Fomorian (Aberrant Giant)
“Unveil the monstrous secrets of the Fomorians, ancient giants shrouded in darkness, wielding twisted power and hidden malevolence in the heart of fantasy realms!”
Appearance: The Fomorians, a grotesque race from Celtic lore, defy the conventional forms of giants. Their appearances are a twisted canvas of deformities—some with singular malevolent eyes, others bearing extra limbs or grotesque features. Towering over 12 feet, their leathery, warty skin and contorted physiques cast a haunting shadow, reflecting their malevolent nature.
Behavior: Fomorians embody chaos and cruelty. Within their society, a brutal hierarchy prevails, where the strongest assert dominance with ruthless cunning. Inflicting both physical and psychological torment, they find pleasure in the suffering of those they subjugate. Masters of infiltration, they manipulate mortal societies, spreading corruption from within with a sadistic delight.
Habitat: Preferring the shadows, Fomorians carve out lairs in the darkest recesses of the world. Subterranean chambers beneath desolate landscapes or within haunted forests become their homes. Drawn to places tainted by dark magic, their presence thrives where the boundaries blur between nightmare and reality.
Modus Operandi: Fomorians, strategic and malevolent, wield dark enchantments and grotesque weaponry. In battle, their twisted intellect and magical prowess sow chaos and despair. Cunning infiltrators, they use manipulation and deceit, leaving societies scarred and corrupted in their wake. With a mastery of dark arts, they cast spells and curses that linger long after their physical presence has departed.
Motivation: Driven by an insatiable thirst for power, Fomorians harbor an ancient grudge against divine forces that cast them into exile. Their motivation transcends revenge; it’s a quest for dominance over realms. Forge alliances with dark entities, they amass strength to reclaim their perceived birthright. The Fomorians’ malevolent ambition threatens the delicate equilibrium between mortal and mystical, a shadowy force perpetually seeking to reshape the world in its own dark image.
Fomorian 5e
Aberrant Giant Pathfinder
Fomorian
Large Giant, Chaotic Evil
Armor Class 16 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points 162 (12d12 + 84)
Speed 30 ft.
STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
22 (+6) | 8 (-1) | 24 (+7) | 10 (+0) | 12 (+1) | 6 (-2) |
Skills Perception +5
Senses Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 15
Languages Giant
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)
Deformities. Roll a d6 to determine the Fomorian’s unique deformity:
- Extra Limbs. The Fomorian has an additional pair of twisted arms. It gains an extra Greatclub attack as a bonus action.
- Multiple Eyes. The Fomorian has multiple eyes across its face, granting it advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and allowing it to target multiple creatures with its Eye Ray.
- Twisted Form. The Fomorian’s body is unnaturally contorted, providing it advantage on Dexterity saving throws.
- Monstrous Appendage. The Fomorian has a monstrous appendage (tentacle, tail, etc.) that it can use to make a melee attack against a creature within 10 feet as a bonus action.
- Aberrant Aura. The Fomorian exudes a strange aura. Roll a d4:
- 1-2: Creatures within 10 feet have disadvantage on saving throws against the Fomorian’s abilities.
- 3-4: Creatures within 10 feet have advantage on saving throws against the Fomorian’s abilities.
- Amorphous Form. The Fomorian’s body constantly shifts and warps, providing it resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks.
Multiattack. The Fomorian makes two attacks: one with its Greatclub and one with its Eye Ray.
Greatclub. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (3d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage.
Eye Ray. The Fomorian targets one creature it can see within 60 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 27 (6d8) necrotic damage.
Dark Curse. As a reaction when the Fomorian is hit by an attack, it can impose disadvantage on the attacker’s next attack roll within 30 feet.
Cunning Manipulator. The Fomorian has advantage on Charisma (Deception) and Wisdom (Insight) checks.
Actions
Evil Gaze (Recharge 5-6). The Fomorian targets one creature it can see within 30 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. The frightened target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Cursed Enchantment. The Fomorian casts Bestow Curse at 3rd level, requiring no concentration.
Legendary Actions
The Fomorian can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The Fomorian regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Club Strike. The Fomorian makes one Greatclub attack.
Evil Glare (Costs 2 Actions). The Fomorian uses its Evil Gaze.
Malevolent Teleport (Costs 3 Actions). The Fomorian magically teleports up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.
These malevolent giants, each uniquely twisted and deformed, present an unpredictable and chaotic force in the realms, their eerie and diverse nature reflecting the dark essence of the Fomorian race.
This hulking giant is hideous and deformed. Its body is covered in coarse, dark hair and oozing blisters.
Aberrants make their homes in caves, abandoned mines, or deep underground away from civilization. They shun contact with outsiders except when raiding or ambushing travelers who have ventured near their lair. Captured trespassers are kept for food, slaves, or traded to other aberrant clans for goods. Aberrants are shunned by other giants and take great pleasure in attacking, killing, or maiming other giants and those that despise them.
Aberrants stand about 14 feet tall, with malformed, grotesquely deformed bodies. Aberrants engage their enemies with their greatclubs. Their various deformities prevent them from hurling rocks. Though not as dim-witted as some other giants, aberrants generally employ less than graceful tactics and do little more than pound their enemies into paste with their clubs.
Aberrant CR 5
XP 1,600
NE Large humanoid (giant)
Init –1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +9
DEFENSE
AC 19, touch 8, flat-footed 19 (+4 armor, –1 Dex, +7 natural, –1 size)
hp 60 (8d8+24)
Fort +9; Ref +1; Will +4
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee Huge greatclub +12/+7 (4d6+9)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks deformities, oversized weapon fighting
STATISTICS
Str 23, Dex 8, Con 17, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 10
Base Atk +6; CMB +13; CMD 22
Feats Cleave, Power Attack, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (greatclub)
Skills Intimidate +11, Perception +9, Survival +9; Racial Modifiers –2 penalty to Charisma-based skills per deformity, except +2 bonus to Intimidate checks per deformity
Languages Common, Giant
SQ deformities, slow and steady
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Deformities (Ex)
Aberrants possess an assortment of terrible deformities unique to each individual creature. When determining the deformities of a typical aberrant, roll randomly or choose 1d4–1 deformities from the Aberrant Deformities table. If two deformities are contradictory, reroll or select another. Racial bonuses gained from different deformities are cumulative.
For each deformity an aberrant possesses, it gains a –2 racial penalty on Charisma-based checks with non-aberrants except for Intimidate checks, where it instead gains a +2 racial bonus.
d20 | Deformity | Effect |
---|---|---|
1 | Toughened hide | +4 bonus to natural armor |
2 | Extra arm | May make one additional attack per round |
3 | Additional eyes | +4 racial bonus on Perception checks |
4 | Unusually located eyes | Gains all-around vision |
5 | Hunched back | +4 racial bonus to avoid being tripped, bull rushed, or overrun |
6 | Strangely deformed head | Can’t wear helmets or headgear unless magical or specifically designed for their head shape |
7 | Over-sized ears | +4 racial bonus on Perception checks to hear noise |
8 | Over-sized nose | Gains the scent ability |
9 | Huge feet or short legs | Gains the trample ability (1d8+9, DC 20) |
10 | Elongated nails or claws | Gains a claw attack with each arm, base 1d8 damage |
11 | Fangs or large mouth | Gains a bite attack, base 2d4 damage |
12 | Tail | Gains a tail slap secondary attack, base 2d6 damage |
13 | One or more pointed horns | Gains a gore primary attack, base 1d10 damage |
14 | Large curled horns | Can make a slam attack on a charge with its horns as a primary attack that does 2d6 base damage; if it hits, the aberrant can initiate a bull rush as a free action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity |
15 | Long, gangly arms | +5 ft. reach with attacks using its arms |
16 | Long, muscular legs | +10 ft. to base land speed |
17 | Gills | Can breathe underwater; gains swim speed equal to base land speed |
18 | Exudes foul odor | Gains stench ability (DC 17, 10 rounds); other aberrants are immune to this effect |
19 | Venomous | One or more of the aberrant’s natural attacks are poisonous; this could be poisonous claws, a tail sting, venomous fangs, or the like. Poison—injury; save Fort DC 17, frequency 1/round for 6 rounds, effect 1d4 to one physical ability score or 1d3 to one mental ability score, cure 2 consecutive saves. |
20 | Advanced deformity | One of the aberrant’s other deformities is especially pronounced, gaining one of the following: an increase in base damage by one die type; Ability Focus as a bonus feat on the DC of the ability; or double the usual bonus the deformity provides |
Oversized Weapon Fighting (Ex)
The twisted bodies of aberrants allow them to wield weapons designed for Huge-sized creatures without penalty, as if they were Large-sized weapons.
Slow and Steady (Ex)
Aberrants have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance.
ECOLOGY
Environment temperate mountains and underground
Organization solitary, gang (2–5), band (6–9 plus 35% noncombatants), hunting/raiding party (6–9), or tribe (21–30 plus 35% non-combatants plus 1-2 adepts, barbarians, clerics, or sorcerers of 3rd or 4th level)
Treasure standard
Aberrant Society
The strong rule, and the weak fall. That is the way of life for the aberrants. Each tribe or clan is led by the largest and strongest aberrant. All others rank beneath the leader. New leaders are appointed when the current leader dies. A contest of skill is held with the survivor being elected the new tribal leader and the loser being buried with his fellow giants. Aberrant tribes often capture defeated foes and keep them as slaves or trade them to other tribes in exchange for food, goods, or services.
Fomorians in Faerie
Songs of the Sidhe by David Ross
Fomorians are among the most unusual inhabitants of Faerie, said to be descended from giant allies of the fey extending back to the reign of ancient Queen Gloriana. They often come into conflict with fey, as they do not share many of the fey’s taboos and are much more concerned with matters of ownership and temporal power than most fey are. Long ago, the Fomorians formed a major part of the Unseelie Court. But they grew weak and decadent, apparently genetic dead-ends, and were cast out when King Vindos II (predecessor to the Queen of Air and Darkness) took his throne. He attempted to eradicate them all; they fought back desperately with eldritch technology and strange new forms of magic and managed to carve out a niche at the fringes of Faerie. When Vindos was succeeded by the Queen of Air and Darkness and she let off persecuting them in favor of other concerns, they began to expand their power again, this time outside Court society.
Though renowned for their paranoia and tempers, Fomorians are not often fools. They are perfectly capable of forming alliances with other Fomorians and nonfomorians alike as it suits their goals. In a sense, it can be said that they threaten the fey’s dominance of Faerie, but only in the most prosaic terms. Their coalitions and crude empires cover a significant fraction of Faerie’s lands, but they little threaten the power of the greatest Faerie Lords. Only the Environmental and local courts often conflict with the Fomorians, since the other courts claim little land as their own. The Seelie Court see opposing the Fomorians as beneath them, while the Unseelie wish to acquire the giants as servants. As a result of their methods and their ambivalent relationship with other Faerie power groups, some mortal poets see them as a kind of reflection of mortal civilization and its ambivalent relationship with the natural world.
Abberant Characters
Aberrant leaders are barbarians or adepts. Most groups of aberrants include clerics with access to any two of the following domains: Chaos, Evil, Trickery, and War (most choose Chaos and Trickery).
- +12 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +6 Constitution, +4 Wisdom: Aberrants are powerful and hardy, and unusually canny creatures.
- Large Size: –1 penalty to AC, –1 penalty to attack rolls, –4 penalty on Stealth checks, +1 bonus on CMB and CMD, lifting and carrying limits double those of Medium creatures.
- Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
- Darkvision: Aberrants can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
- Low-Light Vision: Aberrants can see twice as far as humans in dimly lit conditions.
- Racial Hit Dice: An aberrant begins with eight levels of humanoid, which provide 8d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +6, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +6, Ref +2, and Will +2.
- Racial Skilled: An aberrant’s humanoid levels give it skill points equal to 8 x (2 + Int modifier).
- Racial Feats: An aberrant’s humanoid levels give it four feats.
- AC: +7 natural armor bonus.
- Special Attacks: Oversized weapon fighting, deformities.
- Special Qualities: Deformities, slow and steady.
- Weapon Familiarity: Aberrants are proficient with simple and martial weapons.
- Armor Familiarity: Aberrants are proficient with light and medium armor and with shields (except tower shields).
- Languages: Aberrants begin play speaking Giant and Common. Aberrants with high intelligence can choose from among the following bonus languages: Aklo, Dwarven, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Undercommon.
Section 15: Copyright Notice
Abberant from the Tome of Horrors Complete, Copyright 2011, Necromancer Games, Inc., published and distributed by Frog God Games; Author Scott Greene.