Shire Giant

Family: Giant

Huge giant, lawful evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 138 (12d12 + 60)
Speed 40 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
19 (+4) 8 (–1) 20 (+5) 9 (–1) 10 (+0) 9 (–1)

Skills Animal Handling +3, Athletics +7, Intimidation +2, Survival +3
Languages Common, Giant
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +3

ACTIONS

  • Multiattack. The giant makes three Pitchfork attacks, or it makes one Pitchfork attack then uses Grab and Throw. Alternatively, it can make one pitchfork attack then use Grab and Throw.
  • Pitchfork. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (3d10 + 4) piercing damage.
  • Rock. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 60/240 ft. Hit: 20 (3d10 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
  • Grab. The shire giant reaches out and grabs a Medium or smaller creature it can see within 10 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be grappled (escape DC 15) by the giant. Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained.
  • Throw. The shire giant throws a creature it is grappling at a space it can see within 30 feet of it. The thrown creature takes 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or land prone. If the target space is occupied by another creature, that creature must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.

ABOUT

This hill giant wears a massive, home-spun tunic and hefts a pitchfork as large as itself. It is less bulky but visibly healthier than its nomadic kin.

Long ago, shire giants were hill giants who settled into a rough, agricultural lifestyle. Now, they assemble sprawling barn-houses, till fields of crops, and keep livestock in small family units on large farmsteads. While more settled than their nomadic cousins, they are no less dangerous. A shire giant’s conceptions of “livestock” and “property” are expansive to creatures smaller than themselves, and their punishment for trespassing is almost universally death and consumption.

Aggressive Agriculturalists. Shire giants require an enormous amount of food to feed them and their kin, and they tend to be indiscriminate about what, exactly, they farm. Fields of tubers or wheat abut wastelands of basically-edible weeds, while sheep share pastures with mammoths, sauropods, or wooly rhinoceroses. Even intelligent creatures aren’t immune to the shire giants’ will, as the giants occasionally declare a village part of their livestock, extracting regular tribute in treasure, goods, or food. These tributes aren’t always one-sided, and many shire giant farmsteads send these villages surplus goods or goods they can’t use or don’t want. Shire giants will trade with outsiders, offering wool, lumber, and monster-guts they no longer need for worked goods they can’t make on their own, but they prefer to get such goods via trade with or tribute from villages in their territory when possible.

Territorial. Shire giants are fiercely protective of their sprawling farms. Fenceposts, stacks of rocks, and the corpses of previous trespassers—often marked with runes promising death to trespassers—mark the boundaries of their territory. Monsters, bandits, and even lesser giants are treated as glorified guard dogs, set to controlling the giants’ livestock and killing lesser intruders. More dangerous, or more brazen, trespassers may draw the giants’ personal attention.

Straightforward Brawlers. In combat, shire giants are straightforward combatants. They lumber into battle, impaling smaller opponents with their pitchforks while grabbing and flinging tougher foes away from themselves or into their allies. They order any monsters or subordinates into the fight ahead of them, allowing the giants to remain relatively safe in combat. Shire giants rarely fight to the death; retreating to their homestead, or finding a new home entirely, is greatly preferable to death.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Tome of Beasts 3 © 2022 Open Design LLC; Authors: Eytan Bernstein, Celeste Conowitch, Benjamin L. Eastman, Robert Fairbanks, Scott Gable, Basheer Ghouse, Richard Green, Jeremy Hochhalter, Jeff Lee, Christopher Lockey, Sarah Madsen, Ben Mcfarland, Jonathan Miley, Kelly Pawlik, Sebastian Rombach, Chelsea Steverson, Brian Suskind, Mike Welham

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