Frost Giant Scout

Frost Giant Scout (CR 15)

Chaotic Evil - Huge - Humanoid (Giant, Cold)

Lore:	Know (Local)
30		45
Basic DC		Full DC

Initiative

28

Perception:
35	+25
Passive	Active

Ambush:

10+

on a d20

Senses:

• Standard Senses

Movement Types:

Defense

AC

37

Man Def

39

Monster Health
429	214	29
Hit Points	Bloodied	Hit Dice

Saving Throws
Fort:	+12
Refl:	+17
Will:	+12

Strong Against:

• See Catch Boulders
• Immune (no effect): Cold (energy, common)

Weak Against:

Offense

Size:	Huge
15 ft.		15 ft.
Space		Reach

To-Hit

+22

Man Off

+27

Action

0

Points

Standard Attack (Melee):

• 1x Bitter Axe +22 (3d8+16/19-20 x2)
  as hacking (physical, uncommon)
  plus: Torpid until the end of the target's next turn

Full Attack (Melee):

• 3x Bitter Axe +22 (3d8+16/19-20 x2)
  as hacking (physical, uncommon)
  plus: Torpid until the end of the target's next turn

Standard Attack (Ranged):

• 1x Icicle Javelin +22 (3d8+16/19-20 x2)
  as cold (energy, common)
  (Increment: 200 ft.; Max Range: 2000 ft.)
  plus: Iceburst (see below)

Full Attack (Ranged):

• 3x Icicle Javelin +22 (3d8+16/19-20 x2)
  as cold (energy, common)
  (Increment: 200 ft.; Max Range: 2000 ft.)
  plus: Iceburst (see below)

Siege Damage: Not siege capable

Statistics

30

STR

18

DEX

30

CON

10

INT

16

WIS

20

CHA

Skills:

• Perception: 25
• Stealth: 28
• Survival: 28
• All other skills: 20 (no ranks)

Languages: Giant, common

Feats:

• Opening Volley (EFFECT: Successful ranged attack grants +4 on next melee attack roll)
• Precise Shot (EFFECT: No penalty for shooting into melee at any range.)

Special Abilities

Bitter Challenge (Ex)

Once per round as a swift action, a frost giant may challenge a foe to mortal combat. The foe challenged must be within thirty feet of the Frost Giant to issue this challenge, and the Giant must have line of effect to the foe so they may hear them issue the challenge. Deaf foes are immune to Bitter Challenge. The Giant does not have to share a language with the victim. This challenge lasts until the beginning of the Giant's next turn. While Challenged, the victim takes a -2 to-hit penalty on any attacks, and a -2 penalty on any caster checks, that do not target or include the Challenging giant. Note that it is possible for a single creature to be the target of multiple Bitter Challenges from multiple Frost Giants, but the penalty is never greater than a -2 to-hit or a -2 to concentration rolls. In such a case, that creature would suffer the penalty unless its attacks included or targeted each of the Challenging giants.

Iceburst (Su)

Whether the Frost Giant hits or misses with an Icicle Javelin, the javelin explodes into icy shards, dealing Splash Damage in cold (energy, common) damage to any creature in the squares adjacent to the target (half damage). If the icicle javelin hits its intended target, the target does not take this additional damage, but all adjacent creatures do. If the icicle javelin misses its target, the target creature and all adjacent creatures take this splash damage damage instead. As with all splash damage, creatures hit with splash damage are treated as though they had successfully made a Reflex saving throw for half damage. Therefore, abilities like Evasion can be used to mitigate or negate the splash damage. Note: Icicle Javelins that are Deflected or Reflected by a special ability do not deal Iceburst damage.

Catch Boulders (Ex)

Once per round as a free action, a Frost Giant may roll 1d20 any time a thrown or projectile weapon is fired at them or passes anywhere within their reach. This applies to giant thrown weapons, siege weapon projectiles, arrows, bolts, bullets, and any other thrown weapon or ammo. Note that catching a projectile this way is a violent action that will set off alchemical bombs and similar items. If the Giant rolls an 8 or higher on this d20 roll, it successfully catches the attack, it is interrupted and lost unless it is an alchemical bomb or similar effect, in which case it affects the giant that caught it. Using this ability on a weapon with Returning means the attack is interrupted and lost but the weapon still returns to the wielder.

Frost Giant Scout

In the world, there are places where summer never comes. There are vast frozen wastelands coated in permanent ice, there are gigantic boreal forests that lie cloaked in eternal winter, there are high, bright deserts where the utter cold of the Unterwelt has settled into the world's bones permanently.

Many races with the Spark of Civility can tolerate the cold very well, most notably the rocky Oreads, the deep-dwelling Dwarves, and the well-furred Gata, Kitsune, Nagdyr and Tengu. Humans, of course, live everywhere, and thrive.

But in the deepest and most bitter of the Cold Lands, there are no civilized races. Not because they cannot bear the numbing cold. But because there is something much older, much colder, much, much worse that already lives there.

The Cold Lands are the natural home of one of the coldest, cruelest races of Giants imaginable. They call themselves Aesir, or Frostborn, or even sometimes the Rimed Ones. To all other races they are known as the Frost Giants.

Frost Giants control vast areas of territory, cold, hard places, inhospitable lands where food is hard to find. Unfortunately for the world, Frost Giants have an eerie magical metabolism and they can survive, even thrive, on nothing but a diet of ice. In places where there is plentiful ice, Frost Giants are discouragingly common. In cold, dry places such as bright deserts, Frost Giants find ice, imported from their own territory, or stolen as water from warmer climes, is a long-lasting food store that never goes bad.

Frost Giants have many styles of 'civilization' in their lands. There are roving bands of barbaric cannibals, there are vast mountaintop fortress cities of blue, bitter ice, there are vast glacier-born towns of wrackwood and tusks sprawling down the sides of mountain ranges, there are vast log fortresses in dark, cold forests, there are entire plains sculpted into lost, empty Igloo Ruins. Frost Giants live in all these places and more, sometimes in hordes, sometimes as single wanderers and hunters.

One unifying feature of the Frost Giant 'culture' is the fact that Frost Giant hearts are as cold and unforgiving as their territory. Frost Giants do not understand such concepts as friendship, love, mercy, or compassion. Every Frost Giant, from the most exalted to the lowliest, truly cares about only one thing, which is themselves. Frost Giants are capable of working together to raise mighty works, create vast fortresses and cities, and march in terrible armies, but the driving motivation behind every one of them in the masses is pure selfishness.

Another feature of Frost Giants is their pure, unrelenting evil. The cold that drives them and makes up so much of their mindset leaves no room for kindness or gentleness or weal. There is no such thing as a kindly Frost Giant, they are every one as vicious, nasty, and unfeeling as the worst monster ever spawned.

Some Frost Giants are berserkers, a cold rage driving them to maddened heights of murder. Others are cowards and connivers, seeking allies and pets to do the hard work of making them enriched. Some Frost Giants are twisted by terrible cold magic, their bones fuming with hoarfrost, and others are as patient and unforgiving as a frozen sea.

Frost Giants delight in owning slaves, and use them in every low, demeaning way possible. They especially value Stone Giants and any of the Civilized races as slaves, both for their valuable skills and abilities as well as the way they provide a fun and easy outlet for their basest urges toward rapine, torture, murder, and cannibalism.

In addition to slaves, Frost Giants count many creatures as allies and pets. Trolls and ogres, of course, delight in Giantish company. Remorhazes, winter wolves, yetis and even wendigoes are valuable pets, chattel, and allies. Frost Giants also frequently have Hill Giants as serfs, the hardy creatures enduring the cold without trouble and providing a cheap source of unending labor. Frost Giants have even been known to capture and enslave White Dragons, much to their own delight and the chagrin of such proud creatures, although anyone who crosses the Dragons must be careful indeed.

Frost Giants spend much of their time raiding, warring, and murdering among themselves, in their dark, cold fastnesses. Unfortunately, those Giantish lands that lie close to the lands of the Civilized races are considered to be Giantish lands as well, just momentarily too hot for comfort. Frost Giants delight in raiding into civilized territory, and they have developed a type of magically chilled glacier which serves as their preferred vehicle for such depredations.

A Frost Giant Glacier is a vast block of ice, easily the size of a Civilized Galleon that has been scaled up to size Huge, and each one has a full complement of Frost Giants, siege weapons, and looting/pillaging space. Such Galleons can 'sail' across dry land for up to a year before melting, and provide the Frost Giants aboard a comfortable place from which to kill and raid to their hearts content.

The Glaciers hearken back to the ages of Frost Giant glory in the past, the so called Ice Ages, when glaciers covered the world, carrying utterly victorious Frost Giant hordes to the ends of the world to crush and rule everywhere. In a Frost Giant's mind, it is just a matter of time until the next Ice Age begins, and when it does, the world will belong to them once again.

The Frost Giants presented here are Scouts. They are lightly equipped and fleet of foot, with skills and talents suited to the wide open spaces of the taiga and the cold, snowy halls of winterholds. Scouts are often young, out in the world seeking victims to murder and loot for their pocket. Frost Giant Scouts may be simple raiders, out for nothing beyond a little casual murder and pillage... or they may be the vanguard of another Ice Age.

Combat Tactics

Frost Giant Scouts like to begin fights at range and lead off with a full attack with Icicle Javelins. They will target spell casters and ranged attackers with these attacks. If they hit, then during the second round of combat they will usually take a move action to get a good angle and then charge whoever they hit, taking the +4 bonus from their Opening Volley. Note that Frost Giants are size Huge and can Stepover size medium and smaller foes. If they can't get a Charge but are still able to close to melee, they will do that instead if it is advantageous.

In melee, Frost Giants will be sure to issue their Bitter Challenge each round, but they are cagey enough to be smart about it: The Bitter Challenge works best in their twisted worldview if you Challenge somebody you're NOT already fighting. Frost Giants know this, and will thus almost always challenge somebody else than their current melee target. They will also do such things as issue a challenge to a ranged attacker, and then move around a corner, and similar nasty tricks.

Scouts that have not hit at range will continue making full attacks with their Icicle Javelins until they land a hit or are forced into melee. They trust their Iceburst power to eventually wear down most foes, so they are content to duke it out at range. They have no fear of firing into melee, they are skilled at such tactics, and Frost Giants are immune to the cold of their Icy Bursts. If they take casualties at range, they will promptly break off the fight and flee, their long legs making this more than viable against most foes.

Once they are engaged in melee, most Scouts will not break off the combat as their bloodlust gets the better of them.

Out of Combat

Rewards

XP: 51,200

Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 32,125 gp.

Weight: 150 lbs.     Volume: 6 cu. ft.

Optional Treasure Rules: Roll a d20 on Table 1 below once per encounter (NOT per creature). Any items discovered are in addition to the normal treasure for the encounter.

Table 1: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 10	Nothing Found
11 - 14	1 Languid Remnant (tier 1)
15 - 17	1 Pale Remnant (tier 2)
18 - 19	1 Bright Remnant (tier 3)
20	Roll on Table 2
###	Nothing to see here!
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 2: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Languid Remnants (tier 1)
6 - 10	3 Pale Remnants (tier 2)
11 - 14	1 Intense Remnant (tier 4)
15 - 17	1 Blazing Remnant (tier 5)
18 - 19	1 Vital Remnant (tier 6)
20	Roll on Table 3
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 3: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Bright Remnants (tier 3)
6 - 8	3 Intense Remnants (tier 4)
9 - 11	3 Blazing Remnants (tier 5)
12 - 14	3 Vital Remnants (tier 6)
15 - 17	1 Prime Remnant (tier 7)
18 - 19	1 Mythic Remnant (tier 8)
20	1 Empyrean Remnant (tier 9)