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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 6498788" data-attributes="member: 2011"><p>While what you say is true, there is a bit more to it.</p><p></p><p>The limit of Strength is the game is 20 shy of a Belt of Giantkind. Which means that the first giant belt (Str 21) is only helpful for PCs with Str below 20 (for all intents and purposes). So, a giant belt allows Str based PCs to focus on feats instead of on Str boost.</p><p></p><p>So a typical scenario is that a PC gets the Gauntlets first. The player, having a Str of 19, might focus a bit on feats (or Con). Later on, the player gets the giant belt. That player never focuses on Str again and the gauntlets are given to some other PC. Even later on, the party finds the Hammer. Ok, now they have all three.</p><p></p><p>The Hammer adds +4 to Str, so:</p><p></p><p>Hill: 21 to 25</p><p>Stone: 23 to 27</p><p>Fire: 25 to 29</p><p>Cloud: 27 to 30</p><p>Storm: 29 to 30</p><p></p><p>The bonus to hit is now +1 for magic weapon (which takes care of damage resistance) and +7 to +10 for the combo. Total: +8 to +11.</p><p></p><p>If the PC had a +3 weapon and the belt, he would be +8 to +12.</p><p></p><p>At first glance, wow, the combo is not as good as a belt and a +3 weapon (which should be relatively rare anyway).</p><p></p><p>Well, the combo has two more things going for it. It has the minor kill giant feature, but it has the (approximately) 3 times a day of Stun in a 30 foot radius. 30 foot is a huge radius (very few spells in the game are that big) and stun is huge.</p><p></p><p>This feature alone allows the PCs to fight in 2 to 3 extra encounters per day. One PC has the ability to add at least 2 more encounters per day. The PCs have advantage against every stunned foe which means that any fight where this PC uses the stun ability, the PCs mop up the fight really quickly. This is HUGE. It's beyond huge.</p><p></p><p>Granted, it costs an extra attunement to have this feature, but who cares? You tend to have a melee type (typically fighter, paladin, ranger, cleric, or bard) who might not have focused on Strength every time, so s/he probably has multiple feats (or multiple boosts in stats like Con) who is able to just blow up encounters.</p><p></p><p>The stun feature does not work if the PC does not hit the foe with the ranged attack, but that will be extremely rare in 5E. The PC has +8 to +11 to hit without taking into account level (by the time a DM hands out this, it will be +12 to +17). He'll hit the vast majority of the time on that first hit and due to bounded accuracy of the Con stat, most creatures in the stun radius will fail their save most of the time as well. And of course, this doesn't take into account any spell/feat synergies that the players will come up with to make this combo even more uber.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes, it costs an extra attunement slot, but from what people keep saying here on the boards, magic items will be relatively rare anyway. Pros and Cons.</p><p></p><p>A Str 20 melee type with a +3 weapon might only use up one attunement slot, but he's only +8 to hit and damage. This guy is +8 to +11 but for two attunement slots, can just waste encounters. That's really really potent. And I would suspect that many DMs would throw giant encounters against this guy once in a while, so even more potent.</p><p></p><p>One side note: The user of the hammer does usually have to make the stun save as well because he has to get within 20 feet to not get disadvantage on the attack. Most groups would plan for that with Bless or some other way to minimize the issue.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 6498788, member: 2011"] While what you say is true, there is a bit more to it. The limit of Strength is the game is 20 shy of a Belt of Giantkind. Which means that the first giant belt (Str 21) is only helpful for PCs with Str below 20 (for all intents and purposes). So, a giant belt allows Str based PCs to focus on feats instead of on Str boost. So a typical scenario is that a PC gets the Gauntlets first. The player, having a Str of 19, might focus a bit on feats (or Con). Later on, the player gets the giant belt. That player never focuses on Str again and the gauntlets are given to some other PC. Even later on, the party finds the Hammer. Ok, now they have all three. The Hammer adds +4 to Str, so: Hill: 21 to 25 Stone: 23 to 27 Fire: 25 to 29 Cloud: 27 to 30 Storm: 29 to 30 The bonus to hit is now +1 for magic weapon (which takes care of damage resistance) and +7 to +10 for the combo. Total: +8 to +11. If the PC had a +3 weapon and the belt, he would be +8 to +12. At first glance, wow, the combo is not as good as a belt and a +3 weapon (which should be relatively rare anyway). Well, the combo has two more things going for it. It has the minor kill giant feature, but it has the (approximately) 3 times a day of Stun in a 30 foot radius. 30 foot is a huge radius (very few spells in the game are that big) and stun is huge. This feature alone allows the PCs to fight in 2 to 3 extra encounters per day. One PC has the ability to add at least 2 more encounters per day. The PCs have advantage against every stunned foe which means that any fight where this PC uses the stun ability, the PCs mop up the fight really quickly. This is HUGE. It's beyond huge. Granted, it costs an extra attunement to have this feature, but who cares? You tend to have a melee type (typically fighter, paladin, ranger, cleric, or bard) who might not have focused on Strength every time, so s/he probably has multiple feats (or multiple boosts in stats like Con) who is able to just blow up encounters. The stun feature does not work if the PC does not hit the foe with the ranged attack, but that will be extremely rare in 5E. The PC has +8 to +11 to hit without taking into account level (by the time a DM hands out this, it will be +12 to +17). He'll hit the vast majority of the time on that first hit and due to bounded accuracy of the Con stat, most creatures in the stun radius will fail their save most of the time as well. And of course, this doesn't take into account any spell/feat synergies that the players will come up with to make this combo even more uber. Yes, it costs an extra attunement slot, but from what people keep saying here on the boards, magic items will be relatively rare anyway. Pros and Cons. A Str 20 melee type with a +3 weapon might only use up one attunement slot, but he's only +8 to hit and damage. This guy is +8 to +11 but for two attunement slots, can just waste encounters. That's really really potent. And I would suspect that many DMs would throw giant encounters against this guy once in a while, so even more potent. One side note: The user of the hammer does usually have to make the stun save as well because he has to get within 20 feet to not get disadvantage on the attack. Most groups would plan for that with Bless or some other way to minimize the issue. [/QUOTE]
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