Huzzah!

[james_davis_nicoll]

We get to fight a _hill giant_! And with all Orilo's new tricks and toys, it looks like he generally lasts a whole round and a half against hill giants. A hill giant.

Comments

[graydon]

I seem to recall that at third level, hill giants are something of a challenge.

[james_davis_nicoll]

We're fifth and if the dice went Orilo's way, _maybe_ he could survive fighting one.

[malovich]

*quickly looks up Hill Giant stats*

Oh lord. You fought only one? They're dishing out close to 20hp a hit, twice a round, enough to drop a single 5th lvl character per round, depending on how the dice goes, with a hit average of about 50%. That's a fight of attrition; take down his HP while he takes down your party one at a time.

And melee is far better for you than ranged as long as he has rocks to throw because it's even worse there; he is doing a whopping 3d10+5 hp damage per hit...

No, getting in his face and last three attacks speaks well on you; he'd drop weaker members faster and anything that extends your damage per round output increases your odds of victory. Hard fought and well done, sir!

[james_davis_nicoll]

No, we're _going to_ fight a hill giant and two orcs.

With his newest toys, Orilo is AC 20, 44 HP. The giant hits him on 12+ for 18 per hit, so an average of 36x0.45 or 16 points a round. Assuming the timing works, Stones Endurance lets him soak 1d12+2 damage, while Second Wind gives a one time HP recovery of 1d10+5, so effectively he has another 19 HP on top of the 44. So Orilo should stay vertical for 3 or 4 rounds.

The giant is AC 13 and Orilo is very, very good with polearms, so he hits on a 4 or better or 85 percent of the time. Magic Guandao does an average of 10 per hit with the blade and 7 for the haft, for an average of 23 points per round, except in the first round when Orilo is absolutely going to use his action surge for another average of 17 HP. So, by the end of an average three rounds, he'll have done 40 + 23 + 23 = 86 HP to the giant. If he stays up four rounds, it's 109. Giants have 105 HP.

Wait! Forgot the Monster Hunter Superiority dice! He will definitely burn them all buffing damage in round one, so add another 4d8 or 18 points to that 40 for 58 HP in the first round. The totals then become 58, 81, 104, 127. It comes down to which of the giant or Orilo rolls worse to hit.

[james_davis_nicoll]

Add ten if the giant goes first, because then Polearm master gives Orilo an attack of opportunity.

[james_davis_nicoll]

Assuming average rolls, the monk, barbarian, and fighter should make short work of the giant. Except of course, there's also those two orcs...

[malovich]

Sun-Tzu says, clear out the weak enemies fast, isolate the strong and work in detail. Ranged is your friend here, be it spells or shots. Having harriers on your flanks while you're dealing with something that can crush you is a bad idea with the aid action available. I wondered why 'just two orcs' when I realized they can each aid a single attack on the giant per round, giving him advantage and vastly increasing his to-hit.

Fighter + Barbarian can engage the giant while the monk wails on the orcs until they're taken care of. Unless it turns out the orcs are beefed up.

I seem to recall you have a spellcaster of some sort in your group? A Shadow Sorcerer, right. Good blaster class, can do ranged support for whomever needs it; until you can assess how strong the orcs are, I'd recommend them... and if he has fireball already, well, that's just an excellent way to get everyone's attention.

[james_davis_nicoll]

We have a shadow sorcerer _and_ an artillerist artificer. I don't think the second has area affect attacks but he's very good at sniping.

[malovich]

Oh, brilliant, then. I think you can make very short work of the orcs; use the monk to run interference with them until they're taken care of with support fire and then Fire For Effect on the Hill Giant until he's down.

[brooksmoses]

Jorendona (per my recent post) suggests, "Have you tried hitting the hill giant but only letting the hill giant hit someone else instead? It works better that way."

[james_davis_nicoll]

I regret to admit my plan is to let the giant hit Grigor, who being a barbarian, has a lot more hit points and resistance.

[brooksmoses]

This sounds like a reasonable plan. The best way to be able to patch up the barbarian after the battle is to survive the battle, after all. (And have you known a barbarian not to need patching up after the battle?)

[james_davis_nicoll]

Himo very quickly learned that dueling with out of shape scholars had given him an inaccurate grasp of his own prowess and that closing to hand to hand was usually suicide.

[dsrtao]

How does he do against giant hills?

[james_davis_nicoll]

His homeland is basically Goliath Switzerland (thus the yodelling skill), so pretty well.

[kgbooklog]

Even before he obtained a weapon that always crits against them.