D&D General Homebrewing question about Giants and rock-throwing

[Levy1995]

I'm doing a homebrew game, where the PC escort a young boy who is presumably a child of a goddess to raise an army fighting a giant beast set to destory the realm and kill all of the gods, now stuck on a pit... I made a whole lore...
Anyway! We got a new player joining and i gave him an NPC character who is a stone giant set on redemption from his evil deeds.

The climax is having the party encounter a situation where only blunt force can kill the monster- and the only ones using blunt force are the young boy and the giant.

In order to continue with the story i need the giant or the young boy to run towards and monster (golem) and face them in close-combat.

The only thing I forgot was the ability to throw rocks that giants have. We have established that the rock he throw is one-handed throw to up to 120 ft.

How do I make the giant run towards the danger or make them not realize they can throw the rock until the young boy slips through them and runs towards the golem?

 

[Levy1995]

I thought about the rock doing no damage to the golem, but that defeats the purpose of having blunt objects the only way to kill them. Also though about the roc not doing enough damage like other blunt objects, but the rock hits more than the young boy...

 

[Stormonu]

I wouldn't try and force the situation. Let the party decide how they want to handle things and just present the obstacle - don't try to force it so there's only one way (which you've pre-chosen) to defeat the obstacle. The PCs might come up with an interesting or unique approach - desperation breeds innovation.

That said, you can encourage meleeing the opponent by creating some sort of barrier against ranged weaponry - such as a cloud of fog that inflicts a significant penalty to hit with a ranged weapon or the likes of wind wall that scatters aside projectiles. Or perhaps you could put in place some sort of effect that discourages using projectiles - perhaps using projectiles will cause the opponent to counter a ranged attack with one of their own or has some reactive ability to reverse the projectile back towards the attacker (similar to the monk's arrow deflection ability).

 

[aco175]

@Levy1995 welcome to the boards. Do the players know the NPC child is some sort of god? Just thinking that this child runs to a golem to fight it might be forcing things and making the players choose that they have to follow him to fight as well even if just to save him. They will also be upset with you for having this escort mission railroaded by having the NPC not be following the PCs and needing them at all for the protection. You want the PCs to be the stars of the show.

The giant throwing rocks problem can be overcome by the needing magic weapons to damage the golem. I know it is resistance, but make it immunity, or like what @Stormonu mentioned in having the golem start to catch and throw the rocks at other PCs.

 

[Levy1995]

Thank you both! I'll use both ideas of a dist cloud hindering sight and having the golem throw the rocks back or being immune unless they use magical items- which i forgot the giant had.

 

[Chaltab]

just as a general rule, plan scenarios. Don't plan actions of those controlled by the other players; that's not what a DM is for.

 

[Retros_x]

How do I make the giant run towards the danger or make them not realize they can throw the rock until the young boy slips through them and runs towards the golem?

You don't, you find a way how the story continues depending on your players decisions.

 

[Levy1995]

I'm writing the aftermath, in case it helps anyone.
I had one of the golems, before the encounter, show a feat of speed and strength by running and smashing a desert-mouse, crushing it into a pulp while covering the entire place with sand- obstructing sight. That made the giant not wanting to throw stones. It did made the Paladin-sorcerer try to use Command. I said it wasn't sentient and couldn't be commanded. The Barbarian ran head first, slashed with the sword- i said it had not effect- lost a dex save and was put down, prone with 0 hp, yet stable (thanks to the paladin).
I had the kid baffle at the choice of running, shooting and eldritch blast at the golem, making it fall. Being ecstatic, he ran towards the golem, avoiding one of the party-members grasp, getting close the golem- but the dragon landed on the golem, devouring the kid.

Overall, they hadn't suspected a thing.

 

[abirdcall]

I'm not entirely sure I follow your post but sounds like you've written a story that you're going to tell to your players instead of playing a game.