What is a Frost Giant?
Frost giants live in frostbitten realms, and their appearance is reflective of a people weathered and hardened by relentless snowstorms and freezing temperatures. They often wear metal armor adorned with the furs, skin, teeth, and tusks of slain beasts and heft weapons as long as dining tables. Their flesh ranges from pale blue to shale gray, and their hair is typically a dingy white or dirty yellow color. A typical frost giant stands about 15 feet tall and weighs approximately 2,800 pounds.
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Table of Contents
Remorseless Marauders
Frost giants are remorseless marauders who pillage and plunder from those who dare to live near them in desolate, frigid lands. Their clans range from extremely territorial hunters who claim an expanse of tundra and defend it at all costs to nomadic hordes that roam icy slopes in search of settlements to conquer.
Frost giant clans are ruled by those who exhibit the greatest ferocity and prowess in battle—massive brutes who proclaim themselves jarl and demand absolute obedience from their followers. If at any time a frost giant wishes to be a jarl, all they must do is issue a challenge to the current jarl and face off in mortal combat, after which the reigning champion continues leading the clan or the victorious challenger assumes control.
Attack: Wide Swing
The frost giant makes a single great axe Strike and compares the attack roll result to the ACs of up to two foes within its reach. This counts as two attacks for the frost giant’s multiple-attack penalty.
Frost giants love to take captives and use them for food as well as slaves and commodities. Every group of frost giants typically has 1–2 humanoid slaves shackled to a slave handler—usually the meanest and cruelest non-jarl in the group. They are also quite fond of monstrous pets—white dragons and winter wolves are popular choices, but remorhazes, yetis, and even linnorms can be found dwelling in a frost giant lair.
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Description and Culture
A frost giant’s hair can be light blue or dirty yellow, and its eyes usually match its hair color. Frost giants dress in skins and pelts, along with any jewelry they own. Warriors also don chain shirts and metal helmets decorated with horns or feathers. An adult male stands about 15 feet tall and weighs approximately 2,800 pounds. Females are slightly shorter and lighter, but otherwise identical to males. They can live to be 250 years old.
Frost giants are among the most feared giants, as their wanton destruction, battle lust, and fearless demeanor push them to ever-increasing displays of brutality. They usually start combat at a distance, throwing rocks until they run out of ammunition or the opponent closes, then wading in with their enormous great axes. A favorite tactic is to lay an ambush by hiding buried in the snow at the top of an icy or snowy slope, where opponents will have difficulty reaching them and then starting an avalanche before leaping into battle. They can hide well in snowy environments and are masters of stealth in their domain.
They survive on hunting and raiding alone, as they live in desolate, frigid environments. Frost giant groups are split almost evenly between those that live in makeshift settlements or abandoned castles and those that roam the frozen north as nomads in search of spoils and provisions. Frost giant leaders call themselves jarls and demand absolute obedience from their followers. At any time a jarl may be challenged by combat for leadership of the tribe. These challenges typically result in the death of one of the combatants. A single jarl can often count a dozen or more smaller frost giant tribes as part of his extended tribe. In such a situation, the leaders of the lesser tribes are known simply as chieftains or warlords.
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Adventure Ideas
The Ice Mines
The players come across a group of dwarves who have been driven out of their homes by a group of frost giants. The giants have taken over their mines and are using the dwarves as slaves to mine valuable resources. The players must infiltrate the mines, defeat the giants and their minions, and rescue the trapped dwarves.
Giant Raids
The players discover that a group of frost giants has been raiding nearby towns and villages in search of food and supplies. The giants have taken hostages and are demanding a large ransom in exchange for their release. The players must track down the giants and confront them, all while fending off attacks from their powerful minions.
The Ice Lair
The players are hired by a wealthy noble who needs help retrieving a valuable artifact that was stolen by a frost giant. The artifact is said to be located in the giant’s lair, which is located in a dangerous and icy region. The players must navigate through the harsh terrain, infiltrate the giant’s stronghold, defeat its minions, and confront the giant to retrieve the artifact.
The entrance to the Giant’s lair is at the bottom of the map as it leads to a cave opening. This isn’t a normal cave though but the entrance to the ice giant’s lair. He will be found in room number 2 with the artifact they are looking for in room 5.
You could have the giant’s pets and allies filling the other rooms. A young white dragon could be in room 1 with an exit out of the roof it could climb to escape outside.
A den of winter wolves could be in room 6 with several yeti living in room 3.
About the Author:
Dwight Scull has been playing tabletop role-playing games (starting with Dungeons and Dragons 3.5) back in 2001. He started being a dungeon master around 2005.
He loves to play many different types of TTRPGs, including Pathfinder, GURPS, Shadowrun, Vampire: The Masquerade, Mage: The Ascension (and other White Wolf Games), Nights Black Agents, and others.
Fan of mysteries, light horror, co-op board games, true crime, sci-fi, and fantasy.
