GOLIATH

Physical Qualities

Goliaths tower over even dragonborn, standing between 7 and 8 feet tall. Their skin is gray or brown, mottled with darker patches that they believe hint

at some aspect of each goliath’s fate or destiny. Their skin is speckled with lithoderms, coin-sized growths of bone that appear like pebbles studding their arms, shoulders, torso, and head. A bony ridge juts over their gleaming blue or green eyes. Male goliaths are bald, and females have dark hair they typically grow long and wear in braids.

Goliaths have life spans comparable to those of humans.

Playing a Goliath

Goliaths are driven by a fierce love of competition. Anything that can be conceived as a challenge invites goliaths to keep score, tracking their progress against both their comrades and themselves. A goliath fighter might remark on how many times he has drawn

first blood in battle within a particular dungeon compared to the party’s rogue, and he’s certainly mentally tracking his own performance against his last adventure. This competitiveness takes the form of good-natured rivalry among goliaths. As a race they have no patience for cheaters, gloaters, or sore losers, but goliaths can be very hard on themselves when they fail to measure up to their own past accomplishments.

Daring that borders on foolhardiness is also a common trait among goliaths. They have no fear of heights, climbing sheer mountain cliffs and leaping great chasms with ease. Their nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering instills in them an inquisitive interest in whatever lies over the next ridge or at the head of a canyon. To a wandering hunter’s mind, that curiosity can lead to better hunting grounds or a good water source that would otherwise go undiscovered. Goliaths respect and revere the natural world,

and goliath adventurers commonly draw on the primal power source. Druids and shamans are more common among them than clerics, and goliath priests—called skywatchers—invoke the spirits of nature and their ancestors far more often than they call on the distant gods of the Astral Sea. Some goliath tribes also honor Kord, Melora, and Avandra, particularly those tribes that have frequent contact with other races. Tribes that regularly trade with dwarves sometimes offer sacrifices to Moradin as well.

Goliath Adventurers

Three sample goliath adventurers are described below.

Kavaki was injured in an avalanche as a young man and exiled from his tribe because he was unable to walk with them when they moved to a new hunting ground. His tribe lamented his loss, celebrated his accomplishments, and then left him for dead. However, a ram spirit sheltered him through blizzards and storms until his injury healed, and he now evokes the power of that ram spirit to fuel his barbarian rage. Still cut off from his tribe, Kavaki has found a new family—a group of adventurers—and is determined never again to be in a position where he cannot carry his own weight.

Nalla was a tent-mother for her tribe, caring for infants and toddlers while their parents performed their own tasks on the tribe’s behalf. When her own child died in an orc raid, however, Nalla felt that she could no longer bear to care for children, and she soon exiled herself. As a fighter, she has fallen in with a band of adventurers she now guards with her life, almost as if they were the children of her tribe.

Lo-Kag was a trader for his tribe, interacting regularly with a nearby dwarf clan. As a warden, he was interested in the traditions of the dwarven defenders—determined fighters and paladins sworn to the defense of their clanhold—and learned much from a mentor trained in their ways. On his last trip

to the dwarf clanhold, however, he found it deserted. Corpses lay strewn around the citadel, but he saw no sign of violence or looting. Instead of returning to his tribe, Lo-Kag set out into the world to investigate the mystery of the dwarves’ demise.