Firbolg (/ˈfɪərboʊlg/ FEER-bolg)
Basic Information
Biological Traits
Firbolgs resemble humans and the males sport great, thick beards. Their thick, tough skin was fleshy pink, and their hair, though it comes in many colors, is usually either red or blond and worn long. A firbolg's voice is deep and smooth, and they tend to roll their consonants when speaking.
Basic Traits
Ability Score Increase: Wisdom score increases by 2, and Strength score increases by 1.Speed: Base walking speed is 30 feet.
Firbolg Magic: Can cast detect magic and disguise self with this trait, using Wisdom as the spellcasting ability for them. Once either spell is cast, one cannot cast it again with this trait until finishing a short or long rest. When this version of disguise self is used, one can seem up to 3 feet shorter than normal, allowing the caster to more easily blend in with humans and elves.
Hidden Step: As a bonus action, one can magically turn invisible until the start of their next turn or until they attack, make a damage roll, or force someone to make a saving throw. Once this trait is used, it cannot use it again until finishing a short or long rest.
Powerful Build: Count as one size larger when determining one's carrying capacity and the weight one can push, drag, or lift.
Speech of Beast and Leaf: Can communicate in a limited manner with beasts and plants. They can understand the meaning of firbolg's words, though firbolgs have no special ability to understand them in return. Have advantage on all Charisma checks when influencing beasts and plants.
Language: Speak, read, and write Common, Elvish, and Giant.
Source: Volo's Guide to Monsters
Dietary Needs and Habits
As caretakers of the woods, they carefully and resourcefully live off the land, making sure to ensure balance. During summer, they store excess nuts, fruits, and berries, so that they can provide food to the forest animals during winter. Although they do farm, it is only to supplement their diets; they prefer a more hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Their hunting grounds are usually spread out in a 20‑mile radius from their clan homes. They eat small portions of meat with most meals and reserved large roasts of meat for special celebrations.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Firbolgs have a family-centered, clan-based society. They live in settlements in the remote hillside or forested areas. Their settlements are strongholds, including wooden structures, built from the trees around them, with defensive towers with catwalks between them. Rarely, they inhabit cavern complexes dug into the hillsides. They use their magic to ensure that their homes remain a secret to outsiders. These clan settlements are small, often with a shaman or druid, and live separate from each other. A few firbolg clans are nomadic.
Most firbolg tribes prefer isolation from other races, avoiding their politics and struggles. If intruders enter their territory, they would usually try an indirect approach at causing the "invaders" to leave—driving game away to discourage hunters or redirecting streams or forest trails to confuse traveling parties. If these methods fail, the firbolgs would, at last, confront the outsiders. If the outsiders seem peaceful, the firbolgs would peacefully ask them to leave; if the outsiders seem evil or have no concern for the forest lands, the firbolgs might mount a devastating attack. On occasion, they would trade with peaceful folk living nearby in exchange for providing services utilizing their great strength.
The Firbolg Code
Bravery, Effort, and Honor over birth.
The tribe's honor over yours.
The blood of the runt is the blood of a king.
Give a thousand for nothing.
Truth is the honor of the tribe.
The firbolgs have rejected the Ordning, the customary social order amongst giants and giant-kin, and prefer to exercise free will by using a system called "the code". This is conceived in ancient times, although its exact origins had been lost and a written copy is usually required to be carried by all firbolgs, but the exact implementation varies from one community to the next. It promotes the idea that society is the most important aspect and supersedes individuals. Actions are more important than relatives or heritage. If "the code" is breached, a firbolg might be enslaved within his or her own tribe or banished completely, although transgressions are uncommon. The implications of "the code" mean that the firbolgs would treat all intelligent creatures as equals, and thus they do not exhibit the same superior attitude that other giants and giant-kin displayed. For every decision made, they consider the effects on the forest and the rest of the natural world. During a famine, they would rather go hungry themselves than straining the land.
Firbolgs have a rough form of democracy known as "the cast". This involves summoning all the firbolgs in a tribe who then would cast their vote on an issue by using a rune-engraved stone. The actual "casting" of votes varies from clan to clan. In some cases, it involves literally tossing the stones. At one firbolg settlement in the Cold Mountains, they have built an enormous scale and set their votes in the appropriate weighing pan. Nearby clans gather once a year at the fall solstice at an enclave to settle any disputes among the clans. Shamans would preside over such events, which often simply are a time of celebration.
Exile is often used as a form of punishment for an unforgivable act, such as killing a rare or beautiful animal or starting a forest fire. An outcast firbolg is never permitted to return home.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
As guardians of the wood, few firbolgs would dream of leaving their homes or attempting to fit into human society. An exiled firbolg, or one whose clan has been destroyed, might not have a choice in the matter. Most adventuring firbolgs fall into this latter category.
Famous Firbolg Locations
- Feywild
- Ice Spires
- Remote natural areas in Faerûn
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Firbolg adopt elven names when they must deal with outsiders, although the concept of names strikes them as strange. They know the animals and plants of the forest without formal names and instead identify the forest’s children by their deeds, habits, and other actions. By the same token, their tribe names merely refer to their homes. When dealing with other races, firbolgs refer to their lands by whatever name the surrounding folk use, as a matter of tact and hospitality, but among their own kind they simply call it “home.” Sometimes firbolgs adopt the nicknames or titles outsiders give them under the assumption that those who need names can call them whatever they wish.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Firbolgs have a talent for druidic magic. Their cultural reverence for nature, combined with their strong and insightful minds, makes learning such magic an instinctive part of their development. Almost every firbolg learns a few spells, typically those used to mask their presence, and many go on to master nature magic.
Firbolg communities are known to rally around individuals who contract lycanthropy, rather than shun them, using all resources at their disposal to help the afflicted find a cure.
Why go on an adventure?
- Are you an outcast from your clan?
- Maybe your clan was slain or your homeland was destroyed and you are seeking retribution?
- Or did you get separated from your clan and become lost?
- Did you or your clan receive an omen that dispatches you on your journey away from home?
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