D&D ‘Glory of the Giants’: New Boss Fight Mechanics Previewed in Bigby’s Deep Dive
A deep dive into the new D&D book Glory of the Giants shows off some surprising variety and new boss fight mechanics.
Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants comes out in a few short weeks. And when it does the floodgates will open, but instead of holding back water, these floodgates are holding back giants. Giants of unusual origin and with a host of new powers. Including what might be the most promising way WotC has tried to do mechanics for boss fights yet.
At least in 5th Edition. They had a lot figured out in 4th Edition, but those mechanics seem doomed to wither in the past, alone and forgotten, except by homebrewers who come back and salvage damaging auras, bloodied transformations, and multiple varied attacks per turn.
But it’s more than just some exciting boss fight options, we also get a look at some of the amazing new elemental and demonic Giants.
Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants – Monster Deep Dive Shows Off New Boss Fight Mechanics
The book promises a lot of lore on Giants. And one of the places we can see this is in the sheer variety of forms. Because as the D&D team dig through the various Giants included in the book, we get a sense of Giants connected to the world, transformed and shaped by the magics of it at every turn. One such example is the Maw of Yeenoghu – a massive hill giant who has become a fiend after attracting the attention of Yeenoghu, demon lord of Gnolls and voracity.
This massive maw continually drags along the ground as the Giant must constantly chew on something to stem the tide of evergrowing teeth. They can even be used as a ranged weapon, which is horrifying.
Then there are the Giants who employ Rune Magic. These spellcasters take on an even different expression than spellcasters in more modern 5E books like Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. These Giants have magical runes that give them access to “powerful abilities” that can be used “without limit” meaning every round, presumably. But. You can attack their rune. And if you do, they lose that power.
But the prize rules mechanic on display here are the ones surrounding the Scions of Thrym. These are Giants who are basically demigods. They’re the children of the gods, and they embody a new way of doing big, epic encounters.
These demiurgic creatures are actually two encounters in one. That is, facing them, you’ll face down two different statblocks. This is because every Scion is “protected” by a “Cradle.”
A Scion’s Cradle is a massive part of the world that sort of both surrounds to protect and entomb the Scion. It might be a massive iceberg or storm or some other big representation of elemental energy. A Cradle is a part of the world. And when you awaken it (by exploring that glacier or digging through these stony ruins, the Cradle becomes a massive Elemental creature that is working to both try and protect the Scion from the world and the world from the Scion.
Then, once you defeat the Cradle, the Scion awakens. And now it’s time for round 2 (which is probably more like round 8 or 9, depending on how the fight is actually going). This mechanic seems very exciting and cool. It’s a different take on the Mythic Monster option, which felt cool but a little underutilized. These are two different creatures that might result in two wildly different fights, which feels very much like the fight with Radagon and then the Elden Beast at the end of Elden Ring.
All of this and more in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants!
