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Two questions:

I'm getting my butt kicked by the Fire Giants in the Marching Mountains. I've already lost Viconia to them, and the rest of my party (Saravok, Aerie, Edwin, Korgan and my 17th level fighter/thief) are having a hell of a time getting past the waves of 6 fire giants at a time . . .

1. What tactics work best against these guys? I've tried frontal assaults, area spells (grease +death fog), trying to lure them out a few a time into traps and stun/death symbols. . . any suggestions?

2. What are the abilities of Fire Giants? How many hit point do they have? I think they do extra fire damage with every hit . . . how much? They seem to be attacking with hammers, but when they die, they leave +1 2-handed swords behind . . . ?

1) try hasting your main fighters and moving everyone else out of the way....use holy smite and abi-dalzims horrid wilting on groups, the warhammer+1/+4 versus giants if you have it (unless you have better than plus 4). Greater whirlwind is excellent too, as are summoned aerial servants and elementals.

2) they have innate fire damage...it doesnt come on their weapons. Other than that they have no abilities.

hasting is very good. i also used chant and got all my party members casted with skins spells (stoneskin etc.).
that should do the trick.

Actually I find the giants to not be that big a problem, Flyboy. They aren't terribly fast, and if you have a thief donned in Grand Master's Armor+6, or Boots of Speed, and a good hide in shadows/walk silently thief skills (at least 100 in both categories, a cloak of non-detection would be just super) you should have no problem in scouting out a good choke point.* And that is the secret to killing these nasty suckers... Just like taking out Adamantine Golems, you have to get a choke point in front of you. However unlike Adamantine Golems; Fire Giants aren't immune to missile weapons.

Once you have done your scouting and have your party in place? Haste your party, get out your missile weapons, and get ready to make a run for the choke points.

If there are no readily available choke points, like in the first level of Yaga's temple, then just exit the building. Sure, you will have to dip around with an annoying auto-save delay, but the giants will soon be back upon your trail, having followed you outside. If you egg them on with an occasional arrow hit, they won't lose interest, and you can lead them right to a previous choke point.

Once safe, feel free to peck away and wait for them to die and drop their booty (they have such nice things...). It might take a bit and seem cheesy, but it beats dying and/or losing party members, as giants tend to shatter their victims into tiny (unressurectable) pieces.

(*A Clairvoyance spell works just as well as a scout, if not better, dude.)

>>2. What are the abilities of Fire Giants? How many hit point do they have? I think they do extra fire damage with every hit . . . how much? They seem to be attacking with hammers, but when they die, they leave +1 2-handed swords behind . . . ?<<

I *think* 23 strength, plus their swords and fire damage. It would probably be a good idea to give one of your melee characters the golden girdle and haste them. You may want to have someone wear fireshield (blue) or use the Icestar morningstar.

i think its 22 strenght. thats what you get from the girdle

I seem to remember the spell Cone of Cold working well against Fire Giants. Have you tried that?

Summons. They'll take the damage for you while you fire away from a safe distance with spells and missile weapons.

IIRC you can kill them quite easily with finger of death...

Well...

Fire giants don't see invisible (hint, hint) - more details below - highlight to see [/COLOR=darkblue] Option 1: mass invis, or what have you, sneak in to one of the alcoves & clear out it's denizens Edwin+Robe of Vecna+Staff of the Magi+project image. Have his IMAGE summon some good pets (Swords, Planetars), have an invisible character spot for the clone, and he can go out and send in the pets after tossing in a variety of unpleasant spells, hasting the pets & slowing the giants. Burn up his entire line-up (and some scrolls or wands) on the projected image, rinse and repeat. This works insanely well when you hack him to Sorcerer

Option two - split them. I never faced more than two at a time, maybe three on the first fight. Consider where you're fighting and how to engage.
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Secret

I too lost alot of characters until I got Bigby's Fist and Bigby's Hand spell. These spells will hold them down for a few moments per round. Get your fighters with the biggest, baddest weapons, hit until you see the fist disappear, then run. and wait till the next round, where you can do it again. Go back and repeat.

They come in pairs so you have to have at least 2 of these spells and whatever you do, try not to go forward as the more you travel, the more pairs you get. When you run, run back to where you had come from to keep the fire giants to a min.

And despite what some people may say, these fire giants are NOT "pretty easy" to kill.

Even the Bigby's spells just make it possible to take them down, not easy to do so.

Normal summoned creatures are mostly fodder which can die in a split second. I had Summon Deva which lasted abit and gave you some time. But don't count on much more than hit with Bigby spell, hit and run. It ain't pretty, but it DOES work.

I've always found "Rush with tanks" to be effective... Then again, Crom Frayer (SP) dual-wielded makes a nasty weapon -- especially if your using the Item Upgrades "IMproved Celestial Fury". With a weapon switch to the flail of the ages, too.