So, out the gate my feedback is that either frost or fire half giant or both should be given consideration for either the option of human pheno, or outright made human pheno.
PT I: It fits the lore
This post was spurred on by the change of making stone half giant a major award due to population concerns, but before anything else as per the 3e DnD art, frost giant is already much more akin to a human pheno with a heavy norse appearance in style, as shown below.
From my understanding, the reason that frost half giants were made to be dwarf pheno wasn't because that is how they appear in the lore, but because it was meant to serve as an emphasis on the duality and rivalry that frost and fire giants have as exemplified by the relation between the twin gods Surtr and Thrym. From a purely "this is the lore" standpoint and official art, this would make sense. However, if we want to be purely pedantic, it would be more in line with official art to make frost half giants be human pheno
PT II: People think the dwarf pheno and heads scaled up are ugly (and they're not wrong)
Now, for the messier parts. This was indeed spurred by stone half giants being made a major due to their overwhelming majority over the other two greater award half giants and the award race philosophy of artificial rarity, but I think it is important to look at the WHY of their massive surplus.
This reason seems to almost entirely due to one simple fact, that of the three greater award race half giants stone half giant was the only human phenotype. Whilst a disdain for the dwarf pheno can be understandable, this problem goes further than that. A general disdain for the dwarf pheno is one thing, but the upscaled dwarf pheno shows a host of new unpleasantries. The dwarf model itself was known to have some minor issues given its proportioning, but now a 7ft tall square of strange proportioning whose small unpleasantries are made large, and that often has immense amounts of clipping made all the more visible. Likewise, the dwarf heads are, for lack of a better word, limited, and given the shape of these two half giants making outfits for they can be a challenge.
While I have played tons of dwarves that many people have met or known and myself don't mind or enjoy the dwarf pheno, when scaled up as it is it is, indeed, kind of ugly. A combination of the clipping, the square of meat and metal of the model, the arguably lacking number of dwarf heads (of which many too are kinda cartoonish and few that are widely considered good), and personal bias against dwarf pheno all combine to be a large part of the reason, especially given as people DO care immensely about aesthetics since it is your character and you will be looking at them for as long as the character exists.
PT III: Mechanical argument
When the half giants FIRST came out and got nerfed less than a week later, it was warranted.
However, there was a second nerf that came and it was ONLY to stone half giant. Before stone half giant was +2 STR -4 DEX +4 CON +2 WIS. Their total stat gain was +8 -4, making them overall +4, which is the same as human when accounting for gifts. This was in line with every other half giant who instead was +6 and -2, save for cloud half giant who is +6 but of which 2 +2s are to CHA and WIS which forces them more or less into a CHA cleric of some kind to capitalize.
However, stone half giant got ANOTHER nerf, and this one was originally too confirmed because there was such a massive number of stone half giants. Their +4 CON was reduced to +2, which both made them statistically the worst of the half giants being only a net +2 gain (still of course having the -1 AC and AB of large races), and in the process it too outright ruined many EDR builds who could no longer achieve the stats they needed, SHARPLY cutting their population and the overall half giant population as people rolled them, shelved them indefinitely, and in some cases outright left arelith out of frustration.
This nerf was targeted at them for the number of stone half giants, but the majority chose them not for their mechanical strength or lack thereof, but for their human pheno. Despite being statistically the weakest of the lot with the most forced niche with +2 STR, CON, and WIS and -4 dex, with now half stone giant once more now being made a major, this means people were STILL picking the race not for their mechanical strength as strictly you could get the same stats as frost or fire with their WIS bloodline and 2 less dex, 5% less slashing DI but a large amount of frost or fire DI or DR, but because stone half giant was the one they thought LOOKED best for their human pheno.
I am willing to wager entirely that if stone, frost, and fire were all human pheno or were able to choose between human or dwarf pheno, that fire would be more popular than stone for their lore and firey aesthetic.
To reiterate, DESPITE their secondary nerf that made them statistically the worst of the 5 half giant races, and notably the 3 greater award half giant races, stone was still the mostpopular not for their mechanics but for their appearance.
With this in mind, and if we accept then that people choose more often for appearance if they have options amidst a race, this is a knell for greater award half giants.
When then we compare stone half giant to the major award half giants (and firbolg, but I will bar cloud here as it is extremely niche), once more it is the worst.
Stone: +2 STR, CON, WIS, -4 DEX. 5% DI but 10% vs slashing. Free earth stream
Firbolg: +4 STR, +2 CON, -2 DEX, -4 CHA, 10% cold DI, 3 regen at 30, deflect arrow feat, bonus for -track. (I will admit I forget about their CHA malus which means their net gain is lower than stone half giant, but charisma is a nigh worthless stat so its loss is barely worth paying attention to).
May blodline for +2 STR, CON, WIS, -2 DEX, -4CHA
Storm: +2 STR, CON, CHA, -2 dex. 5% DI, 25% electric DI, 10/- electric DR, nets water and air streams. water breathing. May bloodline to change +2 CHA to +2 WIS
So whilst it does net more stats than firbolg slightly, this is because of bolg's cha malus, which is barely worth anything. It loses less dex, it gains some cold DI, deflect arrows, and 3 regen. Likewise, storm giant nets 5% less slashing DI, but loses 1 less dex (which is 1 less AC if we talk light armors where stone can't hit the 18 dex AC cap of studded leather without investing in dex which it can't afford), no elemental DI, and while its a cherry on top storm gets water breathing.
To sum this all up, of the 3 most comparable large races that are majors, stone appears to be the weakest by a notable margin.
On top, and this is anecdotal, most who I've spoken to have more or less agreed that if they get a major, they would jump on the chance sooner to play a storm or cloud half giant, in part as many believe their lore is cooler, with extra emphasis on shamanism for storm and the wealth and opulence of cloud. Stone giant lore is somewhat more bare than the others. Being reclusive crafters and artisans, they ARE really cool, but compared to storm and cloud some might see them as bland.
All in all, my point here is that stone half giant will be vastly overlooked compared to other giant bloded major award races, adn was chosen the most as a greater sheerly for its appearance despite its mechanical weakness.
Closing Thoughts
Most or all of us know when firbolg was made a greater. Something like 46 were made of which 40 were female, and I don't think I need to say aloud what most people believe the reason for this is, and that most of us can agree a large number of these firbolgs were not made because firbolg lore is cool.
That fear of stone half giants, being a large sized greater award race, isn't unwarranted, and its always a travesty when someone picks a race for reasons that seem ONLY superficial and not at all for the race itself. While this may seem contradictory to what I said before, I can say that of the half giants I have encountered (especially so they in the jotunhold), all of them are awesome. Many feared half giants would end up being just tall humans, but all of them do an earnest and sincere attempt to do justice to the race and to the lore of giants. Whilst a couple of them DID choose stone half giant because of human pheno, it wasn't JUST because they were a large human pheno. They sincerely and earnestly wanted to play a half giant for the race itself, and considered frost and fire half giants, and the deciding factor of which of those 3 they'll play in the end was the human pheno.
Compared to firbolg-aggeddon, I truly and sincerely believe that the vast majority of half giants are earnest for the race itself and not just, pardon my language, to be a tall woman or guts RPer as many fear deep down even if they don't admit it. While I understand the philosophy for award races of artificial rarity, all in all when looking at half giants as a whole, their developing RP culture and niche, this hurts it immensely, as the growth of half giants to come about is likely to be SEVERELY diminished. Looking at firbolgs in a vacuum is one matter for sure, as before they were the only large sized giant blooded race, but now half giants and their numbers and reasons people pick them cannot be viewed in a vacuum as there is now options for large sized giant blooded races and reasons people pick them. The original stone half giant nerf that followed the nerf to all half giants felt misguided, and now this feels like a nail in the coffin for half giants.
With that said, I would beseech consideration be given to allowing human pheno for at least frost half giants, if not both. Both to equalize the spread of half giants, and so that greater award people won't dismiss the race out of hand because of the dwarf pheno
P.S.: I am being held at gonne point to give an honorable mention to fire half giant CHA bloodline for paladin fire half giant and oath of maat
I will add here, I understand the bias many will have against half giants, particularly so human pheno ones. Most all of us remember when firbolg was made a greater, and something like 46 were made and of which 40 were female for reasons unspoken and yet known.
