You Won't Find This Dark Sun Giant In Bigby's Book 

Check out Guillman's Guide to Speed right here! - www.kickstarter.com/projects/onlycrits/guillmans-guide-to-speed?ref=c6avqx Thanks for watching gang! What monster would you like to see show up next on the channel? edit: for those asking, the next time segment is still a thing! It'll be back next time (lol). The timing of this video and the next upload got messed up due to some PC issues, so I left it out of both of them. But in the video after that it'll be a thing again!

DD: “At the risk of this turning into a Dark Sun lore dump video….” Me: “I got time…. Go on….”

3:50am uploads won't stop me

Just an idea: One of them has been launched to space by a party who doesn't know how they work. As they continue their adventure, every day gets dimmer. Fast-forward to the party being level 20, a solar eclipse happens...

As far as curse of strahd goes changing the dusk elves from getting genocided to being damned to search for light in the darkness plane sounds like a good alternative to the default lore

I really like the idea of them wearing special fabric/magical items that stop light from reaching their skin, and still acting as very laid back, reasonable merchants. It makes sense to present a face that doesn't scare the hell out of potential customers when you need this material so badly, and for anyone who knows their actual ability, it's a handy analogue for the sawed-off behind the counter.

1st thing that came to my mind after seeing their ability to to teleport with someone else is, opening a traveling agency. They help people go in and out of shadow fell for obsidian.

I know you’re covering the metallic dragons atm, but it’d be interesting to see you cover a ruby dragon or even Sardior himself in the future (his lore is a real interesting read!)

Wow I was just trying to work out a way to get the Umibōzu (giant made of shadow that stands in the ocean) legend into my campaign, and this is perfect for that. Raise the size up to Gargantuan so they can stand on the seafloor with shoulders over the surf, and even modify the dice accordingly.

I dont know why, but i like the idea of them being merchants seeking obsidian. Would also be a great merchant pick for inside a dungeon.

They're part of the Shadow Wizard Money Gang without a *shadow* of a doubt.

With regards to Dark Sun, I doubt Wotc would really try and bring it back to 5e, but if they did, they'd probably have the book they bring it back in based in that one City-State in lore that overthrew its tyrant, freed its slaves, and became a fledgling republic; The bulk of the book would be about the city and how it's a chaotic democracy always on the brink of collapse or invasion or civil war, the rest of the book would mostly be about exploring generic wastelands and a bit of lore for the wider Dark Sun setting but not that specific, and maybe a few pages dedicated to other specific locations, like a paragraph describing other major City-States

Whooo! A Dark Sun monster? Lets go!

Alright, okay, hear me out- What if the “Shadow Giant” is the dreaded last stage of the Darklings? Shadow Creepers and their evolved form, Shadow Stalkers, explode with the trapped light they carry within themselves upon death. It’s as if they are the embodiment of unstable isotopes. The lore suggests that there is an unknown ritual to transform a creeper into a stalker. Perhaps there is a further procedure or ordeal (maybe a magical object that requires obsidian) that can allow a Shadow Stalker to brave the light and take the form of a Shadow Giant! I’m all in on this one: the light absorption debuff of Darklings is an intriguing oddity that captured my imagination. I appreciate the inspiration from this one🖤Thanks! 🍻

I’m adding these to my Eberron campaign. The land of the giants was destroyed by the dragons and so there are very few giants left but these could be the actual shadow of the giant given that giant’s sentience by the magic that destroyed them. Slight variations in the stat block might be needed but nothing substantial. Thanks for the great vid. I’ve already added a few others like the False Hydra to the game. It was a heart wrenching moment when the party realised the NPC girl they had helped earlier in the campaign had been consumed by the False Hydra and that they had delivered it (unknowingly) to the Mror Holds themselves.

Oh man, do more Darksun stuff. It's my favorite setting from AD&D

Loved the Robocop reference. A+. Loved all the conversions you made. You're not wrong about us likely never seeing this monster while 5e exists (or ever). Also, kudos to you for checking off both a "giant" and "Dark Sun" checkbox. So many Dark Sun requests over the year, especially after Kyle Brink did all those interviews, and a giant monster during Bigby's release is just what the doctor ordered. Feel weird not seeing a "Next Time" on the video. You've conditioned me to expect that music. XD

Bro. This is perfect. One of the two BBEGs in my campaign is a reborn goddess called "The Lady in Black" whose purpose is to spread her divine domain to the entire material plane. I think shadow monsters who literally eat light itself is a match made in Hell. Thanks!

An idea cones to mind. Shadow giants accidently made Shadowfel. Every time they bring stuff or people back to the Black, there was always that little piece of dirt or material that came with them. Over time this led to the creation of Shadowfel as these pieces coalesced into bigger and bigger pieces of land/existence. Creatures that inhabit it are folks lucky enough to escape from the Black.

I'm always down for more Dark Sun in my life.

This is so perfectly timed for me! One of the BBEGs for my campaign is a vampire who was banished to the Shadowfell for a century and has managed to return to try to recruit his dhampir kids to his side. I needed a way for him to feasibly protect himself from the light and move back and forth from the Shadowfell, and this thing can do both in a super flavorful way! I will definitely be softening up the Descend though since I'll be using a good amount of these bad boys.

Shadow Giants actually did make it into the 4th edition re-release of Dark Sun in the Creature Catalog, although as this iteration dropped the controversial "halflings were the precursors" angle from 2e's Revised Edition of the setting, they were instead reflavored as the wrathful spirits of the giants massacred by the Sorcerer-Kings during the Wars of Cleansing, and ditched the convoluted "light availability = size" mechanics of 2e.

I like the idea of using these guys in a plot that's kinda the opposite of Lord Harkon and his vampires in Skyrims Dawnguard DLC. They want to get a magic bow (Auriel's Bow) which has the magic capabilities to blot out the sun, allowing vampires to run free, whereas you could have a faction of Shadow Giants trying to find some sort of artefact that would allow them to bring about an age of eternal sunlight, making them too powerful for any other faction to stop. Maybe their motive is that they want revenge on the descendants of those who cast their Halfling ancestors into The Black all those years ago and that revenge has gone slightly over scaled and is now just aimed at the world generally

I really love that in the dnd youtube community, ads are almost always something directly related to dnd, instead of nordvpn or raid shadow legends, etc. When its ads for campaign books, i dont even skip through it

If you use older D&D cosmology, specifically when it comes to elemental planes, you could always just use the Negative Energy Plane in place of The Black. It's literally as you described it: A universe of endless, featureless, black void which naturally drains light and life from anything within it that isn't undead. And if you are using more modernized cosmology, you could always just slip in the Plane of Radiance / Plane of Radiant Energy and the Plane of Necrosis / Plane of Necrotic Energy, since radiant and necrotic are what the positive energy and negative energy damage types got re-flavored as in 4e and 5e.

In my setting there is "The Darkness". An unknown (so far) force of ultimate evil, or should I say, anihilation. It is set on devouring EVERYTHING. It was fortold as 4 riders of apocalypse. Sphere of anihilation is a oneway portal into dimension of "The Darkness". And Shadow Giants are perfect fit for a corrupted souls of mortals, who ended up in The Darkness and were reborn there.

Best I can imagine is a group of them trapped in the shadowfell as prisoners along with the dark Athan wizard and a servant tries to dupe the party into bringing a magic item into the jail that casts daylight which will make the giants strong enough to break out

One option for an origin might be to tie them back to some of the bigger planar disruptions, perhaps they're actually from the Plane of Shadows rather than the Shadowfell, being tied to that part of things from past editions. Also, there are other domains of Ravenloft...Barovia doesn't really fit them. Perhaps one of the minor domains is their home and they can spill out into others, or, occasionally, out of Ravenloft and into other settings

Love shadow giants! Love dark sun. My two current campaigns are set in a homebrew (but very heavily inspired by athas) setting!

Shadow Giant lifeguard. Shrinks down when under their umbrella, then when they’re needed they’re able to get super big and just pick up drowning people from water, or stop boats from sinking.

Fun video to watch instead of sleeping? Hell yes

This is awesome. Im curently running a homebrew LoX campaign and im using athas space for doomspace. So this is exactly the kind of thing i needed

I actually love when Dark Sun gets conversions to a modern stat block even though I don't play d&d anymore my group plays a hybrid version RPG we've been working on for a couple of years now we try different ideas out for rolling and converting older monsters/creatures/npcs and normal game play. Thanks for bringing this one up I've been thinking about a way to get my group back to Athas since at the moment they are in a converted Ultima Online / Sosaria - Trammel world where everyone thinks the Dragonborn / Dragonoid (humanoid dragonkin) is a Gargoyle which in this world are usually hostile to outside races.

Sounds like The Black should be a Domain of Dead inside The Shadowfell.

...I was going to write that a kidnapping plot could be really interesting, but you stole that right out of my brain at 15:02 😅 Great minds! 😉 Seriously though, I think it could make for such an interesting encounter, even for a higher level party: 4 massive shadow giants show up, so they try fighting them off. You can make it so that the party doesn't seem to do much damage, and once they're all grappled, they're zipped off to The Black/Shadowfell/etc. Suddenly their grapplers are the about equal in size to the party, and they simply plead them to follow along to their destination. I really like the halfling origin for this creature, too; it adds a little extra something. I'm not sure why, but I kind of want older or more powerful shadow giants to be extra short in The Black, which somehow gives them a capacity to become even larger on the material plane than their younger/less powerful comrades. Maybe once your kidnapped party is taken to the leader of the shadow giants, you could surprise the party and have the leader just be an extra small shadowy halfling-shape, just casually dragging on a pipe with tendrils of light coming out of it 🚬😤 (sorry, no pipe emoji) Thanks Dad!

You could also utilize Rhyxali (Gra'azt's sister) and her Abyssal layer of Shaddanon as the source of The Black

Me, about to sent my party into a den of Kythons. Also having already set up a material called 'Abyssal Essence' as basically the physical corruption of the BBEG: I really want to make a new Kython to scare my players This Episode: finally gives me the inspiration I needed to make Abyssal Essence infused Kythons.

Here's another idea for how Shadow Giants came to be in a Forgotten Realms setting (or anything that uses the Plane of Shadow)! The Black could also be a Domain of Dread as opposed to an entire separate plane. As you said yourself, The Black is basically the equivalent of the Shadowfell, but it's supposedly a realm of darkness. Perhaps the Darklord and its people live in this plane of existence, haunted by a special darkness in the Domain of Dread that haunts the Darklord or something. Haven't nailed down the specifics, but I think this idea has legs.

The idea of a shadow monster getting stronger from bright light is something that, now I've seen it, I'm surprised I haven't seen before. Shadows don't get stronger in the dark, they disappear. It's light that makes shadows.

I actually just brought one of these into my campaign recently! The party unknowingly ventured into the cavern it had been hiding out from the city guard in, as the thieves guild it was being paid by was destroyed by the party and it had no reason to stay. Druid hit it with moonlight almost instantly, and the cleric immediately went for the dick measuring context and cast daylight. Problem was that it was a fairly low ceiling cave, it had been described earlier in the campaign as about eight feet. So the shadow giant grows and gets stuck, looks at the party, gives a big hollow smile, opens it's mouth and just inhales both spells, leaving the cave completely black except for it's massive, glowing grin, that slowly begins to descend till it disappears beneath the floor. Party told the guards they handled it, passed the deception check (they knew that this was not handled), packed up everything, sold the tavern, and fled in the dead of night. Ironically he considered the spells a gift of light and was heading home to grab gifts for them. I'm thinking I'll have him try to find them, have them hear about sightings if they stay in an area for a bit, and eventually when i decide he catches up he'll give them level appropriate gear. I'm basically gonna make him a spooky version of the "CHOCOLATE!!!" guy from SpongeBob

seeing those pictures from the dark sun monster manual really takes me back

Honestly, I love this creature, especially with how it reacts to light. Always looking for more creatures to throw into my Domain of Dread game, and love the idea of this creature being a prison warden for another creature you covered years ago, the Shining Child (could really be one for any radiant heavy creature, but Shining Child I got plans for). And with how prevalently used darkness and shadows are in Shadowfell/Domain of Dread campaigns, a creature of shadow absorbing radiant and light is such an awesome curve ball to throw at players who might get comfortable using it left and right. P.S. Saw a typo in the pdf in the Syphoning Slam attack, seeing "and thief the target" instead of "and if the target".

Oh ho! You thought uploading before the asscrack of dawn would stop any of us from watching?! YOU UNDERESTIMATE OUR INSOMNIA!

Have you considered making a video about the Vampire Muse from 4e? Fey vampires that inspire creativity in artists, but also slowly drain blood from said artists, a lot of which they store in a Blood Cauldron that function similar to a lich's phylactery. They sound very interesting.

Love this channel. As a lover of older lore and settings this is like candy to me. Its a shame we won't be getting another dark sun book but probably never will because of WotC's design philosophy of not telling your players "no you can't play that". Even if we did get a book it would probably be some unbalanced subclasses for a descecrator wizard, cleric elemental domains, some spells, amd a handful of monsters. Im terms of future videos, I really want to see the Suel Lich. A lich that converts its soul from positive to negative energy and inhabits the bodies of fresh mortals as it decays instead of leaving itself in a phylactary.

I'm always pumped when you showcase Dark Sun content. Every new creature video & creator interview is awesome. But this week's Giant? Chef's kiss.

The Shadow Shire has a good ring to it. I'd have it look like the Hobbits home from LOTR but it's all in gray and these shadow giants mope around focused on day to day chores. They awkwardly have to duck or crawl to enter their homes and everything is creepily silent. Maybe only having them talk when spoken too. I'd also find it hard not to have an obsidian dragon ruling the realm.

I love this and I will be using this in my Post-Apoc campaign. Also, why no sneak peak at next episode.

I am absolutely using this in my Eberron campaign, I plan on making an arc that brings my characters to the realm of Mabar and I think they'll be perfect for that. (For those unfamiliar with Eberron Mabar is the plane of darkness, where lifht yields to shadow amd not the other way around)

When you mentioned possibly having the black be a particular part of the Shadowfell, I had a fun mental image of like--the deep ocean, intricate caves, or even a version of The Underdark existing within the Shadowfell where they just descend into that absolute blackness. You try to grab a torch it offers no heat or light. Could even do something mirroring the shadow-giants themselves where light or light magic expand its scope/power. Whole idea of being in an absolute void where nothing should live but knowing you're not alone and something comes for you.

Ok, plot hook idea. A powerful vampire lord is working with a shadow giant to destroy the sun. Vampire gets a world of darkness and shadow giant gets a source of light so powerful that it will make them like a god.

I really did miss ur channel until this upload, I subconsciously checked in on it every day, basically ty

*hugs dungeon dad* thank you for this monster soon starting a 5e dark sun campaign

what would be interesting, if the shadow giants had an issue with shadow. as in, if there is no light, they have no form. light allows them to form their shadows in shapes, limbs, etc. but when there is no light and only darkness. they can't shape their shadows into limbs.

Parenthood automatically qualifies one for DMhood in campaigns I've been in. I love taking ideas for forgotten/obscure monsters, and using it towards monsters the players may know. Like adaptive abilities or skills some may have. And changes usually occur when it comes to food or livelihoods.

Wait, shadow giants are descendants of halflings...didn't see that coming

Always fun to see you aploaded a new video😊

A new Monster of the Week makes a lovely complement to my morning coffee.

Can I just say, I absolutely love your music choices. They're always good, but I grew up playing Sonic Adventure and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, so hearing Sand Hill and Sky Tower hyped me up a lot.

Love for you to cover some more of the real weird 1e fiend folio monsters!

The forgotten realms also has the plan of negative energy which you can enter through the shadowfell (its also the home of night walkers aka the big scary undeads that kill you by existing)

Ahh, Dark Sun; the setting that watched too much Mad Max and played too much Fallout as a kid

I just got back from a trip and have a session tomorrow. I had no time to prep for it on my trip and seeing this video gave me the perfect idea for the session! Thank you and I love your videos! So many ideas for my Spelljammer campaign!

I just saw this and thought: “new dungeon dad video? Yay!”

Perfect timing for my party to speak with Eshowdow in Chult

I'm getting ready to run a Theros campaign and these dudes sound like they'd work well as servants of Erebos to drag mortals to the underworld. Great video as always. Thanks for providing a source of inspiration throughout the years.

Been waiting for your enxt upload buddy, thank you

I’m running a horror themed campaign with a heavy emphasis on *not* ever being in pure darkness. This thing is perfect for a twist enemy

A solution to "hey there's already a dark shadowy plane!": _demiplanes._ Like one known for being pretty _dreadful._

Absorbing light makes sense if we consider black holes literally absorb all light and turn all matter and energy into mass to keep an increasing density.

Great video. I discovered you not too long ago and I'm enjoying your content a lot! I've got lots of DMing experience across the editions, and this is giving me ideas. For example, when the Shadow Giant is grappling someone and tries to drag them off to the Shadowfell or the Black, a forgiving-but-not-TOO-forgiving DM could give them a save to escape.. but depending on how well they succeed or fail, they could take damage and levels of exhaustion, as a portion of their life essence is torn away from them into another world. They could even end up with permanent scars (or stat loss, if your players are more hardcore).. but hey, they don't die!

Pokemon mystery dungeon quicksand cave ost, you got taste

honestly makes sense given what they are, why you wouldn't find them in bigby's

Dope video as always! Would love to potentially see the Sibriex at some point!

Imagining one of these learning to cast Light (or getting an object to trigger it) and throwing it at the ground like a smoke bomb. The light goes off, the giant grows, and your players go, “Oh. We fucked up.”

With some enhancements I might use the stat block for this Shadow Giant as a base template for a major BBEG in my campaign. Over time I have been building up for my players that one of the "Doomsday Level" threats in my homebrew world to be a dark entity known as The Shadow Monarch. Much like the Domains of Dread, The Shadow Monarch is imprisoned within the Shadowfell with their true power sealed away. If nothing else this helped me give a more defined shape to how I wish to strike fear into my players when the BBEG says "I will drink your Light" and mean it.

it being part of the shadowfell makes sense, did you know that there is a completely unexplored area of the ocean that light doesn't reach that makes up like 60% of the surface of earth?

Counterpoint; maybe the black is accessible for other campaign settings? Why wouldnt a demiplane of another world overlap other realities? Also Planescape sort of allows that to happen, as it explains that everything is connected everywhere. One idea is that maybe the black is the only route of escape from Athas? That'd be a cool direction to take it.

First new episode since I joined. Great work.

Ooooh, this one really got the mind juices flowing, especially the "Dark Sun" part. Since I really like the other giant races you've covered, Sun, Moon, Runic, etc and have my own tweaked versions in my Forgotten Realms campaign world iis giving me some great ideas on how these guys would fit in the worlds existing lore but keeps some original flair. Like I said the Dark Sun got me going so I'm thinking they're Sun Giants that got trapped/banished to the Shadowfell with the lack of light and holy energies causing their bodies to weaken and shrink before finally being completely corrupted and twisted by the dark plane. This explains why they react to light so differently than the normal denizens, as originally beings of light they can still draw power from it just in a more twisted and perverse manner. Definately a WIP, but it's what popped into my mind after first reading the videos title!

It's similar to how nightmares can just take you to the ethereal plane and leave you there.

How I would use the Shadow giant: - A powerfull one gets obsessed by one member of the party because he "likes the light in his/her eyes". Maybe is the most positive one, maybe is the most cringe one and the giant wants to take the last remaining light. Basically it's a serial killer or a weird guy, it's just nice the parallel between real light and "emotional light" - This nemesis will try its best to make them fear the shadows and the night by making any horror conceivable attack them during sleep and such (night hags, vampires, etc). he will lead creature there, lead the party in problematic situation, buy mercenaries, everything. - This is the ground for a psychological horror campaign with sleep deprivation, paranoy and depression, which high chance for the players to isolate themselves or the victim. In a way or another, their "lights" have to grow weak. - Eventually the Shadow Giant will lead them to the equivalent of our norther states during summer whitout them noticing it or by simply forcing them trought conspiracy and stuff. Here the light time is way longer than usual. - Final Showdown, they will have to resist the siege and if they're smart enough, they'll be able to make the giant forget about "winter". Otherwise, they can even be able to fight him during the day or who knows. I mean I like the idea of a dark creature obsessed by light that's dangerous during day and that makes night a living hell, really Berserkersque. I would also implement some rule about fatigue and depression to enanche that (lesser and momentary malus to ST, Abilities, characteristic, often describing things in a way that gives an uncertain feeling, HP damages on long term and so on)

I love up converting things from my dads dark sun book its always a hoot to get em to both work and be simple

Can I suggest adding something that forces them to return to The Black because it seems like they would want to spend as much time as possible in the Material Plane. Maybe something like overcharging where spending too much time there is damaging like how in older editions staying on the positive elemental plane caused people to explode.

Id like to think of that giant we saw in Supernatural, in the...fantasy? world, in one of the latter seasons being a shadow giant

The horror of watching an essential npc getting picked up like a handbag and disappearing in the middle of the night sounds awful in the best way

I like the idea of a cabal of Shadow Giants being enlisted by the Khayal as, say, transport in exchange for obsidian.

I'll be using these I'm my homebrew Feydark campaign, thank you very much!!!!!

Imagine a shadow giant working with a vampire that cast polymorph on it and invisibility on itself to scare the shit out of people by going in direct sun light (the vampire stands behind the shadow giant). The shadow giant benefits by being able to work in sunlight and get valuables while the vampire can go do vampire things without immediately dying when outside during daytime.

Fun fact in my worlds if any of the characters stats hit zero they are rendered unconscious but if your constitution hits -10 the character dies and can’t be resurrected tho legend does tell of a way to mend the body to allow resurrection

I was working on a version of the Shadow Giant that was summoned by Clan Duergar. With the reclamation of the Invisible Art from their Mindflayer captors centuries ago, they opened ancient pathways into the earth below the Shadowfell: the Deepfell. This is where they communed with, and conjoined with, the Shadow Giants.( It made more sense to me than the fiendish connection hinted at for the duergar creation in the original FR lore, and gave them a more unique lore relative to the other races save the Shadar'kai.)

Another awesome video! Will you ever consider compiling all of your monster stat conversions to a book?

Nice work on the video!

I need more shadowfell in my campaign

More Dark Sun monsters please. Another great video Sir.

Consider, it may be a denizen of the negative energy plane like night walkers.

“The Black” could be some pocket dimension in the Shadowfell similar to how I think Barovia is a pocket dimension

That’s so funny no matter where most of us saw this video before sleeping🤣

I quite like the implication that despite light making them stronger. They don't like being in light. Their home plane is darkness as far as the eye cannot see and all that.

Obsidian orbs that turn into Spheres of Annihilation that 'hatch' into Shadow Giants once they've consumed enough.