Goliath (4e Racial Trait Variant)

Goliath (Variant)

Image found on p. 12 of D&D 4e PHB 2 and is by Steve Argyle.

"Tribal nomads of the mountains, strong as the rock and proud as the peak"

Racial Traits

Average Height: 6'10" - 8'6"

Average Weight: 350-550 lb

Ability Scores: +2 to Strength, +2 to Constitution or Wisdom

Size: Medium

Speed: 6 squares

Vision: Low-light Vision

Languages: Common, either Dwarven or Giant

Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Nature

Mountain’s Tenacity: You have a +1 racial bonus to Will.

Stone's Durability: You gain resistance 2 to all damage. This increases to 4 at level 11, and 6 at level 21.

Stone’s Endurance: You have the stone’s endurance power

Stone's Endurance	Goliath Racial Power
Your foes’ attacks bounce off your stony hide.
Encounter
Free Action	Personal
Trigger: You are hit with an attack
Target: Self
Effect: You gain resist 5 to all damage until the end of your next turn. This increases to 10 at level 11 and 15 at level 15.

Race Description

Goliaths are mountain-dwelling nomads who see life as a grand competition. Their scattered bands have never been major players in the politics of the lowland world, but they have wandered the mountain ranges of the world since the primordials first shaped the peaks and valleys. Tall and massive, goliaths revere the primal power of nature and use it to enhance their own strength.

Play a goliath if you want...

• to be tougher and stronger than nearly anyone else.
• to master the rugged mountain slopes.
• to be a member of a race that favors the barbarian, fighter, and warden classes.

Physical Qualities

Goliaths tower over most other races, including the Dragonborn, standing between 7 and 8 and half feet tall. Only orcs regularly reach their massive size, and Goliaths are proportionately larger, having the grace and sophistication to wield their strength elegantly, resulting in complex stoneworks and complex fighting skills. Their skin is gray or brown, mottled with darker patches that they believe hint at some aspect of each goliath’s fate or destiny. Their skin is speckled with lithoderms, coin-sized growths of bone that appear like pebbles studding their arms, shoulders, torso, and head. Unlike normal creatures this bone regrows and even molts, allowing them to repair rapidly from damaged or broken bones as well, and is responsible in large part for their large size. As their skeletal structure never stops growing, this is also partially responsible for their massive size, however given that they shed part of their bones as they molt, eventually they platue in size. While most Goliaths will have their height reach it's maximum point and stay that way for most of their lives, they never truly stop growing. Goliaths molt excess skeletal material and bone, which also necessitates a large diet, particularly of other creature's bones. A bony ridge juts over their gleaming blue or green eyes, typically, as well as other places on their body, giving them unique facial features, while their eyes blend in with their bony exterior. Male goliaths are bald, and females have dark hair they typically grow long and wear in braids.

Goliaths have life spans comparable to those of humans, but due to the fact they never stop growing it can be much longer; like koi fish or greenland whales, they can live for extremely long periods of time, as their body molts older tissue, and they remain physically fit until their deaths. Given their massive size however, this tends to shorten their lifespan, resulting in a normally average age. Goliath have many outstanding physical features, and two of the most prominent is their awesome size and incredible durability. Their skin, along with the rest of their body, is unusually tough, acting like a thick hide with hard, stone-like bony growths on their skin, making them unusually resistant to damage. Their bones are also much thicker and harder than most other races, and due to their healing properties can withstand far greater damage over prolonged periods of time. In conjunction with armor, this can make Goliath's very durable in comparison to their foes.

Goliath Feats

Heroic Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description
Unyielding Revenant	You gain proficiency with all two-handed weapons and a bonus to damage with them.

Paragon Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description
The Beast Within	You may wield weapons as if you were one size larger, or as if you were a large creature, and can wield two-handed weapons in one hand as if they are one-handed weapons.

Epic Tier Racial Feats

Name	Description

Goliath Utility Powers

When your Goliath character gains a class utility power after 1st level, you can forgo taking a power granted to you by your class. Instead you gain a Goliath utility power of the same level or lower.

Stone's Endurance Stance	Goliath Utility 6
You position yourself in such a way to allow you to better absorb strikes against you and shrug off pain.
Daily  Martial, Stance
Minor Action	Personal
Target: Self
Effect: You enter the Stone's Endurance stance. While in the Stance, you gain resist 5 to all damage, and gain a +1 bonus to all defenses when you are bloodied.

Notes

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