Hill Giant

A hill giant ally is rare, but the framing that works best is the bound thug: an exiled clan member who owes a debt to a druid, a wizard's experimental servant, a frost giant raid victim the party rescued. The giant is loyal in a simple, immediate way. It does what it is told as long as the instruction is short, the food is regular, and nobody insults it. If those conditions slip, it wanders off looking for easier company.

In combat, point the giant at the biggest enemy and let it work. Tree Club at +8 for 18 bludgeoning is solid Tier 2 damage, and the Prone effect on the target sets up the rogue's next turn for free. Trash Lob is the long-range tool when the giant is asked to support from the back. The Multiattack of two attacks per round, in any combination, makes the giant a flexible damage source, but never an interesting one. The party will plan around it the way they plan around a ballista.

The giant will not coordinate. It does not understand initiative, focus fire, or save-or-suck spells. If the wizard says "save your throw for the lich," the giant throws garbage at the lich on its next turn regardless of context. Treat it as a controlled hazard the party has aimed in the right direction, not a teammate. When the fight ends, the giant wants food and a place to sleep, in that order, and it will say so out loud.

Give the giant one phrase it repeats: "I help now?" or "Big rock, big rock." Players will adopt it as a catchphrase, and the table will care when the giant eventually dies.

A hill giant is the dumbest violent thing of its size that the party will ever fight, and that is the encounter. It does not flank, does not focus fire intelligently, does not consider terrain. It hits the closest moving thing with a tree, and if it cannot reach the closest moving thing it picks up a wagon wheel full of garbage and throws it. Run it as that, not as a tactical mind. The fight is interesting because the hill giant is interesting in shape, not in plan.

Open with Trash Lob if the party is more than 10 ft. away. +8 to hit, 60/240 ft. range, 16 bludgeoning, and the target is Poisoned until the end of its next turn. Two Trash Lobs in one Multiattack is a viable opener at 32 average damage plus two saves' worth of Poisoned, which slows the party's response. Once the party closes, switch to Tree Club: +8, reach 10 ft., 18 bludgeoning, and Large or smaller targets are knocked Prone. Multiattacking two Tree Clubs against the front-line fighter gives you 36 average and two prone checks. The fighter spending a turn standing back up is the whole point.

Hill giants do not retreat sensibly. AC 13 and 105 HP means the party will chip them down quickly with focus fire. The giant will keep hitting whatever just hit it back, which is action-economy gold for the players if they understand it. Reward smart players with an obviously suboptimal target switch (the giant sees the cleric heal and decides to throw a barrel at her instead), then go back to bashing the fighter. Use a single Hill Giant as a mid-tier brute alongside two or three goblins or worgs to compensate for its lack of brain.

Describe the smell before the silhouette. A hill giant reeks of rotted meat, old sweat, and the trash it carries to throw. The party should know it is upwind before they see it.