Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6985830" data-attributes="member: 6787650">This is wrong, yo. These two types of giants are quite distinct and have distinct tactical styles. Differences between Fire and Frost Giants:(1) Obviously, Fire Giants hit harder and have better AC (18 vs. 15) and HP (162 vs. 138). That's just your basic "higher CR" stuff.(2) Fire Giants have strong Dex saves and weak-ish Wisdom saves; Frost Giants have weak Dex saves and slightly better Wisdom saves than Fire Giants; other saves are all slightly weaker than Fire Giants.(3) Frost Giants are significantly more mobile than Fire Giants (40' vs. 30' move), enough to make them better at melee-kiting PCs. (Bash the PC with your giant axe and then back off 40', eating an opportunity attack if necessary, in order to avoid a full attack sequence. Taking one attack instead of three is a win; and it's sometimes possible for the Frost Giant to use its 10' reach and 40' move to attack a PC while taking zero attacks in return, especially against stumpy dwarves and other 25' movers. Use rocks to force PCs to Dash towards you and then when they get close start melee-kiting them.)(4) Fire Giants are somewhat better at Athletics than Frost Giants (+11 vs. +9), enough so that combined with their lower mobility, their go-to tactic against tough melee foes can be "grapple/prone the enemy at +11 to Athletics and then beat him to death with your giant longsword." Yeah, I know, by default they have a greatsword and no longsword, but extrapolating longsword stats is straightforward. Even the greatsword-only variant can still do things like punt PCs off cliffs and into pits.Putting #3 and #4 together, you also see that Fire Giants benefit from being in largish (militaristic-style) groups (one guy holds the target still like Lucy with Charlie Brown's football while everyone else beats on it with their greataxes until it's dead, then they all move on to the next target), while Frost Giants operate relatively well even as lone wolves (fewer friendlies to coordinate with when kiting).</blockquote>

Verification