D&D: ‘Glory of the Giants’ Lets You Unlock the Secret Language of the Universe With New Backgrounds
Glory of the Giants has two new backgrounds in it. One lets you have been a lost little baby. The other unlocks the language of the cosmos.
Not every background is a big, huge defining part of your character. In fact, many of them are just there as window dressing around a class feature or a particular skill proficiency. When was the last time you played someone with a background in Sailor and that was a huge important part of the character?
And then some of them set your whole character path. For instance, the Mage of the White Robes or Knight of Solamnia backgrounds in Dragonlance do a good job of that. And then there are the new backgrounds introduced in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, which encapsulate both ends of the spectrum.
Glory of the Giants – New Feats
This video highlights the two new backgrounds in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. And from the sound of it, they continue to explore the ways backgrounds can meaningfully contribute to a character in 5E. To start with there’s the Giant Foundling background.
Giant Foundlings were raised by Giants as babies. They grew up around them, and absorbed some of the magic getting a new feat called “Strike of the Giants” which lets you “channel their might.” Not bad for a background that basically says you were a lost little baby.
The Runecarver background, on the other hand, unlocks the primeval magic of Giant Runes:
Yeah, they draw upon the twenty primeval runes of the Giants that describe their language of the cosmos. Which ultimately means you get a feat that opens up some spell selections. There’s some stark contrast here, but all in all, these both are doing interesting things with backgrounds – a space that typically WotC ignores.
Both feats will be the start of new feat trees so that as you level up you can unlock more ways to use your Strike of the Giants or learn new Runes. Sadly, this kind of design seems to be falling to the wayside in One D&D, where you can do anything you like with your background because it doesn’t really matter, they all end up being a handful of proficiencies and a feat of your choice. One less meaningful choice to make about your character. Hopefully, the player’s reaction to these new backgrounds might revive WotC’s interest.
Glory of the Giants comes out next month!
