Easily my favorite and longest played character was a goliath' but a terribly nontraditional one.
With the whole "survival of the fittest" mentality that they have I made one of those left behind. He had fallen down the side of a mountain while training with his clan, and was left behind. He fell all the way down it though, skittering to a stop as he crashed through the roof of a barn in the halfling settlement at the base of the mountain. The halflings didn't abandon him like his people did they cared for him and took care of him while he healed. He stayed with them embracing their much more casual lifestyle, until a mudslide washed through the town. He was the only one tall and strong enough to help save the halflings that were stranded and threatened by it. He came to the conclusion that not being the fittest among the goliaths didn't mean he wasn't worthy of still being a hero.
I played him as a mix of Don Quixote and The Tick. The halflings had read him all kind of hero stories about knights and honor while he was recovering from his fall. So he had adopted that code of conduct and chivalry, kept a journal detailing his heroic deeds, and never shrank away from a good cause, even if it was foolishly dangerous.