Glory of the Giants Backgrounds | Two Thematic New Options

Glory of the Giants is here, bringing a handful of player options with it. While this book doesn’t have as much player-facing goodies as some previous offerings, there are two backgrounds that really stand out. They both fit the theme of the book perfectly, and each of them comes with a feat. let’s dive into our Glory of the Giants Backgrounds Guide.

Giant Foundling

See Our Giant Foundling 5E Guide

The giant foundling isn’t a giant, but they spent their lives around them. As a foundling, you have learned to navigate the world of giants as a small person. If you choose this background, you were raised by giants and learned a bit about their world.

Like all backgrounds, you get a mixture of skills and languages. You pick up proficiency in Intimidation and Survival. You also learn Giant and another language of your choice. The equipment you gain is nothing out of the ordinary.

Where the Giant Foundling stands out is the Strike of the Giants feat. This feat is a fascinating option for a melee character. You choose one of six strikes, each themed with a type of giant. Fire strike deals an additional 10 damage on a successful weapon attack, where stone strike knocks your opponent back 10 feet. You get to use this at most once per turn, and you have a number of uses equal to your proficiency bonus. The feat recharges on a long rest.

Rune Carver

See Our Rune Carver 5E Guide

Where Giant Foundling is great for melee characters, the Rune Carver is ideal for casters. This background means you have dedicated your life to the runic magic of the giants. You knowledge of runes allows you to tap into their arcane power.

First, the Rune Carver nets you proficiency with History, Perception, and artisan’s tools. You also know the Giant language. Your equipment is standard, but it includes the artisan’s tools you just became proficient in.

The major focus of this background is the Rune Shaper feat. Normally, you must be a spellcaster to take this feat but it comes with this background no matter what type of character you play. With this feat, you learn a number of magic runes equal to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down). Each rune is associated with a spell that you can cast once without a spell slot. For example, the Cloud rune lets you cast fog cloud, while the Friend rune lets you cast speak with animals.

Wrapping Up our Glory of the Giants Backgrounds Guide

That’s it for our Glory of the Giants Backgrounds guide. There are only two options here, but they are both thematic and interesting. Wizards of the Coast is intent on moving forward with these backgrounds that are much stronger than what we’ve seen in the past, and these two are no exception. Like it? Hate it? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

Need more gigantic player options? Be sure to check out our Giant Barbarian 5E Guide.