G1 Tactics

[Odysseus]

I'm going to be running G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, 3.5 conversation, for my group soon.
And I was wondering if anyone had some advice about running giants in 3.5 edition tactics wise? Or if anyone has run G1 in 3rd edition has some advice.

 

[Delta]

We're giants, we don't need no steenkin' tactics.

(I'm sort of serious here -- their Int is low and they're used to just smashing everything they encounter. It's not until G3 where the adventure is set up to have intelligent tactical responses.)

 

[S'mon]

Well, I've run giants in 3.5. The main thing to note is 3.5 Power Attack, +2 damage per -1 to hit with their two-handed weapons. They can easily do ridiculous amounts of damage. If the PCs have high ACs and are hard to hit, giants may be best off maxing out Power Attack and hope for a '20'. This is especially true if several giants can use their Reach to gang up on a single PC.

 

[Odysseus]

We're giants, we don't need no steenkin' tactics.

(I'm sort of serious here -- their Int is low and they're used to just smashing everything they encounter. It's not until G3 where the adventure is set up to have intelligent tactical responses.)

I wasn't so much thinking of group tactics , but individual tactics, power attack, rock throwing overbear etc

 

[Intrope]

For Hill Giants, I'd try to make some use of Improved Bull Rush as part of Charge attacks; making punies dance is fun! (Later Giants should make use of their Improved Overrun--bowl over the fighter *and* smack the mage!)

 

[Lidgar]

I had leaders also take improved sunder - assuming they are wielding a magic weapon of some type, it can really ruin a fighter's day. Also, the great feast hall in G1 can be really nasty - make sure the party gets a chance to hear or spy on them first to give them a chance for avoidance. The dungeons can be more fun if you beef up the bugbears- add a few levels of fighter or barbarian to them all.

 

[Odysseus]

I had leaders also take improved sunder - assuming they are wielding a magic weapon of some type, it can really ruin a fighter's day. Also, the great feast hall in G1 can be really nasty - make sure the party gets a chance to hear or spy on them first to give them a chance for avoidance. The dungeons can be more fun if you beef up the bugbears- add a few levels of fighter or barbarian to them all.

hill giants get improved sunder and bull rush as standard. But good idea about the bugbears.

Has anybody tried the hillgiants throw rocks?

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Grapple. It's a bitch and it's broken: but their aint much your average medium sized character can do against a giant.

If on the other hand you want to make the encounters fun: YEah, Bull Rushing and Over Runs. The party will get spread out, Area of Effect spells will be more difficult to use. I'd start the giants power attacking a lot, "Smash puny humies," until they realise their wild swings aren't connecting and then have them rein it in and fight a bit more cleverly.

Throwing Rocks: IMC Dwarves and other stunties don't get their AC bonus vs giants unless they're in hand to hand combat, so rocks can work to get around that. Less damage but a good way to soften up the enemy before engaging in hand to hand.

 

[Lidgar]

The rock throwing is not as deadly as earlier editions - less damage, and much less likely to hit than their melee attacks. So much lower, that feats and other small bumps are probably not worth it. I never applied the "Hulking Hurler" prestige class, so that may be worth looking into (Complete Warrior). However, throwing boulders does not take a tremendous amount of accuracy to hit an area - maybe give them an inherent bonus of some type? In any case, I found it best if the giants could (bull) rush into melee as soon as possible.

 

[shilsen]

Awesome Blow. Every game session is better if it includes an Awesome Blow.