Well. I knew it was a long shot, but I was still hoping this product would give us a more inspired take on the hill giant, rather than continuing to write them off as little more than the big, dumb, filthy, gluttonous runts of the true giant litter. =/

I mean, with how big of a deal Wizards has made in recent years of bringing in diverse voices and learning from past mistakes, one would think that such a smorgasbord of awful tropes like the hill giant would merit a reevaluation in the shiny new giant lore book. And hey, maybe it will: maybe I'm reading too much into what little bits of info we've gotten so far and the actual book will in fact take steps to address the issues with their portrayal. I gotta say, though, the infographic using the same ugly art from the Monster Manual (when almost every other giant type gets brand new art in comparison) and summing them up as nothing more than "hungry hunters" does not fill me with confidence.

It's a shame, too, because almost everything else about this product that we've seen so far has been promising in a way that tickles my "run Storm King's Thunder + Attack of the Giants" itch. Ah, well, worst case scenario, I can just flesh out my hill giant homebrew like I was planning to originally and toss in all the elements I do like from this book when it comes out. Still, though, would have been nice to see the designers put their money where their mouth is on this particular front.

Quote from Lionheart261 >>

Well. I knew it was a long shot, but I was still hoping this product would give us a more inspired take on the hill giant, rather than continuing to write them off as little more than than the big, dumb, filthy, gluttonous runts of the true giant litter. =/

I mean, with how big of a deal Wizards has made in recent years of bringing in diverse voices and learning from past mistakes, one would think that such a smorgasbord of awful tropes like the hill giant would merit a reevaluation in the shiny new giant lore book. And hey, maybe it will: maybe I'm reading too much into what little bits of info we've gotten so far and the actual book will in fact take steps to address the issues with their portrayal. I gotta say, though, the infographic using the same ugly art from the Monster Manual (when almost every other giant type gets brand new art in comparison) and summing them up as nothing more than "hungry hunters" does not fill me with confidence.

It's a shame, too, because almost everything else about this product that we've seen so far has been promising in a way that tickles my "run Storm King's Thunder + Attack of the Giants" itch. Ah, well, worst case scenario, I can just flesh out my hill giant homebrew like I was planning to originally and toss in all the elements I do like from this book when it comes out. Still, though, would have been nice to see the designers put their money where their mouth is on this particular front.

 ...you could just make a smart hill giant. Heck, make it a 3rd-level wizard to terrify your newly-T2 players

I literally alluded to my hill giant homebrew ideas in that very same post, lol: I am under no illusions that I cannot be the change I want to see in the world. I had just hoped that Wizards might take this opportunity to do something more with the hill giants in official material, and the fact that they probably aren't is a little disappointing to me, that's all.

Quote from Lionheart261 >>

Well. I knew it was a long shot, but I was still hoping this product would give us a more inspired take on the hill giant, rather than continuing to write them off as little more than than the big, dumb, filthy, gluttonous runts of the true giant litter. =/

I mean, with how big of a deal Wizards has made in recent years of bringing in diverse voices and learning from past mistakes, one would think that such a smorgasbord of awful tropes like the hill giant would merit a reevaluation in the shiny new giant lore book. And hey, maybe it will: maybe I'm reading too much into what little bits of info we've gotten so far and the actual book will in fact take steps to address the issues with their portrayal. I gotta say, though, the infographic using the same ugly art from the Monster Manual (when almost every other giant type gets brand new art in comparison) and summing them up as nothing more than "hungry hunters" does not fill me with confidence.

It's a shame, too, because almost everything else about this product that we've seen so far has been promising in a way that tickles my "run Storm King's Thunder + Attack of the Giants" itch. Ah, well, worst case scenario, I can just flesh out my hill giant homebrew like I was planning to originally and toss in all the elements I do like from this book when it comes out. Still, though, would have been nice to see the designers put their money where their mouth is on this particular front.

 I agree, hill giants have a lot of potential

In my homebrew setting, I've played around with the established giant lore in a lot of ways to fit my cosmology. The hill giants of this world have a formalised outcast status, being descended from the titans who were given the role of tending the earthbound estates of the old, titanic empire, while the 'higher' kindreds lived in the cloud cities. They were never given the benefits of the titanic science and magic that the others enjoyed, but are seen as embodying the virtues of survival and community. They are also associated with gluttony, but this is a kind of mistranslation of a more complicated giant concept involving the hoarding of resources against future shortages which has contributed to their reputation as mindless guzzlers.

I love lore and I love infographics, so I love this piece!

This!

I think having the hill giant art being derpy was hilarious.  Such a contrast to the rest! 
Also its nice to see some representation for my idiot players and I in these new posts.  Two-brain-celled creatures unite!

@Lionheart 261 I highly recommend Mr Rhexx's youtube video, "What They Don't Tell You About Hill Giants". Despite being a simplistic breed, they have social and cultural values. As per one of the other posters, I think it's an important thing to have a "fee fi fo fum" type of Giant. That's a classic for a reason. There is enough material in the history of D&D worldbuilding to fill out the details of that, and it's worth looking out if you want to expand upon the implications of their brutal and material priorities. That being said, I do agree that it would be nice to see those details brought forward and published for 5E, as the onus is currently on dedicated DMs (and excellent commentators like the aforementioned Mr Rhexx) to unearth those codices on the burgeoning D&D community's behalf.

But fundamentally, having a society that is dangerous almost just by the nature of how simple it's goals are isn't something that need be played for laughs. Hill Giants value food. The great preoccupation of many societies is ensuring they have enough food. Due to their insatiable and very fundamental desires, Hill Giants can turn anyone into a target, and that unscrupulous priority makes them a perfect menace for rural settings in my opinion.

Quote from Lionheart261 >>

Well. I knew it was a long shot, but I was still hoping this product would give us a more inspired take on the hill giant, rather than continuing to write them off as little more than than the big, dumb, filthy, gluttonous runts of the true giant litter. =/

I mean, with how big of a deal Wizards has made in recent years of bringing in diverse voices and learning from past mistakes, one would think that such a smorgasbord of awful tropes like the hill giant would merit a reevaluation in the shiny new giant lore book. And hey, maybe it will: maybe I'm reading too much into what little bits of info we've gotten so far and the actual book will in fact take steps to address the issues with their portrayal. I gotta say, though, the infographic using the same ugly art from the Monster Manual (when almost every other giant type gets brand new art in comparison) and summing them up as nothing more than "hungry hunters" does not fill me with confidence.

It's a shame, too, because almost everything else about this product that we've seen so far has been promising in a way that tickles my "run Storm King's Thunder + Attack of the Giants" itch. Ah, well, worst case scenario, I can just flesh out my hill giant homebrew like I was planning to originally and toss in all the elements I do like from this book when it comes out. Still, though, would have been nice to see the designers put their money where their mouth is on this particular front.

 Wow, well you can always make whatever you want, but there is no reason to buy the book for that, right?
On the other hand why hate Hill Giants? I personally think that they would value "hardiness" over strenght, but I also think that a hill giant wouldn't know the difference between the two. But just because they are fat, ugly and stupid, I don't hate them.

Honestly? At the core of it, I just don't find them that interesting. I can understand commenters' desire to have a "fee fi fo fum" giant to play around with, but if you ask me, pretty much all the giant-kin can be made to fit that niche pretty easily. Not only that, but you can usually count on them having more interesting elements to work with than the standard hill giant in a tactical sense: ogres with their siege variants, ettins with their twin heads, verbeeg with their extra damage, trolls with their grotesque regeneration, cyclopes with their poor depth perception, and fomorians with their fell magic. Heck, if none of those strike your fancy, you could even draw on more setting-specific stuff, like the b'rohg and braxat from Spelljammer or the giants of Ravnica or Theros. Point is, there's enough monsters to work with when it comes to telling those kinds of stories without needing to have hill giants be cut from the exact same cloth. Maybe there's some hidden nuance to them that I'm not seeing, but from everything I've read so far, they strike me as being rather redundant and unsophisticated when compared to other giants who occupy a similar niche. I might check out that MrRhexx video at some point, though.

Forgive me for saying this, but when will you get the bloody book to download, please?

Having played my first D&D campaign in 1978 at the age of 8 I personally have a retrospective feel for things. This need to over complicate rules and push product in pursuit of profits destroyed it and MTG/Video Games put the nail in the coffin so to speak. The beauty of RPG is anything is possible with imagination. Dictating anyone's imagination is stupid and destructive to the process. You want to provide lore and a setting. Fantastic. Let DM build there own universe and deploy it to players at their own discretion and setting. A group of monastic magic using Drow monks escape underdark to settle above ground 10,000 years ago. No problem. 

Ok so no Titans then? the ones higher then Storm Giants? I mean I feel like that would have been a no brainer but whatever...

Quote from Bigbossduckman >>

You can literally make all the giants into big fat idiots that want to eat everything if you want to or make them fancy civilized tea cup swilling nob heads if you want in your own game, do it yourself if it bothers you so much, just let everyone else enjoy having our funny fat bozo hill giants that already exist, nothing needs to be changed just for you.

But everything needs to be kept exactly the same, just for you? Should Hasbro and WotC preserve your personal preferences for D&D in amber, like the mosquitos in Jurrasic Park? I get that the idea of giving more flavor to Hill Giants than just "generic monster who hits things" is a bit too robust for someone who prefers campaigns where you get to massacre indigenous life just because they have fangs and green skin, but that doesn't mean the game has to suffer because you have no imagination.

Do us all a favor and go complain in the Pathfinder fandom; let THEM deal with this garbage for once instead of us.

I already preordered this book. and I am anxiously awaiting its arrival. 

Ok so no Titans then? the ones higher then Storm Giants? I mean I feel like that would have been a no brainer but whatever...

Aren't Titans more or less just Empyreans with a different name?

Yes and no. Empyreans are suppose to generic children of gods. Titans are part of the Ordning but left the material plane a long time ago. I think for 5e they mixed the two concepts together but removed all relation to giants.

Tip for new DMs: do giants as a set-piece within a wider campaign, don't do them as a whole campaign.

We've known since 1981 (Against the Giants) that a one-off dungeon of Brobdingnagian proportions was an interesting proposition, but a monotonous slew of gargantuan locations just gets dull.

Seriously.  Even the designers of Storm King's Thunder remembered to make sure that you only have crawl through a couple of humungous maps.

Quote from Lionheart261 >>

Well. I knew it was a long shot, but I was still hoping this product would give us a more inspired take on the hill giant, rather than continuing to write them off as little more than than the big, dumb, filthy, gluttonous runts of the true giant litter. =/

I mean, with how big of a deal Wizards has made in recent years of bringing in diverse voices and learning from past mistakes, one would think that such a smorgasbord of awful tropes like the hill giant would merit a reevaluation in the shiny new giant lore book. And hey, maybe it will: maybe I'm reading too much into what little bits of info we've gotten so far and the actual book will in fact take steps to address the issues with their portrayal. I gotta say, though, the infographic using the same ugly art from the Monster Manual (when almost every other giant type gets brand new art in comparison) and summing them up as nothing more than "hungry hunters" does not fill me with confidence.

It's a shame, too, because almost everything else about this product that we've seen so far has been promising in a way that tickles my "run Storm King's Thunder + Attack of the Giants" itch. Ah, well, worst case scenario, I can just flesh out my hill giant homebrew like I was planning to originally and toss in all the elements I do like from this book when it comes out. Still, though, would have been nice to see the designers put their money where their mouth is on this particular front.

Right? Their recent books have kinda been sucking the flavor out of EVERYTHING, so I thought we would at least have the silver lining of a (sorta) reworked hill giant... C'est la vie, I guess. We'll always have homebrew at least.

Quote from Lionheart261 >>

Well. I knew it was a long shot, but I was still hoping this product would give us a more inspired take on the hill giant, rather than continuing to write them off as little more than the big, dumb, filthy, gluttonous runts of the true giant litter. =/

I mean, with how big of a deal Wizards has made in recent years of bringing in diverse voices and learning from past mistakes, one would think that such a smorgasbord of awful tropes like the hill giant would merit a reevaluation in the shiny new giant lore book. And hey, maybe it will: maybe I'm reading too much into what little bits of info we've gotten so far and the actual book will in fact take steps to address the issues with their portrayal. I gotta say, though, the infographic using the same ugly art from the Monster Manual (when almost every other giant type gets brand new art in comparison) and summing them up as nothing more than "hungry hunters" does not fill me with confidence.

It's a shame, too, because almost everything else about this product that we've seen so far has been promising in a way that tickles my "run Storm King's Thunder + Attack of the Giants" itch. Ah, well, worst case scenario, I can just flesh out my hill giant homebrew like I was planning to originally and toss in all the elements I do like from this book when it comes out. Still, though, would have been nice to see the designers put their money where their mouth is on this particular front.

 I agree