Gentle giants; play as one of these giant-kin races with our optimisation guide
What is a Firbolg?
Firbolgs are distant cousins of giants, whose influence is felt in a Firbolg’s large stature. They stand at about 7-8ft tall, though previous editions place them at 10ft tall. Their recent shorter height seems to be more for practical reasons, allowing them to explore the same areas as easily as more standards sized creatures. While related to giants, they have their origins in the Feywild.
Most Firbolgs live in tribes that make their homes in the forests of the land. With an intense attunement with nature, Firbolgs tene to be protectors of the land, valuing it above their own lives. Firbolgs are rarely seen due to their reclusive nature, but when they are, it’s normally because they’ve left the confines of their tribe and struck out on their own.
Firbolgs as a playable race in D&D 5e were first introduced in Volo’s Guide to Monsters and have since been updated in Monsters of the Multiverse. Our guide below tells you everything you need to kgnow to play as these gentle giants.
Is a Firbolg the right race for me?
Dungeons and Dragons lets you take a flexible approach to building a character, but if you’re going to stick to typical culture and the best-optimised build for a Firbolg you might consider the following:
Choose a Firbolg if you like…
- Being stealthy
- Being able to talk to animals and plants
- Being big!
A Firbolg might not be for you if…
- You prefer a more direct strategy than hiding
- Care little for nature
- Want to play a gruff kind of character
If you think a Firbolg isn’t for you, not to worry, there are dozens of playable races for you to pick from, just check out our races guide to find out about all of them. For an alternative stealthy race, you could consider a Lightfoot Halfling or a Bugbear.
Firbolg racial traits
| Ability Scores | +2 to one ability score and +1 to another or +1 to 3 different ability scores |
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Size | Medium |
| Lifespan | About 500 years |
| Speed | 30ft |
| Languages | Common and 1 other |
| Traits | Firbolg Magic, Hidden Step, Powerful Build, Speech of Beast and Leaf |
| Proficiencies | None |
| Resistances | None |
| Darkvision | No |
| Innate Spellcasting | Detect magic and disguise self |
| Book found in | Monsters of the Multiverse, Volo’s Guide to Monsters |
Tactics
Escape plan: Hidden step is a brilliant way to get out of danger in a similar vein to misty step or a rogue’s disengage with their cunning action. It only takes a bonus action so you can still attack or cast a spell and escape by turning invisible and presumably move somewhere safer. Alternatively, you can be a bit more aggressive with it and become invisible then attack with advantage. Just be aware that it ends at the beginning of your next turn so you won’t be invisible when you attack on your next turn preventing you from benefitting from this on future turns.
Disguise yourself: along the same vein of stealthiness, Firbolg’s also get access to disguise self allowing you to easily appear different or look like someone else (including someone a fair bit shorter. Use it to get into places you shouldn’t, avoid scrutiny or become someone else when being chased by the authorities. If you take a spellcasting class, you can get repeat castings of the spell too.
Speech of beast and leaf: A somewhat situational ability, but with some real utility if you’re clever. Imagine being able to convince that owlbear that you mean it no harm. Perhaps you could ask a plant to grow in the direction that some people went or a bird to point it’s beak in that direction. You could ask a dog to dig for the treasure someone buried near this spot. If your clever and your DM is kind, there’s a lot you can do here. High charisma is likely to help you out to if you need to do some persuading.
Which class should I choose?
The main thing to bear in mind with Firbolgs is their speech of beast and leaf ability has as much mileage as your charisma and proficiencies as well as how your DM wants to play out scenarios in which you speak to beasts and plants. With this in mind, optimal Firbolg builds will focus on charisma (meaning charisma based classes work particularly well with Firbolgs). You may also want to discuss how your DM would like to approach situations where this ability is used as this may affect how you choose to role play.
On top of this, a Firbolg’s innate spellcasting will benefit from a class that has high intelligence, wisdom or charisma. This means charisma based classes get a double-whammy of benefits.
Hidden step is also a fantastic way for turning briefly invisible. This is great if you need to slip out of combat quickly. Disguise self also gives you some extra stealthiness while detect magic is generally useful.
Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Firbolg based on how well the racial traits work with each class:
Artificer⭐⭐
Barbarian ⭐⭐
Bard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cleric ⭐⭐⭐
Druid ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fighter ⭐⭐⭐
Monk ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rogue ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wizard ⭐⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best classes for firbolgs
Bard
The fact that bards are casters mean that you can use their spellcasting ability (which you should have maximised) to good use and will complement these spells nicely. On top of this, as a charisma-based class with expertise that can make skills like persuasion extra reliable, bards will get the most of any class out of speech of beast and leaf. Plus, Hidden Step is great for getting out of danger.
Paladin
Another charisma-based caster (albeit a half-caster), paladins will get the most out of a Firbolg’s innate spellcasting and their Speech of Beast and Leaf. Paladins are often using their bonus action for smiting but there’s a limit to how many smites they can do and even tanks get hurt and need to get out of trouble so it’s still a useful ability.
Rogue
Firbolg abilities work well with rogues as they don’t get spells (unless you’re an arcane trickster) and spells like detect magic and disguise self complement a rogue extremely well. Hidden step is also very useful for the kind of class that may need to slip away quickly in dangerous situations and need to turn momentarily invisible while only using a bonus action to do so.
Warlock
Warlocks are charisma-based casters so will do well with the speech of beast and leaf trait and it complements the disguise self ability too. On top of this, as a more delicate class, warlocks can benefit from a trait like hidden step. Warlocks also have notoriously few spell slots so any extra spells they can use in their repertoire are very welcome!
Sorcerer
Similar to the warlock, sorcerers benefit from a high charisma that can be used in conjunction with disguise self and speech of beast and leaf. Hidden step also gives them a great escape route that’s a bonus action and doesn’t limit what spells you can cast with your action.
Ranger
The stealth options for Firbolgs complement a ranger’s stealth well. Add to this the fact that rangers tend to have decent wisdom for their spellcasting so they’ll get the most out of their spells. The only reason a ranger isn’t quite the best option for Firbolgs is their lack of charisma to make the most out of Speech of Beast and Leaf.
Worst classes for firbolgs
Artificer
Most artificers tend to dump charisma so Speech of Beast and Leaf is less useful. Artificers can replicate Firbolg abilities anyway though innate spellcasting at least gives them some free spells (artifcers aren’t blessed with a lot of spell options). Still, artificers gain too little from a Firbolg’s traits.
Barbarian
As a class that dumps charisma and has no spellcasting prowess, Speech of Beast and Leaf and innate spellcasting are poor options for barbarians. Hidden Step has a little more use, but not as much as other classes.
Wizard
While wizards at least benefit from spellcasting prowess, the innate spellcasting options can easily be replicated in a wizard’s typical spell repertoire anyway. The usual lack of charisma also tends to harm a wizards ability to effectively use Speech of Beast and Leaf so less to gain there too.
About Firbolgs
Appearance
Firbolgs look like large Humans. They sport the pointed ears of many fey creatures and are certainly a bit larger than Humans, but in most other respects, look fairly similar. The males sport beards and hairy bodies, their noses tend to be on the large size and their arms tend to hang a little like tree trunks.
Personality
While their giant blood might indicate a more brash and aggressive personality; Firbolgs are by contrast, incredibly gentle and reclusive. They are amicable creatures with an intense devotion towards nature and preserving it. It is very difficult to provoke a Firbolg, but if you do, it’s probably because you’ve brought harm to nature, and even then, they’ve likely tried to warn you away from your actions before they’ve attacked you.
Despite their gentle attitude, Firbolgs are very capable warriors when the need arises. Their large frame gives them greater than average strength. They also have an affinity with nature and fey origins giving them a natural ability with magic which can be combined to devastating effect.
While Firbolgs do originate in the Feywild, they are quite different from many fey creatures like Fairies and Eladrin who personify a much more mischievous and whimsical nature. Firbolgs tend to be much more sensible and don’t tend to engage in practical jokes, and certainly not to other creatures whom they tend to avoid.
Firbolg names
Firbolgs are unusual in that they don’t tend to name things. They don’t name their children and they don’t name the place they live. Instead, they tend to use the actual noun of the thing they refer to so their home is just called “home” and their child is just called “child” (or “boy” if you imagine them embodying some kind of gentle Kratos).
This makes it hard to ask Firbolgs for directions or know who they’re referring to. Thankfully, Firbolgs tend to be an accommodating people so are happy to adopt the nicknames and naming conventions of other races. Where they do choose to take on a name because they are among other people, they prefer Elven names which are both related to the fey and who show a reverence towards nature.
How to roleplay as a Firbolg
Gentle giants is the best way to approach Firbolgs. They love and respect nature, are respectful of other peoples and cultures and prefer to live peacefully. Try to avoid conflict at all costs but there is no need to play a pacifist. Firbolgs tend to fit with druids and rangers from a role play point of view, but are skilled in a wide range of crafts so can take on any class you like.
One thing to consider when creating a Firbolg character is that they rarely become adventurers by choice so determining a motive for your Firbolg to be an adventurer is important. Is it a threat to the clan, was your clan destroyed, are you an escaped slave, or something entirely different.
