Fomorian
Quickie Tactics #4: Giants
Quickie tactics offer a few quick steps to running monsters in D&D
5e. This special edition of Quickie Tactics focuses on the giants
from the Monster Manual. With a few exceptions, most giants are
straightforward in their design—throw rocks, then bop with a
melee weapon.
Cloud Giant
Cloud giants are the types of giants beanstalk climbing farms have
to deal with.
1. Stay 40 to 60 feet away from the party.
2. Cast fog cloud on the party to blind ranged attackers.
3. When melee characters emerge from the fog cloud, hit them
with rocks.
4. When a character gets within 40 feet of you, charge and hit with
your morningstar.
5. Use gaseous form and misty step when you need to flee.
Cyclops
Cyclopes are one-eyed creatures with inferior Wisdom.
1. Try getting as close as possible to your targets, throwing rocks
while you’re out of range.
2. Once within range of a target, hit them with your greatclub until
they stop moving.
3. Cyclopes are probably not wise enough to know when to flee
from a losing combat.
Ettin
Unlike most of the giants in the Monster Manual, ettins lack a
ranged attack. For added comedy, have their heads argue with each
other.
1. Get within bopping range.
2. Bop the closest target.
3. Keep bopping until the target stops moving. Then pick another
target.
Fire Giant
Despite being the “tankiest” of all the giants, fire giants still rely on
the same tactics that most “true” giants do: throw rocks until a
target comes in melee range.
1. Start combat 40 to 60 feet away from the party.
2. Throw rocks at targets with ranged attacks or spells.
3. Switch to your greatsword when targets come within 30 feet of
you, then charge.
4. Bonus: fight near lava or fire.
Fomorians are grotesque giants native to the feywild. Although
they still love to bop, they have a few more exciting attacks at their
disposal.
1. Start combat 40 to 60 feet away from the party, ideally hidden
(they have decent Stealth).
2. Open with Curse of the Evil Eye, targeting which character
seems to have the lowest Charisma (they’re arguably wise
enough to know who to target).
3. Continue to use Evil Eye on low-Charisma targets until a target
comes within 30 feet.
4. When a target comes within 30 feet of you, charge and hit with
your greatclub while still using Evil Eye once per turn.
Frost Giant
Frost giants have the typical throw rocks until a target comes into
range tactics.
1. Start combat 40 to 60 feet away from the party.
2. Throw rocks at targets with ranged attacks or spells.
3. Switch to your greataxe when targets come within 30 feet of
you, then charge.
4. Bonus: fight in cold terrain.
Half-Ogre
Switch to the half-ogre if you want a fight with a giant but don’t
want to do as much damage as a regular ogre.
1. Start combat 40 to 60 feet away from the party.
2. Throw javelins at targets with ranged attacks or spells.
3. Switch to your battleaxe when targets come within 30 feet of
you, then charge.
Hill Giant
Like most other “true giants,” hill giants rely on simple tactics.
1. Start combat 40 to 60 feet away from the party.
2. Throw rocks at targets with ranged attacks or spells.
3. Switch to your greatclub when targets come within 30 feet of
you, then charge.
Ogre
Ogres are basically just “small” hill giants.
1. Start combat 40 to 60 feet away from the party.
2. Throw javelins at targets with ranged attacks or spells.
3. Switch to your greatclub when targets come within 40 feet of
you, then charge.
Oni
Oni are fiendish ogres that come with a wide variety of interesting
spells. They arguably work best as support creatures.
1. Start combat invisible.
2. While invisible, position yourself so you can hit as many targets
as possible with your cone of cold.
3. After using cone of cold, stay in the air. Use charm person to
remove an enemy from the battle—make sure you don’t hit
them with any of your area of effects.
4. Find a place to hide, then turn invisible again. Position yourself
and wait for the targets to come near.
5. Pop out of hiding, attack with your multiattack, and then return
to the sky.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the combat is over. 1
Stone Giant
Stone giants differ from the other “true” giants thanks to their
stealth ability. Still, once they reveal themselves, it’s pretty much
throwing rocks until a target comes within charging range.

1. Start combat hidden in rocky terrain.

2. From hiding, throw a rock at the most “dangerous-looking”
target.
3. Keep throwing rocks until targets come within 40 feet of you.
4. Charge and hit targets with your greatclub.

Storm Giant
Storm giants are perhaps the most interesting of all the “true”
giants because they get some spells and can swim.

1. Start combat in or near water whenever possible. Stay back 200

to 500 feet.
2. Use your lightning strike, targeting as many creatures as
possible.
3. While waiting for lightning strike to recharge, throw rocks at
the most dangerous-looking targets.
4. If a target gets within 50 feet of you, switch to your greatsword.

Troll
In a perfect world, players won’t use meta-knowledge when they
fight trolls. However, this isn’t a perfect world.

1. Charge into combat and attack the nearest target.

2. Continue to bite and claw whatever target is closest to you. As
chaotic evil creatures, trolls will even attack downed targets.
3. The moment a target demonstrates they deal fire or radiant
damage, get the hell out of there.