Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants

Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition

by Wizards of the Coast

Explore the wondrous realms of giants with this supplement for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

Bigby the Great recounts his journeys into the history, myth, and society of giants in this guide to their realms in the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons. Here Bigby and the demigod Diancastra, child of the giants’ All-Father, Annam, unveil the secrets of Annam’s mighty descendants.

Players will find a wealth of giant-themed character a subclass for barbarians, two backgrounds related to giants and their runic magic, and feat options that evoke the strength and primal magic of the giants. Dungeon Masters will gain inspiration for bringing giants to life, from maps of giant-built sites and big new monsters to tremendous treasures and intriguing trinkets in a giant’s bag!

Let Bigby and Diancastra teach you everything about the iconic giants of D&D!

Genres: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC /ˈwɒtˌsiː/ or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. Originally a basement-run role-playing game publisher, the company popularized the collectible card game genre with Magic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s, acquired the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game by purchasing the failing company TSR, and experienced tremendous success by publishing the licensed Pokémon Trading Card Game. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Renton, Washington in the United States.[1]

Wizards of the Coast publishes role-playing games, board games, and collectible card games. They have received numerous awards, including several Origins Awards. The company has been a subsidiary of Hasbro since 1999. All Wizards of the Coast stores were closed in 2004.

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't blown away. There's some good stuff in here to expand on or clarify existing lore for giants in the D&D multiverse, but only a couple of things that really caught my attention for being exceptionally cool or fun. And I really don't dig how they changed the giant-themed feats they'd pitched in the UA. I thought they were way more fun before.

Also, bit of a shame they stripped out the Circle of the Ancients subclass they had been developing. I bet they could have done it well if they had put the effort in. Seemed like they sort of gave up when the feedback was middling, but it would have been cool flavour.

Oh well. Still enjoyed the book more than I didn't.

[Pádraic · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very detailed and thorough book, packed with stuff, all devoted to a kind of fantasy creature that I ultimately don't think is that interesting. Not as interesting as dragons, certainly. But these books always have something useful in them, and my excitement did kick up at the statblocks at the back, which includes some great huge terrible guys to loom over your players with. Multiple excellent pieces of art in here too, some (in particular the mud hulk, the storm herald, and the scions) made me go, oh hell yeah, and start immediately brainstorming ways to get them into my current campaign.

And the mechanical design of the statblocks has improved too: PCs will get thrown around, knocked prone, swallowed, killed and reanimated, and have all sorts of terrible conditions inflicted on them. It's a far cry from the old days of "multiattack: claw, claw, bite". Also appreciated how powerful lots of these monsters are, some of them plenty capable of dishing out an average of over one hundred points of damage a round, enough to put the fear back into a high-level party.

On an unrelated (and stupid) note, why isn't this book called something like Bigby's Big Book of Giants, or The Giant Book of Giants? Golden opportunities just sliding by! Transfer me some money, Wizards of the Coast, and I'll let you in on plenty more where those came from.

[Timothy Pitkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

When compared to Fizban's book this one feels a little empty while it does do a good job of exploring giants and the different kinds they are and how they operate which is good on the GM side of things but when it comes to player stuff it feels empty. Their is only one new character option when compared to the dragon book which had 3 and the Path of the Giant option is cool but I wish there was more.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

My full review can be found here https://www.enworld.org/threads/bigby...

[Ogre · Rating 3 out of 5]

This...didn't suck. That's about the best that can be said for it. Few player options, and a whole lot of filler -- maps for adventures that the DM is supposed to make up, which...sounds nice except the maps are book sized, which means they need to be duplicated in some way to use as battlemaps...at which point, it makes the maps moot, and ideas for how to...use the maps in adventures. Literally pages and pages of this stuff. About 1/4 of the book is devoted to this stuff. There's a decent quantity of monsters, but the thematic unity of the monsters and the fact that most of them are just variants of monsters we already have makes it feel like a cash grab.

Get this if you want to be completionist, but it's really not worth the high price tag.

[Ross Kitson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I enjoyed this latest addition to 5e sourcebooks. As a DM there's no doubt there's far more in here for me than players, with the sub-class, backgrounds, and feats feeling rather slim.
The Giants in Play chapter was a mixed bag with some use to me (The Ordning, Gods and Religion, and Organisations I liked). Chapter 3 (Giant Adventures) had some useful ideas in, some curious encounter tables, and adventure/campaign material I probably wouldn't use.
I loved the Enclaves chapter, and some of the concepts are very left field and novel. Dyson's maps have grown on me a lot also. Definitely useful to me.
The last two chapters, the Treasure and Bestiary will be utilised heftily in my campaign which is just about to start afresh. Planning a finale related to OSTORIA (I'd have liked more on that from a FR perspective). Some hard hitters in here, although surprisingly no legendary actions at all, and loads of bonus actions and reactions. Suspect I'll be tweaking that. Hopefully not a new trend for DnD 5e monsters going forward.
Overall, a good book for my purposes.

[Frizbie Nightshade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited about getting this book while running Storm King's thunder. It has the option to expand the lore of the dieties. One of my players who has been through multiple generations of D&D asked about the female giant gods.
None of that was listed in SKT... So I figured it would be in here.
Alas, no. There are several more pages about Anam and the other giant gods, all male.
There is one subclass added, a few feats, and some background options for characters, but nothing super exciting. I was quite disappointed in what little this book offers that isn't already available in publications.

[Hristo Simeonov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Изключително добре написана и структурирана setting/lore книга за ДнД. Макар темата "гиганти" да ми е една от най-малко любимите в цялата вселена на Dungeons&Dragons, тук успях да открия много интригуващи нюанси, които за първи път породиха някакъв интерес към нея у мен. Най-вълнуващата част от книгата е тази, посветена на различните "гигантски анклави". Всеки от тях пристига с карта и идеи за кратки енкаунтъри/приключения. Което е ужасно силно "оръжие" за всеки ДМ.
"Бигби представя: Слава на гигантите" е най-голямата изненада за мен, от всичко, което Wizards издаде през 2023г. !

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, I wish there were more mechanics.

[Andy Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as much info about giants as I would have liked.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great reference for those that want to run a campaign full of giants. The scale is hard to vizualize. Fun magic items and artifacts. Powerful foes.