Giant, Storm

Storm giants are gentle and reclusive. They are usually tolerant of others, but can be very dangerous when angry.

Storm giants resemble well-formed humans of gargantuan proportions. Adult males and females are about 26' tall and weigh about 15,000 pounds. Storm giants have pale, light green or (rarely) violet skin. Green-skinned storm giants have dark green hair and glittering emerald eyes. Violet-skinned storm giants have deep violet or blue-black hair with silvery gray or purple eyes. Storm giants can live to be 600 years old.

A storm giant's garb usually is a short, loose tunic belted at the waist, sandals or bare feet, and a headband. They wear a few pieces of simple, but finely crafted jewelry: anklets (favored by bare-footed giants), rings, or circlets being most common.

Storm giants usually carry pouches attached to their belts. These hold only a few tools, necessities, and a simple musical instrument - usually a panpipe or harp. Other than the jewelry they wear, they prefer to leave their wealth in their lairs.

They speak their own language as well as cloud giant, the tongue common to all giants, and the common tongue of humankind.

Combat: All storm giants are immune to electricity and lightning. They use weapons and special abilities instead of hurling rocks, but can catch large missiles 65% of the time.

Storm giants are born with water breathing ability, and can move, attack, and use magic under water as if they were on land. Juvenile and adult storm giants can cast control weather and levitate spells lifting their own weight and as much as 4,000 additional pounds twice a day. Adult storm giants also can call lightning (3 bolts of 15 8-sided dice each), lightning bolt (1 bolt of 15 6-sided dice), control winds, and use weather summoning once a day. A storm giant uses its magical abilities at 15th level. An angry storm giant usually will summon a storm and call lightning.

They employ gigantic two-handed swords in battle. A storm giant's oversized weapons do triple normal (man-sized) damage to all opponents, plus the giant's strength bonus. Thus, a storm giant's two-handed sword does 3-30 (3d10) +12 points of damage. They also use massive composite bows which have a 300 yard range and do 3-18 (3d6) points of damage. There is a 10% chance that any storm giant will have enchanted weapons.

A storm giant's natural Armor Class is 0. In battle, storm giants usually wear elaborate bronze plate mail (AC -6).

Habitat/Society: Storm giants are retiring and solitary, but not shy. They live in castles built on cloud islands (60%), mountain peaks (20%), or underwater (10%). They live quiet, reflective lives and spend their time musing about the world, composing and playing music, and tilling their land or gathering food. Land-and air-dwelling storm giants usually are on good terms with neighboring silver dragons and good cloud giants, and cooperate with them for mutual defense. Aquatic storm giants have similar relationships with mermen and bronze dragons.

When two or more storm giants are encountered in lair they will be a mated couple and their children. To determine each young giant's maturity, roll 1d4. A roll of 4 indicates an infant with no combat ability and hit points of ogre; rolls of 1-3 indicate older progeny with hit dice, damage, and attack rolls equal to that of a cloud giant.

There is a 20% chance that an adult storm giant is also a priest (70%) or priest/wizard (30%). Storm giants can attain 9th level as priests and 7th level as wizards. Storm giant priests can cast regular spells from the Animal, Charm, Combat, Creation, Guardian, Healing, Plant, Weather, and Sun spheres. Storm giant wizards are generalists, and typically know spells from the Alteration, Invocation/Evocation, Conjuration/Summoning, and Abjuration schools.

Storm giant lairs are always protected by guards. Land or aerial lairs have 1-2 rocs (70%), which also serve a mounts, or 1-4 griffons (30%). Underwater lairs have 2-8 (2d4) sea lions.

Ecology: Storm giants live off the land in the immediate vicinity of their lairs. If the natural harvest is not enough to sustain them, they create and carefully till large areas of gardens, fields, and vineyards. They do not keep animals for food, preferring to hunt.