Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="AuraSeer" data-source="post: 677767" data-attributes="member: 1331">Direct damage is usually not the best tactic against giants, because they tend to have high HP for their CR. A single damage spell will probably not kill any of them, which means the giant group is still able to attack you at full power.For instance, say you're fighting a gang of hill giants. If you throw a Cone of Cold, it probably won't do 102 hp, so even those who fail their saves will still be standing. Their combat effectiveness has not been diminished, so they'll commence pounding on you and your allies. If you instead use a hampering spell, like Slow or Grease or Wall of Force, you diminish the number of giants who can immediately harm your party. That means you'll take less damage on this round. It also lets your allies concentrate on one or a few giants, and put them out of the fight quickly. That in turn means there are fewer enemies to attack you in later turns.Direct damage is best against &quot;mage-type&quot; enemies with a lot of special abilities, because they have few hp for their CR. Giants are &quot;fighter-type&quot; enemies; they're good at taking damage, but have few defenses against nondamaging effects.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AuraSeer, post: 677767, member: 1331"] Direct damage is usually not the best tactic against giants, because they tend to have high HP for their CR. A single damage spell will probably not kill any of them, which means the giant group is still able to attack you at full power. For instance, say you're fighting a gang of hill giants. If you throw a [i]Cone of Cold[/i], it probably won't do 102 hp, so even those who fail their saves will still be standing. Their combat effectiveness has not been diminished, so they'll commence pounding on you and your allies. If you instead use a hampering spell, like [i]Slow[/i] or [i]Grease[/i] or [i]Wall of Force[/i], you diminish the number of giants who can immediately harm your party. That means you'll take less damage on this round. It also lets your allies concentrate on one or a few giants, and put them out of the fight quickly. That in turn means there are fewer enemies to attack you in later turns. Direct damage is best against "mage-type" enemies with a lot of special abilities, because they have few hp for their CR. Giants are "fighter-type" enemies; they're good at taking damage, but have few defenses against nondamaging effects. [/QUOTE]

Verification