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My group is gonna hit HMM this Thursday (I've estimated they'll have JUST finished Fort Rannick when the session wraps up), and I was wondering what the community has done to make the Ogres seem more daunting, so that the players get their "Holy crap, we just SURVIVED that!" feeling that they love oh so much.
What I'm currently doing:
-Have the Grauls be much sneakier/mobile. Hucker sneaks around resetting traps, Mammy flies out of a hole in the ceiling, Crowfood drags a PC (or Shalelu, who one player has grown attached to) into the cornfield, etc. Basically, they're a family, and the family that stays together, slays together.
What have you done/would do to make the Ogre threat seem more dangerous?
Theres plenty of extra ideas on the Grauls, there's a thread, Let's make it Graulful!
And Ckorik made a couple of posts of interesting things done to make the Grauls more interesting here, in the HMM sticky thread.
And that's just for starters.
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You can certainly change their tactics to up the difficulty.
For the Grauls, I had Crowfood move non-chalantly to the barn when he spotted the pc's rather than recklessly charge them. This forced the pc's to fight him and his brothers from the barn all together in the courtyard. During that fight he yelled at the house: "Mammy, dinner is puttin' up a fuss. If'n you're lookin' to eat, you better git out here." This both served as a foreshadow of just how disgusting the Grauls are and warned most of the house's occupants of trouble. This let Mammy start casting spell defenses, etc.
When his brothers fell quickly, Crowfoot fled into the house, trying to lead the pc's into the traps (with some success) and then exited back to the courtyard where Mammy had also moved. In the air and in the open, she is much more dangerous. When the pc's confronted them there, Hucker and his rats fell upon them from behind. I also changed her spells to use more effective necromancy spells or some from other sources (which were not available when the AE was updated.) Examples: Excruciating Deformation, Howling Agony, Eruptive Pustules, Greater False Life.
The Lamia matriarch charm/seduction and illusion powers were underused in the written tactics. I assumed that while at Fort Rannick, Lucretia would have charmed several of the ogres. (Example: Silas Kreeg.) And when the pc attack started, Silas moved to warn her first. She then organized the ogres more effectively than they might otherwise have done. She used her illusion ability to make it look like several Ogres were hiding in the Cook House area to bait the pc's in attacking them from the Fort (My players came in from the top and pushed some ogres under her leadership to retreat to join the ogres outside.) This led to a running battle on the walls, etc. with the ogres providing cover for her to use her magic. When they were all dead, she dimensioned door away. (Only to be found at the Kreeg Clanhold later.)
At the Clanhold, I had everyone converge on the Chokehold once fighting broke out there, including the hags, the ogres from the smithy and even Barl and Lucretia. I don't believe in "monsters wait in their rooms to be slaughtered tactics." Since the backstory had Barl with two Stone Giant guards originally before he killed one of them, I had him turn that giant into a zombie (he is a necromancer.) I also had him turn his other guard into a zombie when he died in the fight. It's important to get Barl and Lucretia spell defenses up - she should be hasted and have mirror image and maybe invisible. He should be hasted and flying and have spectral hand and false life up already.
If Lucretia or other occupants of Rannick survive, I think you're within your rights to have the Clanhold expecting an attack and respond accordingly. Lamatar should be with the hags rather than in a room all by himself. A room no one really cares about.