Giant, Snow

Family: Giant

Huge giant, neutral

Armor Class 11
Hit Points 138 (12d12 + 60)
Speed 40 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
19 (+4) 12 (+1) 20 (+5) 9 (-1) 15 (+2) 6 (-2)

Saving Throws Con +8, Wis +5
Skills Athletics +7, Stealth +4, Survival +5
Damage Vulnerabilities fire
Damage Immunities cold
Condition Immunities grappled, restrained
Senses passive Perception 12
Languages Common, Giant
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Special Traits

  • Snow Camouflage. The snow giant has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in snowy terrain.
  • Snow Regeneration. The snow giant regains 5 hp at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hp and it is in snowy terrain.

Actions

  • Multiattack. The snow giant makes two club attacks.
  • Club. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (3d4 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
  • Giant Snowball. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 60/240 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) bludgeoning damage plus 4 (1d8) cold damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity save or be blinded until the end of its next turn.

ABOUT

Flurries drift from the body of this gigantic humanoid seemingly crafted from snow. Its simple clothes are almost pointless, and it carries a massive icicle as a club.

Subservient to Frost Giants. Snow giants inhabit the same territory as frost giants, but they are considerably smaller than their more aggressive kin. Snow giants offer themselves up as servants to frost giants, most likely as a survival mechanism. The larger giants often employ snow giants as menial domestic servants, forcing them to clean lairs or craft armor and weapons. Frost giants view snow giants as incompetent at waging war, but they send the lesser giants as a vanguard against foes they suspect will prove tougher than their own numbers can handle. The bigger giants also use snow giants as proxies to settle clan disputes or questions of leadership.

Despite the bullying and maltreatment they receive from frost giants, snow giants rarely consider rebelling against their more powerful cousins. They often take the long view that their lives would be worse without the frost giants’ protection.

Inherently Playful Beings. If snow giants had their druthers and managed to avoid sharing space with frost giants, they would be more concerned with enjoying the wintry landscape they inhabit. When not driven by frost giants or by the need to acquire food, snow giants are mirthful and enjoy getting into snowball fights with those they encounter.

Among themselves, these snowball fights are akin to children playing in the snow. They are unaware of their own strength when engaging in such activity with smaller beings. The giants quickly realize the harm they inflict, and, provided they don’t receive armed retaliation for the accidental injuries they cause, they apologize and revert to using considerably smaller and less impactful snowballs.

Snowy Flesh. As most giants are at least touched by primal elements, so too are snow giants partially composed of the element of water, at least in its frozen form. While this offers them considerably less protection than a stone giant’s granite flesh, their connection to snow allows them to heal themselves merely by applying a patch of snow to an injury. Packing on snow also allows the snow giants to hide themselves more effectively, which becomes useful when they attempt to avoid the notice of brutal frost giants.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Tome of Beasts 2. © 2020 Open Design LLC; Authors Wolfgang Baur, Celeste Conowitch, Darrin Drader, James Introcaso, Philip Larwood, Jeff Lee, Kelly Pawlik, Brian Suskind, Mike Welham.

This is not the complete license attribution - see the full license for this page