# Giant, Death >[!rimg]+ > ![[Placeholder2.png]] > >[!debug]+ *This heavily armored, gaunt giant has pointed ears and dark gray skin. Its hands end in long yellow claws, and its snarl shows sharp fangs. It is surrounded by a thin fog of swirling vapor, and as you watch, the cloud forms into tormented faces that scream in terror and pain* <div class="grid-container"><div class="MON">Death Giant</div> <div class="CR">CR 16 (76,800 XP)</div> <div class="SOU">Monster Manual 3</div> <div class="SYS">Dungeons & Dragons 3.5</div></div> NE Huge Humanoid (giant) **Init** +8 **Senses** darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; **Perception** +35 #### defense **AC** 29, 9 touch, 28 flat-footed (+6 armor, +1 Dex, +14 natural, -2 size) **hp** 219 (23d8+115) **Fort** +25, **Refl** +18, **Will** +22 **Feint** 32, **Demoralize** 38 **Defensive Abilities** rock catching, soul healing **Immune** energy drain, fire #### offense **Speed** 50 ft. (35 ft. in armor) **Melee** greataxe +28/+23/+18/+13 (4d6+18/19-20/x3), bite +25 (2d6+6) or 2 slams +27 (1d8+12), bite +25 (2d6+6) **Ranged** rock +16 (2d8+12) **Space** 15 ft., **Reach** 15 ft.o **Special Attacks** frightful keening, steal soul, throw rocks (120 ft.) **Spell-Like Abilities** (CL 16th, Concentration +23) > **3/day**— _greater dispel magic_, _inflict critical wounds_, _unholy blight_ > **1/day**— _flame strike_ #### statistics **Str** 34, **Dex** 13, **Con** 21, **Int** 12, **Wis** 20, **Cha** 25 **BAB** +17, **CMB** +31, **CMD** 42, **TA** +27, **RTA** +16 **Feats** [[Ability Focus]] (frightful keening), [[Ability Focus]] (steal soul), [[Cleave]], [[Improved Critical]] (greataxe), [[Improved Vital Strike]], [[Iron Will]], [[Lightning Reflexes]], [[Multiattack]], [[Point Blank Shot]], [[Power Attack]], [[Vital Strike]], [[Weapon Focus]] (greataxe) **Skills** Knowledge (religion) +24, Perception +35, Survival +31 **Languages** Common, Giant **SQ** sold soul #### special abilities ### Frightful Keening (Su) A death giant can trigger the guardian souls that waft around its body to wail in frightful anguish. Living creatures within 100 feet that hear this keening must succeed at a DC 30 Will save. Success indicates that the creature is shaken until it can no longer hear the keening or moves out of range. Failure causes the creature to be panicked for as long as it can hear the keening and remains within range, and shaken for 24 hours afterward. Keening persists for 10 minutes unless the death giant suppresses it, a standard action. This is a sonic, mind-affecting fear ability. The save DC is Charisma-based. ### Guardian Souls (Su) A death giant's victims become its guardians in death. Each death giant is surrounded by a constantly swirling cloud of intangible spirits. These spirits provide the death giant with warnings and protection, granting the creature a bonus on initiative rolls, saves, and Perception checks equal to its Charisma modifier. The souls cannot be damaged or dispelled, but are affected by channeled energy. If a death giant is subjected to positive energy channeled to harm undead, the death giant takes no damage, but its guardian souls are suppressed for a number of rounds equal to one-quarter the channel energy damage. During this time, the death giant loses the benefits of its guardian souls, frightful keening, soul healing, and steal soul abilities until the souls return. If a death giant is subjected to channel negative energy to heal undead, the death giant gains a +2 bonus to initiative rolls, saves, and Perception checks for a number of rounds equal to one-quarter the channel energy healing. ### Sold Soul (Ex) A death giant cannot be raised, resurrected, or reincarnated. If a death giant's soul is not taken as a guardian soul by another death giant or kept from departing by some other means (such as soul bind), it is utterly destroyed 1 round after the giant's death. ### Soul Healing (Su) When a death giant is protected by its guardian souls, hit point damage due to negative energy (such as from an _inflict_ spell or channel energy), it heals rather than harms a death giant. Death giants are healed by positive energy (such as from cure spells) normally. ### Steal Soul (Su) Any living creature with 10 or fewer hit points within 15 feet of a death giant must succeed on a DC 30 Fortitude save each round or die instantly. This is a death effect. The save DC is Charisma-based. Any creature that dies within 15 feet of a death giant has its spirit sucked up into the swirling guardian souls that protect the death giant. Such creatures cannot be raised resurrected, or reincarnated so long as the death giant lives. Killing the death giant releases the souls. If a living death giant is within 15 feet of a death giant that dies, the souls are not released and are instead transferred to the nearby death giant due to its steal soul ability. Under extraordinary circumstances, a living death giant may release a soul it has captured. #### tactics Death giants are fearsome melee opponents and powerful spellcasters. They prefer to cast spells in combat situations but reserve some for opportune tactics and healing. #### ecology **Terrain** Temperate desert **Organization** Solitary, pair, or gang (3–8) **Treasure** Standard **Advancement** By character class Death giants are a race of terribly evil giants that, in order to preserve their empire from destruction, traded the immortal souls of every one of their kind in exchange for unholy power. It was a poor bargain, and the death giants now live with the mistake of their ancestors. The souls of death giants are bound for destruction on the Negative Energy Plane, and their link to that profane realm grants them spell-like abilities and great power over the souls of others. Death giants have dark gray to black skin and yellow eyes. Like stone giants, they lack hair; unlike most giants, their ears come to a point. Their unkempt nails form hard claws, and their teeth are sharp. A death giant stands about 15 feet tall and weighs 2,000 pounds. ### Death Giant Society Death giants live in the ruins of their once-great civilization, scattered across the desert following the wars that brought their empires to ruin. Capable of using magic to provide for themselves, death giants have allowed their culture and skills to atrophy. They create weapons and armor for the often intense “soul-trading” battles between various groups, but otherwise spend their time seeking a way to rid themselves of their race’s curse while maintaining their powers.