Sky Combat

[OrangeK]

So, my party of 6 lvl 11s took their Airship out for it's maiden voyage last night. Upon punching up through the clouds near a mountain range, they emerged from the clouds with 2 cloud Giants on their deck. The cloud Giants asked for a tithe to pass through their realm. When the players said they were unaware they had been passing through their realm, the cloud Giants didn't believe them. After all they are powerful vain and arrogant, so who wouldn't have heard of them?
When my players asked how much they wanted for a toll/tithe, being the greedy entitled creatures they are, they replied, "all the coin and wealth on your person". To which my dwarf barbarian replied, " hah! Prepare to die!".
Rolled initiative and ended session.
Their Airship is one of a kind. Truly a gem of artifice. That is the prize these cloud Giants really want. So next session will begin with combat at about seven and a half thousand feet, from the deck of their airship.

I had considered having a storm giant intervene, pulling rank on the cloud Giants, or joining them in the fight as an ally. One of my players is a trickster cleric of Mask. after a good perception check I told him that one of the Giants is wearing a necklace with masks emblem. The giant does not know that my player is a follower of mask.

Any ideas to make next week's combat / encounter with Giants as interesting as possible would be greatly appreciated! We are all very excited to be doing combat about the mountain tops. It is also worth mentioning that my entire party each has their own flying broom as well

[ZerohFG]

While I do not see 6 lvl 11's struggling against 2 giants just due to the ability to swarm, I offer in case I am wrong:

If the ship has additional NPC crew outside of just the players:

Giants : Grapple players and have them toss your PC's over the side of the ship. The first time a PC who cannot fly or slowfall goes over the edge, they will react.

NPC Crew: Have the crew act like they are scrambling about in a panic, while secretly have them set up some netting and ropes to toss to the sides of the ship and hanging from below. Maybe have one npc down below actively catching and securing PC's. Set up a dex/acrobatics save of 15 for the PC to catch the rope, while having the NPC making the same roll as a reaction (with advantage because this new npc was born for this moment. Saving the players will make this a new favorite npc of the party)

Since your giants will control combat and how quickly players go over the edge, you want make sure only one goes over a round or two, so your safety net npc can reasonably react to falling people.

The goal would be for the Giants to capture this prize ship, and take it to their base, where the players could regain control of the ship, but also enjoy ransacking a giant stronghold in the sky.

If the ship does not have crew outside the players, have the giants shake the party down by focusing on ship damage and taking it out of the air and forcing the players to surrendering the ship to save it and themselves by proxy. They end up as prisoners and you now have a hook for them to escape giant stronghold, and they have an airship to haul plenty of loot out.

A giant stonghold may not have been what you had in mind for down the road, but an airship skyjacking encounter by two cloud giants screams that for the giant's endgame. Capture ship, put it on display.

[OrangeK]

As far as the CR balance is concerned I plan on having a storm giant intercede. As I mentioned my players all have flying brooms. I know most of them are going to take to their brooms to keep up with the flying Giants. I think I'm going to have the Giants grapple them and snap their brooms first. Then I love the hurling overboard idea.

[Bobthewizard]

If you want to disable the brooms for this fight without destroying them you could have the ship moving faster than the max speed of the broom. If they choose to fly on their broom they immediately fall behind the ship and are out of the fight until someone can stop the ship.

[BestMaster46]

Is the airship in danger of being destroyed during combat? There could be an element of destruction (the mass for example). It would be interesting to see how the cloud giants react since they want to steal the ship, but don't want to destroy it.

[OrangeK]

Yes, the ship currently has 200hp (400hp max with Hull upgrades) but can be repaired mid battle.
The Giants certainly don't want to destroy it.
As far as speed is concerned, the brooms are 50ft fly speed per turn, the ship is maxxed out at 40mph (currently, can improve with engine upgrades) so I don't know how 40mph translates to speed per turn.

Originally I wasn't intended on this being a combat encounter, just a tricky social one. But when one of your players is a battlerager.....diplomacy often fails.

I'm looking forward to the shock (pun certainly intended) when, mid fight, a storm giant is going to shoulder check the ship from below (players won't see it coming, as it'll be ascending from beneath the clouds) and knock it askew, or possibly even grapple the ship. (Ship is 30ft wide x 70ft long FYI)

[Vogie]

Their Brooms of Flying I think are actually the key here. If you change the focus of the giants from "steal the ship" to "destroy the ship", the ability of the PCs to try to taunt & goad the giants OFF the ship would be really interesting.

Doubly so if you have the non-flying (but levitating) Storm Giant pop up and halt the movement of the ship, grappling the craft and swatting away the crew. Now, you have 2 flying enemies that are chasing the PCs around as you draw them away, while also needing to save crew members and getting the ship away from the Storm Giant.