Hill Giant Warrior (Basic Lore)

Hill Giant Warrior (CR 12)
Pure Evil - Large - Humanoid (Giant)
Hill Giants are massive creatures, covered in huge masses of thick muscle and fat. While they are technically size Large, they are definitely at the very upper end of that size category due to their simple bulk. Hill giants exude a sense of huge power mixed with dull frustrated rage at a world they simply don't understand. Indeed, Hill Giants are the second strongest breed of Giants, their physical power exceeding the strength of far more dangerous clans of giants, such as Cloud giants, who are frail weaklings compared to Hill giants. Luckily for every other creature in the world, their incredible strength is also their downfall, as Hill Giants, charitably, are musclebound idiots. They are physically clumsy, slow of action, and awkward when they manage to do something, as likely to break a weapon as use it to smash a foe. Even worse, they are crude and stupid creatures. Ogres are mental giants compared to a Hill Giant. Hill Giants struggle to sustain even the most rudimentary of social structures, like family, or language. The actions of most other races are incomprehensible to a Hill giant, who is too limited to even grasp what a farm is, never mind understand why agriculture is a good idea. As a result of their incredible physical strength and incredible mental deficiencies, Hill giants on their own live lives of desperate poverty, lacking fire, shelter, and far too often, even clothing. Despite this, Hill giants thrive on their own, their size and strength serving quite well in Nature to sustain their lives. Groups of Hill giants are uncomfortably common in untamed lands, and they are disgustingly fertile, to boot. Many Hill giants find themselves working as serfs for other races. Ogres and especially Trolls find Hill giants to be excellent companionship, and those creatures serve to improve the life of Hill giants tremendously. Other Giant races also employ Hill giants as serfs, especially Frost and Fire giants, as well as Death giants and the terrible Fomaori. Hill giants are sadly susceptible to the mental enslavement used by Hobgoblins, and make valuable chattel for their strength and ability to fight. No one tries to enslave a Hill giant with simple physical force, by the way. No chain will hold them and no punishment will deter them, so there is little point. Give them a warm place to sleep, food to eat, things to torment, and rugged, simple work to do, and Hill giants will be loyal forever. Hill giants usually live in small tribal groups, and make crude mud huts out of sticks and wattle. They will roam out daily, in a more-or-less random direction, and forage for food and victims. If Hill giants are serving as serfs for other classes of creatures, they will arise, take their food, and then happily perform whatever jobs they are given, as long as those jobs are within their intellectual grasp. As long as they are given lots of things to do, Hill giants are surprisingly tractable. If some of those duties involve killing and hurting things, all the better! Hill Giant Warriors are just like all the other Hill Giants, but they have a proven aptitude for violence, usually because they've survived a few fights. Hill Giant Warriors look just like other Hill Giants if they are living on their own, but if they are working as serfs, Warriors will usually have some sort of a uniform, often a helmet or shield, and perhaps an ironbound or spiked club. Such items are sources of immense pride to Hill Giant Warriors, and when they are given jobs such as standing guard or walking patrol, they will set to these simple chores with nigh religious fervor. As a result, even though they are so stupid they are in danger of drowning in a hard rain, Hill Giant Warriors make astonishingly good guards, watchmen, and security. No matter how mind numbingly dull the duty, they are always alert and eager for trouble.