Half-Giant

Half-Giants are a race in the Dungeons & Dragons setting of Dark Sun. They are magical fusions of humans and the now all-but-extinct giants, creating a race that fills the half-orc niche of "Big, Strong, Dumb Bruiser Race" with an even bigger, stronger, and bruisier race.... which is a little redundant in a setting that already has muls in it.

Half-Giants were introduced in the original Campaign Setting sourcebook for Dark Sun, where they were described as a race descended from mysterious origins that saw humans and giants magically fused to create entities with giant-like stature (and dull wits), but a human-like interest in communication and cooperation, curiosity, willingness to learn, and a general tendency towards kindness. The Revised Edition clarified that half-giants were creations of the Sorcerer-Kings, which surprised pretty much nobody.

As a species, half-giants resemble enormous humans, averaging between 10ft and 12ft tall and weighing more than 1600 pounds. As a side effect of combining the somewhat lackluster and brutish minds of giants with the flexiblity and diversity of the human mind, half-giants are both highly imatitve by nature and fundamentally chaotic; the personality of a half-giant can change drastically on a daily basis. Mechanically, this translates as half-giants choose to fix either their Ethical (Lawful-Chaotic) or Moral (Good-Evil) aspect of Alignment at character creation, and being able to change the non-fixed aspect of their alignment every time they completed a day's rest.

If you've read the alignment page at all, then you're probably already getting alarm bells already. Half-Giants could easily support That Guy, although even the books tried to provide advice on how to not use this trait to be a dick.

Despite this, half-giants were also popular for just how absolutely broken they were. Yeah, they had to pay twice as much for everything and needed twice the daily supplies, but when it came to combat-related muscle, half-giants outcheesed even the mighty muls... well, sort of.

Half-Giants appeared with "Non-Athasian" fluff in the Expanded Psionics handbook, and were subsequently referred to in the Dark Sun 3e update in Dragon Magazine #319. After 3e, though, half-giants disappeared; 4th edition, in its most controversial change for Dark Sun, instead used the half-giant lore as reflavoring for a previously introduced race, the Goliath, even going so far as to strip them of their "you change your personality on a daily basis" fluff.

Mind you, it's actually not entirely unjustifiable; half-giants in 3e? Actually weren't considered Large sized! Despite their enormous height and weight in AD&D, the sourcebooks don't explicitly categorize them as any size bigger than M, (although their Monstrous Compendium write-up states that they are Huge sized), which may have led to the oddity of Half-Giants being considered Medium-sized in 3e. With 3e half-giants being "really tall Medium creatures", just reflavoring goliaths does make more sense.

Stats

In the Original DSCS sourcebook, half-giants had the following stats:

Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 17/20, Dexterity 3/15, Constitution 15/20, Intelligence 3/15, Wisdom 3/17, Charisma 3/17

Ability Score Adjustments: +4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma

Class & Level Limits: Cleric 12, Fighter 16, Gladiator 14, Psionicist Unlimited, Ranger 8

Multiclass Options: Fighter/Cleric, Cleric/Psionicist, Fighter/Psionicist, Fighter/Templar, Ranger/Cleric, Ranger/Psionicist, Ranger/Templar

Regardless of class, a half-giant doubles the result of its hit die rolls; bonus HP for a high Con score are added after the doubling is made.

All personal items (clothes, armor, weapons, food, etc) cost double for a half-giant.

A half-giant requires 4 gallons of water per day if active or 2 gallons per day if inactive in order to survive.

The only difference between the two in the Revised Edition is that half-giants gained an increased lifespan, from 120 years to 220.

In 3rd edition, half-giants were... well, changed quite a lot. Most notably, they shrank down to a maximum height of 8 feet and a weight range of 250 to 400 pounds, with the following stats:

+2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity

Giant Type

Medium size

Base land speed 30 feet

Low-light Vision

Fire Acclimated: +2 racial bonus on saving throws against all fire spells and effects.

Powerful Build: A half-giant can be treated as being one size category larger when it is beneficial to be bigger, namely opposing grapples, bull rushes and trips, being swallowed whole, and wielding larger weapons. Its space and reach remain that of a creature of its actual size category.

Naturally Psionic: 2 bonus power points at 1st level.

Psi-like Ability: Stomp 1/day, with manifester level equl to 1/2 hit dice (minimum 1st) and save DC being Charisma based.

Favored Class: Psychic Warrior

Level Adjustment: +1

In Dragon #319, half-giants were... well, basically unchanged. The magazine literally says "use the EPH half-giant, just change Favored Class from Psychic Warrior to Barbarian".