Giant defense

[Hatchling Dragon]

Nasty, I like it. The trolls would think jumping off a cliff to be great fun.

Where have you seen it printed that Trolls acutally enjoy inflicting pain on themselfs? I'd be thinking just the opposite.

Acutally you can combine two ideas into one (perhaps better) ambush. Have the Zombie Giants laying as if mearly stacked for burial/removal. The PC's are lured up to/past their resting spot and a 'distraction' is used to slow/stop them in the right location. The command is given and suddnely Giant Zombies are grappling with PCs and falling off the cliff.

Or an alternative use for the undead, have them set to release the Para-elemental whenever the PC's are lured/wander past it's lair/prison.

Hatchling Dragon

 

[Wolfspider]

Oh, nasty idea concerning the giant zombies.

Also, if you don't want to have the zombie "waste" a 3rd level spell to create lowly zombies, you could always put the spell on a scroll....

Undead! Zombies! They want brains! Of course, to a giant zombie, human brains are just appetizers....

 

[Pielorinho]

Grappling the paladin would probably make him pretty useless, I agree -- and if several giants try at once, it'll scare him.

If they've seen flames in action, it'd be great to have endure elements on the trolls.

What domains does the cleric have?

Silence a couple of trolls and send them against the spellcasters.

Bull-rush the PCs off of the tower.

Pick up a PC and beat other PCs with him -- okay, the rules don't allow for this, but wouldn't it be cool? Perhaps a feat that allows you to make a grapple check at -20 to use an opponent at least two sizes smaller as an improvised weapon; the weapon takes half as much damage as the target of the attack.

Trip the paladin -- with the giant's high strengths, this shouldn't be too difficult, and then the other critters get a +4 to hit the paladin.

Do they know what sort of weapons their opponents are using? If so, the cleric could cast greater magic weapon on one of the giant's swords; that giant could be responsible for sundering the PC's weapons. A giant could on average sunder a +2 greatsword with a single hit, if his own sword were +2.

Similarly, the giants will excel at disarming their opponents. If the paladin is using a greatsword, he'll be facing a disarming attempt with a +24 bonus. The giants might try to disarm their opponents and then bullrush them off the cliff. If they disarm an opponent, they should pick up the weapon and destroy it (or at least toss it over the edge of the cliff).

Could they promise freedom to the ice mephit if it participates in the battle?

Note that, alas, the fire giants can't be zombified: they're 15HD critters, and you can only create undead up to your caster level with each copy of the spell.

Daniel

 

[Wolfspider]

Really big crawling claws?

 

[Polydamas]

May I interest your cleric in a Lesser Planar Ally spell? For the very reasonable cost of a fourth level slot and some future considerations, you may gain the services of a variety of helpful fiends...like, say, an 8 HD osyluth.

What does such a puny critter have to offer such a mighty group? Merely the ability to, at will

1) Cast Fly on every one of your horde of evildoers (careful of dispel magics..it is only at 7th level!).

2) Lure your unsuspecting party onwards with its ability to use Major Image (perhaps to entice them towards the ice paramental?)

3) Use Wall of Ice to corral those pesky adventurers

4) Use Dimensional Anchor to make sure uninvited guests stay around for their just desserts

 

[Gargoyle]

Where have you seen it printed that Trolls acutally enjoy inflicting pain on themselfs? I'd be thinking just the opposite.

My post was somewhat incomplete and misleading. What I really meant was that they'd enjoy killing the heavily armored paladin in a horrifying way that they could regenerate from, not that they're a bunch of masochists. Trolls are particularly cruel and sadistic. Going through some short lived masochistic pain in order to commit a cruel act seems very troll-like to me.

 

[Hejdun]

You want a good way for the troll to kill a PC? Bull rush him off a cliff, go down with him. Seriously, the troll will regenerate teh damage, no matter how high it is (unless you rule 0 it so the troll dies from impact, but he shouldn't by the rules). The PC will be pretty much screwed. Even if he does have some sort of way to fly, the troll will weigh him down enough that he should sink like a rock. Otherwise, I would suggest you concentrate all your attacks on one person, probably teh cleric. Hit the cleric hard, with everything you have. If you can knock out the cleric, the fight just gets a whole lot easier. Otherwise, I would suggest grappling everyone. You have enough guys (strong guys too), that you should be able to beat them out with sheer numbers.

 

[James McMurray]

Hatchling Dragon: Trolls may not exactly enjoy hurting htemselves, but I'm sure they would see it as a viable method of attacking humans. The problem with using giant zombies is that they only have a +8 grapple check, and will most likely fail to grab anyone (even the wizard would have a decent chance of avoiding that hold with his +4 check )

Using them to release the para-elemental, though... There's an idea.

Pielorinho: The cleric has evil and War domains.

She already used silence in their last encounter, and will again, that's for sure. In fact, she'll memorize extra silences this time because the party was 2/3 spellcasters.

Sundering wouldn't work too well, but disarming certainly would. The check would actually be +28 (Huge greatswords give +8). That could be interesting. Especially if one giant disarms someone, then another moves in to Bull Rush the guy away from the dropped sword.

giants could be zombified, as zombie Giants only have 4 hit dice. But then again, since they only have 4 hit dice, what's the point?

Polydamas: That's great! Thanks! And if nothing else, the thing will absorb a few hits...

Hejdun: Grappling is starting to look like my best bet. Bull's Rush won't work, as they'd be falling seperately, so the flying PC would just fly off, but if grappled, that fly spell won't hold two creatures, especially when one's a large troll.

Keep em coming folks! My party won't know what hit them!

 

[Pielorinho]

Sundering wouldn't work too well, but disarming certainly would. The check would actually be +28 (Huge greatswords give +8). That could be interesting. Especially if one giant disarms someone, then another moves in to Bull Rush the guy away from the dropped sword.

A correction, and an idea:

I said that the disarming attempt would be +24 vs. a greatsword, and this is correct: huge greatswords are one size category larger than a normal greatsword, and so only get a +4 on the disarm attempt.

As for sundering, are your party's weapons all +3 or greater?

Also check out the rules for striking a held, carried, or worn object. Ripping those wings of flying in half shouldn't be too difficult for a giant -- and if trolls grapple an opponent, other trolls can destroy the grappled foes' items fairly easily.

Daniel

 

[James McMurray]

Pielorinho: sorry, you were right. The paladin uses a longsword though, so they'd get an extra +4.

Sundering: They're all +5 due to greater magic weapon.

Mmm, striking an object. I hadn't thought of that either. Thanks!