Giants, humanoids, and Dungeon Masters -January 1989
By Arthur Collins
Giants and humanoids are the stock in trade of the Dungeon Master. They are basic to the AD&D ® games, far more exotic monsters in the various reference books. Orcs, goblins, gnolls, giants, and the rest form the basic set of opponents for most beginning campaigns. Long before an adventuring group is ready to take on drow and dragons, it is ready for a bunch of hobgoblins.
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The problem with giants and humanoids is that their strengths are their weaknesses. Sound strange? Look at it this way: Giants have awesome fighting power, giving and taking lots of hit points of damage. Humanoids can give and take less in combat, but they come in great numbers. This makes these foes challenging for low to midlevel parties, but dull for higher-level groups. Once you reach a certain level of magic-use and acquire a certain number of hit points and magical items, giants and humanoids aren’t challenging any more. Goblins and kobolds are the worst; with less than one full hit die, they face fighters who get as many attacks per round as the fighters have levels. Additionally, giants and humanoids are lumped together in the giant-class category, against which rangers do extra damage. In the end, the most powerful groups of giants and humanoids only delay a party, not challenge it seriously.
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So what can be done about it? Are these races simply not credible challenges after the party reaches a certain point? If you let that happen, the campaign will soon suffer from adventure inflation - the unwarranted expansion of magic, treasure, and treat that make so many campaigns dull. However, experienced DMs can use giants and humanoids effectively throughout the adventuring life of the PCs. party, but it takes knowledge of some tricks about DMing these monsters.
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The bigger they are...
Giants are like the old naval descriptions of battleships: eggshells armed with hammers. They are capable of dealing out awesome damage, but they come few in number. Thus, the first principle of using giants successfully is to take advantage of their long-range attacks. Most DMs play giants as close-and-bash types. However, most giants have special attack abilities with hurling boulders or other missiles. These abilities should be taken seriously. There was a rather cocky wizard in my campaign who was twice splattered all over the side of mountain passes by giant hurled boulders. He eventually learned not to lead the charge on his broom of flying. While even the rather stupid giants love to get up close and bash, it should be a point of honor among giants to see who wins at throwing contests. They may make bets on their abilities in leisure times. When engaged in an ambush or open combat, they should almost always attempt to hurl boulders before closing.
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Giants should use their missile-hurling capabilities in other ways. Giants may like fortified gateways and ravines alike, since attacking and defending from above are among their most basic tactics. Note the missile-fire cover and concealment adjustments in the DMG, page 64. Even underground, place giants on ledges and over gateways (with rocks to throw). Smarter giants can construct powerful artillery weapons, which giants can pick up and use the way humans use crossbows or slings. Beware of giants with ballistae!
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The second principle of using giants successfully is to exploit their magical talents and possessions. Remember that some giants can have clerical abilities. Giant shamans are more than most PCs bargained for. With abilities running up to 7th level, giant shamans are a lovely edge on the competition. Not every lair should have a shaman, perhaps, but certainly there should be a shaman for every tribe of giants in a given area. This also increases the amount of magic that the giants have to use against their enemies. Giant-size magical items should probably be avoided, since they may eventually wind up in the PCs. hands. Go for expendables, such as potions and scrolls, which the giants can use up in healing themselves and fighting the party. And don’t forget that certain giant types, such as the firbolg, have innate magical abilities.
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Third, take advantage of the giants’ home turf. There is no reason why a giant lair should be easy to enter. Cloud giants live on cloud islands or mountain peaks; stone, fire, and frost giants live in often equally inaccessible places with their own dangers. In addition to making the PCs overcome the difficulties of reaching and entering the giants’ lair, the DM should remember that giants do not neglect traps, guards, ambushes, alarms, patrols, and locks. If a giant constructs a trap, it probably causes more damage than one made by a man-size opponent.
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Fourth, note that many giants have powerful pets: spotted lions, hell hounds, winter wolves, dire wolves, giant lizards, cave bears, and so on. In addition, many giants take slaves or live in cooperation with other giants and humanoids (ogres, orcs, etc.) who will fight if so ordered by the giants. Nor do the giants always have to be in charge. Giants can be found sharing their homes with dragons or else playing the roles of minions for a human magic-user or cleric (or a vampire or lich). Giants can be found in all sorts of circumstances, both as leaders and followers.
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Fifth, keep in mind those special touches that make for truly inspired refereeing. After all, there is nothing sacred about the statistics on giants. They can be tinkered with. How about giant undead, such as giant skeletons, giant zombies, giant liches, and giant mummies? How about frost giant berserkers? How about Oriental hill giants who have mastered martial arts and can kick PCs like footballs? How about firbolgs always approaching in man-size? How about using regeneration? ethereality? phasing? lycanthropy? poison resistance due to large size? giant shades? The possibilities are endless.
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The more, the merrier
The first help to give humanoids is to improve their lousy generalship. DMs often use humanoids as cannon fodder. If these humanoids are really trying to survive in a tough world, why do they fight so stupidly? Humanoids have many missile weapons and a level of civilization that would seem to make them formidable guerrilla fighters. Why not use them in small raiding parties with missile weapons, acid grenades, and stealth? When the PCs invade the humanoids’ home turf, the PCs should encounter stiff resistance. A humanoid lair, underground or aboveground, should be as well thought out and heavily defended with traps, guards, pets, patrols, ambushes, and fortifications as a human town or castle. The humanoids should fight tenaciously and intelligently in their home’s defense. If the situation becomes untenable, they should evacuate with many vows of revenge. They should not just keep coming and coming to be ground into hamburger by the guys with the swords of blending, +3 (Oster). One must presume that the war chiefs are intelligent battle leaders, and play them as full-fledged NPCs.
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Second, when they do go off to war en masse, use the BATTLESYSTEM supplement rules for combat with large, organized companies of humanoids, which gives them a greater advantage. A couple of high-level fighter-types can stand and chop humanoids all day long under the normal melee rules, and they’ll hardly get their armor scratched. But under the BATTLESYSTEM supplement rules for Character vs. Figure Combat, no PC can wipe out a whole unit of humanoids that fast, and in addition, the humanoids get a realistic chance to overwhelm a character that the humanoids probably can’t even hit individually! If your players complain, point out to them that the humanoids are not just skirmishers; they are fairly disciplined, trained warriors engaged in a battle maneuver. Thus, BATTLESYSTEM supplement rules correct a deficiency that many of us saw long ago, making mass combat faster, more realistic, and better for the underdog humanoids.
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Third, humanoids also have shamans and witch doctors. These spell-casters can gather magical items, undead, and other spell-casters to wreak havoc on a PC party. Even if a hobgoblin shaman doesn’t have many effective spells, the extra hit points from being a shaman help him better stand up to opponents.
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Fourth, like giants, humanoids can also be augmented by their subordinate relationship to an overlord, whether a magic user or an outer-planes creature such as a barghest. Other monsters, such as beholders, liches, and dragons, are sometimes found as overlords to humanoid tribes.
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Fifth, humanoids are no more sacred in their statistics than giants. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a hobgoblin with 7 HD - although you ought to figure out some reason why he rose so high. There is nothing wrong with a tribe of Oriental humanoids versed in martial arts or using ki powers. Half-orcs that resemble their orcish parents could be found in positions of leadership in an orc tribe. Humanoid cavalry mounted on giant lizards, harpies, and even dinosaurs (as well as the conventional worgs) is in order.
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And finally, don’t forget that finest of humanoid pleasures: poison. Large doses of poison in a campaign are generally considered unfair, since too many ‘zap – you’re dead!’ situations are a poor means of evening the odds with the high-level players. On the other hand, blade venom should be the forte of humanoids. Making poisoned arrows and blades more common is one means of increasing PC respect for the poor humanoids.
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Conclusion
Giants and humanoids can remain challenging opponents throughout a PC.s life. The problem is not with the monsters themselves, but with Dungeon Masters being unable to use them in more sophisticated manners. As long as we rely on more aspects of these monsters than their hit dice and numbers, we can keep using them over and over again - and never run out of excitement.
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