Hill Giant Chieftain

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Hill Giant Chieftain (CR 17)

Hill Giants are massive creatures, covered in huge masses of thick muscle and fat. While they are technically size Large, they are definitely at the very upper end of that size category due to their simple bulk. Hill giants exude a sense of huge power mixed with dull frustrated rage at a world they simply don't understand. Indeed, Hill Giants are the second strongest breed of Giants, their physical power exceeding the strength of far more dangerous clans of giants, such as Cloud giants, who are frail weaklings compared to Hill giants.

Luckily for every other creature in the world, their incredible strength is also their downfall, as Hill Giants, charitably, are musclebound idiots. They are physically clumsy, slow of action, and awkward when they manage to do something, as likely to break a weapon as use it to smash a foe. Even worse, they are crude and stupid creatures. Ogres are mental giants compared to a Hill Giant. Hill Giants struggle to sustain even the most rudimentary of social structures, like family, or language. The actions of most other races are incomprehensible to a Hill giant, who is too limited to even grasp what a farm is, never mind understand why agriculture is a good idea.

As a result of their incredible physical strength and incredible mental deficiencies, Hill giants on their own live lives of desperate poverty, lacking fire, shelter, and far too often, even clothing. Despite this, Hill giants thrive on their own, their size and strength serving quite well in Nature to sustain their lives. Groups of Hill giants are uncomfortably common in untamed lands, and they are disgustingly fertile, to boot.

Many Hill giants find themselves working as serfs for other races. Ogres and especially Trolls find Hill giants to be excellent companionship, and those creatures serve to improve the life of Hill giants tremendously. Other Giant races also employ Hill giants as serfs, especially Frost and Fire giants, as well as Death giants and the terrible Fomaori. No one tries to enslave a Hill giant, by the way. No chain will hold them and no punishment will deter them, so there is little point. Give them a warm place to sleep, food to eat, things to torment, and rugged, simple work to do, and Hill giants will be loyal forever.

Hill giants usually live in small tribal groups, and make crude mud huts out of sticks and wattle. They will roam out daily, in a more-or-less random direction, and forage for food and victims. If Hill giants are serving as serfs for other classes of creatures, they will arise, take their food, and then happily perform whatever jobs they are given, as long as those jobs are within their intellectual grasp. As long as they are given lots of things to do, Hill giants are surprisingly tractable. If some of those duties involve killing and hurting things, all the better!

Hill Giant Chieftains are the pinnacle of Hill Giant evolution. Chieftains are rare among Hill Giants who are on their own, and indeed, are usually the chiefs of their own band. When on their own, Chieftains are usually by far the best dressed, with necklaces of fine bones, decorations of bark and smears of brightly colored mud indicating their awesome status and skill. On the other hand, chieftains are not nearly as rare among Hill Giant serving as serfs. It turns out, with some years to mature and decent nutrition and shelter, Hill giants can reach pretty amazing heights of erudition...for a Hill Giant. Chieftains are valued serfs, as their tremorsense and Bossy Mouth ability are useful indeed.

GENERAL

CR 17 Hit Dice 26

XP 102,400

NE, Large, Humanoid (Giant)

Init +7; Senses darkvision, tremorsense, scent, Perception +26

DEFENSE

AC 40, touch 23, flat-footed 35 (+10 armor, +5 dex, +7 natural, +8 deflection)

hp 426

Fort +20, Ref +16, Will +16

Aura: -

SR: -

Special Defenses: -

Immunities: -

Weaknesses: -

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.

Space / Reach: 10 ft. / 10 ft.

Single Melee Giant Club +24 (3d8+8/19-20x2)

Full Melee 3x Giant Club +24 (3d8+8/19-20x2)

Ranged Giant Rock +24 (3d8+8/x2)

Full Ranged 2x Giant Rock +24 (3d8+8/x2)

Special Attacks Earthen Smash, Giant Swing, Bossy Mouth

Action Points 0

STATISTICS

Str 80, Dex 16, Con 22, Int 5, Wis 16, Cha 16

Base Atk +17; CMB +28; CMD 35

Feats -

Skills -

Languages Giant

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Earthen Smash

As a standard action, a Hill giant may swing its huge club overhead and SMASH! THE GROUND! Hill Giants actually like this a lot, because the ground is easy and satisfying to hit really hard. Earthen Smash is a 30 foot cone area of effect that does 9d6 points of physical bludgeoning damage and knocks all creatures prone. A reflex save versus DC23 negates the prone effect and reduces the damage by half.

Giant Swing

Every time the giant uses its Giant Club attack, it may choose two adjacent squares in its reach. If there are enemies in both of those squares, they are all attacked every time it uses its Giant Club attack. (Roll to-hit once, compare this number against all foes to determine if they are hit or missed. Roll damage once, apply it to all creatures struck. Giant swing counts as AOE damage for swarms and other effects.)

Bossy Mouth

Hill Giant Chieftains have an affinity with the earth and with allies standing on the earth. Once per round, if they can trace line of effect through the ground to an ally within 50 feet, they may, as a swift action, give one ally a move action or a 5-foot step as an immediate action. Alternatively, they can, once per encounter, use Bossy Mouth on themselves as a swift action, in which case they gain a move action or 5-foot step on their current turn. Using Bossy Mouth on themselves 'uses up' this ability for the remainder of the encounter. Note that the movement actions from Bossy Mouth can only be used for movement, not for activating abilities which require a move action. Chieftains just aren't clever enough to order their minions to do fancy tricks.

TREASURE

sell value of approximately 30,000 gp

COMBAT TACTICS

Hill Giant Chieftains are actually not terrible fighters. They realize that Earthen Smash is awesome, but understand that it can hurt their allies, and will use Bossy Mouth to get allies out of the way if they can. If there are allies still caught in an Earthen Smash, well, that's why their alignment is Evil. They will fight cagily, using Bossy Mouth to get amazing mobility out of their friends, and if need be, they will use Bossy Mouth to take a move action and then perform a full attack, which is an unpleasant surprise indeed. Aside from these things, they will fight as Hill Giants fight, swinging their clubs and using five foot steps to creep backwards as the fight progresses.

OUT OF COMBAT

It should be noted that Hill Giants are ridiculously strong. Per the Carrying Capacity rules, Hill Giant Chieftains can lift and carry 544 tons as a light load! This is completely intentional: Hill Giants are so strong that it is encouraged that out of combat they be treated as able to lift and carry pretty much anything at all. Of course, given how stupid and lazy they are, its rare for them to do so unless motivated. Note, however, that this amazing strength does not, will not, and should not EVER alter their combat statistics! Out of combat a Hill Giant can pluck up huge trees as easily as a daisy, but their combat stats are just boring old numbers, as laid out above.