DF giants

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Dustin

Is there a Technique anywhere to offset size penalties to hit? Seems to me that a giant who regularly fights humans might be able to buy some of that off.

Not expressly, but it would be pretty trivial to design with the Technique Design System. Note that for DF you would need to then write it as a power-up (bought all the way up to the cap) because DF doesn't use techniques.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Not expressly, but it would be pretty trivial to design with the Technique Design System. Note that for DF you would need to then write it as a power-up (bought all the way up to the cap) because DF doesn't use techniques.

I would take a leaf from the Target Locations technique and allow a maximum of half the penalty to be bought off. But yeah, such a technique makes sense.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anders

I would take a leaf from the Target Locations technique and allow a maximum of half the penalty to be bought off. But yeah, such a technique makes sense.

Yeah, it's definitely a variation on Targeted Attack.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Anders

I would take a leaf from the Target Locations technique and allow a maximum of half the penalty to be bought off. But yeah, such a technique makes sense.

Despite the precedent, I wouldn't cap it at half the penalty - I believe the cap is meant mostly to make it so that there is a reason to occasionally aim at the Torso of the target (or go with random hit locations) rather than always go for wherever you bought up the Technique*. That's not a concern when you have an SM+3 giant fighting against SM+0 foes.

*The exception here is Vitals, where except when the foe is wearing a Pectoral or similar, there's never a reason to aim at the Torso rather than the Vitals, as a miss by 1 still hits the Torso. I'm fine with that - aiming for "center of mass" is a pretty common practice, after all.

...

As for the main thread, baseline DF doesn't really support the casual giant- (or dragon- or whatever narratively-serious threat you choose) slaying found in D&D, largely because of the combat system differences already mentioned. If you want to bring it in, you can, but you'll need to add in some cinematic combat options and/or some new** Advantages. For the former, changing the damage of big strong monsters to be mostly knockback (treating them much like cinematic explosions) will let them strike characters and send them flying* without as much risk of killing them. For Advantages, Vitality Reserve will get you closer to the D&D HP model, although I'd be more inclined to go with Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction.

*You'll probably want to increase knockback. 8d cr against an ST 12 adventurer only averages 2 yards of knockback.

**Not necessarily new to GURPS, but I don't think either of the options I've listed are available for characters in DF (some monsters have IT:DR).

[Kalzazz]

Actually you still might want to aim for generic torso hit for better crit chances

[martinl]

Originally Posted by dripton

Remember the blowthrough rules. Losing your full HP in one blow and needing to make consciousness checks is not nearly as bad as losing 6 times your HP in one blow and being instadead.

For awesomeness' sake, allow crushing "blowthrough" where the first HP damage apply as normal and the rest blow through but get double knockback in compensation. So if Bob gets hit for 30 crushing and only has 10 HP, he takes 10 HP of injury and 50 for purposes of knockback.

Fore!

[Kalzazz]

Having played a character who used a spear, I considered buying such TA however

To benefit from 'miss by 1' you need to attack at no more than 15. If you attack at 15, crit is on 5 or less.
I want to use rapid strikes and/or deceptive attack usually to reach 16

Spending 3 points to get the Targeted Attack thus seems questionable, especially as only valid with foes with vitals, and x3 isn't hugely better than x2

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by martinl

For awesomeness' sake, allow crushing "blowthrough" where the first HP damage apply as normal and the rest blow through but get double knockback in compensation. So if Bob gets hit for 30 crushing and only has 10 HP, he takes 10 HP of injury and 50 for purposes of knockback.

Fore!

That might just be genius! It simulates Hollywood giant-human fights quite well.

P.S. I wish this site allowed for granting xp or similar for posts.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Having played a character who used a spear, I considered buying such TA however

To benefit from 'miss by 1' you need to attack at no more than 15. If you attack at 15, crit is on 5 or less.
I want to use rapid strikes and/or deceptive attack usually to reach 16

Spending 3 points to get the Targeted Attack thus seems questionable, especially as only valid with foes with vitals, and x3 isn't hugely better than x2

In my games it often means the difference between major wounds and not or between "major wound" and "I'll just take that guy off the table and not worry about it".

[GURPSman]

Use of Sumo Wrestling (slam) and Brawling (trample) rules is a nice way to bring down the damage while keeping the giant feel without rules tweaks. A mobile giant may live a little longer, too, not standing toe-to-toe with a knight throwing 2-3 hits per turn.