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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 8273532" data-attributes="member: 87792">And I'm going to stop you right there. There's a difference between a combatant and a front line combatant. The ability to e.g. fire a crossbow doesn't require that much.Let me stop you there. In 5e a hill giant is not just slightly bigger than an ogre. They're 16' tall according to the Monster Manual, and huge creatures rather than large. They're actual giants (and it's one of the 5e fluff changes I fully support).Fortunately for the giant it's a hill giant, not a plains giant. Which means it can get relatively close.The villagers are vaguely organised and they live in the sort of country a giant is likely to live in. However what the giant finds first isn't a farmer but a herdsman with a flock of sheep or goats. Part of the point of having herdsmen is the early warning they provide. And the herdsman always carries two things. The first is a sling, primarily for driving off wolves. The second is a horn (made of horn) so they can call for help or alert the village.At this point most giants will be looking to steal a sheep or a goat, which I agree they can do relatively safely. And naughty word happens. Losing a goat every week or so to a giant is a problem, but it's not village-threatening. If the giant is particularly homicidal they get the shepherd/goat herd. But the horn has been sounded. Already done unless the shepherd in particular was known for crying wolf. They heard that horn. And it got passed on. The warning's passing at almost the speed of sound."What weapons they can find" - your village is a bunch of utterly clueless twits who leave their weapons buried under the junk? When they live in giant country?Did he teleport? The giant has barely killed the shepherd by the time people are grabbing weapons.We're in hill country and the call has gone out for "giant". The weapons of choice are bows, slings, and javelins with hatchets as a last resort.Of course not. They pepper that giant with sling-stones and a few arrows when it comes into sight. No ones grabbing staves or clubs. They don't want to get into range of that thing.Almost all with ranged weapons. Slings are dirt cheap and in D&D count as simple weapons. If it's a particularly dangerous area most of them might have slings already on them.If we assume half your "non-combatants" are Str 8 Dex 8 and have slings so can do damage that's still 30 slingstones that need 10 or more to hit (vs AC 11; +2 proficiency, -1 stat bonus); the non-combatants between them do an average of 28.5dpr at short range (accounting for crits) or 13.8 dpr at long range.The giant lasts around 4 rounds against the non-combatant slingers if he closes to short range and 8 if he stays at long if they get to focus fire.Or around half the "non-combatants" take the giant down and only lose half a dozen. It is, of course, faster if you get the actual fighters involved.Possibly the foolish ones that don't use slings and that rush down the throat of the giant rather than trying to shoot it from far away. Yes, villages that are that badly prepared and live in giant country might get wiped out. Of course so do the giants.No walls and organised militia needed. Just proficiency with simple weapons and not doing anything stupid.</blockquote>

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