Homebrew Giff Species Details

What is a Giff?
Most people describe giff as humanoid hippopotami. Giff have powerful muscles over stocky and broad frames. They tend to stand around eight or nine feet tall. They have a range of skin colors, including (most commonly) gray, muddy brown, black, and gold. Giff are surprisingly dexterous and have a surprising grace when moving for such a large framed race. Some reports state that giffs like to wrestle with giants the find on their travels frequently besting the smaller races at feats of strength.

Mercenaries Extraordinaire 
Giff often decorate their skin with colorful tattoos related to their accomplishments and victories. They are always dressed in uniforms or elaborate and strong armor and often carry multiple firearms on their persons. Due to their exceptional military prowess giff demand large fees for their service and tend to enjoy the finer things in life when available. Years of service (often starting at adulthood) have made them comfortable in any terrain however and will usually only seek out opulence while on leave or at the end of a contract. 

No Honor in Magic, Only Tempus
Similarly to dwarves, giff once had a mild but innate resistance to magic and were incapable of casting magic spells themselves, this has led to it being seen as dishonorable to pursue the magical arts as a giff, with the sole exception of becoming a cleric who are usually some of the highest ranking members of giff military units.

All giff follow the teachings of Tempus, the Neutral God of Battle. They believe in dedication to these ideals will ultimately lead to an early death but by remaining honorable they can obtain eternal life in the Halls of Tempus in Warrior's Rest. Giff are rarely if ever dedicated to good or evil, and due to their highly militaristic society tend to lean towards a lawful alignment. 

A Whiff of Gunpower and Flash of Steel
Giff are extremely fond of any weapon that makes a boom and therefore tend to collect muskets and pistols. Never to be impractical all giff will also carry a melee weapon of some sort. It is not unheard of for giff to have a polearm collection nearly as large as their firearms collection. These tend to be slung over their back and used only in situations where gunfire could harm comrades or when noise could raise an enemy alarm.

Giff Traits

As a giff, you have the following characteristics.

Ability Score Increase

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

Age

Giff mature at roughly the same rate humans do, becoming adults in their late teens. However, giff have shorter lifespans on average, generally living no longer than 70-80.

Alignment

Giff have a strict adherence to the law, thanks to their militaristic tendencies. They tend to not place much wait of morals as those change from employer to employer, instead they choose who they fight for based off of Law, Order, and Honor valuing these above all else. Because of this Giff tend to be Lawful Neutral or Neutral. Rare is a Giff that would be called "Good" by an outsider, even rarer still is one that would be called "Evil". This tends to make them seem passive and uncaring but that rarely gives a giff much concern.

Size

Giff are quite tall, standing 8 - 9 feet on average, and incredibly stocky. The average giff can weigh as much as 850 – 1,000 pounds. Your size is Medium

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Firearms Knowledge

You are proficient with firearms. Additionally, you ignore the loading property of these weapons.

Powerful Build

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.