3.5 - E6 - looking for some Giants

[Pilo]

Hello,

I am willing to masterize a E6 game in the Dawnforge univers.

Giants are a big part of the setting and I am looking for giants that will make a decent but not overwhelming opposition (CR 1 to 8).

Could you help me please?

[Fouredged Sword]

Hill, Stone, and Fire giants are very possible to fight in E6. They cover CR 7-10. This is the max range for E6 without hyper specialization.

Ogre's make good weaker giants. They clock in at CR 3, so a group of 3-4 would be a good fight for a ECL 6 party. Class levels will ratchet them as high of CR as you like.

Ogre mages are also an option. They will be a challenge at ECL 8, but not one that can't be taken.

That's just the SRD.

[Pilo]

I fear that they will be too powerful.
Plus I'd rather not have to wait until ELC6 to start introducing them.
Ogre is a nice sugestion though.

[Feytalist]

Isn't the swamp giant a relatively low CR? I forget. It's in MM2, if I recall.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Using the Monster Finder (http://monsterfinder.dndrunde.de/) for the "giant" type, and ignoring trolls, we get...

Ogres at CR 3
Phaerlin Giants (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mof_gallery/MonFaePG51a.jpg)at CR 3 (Monsters of Faerun)
Fensir (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ff_gallery/50146.jpg)at CR 5 (Fiend Folio)
Ettin at CR 6
Bog Giants (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ff_gallery/50094.jpg)at CR 6 (Fiend Folio)
Hill Giants at CR 7
Stone Giants at CR 8
Fog Giants (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mof_gallery/MonFaePG50.jpg)at CR 8 (Monsters of Faerun)


Other things which aren't technically giants but are giant-like include

Goliaths (Races of Stone) are medium sized with Powerful Build, but are pretty giant-y
Half Giants (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicRaces.htm#halfGiants)(XPH) are a thing
Minotaurs at CR 4 (drop Natural Cunning, the gore attack and Powerful Charge, give 'em Rock Throwing and Catching and call it a day. Adjust HD, saves, and traits for going from Monstrous Humanoid to Giant if you want)

[ericgrau]

There's nothing like throwing some class levels onto ogres to stretch them into many CRs. As big bruisers they benefit from the extra stats. Especially from barbarian rage.

Especially for reach, tripping, grappling, sundering, overruning, bull rushing, disarming (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialAttacks.htm#) and awesome blow. Including unarmed disarms aka "I'm taking your pointy stick / bad juju bag / holy thingy". You don't necessarily need the feat for all of those (except awesome blow). But if disarming or grappling someone with a melee weapon, if the ogre doesn't have the right feat then make sure the ogre is out of his reach or can otherwise avoid the attack (e.g., AC). Remember each of these is an attack so the ogres can try multiple times on a full attack. Tripping, bull rushing and overrunning are especially easy. Overrun seems worse than tripping at first but it is good for getting to the squishy in the back row and nabbing his bad juju bag. And while nice stats help these tricks a lot, any vanilla ogre or giant may attempt them too. To speed up play have all rules figured out ahead of time for both the monster and the PC. And if you plan on messing with the PCs' toys with any monster they should know ahead of time so they can at least carry and draw a weak backup (and provoke, be closer to their weight limit or etc.). Nothing like staring at the ceiling on what was supposed to be RPG night. But being coddled or only rolling for damage every round is also boring.

Ogres with PC classes, elite array and NPC WBL get especially nice stats. Just be sure not to do it too often because then (a) it loses its specialness and (b) it infringes on the PC's specialness and (c) it gives out too much treasure. OTOH giving out extra treasure eases the pain quite nicely if your monsters mess with the players' stuff. Lets them cycle through new toys.

[Inferno]

Eberron has the Eneko. (Secrets of Sarlona)
Similar to Half-Giants and Goliaths.
They get Longbow proficiency and a few SLA's.

[lsfreak]

There's always the option of taking one monster as a base and reflavoring or restatting them as necessary. You're probably not going to be able to easily stat-down a storm giant into E6 range, but you can probably take an ogre, shift around a few stats, add a couple storm-related abilities, and now you've got one.

[ericgrau]

For a "storm giant" you could also make an ogre stormlord (Complete Divine) at CR 9+. Arguably CR 8+ if cleric levels are "nonassociated". Besides roughly matching the electricity stuff, other abilities can be done with cleric spells. You might also swap "javelin" for "rock".

[Inferno]

Should Cleric levels ever be nonassociated?
I mean, barring a -6wis or something Cleric brings all sorts of stuff to the table for pretty well everyone.

[Pilo]

Thanks a lot.

[Gwendol]

Ettins are CR6.
Trolls are also of the giant type and are CR5.

Between ogres and hill giants you get quite evenly spaced giant type monsters.

[Fouredged Sword]

Half giant orcs make for good CR2, 1HD giants. Pair that with three warrior levels and you can easily make them CR 3 with 3HD.

They are strong, tough, and have powerful build.

[Greenish]

Half giant orcs make for good CR2, 1HD giants. Pair that with three warrior levels and you can easily make them CR 3 with 3HD.Where's half-giant template from?

[Fouredged Sword]

Sorry, thinking about half ogre. It exists as both template and race. Half giant is a race.

You turn the medium race to large, add +4 str, -2 int, -2 cha.

This adds to the orcish +4 str, -2 int, -2 wis, -2 cha

So you get +8 str, -4 int, -2 wis, -4 cha and large for 1 LA or +1 CR.

NPC classes are worth 1 CR each, so two levels of warrior make a CR 3 monster.

This functions nicely as a giant baseline for a low level party. They are big and strong, without being high CR.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Should Cleric levels ever be nonassociated?
I mean, barring a -6wis or something Cleric brings all sorts of stuff to the table for pretty well everyone.

RAW spellcasting classes are only associated if the creature itself has casting or has the class as favoured.