How stupid are Half-Giants ?

[theebie]

Hi,

I'd like to get this sorted out.

How stupid are they actually ?
More like a stone, a white-bread, a slug, a scrab or a child ? Or even more clever ?

What concepts can they grasp ? Do they know whats good or evil ? Do
they have a long-time memory ? If someone's bad to them, and the
next day gives 'em a candy, do they like him again ?

They seem to be able to get the grasp 'bout value of some items ? Or
would they give away their warsword for a pebble, just because one says:
it's a very valuable pebble ! look at it shine !

I once heard their loyalty can change quick. How quick ? In the blink of
an eye ? If thats so, they probably wouldnt get hired in any military
organisation ? If the enemy could just offer 'em a table dished with
sweets, and they'd change sides ?

What about short-time memory ? Can they get an order like:
Walk from Tuluk to Luirs ? Or would they forget in the middle and go
do something else ?

I bet there are more interesting questions I didnt ask now ?

---theebie---

[Qetesh]

HG's in my opinion are very much like 8 year old children. Very curious, easily fooled, easily distracted and quick to idolize and copy people.

HG's can follow orders, and carry them out. But I would think that they require parent like supervision. The kill the gith game may only be fun for a little while until they get hurt and then flower or raptor picking seems more fun. Someone would need to keep them on track

They love to copy people and mimic. They are also good at it. They will often try to posture or speak like someone they idolize.  

What concepts can they grasp ?  

Many

Do they know whats good or evil ?

Do you really? They know what is explained to them.

Do they have a long-time memory ?

Yes.

If someone's bad to them, and the next day gives 'em a candy, do they like him again ?

Maybe with a nice apology and a really good piece of candy.

They seem to be able to get the grasp 'bout value of some items ? Or
would they give away their warsword for a pebble, just because one says:
it's a very valuable pebble ! look at it shine !

Maybe, it depends on just how convincing the person selling the pebble is and what the sword means to the Giant.

Once heard their loyalty can change quick. How quick ? In the blink of an eye ? If that's so, they probably wouldn't get hired in any military organization? If the enemy could just offer 'em a table dished with
sweets, and they'd change sides?

It's not that simple, many military organizations do take in Half Giants, but they are always somewhat of a burden and a constant watch. Again, they tend to follow people and are easily tricked, so if you don't have an eye on them.. they could wonder and go off with the enemy sure.

What about short-time memory ? Can they get an order like:  Walk from Tuluk to Luirs? Or would they forget in the middle and go do something else?

Sure they can, and they might even get there too. But they may get distracted on the way and want to play with a tregil. My personal opinion is it's best to send them out with someone.

[Marauder Moe]

This archived thread was a great discussion about half-giants: http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11222

[Larrath]

How stupid are they actually?
More like a stone, a white-bread, a slug, a scrab or a child ? Or even more clever?

Half-giants are sentient humanoids and are probably smarter than most scrabs.  Just how stupid are they, though?  Think about the single most stupid person you've ever talked to, and then go a little further from that.

What concepts can they grasp? Do they know whats good or evil? Do
they have a long-time memory? If someone's bad to them, and the
next day gives 'em a candy, do they like him again?

Half-giants can grasp very few concepts that don't correspond directly to their survival.  They can understand that doing [bad] to [guy with guards] is not bad.  I strongly doubt a half-giant can understand good or evil - they can be inherently good or inherently evil, but they won't be able to understand it.  They have an extremely bad long-term memory, and they get distracted very easily, but some half-giants will hold a grudge (or not) more firmly than others.

They seem to be able to get the grasp 'bout value of some items? Or
would they give away their warsword for a pebble, just because one says:
it's a very valuable pebble ! look at it shine!

A half-giant won't trade a warsword for a pebble - half-giants pretty much do only things that they have seen other people (particularly people that they like or admire) do.  This is a very important aspect of what a half-giant is - they're much more than just gorillas.

I once heard their loyalty can change quick. How quick? In the blink of
an eye? If thats so, they probably wouldnt get hired in any military
organisation? If the enemy could just offer 'em a table dished with
sweets, and they'd change sides?

Their loyalties can change if they're not 'trained' or watched closely enough by their employers, which the vast majority of them probably does.  If a newly-hired Militia half-giant suddenly becomes enchanted with a criminal that's mouthing off their templar charge, the half-giant might start mimicking him and eventually change sides.  This varies from half-giant to half-giant, again, and if someone did do this, I would expect the half-giant to start mimicking other things first, like changing their posture to match the criminals.  Half-giants are neither secretive nor subtle.

What about short-time memory? Can they get an order like:
Walk from Tuluk to Luirs? Or would they forget in the middle and go
do something else?

Again, it varies a lot on the half-giant.  If the half-giant was a former carvan guide is used to going from Tuluk to Luir's, I don't think they should have that much trouble with it.  Many half-giants could become lost or just forget and wander back - it depends on whether they run into any distractions.

I bet there are more interesting questions I didnt ask now?

Well, while I can't come up with any, I think that an important thing to always remember is that half-giants are only stupid in some aspects.  Half-giants are second to none when it comes to studying a situation or a person and mimicking it; they simply don't tend to understand what it is that they're mimicking.  Everything out of the ordinary that a half-giant does, including speech patterns and mannerisms, has to have come from someone else, and whoever plays a half-giant should take the time to flesh these things out.
Does the half-giant always sit on the fourth barstool from the left?  Can they even count to four?  How?  Is there a word that the half-giant uses constantly?  How does the half-giant treat magickers, defilers, elves, 'rinthis, half-elves and other half-giants?  Does the half-giant make the connection between the magickers that he hears about and the gemmer in the bar?

This is as far as my attention span goes right now.  Sorry.

[Xygax]

Please refer to one of the 8-zillion other threads on this subject.

-- X