Moon Giants: The Rise and Fall of a D&D Empire

[Music] the moon is a truly special thing for some it embodies love romance and that feeling of something so beautiful one can't hardly describe it to others it is a governess always watching and dictating the destinies of those below and then there are those who see its mere existence as a challenge to be taken on they see the moon as a new place perfectly within sight but impossibly far away at least until the impossible is conquered in the world of dungeons and dragons all of this still remains true though when you toss magic gods and monsters into the mix the grand symbolism of the moon becomes much less symbolic and entirely more fantastical hello and welcome to monster of the week the only show on the internet that asks the question can an adventuring party make it to the moon and what might they find there while that might actually be two questions the answer is yes and giants respectively that's right our monster this week is a giant a moon giant to be precise on account of the fact that they are giants and they come from the moon now unlike the majority of monsters i cover on this channel this week's creature is also not from dnd's history but is indeed from its estranged cousin pathfinder it has been a while since we've talked about a creature from pathfinder and as always my goal here today is to go over everything there is to know about moon giants i'm talking lore ecology and of course some plot hooks and story ideas for how the moon giants might fit in your d d adventures as well as provide you with some fresh 5th edition monster stats now personally i love these giants and i think they offer up some really interesting flavor so if you're prepared to talk about some absolute lunacy why don't we dive right in [Music] moon giants appear not dissimilar from other giants we're used to seeing at least as far as size goes they stand about 24 feet tall and can weigh up to 18 000 pounds they're described as having gray or blue skin which reflects light and is covered in tiny pock marks get it because they're a crater face moon puns moon giants first appeared in pathfinder's bestiary 5 which was released in 2015 but this would be far from their only appearance as they would get reprinted with literally no change i i mean after being adopted for star finder in september of 2018 as part of the alien bestiary published by third party publisher legendary games for those who are unaware starfinder is to pathfinder as spell jammer is to dungeons and dragons it's pretty much the same game but with a nice fresh coat of sci-fi paint over the whole thing the great thing about this when it comes to both spell jammer and star finder is that if there's a cool monster from the fantasy side of your favorite table top game but you're playing the science fiction setting because the mechanics are so similar you can use the monsters pretty much interchangeably legendary games obviously knew that and so did piezo because in october of 2018 literally one month after the legendary games monster book came out the official starfinder alien archive 2 was released and look who made it onto page 62. unlike the version printed by legendary games however the new official moon giant stats were at least a little bit different mechanically the sordid history of the moon giant's publishing aside though what is it that makes a moon giant different from any of the other giants we might see in the monster manual for example after all when it comes to giants the name assigned to them is usually pretty telling take fire giants they are notorious craftsmen and they live in places with lots of fire storm giants can hurl lightning bolts and hail giants live near hills when we look at the moon giants it appears that they get their name due to the fact that they have this immense reverence for the moon they are tremendously gifted both as astronomers and astrologers and have a rich culture attached to moon worship they are something of an oxymoron as highly spiritual yet extremely lawful beings on the one hand they will debate endlessly to refine their laws and outlook on life following logic and philosophy to grow as a people while on the other hand they are extremely spiritual and emotional and have tethered themselves to the cosmos they are capable of casting very powerful magic most of which is from the divination school and all of which is powered by their understanding of celestial bodies and their movements in this act of tethering themselves to the stars has certainly had an impact on the moon giants as a society while each one of them is certainly an individual they are all affected by the omens of the night sky based on the state of the cosmos their mood and disposition is at the very least going to be slightly impacted in some cases this might make them cheery in others it could make them despondent but what you really have to watch out for is the rising of a bad moon in the sky if you happen to encounter a moon giant during an ill-omened cosmic event who knows what could happen nothing good so when a moon giant says that they can't hang out because mercury's in retrograde believe them now if we want to ascribe a real world culture to the moon giants as a way to kind of tether ourselves to this fantasy race the closest thing would seem to be the romanticized idea of ancient greece specifically athens the moon giants are stalwart philosophers and revel in the chance to debate new ideas with anyone who will converse in good faith they also have a formal society with well thought out laws and established hierarchy with special positions existing for oracles who are especially in tuned with the stars and other cosmic events as giants they are of course still incredibly strong but they don't often choose violence and in fact they're one of the few giant races that will often welcome adventurers with open arms as visitors this is likely due to their lawful neutral logic based approach to making rules and living their lives but it also might have something to do with theronate and magical abilities moon giants are generally great at all the same stuff other giants are objectively good at they can smash people for a bunch of damage and they also have no trouble reaching the top shelf of the pantry but what truly makes moon giants unique is that connection to the moon and the cosmos above they have a wide array of spells they can cast every day most of which have a connection with divination magic with spells like commune dreams scrying and clairvoyance they've got pretty much all the tools they need to be effective sages they also have access to control weather which isn't likely to be super useful in combat but is extremely thematic for a creature that is so focused around the moon another byproduct of their connection to the stars is their innate ability to see everything and i don't mean by scrying moon giants have true sight which means they can see through any magical illusions or other arcane bullshittery with ease this is invaluable when identifying hidden threats and it's something the moon giants like to keep to themselves for the most part see they're the type of combatants who will try to learn everything they can about their opponent before swords are even drawn and if they can avoid those weapons being drawn in the first place all the better but inevitably from time to time combat is going to erupt and when it does the moon giants have more than a few tricks up their sleeves as we all know giants are pretty handy when it comes to chuck and boulders every single one of them at least in 5th edition has a rock throwing attack and the moon giant is no exception in fact they're arguably the most proficient when it comes to giants chucking stuff around rather than simply pitching a boulder like a fastball towards their enemy they opt to throw boulders up high letting gravity do some of the work the result is a massive amount of damage when the throne rock hits but it also creates an impact crater shattering the area within 10 feet and transforming it into difficult terrain another feature of the moon giant is this lunar aura which they are constantly projecting in 60 feet outwards from them at all times this lunar aura can cause two different effects and the giant can use a bonus action on its turn to swap which effect is currently active while the aura is waning it calms all creatures within it in much the same way that the calm emotion spell does creatures become incapable of taking aggressive actions unless someone hits them first in the starfinder version of this monster this aura also puts those creatures to sleep which i think is kind of neat but i preferred the calming effect overall just because i like the idea of a moon giant using this ability to turn a fight into a conversation or in their case more likely a debate so i opted to just add sleep to the moon giant spell list since it is still very thematic for it to have that ability and then we can kind of have the best of both worlds the second effect of the aura comes into play if it is waxing in this mode it enrages all creatures causing them to do additional damage and essentially gain the benefits and drawbacks of the barbarian's reckless attack feature a fringe effect of this waxing aura is that it causes all lycanthropes to be forced into their hybrid forms this may or may not come up but it's pretty cool when it does so now that we have a good understanding of what a moon giant is and what it's capable of let's talk about the many ways we can tell stories with these creatures also don't forget to like the video and leave a comment with your own plot hook ideas one of the first things we need to address when fitting any new giant into the world of dnd at least from a general perspective is the ordning the ordning is basically the hierarchical structure the giant races use to determine who is in charge and who makes the rules with storm giants at the top and hill giants at the bottom there is a direct correlation to how powerful any given giant race is and how far up the proverbial food chain they find their position moon giants however are not from d originally so their place within the ordnance has gone entirely unconsidered up until this point mechanically speaking they are a little bit more powerful than storm giants are so maybe their true spot within the ordning is at the top and they are the rightful heirs to the position which the storm giants currently hold maybe that spot was taken from them ages ago by a storm giant plot and they have since been displaced and driven off or perhaps the moon giants chose to step aside and allow the storm king to rule opting for a more isolated existence allowing them to focus on their meditations in philosophy maybe the moon giants exist in a sort of oracular role where they are not directly involved with giant politics but the other giant races visit them for advice and direction in times of great need or it's entirely possible that they have a completely separate origin story and they were never part of the ordinance to begin with maybe their species actually comes from the moon and on the lunar surface high up above they developed completely independent from the rest of the giants down here below in order to explain why any of them are on the planet's surface at all maybe in an age long past a group of them opened a magical gateway to explore the lands below only to become stranded somehow eventually much like all of you watching this have done to my youtube channel they subscribed to their fate and chose to simply build out what life they could on the ground below while their kin up above on the moon just kind of assumed they had died in some magical mishap this could lead to a really interesting story where the giants are trying to find a way to get back to the moon and reunite with their lost brethren another thing i really want you to consider when it comes to giants is that they typically hate dragons dragons are one of the few creatures that actually pose a sizable threat to giant society and they were at war in the past for thousands of years while open warfare with dragons may no longer be the norm the memory of both dragons and giants run long and old grudges are seldom forgiven while any dragon would surely make a worthy adversary for a group of moon giants i wonder if there is a specific dragon out there that would make for a thematic and perfect match up for these creatures perhaps some kind of draconic being that also seeks dominion over the moon something that okay i'm over this bit i'm talking about moon dragons i did a video a ways back about moon dragon so if you want to know more about them i'll link to it in the pinned comment on this video but basically these dragons also draw power from the moon and they tend to be a lot less chill than our new giant friends here i can't help but feel like a party getting wrapped up in a war between a city of moon giants and a moon dragon with hundreds of enthralled lycanthrope minions has potential to be an incredible story and if you want to do that i've already converted the moon dragon into 5th edition so you've got all the tools you would need i also think a moon giant druid would make for an incredible npc encounter just imagine it this literal giant heading up a druidic circle of the moon they could provide the party with both wisdom and guidance as well as a powerful ally who can transform into massive animals if there's no rule a dog can't play basketball there's sure as hell no rule that a giant can't be a druid this is especially cool if you already have a moon druid or even a circle of dreams druid in your adventuring party a moon giant mentor would be a really cool npc to include in that character's backstory something else i do want to touch on here is that i know different d and d worlds have different cosmological cycles and potentially completely different setups and rules altogether take eberron for example that world has 12 moons maybe even 13 depending on who you ask so that's gotta change up a few things right so what i want to do here for this creature is talk about a few setting specific ideas that definitely can translate between d d worlds but also will give you something to jump off of if you happen to be dm'ing in one of these worlds as i just mentioned eberron has at least 12 moons how will this affect our moon giants well perhaps in eberron with its increased lunar presence the moon giants are overwhelmingly powerful they could possess so much power that they have been wary of going completely mad perhaps the oldest oracles among them are all just a bit off as they've spent an entire lifetime being saturated with this bombardment of arcane energy it's also possible that you have 12 different factions of moon giants with their own politics and stories happening between them maybe two of the factions go to war and one day the fourth moon of eberron just shatters in the sky due to a heinous ritual performed by one of the moon giant clans it's hard to say exactly how but i'm sure having 12 moons would be both a bit of a blessing and a curse to our moon giant friends the 1634 of you who have watched my therose lore videos probably already know where i'm going with this but i think theros would be an amazing spot to throw in some moon giants the world of pharaohs is already extremely greek in terms of flavor so like a bit of extra feta in your greek salad moon giants are an easy inclusion rather than being from the moon perhaps they are manifest from the nyx itself making them beings actually made from stardust and the essence of the cosmos i imagine they would live atop mountains and build shrines to crew fix the god of horizons or maybe even a pharah [Music] you knew this was coming you knew i was going to talk about spelljammer because i mean come on they live on the moon sometimes moon giants make for a really easy inclusion in a setting that already prides itself on weird alien races living on weird alien planets pretty much any of the plot ideas i mentioned before will work in a spell jammer game but i especially like the idea of including a dire element to their situation the party can help with maybe i've just watched too many episodes of star trek the next generation but perhaps the moon giants are in crisis mode after realizing that the moon they live on is going to be destroyed by a cosmological event the party would have a chance to help them either by saving their moon or maybe by convincing them in the form of a debate that it's time to evacuate however evacuating a moon giant population is going to be a lot different than evacuating a population of any normal sized humanoid race just logistically that presents a giant challenge no pun intended it was intended you've been bamboozled now regardless of how if you do want to use this monster in your dnd campaign in the description down below you will find a link to a google stat block which contains everything you need to run this creature at your table including the stats of course and all the fluff and flavor details as well and if you're one of my lovely patrons you can of course find the patreon exclusive stat block over on the patreon page as my way of saying thanks for the incredible amounts of support and that brings us to patron of the week this week's randomly selected patron is the musicalboy93 thank you so much for your support i can feel the bardic inspiration coursing through me and thank you for watching i appreciate it immensely and do not forget that if you have a monster you'd like to see show up on monster of the week from a previous edition of d d or pathfinder or some other tabletop role playing game please leave a comment in the description down below or post it in the monster suggestions chat channel thing over on discord which is all linked in the description down below as well also definitely let me know what you guys think about this monster i enjoy going a little bit outside of d d and exploring some of the cool creatures brought to us by the pathfinder crew because you know gives a little bit of spice little diversity little spice of life over here so let me know if you guys are into that and who knows we might see more pathfinder creatures show up on the channel i mean i've done them in the past and i know you guys like them it's just you know it's a little different a little something different anyways it's a million degrees in this room my skin is nearly melting off of my body so i'm gonna go take a cold shower while this footage downloads onto my computer thank you guys for watching i'll see you in the next one until then [Music] ah

Channel: Dungeon Dad

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Id: wUUHy5I-m-I

Length: 20min 20sec (1220 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 02 2022