So, in my last post I tried to pick out the "standard" goblin from Flee, Mortals! to compare with the Goblin in the Monster Manual. The Goblin Warrior is relatively similar to the one found in the MM, and I think could be swapped in without making fights too much harder, but if goblins are meant to be mobile on the battlefield, these skirmishers are even better at it.
Now, Giants in the Monster Manual are... pretty boring, for the most part. They have thematic damage immunities, they hit hard, have lots of hit points, and... that's about it. The higher-level ones get some spells, too. Now, not to disparage WotC's Giants - they literally just came out with a book filled with lots of cool giant stat blocks that are far more interesting than the MM ones. But this series is intended to look at the design philosophy in MCDM's Flee, Mortals!, and so we'll be comparing the "base" model with the FM version, given that the book is meant in a lot of ways to let you use it in place of the Monster Manual for most standard monsters.
The Hill Giant is likely the first "true" giant that a party will face (as opposed to ogres and trolls - the 'lesser' giants). The standard MM Hill Giant is a CR 5 creature, and FM gives us its equivalent in the Hill Giant Clobberer, which is a CR 5 Brute.
Brutes are kind of the simplest monsters - their role is to be a damage sponge that does enough damage it can't be ignored. Unlike the Soldier, which usually protects its more vulnerable allies by locking down player characters like a tank, Brutes just come in, smash things, and threaten the party in the traditional way.
The Clobberer has an AC of 12 and 126 HP. That's a very low AC for a CR 5 monster, but if we're expecting this guy to be the main thing a low-level party is fighting (perhaps with some minions or non-giant allies) that's a lot of HP to churn through. Our giant friend gets a +8 to hit with attacks and deals 18 damage with its Greatclub, which then also forces the target to make a DC 16 Strength save or get knocked prone. They can also hurl rocks for 2d10+5 damage, and they get to make two attacks per turn.
There's a little rebalancing here compared to the MM Hill Giant - more HP but lower AC, and the Rock attack does somewhat less.
This one has a climb speed of 20 feet, and a movement speed of 30.
That actually makes this slower than the MM version, at least on land.
But there are also some additional features, and not all of them make it more powerful:
The Clobberer has a bonus action called Hill Quake, which lets it intentionally fall prone damage nearby structures (not creatures) and potentially knock them prone. It also has a trait called Pummel, which gives it a bonus to damage against prone creatures and lets them reduce a creature's movement speed to 0 if it hits them while prone. It's also a Siege Monster, making that Hill Quake thing doubly devastating against structures.
(I think at this point it might be interesting to see if we'll get more prominent environmental destruction rules - for all I know there is a robust system that I just never happen to use.)
Finally, however, there's Distracted - with no check at all, only spending a reaction, a creature within range of one of the Clobberer's attacks who is not the current target can make the Clobberer attack them instead.
And so, the way a fight against one of these comes together seems to go thusly:
If the Clobberer has enough movement, it starts off with a Hill Quake to knock PCs prone, and then stands up with remaining movement. It then tries to smash anyone who is prone with its greatclub, but let's say you're the beefy Barbarian who easily succeeded on the saving throw, and your Sorcerer friend is on the ground following the Quake. Knowing that the Sorcerer is going to be laid out for extra damage and also unable to stand the next turn if their movement is reduced to zero, you use your reaction to make sure that at least one of its attacks comes at you instead, giving your Sorcerer friend a chance to escape.
And I think that's a showcase of the strength of FM's monster design: these stat blocks are built to create a scenario like that that goes well beyond "well, it hits hard." Our Hill Giant Clobberer really needs to be dealt with, because it's smashing our party and refusing to be ignored.
Now, there is one aspect of the design here that I find kind of curious:
Distracted, as a trait, requires the DM to tell the party about it ahead of time. (There's even box text titled "Make Players Aware: Distracted.") While a player might stumble into the idea that they can distract the giant, there's basically nothing in the game rules that would hint to them that this is a genuine mechanical aspect of this creature. Thus, the DM needs to be upfront and say "you would know, as adventurers, that Hill Giants are easily distracted, and you can use your reaction to get them to attack you instead of an ally if you're in range."
You could play coy and lock this information behind a successful History check (and I do highly recommend giving successful "Knowledge" checks like Arcana, History, Nature, and Religion, clear mechanical benefits) but I think this monster doesn't really work unless that information is shared.
This is similar to Minion Rules. Minions are lots of fun (well, lots of fun for martial characters who usually don't get to do AoE damage) but they work so differently from normal enemies that you need to pull things out of the game for a moment to explain how they work.
And so, while I'm still very much on board with FM and am eager to use basically every stat block in it at some point (though call be again when I find a group ready to face the two-phase CR 30 Tarrasque equivalent, which... geez) I do think that the design here is a little more transparently "gamey." That's, honestly, probably a good thing. But it does give you things like having to set aside the idea that every Minion is an individual person rather than a mass to be chunked through (though in an upcoming fight I have five minions that are Brad, Chet, Chad, Brett, and their Buddy, Beefer, which is an inside joke with one of my players).
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