D&D General Comparing Giant Sizes

Anders Johnson, a Swedish artist over on ArtStation, has an awesome image in which he compares the relative sizes of various D&D giants.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

And yet combat between such a giant and a human fighter comes down to just standing next to each other in their squares on the battle mat and swinging their swords at one another and blocking and parrying each others blow,

I don't think anyone on AoT or SotC would ever try to just block a blow from a storm giant sized opponent with his human sized shield attached to his human sized arm.

That’s a problem with game and encounter design, not the size of giants.

 

[Richards]

My favorites are Giant Size X-Men #1, Giant Size Invaders #1 and Giant Size Super-Villian Team-Up #1.

What?

Don't forget your "Giant-Size Man-Thing" (so to speak).

Johnathan

 

[thealmightyn]

But how would you narrate that for the ToM without the giant looking like an idiot?

Well, the PCs aren't always going to be the ones dishing out damage. I mean, if the players roll really well and the giant rolls really poorly, the giant will invariably end up looking like a buffoon, but assuming both sides get in good hits, there are lots of ways you can narrate it.

 

[thealmightyn]

In the books they are basically elephants. Which, historically, where pretty devastating themselves when trained for war.

Gotcha. An elephant can be a devastating creature to fight, for sure, but it's nowhere near as awe inspiring as a 25' giant.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

But how would you narrate that for the ToM without the giant looking like an idiot?

Can you unpack what “look like an idiot” even means, to you, in this context?

 

[Mirtek]

Can you unpack what “look like an idiot” even means, to you, in this context?

I believe that's pretty simple, isn't it?

If the assumption is that a human sized fighter can not just take a hit from a giant, then the combat can only go with the giant not hitting the human until the last blow.

So while the human nibbles away the giant's hp with small hit after small hit, the giant depletes the human's hp with him having to narrowly avoid blow after blow (until the very last hit in case the giant wins).

Unfortunately that makes the makes the giant a lumbering brute and ignores that they are supposed to have sophisticated cultures with their own renowned martial arts styles and fencing masters.

To do the giant justice he has to hit the human often and reliably, but when a single hit would end the human, that causes a problem.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

I recently did an after action write up of a couple of Frost Giant combats, so I get what Mirtek is getting at. Essentially there were a couple of 6' tall humans wielding 4' and 6' blades taking on 21' tall giants. The 12' pike and lance used early on made sense, but switching to swords to be within the Frost Giant's guard also had a rationale, much like martial artists looking to grapple bigger but less technically trained guys.

Realistic? Not so much. A huge giant simply moving about is inevitably going to knock you, and you would go absolutely flying. But that's HP abstraction.

The first battle was straight-forward because the melee types slowed down the giants while the Ranger and Rogue eventually whittled their leader down with missile shots, forcing the giants to retreat.

Narratively, the characters never took a direct hit, they were always near misses, 'nudges' with the haft or 'brushes' with a giant sized forearm/knee. Again narratively, the characters were knocked about and off their feet, scrambling to safety. Twice characters had to withdraw, heal up, then get back in.

There can be no parrying against giants. Just no way.

So yeah, sticking within guard, cutting and slicing away at tendons, knees, ankles etc.. There would've had to have been so much icy blood. And I ruled the deathblow was when the Giant had sunk to the ground, bringing his throat within reach. It wouldn't have been a pretty scene.

There were two narrative direct hits from giants in fight #2, a critical for 60 and shortly after another critical, which triggered Deathward. Seriously, good, spell.

 

[dave2008]

I believe that's pretty simple, isn't it?

If the assumption is that a human sized fighter can not just take a hit from a giant, then the combat can only go with the giant not hitting the human until the last blow.

So while the human nibbles away the giant's hp with small hit after small hit, the giant depletes the human's hp with him having to narrowly avoid blow after blow (until the very last hit in case the giant wins).

Unfortunately that makes the makes the giant a lumbering brute and ignores that they are supposed to have sophisticated cultures with their own renowned martial arts styles and fencing masters.

To do the giant justice he has to hit the human often and reliably, but when a single hit would end the human, that causes a problem.

But that is not accurate. If a giant is indeed similar to a human (it's moves travel at the same speed) then it will take longer for its club, sword, or whatever to strike a target (it is traveling a greater distance). This makes it much easier for a human-sized creature to dodge the massive blows of a giant, no matter how sophisticated its martial skills are.

EDIT: For example, if it takes a fighter 1 second to swing his/her sword, then it take a giant 3 seconds to do the same thing because it travels 3x the distance. On top of that I would imagine most giant martial arts center around fighting other giants and/or dragons. Creatures of similar size. Of course, now I am interested in giants specifically trained to take on the "small-folk."

EDIT EDIT: This is of course assuming basic similarity. It you purpose that giants are actually magically stronger than their size suggests, then they can actually swing their giant swords in 1 second instead of 3, but then your really opening a can of worms.

 

[Mirtek]

But that is not accurate. If a giant is indeed similar to a human (it's moves travel at the same speed) then it will take longer for its club, sword, or whatever to strike a target (it is traveling a greater distance). This makes it much easier for a human-sized creature to dodge the massive blows of a giant, no matter how sophisticated its martial skills are.

EDIT: For example, if it takes a fighter 1 second to swing his/her sword, then it take a giant 3 seconds to do the same thing because it travels 3x the distance. On top of that I would imagine most giant martial arts center around fighting other giants and/or dragons. Creatures of similar size. Of course, now I am interested in giants specifically trained to take on the "small-folk."

EDIT EDIT: This is of course assuming basic similarity. It you purpose that giants are actually magically stronger than their size suggests, then they can actually swing their giant swords in 1 second instead of 3, but then your really opening a can of worms.

But then the same would apply to humans vs. goblins or kobolds.

 

[Azzy]

Nice picture!