Throne of Bhaal Quick Question 1: Fire Giants

Xeroshi

I know its been awhile since i asked for advice but these dang fire giants are causing me pain and suffering

Svar

Use any non-fire related summons you might have. Also Chain Lightning and Holy Smite. That's how I managed the fire giants. Granted, it still took me a while to get through that whole bit.

joluv

They have such good THAC0 that you probably can't depend on AC anymore. Use (Improved) Mantle, PFMW, Stoneskin, Iron Skins, and/or Mirror Image to avoid getting hit at all. Use Hardiness, Armor of Faith, Defensive Stance, and/or Defender of Easthaven to mitigate the damage on characters who do get hit.

Sharguild

Best method I've found is simply use ranged attacks. Touchy-feely with these guys is not your best option.
There are a variety of choke-points you can use to your advantage on the maps.
There are no extra points allotted for killing them in hand-to-hand combat. Hit and run, traps, symbols and wands work well. Use summons to distract.
It's like fighting a Dragon...only totally different.

lunar

Wile they are busy fighting with Mordenkainen swords, Apply greater malison and doom from afar. Then pick them one by one with finger of death spells. Disintegrate is also workable if you don't care about loot.

dunbar

In one area there is (as mentioned before) an obvious choke point where you can kill them with ranged weapons. Elsewhere I proceed slowly so that they come to me, one or two at a time, and use Improved haste on my fighter-heavy party (and plenty of potions of Superior Healing).

Durenas

Fire Giants IIRC use bludgeoning attacks. Try potions of absorption.

DregothofTyr

I believe they use slashing, they have axes +2 in their inventory.

Durenas

I did a check with eekeeper and you're correct, the ones that drop gems have the battle axe of mauletar +2 in their weapon quickslot.

FrdNwsm

In the latter portions of ToB, your AC is almost immaterial. Unless it's something ridiculous like -15, you WILL get hit by the more powerful enemies; their THAC0 is just that good. Plan accordingly.

1) Distract them with summoned creatures; draw their aggro, pin them in place and bop them with spells/missiles from afar. Your summonings won't last long, but they don't have to.

2) If you want to melee them hand-to hand, use HLAs such as hardiness and make sure you have improved haste. Alternately, use GWW with a vorpal or heavy damage weapon and do massive damage (and/or instant death) per round. The relative insignificance of AC works both ways. My berserker had a THAC0 of -12, and would hit with every swing using GWW. Fire giants melted away.

3) Set traps and let a character with boots of the cheetah run around to taunt them and lure them into the minefield. A few spike traps can wipe out several giants in one shot. Contrary to popular opinion, high level single class thieves DO have usefulness. This is even truer after they get the "use any item" HLA. They can, for example, use wands/scrolls and weapons/armor formerly forbidden to them.

4) Multiple horrid wiltings. Better yet, alacrity + multiple wiltings. Edwin is good for this, due to the number of spells he can carry.

5) GWW + Soul Reaver. Each hit reduces their THAC0 by 2. After a round of combat, they will have trouble hitting a kobold.

6) Lots of potions of extra/superior healing, in case they get lucky.

Yannir

Summon Planetar. Problem solved.

Neverused

There's always the tried-and-true method of dealing with melee-only characters, and that's casting layered Teleport Fields via triggers or whatever, and then just hitting them from afar while they can't get near you.

FrdNwsm

Yannir said:

Summon Planetar. Problem solved.

True; if that option is available to you, you will win that particular combat.

Neverused said:

There's always the tried-and-true method of dealing with melee-only characters, and that's casting layered Teleport Fields via triggers or whatever, and then just hitting them from afar while they can't get near you.

Hmm, that's actually a new one to me. Similar end results to blocking them with summoned creatures while you hit them from a distance, but using a different means. Creative.

Now, not all tactics can be used by every party. The point is that there are a number of ways to deal with these (and other powerful opponents), depending on exactly how your party is constructed, what abilities they have and what equipment they are using.

semiticgoddess

In the original game, the giants' weapons used the wrong damage values, though I forget which one. Either the axes did crushing damage or the hammers did slashing damage. I've got EE with SCS and it appears to use the correct values.