Curious Objects: Mighty Thews! Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Girdles and Potions of Giant Strength

Super-strength is a staple of fantasy and sci-fi. Whether it's superheroes, power armor, or magic items. It is literally a power fantasy. There's a reason Shazam/Captain Marvel was more a more popular title than Superman back in the early days of both comics. Billy Batson was a normal kid who got superpowers. Clark was born with them and had always had them. If you weren't the last son of a dying planet, you were out of luck on wearing a big "S" on your chest.

In BX, there are three main ways a character boosts their strength via magic (other than Wish spells or the like).

First we'll look at the one I've probably seen most often in play: The Gauntlets of Ogre Power. At first glance, it seems quite simple. It boosts you to an 18 strength. Closer reading shows it's a little bit more than that. First off, instead of the normal unarmed attack damage of 1d2 + STR adjustments, the wearer deals 1d4 with a +3 to hit only (not damage). It's an interesting choice by Moldvay and I assume a game balancing one. 1-4 damage vs 4-5 seems reasonable enough.

The other difference between the wearer and a character with a natural 18 strength is encumbrance. By the book, there is no strength-based adjustment to how much weight a character can carry. The wearer of the gauntlets gets +1000cn ENC "without being encumbered." (B50) That's a pretty sweet deal if the encumbrance rules are being used. It basically means they can lug an extra 100 pounds of gear or treasure without being additionally slowed. 

Next up we have the Girdle of Giant Strength. Very probably inspired by Megingjörð, Thor's mythological belt of strength. In some ways the girdle is simpler than the gauntlets. It lets the wearer attack as a Hill Giant, a 8HD creature (unless they're already better at combat than that) and do 2d8 damage, unless variable weapon damage is used (which, honestly, is probably 90% of the time), then damage is simply doubled. There are no rules for increased strength bonuses or carrying capacity, just potentially better to-hits and double damage. DMs are free to tweak this, of course.

 

Last we have the Potion of Giant Strength. Which is very similar to the belt, except it is temporary and boosts the imbiber to Frost Giant levels. This translates to chunking small boulders up to 200' and dealing 3d6 damage with them (not too shabby!) and also doing x2 damage in melee. The potion specifically states it will not combine effects with the gauntlets or the girdle. I could see drinking the potion during a siege and hurling boulders at the attacking forces, or at the parapets if I were outside the walls!

I've mostly seen the gauntlets show up in games. The last homebrew campaign that I ran, a bugbear chieftain had a pair and gave the party a fairly hard time before finally dropping. The melee fighter was beyond thrilled to discover the gloves. He and the cleric wrangled occasionally about who should wear them. Fun times! I would also offer some latitude on how the strength effects could manifest by using the ability check system (roll under your score on a d20) to let the fighter show off a little. But beyond that, he was just a strong human with a slightly tougher punch and more encumbrance.

I honestly don't see the "giant strength" items being too unbalancing in play, either. The potion wears off and the girdle is for the most part, simple combat buffs. Though I wouldn't let a normal person win an arm-wrestling contest against the character!

Kaag the Hill Giant

Several months ago, I posted an encounter from my then-ongoing BX campaign involving a group of bugbears and an aranea. In it, I mentioned that the spider wanted some giant's blood for an experiment. This is the giant the PCs went after.

Kaag, the Giant of Soot Hill

AC: 3

HD: 8+ (36 hp)

Move: 120' (40')

Att: 1 (rock or spear)

Dmg: 2d6+2/2d8+3

No. App: 1

Save: F8

AL: C

For a hill giant, Kaag is an exceptional example of his breed. He is stronger and smarter than most of his kin. Kaag lives in a large hall set partway into a hillside cave. He has spent a good deal of effort to enlarge the cavern and finish the exterior building. The location is known as Soot Hill because Kaag burned all the trees on and around it to give him a better view of anything approaching. 

Like most hill giants, Kaag can be violent and greedy, but he usually satisfies these cravings by hiring out to local humanoids as an enforcer. He is paid in food (usually livestock or game), drink (barrels of ale), or treasure (he loves gold in particular).

Kaag bears humans no malice, but dislikes being disturbed. He speaks Giant, Chaotic, Orcish, Goblin, and Common. 

When Kaag fights, he can hurl melon-sized rocks with great accuracy up to 100’ (yards outdoors) for 2d6+2 damage. In melee, he wields a huge spear of unusual workmanship*. He is unarmored, but carries a large hide shield.

Kaag’s Treasure

• 3 scrolls: Protection from Lycanthropes, Protection from Elementals, and a Treasure Map (leads to a Ring of Regeneration).
• Sword +1, locate objects (shortsword)*
• 6000 gpv skulls**

The scrolls are useless to Kaag as he can speak several languages, but does not read. They are hung on the wall as decoration. (He finds the colorful inks pretty)

*The sword is too small for him to wield normally, so he has converted it to his spear point. It grants him +1 to hit and counts as a magic weapon for hitting special creatures. He has no idea of its location powers.

**The gold coins have all been melted down. Most of it coats the skulls of various creatures, including people. These are battle trophies of foes Kaag found especially worthy and sit on shelves around the cave. There are 88 skulls of human, demi-human, or humanoid origin. In addition, there are:

• 1 troll skull
• 2 cave bear skulls
• 2 ogre skulls
• 1 stone giant skull
• 1 dire wolf skull
• 1 owlbear skull
• 1 dragon skull (from a young black)

Over the years Kaag has gotten fairly skilled at the process and re-did the older ones to improve the job. The skulls are quite beautiful, if in a macabre way. If the PCs manage to befriend Kaag, he may show off his collection, boasting of his prowess in battle.

There is also a large lump of leftover gold that he re-melts when he wants to coat another skull. The lump contains 1000gpv of unused gold. It lies under a cloth among some sacks and casks (food and ale).

REF (Random Encounter Fun): Stone Giants

Rolling on the wilderness tables (I arbitrarily chose "Mountains"), I got "Humanoid" as result (ho-hum), but the roll on the sub-table yielded "Giant, Stone." NOW we're getting somewhere!

Cook says 1d2 might appear in a random encounter and, lucky PCs, I rolled a 2. The description says they may keep cave bears as guards, but in a moment of mercy I originally decided those would be at the lair, not wandering (even though I did roll and they have 4 of them at home!). I changed my mind, however as I developed the idea for the encounter. But I only added one (see below).

The encounter distance came up as 170 yards (4d6 x 10 yards). A pretty respectable distance but giants are tall and easily seen, plus they would have a good vantage for spotting the party as well.

Stone Giants are Neutral and there's nothing in their description to indicate a natural empathy or antipathy toward people. So a reaction roll is probably in order. Unfortunately, it came up a 4, so the giants are not feeling friendly. The giants can throw stones 300', but that becomes yards in the wilderness, so they would probably lead with that. But rather than get into a specific melee, let's take a look at the encounter and try making sense of it.

The party is travelling through the mountains, yes? It's a random encounter, so they haven't met these giants before. The two groups are nearly two hundred yards apart, so it's not like the PCs could have said something to tick the giants off. What would cause such a hostile reaction? Are the giants being territorial? Did they just wake up grouchy? Or did they just want some target practice?

Maybe it's a case of mistaken identity?

Perhaps the giants had a run in with a different group of puny humans, maybe an NPC party? Giants have good treasure, so maybe, in a "My Cousin Vinny" sort of a twist, some other adventurer types tried to raid the lair for the loot. Maybe they succeeded, maybe they were chased off, but during the fracas all but one of the giants' pet bears was killed! Now the giants (the surviving ones at any rate) are angry. After scouring the mountainside all morning looking for the interlopers -using the bear to try tracking them- what should come stumbling by? A group of murder hobos just strolling along the slopes!

Now this could (likely) end up being a straight out fight to the finish, with neither side knowing the whole story. But imagine for a moment that one of the giants speaks Common and yells something mid-fight like "Now you will pay for what you did!" And the PCs retort with something better than "Huh?"

If the slaughter pauses long enough for a non combat actions to take place, maybe the party passes the bear's sniff test and the giants realize their mistake. Perhaps the giants feel guilty, or maybe they offer the PCs a bounty to hunt down the "killer NPCs." Depending upon the PCs' levels, they might decide staying on the good side of some 9HD monsters isn't the worst idea imaginable.

That sounds like a fun little twist. Or at least a potential side quest. Not to mention that, if they are sloppy in their pursuit, they could make enemies out of the NPCs.  Plot fodder for months!

RMA: Giant Toad

Ribbit!

While not exactly rare, giant toads aren't particularly common either (at least in my games). It only shows up randomly on the wilderness tables and there only at rivers. I think this is because it is a relatively low level monster that doesn't make its appearance until the Expert rules. The river table appearance is somewhat limiting when one considers that real-life toads are often found well away from large bodies of water. Nevertheless, Mr. Toad is here and we shall investigate him before he drives off.

Toad, Giant (from Cook)

AC: 7

HD: 2+2

MV: 90' (30')

ATT: 1

DMG: 1d4+1

# APP: 1d4 (1d4)

SAVE: F1

MORALE: 6

TT: Nil

AL: N

GTs are described as 150-250 pounds ("the size of a very large dog") and capable of changing the skin color. This chameleon effect increases their surprise chance slightly (1-3). Their hit dice and AC are no great shakes and they are hardly the bravest creatures when it comes to morale. Not to mention no real loot to speak of.

The two things that make the giant toad interesting are its ranged tongue attack (15') and the chance of swallowing a target whole. Only "small" (the text implies dwarf-sized or smaller) targets can be swallowed, and only then on a natural 20 attack roll. A swallowed target takes 1d6 damage per round while in the amphibian's gullet.

I think the reason this didn't get included in Moldvay was A) space limitations and/or B) the creature's wilderness aspect. It is after all just a big animal. The Expert rules opened up the wider (and wilder) world beyond the dungeon to the players & DM, so it seems -aheh- natural that some less powerful yet monstrous wildlife was introduced. 

As far as running an adventure with these creatures, I would happily place a few near a river or swamp and have them squat silently like a stone as the party travel through. Then THWIP! A sudden lashing out of a tongue at the halfling or dwarf PC to drag them in for a bite and if lucky, GULP! The emphasis (for me) would be to underscore the fantastic elements of a BX world rather than as a major encounter or challenge.