Hill Giant Chieftain

Hill Giant Chieftain (CR 17)

Neutral Evil - Large - Humanoid (Giant)

Lore:	Know (Local)
34		49
Basic DC		Full DC

Initiative

28

Perception:
38	+28
Passive	Active

Ambush:

10+

on a d20

Senses:

• Standard Senses

Movement Types:

Defense

AC

41

Man Def

40

Monster Health
665	332	32
Hit Points	Bloodied	Hit Dice

Saving Throws
Fort:	+20
Refl:	+15
Will:	+15

Strong Against:

Weak Against:

Offense

Size:	Large
10 ft.		10 ft.
Space		Reach

To-Hit

+25

Man Off

+29

Action

0

Points

Standard Attack (Melee):

• 1x Giant Club +25 (4d8+17/19-20 x2)
  as undefined damage type
  plus Giant Swing

Full Attack (Melee):

• 3x Giant Club +25 (4d8+17/19-20 x2)
  as undefined damage type
  plus Giant Swing

Standard Attack (Ranged):

• 1x Giant Rock +25 (4d8+17/19-20 x2)
  as undefined damage type
  (Increment: 50 ft.; Max Range: 250 ft.)

Full Attack (Ranged):

• 3x Giant Rock +25 (4d8+17/19-20 x2)
  as undefined damage type
  (Increment: 50 ft.; Max Range: 250 ft.)

Siege Damage: Not siege capable

Statistics

80

STR

16

DEX

22

CON

5

INT

16

WIS

16

CHA

Skills:

• Diplomacy: 30 (Used with Antagonize feat to Fluster foes in combat (a standard action) as required.)
• Perception: 28
• All other skills: 23 (no ranks)

Languages: Giant, Common

Feats:

• Combat Reflexes (EFFECT: Monsters with this feat make up to 4 attacks of opportunity per round instead of one.)
• Antagonize (EFFECT: Use Diplomacy or Intimidate to goad creatures.)

Special Abilities

Earthen Smash (Ex)

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 (flying debris and concussive shock waves means it affects even creatures in the air or underground) that does points of physical bludgeoning damage and knocks all creatures prone. A reflex save versus DC negates the prone effect only.

Giant Swing (Ex)

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 (Su)

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, Slide that ally up to five squares as forced movement. Alternatively, they can, once per encounter, use Bossy Mouth on themselves as a swift action, in which case they may Slide themselves up to five squares as forced movement. Using Bossy Mouth on themselves 'uses up' this ability for the remainder of the encounter. Note that forced movement, as always, does not provoke.

Hill Giant Chieftain

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, and their astonishing skill at Diplomacy, despite their epic stupidity, even makes them easy to get along with.

Combat Tactics

Hill Giant Chieftains are actually not terrible fighters. They will often lead from the front, using their powerful tremorsense to find ambushes and victims. Once the fighting begins, they will sometimes hang back and use Bossy Mouth to slide an ally in front as a blocker, and then use their startlingly good Diplomacy and Antagonize to fluster enemies far away, especially 'finger wigglers'. Their 'trash talk' is simple and crude, but also enragingly good. Tagging spellcasters with a spell failure chance is always fun, but forcing meleers to close to fight is a delight for them, and their Combat Reflexes can make it painful, to boot. If the trash talk is working, they will happily fight defensively and keep up the pressure with their loud, boorish taunts. Chieftains have extra hitpoints and defenses to make this tactic worth pursuing.

Once engaged in melee, Chieftains 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 close in 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

Chieftains are low, mean, cunning things, but also have a startling degree of rugged nobility. They will happily parley with almost anything, even though they may merely be debating which limb to tear off first. They frequently find gainful employment with other creatures, both weaker than them as muscle and stronger than them as serfs, and like all Hill Giants, as long as their needs are met, they are amazingly loyal and tractable. They are of and beloved by the Earth, and they have eerie senses tied to the earth. They are too dumb to really be spiritual, but the vague glimmers are there, under the sheer awfulness of their existence.

Rewards

XP: 102,400

Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 51,444 gp.

Weight: 170 lbs.     Volume: 6.8 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)