Firbolg Thread

Has anyone ever played one of these goofy boys?

What was it like? Why did you pick a Firbolg?

I can’t imagine playing one or anyone else playing one just because of how derpy they look, but I’d respect someone willing to give them a go.

Goofy bois

I suppose they can actually fit the “noble savage” trope better than anyone else. They just seem like unnecessary fluff

My players love them. One of them is playing a Firbolg Druid and since he has the trait that makes him look smaller and is also a shapeshifter, I've allowed him to reduce his size as long as he can hold it, kinda like a reverse All Might.

They're pretty nice, I guess.

10-foot-tall Marcille is the only good design of these.

If they didn't look like utter garbage I'd play them.
Before 5e they were huge picts/celts, not very original admittedly, but now they look like far too cartoony.
I like the idea of the elvish counterpart to the humanish goliaths, but I don't really like their culture either.
I would redesign them visually to be huge, stout elves, they can keep their weirdly furry ears but should have more sharp, angular facial features instead of these blocky faces. Furthermore their skin should resemble nature instead of being blue, as such their skin colours should range from a green tint to an earthy brown and some even have textured skin like tree bark. Maybe have fungi, moss and other small plants grow in their hair.
I'm not sure what to change about their culture though, the nature hippie stuff is too uninspired. They should be more arbitrary instead of just good-hearted nature spirits, to fall in line as the counterparts to the Lawful Goliaths.

Wild
Hunt

Elaborate

I'm kind of curious why we have Firbolg and Fomorians but no Tuatha De Dannan or Milesian? (though I think it's widely suspected Milesians were just humans)

It's literally their culture in 4e.
>LARGE, FIERCE HUMANOIDS OF THE FEYWILD, firbolgs live for the hunt. They value independence, courage, and the middle ground between good and evil. They are agents of destiny, death, and the unforgiving wild.
>Firbolgs are hunters of the Feywild, the creators and keepers of the Wild Hunt. Small settlements dot firbolg territory in the deep wilderness of the Feywild, perched on precarious heights, dangerous terrain, or floating motes of rock for greater defensibility. Firbolg society is made up of clans led by the mightiest warriors, usually masters of the Wild Hunt. Clan and family ties are strong among firbolgs.
>The firbolgs' religion is centered on three deities: the Maiden (Sehanine), the Mother (Melora), and the Crone (the Raven Queen). As a people, they follow the Maiden's demands that they walk a middle road between good and evil. Firbolg priests, who are usually female, are called moon seers and are treated with great respect. Seers and elite warriors dedicated to the deities wear masks or helmets that cover their features.
>Firbolgs love trophies and treasure, but they value other creatures' promises more than wealth. Firbolgs call a hunt to pursue oath breakers. It is said that a dark ritual can be used to call firbolgs to the world to hunt one who has broken a vow made to the ritual's performer or those the performer represents.
>Firbolgs respect strength and forthrightness, endurance and skill. Numerous firbolgs serve other fey and mighty nonfey. They also allow others to join in Wild Hunts, which often include firbolg hounders, hunters, and moon seers. The most frightful Wild Hunts are composed of all sorts of fey led by a master of the Wild Hunt and his hounds.

I should return to 4e just to learn about the various cultures, sounds decent actually, I'd play these guys.

I wouldn’t mind if they looked and acted like that still, but in 5e they look like:
and they’re just reclusive hippies

They're completely different from what was called a Firbolg in the past, but I kind of like a lot of things about them all the same. Despite their size they're like forest gnomes without all the baggage getting in the way
They really only work if you see them as a completely different race that has the same name.

>Tuatha de Dannan

They're gods, they appear at the back of the 5e PHB as an example pantheon.

Playing a Firbolg ranger in my friend's west marches, and it's a blast. It also helped that I rolled like a madman.

>They really only work if you see them as a completely different race that has the same name.
Precisely.

I'm going to be jumping in as a Firbolg Moon Druid when one of my players takes over DMing for a side quest and I can't wait. Elusive and mostly chill forest giants sound neat, though I'm not sure how to actually roleplay one.

My specific Firbolg is an outcast from his tribe after a Hobgoblin warlord pillaged their region of the Great Forest. His tribe knew of the growing threat but had assumed they would not dare enter the Forest, and his stance that they should be more proactive when dealing with outside threats led to him departing and throwing his lot in with the Viridian Order, a monastery of paladins on the Sylvan Verge who draw power from their pact with nature spirits. He serves them as a sage and investigator, seeking knowledge and dealing with minor threats on their behalf, and tries to ignore the pressure from his people to return to his training as a druidic leader.

It's fairly cliche I suppose, but the story focuses on the main PCs and I wanted a relatively simple character.

4e took a lot of races and actually made them pretty badass. Including halflings, gnomes, hobgoblins, bladelings, minotaurs, gnolls and shadar-kai, and those are just the ones I remember.

Seriously, 4e gets far too little credit for its fluff.

mite b cool

I don't understand the different color nose.

I have, kinda fun

A whole race with tumblr nose. And before the holy war starts, I define tumblr nose as making every character resemble the town drunk from an early irish novel. Swollen, often bulbous and red. Arbitrarily affixed to every face in a seemingly tone deaf stylization. It is akin to the bugs bunny big eyes on anime characters.

4e wanted each and every single creature to have a reason to start a fight. Take that lore with a grain of salt.

>4e gets far too little credit for its fluff.

Not saying it didn't have some stinkers, but when they actually devoted the space to fluff, they were often pretty good.

Besides, seriously, what the fuck do you need to be told about bears? Who doesn't have the ability to Google up some basic bear info in this day and age?

I like them. Hope to one day play one that goes by the name Sassquach.

How is that there so little art of female firbolgs?

Gonna play one Thursday. Working on my Rural Canadian Accent so that I can attend a dinner party as Whisky Brewer B. Rich.

>wanted every single creature to have a reason to interact with
What a horrible thing to do?

>someome dared to post a positive thing about 4e

That shall not pass!

Some people just can't accept that maybe, just maybe, DMs don't need entries in the Monster Manual that exist only to be cannon fodder for your summoner, or in the one in a million chance that you can run an Evil PC campaign with players who aren't such douchebags you end up calling it quits in disgust.

I thought they were just giving examples of how real life-
>Rereads that segment

Oh.... Oho! My Celtiphilic friend will looove this.

Walks disguised among people, can go invisible, and talk to plants and animals. They're also diligent guardians of nature.

It would fucking freaky encountering one, or knowing that any face you see in your village could be one.

Hey guys, what's going on in this thread?

I like them. They have a lot of character - moreso than the other "Giant" race, Goliaths. They have their own niche they fill quite nicely, and defy expectations in a novel way.

The only thing I don't like about them is the tumblr nose.

I haven't seen them as PCs, but my previous DM had a smattering of firbolg NPCs, with most of them being members of a faction of non-standard humanoid anarchists. My character shared alchemy tips with one, and got a pine-scented shrap bomb as a parting gift.

I dunno, I don't mind the noses. Tumblr noses got annoying because tumblr somehow got it in their heads that that's how ALL noses look and it became a fad. In this case, it's something that's unique to firbolgs (and drunks, and people with the flu).

that's a furbolg you knucklehead

They're pretty cool but they don't seem to be able to ever roll well on perception when they need to. I know you're in here

I'm playing a firbolg bard in a mate's game atm, pretty fun desu. The huge wisdom mod is pretty silly though, I just roll for literally everything like some kind of oracle, I guess it helps speed the campaign along though.

Also fuck the 5e firbolgs, they should go back to the irish-barbarian giant people.

How do you pronounce firbolg, Veeky Forums?

Like how you pronounce the word "fir" and the boulg.