D&D 5E The one Round Giant Fight

[Ancalagon]

So

The party decided to *not* fight the evil cleric of the evil cult and leave him alone and move on. The session having had very little action and lots of intrigue, I decided to just throw in a quick fight for the hell of it. In Yoon-Suin, there are slugmen, but there are also giant slugmen who are more or less savage meat eaters without any of the sophistication of their normal sized fellows, who live lonely, violent lives in the jungle. Because this was quick I just used the stats for a hill giant.

The party was on a boat traveling on the river, not too far from the shore. The giant slugman came out from the vegetation and started wading towards the boat. Everyone bombed their perception check, so by the time they noticed the thing was almost upon them.

The paladin decided to cast "speak to animals" to see if he could talk to it. Nope
The monk threw a few darts doing some damage
The giant came close to the side of the boat, where the cleric was initially, and slammed into it, doing 30 damage and rocking the boat, leaving said cleric with *very* little HP.

Then the warlock cast fear on it. Giant flubbed the save (pretty bad save to begin with).

The giant ran away, taking attacks of opportunities and missile fire on the way back to the safety of the wooded shore, and the PCs sailed away with haste.

Fear is really a fight ender isn't it? A lot of big, beefy monster have bad will saves...

 

[CapnZapp]

Ayup.

At least your "one round giant fight" wasn't "the party win initiative, kill giant before it has time to act even once".

 

[Imaculata]

Good fight. The giant hit at least one of the players and did lots of damage, and then they drove it off.

 

[Ancalagon]

... I guess this is the kind of encounters you have on a 6-8 encounters adventuring day? ???

 

[Eltab]

This turned out to be a good "along the road" combat.
But it would make a poor BBEG fight.

So: make sure your BBEG can save vs. Fear. Because it worked once, and you KNOW the Warlock will try it again.

 

[jaelis]

This was a great use of the fear spell. But if you were attacking a creature in it's lair, or an intelligent foe, then you would often only get a few rounds to work with before the target eventually saves and then returns.

 

[clutchbone]

In my experience, 5e encounters vs solos are more like shotgun duels than drawn out brawls. Even dragons don't last more than a few rounds when a mid-level fighter can action surge for ~60 damage.

That giant encounter actually sounds neat. Gets the players thinking "wow, that could have gone a lot worse!"

 

[Ancalagon]

In my experience, 5e encounters vs solos are more like shotgun duels than drawn out brawls. Even dragons don't last more than a few rounds when a mid-level fighter can action surge for ~60 damage.

That giant encounter actually sounds neat. Gets the players thinking "wow, that could have gone a lot worse!"

I knew it was going to be over fast, but I hoped for more than a round!

It certainly got the players' attention. I roled a bit under average for damage and despite this the cleric almost went down. So it wasn't a complete loss

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using EN World mobile app

 

[Alexemplar]

... I guess this is the kind of encounters you have on a 6-8 encounters adventuring day? ???

I think so. Personally, I consider any dramatic scene that involves characters have to use spell slots, recharge abilities, make lots of specialized checks, etc to deal with an issue, it should count as an encounter. It may not be a fight to the death that lowers their HP, but it is a drain on resources. Not everything that matters needs to be a fight to the death that ends with either the party/someone else dying.

 

[Imaculata]

I roled a bit under average for damage and despite this the cleric almost went down. So it wasn't a complete loss

I'd even call it a success.