Ogre

A friendly ogre is the village's adopted strongman, a gentle outcast the party found chained in a cellar, or hired muscle from a frontier mercenary band that doesn't ask questions. The framing is that the ogre is loyal to one person in the party, usually whoever fed it first, and views the rest as members of that person's pack.

In combat, position the ogre between the party's casters and the enemy melee line. AC 11 means the ogre takes hits the party doesn't want, but 68 HP plus the party's healing keeps it standing for a long fight. Greatclub for 13 average per swing is real damage at low levels, and the javelin lets the ogre threaten anyone trying to flank around. The ogre will not coordinate. It hits whatever is in front of it and it does not understand "save your action for the bigger threat." Tell the players: if they want the ogre on a specific target, they have to say so out loud, in simple sentences, and offer a reward (food, a shiny thing, a "good ogre").

Out of combat, the ogre is a labor and intimidation tool. It carries the heavy gear, breaks down the locked door, and stands behind the party in negotiations. People in towns are afraid of the ogre, which is sometimes useful and sometimes ends the campaign at the local lord's court. The ogre cannot be left in a town unsupervised. Do not bend on this. The party who tries gets a complaint scene on the way out.

Give the ogre one word it loves to say. "Friend," or its own name, or the name of the PC it imprinted on. Repeat it in every scene. Players grow attached to a creature with a single line.

An ogre is a damage spike on legs. The whole stat block is one greatclub swing and a low-Int decision tree, and your job as GM is to make the swing land on the right person.

Open with the javelin if there's range. +6 to hit at 30/120 ft. for 11 piercing is the only ranged tool the ogre has, and it should fly at the squishiest target the ogre can see, usually the wizard standing in the back. Three javelins on the gear list, so the ogre gets three of these before it has to charge. Once range closes, drop into Greatclub: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., 2d8+4 for 13 average bludgeoning per swing. No Multiattack, just one big hit per turn, but a single crit is 4d8+4 for 22 average and that's a fighter on the ground.

Target priority is where the ogre's low Intelligence helps you. With Int 5, the ogre picks whoever last hit it, whoever yelled at it, or whoever looks smallest. Narrate the bad decisions: it ignores the cleric mid-cast to chase the halfling who threw a rock, it walks past the dying rogue to attack the still-talking bard. Use the ogre's stupidity for tone, not for player frustration. The party should feel they outsmarted it.

The ogre fights to the death because it has nowhere to go and doesn't understand the concept of retreat. AC 11 means it gets hit by almost everything, and 68 HP gives the party three to four rounds of work to finish it. Pair ogres with smarter creatures (a goblin chief with a whip, a hobgoblin captain barking orders) so the ogre has a target queue someone else builds. A solo ogre is a speed bump. An ogre with a handler is a problem.

Have the ogre pick up a piece of the environment, a bench or a horse trough, and use it as the greatclub. Same numbers, better story.