FreeTheSlaves
Adventurer
Thanks all. Plenty of ideas and leads here. All things earth work (tunnels, ditches, moat and pits) and water obstacles are goers. Gold spent on extra workers (2sp each per day) from a nearby town seems efficient use.
Oh, first time the Frost Giants attacked (scouts-in-force during summer, briefly had Control of Weather, apparently one use power), they made use of Fog Cloud. So Frost Giant shamans...
The motte and Bailey stronghold is really just a fort made from earthwork and palisades, no stone work, it's the 15,000 gp basic stronghold erected during downtime. Local alliance with druids forbid upgrade to stone, but that's another story.
Crossbows, as simple proficiency weapons, are easier to train than longbows, so that's probably the doable option.
The party includes a 10th level cleric, who routinely prepares Commune, Divination, Sending and Augury. He could use the former two spells carefully to guesstimate where and when, and together with the mountain ranger scouting (conjure giant eagle), they're likely to early detect attackers.
There is a decently powerful NPC transmuter, but he's committed to crafting magic weapons for the party. They wouldn't want to disturb that, it's already generous and wasn't easy to set up.
Oh, first time the Frost Giants attacked (scouts-in-force during summer, briefly had Control of Weather, apparently one use power), they made use of Fog Cloud. So Frost Giant shamans...
The motte and Bailey stronghold is really just a fort made from earthwork and palisades, no stone work, it's the 15,000 gp basic stronghold erected during downtime. Local alliance with druids forbid upgrade to stone, but that's another story.
Crossbows, as simple proficiency weapons, are easier to train than longbows, so that's probably the doable option.
The party includes a 10th level cleric, who routinely prepares Commune, Divination, Sending and Augury. He could use the former two spells carefully to guesstimate where and when, and together with the mountain ranger scouting (conjure giant eagle), they're likely to early detect attackers.
There is a decently powerful NPC transmuter, but he's committed to crafting magic weapons for the party. They wouldn't want to disturb that, it's already generous and wasn't easy to set up.