Would like help designing several encounters with Giants for party of 7 pcs


Advice


I'd like some help to create some memorable encounters that are based around Giants. The party I have now is destroying all encounters so far. There are 5 PCs all 11 level and heavily optimized. They also have a Triceratops companion for the Druid and a Dragon that is huge sized which is a companion for the 3rd party Dragonrider class. Dragon has crap damage for his Line breath weapon, most it has done is 7pts of damage lol.

Anyway once the 2 archers get shots off they'll be dropping the Hill Giants or Stone Giants like flies. The Druid has been devastating with changing into an Air Elemental and turning into a Whirlwind.

So far the Dragonrider is a joke as far a real threat but combined with the rest of the party he can create some nuisance to encounters.

The last party member is a 1/2 Orc Cleric that is a capable switch hitter with melee & Ranged fire attacks & healbot.

Everyone but the Dragonrider has AC up the wazoo and CMD comparable as well.

Some things I'd like to do would be things to liven up the basic hack/slash of melee. Things like Improved Grab/Pounce/Awesome Blow to make any hit I manage to get in something to be feared or WTH just happened.
So maybe some teamwork feats for a couple of rock throwing giants to get some extra rocks thrown off before being sucked into a whirlwind. Packs of Dire Wolves or Dire Bears. An Advanced template/Spirit's Gifted Dire Wolf companion with a Giant Hunter with teamwork feats for Trip/Outflank/Paired Opportunists.

Also A spellcasting Witch who doesn't have to be a Giant but uses giants for her Thuggery. Would love to throw out some curses/hexes.

We're playing Curse of the Riven Sky I think it's called. And the players will be heading into Hill Giant foothills/highlands next session. They're plenty of random encounters already set in the adventure but so far they're blowing through these easily when the Druid goes all Force of Nature with whirlwind.

Any help in encounters or some crazy/fun ideas will be great.


OH, it doesn't all have to be Giants. Ogres and 1/2 Ogres with class levels would be great too and a band of Orcs wouldn't be bad.

Sovereign Court

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Problem is, when you use smart tactics with giants...usually player dies, especially if they have no tactics.

Anyway, if you want to make it ridiculous and annoying: Giants with reach weapons and feats like Lunge, it makes any fight a big annoyance and could even prove lethal in some cases.

Giants also are combat roles monsters, so adding spellcasting levels to them is actually very efficient.
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Ogres in general are my favorite when it comes to giant with class levels, as they have such a low cr, you can build them anyway that you want. Don't hesitate to give them templates, like advanced or the ones that were suggested in classic monsters revisited. You could use one ogre with a lot of class levels to be a back up for the other type of giants, as a spellcaster.
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for Hill giants & Trolls, usually give them levels of Barbarians, they might as well hit as hard as they can before going down. Trolls druids are fun to use.
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Cyclops + cleric levels, make them melee clerics, so they buff themselves even more, combined with their flash of insight to make them terrifying.
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Fire giants, don't forget that if you have spellcasters, not necessarily fire giant spellcaster, they will most likely use fire, as they aren't afraid that people in the front line will take damage from fire, so you can have a fire giant grappling one of your pc, while the fire giant caster is raining fire spells at him and his opponent. Kinda the same for frost giants as well.
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Something to take into consideration, Oni (ogre mages and the Yai) often works with giants, ogres, hill giants, frost giants, fire giants etc...they are relatively decent spellcasters at APL 12, you can fight at least one Yai (a cr 16 fight would be nice).


Add some class levels, make one a lvl 6 sorcerer for haste and/or fly, use invisibility and some sort of fog spell to limit range on the archers. And give cover to approaching melee.

Have a barbarian giant focus on sundering the bows then retreat. Add in a few dire animals for fodder.

Giving the giants a cleric is probabily overkill, but if you really want to wipe the floor with them... Have the cleric focus on healing and support instead of being another brute, give them tactics that focus more on harming and slowing down the party which also emphasize the giants survival.


Throw in a couple Cyclops for fun....

Flash of Insight (Su)

Once per day as an immediate action, a cyclops can peer into an occluded visual spectrum of possible futures, gaining insight that allows it to select the exact result of one die roll before the roll is made. This effect can alter an action taken by the cyclops only, and cannot be applied to the rolls of others

Nothing like all 20's for the opening round of attacks!


Half dragon trolls make fearsome enemies...
As others said, spell casters.

A new point.. mooks.
Have 1 cr appropriate giant for each char, backed up by 5-10 mooks.

When the party uses archers, make sure to have ranged enemies too... Thrown boulders can wreck havoc, but what if the ogre barb had a level of alchemist too?


The witch is a fantastic idea. Use one for sure. Lots of hags are large size too, fitting the giant theme. Making a hag with witch levels is good too for giving some bulk without buffing casting.

As someone who dmed quite a few large comats for a 7 man party, I found that making the mooks almost indistinguishable from the CR appropriate foes helps too. Heck, some of the mooks could have heavier armor.

ANd don't be afraid to heavily outnumber them due to mooks. Give some stoneskin (the spell) and suddenly durability skyrockets. Have foes appear in waves so that they can't all be killed immediately and to add tension.

I will post with more advice later when I have more time.


Trolls are great enemies in general. Trolls with class levels are also great.

I'll give this some thought, but my instinct is telling me that you ought to include a long distance rock throwing game being played by some rock giants with the PCs as targets. Maybe they're boulders with antimagic fields surrounding them...

...Okay, that might just be the mean part of me talking.

Oh, try this: a giant Wizard casting invisibility on some grapple-trained, stealth-capable trolls or ogres. Send them to deal with those pesky archers.


Found a troll witch from the Monster Codex! I think I'll have a large encounter built around that and villagers being boiled in a cauldron


Take a CR 3 ogre with Str 21 and Con 15.
Give it the advanced template (+4 to all stats), now CR 4.
Give it 1 barbarian level (+4 to Str and Con, +2 to Dex, +2 to Int, -2 to Cha), now CR 5.
Rage for +4 Str and Con.
Now it has Str 33 (+11), Dex 10, Con 27 (+8 and 30 more hps plus barbarian d12 hps).
Throw in more barbarian levels for extra fun, or just stack them up (8 of them = CR 11). Be sure to give them composite longbows with high strength ratings and place them behind cover.

I've also rebuilt King Snurre Ironbelly using battle oracle levels and magic buffs. He's very, very nasty (but not built to take on a party at range, so not ideal in this situation it seems). I have a frost giant jarl that I've built as well with antipaladin levels that is just gross. You can do lots with giants and class levels plus templates. Go nuts!

Oh, and take a look at winter wolves with rogue (or ninja) levels. If in snow they are virtually invisible (or could be invisible with enough ninja levels) and can sneak attack for very good damage (if you invest in vital strike and such).


A caster with a a few enlarger persons memorized along with mook giants using vital strike can make the few hits they get it count for more. Improved vital strike for those with +11 bab. Also remember to use power attack. If you roll damage with your attack roll even a miss can scare them a bit.

To help with accuracy use bless, prayer and haste. That combo is great on any group of mooks.

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