[RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

In a combat between a giant (SM +5) and a man (SM 0), the man have a bonus of +5 to your skill. The giant has any disadvantage to active defense? He defends at -5?

A man shooting an arrow, will hit easy. A giant probably will not defend well, maybe Block or Parry are possible, but Dodge is impossible... How something so huge can dodge an small arrow? Its so fast...

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

Or only +4 to skill if using a melee attack (there's a cap on that).

No penalty to defenses for SM. The giant dodges with no special modifier.
Uh? The size of the target doesn't change the speed of the arrow. The giant can dodge the arrow just fine.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

Yes. The giant might get a bigger size penalty to see the arrow coming though if this is not already obvious to him. This can be an issue if the archer is shooting from a concealed position.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

A Dodge for a 1-Hex creature is a total movement of <1 Hex to get clear of the "target." The Giant would have to move maybe ~2.5 Hexes in the same amount of time to get his torso clear of the "target," which means a normal Dodge, in his case, would have to be 5x as fast to account for his SM—I don't think that's realistic. Not sure how I would fix that, though, ATM.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

But the giant's legs are also ~2.5x as long as a man's, so it's ~the same amount of effort. But if this seems unreasonable, just give your giants a DX penalty, or even a Reduced Dodge (Big and Slow) disadvantage.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

A) Realistic or not, that is the rule.

B) If your giant is cumbersome so that it can't make quick movements at the same proportional rate as a human, that sounds like a perfect case for bought-down Dex, and possibly Basic Speed.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

Reduced Dodge would be a good fix. I'm wondering, though, if that should be implicit in the SM Trait, but then Enhanced Basic Move (Long Legs) is not either (currently).

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

That's not unreasonable, but the campaign I GM in is very wide-ranging; we've run into fantasy giants, as well as Colossal Lad. Slow fantasy giants make sense; superheroes...well, could be.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

Apart from the aforementioned perception rolls, I'd just spur the attacker to turn the SM bonuses into deceptive attack penalties, both for melee and ranged combat.
So a SM+10 creature might often suffer from an extra -5 to its defenses.
Never happened in my games, though. So far the biggest creature was only SM+2.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

... or would the giant care? ST 75ish, probably a point or two of DR... The giant wouldn't like getting shot even if it's more of a sting than an injury. I imagine the archer would be squished before the second shot though.

Is a giant stepping on you a slam, trample, or both? Hmmm...

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

Hey, stop picking on giants. High SM is very troublesome already.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

And SM does not always mean a giant antropomorph - a super-fast, like zip around like lightining fast 20 m diameter sphere or a 70 metre long, 2 metres wide snake like creature with 2400 legs (coordination of which really complex so the creature always trips on its own feet) and BM of 1 are all possible.

Meaning: GURPS being generic and universal, if your Giants (which are physical impossibilities already - so you are in Fantasy area) are slower compared to your normals, make them slower. I can perfectly imagine a giant moving as fast as I can making the resultant "effects" to the surroundings really impressive (with lots of small things flying around and getting crushed all the time and a lot of noise) so mine would be faster. This is just a choice, it shouldn't be inherent in the system.

Cheers!

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

You know, many of us would be happy to see more of this officially addressed. (Aims to the forthcoming new Low-Tech). Initially I thought these issues would be treated if not in the new Basic Set, at least in 4e Fantasy, but...

It all depends on the diet.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

Well, I bet we won't get more official than the FAQ for a while.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

Speaking of Man vs. Giant, how would you handle the problem of hit locations in such an encounter? I tried to find advice in the "Combat at different levels" section (B404) but to no avail (it actually covers a different issue).

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

Well, if the giant was SM +5 and an attack on the head is -5 (in 3rd edition, anyway), then the giant's head is the size of a "normal" human torso, +0 to hit.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

Provided you can reach the head. You should get a section bonus but it should also be necessary to target sections you can reach. You shouldn't really get the full +5 if there's only SM+1 worth of target you can get at. (Just opinion.) Besides, it really hasn't come up in my games.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

I thought there was already a +4 cap for melee for this very reason.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

That could very well be the reason though +4 sounds pretty generous considering that with most weapons you could hardly reach the first 15' (SM+2) of a 45' (SM+5) tall giant.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

In fact my question was exactly about weapon reach with non human-sized (or, anyway, differently sized) opponents. In case I should end up GMing a man vs. giant fight, is there out some supplement with rules to detail what is reacheable and what is not, or am I on my own (GM's call backed up by geometry and common sense)?

Regards,

Amedeo

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

Martial Arts has posture effects you can get a feel from, and there's also this image Bruno made. It covers SM's -4 through +1.

Re: [RULES] Combat between Giant and man.
 

I had a peek at MA98 but there it's said that for (very) different SM creatures one has to use Combat at Different Levels, and I already said I didn't find very useful that setcion (B402) in this regard.
Anyway, thank you for the picture link, it will be very useful when figuring hit locations when GMing melees involving different sized humanoids.

Regards,

Amedeo