Homebrew Cloud Giant Species Details
Cloud giants live extravagant lives high above the world, showing little concern for the plights of other races except as amusement. They are muscular with light skin and have hair of silver or blue.
High and Mighty. Cloud giants are spread to the winds, encompassing vast areas of the world. In times of need, scattered cloud giant families band together as a unified clan. However, they can seldom do so quickly.
Attuned to the magic of their airy domains, cloud giants are able to turn into mist and create clouds of billowing fog. They dwell in castles on high mountain peaks, or on the solid clouds that once held their fiefs. Still gracing the skies on occasion, these magic clouds are a lasting remnant of the giants' lost empires.
Better spellcasters than most other giants, some cloud giants can control weather, bring storms, and steer the wind almost as well as their cousins, the storm giants.
Affluent Princes. Although cloud giants are lower in the ordning than storm giants, the reclusive storm giants rarely engage with the rest of giantkind. As a result, many cloud giants see themselves as having the highest status and power among the giant races. They order lesser giants to seek out wealth and art on their behalf, employing fire giants as smiths and crafters, and using frost giants as reavers, raiders, and plunderers. Dimwitted hill giants serve them as brutes and combat fodder — sometimes fighting for the cloud giants' amusement. A cloud giant might order hill or frost giants to steal from nearby humanoid lands, which it considers to be a fair tax for its continued beneficence.
On their mountain summits and solid clouds, cloud giants keep extraordinary gardens. Grapes as big as apples grow there, along with apples the size of pumpkins, and pumpkins the size of wagons. From the errant seeds of these gardens, tales of cottage-sized produce and magic beans are spread in the mortal realm.
As humanoid nobles keep an aerie for hunting hawks, so do cloud giants keep griffons, perytons, and wyverns as their own flying beasts of prey. Such creatures also patrol the cloud giants' gardens by night, along with trained predators such as owlbears and lions.
Children of the Trickster. The patron god and father of the cloud giants is Memnor the Trickster, the cleverest and slyest of the giant deities. Cloud giants align themselves according to the aspects and exploits of Memnor that they most admire, with evil cloud giants emulating his deceitfulness and self-interest and good cloud giants emulating his intellect and silver-tongued speech. Family members usually align in the same direction.
Wealth and Power. A cloud giant earns its place in the ordning by the treasure it accumulates, the wealth it wears, and the gifts it bestows on other cloud giants. However, value is only one part of the assessment. The extravagances a cloud giant wears or places about its home must also be beautiful or wondrous. Sacks of gold or gems are worth less to a cloud giant than the jewelry that might be crafted from those materials, creating treasures that bring esteem to a cloud giant's household.
Rather than steal from one another or fight over treasures, cloud giants are inveterate gamblers with a hunger for high risks and high rewards. They frequently bet on the outcome of events nominally outside their control, such as the lives of lesser creatures. Ordning ranks and kings' ransoms can be won and lost in bets over the military triumphs of humanoid nations. Fixing wagers by interfering in the conflict causes the loss of the bet, but such deceit is considered to be cheating only if it is discovered. Otherwise, it is cleverness honoring Memnor.
Masks of Nobility. Cloud Giant Nobles prefer to wear masks to hide their true faces, these masks are beautifully made and covered in jewels and gemstones. A Noble will have many masks reflecting different moods, and will change throughout the day to reflect their current mood. These masks are sought after by collectors not only for their beauty and cost, but also the rarity due to the difficulty it takes one to obtain them from a Giant.
Cloud Giant Traits
Cloud Giants share a number of traits in common with each other.Cloud Giant Strength
Cloud Giants strength is always set to 26, and cannot be increased further. Cloud Giants are the second strongest race of Giants, and one of the strongest creatures in existence. They use their great strength to crush their foes beneath both boulders and giant weaponry.
Innate Spellcasting
Cloud Giants are uniquely attuned to their natural habitat of the sky, and as such are capable of casting several spells each day.
The giant's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma. It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: detect magic, fog cloud, light
3/day each: feather fall, fly, misty step, telekinesis
1/day each: control weather, gaseous form
Keen Smell
The giant has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Change Shape
Cloud Giant warriors are known to be magically capable, uncommon among giant-kind. They enjoy spending time with the smaller races of the world and use their change shape ability to do so. The giant magically polymorphs into a beast or humanoid it has seen, or back into its true form. Any equipment the giant is wearing or carrying is absorbed by the new form. Its statistics, other than its size, are the same in each form. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
Size
Cloud Giants are between 16-20 feet tall, males are often slightly taller than females of the race.
Speed
Cloud Giants have a base move speed of 40
Age
Cloud Giants have middling lifespans among Giant-Kind, 400 years.
Alignment
Often taken by flights of fancy, Cloud Giants often strike out on little trips and adventures to see the world, they are Chaotic by nature.
Powerful Build
You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Sky Born
You’re acclimated to high altitude, including elevations above 20,000 feet. You’re also naturally adapted to cold climates, as described in chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
Language
You can speak, read, and write Common and Giant.
Giant
Your creature type is Giant, not Humanoid.
Giant Weapons
Giants need extra large weapons and often just use what’s available to them, such as rocks, boulders, and trees. You gain proficiency with clubs, great clubs, and improvised weapons.
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Posted Apr 6, 2022Not bad! I'd say a few changes could be made. Cloud Giant Strength could instead increase strength and maximum strength by +6, and have the spell casting unlocked at level 3 and 5, respectively. Also, perhaps set a limit of some kind on Change Shape. Aside from those this is a fantastic homebrew!