D&D Spells: Who’s Bigby & Did He Have A Big Hand?

Dungeons & Dragons players will probably be familiar with the name Bigby, as it appears in several spells. Bigby is actually one of the oldest characters in the history of the game, and he remains one of the most powerful wizards in the D&D multiverse.

The most popular D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms, which is considered the default world for most games. There are other worlds and settings that players can use, such as the harsh desert world of Athas in Dark Sun, or the realm of Eberron, where magic and technology work together. One of the oldest campaign settings is Greyhawk, which was made by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax. The lore and world of Greyhawk isn’t as fleshed out as that of the Forgotten Realms, but that’s exactly why fans like it, as it gives DMs and players an easy sandbox for creating adventures. Greyhawk became the default setting in the third edition of D&D, but many players still choose to set their game in the Forgotten Realms.

There are lots of spells in D&D that have a character name in their title. These names include Otto, Otiluke, Mordenkainen, and Tasha. The names originate from the Greyhawk setting and many of them came from players in Gary Gygax’s early adventures there. Bigby is one of these characters. According to Gary Gygax in a post on the EN World forums, Bigby was a villain created by Robert Kuntz. He was running a game in which Gygax was playing as Mordenkainen. Bigby was originally an evil wizard, but Mordenkainen used a charm spell to turn him into a servant. Over time, Bigby became one of Gygax’s characters and gave up his evil ways. Gygax eventually established the Circle of Eight, which was a group of his own characters. The Circle of Eight is still part of the lore of Greyhawk, as it’s made up of the most powerful mages in the setting.

Dungeons & Dragons: Bigby’s Giant Hand Spells Explained

Bigby is known for the Bigby’s Hand spell in the current edition of D&D. This is actually a combined version of a number of older spells. There was a time when the Player’s Handbook contained Bigby’s clenched fist, Bigby’s crushing hand, Bigby’s forceful hand, Bigby’s grasping hand, and Bigby’s interposing hand. This is to say nothing of the numerous Bigby’s hand spells that appeared in other supplements over the years. For the record, Bigby actually has regular-sized hands, but Gygax just chose to use Bigby as the creator of powerful hand-themed spells.

As for the in-game lore, Bigby was an exile from the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, who eventually became Mordenkainen’s apprentice. The two formed the Circle of Eight and Bigby is one of its longest-running members. Like the other members of the Circle of Eight, Bigby was killed at the start of an adventure called Vecna Lives. The players are actually given control of the Circle, yet they are unable to save them from being killed in a battle with Vecna/Halmadar. He was restored to life with the aid of the clone spell, along with other members of the Circle, and he is still active in the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse.

Source: Gary Gygax/EN World

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Scott Baird
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Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

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