Jungle Giant

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Jungle Giants are, as the name suggests, a species of giant indigenous to the tropical jungle regions of the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. They are characterized by being tall and lean, with green-colored flesh and hair that helps them to blend in. Debuting in the Al-Qadim Appendix for the Monstrous Compendium, we don't know much about them because they are secondary tier giants and both D&D and PF are notorious for relying on quantity over quality when it comes to giant lore. In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, it's noted that female jungle giants are much taller than males, which PF used as an excuse to portray them as a race of giant jungle amazons on Golarion.

They have not appeared since 2nd edition AD&D, unfortunately.

AD&D Lore

This lore debuted in the MCAQA, and was then reprinted for the Monstrous Manual.

Powerful, lanky, and strictly carnivorous, jungle giants are a terror to all the animals of the tropical forests. They are great hunters and stalkers, able to clear a huge tract of forest of all game and then move on.

A typical jungle giant stands 18' tall yet weighs only 3,000 pounds - very thin for a giant. Females are generally taller than males. They can live to be 200 years old. Jungle giants always carry everything they need with them: tools for making and maintaining their weapons, fire-starters, tinder, and spare bits of leather and sinew used to repair clothing. They also carry their valuables, and every adult jungle giant carries a quiver of arrows.

Jungle giants speak their own language and the languages of tribes of nearby humans and humanoids.

Thin and very tall, jungle giants easily blend into the vertical landscape of the tropical forest. Their wavy hair is pale green, and their skin is a rich muddy yellow, like sunlight on the forest floor. They rarely wear more clothing than strictly necessary, as they prefer complete freedom of movement when hunting. Many groups of jungle giants use ritual tattooing, colorful feather headdresses, and even filed teeth to show their fierceness. They sometimes decorate themselves with mud, sticks, and leaves when stalking especially large or wary game.

Combat: Jungle giants use 15' long bows crafted to take advantage of their tremendous size and strength. These giants are very quick with their huge bows and can fire two arrows each round. They will use poisoned arrows to bring down their prey more quickly. If these arrows are used in combat, opponents must save vs. paralyzation at -2 or be rendered immobile for 2-12 turns. Even humanoid creatures with the strength to pull a jungle giant bow cannot use it, because the arrows are over 6' long (2d6 + 9 damage). Jungle giants will occasionally use the trunk of a dead tree as a club, doing 2d8 +9 points damage.

Jungle giants prefer to take their prey from ambushes, firing their bows from the treetops and then swinging down sturdy branches or thick ropes to finish off their prey. Camouflaged giants cause a -1 penalty on opponents' surprise rolls. When setting up a blind, they can camouflage themselves in jungle terrain with a 60% chance of success. Setting up a blind or decorating themselves with jungle camouflage takes three turns.

Habitat/Society: Jungle giants are friendlier than most other races of giant-kind, and they will often cooperate with human jungle tribes on hunts. The giants provide strength and raw power, and the humans provide the numbers and skill to drive animals into ambushes.

Jungle giants have absolutely no compunctions about eating any form of meat - mammal, reptile, amphibian, or avian. They know how to stalk, kill, and prepare everything from eggs to full-grown animals, and from scavengers to predators. Their villages reflect this carnivorous tendency; the huts are made from wooden posts with roofs of greased animal hides stitched together with intestines. The smell of smoking meats and butchery hang in the air, and huge quantities of dragonflies and other insects swarm around the villages. A jungle giant village is 50% likely to shelter 1-6 giant dragonflies.

Ecology: Jungle giants think of most creatures as prey, but those they accept as fellow hunters they respect as equals, regardless of their size. Although they much prefer the jungle terrain they know so well, they are often forced to leave the trees for the savanna when their numbers become too great to survive in the jungle. They think nothing of eating every snake, antelope, cat, warthog, ostrich, and elephant they come across. Jungle giants on the savannah often return to the forest, because their great height makes stealthy hunting difficult for them on open ground.

PF Lore

This lore appeared in the PF Bestiary 3.

Reclusive by nature, jungle giants lair deep within the rainforest. These giants distrust the ways of civilization and resent trespassers. More than one vine-covered lost city in the deep jungle owes its fall to jungle giant ire. The warrior-women of these tribes usually fight with bows, sacred weapons often passed down over generations from mother to daughter. To touch a jungle giant’s bow without permission is a mortal insult.

Jungle giants stand 17 feet tall and weigh 4,000 pounds. Their barklike skin bears runic brands etched into each giant as a rite of passage into adulthood. Jungle giant tribes are matriarchal, ruled by an elder female warrior. Males traditionally defend the village, gather food, tend livestock, and raise children.