Homebrew Giff Species Details

Giff are tall, broad-shouldered folk with hippo-like features. Some have smooth skin, while others have short bristles on their faces and the tops of their heads. As beings of impressive size and unforgettable appearance, giff are noticed wherever they go.

Storytelling is a rich tradition among giff, and it’s not uncommon to see a giff recounting their past exploits to an enraptured crowd. Having a friendly giff nearby when a tavern brawl erupts can also be useful, for a giff can usually more than hold their own when pleasant revelry devolves into fisticuffs.

The giff are split into two camps concerning how their name is pronounced. Half of them say it with a hard g, half with a soft g. Disagreements over the correct pronunciation often blossom into hard feelings, loud arguments, and headbutting contests, but rarely escalate beyond that.

Creating Your Character

At 1st level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of a fantastical race. If you select a fantastical race, follow these additional rules during character creation.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. Follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy. The “Quick Build” section for your character’s class offers suggestions on which scores to increase. You can follow those suggestions or ignore them, but you can’t raise any of your scores above 20.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of languages to choose from. The DM is free to modify that list for a campaign.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including each player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race tells you what your character’s creature type is.

Here’s a list of the game’s creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, Undead. These types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the cure wounds spell doesn’t work on a Construct or an Undead.

Life Span

The typical life span of a player character in the D&D multiverse is about a century, assuming the character doesn’t meet a violent end on an adventure. Members of some races, such as dwarves and elves, can live for centuries. If typical members of a race can live longer than a century, that fact is mentioned in the race’s description.

Height and Weight

Player characters, regardless of race, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world. If you’d like to determine your character’s height or weight randomly, consult the Random Height and Weight table in the Player’s Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best represents the build you imagine for your character.

Giff Traits

As a giff, you have the following racial traits.

Creature Type

You are a Humanoid.

Size

You are Medium.

Speed

Your walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.

Hippo Build

You have advantage on Strength-based ability checks and Strength saving throws. In addition, you count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift. strike.

Damage Dealer

Like a hippopotamus in a crystalware shop, you are naturally adept at damaging things. When you roll a 1 on a damage die for a melee attack, you can reroll the die and use the new roll. You can do so no more than once per turn.