My group (at level 8) fought a Great Cyclops in our last play session (and just barely escaped alive).
I was wondering if there could be a mistake in its combat stats? It gets 3 melee weapon attacks AND two slams. Creatures of similar shape, size and CR - like cloud giants and storm giants - get 3 weapon attacks OR two slams, which I presume to be their mighty fists. And creatures that combine natural attacks and weapon attacks normally get a secondary-attack accuracy penalty, but that didn't seem to be the case here, making me think maybe the word 'or' was accidentally omitted?
Based on how other similar entries are displayed in the Bestiary, I'd assume that the "or" is missing.
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Yup. It's an either/or case.
A great cyclops needs its hands free (aka no melee weapon) to use its slams.
Well my players reached this a little higher in level and I let him attack with club and then stomp twice. And amazingly enough they all chose to hold their ground for fear of the one attack of opportunity. To say the least it was the closest they came to a tpk so far.
I knew it had to be wrong but it was fun and now the party actually is afraid of monsters they haven't fought before.
Sorry OP, I'm a bad DM, I lose 1 DM point!
Either way, you made the correct move and ran away, even without my error, he's a killer for sure!
My PCs defeated one with a lv2 spell: Giants are now "Persons", meaning they can be held. Hold Person -> Coup de grace -> win in 2 rounds of combat.
Due to an hyperactive crafter and Save or Fail wizard, no bruiser have ever posed even a remote threat to the party so far, except when they do dumb stuff AND I roll amazingly well.
My PCs defeated one with a lv2 spell: Giants are now "Persons", meaning they can be held. Hold Person -> Coup de grace -> win in 2 rounds of combat.
Due to an hyperactive crafter and Save or Fail wizard, no bruiser have ever posed even a remote threat to the party so far, except when they do dumb stuff AND I roll amazingly well.
But it would probably have been a tpk for us if the giant made it remember.
My PCs defeated one with a lv2 spell: Giants are now "Persons", meaning they can be held. Hold Person -> Coup de grace -> win in 2 rounds of combat.
Due to an hyperactive crafter and Save or Fail wizard, no bruiser have ever posed even a remote threat to the party so far, except when they do dumb stuff AND I roll amazingly well.
While I agree that hold person is a great spell, now that you get a save each round, it's not nearly as powerful as it used to be. Besides, even a caster who has really made an effort to up his DCs, it still won't be much higher than 19 or 20. That means he only needs to roll a 5 to save. Since coup-de-grace is a full round action (ie you can't move and then perform it), the cyclops will get at least 2 and perhaps 3 (if his initiative is higher) chances to shake the effects before you can pull this off. That gives you a little less than 1% chance of it working.
Creative Director
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My PCs defeated one with a lv2 spell: Giants are now "Persons", meaning they can be held. Hold Person -> Coup de grace -> win in 2 rounds of combat.
Due to an hyperactive crafter and Save or Fail wizard, no bruiser have ever posed even a remote threat to the party so far, except when they do dumb stuff AND I roll amazingly well.
That's fine. I don't see a difference between hold person stopping a high CR giant and a high CR human, honestly.