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... For NPCs! (0~0)
Below is a quick listing of NPCs who can actually get some amusing action out of the Vital Strike feat tree (VS, IVS, GVS), along with a mention of their BAB (do they qualify?), hit die, and so forth. Most of these are bestiary creatures, some of which are also perfectly capable of having class levels.
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Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs are some of the best critters to have Vital Strike on. Most are quite large, have singular powerful attacks, and lots of base attack bonus and nothing important to spend feats on.
- Brachiosaurus This big critter has a single 4d6 natural attack and qualifies for Improved Vital Strike (4d6->12d6 or 14->42 damage).
- Stegosaurus This CR 7 critter has a single powerful 4d6 natural attack as well and qualifies for Vital Strike (4d6->8d6 or 14->28 damage).
- Tyrannosaurus The king of the dinosaurs also has a 4d6 single bite and qualifies for Improved Vital Strike (4d6->12d6 or 14->42 damage)
Animals
There's a lot of animals that get mileage out of the vital strike line of feats. Since Vital Strike just means hitting hard with a single good blow and isn't much of a technical feat it is easy to put on animals and other big dumb critters as well.
- Dire Crocodile This gargantuan croc has two natural attacks but either are decent options for Vital Strike. Its bite goes from 3d6 to 6d6 (+10.5 damage plus Grab) and its tail slap rises from 4d8 to 8d8 (+18 damage).
- Dolphin, Orca Orcas are on the low-end of big animals, but they qualify for Vital Strike which can take their 2d6 bite to a 4d6 bite (+7 damage) which isn't terrible for them since they can't full-attack.
- Advanced Wooly Rhinoceros It has a single 2d8 natural attack, and a +6 BAB. The only thing keeping this beefy beast from vital strike is it needs 1 more hit die. An advanced (+1 hit die) Rhino can plow foes with Vital Strike (+9 damage).
- The Megalodon (Dire Shark) This beast is a nightmare made real and Vital Strikes were made for it. It has an incredible 4d10 bite attack without Improved Natural Attack and not only qualifies for Improved Vital Strike but has the hit dice to take it! 4d10 becomes 12d10 (+44 damage). As best as I can tell, Improved Natural Attack (which increases your natural attack damage as if you increased a size category) would deal 6d10 damage, bringing our aquatic hunter to a final tally of 18d10 (+77 damage). Fear the king of the ocean.
Dragons
Most dragons get little to no mileage out of Vital Strike because they rely more heavily on full-attack routines instead of singular powerful strikes. There's a few that stand out however.
- Dragon Turtle This creature has a 3d6 bite and two claw attacks, but it qualifies for both Improved Natural Attack, Vital Strike, and Improved Vital Strike, which can easily bring it to a 12d6+8 bite routine. It already has Power Attack as well. Furious Focus would make for a natural evolutionary point (as its feats Awesome Blow and Improved Bull Rush are kind of dumb).
- Half-Dragon The half dragon gets a mention because it's a template and thus can be applied to any of the creatures already on this list (generally giving them more power to their bite and often giving them wings, like Redbull).
Magical Beasts
Magical beasts are fairly common. Like dragons and animals, most of them rely on making many natural attacks to ensure their success. A few of them stand out among the crowd however, and are cute possibilities for the Vital Strike chain.
- Advanced Ankhegs Normal ankhegs have a very nice 2d6 bite attack but don't qualify for the feat. However, if you want to make some sort of big brood mother for an ankheg game, a few more hit dice and a size increase will get you where you want to go. A 7HD ankheg can grab Vital Strike to get 4d6 bite damage. Since their HD increased by about 133% the ankheg likely becomes Huge giving it a 2d8 bite damage (about +9 to damage). Improved Natural Attack brings it from 2d8 to 4d6 and thus an ankheg with an 8d6 (36 damage) bite
- Bulette Bulettes ("land sharks") get a special mention because they can qualify for both Improved Natural Attack and Vital Strike, going from 2d8 to 8d6 bite damage in short order. Given the seemingly hit and run nature of the burrowing predator, they are good candidates.
- Behir Behirs really only get a mention because their feat selection is horrible and they only have one natural attack at 2d6 despite their size. They qualify for Vital Strike so they might as well use it over the nonsense that is Great Cleave (2d6+9 becomes 4d6+9 or +7 damage).
- Gorgon Not the fabled snake haired women, but the D&D bull with petrifying breath. These large bulls have a 2d8 gore, qualify for Improved Natural Attack and Vital Strike. Vital strike adds +9 damage alone, but mixed with Improved Natural Attack and we have another 8d6 wonder on our hands (28 damage, whee). Turn 'em to stone and smash 'em to bits!
- Purple Worm Vital Strike was just made for this guy. Coming with a 4d8 base bite damage and only two natural attacks (the sting being the weakest of the two) and qualifying for all three Vital Strikes right out of the gate (he really only needs 1 more HD to actually take Greater Vital Strike) and Improved Natural Attack. A purple worm with Improved Natural Attack, Vital Strike, and Improved Vital Strike hits with an 18d8 bite attack (81 average damage). If it's a 17+ HD purple worm then it can take Greater Vital Strike and hit for a whopping 24d8 (108 damage).
- Remorhaz These creatures have a single lone 3d6 bite attack and a +9 base attack bonus. Vital Strike should be theirs (adds +10.5 damage).
Undead
There's not a whole lot of undead that benefit from vital strike feats, but there's a few that are absolutely unholy with it and deserve some special mentions.
- Greater Shadow These mobile attackers have a natural attack that deals strength damage, and they not only qualify for Vital Strike they can take the feat! 1d8 strength damage per round becomes 2d8 strength damage per round. Scary! O.o
- Dread Wraith The dread wraith is a 16 hit dice undead that has a touch attack for 2d6 negative energy plus 1d8 Con drain. These mighty wraiths can qualify for Improved Vital strike, turning their touch into a 6d6 damage attack which is much better for the hit and run incorporeal undead (+14 damage).
- Skeletons or Zombies There's no way in core to make zombies with Intelligence scores (so they can take feats) but there are a few outside of core (in 3.x, or homebrew) and the effect is pretty much identical to skeletons. Skeletons in Pathfinder can have Skeletal Champions which get feats, and anything on this list that is good for vital strike is also good for a skeletal champion version of that creature.
Humanoids/Monstrous Humanoids
A category full of things that wield weapons, many of these guys get way more mileage out of Vital Strike than PCs can.
- Minotaur Minotaur are large sized and the sample one already qualifies for Vital Strike but lacks the feats to take it. It fights with a 3d6 greataxe. One level of the warrior NPC class and now it can pickup Vital Strike for 6d6 greataxe swings (+10.5 damage). This is actually not bad for the minotaur who wants to spec power attack and furious focus.
- Giants Cloud giants are big. A cloud giant deals 4d6 damage with a morning star, 6d6 damage with a greatsword. A potion of enlarge person increases the damage yet again (presumably to 8d6), and Vital Strike and Improved Vital Strike bring the damage of the attack to 24d6 (84 damage per hit). This might be ideal for the giant who doesn't want to deal with Iterative attack penalties (main attack is at +22 but subsequent attacks are much lower). It also puts less emphasis on the giant having magic items to deal respectable damage. It also lets their rock throw deal 6d6 instead of 2d6 damage.
The same general rules apply to all giants, though some to a lesser extent. Some giants (such as ogres) need a few levels before they can really appreciate Vital Strike in its entirety due to qualifying for it, but since they are naturally larger than PCs, their base weapon damage on 2 handers is universally higher as well, allowing them to get far more bang for their buck.
Outsiders
The outsiders who get the most out of vital strike tend to be Elementals, because they are large, often mobile, and possess few attacks. The attacks they do possess tend to be quite potent in base damage but lack enough of them to make an impact.
- Air Elementals Air Elementals have low damage but high mobility, and their reach isn't bad. Elder Air Elementals are probably the most likely to get benefits from the feat line, when combined with Improved Natural Attack. Elder elementals with Improved Natural Attack, Vital Strike, and Improved Vital Strike can deal 12d6 damage slams. An extra hit die on elders can bring it to 16d6 damage slams with Greater Vital Strike.
- Earth Elemental Earth elementals tend to be nothing more than big beefy slobberknockers. Elders have only 2 slam attacks at 2d10 each. Improved Natural Attack and the Vital Strike line of feats can alleviate this weakness and make them deal enough damage to matter for their challenge rating.
- Other Elementals Pretty much the same deal here as with Air and Earth for Fire and Water elementals.
Recommended feats for most all of these creatures include Power Attack, Furious Focus, Improved Natural Attack, and as many Vital Strike feats as you can throw on them.
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Why Would You Do This?
The biggest reason you would do this is probably for faster gameplay, with the novelty of using the vital strike feats to put a little more fear and danger into enemies who are often jokes for their challenge ratings due to lack of attacks. Most of the creatures on these lists have one really big attack but in such a low quantity that it doesn't matter, and function more or less in the opposite way from PCs (their base damage is super high but their bonus damage is fairly low, whereas PCs get bonus damage that is super high but base damage that is low).
Now when I say faster gameplay, I mean that you can have the enemy vital strike on most rounds with confidence that they are going to do reasonable or event great damage, but you can quickly dispense with rolling lots of full-attacks each round. One attack, each round, then move on. It's very helpful when dealing with multiple NPCs as well (in a higher level game, it's entirely possible to have encounters with multiple vital striking NPCs, as their highest attack roll attack is the only that matters).
There's a lot more out there than this list which is by no way complete. What are some of your favorite NPCs that use Vital Strike or some of the lesser known or appreciated feats to devastating effect?
We houseruled Vital Strike to work anytime someone moves + attacks, so you see Vital Strike showing up on mobility builds in our games, however, we also made it so Vital Strike only works on melee attacks.
Once players get higher levels, a Vital Striking Rogue is always fun (if a niche) as bad guy to throw against a party.
With our houserule, a charging Vital Strike Triceratops (4d10+16 becomes 8d10+16) would be a mean, mean creature for CR 8.
Without our houserule, a Monk of the Four Winds is the character that gets the best out of Vital Strike as, at 12th level, he gets a move action and 3 standard actions for the cost of 6 Ki. Spend 6 Ki, move, make 3 Vital Strikes. If you can toss on Enlarge Person, Lead Blades, Animal Aspect - Gorilla, Strong Jaw, or all four spells, then that just makes it all better. Don't forget to use your Elemental Fist on the first attack either! He can only really do it once per day (unless he's got a large amount of Ki), but when he does do it, someone is going to be feeling bad about it. I typically refer to this guy as Captain Falcon.
What it comes down to, is anyone or anything, that has no chance of hitting on iterative's should be taking Vital Strike instead and just doing that for massive damage.
Enlarge Person doesn't work on giants and the like- it's called enlarge person, not enlarge giant. As far as I know only medium sized humanoids can getaway with using that spell.
Most of the Nightshade undead also benefit from the Vital Strike feat chain + INA. Granted they are generally want to use a SLA instead of a Vital Strike in many cases but something like a Nightwave can be really nasty with a big multiplier on their base damage.
"This spell causes instant growth of a humanoid creature,"
Are giants humanoids?
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"This spell causes instant growth of a humanoid creature,"
Are giants humanoids?
I believe one of the changes Pathfinder wrought was the Humanoid (Giant) subtype.
Note that Fly-by Attack, unlike Spring Attack, allows a monster to Vital Strike because it specifies a standard action in the description. This is especially fun with dragons as they have a ridiculous fly speed and the hit dice to grab all the Vital Strike chain of feats.
It would still not work, since a Fly-by Attack is a Standard Action. A Vital Strike is an Attack Action, a specific Standard Action, and cannot function with Fly-by Attack, since this would mean you're spending 2 Standard Actions, which is (generally) physically impossible.
You can, however, combine things like Power Attack and the Sunder Maneuver to Vital Strike, which makes sundering equipment all the more worthwhile to build toward. (I just hope you enjoy not getting any phat lewtz from the BBEG when you destroy it all...)
Even so, Vital Strike is still a good feat chain for PC's, if they build it right. I mean come on, a Medium character using an Impacted Greatsword and the Greater Vital Strike feat is dealing 12D6 damage plus all the other modifiers.
This creature can make an attack before and after it moves while flying.
Prerequisite: Fly speed.
Benefit: When flying, the creature can take a move action and another standard action at any point during the move. The creature cannot take a second move action during a round when it makes a flyby attack.
Normal: Without this feat, the creature takes a standard action either before or after its move.
Where does it specify you must spend a Standard Action, to take a Move and Standard Action?
It doesn't.
The feat allows you to take a single Move action, and at any point along that move, you can take a Standard Action, and then finish your move.
Unlike Spring Attack, you still provoke when you move though.
In regards to the statement originally mentioned, if it were a Standard Action to move and make a single attack while flying, you could not perform Vital Strike since Vital Strike is an action in its own right, the same as Flyby Attack would be in said case.
If it were to allow any sort of standard action, and not be an action in its own right, then yes, you could combine Vital Strike with it. I was under the impression it was the former, and not the latter; it goes to show you that linking RAW is important for proving your case.
So yes, I do retract my previous statement, though my point still stands for anything that involves an independant Standard Action.
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I love this idea but I have a single reservation.
Vital Strike says:
Benefit: When you use the attack action, you can make one attack at your highest base attack bonus that deals additional damage. Roll the weapon’s damage dice for the attack twice and add the results together before adding bonuses from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision-based damage, and other damage bonuses. These extra weapon damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit, but are added to the total.
Natural Attacks: Most creatures possess one or more natural attacks (attacks made without a weapon). These attacks fall into one of two categories, primary and secondary attacks. Primary attacks are made using the creature's full base attack bonus and add the creature's full Strength bonus on damage rolls. Secondary attacks are made using the creature's base attack bonus –5 and add only 1/2 the creature's Strength bonus on damage rolls. If a creature has only one natural attack, it is always made using the creature's full base attack bonus and adds 1-1/2 times the creature's Strength bonus on damage rolls. This increase does not apply if the creature has multiple attacks but only takes one. If a creature has only one type of attack, but has multiple attacks per round, that attack is treated as a primary attack, regardless of its type. The natural attacks by size table lists some of the most common types of natural attacks and their classifications.
Based on this it would appear that you can't use the Vital Strike line with natural attacks because Vital Strike specifically says you roll your weapon's damage dice while the rules for natural attacks state that they don't count as weapons. On the other hand, looking at the Beastiary the Nightcrawler has the Vital Strike feat chain, so perhaps I'm misinterpretting something.
Either way, I love the idea and will definitely be using it to my players' characters' dismay.
Yet a Natural Attack is made with a Natural Weapon, such as Claws, Bite, Slams, etc.
Since a Natural Weapon is still a weapon that uses dice to deal damage, it would still benefit from Vital Strike.
In general terms, weapon is the thing that you are making attacks with. Attacks come in three types of weapons, manufactured weapons (IE - swords, bows, axes, most improvised weapons), natural attacks, and unarmed strikes. Effectively anything you attack with is effectively a weapon, but most fall into these specific categories. The rules for rolling attacks and critical hits all reference "weapon".
Also, the combat section of the core rulebook defines natural attacks as a type of weapon.
Natural Attacks: Attacks made with natural weapons, such as claws and bites, are melee attacks that can be made against any creature within your reach (usually 5 feet). These attacks are made using your full attack bonus and deal an amount of damage that depends on their type (plus your Strength modifier, as normal). You do not receive additional natural attacks for a high base attack bonus. Instead, you receive additional attack rolls for multiple limb and body parts capable of making the attack (as noted by the race or ability that grants the attacks). If you possess only one natural attack (such as a bite—two claw attacks do not qualify), you add 1–1/2 times your Strength bonus on damage rolls made with that attack.
Yet a Natural Attack is made with a Natural Weapon, such as Claws, Bite, Slams, etc.
Since a Natural Weapon is still a weapon that uses dice to deal damage, it would still benefit from Vital Strike.
Ya beat me too it. XD
Also, the combat rules define attacks as weapons. Presumably anything that you make an attack roll with is being treated as a weapon (whether you are armed or not) including touch-attacks and/or temporary spells (such as flame blade or shocking grasp).
Attack Bonus
Your attack bonus with a melee weapon is the following:
Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + size modifier
With a ranged weapon, your attack bonus is the following:
Base attack bonus + Dexterity modifier + size modifier + range penalty
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In regards to the statement originally mentioned, if it were a Standard Action to move and make a single attack while flying, you could not perform Vital Strike since Vital Strike is an action in its own right, the same as Flyby Attack would be in said case.
If it were to allow any sort of standard action, and not be an action in its own right, then yes, you could combine Vital Strike with it. I was under the impression it was the former, and not the latter; it goes to show you that linking RAW is important for proving your case.
So yes, I do retract my previous statement, though my point still stands for anything that involves an independant Standard Action.
Nope. Flyby attack isn't a standard action. It allows you to take a move action and a standard action at any point during your move. What standard action can be anything, from an attack action (Vital Strike or otherwise) to spellcasting to a dragon breathing to a Cleave/Great Cleave attack to whatever else tickles your fancy.
Which I already acknowledged. I stated though, that Vital Strike cannot be done in conjunction with other actions, since Vital Strike is an action in its own right, and that should Flyby Attack have abided by such a rule, (or any other subject for that matter,) Flyby Attack and Vital Strike would've been mutually exclusive.
In general terms, weapon is the thing that you are making attacks with. Attacks come in three types of weapons, manufactured weapons (IE - swords, bows, axes, most improvised weapons), natural attacks, and unarmed strikes. Effectively anything you attack with is effectively a weapon, but most fall into these specific categories. The rules for rolling attacks and critical hits all reference "weapon".
Also, the combat section of the core rulebook defines natural attacks as a type of weapon.
Natural Attacks: Attacks made with natural weapons, such as claws and bites, are melee attacks that can be made against any creature within your reach (usually 5 feet). These attacks are made using your full attack bonus and deal an amount of damage that depends on their type (plus your Strength modifier, as normal). You do not receive additional natural attacks for a high base attack bonus. Instead, you receive additional attack rolls for multiple limb and body parts capable of making the attack (as noted by the race or ability that grants the attacks). If you possess only one natural attack (such as a bite—two claw attacks do not qualify), you add 1–1/2 times your Strength bonus on damage rolls made with that attack.
Sweet, this clears things up. Now I can be confident in giving several monsters the Vital Strike line instead of whatever bad feat selection they currently have and not worry about the players crying foul when something bites them for 100+ points of damage. =)
Earth elementals tend to be nothing more than big beefy slobberknockers.
This made me laugh :D Great thread. This information not only comes in handy for use with NPC's but also those with animal companions and mounts!
That is a super-simplifying idea that I might use for my character. Currently our characters are at 16th level (I think) with many attacks. It would speed up gameplay to just take one attack, and would also help against the DR issue that occurs later in the game. I'll consider it for my next character for sure.
While not directly in keeping with this thread, one of the inherent problems of the Vital Strike feat chain, is all 3 slots must be used to get the full chain, and there never seems to be enough slots for all the feats one might possibly want.
For Kaidan - Japanese horror (PFRPG), from Way of the Samurai supplement there is a ranger archetype called Yojimbo, and one of the added new combat styles is Iaijutsu, which includes both Vital Strike and Improved Vital Strike, meaning you can take a feat without requiring it's prerequisites (if you're a ranger). So you can get Improved Vital Strike without having to take Vital Strike. It's something helpful for Vital Strike fans, anyway.
Of course unless your monsters can take Ranger (yojimbo archetype), this post probably doesn't help the thread much.
My guess as to why Flyby attack is different than say, ride-by attack: A dragon moves, breathes fire, and finishes moving. This would not be possible with something like ride-by attack. I love how flyby attack works.
- Gauss
Giants Cloud giants are big. A cloud giant deals 4d6 damage with a morning star, 6d6 damage with a greatsword. A potion of enlarge person increases the damage yet again (presumably to 8d6), and Vital Strike and Improved Vital Strike bring the damage of the attack to 24d6 (84 damage per hit). This might be ideal for the giant who doesn't want to deal with Iterative attack penalties (main attack is at +22 but subsequent attacks are much lower). It also puts less emphasis on the giant having magic items to deal respectable damage. It also lets their rock throw deal 6d6 instead of 2d6 damage.
FYI, the morningstar damage entry for the cloud giant is wrong. It should do 2d6 damage, not 4d6. A huge greatsword does 4d6 damage, which is what's listed in the storm giant entry and is consistant with greatsword damage increases.
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It is also kinda nice to add some damage when using an ability that uses a move action such as Improved Feint (combined with Feint Partner or Greater Feint) or the barbarian's intimidating glare ability. This lets you de-buff an enemy for your party, as well as deal some improved damage.
Also
* readied actions are standard actions and legit for Vital Strike.
* your one attack while staggered is a standard action and legit for Vital Strike.
* changing weapons (without Quickdraw) between melee and missile to target fliers / distant creatures leaves you a standard action legit for Vital Strike
Meleers don't always use standard action attacks, but when they do, Vital Strike helps.
Hey guys. Glad to see that you're enjoying the thread. (^-^)
You gave me a ton of ideas of supping up monsters with out have to a make them bigger or add a fiendish template. Few extra hit dice and feats and people can fear the Bulette or Dino's again. I hate the fact that monsters get bigger thru advancement to become stronger or do more damage.
Glad to help. Also, increasing their size based on HD is optional but recommended. Personally, I like increasing sizes to make bigger nastier versions of certain individuals. I once used an advanced ankheg as an alien insect-like monster in a Star Wars d20 game. I miss in 3.x where they show that the listed bestiary creature is only the most common and/or generic version of a creature.
For example, let's look at wyverns in 3.x. On their statistics they have a section noting "advancement" which gives a good guideline as to how much they commonly advance and how big they get. Sure your garden variety wyverns are 7 HD, but 8-10 HD huge wyverns exist, and 11-21 HD gargantuan wyverns are also not all that rare (the advancement rules mention that they can go higher than that but such specimens are exceptionally rare).
I am a very big fan of advancing monsters by hit dice, or swapping a few feats around. It doesn't change the CR of the creature by any means, but it can create nice variations of the creatures without having to re-invent the wheel.
I'm also a big fan of NPC class levels on monsters. Especially monsters that are intelligent, but sometimes on monsters that aren't (a dog that is not only trained for war but also trained to be more efficient at killing might have 2HD as an animal and 1 HD of the warrior NPC class, even if the dog will never wield weapons). A gnoll that has some extra levels in Warrior can be a great beefier gnoll (like a gnoll elite) without much work (NPC classes are simple enough you can practically apply them as a template).
Also, it's really fun when your PCs say in-character and out, "Okay, and there we were when just when we thought everything was cool, comes the biggest most gnarly giant lobster from the depths, snapping its five foot claws like giant guillotines in the darkness!"
Advancing hit dice or NPC levels is a very easy way to create some high level challenges in short order, or to create a little variety and variation in the ranks of your critters. Tossing a few feats here and there can do it well too. Honestly, templates and such aren't something I use super frequently (exceptions being planar and undead templates, since my villains often use undead or fiendish creatures).
On their journey they were confronted by a powerfully built cougar with blood red eyes and coarse spiky hair and strange features. One of the characters realized it was a fiendish cougar and happened to speak its languages, and so instead of getting mauled by the cougar and a pack of mountain lions they found out that the cougar had been called via lesser planar binding by a foolish wizard who gnabbed a scroll from his master and went off to try and skip a few important lessons. Because he didn't take the proper precautions, the cougar effortlessly became free of any bindings that would have protected the man and in a fit of anger killed the weeny wizard ('cause a low-level wizard vs a cougar's full-attack is not a happy wizard).
Unfortunately for the fiendish cougar, he was now stuck on this plane (as he didn't actually preform a task for the wizard caller and thus he doesn't get whisked back to his plane at the end of it) so he was trying to make the best of it. Using his superior strength, damage reduction, and intellect he had taken over as a leader of a group of mundane cougars but was not happy with the situation (sure he's got lots of cougar concubines and is head honcho, but we're talking about a world where he feels out of place and all his subjects are non-sentient).
So the party strikes up a bit of a deal with the fiendish cougar. They figure they don't want fiendish cougars on the material plane breeding half-fiend cougars with the mortal cougars, and he just wants to go home. So they suggest that if he will round up his pack of cougars and help them deal with the bandits, then they'll try to buy a scroll of dismissal to return him home. He agreed and the party invaded the bandit camp along with a pack of cougars led by an advanced fiendish cougar. The party being the goodly crew they were kept up their end of the bargain and helped the unlikely ally back to his home plane later.
FYI, the morningstar damage entry for the cloud giant is wrong. It should do 2d6 damage, not 4d6. A huge greatsword does 4d6 damage, which is what's listed in the storm giant entry and is consistant with greatsword damage increases.
Indeed. Though I believe the damage on a huge morningstar is actually 3d6 (medium is 1d8, large 2d6, huge 3d6). Not a huge difference but a damage difference of 7 points when vital striking. If this were 3.0 I'd just assume that he was wielding a 2-handed morning star (4d6 for a huge giant) and that would be the end of it. Oh well. We can just switch to a longspear and let him have a 30 ft. reach with 3d6 damage. That's pretty cute. Then he can vital strike, move back some feet, and dare enemies to come near him. Combat Reflexes gives him +1 AoO. :P