Firbolg
by Prince Phantom
I’ve always had a soft spot for the funny-looking cow folk of D&D. Their flavor of just being chill nature dudes who live for centuries and definitely grow their own hallucinogenic mushrooms resonates with me for some reason, even though I’m definitely a person who loves his technology and gets bored easily. I also believe this is one of the best examples of mechanics matching flavor, but do those mechanics make it a strong race? Let’s find out.
Firbolg Features
Firbolg Magic: We get Detect Magic and Disguise Self, and Disguise Self has a nifty little bit of additional utility in that when we cast it, we can appear slightly shorter or taller, which is very helpful to blend in with other races since we are actually the tallest race in the game on average. The usefulness of these spells is a bit up in the air, as Disguise Self will work best in campaigns with lots of roleplay opportunities, and Detect Magic is a ritual that every casting class gets. Still, free magic is free magic, so I won’t complain.
Hidden Step: This lets us turn invisible until the start of our next turn, helping us to avoid attacks and hide from enemies. We get uses equal to our proficiency bonus per day, which may or may not be enough depending on how many combats per day your table runs. This is nonetheless a very useful ability that many build would love to have.
Powerful Build: This is mostly useful at tables who still use carrying capacity rules, and the amount of those tables that exist decreases every day.
Speech of Beast and Leaf: This is an interesting ribbon feature, but it’s still just a ribbon feature. This one way communication can be difficult for both you as a player to use, and for the DM to run with, but perhaps this lets you negotiate an encounter with an animal and prevent a fight.
The two big abilities, Firbolg Magic and Hidden Step, are pretty good, and in the right campaign can really deliver. Outside of that we’ve got mostly ribbon features, but this is still a fine race that can go well with just about any build, though I think a spellcaster would work best given how Hidden Step lets us slip away from melee attackers (no opportunity attack if they can’t see you), and Firbolg Magic is most effective if we’ve got slots to cast the spells with after the free casting.
Final Rating: 3/5
Volo’s Firbolg
The old version of the Firbolg is a strict downgrade compared to the new version. Our spells cannot be cast with spell slots and we only get to use Hidden Step once per short or long rest, meaning that unless you take a ton of short rests every day, you will have less uses of this, and you’ll never get to use it more than once per fight. Always pick the revised Firbolg over this.
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