Goliath

Goliaths are massive creatures unafraid of throwing their weight around in a fight. Highly competitive, these strong nomads can prove to be powerful allies and welcome additions to any adventuring party.
Goliaths are known for their almost foolhardy daring. In their mountain homes, they leap from precipice to precipice, heedless of the fatal consequences of a misstep. They place great stock in clan and family. Life in the mountains teaches even the youngest goliath to rely completely on his fellows for a hand across a crevasse. They tend to be inquisitive, always curious about whether better hunting lies over the next ridge or a good water source can be found in the next canyon.
A typical goliath is larger than the largest half-orc. Most stand between 7 and 8 feet tall and weigh between 280 and 340 pounds. There is no appreciable difference in height or weight between male and female goliaths. Goliaths have gray skin, mottled with dark and light patches that goliath shamans say hint at a particular goliath’s fate. Lithoderms, the coin-sized bone-and-skin growths as hard as pebbles speckle their arms, shoulders, and torso. Their skulls have a jutting eyebrow ridge, wide jaw, and occasional lithoderms as well. Female goliaths have dark hair on their heads, grown to great length and always kept braided. Male goliaths generally have hair only on their limbs. Goliaths’ eyes are a brilliant blue or green, and they often seem to glow a little from underneath their furrowed brows.
When encountered in the mountains, goliaths are outwardly friendly to anyone who doesn’t threaten the tribe and can keep up with them as they climb from peak to peak. Humans who brave the mountains can often earn a tasty meal by helping a team of goliath hunters. Goliaths hold dwarves in particularly high regard, wishing their tribes had the dwarven aptitude for weapon crafting. Some of the bravest goliaths climb down into the tunnels and natural caverns under a mountain, seeking a dwarf community to trade with. The smaller-than-human races are regarded as curiosities, but many a nimble-climbing gnome or halfling has earned respect by beating a goliath in a race up a cliff. Goliaths view the extended life span of an elf as vaguely frightening, finding it hard to imagine a person who could have known one’s great-great grandfather. A goliath tribe’s attitude toward any nearby giants varies widely. Some tribes eagerly trade with giants however giants have a bad habit of trying to turn goliaths into their slaves. Conflict inevitably ensues, and soon either the giants are dead, the goliaths have fled, or the goliaths are chained up as slaves to a giant-lord. Goliaths tend to hold goblinoids and orcs, including halforcs, at arm’s length, noting that the “downlanders” they trade with regard such races as troublemakers. But because goblinoids rarely stray into the high mountains, they are usually someone else’s trouble, so goliaths don’t bear them any actual malice.
Goliaths have a slight tendency toward chaotic alignments, which is reflected in their wanderlust and the small, mobile communities in which they live. Still, each goliath tribe has one or more adjudicators that settle disputes within the clan. Goliaths have a slight preference for good over evil, since among the high mountain peaks, survival becomes much easier when one aids a fellow goliath without insisting on recompense.
Because they don’t support large-scale agriculture or extensive settlements, the mountain ranges of Ethigoviel but especially Hauth, where goliaths live are home to few other intelligent races. Most tribes of goliaths wander from peak to peak, tending their goat flocks and foraging for alpine roots and tubers.Typically a tribe sets up a temporary village in an alpine meadow and remains there for a month or two then moves on when the season changes or better hunting can be found elsewhere. Larger tribes tend to follow a similar trail from year to year, retreating to lower elevations in midwinter and when they need to trade, then ascending to the highest peaks once the snow melts.
The primary deity of the goliaths is known as the Chief of All Chiefs, he watches over the goliaths and their mountain homes. His clerics say he created the goliaths when he found a bush bearing gems in place of fruit growing atop the highest mountain peak in the world. When he plucked gems from the bush, those gems became the first tribe of goliaths. Tradition instructs his followers to seek out the hidden bounty of the mountains and keep the tribe safe from harm.
The goliaths have only a spoken tongue which has thirteen phonetic elements: a, e, g, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, u, th, and v. Recently, the goliaths have picked up the alphabet of Dwarvs in Ethigoviel though the concept of a written language hasn’t spread to the tribes of Hauth yet. Those tribes that have learned the Dwarven alphabet are busily transcribing the vast oral tradition into carvings, cave paintings, and even books.
Every goliath has three names: a birth name assigned by the newborn’s mother and father, a nickname or honorific assigned by the tribal chief, and a family or clan name. The birth name tends to be short, often only a syllable or two, but the clan names often have five syllables or more and always end in a vowel.
Traditionally, the only goliaths to become adventurers are those exiled, voluntarily or other wise, from the goliath tribes high in the mountains. However, exceptions such as the famous brave hero Keolok Nalakaga do exist in tales. With the more recent near genocide of the southern tribes by the forces of Yrdahn forcing them to spend more time with “downlanders", it’s becoming more common for a tribe to send a particularly competent goliath on a mission that aids the tribe or goliaths in general. Most goliaths find the lowlands fascinating, although they are generally on their guard against “downland tricksters.” The same wanderlust that keeps goliath tribes moving often keeps a lone goliath among humans for far longer than he originally intended.
Goliaths’ love of competition shapes a signifi cant part of their worldview. A goliath instinctively keeps score about anything that’s a challenge, and casually mentions how they are doing compared to their comrades and rivals. While they obviously love competing with and against each other, they face a more implacable foe. It’s invisible to even a close friend, but a goliath is always competing against himself. If a goliath slays a dragon, he won’t be satisfied with another dragon battle unless it’s against a larger, older dragon. When a goliath doesn’t measure up to his former achievements they frequently become morose and withdrawn but rarely speak of this inner struggle. In fact many couldn’t articulate why they feel the way they do.
Because tribes rely on the utmost effort of each member to survive in the forbidding mountains, goliaths are almost incapable of holding a grudge, even if they lose a fair competition. Goliaths compete as teams more often than they do as individuals, and an oft-repeated goliath maxim is “Today’s rival is tomorrow’s teammate.” Cheating in a competition, which for goliath covers most life activities, is so severely frowned upon that few goliaths will risk the social consequences of being caught. Many can’t conceive of cheating, instead redoubling their efforts or finding another game or sport to try. Competition drives another mindset common among goliaths: the notion that “everyone gets a turn.” Just as most goliath competitions are open to all, goliaths expect that everyone should have the chance to compete for power, prestige, and other goals. Goliaths who visit areas of lower elevation are often puzzled by the plight of serfs. “Why does the lord not give them the chance to become knights?” a goliath traveler might ask. Anyone in a situation that affords no hope of advancement will earn pity from a goliath.
Sports and games are central to goliath life. Because they are hunter-gatherers, goliaths don’t have a lot of time for elaborate games that require extensive equipment. Competitions tend to be impromptu affairs that require little preparation, such as a foot race to the tree and back or a game of “keep away” played with a stuffed backpack. Those more widespread across goliath culture include;

• Cliff-Climb: Among the simplest of goliath games, a cliff-climb is simply a race to the top of a sufficiently tall cliff. There are only two unusual wrinkles. Firstly is that the race is sometimes to the top of the cliff and back to the ground, in which case a daring or foolish racer can sometimes win by intentionally falling to the finish line. Secondly is sometimes races are done in a best-of-three format, with the winner of each race having to accept a backpack full of rocks as a handicap on future climbs.
• Stubborn Root: This game is similar to the “king of the mountain” game played by children at lower altitudes. One goliath, known in the parlance of the game as the root, stations himself at a high point, often on a ridge or peak but sometimes atop a boulder or simply on a marked patch of ground. Then the other players, usually three to six, try to bull rush the root away from the high point or grapple the root and drag him away. Whoever does so is the new root, and the process repeats itself until all goliaths are tired out or everyone fails in multiple attempts to move the root. No specific number of consecutive failed attempts results in a winner; the goliaths’ sense of fair play determines when a particular root has won the game. It’s considered bad form to gang up on a root until everyone has failed to move the root singly, and it’s always bad form to attack the root outright.
• Wrestling: Goliath wrestling matches start in a large, aproximately 20 foot radius circle marked on flat ground, the center of which is clearly marked to indicate where matches will begin. To win a match, a wrestler must drag his pinned foe outside the circle with a referee counting out loud so the wrestlers know when the round is up. At the end of each round, the wrestlers break their clinch and have a few moments to rest before returning to the center of the circle.
• Goat-Ball: This team game uses a furry, misshapen ball made out of stuffed goat-hide, the more lopsided and lumpy the ball, the better. Goat-ball requires a dozen to two dozen platforms, usually boulders, logs, and tree stumps raised above the ground in a random pattern. Two teams of four clamber onto adjacent platforms and a referee runs out to place the goat-ball on a platform somewhere roughly equidistant from the two teams. The teams then leap from platform to platform, each trying to be the first to reach the ball. Whichever team reaches the ball fi rst is on offense. When a team is on offense, it tries to complete three consecutive passes involving teammates on four different platforms, in other words, you can’t just pass it back and forth three times you have to leap from platform to platform. If the team on offense completes three passes, whoever has the ball can try to hit an opponent with the thrown ball. The team on defense tries to intercept the ball and push its opponents off the platforms. A player who falls off a platform, either because he missed a jump or because an opponent pushed him off or gets hit by a ball is “out” and can’t participate until possession changes and the two teams trade offensive and defensive roles. Whenever the ball hits the ground, including when the player holding the ball touches the ground, possession changes, unless the ball hits the ground after a successful throw at an opponent, in which case the offense keeps the ball. A team wins if all its opponents have been knocked out of the game at the same time.
• Drink-and-Tell: A decidedly nonathletic contest, the game of drink-and-tell involves participants and spectators alike sitting in a circle. One participant produces a massive flagon of specially brewed mead, drinks from it, and then tells a tale. Depending on how entertaining the tale is, he’ll either hear cheers from the rest of the circle, meaning the participant is still in the game or jeers, meaning the participant is now out of the competition but remains a spectator. Then the flagon is passed clockwise around the circle; spectators merely pass it to their left, but participants drink from it and offer a tale of their own. The flagon keeps going around the circle until it’s either empty or only one participant remains. If drink-and-tell ends with an empty flagon, everyone who hasn’t been knocked out can claim a shared victory.

Goliaths decorate their weapons, tents, and what little clothing they wear with abstract designs, many featuring jagged, parallel lines and symbols that have astronomical significance such as tracings of constellations or moon-and-sun designs. A few goliath painters practice representational art, but even they intentionally favor stick figure designs that capture the essence of the subject, not its literal reality. For a goliath artist, the whole purpose of art is to be decorative and show the viewer something he can’t see in the real world.
Goliath tribes have an extensive oral tradition of stories, myths, legends, and songs. Almost every tribe has one or more dawncallers, an honorific given to bards who act as sentries and lorekeepers for the tribe. What free time isn’t spent engaged in games and sports is spent listening to tales around the campfire, although they’re mostly tales of games and sports, of course. Within the recent past some tribes have started using the Dwarven alphabet to phonetically spell out words in the goliath language. These first goliath scribes are enthusiastic, so it’s not uncommon to find a mountain cave where an entire goliath epic has been painted on the walls, ceiling, and floor.
Goliaths aren’t primitive, but they are nomadic, which puts some significant restraints on the technology they use in daily life. In general, goliaths make for themselves only what they can carry with them, including the tools necessary for the creation to occur. Few goliaths are blacksmiths, for example, because you can’t take a forge with you on a mountain trail. Still, goliaths have a basic understanding of how metallurgy works, and they are canny buyers of metal goods from the races they trade with, mostly dwarves and giants. Because goliaths are subsistence hunter-gatherers, they excel at tanning, leatherwork, flintknapping, and bonecarving. For a goliath tribe to survive a cold mountain winter, it must make use of every resource at its disposal. That means using every part of a game animal, from the sinews to the hide and bones.
Without magic, the goliaths’ nomadic lifestyle would leave them on the edge of starvation and social collapse. Goliath spellcasters, especially the omnipresent druids, are instrumental in finding food, healing the sick and injured, and warding the camp against the worst of the elements.
Goliaths are not generally warlike. When pressed by a formidable foe, they’re more likely to pack up and leave for safer territory than stay and fight. Goliaths are definitely not cowardly, but they regard each fellow goliath who falls in combat as a teammate lost forever, and they’re acutely aware of how battle losses make life harder for the surviving members of the tribe. Still, war is sometimes the only realistic option. A goliath tribe might be unable to outrun or outfox its enemies, or part of the tribe might be taken captive. Goliaths regard imprisonment and slavery as especially heinous crimes, so in these cases the entire tribe goes to war, treating battle as the most important game of all. A tribe can transform itself into an effective warband by simply handing out weapons and armor, choosing war-captains, and marching out to meet their foes. They’re adept at using camouflage and terrain to their advantage, and they prefer to fight guerrilla-style rather than meet on an agreed upon battlefield. The goliath tendency toward competitiveness and fair play expresses itself on the battlefield as well but they aren’t foolish enough to believe that their enemies are playing by the same rules unless the enemies are also goliaths, of course.
Between forty and sixty goliaths, three to five extended families, comprise a typical tribe. Most goliaths stay members of the same tribe for life. Tribes that grow too large and unwieldy sometimes split into two or three smaller tribes, and tribes that fall on hard times and become too small to survive on their own might merge with more stable tribes. However, such changes are rare; the lorekeepers of most goliath tribes can trace their tribal history back a dozen generations or more.
Several key roles are important to every goliath tribe.

• Chieftain: The tribal chieftain is the primary authority figure for a tribe, but by no means the only source of power within a tribe. The chieftain leads the tribe by acclamation when the former chief steps down, or is forced out. He is responsible for setting the path of the tribe, leading it to food-rich regions, and deciding when to move on once hunting is scarce. Each day, the chieftain selects a number of captains and gives each of them a task for the day, such as hunting, gathering raw materials, cooking, or scouting new terrain. Wise chiefs assign at least two captains to each task, because then the two teams compete against one another and get more done.
• Captain: The chieftain chooses captains each morning after breakfast, and most chieftains give each adult goliath an occasional turn as captain so everyone has leadership experience. Each captain gets a broad outline of the day’s task from the chieftain. Then the captains take turns picking from the adult population of the tribe to form work teams, and the day’s work begins. Captains generally have great discretion in how they accomplish the assigned task, the chieftain, and by extension the tribe, wants results, not a specific set of criteria followed to the letter. Most captains relish the competitive aspect of leading a team and outperforming the other teams assigned similar tasks that day. Captains have almost absolute authority when directing their teams, but they’re loath to throw their weight around too much, any resentment they foster might show up in tomorrow’s captain.
• Skywatcher: Regardless of whether they’re pantheist or animist goliaths, most tribes have a druid with the honorific of Skywatcher who preaches against the needless slaughter of game and overharvesting of resources such as firewood and edible plants. The chieftain often holds the skywatcher out of team selection, letting him roam as he pleases. Sky watchers spend most of their time scouting out new territory, monitoring the hunting and gathering teams, and preparing various seasonal festivals and rituals.
• Dawncaller: Most goliath tribes have four to six members with the Dawncaller honorific Dawncallers are bards who act as night sentries, patrolling the perimeter of the goliath camp at night and sounding the alarm if danger is nearby. Shortly before dawn, they sing anthems of bravery and virtue to awaken the rest of the tribe. During the day, whatever teams remain in camp pick dawncallers last, then give them light duty so they can sleep during the day and be alert at night.
• Adjudicator: Adjudicators act as referees for the many games that comprise goliath leisure time, and they also settle disputes among members of the tribe. Unless the matter is particularly urgent, adjudicators hear disputes after the evening meal, listening to each party in the dispute tell his tale. The adjudicator then renders a decision. Any goliath can appeal an adjudicator’s decision to the chieftain, but the chieftain can’t overrule an adjudicator without taking the Adjudicator honorific away, so most chiefs are reluctant to do so. If an adjudicator can’t determine who is in the wrong in a particular dispute, he often settles the matter with a contest of some kind, often a contest that relates to the matter at hand.
• Tent-Mother: The position of tent-mother is unusual because it’s the only aspect of goliath society that is genderspecific. The tent-mother is responsible for the care of the tribe’s infants and toddlers. She’s selected as a captain almost every morning, and she picks her own assistants. Goliath females have the ability to nurse multiple babies, so the tentmother is often able to act as wet nurse for the entire tribe. No child can be picked for a task by a captain until the tent-mother deems him old enough, which often happens around ten years of age and involves an important rite of passage. Goliath folk tales abound of children who chafe under the rule of a tentmother but suffer misfortune when they run away from the tribe and are eventually rescued by a team led by the very same tent-mother. The chieftain chooses the tent-mother and can take the honorific away, although this form of punishment rarely occurs.
• Lamenter: A goliath tribe’s lamenter has a single job, identify when a particular goliath isn’t being a productive member of the tribe. If a goliath is obviously too old or too ill to survive the rigors of mountain life without assistance, the lamenter prepares a long chant or dirge that commemorates the goliath’s achievements throughout life. At the conclusion of the dirge, the entire tribe moans and wails as the old or sick goliath walks away from the camp, never to return. The lamenter does likewise with goliaths who die suddenly or fall in battle, and then buries them under a simple cairn. A good lamenter talks with a goliath perceived as weak before preparing a lament, and sometimes a heart-to-heart talk with a lamenter is suffi cient to get a goliath back on his feet and producing. Lamenters generally consult with the chieftain before preparing a lament and defer to the chieftain’s judgment if it’s more merciful.

Being exiled from the tribe is both the worst punishment an adjudicator can mete out, and the ultimate fate of all goliaths who don’t die in battle or mishap. Exiles get a new honorific from the chieftain reflecting their changed status; then they pack their personal items into a backpack, say goodbye to friends and family, and walk away from the tribe, never to return. If a goliath is exiled due to age or debilitating injury, the lamenter performs a lament as the exile leaves. However, if exile is a punishment handed down by an adjudicator, no lament is performed, and the exiled goliath is shunned until he walks away.
Since the beginning goliaths have been nature worshipers who relied on druids to attend to their spiritual needs. While deities figure prominently in goliath folklore and culture,actual clerics have been exceedingly rare but evangelizing among the goliath tribes is not unheard of. Goliath druids have responded to this effort with everything from outright hostility to enthusiastic support, but in most cases Goliath druids are just as competitive as any other goliaths after all and when druids handle a tribe’s religious needs tradition tends to win out with the tribe’s skywatcher often leading prayers. Each equinox and solstice has its own druidic festival, and druidic blessings accompany each birth and death. A portion of each meal is left on a simple stone altar under the open sky as a sacrifice to preserve nature’s bounty.
Goliaths tell tales of their own history, they are as full of great heroes, perfidious villains, and epic struggles as the histories of other races. Central to the goliaths’ oral tradition every goliath who grew up in a tribe has heard stories unheard of in the outside world.
At the highest mountain peaks-far above the slopes where trees grow and where the air is thin and the frigid winds howl-dwell the reclusive goliaths. Few folk can claim to have seen a goliath, and fewer still can claim friendship with one. Goliaths wander a bleak realm of rock, wind, and cold. Their bodies look as if they are carved from mountain stone and give them great physical power. Their spirits take after the wandering wind, making them nomads who wander from peak to peak. Their hearts are infused with the cold regard of their frigid realm, leaving each goliath with the responsibility to earn a place in the tribe or die trying.

RPG Datasheet

Goliath

Elemental Evil Player's Companion page 32

Ability Score Increase

Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

--Age:: Goliaths have lifespans comparable to humans. They enter adulthood in their late teens and usually live less than a century.

Alignment

Goliath society, with its clear roles and tasks, has a strong lawful bent. The goliath sense of fairness, balanced with an emphasis on self-sufficiency and personal accountability, pushes them toward neutrality.

Size

Goliaths are between 7 and 8 feet tall and weigh between 280 and 340 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Natural Athlete

You have proficiency in the Athletics skill.

Stone’s Endurance

You can focus yourself to occasionally shrug off injury. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to roll a d12. Add your Constitution modifier to the number rolled, and reduce the damage by that total. After you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Powerful Build

You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.

Mountain Born

You’re acclimated to high altitude, including elevations above 20,000 feet. You’re also naturally adapted to cold climates.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Giant.

^{Much of this section, by necessity, ties into the Dungeons and Dragons Role Playing Game by Wizards of the Coast. Any non-original material that is found herein remains under the ownership of the originating author and is not intended to violate any laws. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of any person, living or dead or undead, real or fictitious, male or female, religious or atheist, bald or full head of hair, stubbled or fat-bearded. No people or animals, other than the author's sanity, were harmed in the creation of this article. Please wash your hands after going to the washroom. For entertainment purposes only.}

The Players Guide
Races

Gigan

"Mountain Men"