GOLIATH - korinth

9
Physical Qualities
Goliaths tower over even dragonborn, standing
between 7 and 8 feet tall. 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. A bony ridge juts over
their gleaming blue or green eyes. 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.
Playing a Goliath
Goliaths are driven by a fierce love of competition.
Anything that can be conceived as a challenge invites
goliaths to keep score, tracking their progress against
both their comrades and themselves. A goliath fighter
might remark on how many times he has drawn
first blood in battle within a particular dungeon
compared to the party’s rogue, and he’s certainly
mentally tracking his own performance against his
last adventure. This competitiveness takes the form
of good-natured rivalry among goliaths. As a race
they have no patience for cheaters, gloaters, or sore
losers, but goliaths can be very hard on themselves
when they fail to measure up to their own past
accomplishments.
Daring that borders on foolhardiness is also a
common trait among goliaths. They have no fear of
heights, climbing sheer mountain cliffs and leaping
great chasms with ease. Their nomadic lifestyle of
hunting and gathering instills in them an inquisitive
interest in whatever lies over the next ridge or at the
head of a canyon. To a wandering hunter’s mind, that
curiosity can lead to better hunting grounds or a good
water source that would otherwise go undiscovered.
Goliaths respect and revere the natural world,
and goliath adventurers commonly draw on the
primal power source. Druids and shamans are
more common among them than clerics, and goliath
priests—called skywatchers—invoke the spirits
of nature and their ancestors far more often than
they call on the distant gods of the Astral Sea. Some
goliath tribes also honor Kord, Melora, and Avandra,
particularly those tribes that have frequent
contact with other races. Tribes that regularly trade
with dwarves sometimes offer sacrifices to Moradin
as well.
Goliath Characteristics: Competitive, daring,
driven, inquisitive, powerful, reliable, restless,
trusting
Male Names: Aukan, Eglath, Gauthak, Ilikan,
Kavaki, Keothi, Lo-Kag, Maveith, Meavoi, Thotham,
Vimak
Female Names: Gae-Al, Kuori, Manneo, Nalla,
Orilo, Paavu, Pethani, Thalai, Uthal, Vaunea
Goliath Adventurers
Three sample goliath adventurers are described
below.
Kavaki was injured in an avalanche as a young
man and exiled from his tribe because he was unable
to walk with them when they moved to a new hunting
ground. His tribe lamented his loss, celebrated his
accomplishments, and then left him for dead. However,
a ram spirit sheltered him through blizzards and
storms until his injury healed, and he now evokes the
power of that ram spirit to fuel his barbarian rage.
Still cut off from his tribe, Kavaki has found a new
family—a group of adventurers—and is determined
never again to be in a position where he cannot carry
his own weight.
Nalla was a tent-mother for her tribe, caring for
infants and toddlers while their parents performed
their own tasks on the tribe’s behalf. When her own
child died in an orc raid, however, Nalla felt that she
could no longer bear to care for children, and she
soon exiled herself. As a fighter, she has fallen in with
a band of adventurers she now guards with her life,
almost as if they were the children of her tribe.
Lo-Kag was a trader for his tribe, interacting
regularly with a nearby dwarf clan. As a warden,
he was interested in the traditions of the dwarven
defenders—determined fighters and paladins sworn
to the defense of their clanhold—and learned much
from a mentor trained in their ways. On his last trip
to the dwarf clanhold, however, he found it deserted.
Corpses lay strewn around the citadel, but he saw no
sign of violence or looting. Instead of returning to his
tribe, Lo-Kag set out into the world to investigate the
mystery of the dwarves’ demise.
GOLIATH
CHAPTER 1 | Character Races
13