Giants are humanoid creatures of great strength and size with a self-involved social focus[1]: 8  and are usually presented as the "bad guys" in the game.

Dwarves have a bonus to their armor class against attacks from creatures of the giant type, due to their experience with fighting these oversized foes.

[7] A number of unique giants appear in Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes (1976), including Antero Vipunen, Hymer, Hyrm, Mimir, Mokkerkalfe, Sterkodder, Surtur, and Vafthrunder, as well as the mist giants of Melniboné.

[10] The stone giant appeared as a character class in White Dwarf #17, by Lewis Pulsipher.

[20] Giant-kin appear in the Monstrous Compendium Volume Two (1989), including the cyclops, the firbolg, the fomorian, and the verbeeg.

[29] The crag giant first appeared in The Wanderers Chronicle: Mind Lords of the Last Sea (1996),[30] and was reprinted in Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Four (1998).

The book Giantcraft (1995) describes the giants of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting in detail.

The hill giant dire wereboar appears as a sample creature under the lycanthrope entry.

These stone-skinned mountain dwellers are larger than regular races,[43] and have giant ancestry.

[44] The Monster Vault (2010) reprises the earth, frost, hill, and storm giants for the Essentials line.

[48][49] The adventure Storm King's Thunder centers around giants and details their rune magic.

Othea and Ulutiu sired the four giant-kin races: Firbolgs, Verbeegs, Voadkyn, and Fomorians.

The authors described the storm giant as being "at the top of the giant world, at least as far as the Monster Manual is concerned", as they are encountered with "hurling thunderbolts from afar, using howling winds to scatter enemies, and fighting with a lightning-edged greatsword when the battle gets up close and personal".

[63] The elder titans, who "stand above giants and possess even more power in terms of their physical and magical capabilities", was ranked among the strongest creatures in the game by Scott Baird from Screen Rant.

[3] Bleeding Cool found the firbolg one "of the more distinctive race options in the D&D multiverse" in a 2016 review of Volo's Guide to Monsters.

"[65] Role-playing game author Graeme Davis considered Dungeons & Dragons a major factor in current perceptions that "giants and trolls are regarded as very different creatures", while the names were used interchangeably in Norse mythology.