Goliaths, Pansaer (3.5e Race)

Pansaerian Goliaths

NOTE: Pansaerian goliaths and the goliath race introduced in Races of Stone are not the same race or an offshoot of each other. They have little in common, asides from the fact both races are large and strong, and live a fairly primitive life.

Personality

Muscular and imposing, goliaths are the distant descendants of the titans of yore. Living in the mountainside and in the eastern fells, they are a race of nomadic, tribal huntsmen and hermits. Their defining feature is the passive outlook they have on life and on the world: what happens, happens. The world moves on and no one can stop the movement.

The goliaths have a peaceful, down-to-earth culture. The worst feature of goliaths is their withdrawn and passive demeanor that often quells their capability to improve and make something of themselves in the world. This passivity stems partly from cultural values and partly from racist views against the race.

Since goliaths for the most part live in the wilds, they are rarely as educated or worldwise as members of other cultures. This, coupled with the fact goliaths like to think things through slowly and thoroughly, might cause them to appear dim or slow-witted. However, a great number of wise folk, even wizards, have risen from goliath stock.

Physical Description

Goliaths clothe themselves in furs and leather.

Goliaths are the largest of the five great races of Pansaer. A typical male goliath stands at 8 to 9 feet, and unlike most other races, they never stop growing; the elders of a goliath tribe can be even 12 feet tall. Goliaths weigh around 300 pounds. Female goliaths are a little lither and shorter than the males, but still tower over other races.

The facial features and movements of a goliath harken back to wild animals: their features are sharp, unrefined, and they move with almost inhuman speed and style. Their canines are long and sharp, like a beasts, and since they don't see the point of grooming, have wild, flowing hair and scarred bodies.

Relations

Of old, goliaths had little to do with the other races, living in seclusion in the Tumbling Fells and the surrounding mountains. The only folk they ever met with were those of Tull, for goliaths took a liking to their straightforward thinking. Nowadays their numbers are dwindling, and they've had to meet more with the other folk of the continent, as the other option is to slowly die out in the wilderness.

Goliaths have no qualms with anyone who accepts them as they are and doesn't try to change them, but they get along especially well with dwarves, whom they've traded with for long in the mountains, and with humans, who they see as distant cousins. They don't particularly like dunners, as the dunner philosophy of "every man for himself" doesn't sit with their harmonious outlook.

Alignment

Goliaths on the whole do not support law or chaos, as they live according to the customs of their own tribes: if the tribe has strict traditions, they are lawful; if the tribe is wild and uncontrolled, they are chaotic. On general, they are good: the harmonious lifestyle and kinship they feel with each other warrants it.

Note that in the setting Pansaerian goliaths originate from, Years of Gold, there is no alignment system, and thus goliaths were not designed with a specific alignment in mind.

Lands

Goliaths are first and foremost hunter-gatherers, so untouched wilderness (especially forested regions) is where they feel at home. A typical goliath tribe lives in the same forest, or by the same river, or on the same mountain slopes all their lives, never once moving or changing their lifestyle. The fall of their race is changing this truth, however.

In Pansaer (of the Years of Gold setting), goliaths originate from the Tumbling Fells, and the wild tribes of their race still live solely in that region and the forests and mountains that surround it. As a group of goliaths moves closer to civilization, they also take on features of that civilization, and quickly become integrated. Of the cities, Tull and the Twin Cities both have a notable goliath minority.

Religion

The main religion of the wild goliath tribes is the animal deities they worship. The six greatest, the Moose, the Bear, the Raven, the Boar, the Mouse and the Ape are the most well-known (and unsurprisingly the most common around the Tumbling Fells), but there are many more. Each tribal goliath is watched over by one of these divinities, and is said to have that gods' features: Moose goliaths are wise thinkers, Mouse goliaths clever and quiet and so on.

Goliaths also worship the pantheon of titan-gods, whom they consider their distant forefathers. However, they believe these ancestral gods to have erred over the years, and do not pray to them - they merely give tribute to their ancestors.

Language

Goliaths speak an old language, changed by the years but still recognizable as the language they spoke thousands of years ago, unlike the languages of men which become fairly unrecognizable in merely hundreds of years. It's a simple language, and it occasionally has trouble communicating the more complicated aspects of life, but it is rapidly expanding thanks to the recent decline of their race.

Names

The name of a goliath consists of a name given to the child by his or her mother, and the animal title of that child's patron deity. Any given tribe usually has goliaths of only two or three different animal deities, with all children born being watched over by one of them. Those rare goliaths who never discover what their patron animal is are collectively referred to as Navenfri, the nameless. It is not considered a particular shame or honor to belong to the nameless.

Male Names: Jaermo, Villi, Bodil, Geir, Vaeno

Female Names: Aino, Silija, Britta, Elli, Kulerva

Animal Title: Bearborn, Mouseborn, Tigerborn, Owlborn; also Navenfri

Racial Traits

This goliath has clearly been trading with dwarves.

• +2 Strength, -2 Dexterity: Goliaths are powerfully built and exceptionally strong, but this comes with a drawback: slow reactions.
• Humanoid (goliath): Goliaths are a humanoid race, although they claim kinship to the titans.
• Medium: As Medium creatures, goliaths have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Goliath base land speed is 30 feet.
• Natural Wrestler: Goliaths have a +4 racial bonus on grapple checks, and don't provoke an attack of opportunity when beginning a grapple. The massive bodies and strong limbs of the goliaths make them exceptional wrestlers, and they often further hone this ability through practice.
• Animist Guidance (Su): Once per day as a free action, a goliath can invoke the animal deity that governs over him (or the deities in general if he or she is a Navenfri) to gain a +2 insight bonus to all saving throws for a number of rounds equal to his or her character level.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Goliath. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Giant, Gnome, Gnoll, Orc, Terran.
• Favored Class: Barbarian.

Vital Statistics

Table: Goliath Random Starting Ages

Adulthood	Simple	Moderate	Complex
15 years	+1d4	+1d6	+2d6

Table: Goliath Aging Effects

Middle Age^1	Old^2	Venerable^3	Maximum Age
35 years	53 years	70 years	+2d20 years
At middle age, −1 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At old age, −2 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha. At venerable age, −3 to Str, Dex, and Con; +1 to Int, Wis, and Cha.

Table: Goliath Random Height and Weight

Gender	Base Height	Height Modifier	Base Weight	Weight Modifier
Male	7' 8"	+2d6	280 lb.	× (2d4) lb.
Female	7' 4"	+2d6	240 lb.	× (2d4) lb.

---

Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Races
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Homebrew → Campaign Settings → Years of Gold