Ash / Death Giant in MMIII [Archive] - Wizards Community

Ash / Death Giant in MMIII [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
gavagai
01-15-05, 03:03 PM I am not an Ebberon fan, but I really liked the death giant concept. However, I think the MM entry falls short of the real potential. I am collecting ideas on how the abilities of the death giant could be brushed up in "coolness". Equal power level is not a necessity.

Most ideas center around those guardian souls. First, does anyone knnow what bonus exactly these souls give to spot etc? Doesnt seem to say. What I came up with was something like the following:

- list all guardian souls currently in the death giants grip by name. Most death giants could start out with 30 - 75 and call on powers by sacrificing specific souls to their alien masters. The giant would call out a specific soul and send it off to its masters during combat, which I find very flashy.

- sacrificing the soul of a fighter may give a short term combat bonus, a cleric may provide healing, with the exact amount dependant on the level of the soul sacrificed. Also, it may be an idea to sacrifice specific souls to negate effects of one spell as a free action (ie, automatic spell resistance roll successful), for example a soul of at least 1 HD per spell level to be cancelled.

- it may be possible that specific death giants can only utilize specific souls, like elves, dwarves, and orcs. This would be a cool twist to a death giant with ranger levels (or a "favored enemy" prestige class). Giants that "sucked up" an incompatible soul may wish to trade it with other giants.

- a soul may be sent out to scout, maybe as a ghost or spectre, for a short period of time.

- it may be required for the giant to consume a soul per day or week to keep on existing (making these giants pretty fatalistic and desparate).

- also, "soul trading" may bring these giants in the company of night hags, and it may be interesting to find out how the two species interact. Maybe the night hags are the evil beings the giants originally had a pact with? And now, the giants need to send tribute payments to their mistresses? Or are night hags not alien enough for this monster?

So far my half-baked ideas. What do you think?
Soel Griffin
01-16-05, 05:27 AM Very interesting thoughts on perhaps my favorite new monster from MM3. I really like the connection with hags! Your other ideas are great as well, and can fuel quite a number of hooks.
gavagai
01-16-05, 07:26 AM Mhm. I have since been thinking that it may be a neat idea to forget about the giant concept all together and instead create something like a "greater night hag" with a similar set of abilities (i.e., guardian souls, soul keening, etc). The standard case of a nighthag trading larvas may only be true for lesser species, who have not yet matured or mastered all abilities of their race. Once a hag has accumulated sufficient power through this trade, it develops a new set of abilities. The "greater night hag" may be able to mold one of its captured souls into a heartstone, and trade it with a normal night hag for an oath of service. In fact, it may be that normal night hags are promising (evil) human females (or green hags) taken in as apprentices and hand maidens by their more powerful cousins. They are then sent on a multitude of missions were adventurers normally encounter them.
Ideas on this? Does anyone have details on the nighthag soul economy that may be useful?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
gavagai 01-15-05, 03:03 PM	I am not an Ebberon fan, but I really liked the death giant concept. However, I think the MM entry falls short of the real potential. I am collecting ideas on how the abilities of the death giant could be brushed up in "coolness". Equal power level is not a necessity. Most ideas center around those guardian souls. First, does anyone knnow what bonus exactly these souls give to spot etc? Doesnt seem to say. What I came up with was something like the following: - list all guardian souls currently in the death giants grip by name. Most death giants could start out with 30 - 75 and call on powers by sacrificing specific souls to their alien masters. The giant would call out a specific soul and send it off to its masters during combat, which I find very flashy. - sacrificing the soul of a fighter may give a short term combat bonus, a cleric may provide healing, with the exact amount dependant on the level of the soul sacrificed. Also, it may be an idea to sacrifice specific souls to negate effects of one spell as a free action (ie, automatic spell resistance roll successful), for example a soul of at least 1 HD per spell level to be cancelled. - it may be possible that specific death giants can only utilize specific souls, like elves, dwarves, and orcs. This would be a cool twist to a death giant with ranger levels (or a "favored enemy" prestige class). Giants that "sucked up" an incompatible soul may wish to trade it with other giants. - a soul may be sent out to scout, maybe as a ghost or spectre, for a short period of time. - it may be required for the giant to consume a soul per day or week to keep on existing (making these giants pretty fatalistic and desparate). - also, "soul trading" may bring these giants in the company of night hags, and it may be interesting to find out how the two species interact. Maybe the night hags are the evil beings the giants originally had a pact with? And now, the giants need to send tribute payments to their mistresses? Or are night hags not alien enough for this monster? So far my half-baked ideas. What do you think?
Soel Griffin 01-16-05, 05:27 AM	Very interesting thoughts on perhaps my favorite new monster from MM3. I really like the connection with hags! Your other ideas are great as well, and can fuel quite a number of hooks.
gavagai 01-16-05, 07:26 AM	Mhm. I have since been thinking that it may be a neat idea to forget about the giant concept all together and instead create something like a "greater night hag" with a similar set of abilities (i.e., guardian souls, soul keening, etc). The standard case of a nighthag trading larvas may only be true for lesser species, who have not yet matured or mastered all abilities of their race. Once a hag has accumulated sufficient power through this trade, it develops a new set of abilities. The "greater night hag" may be able to mold one of its captured souls into a heartstone, and trade it with a normal night hag for an oath of service. In fact, it may be that normal night hags are promising (evil) human females (or green hags) taken in as apprentices and hand maidens by their more powerful cousins. They are then sent on a multitude of missions were adventurers normally encounter them. Ideas on this? Does anyone have details on the nighthag soul economy that may be useful?