Verbeeg [Giant]

Nicknamed human behemoths, verbeeg are giant-kin found wherever ogres and hill giants roam. They stand 8 1/2 to 10 feet yet weigh only 300 to 400 pounds, startlingly thin but no weaker for it. Otherwise they look like ordinary people, now and then with a small deformity such as a clubfoot, mismatched eyes or a cleft lip. They patch together what armor they can, mostly hides and furs with scavenged metal plates sewn over vital spots, never worse than AC 4 nor better than AC 1. Nearly all carry shields and the finest stolen weapons they can find, usually clubs and spears.

Practical and selfish rather than cowardly, verbeeg let others take the first blows. In the opening rounds they drive their dim-witted ogre or hill giant allies forward with a torrent of oaths and vivid insults about the brutes' family trees, then join in by throwing spears and picking off stragglers. Each verbeeg's Strength, rolled on 1d10 against the Strength table (individually, or for the entire band at the DM's option), adds to damage and stretches the range of its thrown weapons.

They live in the same climates as their allies and never wander solo. A traveling band is 1d6 verbeeg plus either 1d4 ogres or hill giants who share their home (30%), 1d6 worgs or wolves (50%; polar bears or winter wolves in the far north), or one or two verbeeg tagging along with a typical local monster group (20%, DM's judgment).

Lairs lie underground in caves or ruins and hold 5d6 males, an equal number of equally fierce females, and 2d6 young, half fighting as bugbears and half as goblins. Guards are 2d4 wolves (75%) or 1d4 worgs (25%), or in arctic lands 1d2 polar bears and 1d3 winter wolves.

Each giant adds a cumulative 2% chance of a shaman of up to 7th level, who rules alongside a war chief with 18/00 Strength and 40 or more hit points. The chief runs hunting, war and talks with outsiders; the shaman oversees law, judgment and magic inside the tribe. Every magic item is the shaman's, with a 90% chance per item that he can work it, and items that stump him soon land on the refuse heap.

Verbeeg will eat almost anything and adore meat. The bargain with their lair-mates is simple: verbeeg bring the brains, the big ones bring the brawn. Watching it work is hilarious unless you are the target, because the brutes take every order literally, and the enraged verbeeg wind up hopping in place and screaming abuse at giants twice their size who have somehow misunderstood the simplest command.