Reclusive giants of rocky mountainous terrain, standing 12 feet tall

Stone giants are not the largest of giants, but with an average adult standing 12 feet tall and weighing roughly 1,500 pounds they are still formidable. There is no substantial difference in height between males and females. They usually dress in heavy leather clothing with sections having been boiled to stiffen them; these outfits serve as armor and give them the first AC above. Stone giants are reclusive, but they will defend their territory (typically in rocky mountainous terrain) against any who trespass therein. A stone giant can throw large stones up to 300' for 3d6 points of damage. They will fight in groups to defend their territory but use only simple, basic tactics and strategy.

This giant has chiseled, muscular features and a flat, forward-sloping head, looking almost as if it were carved of stone.

Stone giants are reclusive, quiet, and peaceful as long as they are left alone. Their granite-gray skin, gaunt features, and black, sunken eyes endow stone giants with a stern countenance. They are private creatures, hiding their lives and art away from the world.

Inhabitants of a Stone World

Secluded caves are the homes of the stone giants. Cavern networks are their towns, rocky tunnels their roads, and underground streams their waterways. Isolated mountain ranges are their continents, with the vast spans of land between seen as oceans that the stone giants only rarely cross.

In their dark, quiet caves, stone giants wordlessly chip away at elaborate carvings, measuring time in the echoing drip of water into cavern pools. In the deepest chambers of a stone giant settlement, far from the chittering of bats or the patrols paced out by the giants' cave bear companions, are holy places where silence and darkness are complete. Stone takes on its most sacred quality in these cavern cathedrals, their buttresses and columns carved with a beauty that shames the legendary stone craft of the dwarves.

Carvers and Seers

Among stone giants, artistry ranks as the greatest virtue. They create intricate murals, paint sprawling murals across cavern walls, and indulge in a wide variety of other artistic disciplines. They esteem stone carving as the greatest of skills.

Stone giants strive to draw shapes out of raw stone, which they believe reveal meaning inspired by their god, Skoraeus Stonebones. The giants appoint the tribe's best carvers as their leaders, shamans, and prophets. The holy hands of such giants become the hands of the god as they work.

Graceful Athletes

Despite their great size and musculature, stone giants are lithe and graceful. Skilled rock throwers are granted positions of high rank in the giants' ordning, testing and demonstrating their ability to hurl and catch enormous boulders. Such giants take the front ranks when a tribe has cause to defend its home or attack its enemies. However, even in combat, artistry is key. A stone giant hurling a rock performs not just a feat of brute strength but also one of stunning athleticism and poise.

Dreamers under Sky

Stone giants view the world outside their underground homes as a realm of dreams where nothing is entirely true or real. They behave in the surface world the way humanoids might behave in their own dreams, making little account for their actions and never fully trusting what they see or hear. A promise made above ground need not be kept. Insults can be made without apology. Killing prey or sentient beings is no cause for guilt in the dreaming world beneath the sky.

Stone giants lacking in athletic grace or artistic skill dwell at the fringes of their society, serving as the tribe's outlying guardians and far-wandering hunters. When trespassers stray too far into the mountain territory of a stone giant clan, those guardians greet them with hurled rocks and showers of splintered stone. Survivors of such encounters spread tales of stone giant violence, never realizing how little those brutes dwelling in the unreal dreaming world resemble their quiet and artistic kin.

Stone Giant

Giant of the Earth

In cavernous depths and amid mountain canyons, stone giants contemplate the strength and persistence of the earth. Stone giants have rugged features and skin with patterns and hues similar to the rock common near their homes. This makes them adept at blending in with their stony surroundings despite their size.

Stone giants rarely interfere in the affairs of other creatures, whether their smaller neighbors or other Giants. Most are slow to act, preferring to weather hardships or wait out perilous times. When roused to action—particularly when sites of ancient wonder or their homes are threatened—stone giants can unleash the might of mountains and crush foes with the force of an avalanche.

Stone giants often ponder the mysteries of natural wonders, such as mountain spires, crystal formations, or mystical petroglyphs. Some know much about the magic and secret messages hidden within the earth. Those who confine themselves to the Underdark often regard the surface world and its inhabitants as dreams imagined into being by slumbering primordials, strange gods, or other entities.

The surface of the world is an alien realm to stone giants: fluctuating, temporary, exposed to gusting wind and sudden rain. It is as wildly changeable as a dream, and that's how they regard it—as a dream. Nothing there is permanent, so nothing there is real. What happens on the surface doesn't matter. Promises and bargains made there needn't be honored. Life and even art hold less value there.

Stone giants sometimes go on dream quests in the surface world, seeking inspiration for their art, a break from decades-long ennui, or satisfaction of simple curiosity. Some who go on these quests let themselves become lost in the dream. Other stone giants are banished to the surface as punishment. Regardless of the reason they ended up on the surface, if they don't take shelter under stone, such stone giants can become dreamwalkers.

Dreamwalkers occupy an odd place of respect outside the stone giant ordning. They are considered outcasts, but their familiarity with the surface world makes them valuable guides, and their insights can help other stone giants grasp the dangers of living in a dream.

Dreamwalkers become divorced from reality by isolation, shame, and their unendingly alien surroundings, and this delirium leaches out into the world around them, affecting other creatures that get too close. Believing that they're living in a dream and that their actions have no real consequences, dreamwalkers act as they please, becoming forces of chaos. As they travel the world, they collect objects and creatures that seem especially significant to them. Over time, the collected things accrete to their bodies, becoming encased in stone.

The surface of the world is an alien realm to stone giants: fluctuating, temporary, exposed to gusting wind and sudden rain. It is as wildly changeable as a dream, and that's how they regard it-as a dream. Nothing there is permanent, so nothing there is real. What happens on the surface doesn't matter. Promises and bargains made there needn't be honored. Life and even art hold less value there.

Dream Dwellers

Stone giants sometimes go on dream quests in the surface world, seeking inspiration for their art, to break a decades-long ennui, or out of simple curiosity. Some who go on these quests let themselves become lost in the dream. Other stone giants are banished to the surface as punishment. Regardless of the reason, if they don't take shelter under stone, such individuals can become dreamwalkers.

Dreamwalkers occupy an odd place of respect outside of stone giant ordning. They are considered outcasts, but their familiarity with the surface world makes them valuable guides, and their insights can help other stone giants grasp the dangers of living in a dream.

Mad Wanderers

Dreamwalkers are driven mad by isolation, shame, and their unendingly alien surroundings, and this madness leeches out into the world around them, affecting other creatures that get too close. Believing that they're living in a dream and that their actions have no real consequences, dreamwalkers act as they please, becoming forces of chaos. As they travel the world, they collect objects and creatures that seem especially significant in their mad minds. Over time, the collected things accrete to their bodies, becoming encased in stone.

Stone giants with a bent toward cruelty and destruction might reject the gods of the Ordning and turn to the worship of Ogrémoch, the Prince of Evil Earth. These giants view the surface world not as a realm of dream but as a nightmare worthy only of destruction, so they lend their strength to cults that plan to reduce the world to rubble.

Outfitted in heavy armor crafted to resemble the cult's patron, stone giants of Evil Earth wield weapons that pulse with thunderous energy. These giants serve as the muscle for the cult, wielding their might to destroy the surface world in the name of Ogrémoch.

Stone giants practice rune magic more than other giants do, perhaps because of these giants' interest in and aptitude for carving stone. Stone giants who combine this magic with prodigious artistic skill are called rockspeakers. Within their communities, they act as leaders and oracles.

Rockspeakers incorporate crystals and stones into their clothing and embed them in their skin. By invoking the power of their stone runes, these giants can turn these crystals into scintillating works of art. In combat, rockspeakers can use this same magic to cause their crystals to emit brilliantly colored, intense beams of light than can sear flesh and inhibit enemies.

Reclusive giants of rocky mountainous terrain, standing 12 feet tall

Stone giants live in mountainous locations exclusively in caverns or otherwise in the earth. They are most active at night. Three-quarters of the time stone giants have 1d4 cave bears guarding their homes. When encountering more than 4 stone giants, the first four are male and additional individuals up to 6 will be female. More than 6 will be immature and will only have a percentage of adult capabilities. Females are not as formidable as males, and are comparable to hill giants in terms of attack, damage, and hit points. Stone giants sometimes share their lairs with cave bears. Stone giants are partially named for their stone-like complexions and iron coloured eyes. Their hair is also dark-stone coloured, sometimes with hints of blue. Whereas hill giants often use wooden clubs, stone giants prefer stone and wear skins the colour of stone.