Against the Giants
- Thread starter mypetrock
- Start date
Painfully
First Post
Hasn't DM'ed the 1st edition or 3rd edition of G1-3?
My limited experience with giants in 3E has led me to believe that even a dwarf's +4 dodge bonus isn't enough to keep him from being VERY willing to run away. Suddenly all those cheap group kobold tactics against a mid to high-level party sound like good group dwarf tactics against giants.
From a player perspective, I would say it's important to try anything but direct face-to-face combat whenever possible. And when all else fails, pull a Homer and offer to crush grapes into wine for their enjoyment. What giant in their right mind would kill a winemaker?
My limited experience with giants in 3E has led me to believe that even a dwarf's +4 dodge bonus isn't enough to keep him from being VERY willing to run away. Suddenly all those cheap group kobold tactics against a mid to high-level party sound like good group dwarf tactics against giants.
From a player perspective, I would say it's important to try anything but direct face-to-face combat whenever possible. And when all else fails, pull a Homer and offer to crush grapes into wine for their enjoyment. What giant in their right mind would kill a winemaker?
qstor
Adventurer
Make sure your players are higher than the recommend 1st editon party level of 9-12. I would say 14th is a good level. Esp when facing 10 or more giants in one go.
I wouldn't use the instant teleporation thing in the modules either. Give them some encounters over land to get to the other locations. Check out the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer for background on the Greyhawk locations mentioned in the modules.
Mike
I wouldn't use the instant teleporation thing in the modules either. Give them some encounters over land to get to the other locations. Check out the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer for background on the Greyhawk locations mentioned in the modules.
Mike
alsih2o
First Post
i am currently running G1 for my players. my main piece of advice would be to not take a party that tries to tackle p[roblems head on into the module. sneaking and subterfuge may allow survival, little else will. a gung-ho group of hack-n-slashers is in for a rude surpruse at the least...
also, you might wanna go ahead and alter some of the items and treasure found there to reflect the newer approach to game balance.
also, you might wanna go ahead and alter some of the items and treasure found there to reflect the newer approach to game balance.
First adventure
The first adventure did not go so well. The party (6 @ 11-12th level) has been doing better than expected against the giants in a few test encounters that I threw at them. 8-10 hill giants with magical backup was not much of a challenge.
I altered the module to put it on a higher alert. There are guards who aren't very alert outside each gate. From the novelization, I got the idea to place the Steading in a cold, wet, and foggy valley. The characters had a chance of falling and clattering while moving around. The visibility is clear to 40' and offers concealment farther than that.
So the ranger headed out to scout the gate. On his way back, he fell and clattered, alerting the gate guards. The guards summoned a hunting party (12 hill giants and 6 dire wolves) to investigate the noise. The ranger decided to leave tracks for the giants to find, and when they got close, he dropped an Entangle where it would trip up the giants. After announcing himself in this way, we had a huge fight (in which the ranger was surrounded and killed by some giants who got tired of waiting for the flying spellcasters to come into view) that was just wrapping up when the calvary arrived from the Steading.
Now I have a Steading on highest alert and a party that is down one ranger (soon to be true ressed from a scroll) and lot of their more potent spells.
mypetrock
The first adventure did not go so well. The party (6 @ 11-12th level) has been doing better than expected against the giants in a few test encounters that I threw at them. 8-10 hill giants with magical backup was not much of a challenge.
I altered the module to put it on a higher alert. There are guards who aren't very alert outside each gate. From the novelization, I got the idea to place the Steading in a cold, wet, and foggy valley. The characters had a chance of falling and clattering while moving around. The visibility is clear to 40' and offers concealment farther than that.
So the ranger headed out to scout the gate. On his way back, he fell and clattered, alerting the gate guards. The guards summoned a hunting party (12 hill giants and 6 dire wolves) to investigate the noise. The ranger decided to leave tracks for the giants to find, and when they got close, he dropped an Entangle where it would trip up the giants. After announcing himself in this way, we had a huge fight (in which the ranger was surrounded and killed by some giants who got tired of waiting for the flying spellcasters to come into view) that was just wrapping up when the calvary arrived from the Steading.
Now I have a Steading on highest alert and a party that is down one ranger (soon to be true ressed from a scroll) and lot of their more potent spells.
mypetrock
Second adventure
The session started with the characters flight from the giant cavalry. They fled directly to the cave where they had been hiding. I was able to add tension by pounding on the table simulating boulders being lobbed against the side of the hill by the giants. They teleported out of there en masse to escape.
Once they escaped they regrouped at a site that they had been before and were joined by a small group of locals (Rng6, Clr7, Drd8/CatLord3) who offered assistance in taking the steading. The cleric performed a clairvoyance getting some of the layout of the steading and a divination. The group still took an hour to decide how to storm the Steading.
Finally they decided to hit one of the out-buildings at the rear of the Steading. We ended the session as the first group of giants fell to the party and the second set of giants was about to attack.
The principal difficulty that the party seems to be having is how to attack a Steading that is on guard. How did your players attack?
mypetrock
The session started with the characters flight from the giant cavalry. They fled directly to the cave where they had been hiding. I was able to add tension by pounding on the table simulating boulders being lobbed against the side of the hill by the giants. They teleported out of there en masse to escape.
Once they escaped they regrouped at a site that they had been before and were joined by a small group of locals (Rng6, Clr7, Drd8/CatLord3) who offered assistance in taking the steading. The cleric performed a clairvoyance getting some of the layout of the steading and a divination. The group still took an hour to decide how to storm the Steading.
Finally they decided to hit one of the out-buildings at the rear of the Steading. We ended the session as the first group of giants fell to the party and the second set of giants was about to attack.
The principal difficulty that the party seems to be having is how to attack a Steading that is on guard. How did your players attack?
mypetrock
National Acrobat
First Post
I am currently running my party (11th and 12th level, their have been a couple of deaths) through this and they are on their way to the Hall of the Fire Giant King. One thing that I can tell you is that longe range spells and missle weapons are a must. I learned as well as my players that when I giant gets 2 crits in one round on someone, it hurt to the tune of 87 hit points. Big fighters are a must and don't be surprised if occaisonal attempts at avoiding fights or retreating occurs. It will.
tarchon
First Post
Re: Second adventure
After that, more or less by accident, we charmed the patrolling huntsman into going over to the next shire to make sure the neighboring giants weren't up to no good, since we kindly mentioned to him that they'd been "up to something" near the borders of their territories.
Then we stuffed the entire party except for one guy into a bag of holding, and using a magic item he changed shape into a puma. With Invisibility, a Fly spell, and Cat's Grace he was thus very, very sneaky. He flew back into the stead through a roof vent and snuck into the pantry, where we unloaded the party. The bard used Sculpt Sound to make the stairs to the basement sound normal while muffling what was really happening. With those preparations, the still invisible giant-hating ranger/rogue went downstairs first, followed by the monk who was disguised as an orc slave via a hat of difference. With the element of surprise in our favor, the denizens of first room didn't last very long, and we took control of the highly strategic position controlling all access to the basement dungeon. An invisible mid-level rogue/ranger can do some real mayhem to his favored enemy, you know?
The rest of the basement wasn't that big of a challenge, though we had to pick off various ogres and giants as they obliviously strolled into the basement, which was slowly becoming a hill -giant abattoir. Before our presence became known, we also managed to assassinate Nosra in his sickbed. It seems the ale didn't agree with him to well, but it does take a strong stomach to handle Sour Jack's Wicked Centipede Brew.
Skipping various other shenanigans, we've currently just collapsed the roof of the main hall, and are involved in the big showdown with the pitiful remnants of the giant tribe. Well, us and 150-odd heavily armed rebellious ex-slaves.
The first thing we did was send in two invisible flying scouts to look around, who also poisoned the stead's ale supply with the connivance of the orcish head cook, who had somehow gotten the impression that the invisible bard (with Tongues running) was an orcish secret agent making preparations for the big orc takeover of the stead. This later evolved into a party-facilitated slave insurrection as well.mypetrock said:
After that, more or less by accident, we charmed the patrolling huntsman into going over to the next shire to make sure the neighboring giants weren't up to no good, since we kindly mentioned to him that they'd been "up to something" near the borders of their territories.
Then we stuffed the entire party except for one guy into a bag of holding, and using a magic item he changed shape into a puma. With Invisibility, a Fly spell, and Cat's Grace he was thus very, very sneaky. He flew back into the stead through a roof vent and snuck into the pantry, where we unloaded the party. The bard used Sculpt Sound to make the stairs to the basement sound normal while muffling what was really happening. With those preparations, the still invisible giant-hating ranger/rogue went downstairs first, followed by the monk who was disguised as an orc slave via a hat of difference. With the element of surprise in our favor, the denizens of first room didn't last very long, and we took control of the highly strategic position controlling all access to the basement dungeon. An invisible mid-level rogue/ranger can do some real mayhem to his favored enemy, you know?
The rest of the basement wasn't that big of a challenge, though we had to pick off various ogres and giants as they obliviously strolled into the basement, which was slowly becoming a hill -giant abattoir. Before our presence became known, we also managed to assassinate Nosra in his sickbed. It seems the ale didn't agree with him to well, but it does take a strong stomach to handle Sour Jack's Wicked Centipede Brew.
Skipping various other shenanigans, we've currently just collapsed the roof of the main hall, and are involved in the big showdown with the pitiful remnants of the giant tribe. Well, us and 150-odd heavily armed rebellious ex-slaves.
