Hill Giant Shaman (Basic Lore)

Hill Giant Shaman (CR 19)
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! As Hill Giants grow older, a substantial fraction of them stumble upon latent magical abilities. These abilities are based upon wisdom and strength, because for sure, they have nothing to do with intelligence. Once a hill giant develops these powers, they are accorded a place of superstitious awe and terror among their tribe. Indeed, even as serfs, hill giant shamans are considered quite valuable just for their ability to call a fetch, never mind their more martial abilities. Shamans tend to look like other hill giants, except their clothing has more furs and fetishy bits and their weapons are simpler. That said, Shamans are much smarter than most Hill Giants, being able to speak in full sentences, although they are still no smarter than Ogres. In battle they will cloud the sight of their enemies, assign a fetch to boost their favorite allies, and generally be a terrible, terrible danger.