Firbolg

Quick Stats:

  • Ability Score Adjustment: +2 Muscle, -1 Leadership
  • Class Level Limits: See Racial Level Limits
  • Multi-Class Options: Shaman + any one non-priest, or Runecaster + any one
  • Height (M/F): 120 in / 114 in +1d12
  • Weight (M/F): 780 lbs / 740 lbs +6d10
  • Aging:
    • Starting: 40 +5d6 years
    • Adult/Middle/Old/Venerable: 45 / 100 / 133 / 200
    • Maximum: 200 +3d100 years
  • Languages:
    • Bonus Languages: Common, Jotunuvar
    • Recommended Languages: Any
  • Movement: 15
  • Special Abilities:
    • Firbolgs gain hit dice by class and receive 13 bonus hit points at 1st level.
    • Firbolgs are large creatures and can carry 50% more than a human of similar strength.
    • A Firbolg’s tough hide grants him +7 to his natural AC. As with all creatures with natural armor, this is superseded by (does not stack with) actual worn armor.
    • Firbolgs with Stamina or Muscle scores of 18, are entitled to roll percentile dice for exceptional Strength, regardless of class.
    • Firbolgs can use large human weapons (like two-handed swords and halberds) with one hand without penalty. They may use weapons crafted by and taken from larger giants in two hands, but generally prefer the smaller equivalents.
    • Firbolgs can swat away incoming missiles with a roll of 6 or better on 1d20. With one free hand, they can bat away up to two missiles per round. Large missiles, such as hurled boulders or catapult missiles, can be caught if the firbolg wishes. Caught missiles can be hurled back at opponents on the next round with a -2 penalty to the attack roll.
    • Firbolgs gain numerous magical abilities as they increase in levels. Each ability functions as the spell of the same name (except where described below). These innate spell-like abilities are activated by gesture (Somatic components only), requiring no Verbal or Material components necessary. All such powers have a casting time of 3 and are cast as a wizard of the Firbolg’s level. The following powers become available at the indicated levels:
    • Firbolg priests gain additional innate magical abilities. At 1st to 5th level, they receive two 1st level Illusion spells at each level. At 6th to 10th level, they receive two 2nd level Illusion spells at each level. At 11th to 15th level, they receive two 3rd level Illusion spells. At 16th to 20th level, they receive two 4th level Illusion spells. As innate abilities, these are randomly determined (see below), and do not change once they are established. Each of these spells can be used once per day (if a spell is rolled more than once, the firbolg gains an additional daily use of that spell). They otherwise function as above.
      • Note: Spell-like abilities beyond 11th level are purely speculative, as no Firbolg shaman has ever achieved such lofty levels of power.
  • Special Restrictions:
    • Firbolgs have 15% magic resistance, even against magic that is beneficial. They may not voluntarily lower this magic resistance.
    • Firbolgs never wear armor of any sort, nor do they carry shields.
    • Firbolgs take damage as Large creatures.
    • Firbolgs must earn twice the normal number of experience points to advance each level (i.e. a 2nd level Fighter requires 4000xp instead of the usual 2000xp). Firbolg priests must earn three times the normal amount of experience.

Background: Firbolgs are the most intelligent of the giant-kin. They look like normal humans who have grown to a height of 10½ feet tall and weigh over 800 pounds. Stylish firbolgs wear their hair long and grow long, thick beards. Their pink skin is very dense and thick, giving them a low natural armor class. They have smooth voices of deep bass and thick, rolling consonants.

Of all the various giant races, only the firbolgs reject the ordening of the giant species, instead valuing free will over all. In fact, Firbolgs pioneered the concept of democracy in the realms. Whenever a decision affecting a Firbolg clan is necessary, a call goes out to all able members of the clan to assemble and vote on the issue. To cast their ballots, the firbolgs use flat rocks engraved with their own personal runes. The actual casting of the stones varies from clan to clan. In a large firbolg settlement in the Dragonspine Mountains, there is said to exist a 50-foot-tall balance scale that the clan uses to dramatically display the results of a cast vote.

Long ago, the firbolgs developed a stringent code of conduct that governs their actions. At the heart of the code is the idea that individuals should be judged based on their actions rather than upon their birth; to the firbolgs, people’s deeds are the truth of their being. Another of the code’s important concepts is the idea that the individual is nothing without society, and the preservation of society must be of the highest priority to all individuals. Most firbolgs keep the code to themselves, believing it is virtuous to simply live the code, rather than preach it. Merely talking about deeds and philosophies, rather than acting on them, is looked upon as cowardice.

In the original Jotun language, the firbolg code is as follows:

Prakt, Strev, Rang, glang byrd.
(Bravery, Effort, and Honor over birth.)

Stomm rang glang du.
(The clan’s honor above your honor.)

Blod ettin er blod kong.
(The blood of a runt is the blood of a kind.)

Gi tusen val nul.
(Give one thousand for nothing).

Trut zund stommpaart.
(Truth is the honor of the clan.)

Most of the countless clans of firbolgs have created settlements of their own, away from other giants, in the most remote reaches of the Realms. Most clans build their settlements amidst low rolling hills or thick forsts. Such settlements usually consist of a collecting of grand wooden halls with thatched roofs built among a series of defensive catwalks and observation towers. These settlements generally prove inhospitable to visitors since the firbolgs tend to distrust outsiders, though in a few places (particularly around the Dragon Coast and the Moon Sea), Firbolgs have chosen to live among humans, and a few clans have truly urbanized.

Priest-Random Illusion Spells

Roll d12 1st-level 2nd-level 3rd-level 4th-level
1 Audible Glamer Fool’s Gold Ghost Pipes Rainbow Pattern
2 Change Self Whispering Wind Laeral’s Dancing Dweomer Vacancy
3 Face Blur Blindness Wraithform Encrypt
4 False Tracks Blur Phantom Steed Fear
5 Illusory Talent Deafness Greater Distraction Hallucinatory Terrain
6 Lesser Distraction Deepen Shadows Illusory Script Illusionary Wall
7 Nystul’s Magic Aura Hypnotic Pattern Invisibility 10-ft. Radius Improved Invisibility
8 Phantasmal Force Improved Phantasmal Force Lorloveim’s Creeping Shadow Minor Creation
9 Spook Invisibility Mailed Might Phantasmal Killer
10 Tasso’s Shriek Leomund’s Trap Nightscar Plague
11 Ventriloquism Mirror Image Shadow Bolt Shadow Monster
12 Corpse Visage Misdirection Spectral Force Shadow Skeleton

1 Note that creatures that receive a racial bonus to Strength

Firbolg

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