D&D MONSTER RANKINGS - GIANTS & BIG MONSTERS (pt. 2) 

I'm.. not sure why a Cheshire cat reference is in a book chiefly concerned with giants and other large monsters, but I'm not complaining.

i feel like the elemental damage on the runic giants isnt actually mysterious or random like with the rest of the monsters

Personally I kinda like the bit about the fomorian noble not knowing about their kin's plight. The way I see it, they're so long lived, arrogant, and focused on their own projects that they don't care about what happens to the peasants of the kind, let alone the lives of the pathetic smaller races. They could be the last of their kind and they wouldn't even care. The cursed fomorians hate them with a passion, and the nobles don't even care to recognize them.

I feel like WoTC fears two things when it comes to monster design now: legendary actions and spells on monsters.

22:16 You missed a key part of their regeneration feature, where they can gain more mutations as time goes on.

Nice vid, your takes are always so grounded its honestly refreshing.

11:16 The reason they do this is so that the giants qualify for magic items that require you to be a specific class, despite not having any cleric features.

I could see the fomorian nobles not realizing about their cursed brethren believing that they are perhaps a different species of giants entirely.

WOTC is all but confirmed to be getting rid of legendary actions. Vecna himself didn't get legendary actions and instead got "3 reactions" they can use on certain situations, and onednd is even purposefully nerfing abilities that get rid of reactions entirely to instead only stop op attacks because getting rid of reactions is "too powerful" which suggests that reactions are replacing legendary actions. Which is so weird to me because it's legendary resistance that is the anti fun mechanic not legendary actions and they keep making monsters that have 5 of those, and now 11!

When I saw the fomorian noble I knew I had the perfect template for a villain. Made some small tweaks, tossed an armor of invulnerability and the Blackrazor his way, and boom! Perfect stat block for an ancient fomorian king with one big chip on his shoulder over the curse

26:26 “a cleric that cannot heal is no cleric at all” old school evil clerics beg to differ.

I'd love to play in a giant themed campaign, as a party of giants. Would need some slight homebrewing to make it somewhat balanced between players and giant types of course.

The lack of legendary actions might be because these are (mostly) supposed to be regular giants that have some extra features, they're meant to be in a party with other giants, while legendary actions are usually reserved for solo boss-monsters, like liches, dragons and the like

I love to see you go over more books like this going over like a different monsters and things just reviewing them by going over everything is included subclasses Quest things like that and then saying how you critique them and change them up in your style

The names of your tiers (and the musical references) are always awesome. TMBG tracks were hilarious. Love it. Thanks :)

A cleric who can not heal is still a cleric and I will die on this hill

4:10 Peace was never an option.

Been waiting for this since part 1 these are fun videos for those of us who don't have access to the books

I used to listen to your vids all the time while I worked :p I forgot about this channel this video just popped up on my homepage

I always look forward to these types of videos; they're super cool to listen to!

I'm somewhat surprised th' Athach didn't make it into this book, but non-cursed formorians getting stats is definitely cool, I dont tgink any other edition has done that.

You used the picture of Maze of Ith Esper and I had violent flashbacks lol

Love DnD. Love List-based media. Easy like.

You’re doing a great job with these videos. Thank you!

@12:14 there is art for this creature, they are in the same picture as the fensir devourer.

I would assume the random classes attributed to some of the giants is probably for the purposes of giving them magic items

My favourite was the goose. Peace was never an option.

26:30 okay this does actually have a cleric ability, a subclass ability to be exact. The trickster domain cleric has a similar illusionary duplicate ability. Also by 5e's definition a cleric doesn't have to heal at all, they just need to receive magic from a god they worship.

Thanks for making the video. I'm not going to buy any more 5E content so after watching both parts i really don't feel like I am missing out on much.

Troll amalgam fits like glove into mad scientist laboratory. Imagine raiding such place and scientist unleashes this onto you.

i think your nit picking alot with the "mystery X damage". something dont have to be said cos theyre common sense. for example, i am a fire giant, i am attuned from the day im born to the day i die with the element of fire. my hair is made of literal fire so my body is pretty hot. my weapon needs to be able to handle my heat without warping. what do you know, my big mace is now super heated and deals additional fire damage on a hit cos of hot hand/body. same thing for the other giant elements. freezer burn for frost giant, static shock for storm, vibrations for cloud giants, etc. it doesnt have to be stated for it to make sense. not everything has to be explained cos it should just be infered.

“Troll mutate?” Yeah they do that sometimes

Tha lack of legendary actions is supplanted by extra reactions and honestly boosted direct damage

The disdain on the passive writing and missed opportunities seems entirely justified and made me chuckle each time you clarified something

I get the sense that Wizards of the Coast has really gotten lazy with their monster descriptions, and yet greedier in what little they offer in more obscene costs.

HEY esper!! i love your content, i would absolutely love to see you review kobold press's tome of beast's books for their monsters with your rating system and lore analysis

Yes! Love these videos

consider this video to have the liked condition

Jesus Christ, Time Stop?! That’s a devastating ability, and I’m glad Storm Giants are Good-Aligned.

Someone needs to run a giant campaign where players only play as small size PCs

Great list as usual! Cant wait for the next one

Easy like ❤

[Mentions its use of runic magic] ["mystery thunder damage"] Hmm.......

I guess the mysterious force damage in so many creatures is an attempt to balance it out against other types of damage. But, I wish they tried to give it SOME explanation in the lore. In some cases the force damage is nonsensical I also found that there is...an interesting amount of psychic damage for creatures that have a strong base on elements, but this may be to balance it with the gems dragon from fizzban? or just the following the trend on the far-realm related creatures/effects/plots

[17:18] If you look closely at the Death Giant Shrouded One, it could get clear, why none of the monsters in GotG have legendary actions. They are not considered one of its kind. They are many. I think this book is for parties that can approach more than one giant at a time. Or at least that is what I think of it.

Man, if I had to find a complaint you didn't at least touch on then it would be that every single anti-caster feature involved an intelligence save. So wizards will be hindered but mostly fine but God help all the wisdom and charisma casters.

If it's _any_ sort of magic boomerang, I want it! Even if it's just a ranged 1d3 bludgeoning that returns when thrown.

Honestly I kinda wish Death Giants at least had a teleport legendary action or at the very least a shadow step, that would make them a ton better maybe even summoning shadows or specters as a legendary action?

Weird that the Goliath Giant's extra damage from Hill Giants is Piercing. Why not Bludgeoning...

imagine if the son of the giant god king is reborn as the gargantua from a runt to a giant ultra chad in his new life

11:44 You can't put a big enough emphasis on that comma between 'Hunting', and 'Women and Children'

11:17 Ugh, the 5e Firbolg.

I heard lightning blade! Adds in Naruto sound effects

I want to see a video about SHITTY MINIS! The same you made about shitty D&D art. Great video as always!

Nothing here I can't live without. Certainly not enough to get me drawn back in to WoTC clammy clutches.

Maybe it's time you created a new system. I can't think of anyone more suitable for the task than you. You have already published your own source book and are well on the way to publishing your second. You have the experience of countless sessions across many campaigns and several systems. Your lore writing and storytelling capabilities have never disappointed, to my knowledge at least. Furthermore, you have the unique advantage of starting out with a dedicated fan base that can give feedback at any time you want it.

6:49 see? That's what I've been saying. If all it takes for you to like a thing is to scratch off a word, line, or even ability then that's the ideal monster statblock. There's more IF YOU WANT IT but there's plenty to work with even if you don't. It feels like you get a little too tied up in the details with earlier entries in this rating of giants saying 'oh it's good but why does it have X' or '...why does it have x instead of Y?' Those are such minor changes I can't even imagine getting hung up on them as a DM who is already getting in and messing with the very bones of encounters to make them fit your vision.

The wording of a lot of these monsters and abilities seems a lot like they were designed for a video game or for the programing of a vtt.

4:53 pfft thunder huonk

Disappointed the goose was not silly 😅

Succinctly put. Sometimes I want ready made stuff so I can focus efforts elsewhere or alter details as needed to fit the campaign as opposed to making everything up wholecloth. I miss previous installments of rpgs where they paid their writers for writing and not 'game design'. Frameworks are great, don't get me wrong, and whatever lore is written can be cast aside or otherwise ignored if I don't care to include it...but at least give me the option.

Giant goose: I choice violence

I HATE the direction 5e is taking with its design of spellcaster NPC character stat blocks. Just giving them random energy blasts and a trivial assortment of utility spells instead of actual full spell lists.

Cloud giant,s are my favorite too

i think the magic item in this book is the real reason to buy it

I remember when this book was being shown off pre-release and got bombarded with backlash for having AI art, being overly-cartoony, the retcon of a major DnD character, and how trash the writing is. Then it was released and everyone was even angrier at the price vs the content, and the fact that a good few designs in this book are almost blatent rip-offs of non-official/fan-made works. This book is just one of several nails in WOTC's coffin over the past year, I know I wont be adding it to my collection anytime soon, I'd rather just use the old 3rd edition content and update it for 5E use. Or, better yet, just homebrew some stuff myself.

Can we write a petition or something to say to the Witch that we want to have spells in the statblock and better arts than AI devils in The Chains of Asmodeus and this animation-alike designs for dragons and giants?

Thank you esper

Destiny gambler that runs a casino. Uses its counter spell ability to prevent magical cheaters.

Hahahahaha, I usually agree with the majority of the analysis and rankings, but when you said "A Cleric who cannot heal is no Cleric at all" and all I could think was *OK BOOMER*

Don’t agree with everything in this video or the last but real respect the expertise and where you’re coming from. As someone who’s always been a big fan of the Giants in D&D I walked away very satisfied with this book.

How is it so hard to wrap your head around the fact that sometimes a monster themed around an element may do extra damage with that element? But I do agree with you about the lack of legendary actions.

Ym not happy with your idia of good art but eh all have ther preferance

I just assumed the force damage is due to the size and strength of Giants, like, a Giant hitting me with a battleaxe would have more force behind it and ought to do damage beyond simply piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning, right?

What's with the change to passive tense for conditions?

I would agree that 3.5e was getting out of hand with everything that a DM and player needed to know, but 5e was made by morons for people that did not want to use their brain to think

Frankensteins Monster was intelligent, just the old movies portay it as childlike and dull. Check your facts!

11:44 hunting women and children? THOSE FIENDS! 😆

They keep saying prone, but the pictures show the person as supine.

Missed Frostmourn.

(49:00) Who wants to bet that WotC put this paragraph in at the start of the bestiary as a way to cut corners and save money and maximize profits on producing this tiny book?

I don't like the Fomorian Noble story at all. In my D&D world the Fomorians are all cursed (none escaped) giants of extreme vanity and arrogance, some more intelligent fomorians kept searching for ways to become powerful/beautiful again and ended up into other monsters. Enter. Plague Spewer = Fomorians who were cursed with undead (Vecna promised a cure to them but cheated them to gain powerful new undead minions) while searching for ways to get their beautiful forms back, they turned into horrid undead giants spitting out clouds of vermin and their horrid touches spread the most horrid of diseases, they are still intelligent and are disgusted by themselves and try to take every other creature with them in their self pity and hate. Protean = Fomorians who traveled to the far realm to find ways to become beautiful again ended up as Proteans, formless blobs of purple flesh who can take on any form they desire, while this enables the fomorians to become beautiful again, they are still disgusted by their true Protean forms and the Far Realms madness took it's toll on their minds, Proteans are extremely powerful monsters and can turn into most other creatures even red dragons, BUT they can't copy the magical abilities only the physical abilities of other creatures they copy. Eldritch Giant = The true name and race of giants the Fomorians were called before being cursed is Eldrich Giant, beautiful purple-skinned giants which skin is covered in magical tattoos, they are the most magic-orientated giants out there, even more powerful than Storm Giants. They are extremely rare and they are those few Fomorians who found the secret way to revert back to their beautiful selves, they rule over/boss around other Fomorians, but never share their secret magic of turning back into an Eldritch Giant, as they are selfish extreme and love being rare, they often torture/ridicule and boss their Fomorian minions around. Two things however remained ugly with the Eldritch Giants, their soul is tained with selfish energy, and their right eyes are still a bit deformed and another color than their left eye, this annoys the Eldritch Giants to no end and they still want to find a way to become 100% perfect reflections of their true self.

Out of curiosity, have you seen any of Phandelver and Below? It looks horrifying to me.

I feel like the video would be so much better if you stopped pulling me out of it by complaining about the new way conditions are inflicted. We get it, you don't like the change. Move on

What they did to Firbolgs makes me wanna throw up.

Imagine telling someone they're playing the wrong game for wanting said game to be better and not rely barebone scraps. So you're satisfied with overpriced books with shallow content? You want to do extra work to figure out how some monster mechanics work? I can understand generalizing monster profiles for the sake of whatever setting you're putting them in, but its really helpful to have examples to get the mind working. A Forgotten Realms Fire Giant is going to function a lot differently then a Mystaran Fire Giant in terms of lore, I'd wager.

5e writing has largely moved away from giving monsters or npcs proper spell lists, instead giving them a handful of battle spells per day. This of course is just one example of them both dumbing the game down in an attempt to make it more "accessible" and video game-like, and because WoTC are a bunch of lazy jerks who give us half-finished products. Ironically this had made using these stupid monsters even harder, since they rarely have magic for anything bur combat. This is also why they didn't give the creatures with classes any class features; they want it to run like a video game rather than role play. Simple, stupid, easy for the masses to enjoy.

There’s plenty of reason to be pessimistic of WoTC, a “Disney DnD” isn’t progress. Lore is too important to treat poorly, it is highly effective consumer retention because it is sacred.

Geez so many types of fire, frost, stone, cloud, hill and storm giant variants and next to no other new monsters or even giant species.... dnd 5e really has the worst monsters for me... They not even have used the Destrachan yet

Instead of "mysterious," you ought to say "barbarian screwjob" damage. XD

You really shouldn't have to look for a new game or system for consistent and good lore. It should be present in D&D, and that used to be the case.

It’s nice to see them making more interesting high cr monsters. I’m still not buying this book, for $60 there’s no excuse for this book to be as thin as it is.

Firbolg, known for hunting woman and children That order of words is suspicious...

AYAYA

Are you going to go over the new class Facebook brought out

The Fomorian Nobles bum me out. What a boring waste of potential. The majority of Fomorians have been cursed because their god demanded that they conquer the Fey Wild, and the ones who escape simply don't care? They don't hate elves, fey, their own god, or have any interest in breaking the curse? I've got my own version of Fomorian lore that I prefer. They were once called Gloom Giants. True giants with a place in the Ordning. But they disliked that their standing amongst giantkin was determined by raw power alone, and so sought different ways to advance their station. Some turned to arcane magic. Others became assassins, slaying higher ranked giants through treachery. The so called "invasion" of the Fey Wild was actually an attempted alliance with the Unseely Court. The Gloom Giants were not punished by the gods of the Fey, but by Annam All-Father, chief god of giant kin. If the Gloom Giants wanted so badly to lurk in the shadows, consort with the deformed, and be outside of the Ordning? So be it. He stripped them of their standing, their minds, and their capacity for stealth, before casting them into the Underdark to rot in darkness for the rest of time. That's all backdrop for the villain of my campaign. A single Fomorian who had his curse broken by a mad mage, he's a Gloom Giant assassin that wields daggers the size of great swords. He's plotting his revenge against the rest of giant kind, but while he does he enjoys visiting all kinds of cruelty against those weaker than himself. Mortals and smallfolk only know him as an urban legend called The Spindly Stalker.

I’m getting really suspicious of WOTC, all coincidental monsters that are similar in design and titles. From not only your books but Monster Manual Expanded.

I know they said they cut the AI artwork out of this book, but they should have focused on the AI generated text instead.

This whole book is a giant miss. Zing.

Is this the worst creature book?