Third-Partystravaganza 4: Jotunkin (Barbarian Archetype; Spes Magna Games)
Legends of warriors that could trace their bloodline back to mighty giants and other supernatural beings are common in almost any culture, granting them extraordinary abilities beyond the ken of mortal man. It’s a variation on the classic tale of the imbued warrior, an individual able to rise beyond human limits due to a connection with something more than human.
Today we’re looking at an interpretation of that in the form of the jotunkin archetype by Spes Magna Games. In which the barbarian gains power from a bloodline connection to actual giants, able to, through the mystical rituals and connection to druidic and shamanistic powers, tap into that blood to empower themselves.
This does, however, bring up an interesting point. If the jotunkin is really descended from the union of giants and their parent race, it is entirely possible that they also have some rotten apples in their family tree in the form of ogres, if your setting explains ogres as the degenerate crossbreeds of human and giant. Perhaps Jotunkin births are a rare exception to the normal results of such pairings, or perhaps entire families exist of ogres and humans, the latter either quietly sweeping their connection to their “cousins in the hills” under the rug, or else willfully blending with them to produce ogrekin and the like.
When entering their battle rage, these warriors actually increase in size, with all the benefits this brings. However, the magical energies allowing this transformation work so similarly to other size-changing magic as to make the latter ineffective at increasing size further.
As you can imagine, becoming so large makes these warriors very confident in their ability to terrorize and intimidate their foes.
Learning more and more about their powers allows them to refine it, becoming even tougher and mightier. Later on they can even take on the forms of various large giants, gaining their various abilities.
The most powerful of them can even rage tirelessly in their ordinary form, though they still become exhausted by the transformation involved in becoming a true giant.
Interested in a burly, size-shifting warrior? This is certainly a good place to start. Becoming large makes fighting in tight spaces tricky of course, but in larger rooms and the outdoors, these warriors excel. I recommend a melee and thrown weapon build for this archetype, taking advantage of their might and of rock throwing when they take on giant forms.
The name jotunkin implies the classic Viking sort of barbarian. However, giants appear in almost every culture, so there’s no reason not to explore this in other cultures and ethnicities. You might even adapt other forms of large giant than the short list in the archetype to suit the environment your barbarian hails from.
Claiming to be descended from a mighty humbaba, Darad Nebu has tattooed his body with a rainbow of colors, as well as stylized wings on his back. Regardless of the truth of his claim, there is no denying his ability to grow in size when he enters battle, coming down on his foes like divine wrath.
Bred from ogrekin and deep ones in profane experiments, the Mk’Thurr are shock troops of the deep ones, able to take on the form of deformed marsh giants when needed, serving their dark masters from below the waves, paving the way for even more terrifying piscine horrors.
Titan-worshipping cults occasionally crop up here and there, though they usually are destroyed once the titan they venerate catches wind of them, either in open defiance of the gods, or in fear of incurring their wrath again if the gods find out they are being worshipped. Some, however, manifest what little divine favor they can upon their followers, granting them the ability to turn into their lesser children, the giants.
