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Death Giants are a 3.x creation, first appearing in one of that edition’s Monster Manual 2 or 3. For 4e, they get a new backstory. They appear only on the Monster Manual.

The Lore

Back at the dawn of creation when the titans were exploring the world, some of them found their way to the Shadowfell and liked the place so much they moved there permanently along with their giant children and allowed the energies of the place to permeate their beings. And that’s how the first death titans and giants came to be.

These giants have entirely abandoned their elemental nature and their allegiance to the primordials, and are now fully creatures of the Shadowfell. They’re probably also the world’s biggest fans of death metal. Though they stick mostly to their native plane, they will sometimes live in the world in places like graveyards and necropoli where the wall between the two planes is thin.

Death giants derive their power and sustenance from the souls of living creatures. They don’t need to consume souls very often, but they still enjoy hunting for sport and most of them are surrounded by a shroud of trapped, wailing spirits waiting their turn to be lunch.

They’re fairly intelligent, but my impression is they’re not too fond of banding together in large groups. They frequently associate with undead or with necromantic cults that like performing sacrifices. The latter provide a steady source of nutrition, since a death giant doesn’t need to personally kill someone to trap their soul - the victim just has to die near the giant.

The Numbers

Death giants and titans are Large and Huge Shadow Humanoids with the Giant keyword. They have Darkvision, resistance to necrotic damage, and an Aura 5 that captures the soul of anyone who dies in range. They can spend these captured souls to power some of their abilities. Their typical Int score is 12, making them the smartest giants we’ve seen so far, and their alignment is Evil.

We get two stat blocks here, one for the giant and one for the titan, but you can use the guidelines above to make your own.

Death Giant

This is a Level 22 Brute with 255 HP. It has Resist 15 Necrotic and a speed of 7. It wears mail and wields a greataxe.

The greataxe is Reach 2 and does physical damage with he High Crit property, suffering from the damage bug. The giant’s most distinctive powers come from its soul shroud.

Anyone who dies within 5 squares of a death giant adds one soul shard to its shroud. No detail on whether this “shard” is a whole soul or a literal shard of one. If it’s the latter, then a single death might add shards to multiple giants if their auras overlap.

In any case, you can assume a death giant starts the fight with 4 shards in its shroud unless your story demands otherwise. It can consume one shard to heal 20 HP, or spend it to power a Soulfire Burst (Close Burst 1 vs. Reflex) that does necrotic damage and could really use a damage fix. If the giant’s shroud ever runs out of shards, it takes a -2 penalty to its attacks until it can add more.

Since a being has to die to add a shard to the giant’s shroud, I think it’s one of those monsters that has an incentive to finish off downed PCs. It also pairs really well with minions, and you might also want to add some minion-like innocent victims in your battlefield that the PCs would have an extra incentive to protect.

Death Titan

This is a Level 25 Elite Brute with 574 HP. Its aura works the same as that of the death giant, and also inflicts a -2 penalty to the attacks of any enemies within. Its necrotic resistance is 30, and its speed is 8.

Death titans wear plate and fight with Huge greataxes, which are Reach 3 and have the High Crit property. They can attack twice per action with these axes.

The death titan’s soul shroud works the same way as that of the giant, but the titan doesn’t need to wait for people to die around it! It has an ability called Soul Devourer (Ranged 5 vs. Fortitude), which takes a bite off the soul of an enemy, causing it to lose a healing surge and adding one soul shard to the titan’s shroud. An excellent power to use from a distance while the titan’s buddies engage in melee.

Sample Encounter and Final Impressions

The sample encounter in the MM is level 24: 1 death titan, 2 death giants, 1 voidsoul specter and 1 deathpriest hierophant.

IIRC, the deathpriest hierophant is tied to Orcus, the demon lord of undeath (we’ll get to him in time). So perhaps you could say that in your campaign, death giants were originally created by the primordial who became Orcus, and that their transformation happened at the same time as that of their master.