Spicing up a Giant fight

[TriciaOso]

So, theoretically and in terms of CR, fighting giants can be comparable to fighting dragons. However, dragons are almost always a more interesting fight, even at lower levels--they have legendary and lair actions, regional effects, and generally feel more like an event. The only exception I've seen is the Storm Giant Quintessent, which is a CR 16.

Unfortunately my party is level 7. Any idea for making a more level appropriate giant with some style points? Should I just reskin a Young Dragon? Am I missing a monster that would fit?

[stoutstien]

Define interesting. Are you looking to use giant kin in a more tactically challenging way or do you find them less interesting in terms of narrative impact?

[KorvinStarmast]

My Hill giants have a wise elder who leads them.

He is a shaman. (use the NPC druid spells/abilities)

Something to consider.

[TriciaOso]

It's a boss battle for a lost dwarves city that has become a lair for a giant and some Goliath minions. I just don't want the boss to feel like "the same but he's bigger."

[stoutstien]

It's a boss battle for a lost dwarves city that has become a lair for a giant and some Goliath minions. I just don't want the boss to feel like "the same but he's bigger."

Goals, motivations, and environment? What's a general overall picture of what going on?

[Sparky McDibben]

Give him some AoE attacks - maybe they can slam their hammer into something and trigger an earthquake (as the spell). or even just a thunderwave. Increase his reach. Give him a bonus action minion (that is, every round he can use a bonus action to call in an ogre or something). Give him some ranged attacks (maybe he punches the ground and it erupts a huge spike at the feet of one player character) or maybe something with a rider (maybe when he grapples you, he can press you into something solid, effectively paralyzing and blinding you; you can't breathe and can hold your breath for Con mod minutes; free the trapped PC by bashing them out of the rubble, but the trapped PC takes some damage during the freeing).

Give him the ability to trigger cavern collapses to deny PCs the ability to hide or kite him.

Include something he's weak to (damage type, or even a particular poison) and hooks for the PCs to learn about it.

[Tvtyrant]

So, theoretically and in terms of CR, fighting giants can be comparable to fighting dragons. However, dragons are almost always a more interesting fight, even at lower levels--they have legendary and lair actions, regional effects, and generally feel more like an event. The only exception I've seen is the Storm Giant Quintessent, which is a CR 16.

Unfortunately my party is level 7. Any idea for making a more level appropriate giant with some style points? Should I just reskin a Young Dragon? Am I missing a monster that would fit?

Giants have a couple thematic things I think.

1. They should be able to throw players the full length of rock throw on a successful grapple, removing them from the fight if there is terrain to toss them off.

2. Pinning people below their feet and fight normally while grappling people.

3. Walk straight through walls/obstacles as a big battering ram.

[Melphizard]

Since you mentioned it was a dwarven city you could always have a hill or stone giant wearing some armor and wielding a magical rune imbued weapon. You also could have some dwarven statue animate as one of the city's ancient protectors. Fire giants particularly have a love for forging so one of them could make sense.

[Unoriginal]

It's a boss battle for a lost dwarves city that has become a lair for a giant and some Goliath minions. I just don't want the boss to feel like "the same but he's bigger."

You could make the Giant a wrestler.

Give them a PC-like Unarmored Defense, 3d8+STR mod unarmed strikes, and special moves (both as Action and Legendary Action) that are about:

- grabbing and moving the opponent around

- pushing the opponent away

- gabbing and smashing to the ground/throwing away

- pinning the opponent to the ground

Maybe a Reaction to grab something smaller than them (enemy, ally, furniture, etc) and use it as shield against an attack of AoE would be interesting, too. At least it'll be memorable.

And of course the Giant should have the personality that matches.

[quindraco]

So, theoretically and in terms of CR, fighting giants can be comparable to fighting dragons. However, dragons are almost always a more interesting fight, even at lower levels--they have legendary and lair actions, regional effects, and generally feel more like an event. The only exception I've seen is the Storm Giant Quintessent, which is a CR 16.

Unfortunately my party is level 7. Any idea for making a more level appropriate giant with some style points? Should I just reskin a Young Dragon? Am I missing a monster that would fit?

Storm King's Thunder has generic rules for spicing up your giants. For CR 7, you could field a Stone Giant with the added spice of these two actions:

Fling.

The giant tries to throw a Small or Medium creature within 10 feet of it. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw or be hurled up to 60 feet horizontally in a direction of the giant's choice and land prone, taking 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it was thrown.

Rolling Rock.

The giant sends a rock tumbling along the ground in a 30-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that line must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 22 (3d10 + 6) bludgeoning damage and falling prone on a failed save.

Same book has a stone giant with spellcasting at the same CR, so you could include that:

Innate Spellcasting.

The giant's innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom. It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

3/day each: meld into stone, stone shape

1/day each: stoneskin, time stop

[TriciaOso]

Goals, motivations, and environment? What's a general overall picture of what going on?

It's an ancient dwarven city that vanished entirely hundreds of years ago. The PCs are the first to find the site, which is now a vast empty cavern that has been taken over by the giant and his minions. They don't want the PCs wandering around their lair trying to find out what happened, so will react with violence against the tiny beings. This part of the world is mostly controlled by giants and giantkin.

Lots of great ideas, everybody. I especially like the Wrestler and the Earthquake/ground spike moves as ranged attacks. Great legendary actions.

[Cikomyr2]

Giants are smart. They know how to leverage their size and strenght to crush the little folk like us. They can use group tactic, create kill zones of boulder bombardment, set pits that they can cross easily, but PCs have to jump over.

Giants are not big monsters.

[MadBear]

I super recommend this video, for precisely what you're looking for.
https://youtu.be/y_zl8WWaSyI

personal ideas:

Bonus Action: Stomp: Every creature in 10 feet needs to make a strength 13 saving throw or be knocked prone

Reaction: Painful Wail: After being hit for more then 15 damage, the giant can use its reaction to wail in pain. Every creature within 30ft needs to make a Con saving throw or be deafened for a round or two.

Legendary Action 1: throw: Make a melee attack, if successful make contested saving throw, if the giant succeeds he throws said character 60 feet away dealing 6d6 bludgeoning damage

Legendary Action 2: thunderclap: Make a force attack in a cone

Legendary action 3: Stomp again: Against a prone creature the giant can hit them so hard they get stuck in the ground. After another players turn, the giant makes a free attack against a prone creature. If successful the creature is restrained, being literally pinned into the ground. They have to use an action to make a strength 13 saving throw to pull themselves out of the ground.

Those are my ideas anyway.

[Waterdeep Merch]

If you like to mix your humor with cruelty, have the giant pick up their best tank and beat their healer with them.

If you'd like to emphasize the giant's leadership skills and hint that something else is happening, you could have the giant quickly swoop in and grab a squishy party member, get back behind their goliaths, and then parlay for their safety. Killing the party isn't their objective, making sure no one goes any deeper is. If the party still insists on fighting (they're heroes, after all), the giant can command the goliaths to attack while staying back with the hostage. If/once the goliaths are dealt with, the giant can then use that other party member as a bargaining chip for their own life instead, perhaps along with some of the info the giant would never share unless backed into a corner like this. Certainly a different flavor of boss, but might be fun if your group likes that sort of roleplay.

If you'd prefer a more nuanced battle, consider the height and reach of the participants. Partitions too tall for the party to climb over can be just low enough for the goliaths's spears, and even larger ones might only be traversable by the giant. Make a labyrinth of detritus, perhaps the wrecked ruins of the dwarven keep piled up to stall invasions. And once the players show some understanding of how this is all working, have a cleverly laid trap of some sort meant to catch the arrogant. It'll feel like an obstacle course, or running an entire dungeon in the span of one fight.

[quindraco]

Giving the giant a single bonus action is meaningless - there's nothing wrong with it per se, but you might as well make it a passive that just always happens every turn. Bonus actions only have meaning if the giant has at least two and hence has to choose between them. That's why reactions are automatically meaningful - a giant using one can't make OAs any more.

I'd say the most flavorful bonus action I can think of for a giant would be to let them grapple or shove. That's three things - grappling, shoving away, and shoving prone - so it's meaningful that they use the bonus action mechanic.

[stoutstien]

It's an ancient dwarven city that vanished entirely hundreds of years ago. The PCs are the first to find the site, which is now a vast empty cavern that has been taken over by the giant and his minions. They don't want the PCs wandering around their lair trying to find out what happened, so will react with violence against the tiny beings. This part of the world is mostly controlled by giants and giantkin.

Lots of great ideas, everybody. I especially like the Wrestler and the Earthquake/ground spike moves as ranged attacks. Great legendary actions.

Hmm what if the giant and his subordinates have found the remnants of a dwarven armory? They wouldn't be keen to share in their plundering and might have found additional vaults that they have thus far been unable to gain access to.
Now you have solid reason for them to want to address the party but also a strong reason not to leave the immediate area unoccupied.

Unsure which giant type you are using but all but the hill variety could probably find a good way to use dwarf made weapons. a cat o' nine tails with axes/picks could give it a small aoe that also can have some forced movement? Why not.

[Emongnome777]

Another idea would be environmental hazards. Using things like mine carts or a pulley system of platforms would keep the terrain dynamic (isn't there something like this in SKR?). Add other mechanical traps that the giants modified to fit their uses. The extra actions that others have suggested sound great to mix in as well.

[da newt]

Why is this Giant alone (the only Giant there), and why does he have Goliath minions? Most Giants live with other Giants. If you are looking to increase the CR of this encounter, add a couple giants.

What type of Giant are you using? It helps us recommend themes.

I will pile on as others have suggested and recommend the Giant does things only a Giant can - throw PCs, throw rocks far and hard, punt PCs hard and far, use a reach weapon with extra reach, etc.

Volo's has some cool giants, and Icewind Dale has Giant Zombies too.

What sort of CR are you looking for? How many in your party of lvl 7 PCs?

If you are looking for big tough humanish things - Emperion, Angles, Ettin, Fomorian, etc can give you some ideas or you can add special sauce to your Giant by making them a Giant Troll, or Giant WereBear, or ... let your imagination flow.

Or you can go KISS and just add legendary actions and resistances.

[LordCdrMilitant]

Interesting. I typically find the opposite is true. Dragons, in general, feel extremely solved to me, and are also somewhat hamstrung by non-complementary capabilities in combat, whereas Giants appear much less often, and can easily present as much or more of a threat to the party without the party going "execute battleplan 12-16-Alpha" and just eliminating the dragon according to doctrine.

Anyway, for a giant encounter, I would aim to leverage the fact that a giant is like a person, but big. They can be re-equipped with different loadouts to change the encounter drastically, and have a lot of flexibility. You can give them a sword to replace their usual bonk-stick type weapon, or give them hand grenades instead of stones, or give them armor, or even feats and class levels. And, of course, environment can play a huge role.

Let's take, for example, a CR-9 Cloud Giant, replacing a theoretically comparable CR-10 Young Red Dragon. We could go a lot of ways with this, which, unlike the dragon where the party basically will always know what it is and how it works [even if we add back spellcasting from previous editions, which they've planned around anyway since all the anti-dragon doctrines were drawn up for scarier dragons from ages past], could completely change the encounter. For example, the giant could be a mage and cast a lot of spells, or a martial and bonk face, and even then they could be a caster with lots of debuffs, or a martial with lots of mobility and range, or anything. This uncertainty alone will make the encounter more interesting, since it means the party can't go into the encounter with perfect and rehearsed preparation.

Most importantly, the terrain matters a lot in the battle. Since we have a cloud giant, we could have the encounter be in a throne room like that of Erebor in the Hobbit, or like the Bridge of Khazad-dum in Lord of the Rings, with wide open spaces over deep recessed area and columns from somewhere in those pits to the ceiling, with elevated walkways and stuff and lots of rubble in both high and low places. This will play nice with the Giant's native Fly and Telekinesis abilities: Fly lets them traverse the space freely and move quickly, and Telekinesis lets them do really mean things to the party like pull them off of bridges or pull rubble down on top of them. Since we're in an old dwarven city, and the cloud giant doesn't natively have darkvision, we can play with vision too: perhaps the giant starts in the darkness, but the walkways the players enter on are lighted by torches. The giant might chose to initiate their attack are medium range, about 100-200' away, where the party can't retaliate in melee easily. Any disadvantage from the darkness or other conditions will be offset for the giant and being outside of darkvision range will return the favor, so it's a ranged fight where all parties have disadvantage, at least at the beginning. The party's responses would be to use DDoor or some similar ability to take a melee character into melee range, or to stand off and shoot back, buffing up and lighting up the area. In case 1, the party is now separated, possibly by significant obstacles like a bottomless pit, and the giant can now divide and conquer, drawing the half-party that came over away into a tighter space to cut them off from fire support and focusing on beating down the mage and kiting the melee character using fly and judicious use of obstacles that are trivial for the giant to walk over but like a big wall for the characters. In case 2, they force the party to expend actions and move, closing the range themselves with fly and misty step to an attack position, and using Telekinesis to pull the shooters off of ledges or pull rubble down on top of them, getting the party moving and using actions to do things other than attack. In either case, this is when their Goliath backup makes its appearance, to help overwhelm the isolated part of the party, or take advantage of the opening created and target the shooters and casters. And this is before the giant could have received feats, class levels, or re-equipment with just it's statblock.



Alternatively, we could go completely the other direction, with a CR-7 Stone Giant. Stone Giant isn't as good in open spaces, but has natively good stealth in the tunnels. So set the encounter in the twisting labyrinth of tunnels, which the giant and their pals have helpfully littered with boobytraps ranging from the simple like bearings or caltrops to the well prepared like spike pits or rock fall opportunties. The giant and their buddies would attack from ambush, making a surprise attack at close range before falling back into the darkness of the tunnels, as the party gives chase, split and double back, using the giant's natively higher land speed, and use the traps to try to separate the party with a rock fall, or just getting them to turn different directions, and then pounce, targeting the squishy healers and mages, before fading into the tunnels again. Make extensive use of decoys and noises and sow confusion as to where the giant and company are, and where they're approaching from. Again, most of this is in the environment and the theming, and you can make it a lot scarier by giving the giant feats, weapons, class levels, or more/varied minions. The minions could stand to play a major role in this encounter if you want, focusing on skirmishing and harrying in different directions, covering retreats, and showing up again to ambush the party from a different direction while the party is focusing on pursuing giant.


In both cases, by leveraging the environment, we've made the encounters very different, at the least, and challenging. And hopefully memorable in the "man, that went really south really fast but we somehow got it together in the end" sort of way.

[Unoriginal]

Something that fits the wrestler theme: the Giant wrestler and their Goliath minions have re-purposed the dwarven ruins into a training facility/gymnasium, which opens Lair actions such as:

- Wrestler punches a Huge heavy bag with enough power to make it swing around, creating a big combat hazard for smaller creatures

- Wrestler makes a training dummy fall to the ground, then send it rolling with a kick

- Wrestler activates the Giant rune Hefignes, which causes everyone on the battlefield to act as if they were carrying an additional 500lbs weight... which is within the carrying capacity of lightly-equiped Goliath Warriors, and pretty trivial for the Giant, but most PCs would be over carrying capacity.

[TriciaOso]

That last one is really cool, Unoriginal! Change your name, LOL!

To address some questions: party of 5 level 7s; overall encounter CR in the neighborhood of 7, I suppose; I am open to various types of Giants from CR 5 - 8, which is part of why I asked; he has Goliath minions because I want a boss with a cohort of minions, not just a few lesser giants, for attrition and dramatic impact (first encounter with a giant for these guys).

However, last session ran out of time before they could take out the Oblex guarding the entry, so I have to restructure the next few sessions, probably... boss fight - exploration - mooks - another boss fight is A Lot to fit in. I'll definitely want to keep the plan for the giant encounter flexible depending on what happens (long rest or not, etc), so thanks for the wealth of great options!

[J-H]

In my campaign, most giants the party might encounter in a fight have class levels. Here are 2 CR 9s and a CR 13.


Giant, Rune Knight (Stone)
Huge Giant
Armor Class 19 (Natural Armor, Shield)
Hit Points 207
Speed 40 ft.
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
23(+6) 15(+2) 20(+5) 14(+2) 12(+1) 10(0)
Saves Str +6 (A), Dex+6, Con+9, Wis+5; adv on saves vs. Poison
Skills Arcana +5, Athletics +13(A), Insight +1(A), Perception +5
Senses Darkvision 90’, passive Perception 15
Damage Resistances poison
CR9
Giant Might. The Rune Knight is a little larger than the rest of its kin, dealing +1d6 damage with weapon attacks, and having advantage on Str saves & checks.
Stone Camouflage. Stone giants have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide in rocky terrain.
Actions
Multiattack. The giant makes two melee attacks, or throws one rock.
Warhammer. Melee Weapon Attack, +10 to hit, 5’, 3d8+6+1d6 bludgeoning damage.
Rock. Ranged Weapon Attack, +10 to hit, 60/140’, 4d10+6+1d6 bludgeoning damage; on hit, the target must succeed on a DC 18 Str save or be knocked prone.
Ild Rune. Once per day, when the Rune Knight hits an enemy with a weapon attack, the target must make a Str save or be Restrained for 1 minute by fiery shackles. While restrained, the target takes 2d6 fire damage at the start of each turn; it can repeat the save at the end of each turn, ending the restraint on a success.
Bonus Actions
Haug Rune. Once per day, the giant may activate its Haug Rune, gaining resistance to B/P/S damage for 1 minute.
Reactions
Rock Catching. If a rock or similar object is hurled at the giant, the giant can, with a successful DC 10 Dexterity saving throw, catch the missile and take no bludgeoning damage from it.
Stein Rune. Once per day, when a creature ends its turn within 30’ of the giant, the giant may force the creature to make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the creature is charmed, incapacitated, and its speed is reduced to 0. The daze effect ends if the charmed creature takes any damage, or if someone else uses an action to shake it awake.


Giant, Lore Bard (Cloud)
Huge Giant
Armor Class 15 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points 250
Speed 40 ft.
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
26(+8) 12(+1) 22(+6) 12(+1) 16(+3) 16(+3)
Saves Con +10, Wis +7, Cha+7
Skills Arcana +7, History +7, Insight +7, Perception +7, Persuasion +6
Senses Darkvision 60’, passive Perception 17
CR 9
Keen Smell. Cloud giants have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Actions
Multiattack. The giant makes two melee attacks, or throws one rock.
Mace. Melee Weapon Attack, +11 to hit, 5’, 3d6+8
Rock. Ranged Weapon Attack, +11 to hit, 60/140’, 4d10+8 bludgeoning damage; on hit, the target must succeed on a DC 18 Str save or be knocked prone.

Spellcasting. The Cloud Giant Lore Bard casts as a 9th-level Bard. Its spell attack roll is +6, and its spell save DC is 14.
0thBlade Ward(Resist B/P/S until end of next turn),Dancing Lights, Vicious Mockery (60’, Wis or 2d4 psychic damage/disadvantage next attack roll)
1st()()()() Comprehend Languages, Dissonant Whispers (60’, 3d6 psychic damage, use reaction to run, provoke OAs; Wis half, negate run), Healing Word (BA, 1d4+3)
2nd()()() Blindness (30’, 1 minute, Con or blind), Heat Metal(C, 60’, 2d8 fire damage to creature holding object, CON to drop object; otherwise, disadvantage), See Invisibility
3rd()()() Counterspell (60’ range),Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern (C, 120’, 30’ cube, Wis or creatures are charmed/incapacitated; ends with damage or another taking an action to shake out)
4th()()() Confusion(C, 90’, 10’ radius sphere, Wis or confused), Dimension Door (500’ teleport with 1 willing passenger)
5th() Hold Monster (C, 90’, Wis or Paralyze, recheck end of turn) + additional spell per NPC as required by plot, such as Dream for communication, Geas, Legend Lore, Seeming, Teleportation Circle.

Bonus Actions
Bardic Inspiration. The bard may grant a d8 Bardic Inspiration dice to any creature within 60’ who can hear it. Only one may be granted at a time.
Healing Word. May not cast a leveled spell with main action.

Giant, Divine Soul (Cloud)
Huge Giant
Armor Class 15 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points 272
Speed 40 ft., fly 40’
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
26(+8) 12(+1) 22(+6) 12(+1) 16(+3) 20(+5)
Saves Con +12, Wis +9, Cha+9
Skills Arcana +8, History +8, Insight +8, Perception +8, Persuasion +10
Senses Darkvision 60’, passive Perception 20
CR 13
Favored by the Gods. Once per encounter, can add 2d4 to a failed saving throw or missed attack roll.
Keen Smell.Cloud giants have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Spectral Wings.As a bonus action, the Divine Soul may manifest spectral, glowing wings.
Actions
Multiattack. The giant makes two melee attacks, or throws one rock.
Quarterstaff. Melee Weapon Attack, +13 to hit, 5’, 3d8+8
Rock. Ranged Weapon Attack, +13 to hit, 60/140’, 4d10+8 bludgeoning damage; on hit, the target must succeed on a DC 19 Str save or be knocked prone.

Spellcasting. The Cloud Giant Divine Soul casts as a 14th-level Sorcerer. Its spell attack roll is +6, and its spell save DC is 14.
()()()Quicken: Cast a spell as a BA.
()()Twin: Cast a single-target spell on 2 targets (usually Haste)
0thBlade Ward (Resist B/P/S until end of next turn), Dancing Lights, Fire Bolt (60’, 3d10 fire damage),Ray of Frost (60’, 3d8 cold damage, reduce speed by 10’)
1st()()()() Cure Wounds, Guiding Bolt (RSA, 4d6 radiant, next roll against target has Advantage), Shield
2nd()()() Mirror Image, Suggestion
3rd()()() Haste, Meld Into Stone (stay in 1 place), Revivify,
4th()()() Banishment (C up to 1 minute, 60’, Cha or banish target to demiplane, incapacitated; upcast 1/level), Stone Shape (5x5 cube)
5th()()Cone of Cold (60’ cone, 8d8 cold, Con half); Wall of Stone
6th () Scatter (30’, up to 5 creatures, teleport to ground within 120’, your choice of location. Wis negates.)
7th () Whirlwind (C, 300’, ground, 10’ radius x 30’H tornado, Dex or 10d6 damage, on failed save Str or restrained in whirlwind)
Bonus Actions
Quicken. Quicken a leveled spell. May not cast a leveled spell with regular action.

[arnin77]

What about adding a “Mouth of Grolantor” to the fight? It’s a hill giant from Volos Guide to Monsters with random attacks because it is disgraced and insane.

Maybe it gets loose during the final fight and is just as likely to attack the PCs as it is the Boss and its minions.

https://5e.tools/bestiary/mouth-of-grolantor-vgm.html

[da newt]

I think your desired CR for this is low. A single Stone Giant is CR 7 and an easy encounter for a party of 5 lvl 7 PCs (assuming they are rested).

I'd want to create a reason why the Goliath are following the Giant. I'd lean toward a Stone Giant as on theme, but I'd add Wisdom and a couple levels of War Cleric (for example) to make them a leader.

For his Goliath followers, something like Beserkers (MM NPC) or lvl 4ish Bear Totem Barbarians. Then it's a matter of figuring out how many minions are the right number for your desired difficulty (you can always start with less, and add more if needed as combat progresses). 5 v 5 is a good starting place.

I'd ensure the battle space is big enough for the Giant to throw rocks, and I'd probably start combat with only the Goliaths, then have the Boss roll in after a round or 2.

[Altheus]

You could make the Giant a wrestler.

Give them a PC-like Unarmored Defense, 3d8+STR mod unarmed strikes, and special moves (both as Action and Legendary Action) that are about:

- grabbing and moving the opponent around

- pushing the opponent away

- gabbing and smashing to the ground/throwing away

- pinning the opponent to the ground

Maybe a Reaction to grab something smaller than them (enemy, ally, furniture, etc) and use it as shield against an attack of AoE would be interesting, too. At least it'll be memorable.

And of course the Giant should have the personality that matches.

I now have the impression of a giant picking up a PC and performing a tombstone. Or throwing the pc as far away as possible.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

At level 7 I will give the giant a behir.

Giant alone are pretty scary in an open area, their rocks do a lot of damage and have a big range, it forces you to try and get closer while using tactics to not get hit(cover or going prone).

What I also like to do it giving giants nets full with minions they chan trow on the party or behind them, making the minions and the characters that was in the area the net fall roll dex save for half damage (usually doing fall damage or rolling the giant rock damage for it).
Last time I used merch hobgoblins in the nets.

[loki_ragnarock]

It's a boss battle for a lost dwarves city that has become a lair for a giant and some Goliath minions. I just don't want the boss to feel like "the same but he's bigger."

A dwarf city, eh?

Dwarves are, what, 4 foot tall? Even a spacious ceiling would be maybe six foot high. Maybe seven foot? But well shy of the heights of most giants. While there might be towering vaulted ceilings in some areas, it would also make sense for there to be plenty of areas that are built to the expectations of dwarvish stature; servants tunnels, service entrances, a dumbwaiter, a butlers pantry, such like. Giving the PCs a battlefield where they can choose to use such terrain to their advantage might spice things up as much as giving the giant additional special powers.

After all, the giants eye line is going to be the second or even third story windows for any reasonable architecture. Makes giving different terrain elevation some value.

Also, the mine cart idea being used for traps? Brilliant. Except don't make that the goliath or giant's thing; let that be one of the ways that the PCs can use to weaponize the terrain as they duck and weave into areas the giant would have trouble following into.

Let them feel brilliant for taking out that dangerously over CR encounter by using the game environment to their advantage. It's a different spice profile, but the flavors are still great.

[Sorinth]

You can add Legendary/Lair actions to any "boss" monster but they are mostly about balancing action economy so if you have Goliath minions it's probably not important. I would probably just setup interesting battlefield elements and use tactics that exploit that. On theme for giants is certainly grappling and throwing people so having interesting places to throw PCs can make a battle interesting.

If the dwarven city is multi-leveled then knocking them down a level can take a player out of the fight for a round or two while they try to get back into the fight. You can even have a simple pits or cages with a large stone that is moved over the opening after a PC is knocked/thrown in (Probably giving them one round to try and get out before being sealed in).