Monster Monday: Fomorians - Horrific Giants of Irish Mythology

Today's Monster Monday is the dreaded fomorian, a race of deformed and hideous man-eating giants that were the inhabitants of Ireland before the Irish.  Well, they were the first inhabitants of Ireland, then the Firbolgs came, then they were both conquered by the Tuatha Dé Danann, and so on, but you get the picture.

The Fomorians by John Duncan, 1912 - via Wikimedia

Fomorians are generally depicted as having all manner of crazy mutations; some of them have one arm, some of them have one leg, some of them even have a goat head!  The king of the Fomorians back in the day was the dreaded Balor (modern Irish spelling: Balar, which I use to avoid confusion with D&D's Balrog knock-off), who had a single eye that destroyed all that he gazed upon, wilting crops, blasting through rocks, and laying waste to armies.  He was finally killed when his grandson, the half-tuatha-dé-danann-half-fomorian Lug, struck him in the eye with a slingstone so hard that it exploded out the back of his skull and killed twenty-seven warriors who were standing behind him.

Fomorians have been statted up for Pathfinder in Bestiary 4, as a type of titan.  I'm presenting my own take on them here, partly because I will never run a campaign in which a CR 22 monster shows up, and partly because my interpretation is a bit more in line with Irish mythology and D&D legacy.

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2015 Jonah Bomgaars.

Fomorian     CR 10

XP 9,600

CE Large humanoid (giant)

Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +10

DEFENSE

AC 22, touch 10, flat-footed 21 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +12 natural)

hp 133 (14d8+70); fast healing 5

Fort +14, Ref +5, Will +5

DR 5/+2; Immune poison

Defensive Abilities rock catching

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.

Melee greatclub +19/+14 (1d10+10/19-20) and slam +19 (1d8+10), or 2 slams +19 (1d8+10)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.

Ranged rock +10 (1d8+15)

Special Attacks rock throwing (120 ft.)

STATISTICS

Str 31, Dex 12, Con 20, Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 7

Base Atk +10; CMB +21; CMD 32

Feats Alertness, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Critical (greatclub), Intimidating Prowess, Power Attack, Vital Strike

Skills Climb +21, Intimidate +21, Perception +10, Sense Motive +3, Survival +10

Languages Fomorian

SQ mutation

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Mutation (Su)

Fomorians suffer from a wide variety of mutations that can make them more or less effective in combat.  The table below supplies a number of mutations that a GM can choose from or roll for randomly.  A GM should always feel free to create new mutations as well.

   d10 Mutation

   01 - One Leg: Speed halved to 20 ft., -5 penalty to CMD vs trip

   02 - One Arm: Lose one slam attack

   03 - Three Legs: Speed increased to 50 ft., gain trample attack (1d8+15, DC 27)

   04 - Three Arms: gain third slam as a secondary attack (slam +14 (1d8+5))

   05 - Long Arms: gain 15 ft. reach

   06 - Unhinged Jaw: gain swallow whole (4d6 acid damage, AC 16, 13 hp)

   07 - Goat Head: cannot speak languages; gain secondary gore attack +14 (1d6+5)

   08 - Poison Breath: gain stinking cloud as a spell-like ability (CL 14) 1/day

   09 - One Eye: -4 Perception; gain Fear Gaze (frightened 1d6 rounds; 60 ft.; 

           Will DC 15 negates - targets who successfully save cannot be affected 

           by the same fomorian’s Fear Gaze for 24 hours; Save DC is Charisma based)

   00 - Roll twice, ignoring any repeats

ECOLOGY

Environment temperate mountains, underground

Organization solitary, pair, gang (3-12), or army (13-50 plus 1 fomorian king)

Treasure standard (huge greatclub, huge hide armor, giant’s bag, other treasure)

   The fomorians are an ancient and terrible race of hideously mutated giants.  Fomorians resemble huge men 15 feet tall with greyish-brown skin.  Their mutations vary greatly between individuals - some fomorians have only one eye, some have only one leg, and some have the head of a goat!  They are a barbaric people, almost as distrustful and violent towards each other as they are toward outsiders.  Fomorians usually live a solitary life in an isolated cave, eking out a living by stealing animals and people to torture for their amusement and then eat alive.  Sometimes a small group of them tolerates each other enough to form a gang, terrorizing the surrounding countryside and ganging up on other giants.  Only rarely can they be gathered together under one banner to make war by a legendary fomorian king. 

   In ancient times, fomorians regularly did battle with the fey, until their legendary king Balar was slain and the fomorians scattered into the mountains.  To this day, fomorians take special delight in killing fey creatures, or creatures that remind them of the fey such as elves and gnomes. 

   Fomorians speak a debased and primeval tongue closely related to Giant. 

Fomorian King (CR 15)

Only the truly monstrous and massive fomorians are able to rein in their people and lead them to war.  Fomorian kings, sometimes called ‘Balar’ after the first such king, have a single baleful red eye that destroys all in their path.  They have 20 hit-dice, 14 Charisma, the Giant simple template, gain a fear aura (50 ft., DC 22), and can cast disintegrate (CL 15) from their eye as a swift action.  

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-your d20 despot dé danann