This Giant Was Too "Out There" for D&D 5E 

Check out this week's sponsor right here! - www.kickstarter.com/projects/eldermancy/the-seekers-guide-to-enchanting-emporiums?ref=dznkdv What monster would you like to see next? Hit me up with your best suggestions!

OH it's Reef Giant. I read the title and immidiately assumed it was BEEF Giant.

A buff, bronzed, island-living, mansion-having, pie-eating, fanny pack-wearing, giant? That's just the Rock.

Plot idea: A Reef Giant and a Storm Giant are accidentally beginning to recreate the plot of Romeo and Juliet, and the players need to intervene before the death of one or both causes an already tense situation between the young giants' families to erupt into an outright fight... just outside of a squishy little humanoid town by the sea. The Reef Giant is the eldest daughter, and the Storm Giant the eldest son, of their respective families, so both of them are the main possible inheritors of their family's power, and as such each family desperately wants them split apart, but refuse to work together for this. The players can be hired by the town (to protect it), either family (to break up the kids), and/or the kids (to help them legitimize their love), and possibly even get multiple rewards if they can pull it off just right.

Their ability to cast control weather could be used by an evil reef giant to sink ships in order to get more treasure for themselves

The fact that there is a monster that can have the players play the bachelorette is incredible. Looking forward to that. Asking again for Ethergaunts please

Reef Giants looking at the Ordning and going "yeah, screw that rubbish" is not only immensely fitting for them, but also a nice mythology gag; the firbolgs of the Forgotten Realms, as detailed in the 2e sourcebook Giantcraft, also abandoned the Ordning as a poor way of determining leadership and instead established themselves as democracies. Mind you, this was before WotC retconned the Ordning into being a universal thing rather than just something unique to Faerun's giants.

I can see a Reef giant based on Maui from Moana. A young giant who buddies up with the party and drags them all around the seas to complete challenges in exchange for a macguffin.

In the depths of the ocean destroy water is a god teir spell. Imagine removing a few feet or water dropping the weight of the entire ocean on a creature.

There is really only one thing to do: Have a number of Reef Giant warriors do the Haka. The Haka is terrifying enough at normal size. Imagine a dozen Reef Giants doing it.

I know the Google Doc says "monogamous" lover, but totally read that as "magnanimous". Given how much giants and dragons hate each other, I'm a little surprised you didn't bring up any aquatic dragons who might have been in the area and getting into it with a reef giant.

I imagine a story where a party chooses one of their party members to go and enter a contest to win a reef giant’s love. The party casts enlarge/reduce to enlarge the party member so they can pretend to be a giant. Maybe even have another party member pretend to be an evil wizard casting a shrinking spell in the case that the one casting enlarge/reduce has their concentration broken.

Plot hook: a single eldest daughter doesn't want to get married so she gives her suitors impossible quests, inspired by the legend of Princess Kaguya. The players could be hired by a suitor to help him on the quest, or by the daughter to investigate the suitors to make sure none of them are cheating by bringing her counterfeits.

Idk why but when he said “reef giants mate for life” I pictured a pair of them casually looming over a tiny one-man boat just like “we saw you from across the ocean and we really like your vibe”

Wendigoon reviewing evidence for giants:

First thought best thought so heres my idea for a Reef Giant plot hook!: An absolutely terrifying, massive, folkloric pirate manages to track down the party. After his big, scary entrance and local campfire story hype, (and maybe a couple small quests to increase trust) he hires the party to help him win the hand of the love of his life in the competition she is holding. From there its a very Atalanta and Hippomenes style rom-com as the player helps him win the tournament! Bonus points if: He's actually considered kind of a wimp and isnt that strong for a reef giant. The reef giant he's after is way stronger than him. And he ends up losing but she picks him anyways because, she was actually just doing a "secret test of character" and every other reef giant cheated except for him and the party.

09:40. Has a DRAGON ever tried to court a reef giant heiress?

I feel like an old reef giant's unclaimed horde would make for a great setup for a One Piece scenario.

I would like to suggest combining the ideas of an underwater dive bar and an underwater mansion heist. Have a Reef Giant running a huge undersea casino!

I can't help but think the party getting dragged into a Reef Giant Competition either by accident(not knowing what it was), or by a party member(internet says probably a Bard) who joins it to try their hand at marrying said Giant, maybe they've know each other for ages and want out of the Friendzone or something.

My immediate idea watching this was an old male sea giant themed after the Big Lebowski hanging out on a tropical island with his soon to be rich daughter whose getting annoyed at all the suitors washing up

I would actually love to see more on the al-Qadim giants, especially the desert giants. Those lads have a REALLY depressing backstory.

Super cool monster. Imagine being a sailor seeing a massive dude swimming, even worse if they're swimming as fast as they can after you. Or away from/towards another sea monster. 3:10 surprised to hear Skylanders music. Very cool.

As the humongous reef giant emerges from the roiling surf he notices the party. Looking down with a bemused expression, the party hears in a deep rumbling tone "Sup dude and dudettes?"

There are quite a few creatures in world mythology that are still remaining obscure on a more global stage; I mentioned the Aralez from Armenian mythology in the comments of a prior video, and I've gone on about how I would love to see the Herculoids as D&D monsters in the comments of quite a few videos now. But there's another creature I became aware of earlier this year, the Ramidreju from Spanish mythology. To my knowledge, the Ramidreju hasn't gotten a translation in D&D, and these guys have a host of properties that can act as something to do with plot hooks and side quests when they aren't the subject of the main quest. Their appearance is described as a weasel-like creature with boar-like tusks on its snout and green fur. As for their abilities, the Ramidreju is described as having the ability to seek out Gold and Treasures, and they adore gold so much that it acts as a material calming agent for them when they cuddle with it, but they become incredibly hostile if you are foolish enough to rob from it; their fur is also described as being basically a magical cure-all. But these guys are rare; the Ramidreju is said to only appear every hundred years or so. And I would love to see this critter get translated into a D&D monster or some other kind of monster (I would also like to see them translated into a Pokemon or Digimon).

Now I need to put a Reef Giant who looks suspiciously like Jason Momoa's portrayal of Aquaman into my game.

My first thought as you described the courting rituals for the Bachelorette, was a party hired by a giant to woo her in a Victorian-style ball, complete with the intrigue and etiquette and everything.

I wasn't expecting having the possibility of narrating a freaking reality show, but thank you very much for the inspiration for my next one shot

I didn’t really know about Reef Giants but I did have a giant npc that I liked using that was akin to a Reef giant. In my game he was “harvesting” different pretty sea things from the ocean and the group was hired by a gang (unknown to them) that wanted to scavenge treasure from a sunken ship in the area the giant frequented. When they went to kill the giant they found out he wasn’t taking the “merchant ship’s” treasure but rather shells and stuff from around it and he was a gentle giant type character named Gorm. Gorm sold them a conch shell for twenty gold and eventually they used it during their fight with the gang and got to have Gorm on their team. Fun times

This is a bit of a long one, but one of my old player characters was actually half Reef Giant !! I had originally wanted to play a water Genasi who was very beeg and basically had Thor’s powers. My GM said that Genasi aren’t normally taller than the average human, but if he was half Reef Giant in the way Goliaths are half Stone Giant, it would explain away his size AND made some sense of his backstory being a baby who washed up on the shore of a colony of Dwarves who lived on an island. We ended up writing him such that his parents were Star-crossed lovers murdered by an invading Aboleth, sending their only child away from danger. Nowadays, he and the rest of the player characters I’ve used over the years crossed over into their own plane where they had grand adventures together !! I’m starting a game for some people new to tabletop and that character and his wife are now the governing heads of a country supported largely by coastal tourism !! She loves to handle the books while he goes out and promotes their resorts while diving for treasure !!

I'm really interested in how meeting with a giant that is just starting to build his mansion could look like. Maybe they need the party to clear the monster nest from the location they have chosen. Additionally it's interesting to think what happens with a mansion abandoned by a giant that left to raise a family.

And then the bard decides he wants the giantess for himself.

Damn, you keep dropping more gems for my Saltmarsh campaign! You should add a minor holiday to a port town called Baking Day or Sea Bread week, where everyone goes out of their way to make the best baked goods to lure a local giant that visits to sell ocean treasure. A plot hook could also be that the players offer their services to a giant, and he asks them to assassinate or steal loot from his rival so he can stand a chance with the rich female lol

I could have had so much fun with these when I was running Ghosts of Saltmarsh. These are awesome. Almost makes me willing to send people back to sea again. Sadly sea combat is such an odd pain.

My favorite plot hook would be an Eldest Daughter courtship situation! But not in a trashy way, in fact I would like it that a party member succeeds in winning the heart of the Reef Giant Woman.

Gotta say it, love the evangelion style previews for next episode. Please don’t ever stop them. Watching older episodes that lack that preview just don’t hit the same.

I like these dudes a lot! I think there'd be some fun in considering an intersection with these and living walls: some reef giant that's delved into necromancy (perhaps through their inherited fortune?) is raising bleached reefs back from the dead to seize control of the seas...maybe they're even using that to seal off some eldritch evil...? So much potential! Thanks, DD! Also, I'm finally back on Twitter so I was happy (I think?) to see that cursed truck pop up 😅 Edit: Oh, and see you at PAX! 😁

One thing I love about your content are the transition songs. Each one is so nostalgic and perfectly suited for each scene.

I love the idea of a party participating in the mating ritual with the condition of if they do well they get the loot they want, and actually winning or the bachelorette at least choosing one of them as a mate.

Plot hook idea: one of the party members is a half-reef giant, and gets a letter from his mom saying that she's being pressured to remarry and the party has to fend of would-be suiters.

Love the giants and genies that haven't made it into 5e yet I hope they get covered eventually

I just want to see a sixty foot tall Reef Giant surfing. I bet they have competitions called "Reefer Madness" to seek the biggest waves of Toril with their ship sized long boards. Although a giant surfing tiny waves is literally an immensely funny concept too. AAAAA-hah!

I honestly love how these guys are just chill and kinda funny, they're great, lmao

A giant that acts like a dragon 🐉

The Dive bar could be named Deep thirst. amazing idea BTW

I remember finding a RPG magazine recently that had a sea giant in it that they created themselves. I always felt it was a great idea and behold, D&D has the reef giant and it’s amazing! Can’t wait to have my players partake in giant bachelorette!

I feel like this giant was just begging for lair actions, with how much focus there is on their mansions.

I may have misread the title and thought we were learning about beef giants. One day we’ll get the tall meat men

Attack of the Colossal Beach Bum! _a booming echo from the distance, like mellow thunder:_ *TASTY WAVES, BRAH! COWABUNGA!*

is it bad that now Im thinking of "Surfs Up" except instead of penguins, its all giant Dwayne the Rock Johnsons?

So, reef giants are LITERALLY bronzed beach babes? 😮 Also, that clip from the Bachelorette has just caused all your viewers to slide to Chaotic Evil on the alignment chart. Thanks a LOT, Dungeon Dad! 😢

Another way to run The Bacheloret, Reef Edition is through a port town complaining that a nearby Reef Giant courtship tournament has been drying up the local fish hauls and making the seas around the port difficult to navigate without sinking. You can even increase the stakes by saying that this town is on an island and the port is in a small bay, and that the tournament is hosted near the mouth of the bay. The Reef Giants mostly keep to themselves, but because the suitors are paranoid of interference, they keep making whirlpools to deter any humanoid ships from coming close and chasing off any islanders who try to convince them to put things on hold so that supply ships can come in to port. The suitors are after a giantess who is well-respected by the island inhabitants because of her calm demeanor and the items she brings in to trade, and the party has to get behind the wall of suitors in order to speak to her about the troubles going on. How will the party sneak past? Will the giantess be amenable to their concerns? Does she even know of the competition being waged for her favor? That's up for the party and their DM to decide!

As the oldest daughter in my family, hearing that reef giants leave their inheritance to the oldest daughter has me giving the seal of approval 👍🏼. Anyway, the idea of having a session that is essentially the bachelorette: wet edition, has me writing down some notes for possible dnd encounters. Imagine having the party play match-makers, needing to essentially hype up their reef giant buddy, but also trying to convince the giantess that the guy they’re with is the best pick, sounds like such a fun encounter.

love the idea that the only thing in a dnd world to know what surfing is, are reef giants

These Giants are a grand idea. I can think that someone got caught up in a storm and shipwrecked on an island a Reef Giant lives around and the Reef Giant is curious about the group and shadows them, subtly giving them random supplies to try and help them in exchange for a favor. As for monster recommendations, an idea I had was Etrian Odyssey the video game monsters like the Cutter and it's varients, or the Furyhorn and it's varients. The Cutter is a big bear like creature with huge claws that adventurers can salvage to make swords. It enjoys honey, but is omnivorous and will attack the party on sight until it loses line of sight or gets distracted by honey. It has 2 more powerful varients, the Bloodclaw that is basically a Cutter covered in the blood of its many victims and the Berserker King, a giant muscular bidpedal maned bear that commands the lesser Bloodclaws and Cutters to do its bidding. The Furyhorn is a deer that has the ability to confuse or panic the party and will go after the party leaping over rivers if it's young are killed. There's a boss varient that's even more dangerous but I forgot the name of that one.

Ive only really played 5e, but when I was little I used to read through my dads old 2nd edition monster manual and other books like it. Its really intresting seing all these creatures I only partially remember being turned into monsters for modern campaigns. Nice video!

I read the thumbnail as "beef giant' and seeing the picture just immediately agreed, lmao

I imagined a giant who serves as abbot in the Umberli monastery. Let's say one of the younger daughters finds refuge in a quiet backwater, goes about her business, meets her faith mentor and begins to build a remote temple to her goddess.

Plot idea: the players find themselves caught in a feud between a reef giant treasure hunter and a yellow dragon pirate. Maybe the reef giant plundered sunken treasure belonging to the dragon. Maybe they just hate each other because that's what giants and dragons do.

Reef giant heiress: *hits the market* Every bard within a 100 knot radius: 👁️🫦👁️

Man, I'd love to be reborn as a reef giant. Sounds like they have such a pleasant and peaceful life just chilling on the beaches.

Cool video! While the bachelorette-competition could be a relatively light-hearted, you gotta remember. The eldest daughter of a relatively long line of eldest daughters is effectively the young scion of a very powerful noble family. Politics would be anything but rare in such situations. One young scion is arranging a competition looking for a spouse and the party gets involved with one of the bachelors looking to poke some holes in the competitions' plans. Immediately after setting up the first trap, however, they are approached by an older, butler-esque man who states that it's time the party meets his employer and heavily implies it's best for them to follow along. The employer is, of course, either the young giantess holding the competition, or her parents if they're still around. Depending on which and on their disposition, they might think one of several ways about the giant who involved the party for his subterfuge. Maybe they distain such 'weakness', maybe they're appreciative. Either way it's possible the giant noble in question enlists you to hamper the competitor in question, either to ensure someone that conniving or "weak" doesn't win, or to ensure he's skilled enough to handle heavy interferences with his plans. If it's the daughter in question and her parents are still alive, and the party is skilled enough to be up to the task, maybe it's her parents that set up the competition to find a "worthy partner" for her, but as she already has a partner, she's far more interested in making sure NONE of the impress her parents sufficiently to give her hand in marriage. Maybe her sweetheart isn't someone her parents approve of, like the son of a rival 'noble' family, or even something other than a Reef Giant! That would make for a pretty good Romeo&Juliet-story. On the other hand, if there are more than one daughters in such a family, there could be a plot hook for a less good-aligned party from the SECOND oldest daughter to either arrange an accident, or straight up off the eldest daughter to take over as the inheritor. Or maybe it's more that this particular "eldest daughter of and eldest daughter's eldest daughter" is in fact just a first-generation BELIEVED to be an inheritor who recently moved here due to her decision to "speed up" the sinking-part of "sunken treasures". You mentioned a kraken, maybe a reef giant of a particularly dark disposition is in cahoots with such a beast? Beyond that, I think the whole "CR10" is a bit.. weak? For a reef giant. Sure, if they rock up with nothing but a pair of whitey-tighteys, a sturdy net and a massive trident that might be true. But for an older one? One that has had centuries or even generations adding up to millennia to gather up and even commission powerful magical items fit for their needs? Yeah no a martial master giant with a +[Ouch] magic trident and an artifact-tier magical net having prepared for battle by strapping on their enchanted sea serpent scalemail? That should be WAY beyond CR10 even if they don't have a toolbelt and maybe a couple of bandoliers filled with more niche magical items, contraptions and concoctions. Tucker's Kobolds are the perfect example of how scary intelligent beings who don't take victory for granted can be. They're often used as an example for how dangerous KOBOLDS can be, but stronger foes with similar malevolent intellect should be expected to be capable of similar maximization of advantage. One final idea for a plot hook. Reef giants deal with treasures an valuables all their lives. If there's someone who can analyze and figure out the specifics of a magical item that a normal identify can't crack, it's going to be an elderly reef giant. Or maybe you've found an old family crest on your journey for a treasure, and you need help figuring out what family it is and where their seat of power is to know where to go next? A reef giant being a history-stud isn't all that strange, after all. Maybe there's an oddball that prefers being the curator of a museum? Spending all their time caring for, studying and researching a massive collection of objects with historical value? Both quantity and monetary value has its qualities of their own, but at some point a largely unidentified treasure is just another shiny rock. Assuming the in-world version isn't different, the Spear of Longinus is in and of itself just a mundane spear, likely rotted away to just a piece of rust vaguely in the shape of a spearhead. It's the weight of its history that marks it a treasure beyond what the vast majority of magical items and precious metals can measure up to.

This variant is so chill compared to all the others

if you run this irl, just whip out an 80s spray tanned, bleach blond, beach fun barbie/ken doll as the "miniature"

I immediately imagined an adventure set when an old reef giant put out a call for Adventurers to brave an underwater Cavern or something where who ever gets down there and retrieves the prize first gets to keep it. I can also imagine them charging an arm and a leg for people to watch the contest.

Could have the giant wear a "ring of reduce" to shrink it to a large creature. Heck, it'd make one heck of a nid battle twist.

I am totally going to have a reef giant running a casino in a underwater bubble near a main dock city in my campaign!

Love the idea of one running a shop built on a pier, and it literally just stands waist deep in the water via a hole in the floor to run the counter

idea : reef giant sailor who's mansion is there extremely massive boat, bonus points if it double as an extravagant shop edit, bonus idea : reef giant courtship ritual where the players have to be one of the suitors, and there all just stacked together in a trench coat pretending to be a reef giant

The reef giant king named Poseidon would be a very fun underwater npc to come across.

Imagine the party just accidentally stumbling into a reef giant courtship contest, and the reef giant lady in charge just says “screw it you are all now part of this too” just to make all of the other giants confused.

Just imagine a giant candy making competition

Okay. But can you maybe homebrew us a Beef Giant?

It’s nice to see you using skylanders giants music as background music for certain portions of the video, brings back memories

I like this guys. They are just so freaking chill and I love it. Also they kinda remind me of that surfer dude from that spongebob special where they were stuck on an island and they needed to surf on a massive wave I'm order to escape.

For some reason I am imagining a half crystal dragon reef gaint that wears a personally designed and crafted skin tight suit that makes water slide off her with no friction whatsoever. She is the origin of modern day diving suits and one peice swimsuits.

Personally the more I learned about these giants the more I wondered about their relationship with Dragons. For example, perhaps a gold dragon commissions one to build/renovate it's lair or an evil dragon covets the giantess' wealth. Great video Dungeon Dad👍🏻

Nice touch using the Splash Woman theme in the background!

You keep releasing videos that inspire me to make a charcter with specific attributes. Now if only I can find a game to play in. Lol

See, I don't even play DnD much or even at all these days, but it looks like fun, these videos are so fun and I love learning about all these mad things! You should do a series on non-fightable monsters! Like pets or mounts that are in the stories!

I understand that Reef Giants are supposed to be solitary, but i really adore the idea of a colossal ship sailing out of some dark forbidden corner of the ocean helmed by a reef giantess

Ranger: "So, do you tell me that there is a single female reef giant that lives near this island, dressed only with a small bikini, in search of an husband to live a long life of comfort and adventures in a giant palace... And she is also a sweet tooth. Well, thanks for the informant Mister, sure we will be... Hey, where is the bard?" Bard: *jumps in the ocean with a rudimental sub suit at the scream of "GIANT CUTE WAIFU!" *

I love the idea of a high level underwater one-shot where the party has to fend of an army of angry suitors and their underwater minions (juvenile krakens giant sharks orcas giant puffer fish etc) after it is revealed that the reef giantess actually had a bronze dragon girlfriend all along and the party has to fight for true to love to prevail.

I think my fav part of a Dragon vs Giant fight is the amount of monsters that could be involved & the various environments the conflict could take place

It would be interesting to create a villainous Reef Giant who has taken to kidnapping druids into their underwater service in order to make them grow trees, tend to reefs, and mold rock and stone to expand their estate and power. They could be using contacts on shore to send out possible druids on ships that the giant ambushes, and if a party happens to have a nature-magic user, that'd be a perfect intro.

Well if you make the “next time” voice question the monster you know next video is going to be a blast!

These guys just seem like a chill regional culture of storm giants. Similar powers, even.

Thank you for this one. I have a large knowledge of monsters 3rd edition on and either wasn't aware or forgot a long time ago. I happen to be at a point in my campaign that is dabbling with the ocean. So this will add some spice to it. I hope you have a great weekend!

That is awesome! I'm keen to run a 1950's beach musical style dnd one shot.

I'm running a One Piece game soon, and this giant gives me so many ideas for fun stories. Thanks for what you do, Dungeon Dad!

I like the idea of a Firbolg Bard who went to a college on the shore dating the stay-at-home daughter of a Reef Giant couple, who disapproved of the relationship and they broke up. Now, to discourage her further, they break tradition and host their Bachelorette competition themselves to set her up with a "real" giant before they pass on, with the favorite being a Storm Giant who's family has been friends with theirs for generations, and she calls her ex in to do the challenge, either to let her stay single until she's ready to marry or, if your pc plays their cards right, to rekindle the lost spark.

Gonna throw one into a campaign that’s a total surfer bro running a beach side trinket shop

Yes! More giants! I hope we get something like Wood Giants next

Reef Giant Bachelorette sound like the best adventure ive never heard of

I'm definitely gonna use the Reef Giant in a pirate campaign, and take you up on the Dive Bar idea, but mix in a little of the Yawning Portal: The bar is also gonna let you loot the ships he keeps derelict at the bottom of the Bay. There's gonna be some lost item they'll need down there. I'd love to see you take some World of Darkness creatures and bring them to 5e. Like, it'd be kinda neat to see how you'd take Vampire Clans and flavor them as different kinds of either abilities or lair effects or story hooks. A Venture lord who quests a party with finding "an old librarian" because that's his feeding restriction could be as fun as a really gnarly Malkavian with lair effects to cast Confusion or a Lasombra who can cast Darkness at will.

I can see a gourmet reef giant having adventurers go after dangerous or rare sea food and sweets in exchange for a artifact the party needs that just so happened to have been lost at sea and wound up in the giant's treasury

I just indiscriminately make copies of all your stat blocks these days. Like this guy. I have no idea when or where he'd fit in with my current campaign, but he sounds fun and I'd rather have the stat block than not, just in case. Thanks for livening up so many tables with all these weird, wonderful creatures you dig up.

Regardless of how you use this giant, it’s sure to turn any session into a beach episode.

6:19 I expected a cutaway to Sandy Cheeks’ underwater dome here

I love the idea of helping a reef giant get their rocks off.