without reach, but I doubt it would convert a 10-foot reach into a 15-foot reach. Anything more would be too powerful for a heritage.

The player would need to fill out further details with ancestry feats with the Giant trait. A Tall Legs feat could improve the characters speed to 30 feet. A Rock Throwing feat could give an ability to make a brutal, ranged Strike with a thrown rock. A Sweeping Strike feat could give the ability to make two-enemy strike like a Hill Giant's Wide Sweep. A Low-Light Vision feat could improve vision in dim light, and a higher-level ancestry feat could follow up with darkvision. Other high-level ancestry feats could give abilities from Cloud Giants, Fire Giants, or Frost Giants. A 1st-level Pass for Medium feat could let the half-giant fit into tight places and low ceilings like a Medium creature, but still have the reach of a Large creature.

Spells that make characters Large say "Large" rather than "one size bigger," so they would have no effect on a Large character. Maybe a high-level ancestry feat could say, "Effects that would make a Medium creature Large make you Huge instead. Your reach with weapons, unarmed attacks, and touch spells increases to 15 feet."


aobst128 wrote:
I could see something like half giants existing and still being medium. Goliaths from 5e come to mind

That's what I would figure. It would also likely come bundled with an option to become large, either permanently or temporarily, and also likely come online faster than other ancestries get it, like how Stryx can constantly fly sooner than other ancestries. Flying is their thing, and being big is a half-giant's thing.


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Largeness doesn't inherently come with reach in this game, so the only real advantage to size is taking up more space to block opponent movements, which is at least *interesting*.

I would still love half-giants of some sort.


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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Grankless wrote:

Largeness doesn't inherently come with reach in this game, so the only real advantage to size is taking up more space to block opponent movements, which is at least *interesting*.

I would still love half-giants of some sort.

You don't necessarily get reach, but you still threaten more squares. Also, pretty much every large humanoid creature gets reach. Large size creatures that don't are usually quadrupeds, which we probably won't be seeing as PC options much. We have a couple heritages that can switch between 2 legs and 4 but losing hands entirely causes complications.


non-human half-whatevers aren't too tough to homebrew, just follow the same template they laid out:
Access to feats of both ancestries, the traits of both ancestries plus the half-whatever trait, and a minor benefit from the ancestry you're "adding".

So a half-dwarf could be:
You gain the dwarf trait, the half-dwarf trait, and <minor benefit> (maybe increase ancestry hp by 2, or darkvision, it should be one of the base mechanics of the ancestry). In addition, you can select <base ancestry>, half-dwarf, and dwarf feats whenever you gain an ancestry feat.

theres also a blurb in the rules about "other halves" where it says the DM might let you apply the half heritage to a non-human character.

Liberty's Edge

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Perpdepog wrote:
What's this Pathfinder/Starfinder crossover thing? I am the interest.

I believe it is the PFS2/SFS crossover.

Pathfinder Society Special #3-99: Fate in the Future

And

Starfinder Society Special #3-99: Perils of the Past


That sounds so cool. Kind of makes me want to get into society.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
The Raven Black wrote:
Perpdepog wrote:
What's this Pathfinder/Starfinder crossover thing? I am the interest.

I believe it is the PFS2/SFS crossover.

Pathfinder Society Special #3-99: Fate in the Future

And

Starfinder Society Special #3-99: Perils of the Past

Looks like the PF one wasn't included free for subscribers like normal PFS scenarios. I don't see it in my digital content.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
nephandys wrote:
The Raven Black wrote:
Perpdepog wrote:
What's this Pathfinder/Starfinder crossover thing? I am the interest.

I believe it is the PFS2/SFS crossover.

Pathfinder Society Special #3-99: Fate in the Future

And

Starfinder Society Special #3-99: Perils of the Past

Looks like the PF one wasn't included free for subscribers like normal PFS scenarios. I don't see it in my digital content.

I don't think that either one of them is available at all to most of us until August.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
nephandys wrote:
The Raven Black wrote:
Perpdepog wrote:
What's this Pathfinder/Starfinder crossover thing? I am the interest.

I believe it is the PFS2/SFS crossover.

Pathfinder Society Special #3-99: Fate in the Future

And

Starfinder Society Special #3-99: Perils of the Past

Looks like the PF one wasn't included free for subscribers like normal PFS scenarios. I don't see it in my digital content.

Specials have always released a year after the date they originally run.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Oh I didn't know that. Thanks for the info.

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