Homebrew Giff Species Details

The Giff are a race of powerfully muscled, thick-skinned mercenaries with the head and general features of a hippopotamus. They are civilized, though due to their nature, arcane magic users are scarce among their race. Giff hire on with various groups throughout the universe as mercenaries, bodyguards, enforcers, and general legbreakers.

The Giff is a humanoid, with stocky, flat, cylindrical legs and a humanoid torso, arms, and fingers. Its chest is broad and supports a hippopotamus head with a natural helmet of flexible, sub-dermal keratin plates. Giff come in colors ranging from black to gray to gold, and many have colorful tattoos that leave their bodies a patchwork record of past victories.

Giff are big and heavy, and most of their bulk is made up of dense musculature and layered keratin bones. They range in height from seven to nine feet tall, but almost always weigh somewhere in the range of five to six hundred pounds. Their hide is thick and somewhat rubbery, covering a  thick layer of insulating fatty tissues that is difficult to puncture. This gives them remarkable protection against piercing wounds, but is still easily sliced through shallowly to leave behind frequent and common ropey scars, Most Giff are a veritable map of their past wounds.

 

Giff Combat

The Giff pride themselves on their weapon skills, and any Giff will have a number of swords, daggers, maces, and similar tools on hand to deal with troublemakers. A Giff's true love in weaponry is the firearm. Though the flash, noise, and damage potential is what most impresses them, their thick-fingered hands require such weapons to have heavy modifications or they are too awkward to use.

All Giff participate in dramatic displays of dominance during their adolescence in the form of charging headbutt collisions that would leave other races with brain damage. The top of every Giff's head, brow, and snout are sub-dermally plated with thick, keratin plates, flexible enough to permit motion, but giving the creature a natural helmet and weapon. Giff may use the plates of its head to level a crushing blow in close quarters.

 

Giff Society

Giff platoons can be hired by those looking for their muscle. Arcane planetary guilds will sometimes call upon Giff mercenaries, and they usually become local contractors after performing their contract. They will gladly take to sail again if work calls, but they are known for one-way trips to fulfill a duty - then taking another one-way trip when life takes them a new direction.

On board ship, the Giff demand their own quarters, and should be expected to bring on their own large weapons. They favor fire projectors and bombards for ground work, and will happily blaze away at opponents until munitions grow thin, regardless of the tactical situation. The Giff require the use of other races' spelljamming ships of others because they rarely have spellcasting abilities of their own - but those who develop or learn them are elevated to the helm of the Great Bombards in no time.

The Giff homeworld is the stuff of legend—as in no living Giff has ever seen it. Some tales say that the homeworld was destroyed by the Giff, who were rescued by the Arcane. Others say that the Giff sold their planet and their lives to the Arcane in exchange for spelljamming helms that most of them could not use. Still others say that the Giff homeworld is just beyond the range of one's ship, in a land where such warrior races are common, and the losers are exiled to the known worlds.

Whatever the truth, the Giff describe their homeworld in mythic terms—a thick, verdant jungle, covered with swamps, mangrove trees, and fruit plants. The few mountains are rich in metals, caches of weapons, and gunpowder.

Giff social structure is based thickly on strength of arms, voice, and martial prowess. Even those Giff who show magical skills are expected to train with firearms and of course - their talent to crush things with their heads! Most Giff tend to group together and figure out their own pecking orders within a ship's crew or mercenary charter, with the order changing from time to time based on the challenges and the tests at the time. This fluid ranking system amongst themselves is utterly ignored when in a crew or charter, and their instinctual superiority over other humanoids rises to the surface. They enjoy bossing others around, often complain when being ordered to do anything remotely outside of their own desires, and relish combat as a solution to anything. This is not to say they cannot accept orders or take a subordinate role under a non-Giff commander - they just won't do it quietly.

 

Giff Traits

+2 Constitution, +1 Strength, Darkvision, Firearms Training, Headbutt, Thick-Skinned

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Strength score increases by 1.

Alignment

Giff have a natural tendency to give and follow orders, even if they aren't necessarily leaning toward or away from a moral compass. Giff are most often of Lawful alignments.

Size

Giff are larger and bulkier than a human being. They range from 7 to nearly 9 feet tall and weigh between 500 and 600 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision

Giff eyes are attuned to looking out over the starscape and have highly focused vision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Firearms Training

Giff are raised around and black powder and firearms, making them utterly at home around loud noises and smoke belching projectile weaponry. You are proficient in firearms of all kinds. 

Headbutt

Giff can inflict terrible amounts of damage if they smash a foe with their keratin plated foreheads. Instead of a normal Unarmed attack, they can inflict 1d6 plus Strength modifier bludgeoning damage with their Headbutt.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Giant. Giff do not know why their native tongue is the same as that of the Giants, but it is heavily accented and is full of Giff-centric idioms. Giff often claim that. instead of them speaking the GIant tongue, it is actually the giants that speak the Giff tongue! The Giff version of the written Giant language is a mixture of Dwarven and Common script.

Thick-Skinned

The rubbery layer under a Giff's skin gives them a remarkable level of protection against weapons that try to puncture them. As a result, they are Resistant to damage inflicted by piercing weapons.