What weapons should fantasy giants have?

>user do you realize arrows can break through shields and metal armour
Not him but arrows would have a hard time penetrating a giant's padded/wooden/metal armour or shield.

>Like srly nigga humans can't reach that high.
Dude lmao just like use a 2 meter long pike!

>Why would a giant need a helmet to fight humans?

>Like srly nigga humans can't reach that high.

t. Goliath.

Muh English longbows

Strung over 1000 times by master craftsmen they can pierce plate armour from range.

Realistically tbey couldn't.

Even assuming your arrows are as deadly as you say it wouldn't do much against a giant. Sure you could make him bleed but it would be like trying to kill a bear with a bow.

If they're fighting humans they should use whatever kind of armor they have + something to augment their bare hands. Actual weaponry would be a waste, with the exception of great bows for long distance shit. The typical fantasy go-to is some sort of giant club, but that would drain even a giant's stamina too quickly I would think, and since their fists alone could crush a human I see no need to use anything more straining.

To contend against human cavalry, perhaps each giant would have a mobile battering ram that looks like half of a chariot that they push along. Wedge shaped and armored in the front, two wheels, and nearly as tall as the giant. The idea being to make use of a giant's superior strength and momentum to fuck up horses or anything else for that matter, while protecting the giant himself.

It depends on how large your giant is.

If its so large you need ballistas to kill it I doubt rocks, arrows and bolts will do more than make it angry.

>Realistically tbey couldn't.
The actually could

>Sure you could make him bleed but it would be like trying to kill a bear with a bow.
You can kill a bear with a bow. It just requires more than one arrow. So if the giant is getting hit by human arrows constantly at some point he'll die. Unless of course he's wearing armour and/or has a shield which would make it incredibly difficult to kill him with just arrows

I feel like the main reason giants use clubs, besides the fact that they're generally stupid in most fantasy and can't make better stuff, is that at that scale, anything they use is going to break apart after a few hits. So they grab a decent tree trunk, smack people until it shatters, then repeat as needed.
And even if they make a very nice, very cool looking steel weapon, it's still going to snap or shatter or bend irreparably after a short time. The giant uses enough force with each blow that no material we can make weapons out of would hold up.
It's why this (pic related) would never work in real life.

Would giants use whips when fighting smaller enemies?
Unlike swords they are relatively lightweight for giant-size, and the forces involved will crack and shatter the bones of smaller creatures.

>rocks
I'm not talking about pebbles but huge rocks thrown from a trebuchet or a catapult. If it hits him on the head it's going to incapacitate him.
>arrows
If an arrow pierces him then it won't do much but if a hundred arrows pierce him then he's down
>bolts
Medieval war crossbows have huge penetrative power (so good that they could penetrate plate armour if the target was close enough). If a bolt hits him at an exposed area it's going to hurt him pretty bad. That's why he needs armour

When hunting bears with arrows you don't aim for the head. You kill them hitting them on the side and hopefully piercing a lung.

A giant isn't going to stand still and let archers shoot it. If the arrows are really that great an issue it could simply hold an arm or hand over its face until it takes the 5 or 6 steps to get within stomping distance.

Longbows really weren't as effective as often portrayed. Hell arrows in general can be stopped by a gambeson.

Imagine using a rubberband to shoot sewing needles at a child. You could kill them but it would take all day.

It would probably be a lot like the Cave Troll in Lotr
youtu.be/kyevhryWKHk?t=114
youtu.be/Vi5pdd7xHNI?t=109

Like, arrows will hurt him, and piss him off, but they won't due serious damage unless you shoot him dozens of times or get him in vulnerable places like the throat. And that's a naked troll.
A bodkin point can pierce armor, but if a troll is armored AND has incredibly thick skin, I think you'd have to hope for hitting it in the eye, the throat, the junk, or just feather it over and over until it eventually bleeds to death. None of which are very practical solutions when he's smashing you into pulp.

I was thinking maybe flails or chains.
They could hit a few people at once, are harder to avoid than regular weapons, and can build momentum well.
Giants tend to be slow and clumsy, so I don't know if whips would be the best choice.

I think giants could use just their own fucking shields to fight humans.
Like, the shields they use against other giants. They would basically be hitting humans with fucking walls, while being protected to pretty much anything a human can throw at them.

Alternatively, I think really big chains would be effective, so they could do large sweeping motions and bring down multiple humans at once. Really, anything that can sweep over the ground and is solid enough to endure impact would do wonders against smaller enemies.

What about a giant scythe? A single sweep across the ground could take out whole battalions.

I'm not against giants needing armour but head protection from humans would be ridiculous in most cases.

Sure if you asked it nicely to stand still while you aimed and loaded your catapult you could kill it if you hit it but if you hit it anywhere with a catapult you've probably done serious damage armour or not.

Arrows and bolts only ever have an effective stopping power at close ranges. Assuming you're standing at a giants feet and shooting at its head you aren't at close range. Depending on how tall your giant is of course.

Basically, any weapon that gets too big risks snapping. The scythes long handle (long and thin), the part where the blade meets the handle (where it can break), and the long and thin blade (which can break at that size). He could swing it once, hit the ground accidentally, and break the whole thing.

Same goes for giant *any weapon*. Even normal trees can't always handle any movement that breaks them without breaking.

Giants using metal is just plain silly.

How could they gather the required materials?

How many forests would need to burn to feed a giants furnace?

Where would a giant get a giant anvil or a giant hammer?

While I definitely agree with you that giants shouldn't have frail and thin weapons, you'll have to allow some fantasy physics to rule their weapons. Like allowing their greatswords to somehow handle all their weight, or trees not to easily break, etc.
Otherwise, giants themselves would snap with their own movement and weight.

A scythe-like weapon that it could just sweep through the enemy ranks.

Bear bow hunting is actually a thing and with only one shot too.

Read.
A bear also isn't exactly a giant.

If you're a giant and you're expecting to fight a bunch of humans at once, I don't know that helmet of some sort is a bad idea. Let's say you're approaching 18' tall -- roughly three times the height of a normal man. That means that arrows to you would be as big, relatively speaking, as a 1 foot long shaft would be to a normal man (or maybe just a bit shorter). I would really rather not get shot in the face with a 1 foot long arrow. Even if that fucker only has only a bit over 1/10 the mass (and therefore force) of an ordinary arrow, this is my face we're talking about. Even if it doesn't kill me, it can blind me, or disable me with pain. And if I'm facing a dozen archers, that's twelve pointing shafts coming at my face, and my head is vital enough that it makes good sense to protect it, even if the attacks against it are relatively weak.

With that said, the obvious focus should be on protecting your legs, crotch and abdomen. Oh, and your forearms. Any shield that doesn't extend downwards decently far isn't going to be a useful as you'd like it to be.

Magma furnaces.

Gather minerals from weird giant creatures that basically turn plain rocks/soil it eats into iron via weird digestive processes. Or an adjacent dimension which is all made of vast caves, acessible via ancient giant magic.

Giant anvils/hammers are made the same way normal anvils and hammers are made, just larger.

>A giant isn't going to stand still and let archers shoot it. If the arrows are really that great an issue it could simply hold an arm or hand over its face until it takes the 5 or 6 steps to get within stomping distance.
In battle situation a giant might not know where the human archers or could not move (because of the terrain or friendly troops are around him) or could not reach the archers (maybe they're in a castle or other fortification). The giant also is a huge target so it would be easy to shoot him even if he's moving. That's why I keep saying that he needs armour and a large shield to protect himself from these attacks
>Longbows really weren't as effective as often portrayed. Hell arrows in general can be stopped by a gambeson.
It depends on the draw weight of the bow. Longbows weren't as powerful as fanboys claim but they were pretty powerful for bows. Shoot enough arrows from any war bow to an unarmoured giant and soon enough he'll die.
OP is talking about a giant fighting humans in the context of a battle. So it wouldn't be just a few archers but hundreds of them. You're right about it though in the context of a bunch of adventurers vs a giant
> Assuming you're standing at a giants feet and shooting at its head you aren't at close range
It seems like the giant you're describing is enormous. In OP's video the guy is talking about the giant in GoT so it's pretty easy to hit him with a bow from his feet. Everything I say is assuming that the giant is pretty much the same height as the one in GoT. If he's much bigger then that change a lot.

Wizards, elementals, primal forces, magic. It's a setting with huge ass people that can look into a second story or third story window with ease. I'm sure theres magic. And where theres magic you aint gotta explain shit.

>hurr durr muh longbows man
>relevant

I think you confuse him with Lindybeige

I have a clan of giant that are serving dwarves and get some equipments for it.
I like the idea of pavise shields and some sort of spears that are more like long thick girders. But I'm afraid the latter would probably be easily broken and disposable weapons of that scale is certainly unreasonable. I will keep the pavise for sure because rule of cool though.

>Basically, any weapon that gets too big risks snapping.
a fresh birch trunk should suffice

Forgot my pic

Plank armor if you can't forge or carry that much metal? Something like giant samurai armor made of bits of barns, boats, ect.

Once played a 'half giant' who wore a large caldron with a hole punched in it as a helmet. Other than that I just wore layers of hides, lengths of thick rope wrapped around my midsection with a few skulls and goards for 'pockets'.

Weapon was usually whatever was close and handy, but a sturdy post beam as a spear or a sheet of canvas twisted into a sling were my mainstays.

*cough*Gough*cough*

>The actually could
Only unharmed munitions plate. Pretty much anyrhing after the first part of the Hundred Years War needed whoever was shooting to hit a weak point to have a hope of penetrating plate.

>The actually could
Stop believing medieval English propaganda. You fucking retard.

Giants would use metal armor only on their legs when fighting against human armies, the rest of their bodies would be defended by some sort of hard leather, woven rope or maybe wooden armor, since you can't afford to melt down that much metal and anything else would be ridiculous. Maybe the elite giants or the nobles would wear full metal armor but more as a status symbol thing than actual protection.

As for weapons, they'd mostly likely use blunt weapons. At that size the amount of energy behind each blow would make metal armor amount to nothing, so sharp weapons meant for impaling or finding a chink would be meaningless against human sized enemies. Spears and swords would be reserved for hunting dragons and intra-giant wars.

Would they have ranged weaponry? I like to think so but they most likely wouldn't need it when they can just grab a fistful of rocks and launch them with enough force to shatter wood and dent metal, they are their own catapults after all. No need for fancy bows and crossbows when your muscles are stronger than the strongest human fortification.

t.frogs

>giant wizards
What would one of those look like?
Would their spells be scaled up too?

...

t. uneducated brit liar
educate yourself
youtube.com/watch?v=ukvlZcxNAVY

I had never thought about it but well, yes anything humanoid of habilis or superior intelligence should use javelins primarily and lunging threes at you with human-like dexterity and accuracy from beyond siege weaponry's reach would make giants the massive hazard they're pictured as in old myth instead of the bumbling losers we have in fantasy Veeky Forums.

>head protection from humans would be ridiculous in most cases
>30 guys with bows
>one lucky shot in the eye
>your biggest asset is now dead, incapacitated or at the very least half-blind and in pain

vs

>hollow out a tree trunk, chop the end off, weave a few layers of tatami-style reeds over the eyes

yeah nah

Javelins wouldn't be making the most of their size, since even scaled up their range would be that of a small siege engine.

Massive fucking bows with ballista bolts. You'd have the rate of fire of an archer, and considering his draw length, more power than most siege engines.

Slings with boulders would work well as walking trebuchets too.

I think it requires a look into the social nature of the Giants in question. If they are, like most depictions, largely solitary creatures, then it stands to reason that using metal arms would be a real rarity amongst them since due to the nature of how one has to mine, smelt and smith them, as opposed to wood, bone or rock weapons that are simple matters of shaping by just grinding and occasionally burning for the most part. Without the social structure to support the division of skills and labour it's not particularly plausible to develop the skills required to create metal weaponry. I'd even go one step further and say that if they are solitary then it makes it rather less likely they'd be willing to trade to acquire metal goods to melt down and reforge and even spoils would be more likely used in a crude, 'just see what sticks' manner.

>Implying medieval weapons can penetrate giant plate.

Guys, they're giants. They are much stronger than humans. Their plate armor is probably pretty thick. Maybe the only thing that could get through it is modern firearms.

If you're making armour of that scale for a giant, you'd have an engineering nightmare. Particularly with medieval-renaissance industry full harness would be out.

At best you'd have a big sheet of low-quality metal as a frontal cuirass.

Thick furs, cloth and hide at a giant's scale would be enough to stop anything a single man can operate.

This is one of the most "depends on the setting" questions ever.

Underrated post

But seriously, giants in D&D and many other ttrpg media are often portrayed as huge, ill-proportioned, feral retards that wear exclusively loinclothes and fight with tree trunks for a reason : to give PCs a chance
A smart and athletic giant, with sensible equipment and armor is one of the most terrifying combat encounter you can throw at about anything. Add a few more and have them use evolved tactics and a small party can easily take on a regiment of without even using magic
They're basically upscaled adventurers, and we all know what the fun-size versions of these fuckers are capable of
Makes me want to DM for a giant party actually

Outside of Mercenary work and a perpetual monster grind, what can you do with a fantasy group of Giants?

Why are Warhams ogres so fucking awesome.

>Shield Giants
Like the tower knight in Demon's Souls. Imagine a few giants with these just standing in front of an army absorbing projectiles. Easy enough to beat down humans with an object that big. Even if the shield in the picture is too complex for a giant to make, a giant shield could be something like a castle's drawbridge with a metal handle stapled through.

If these giants are following real world physics and are just upscaled humans without any significant changes in biology or physical structure, then they would probably end up as slow and proportionally weak. Probably not very effective combatants, they would be like elephants but without the body structure for charging into formations, in fact a bipedal body may be impossible at that size. If they somehow kept human strength proportions, ranged or thrown weapons would likely be their go-to, as they would naturally have a great vantage point on almost any battlefield simply because they are taller than humans. If they had to engage in melee, and had the resources to make weapons that had similar physics-breaking proportional structural stability, weight and strength, then large shields, plate armor, and some kind of weapon not based on precision would be ideal, like a mace, flail, hammer, club, or even torch. In fact, with proper boots and gloves, it may be best for the giant to simply stomp and smash smaller foes, like a human might do to groups of cats or dogs, kicking them and occasionally picking up and throwing them.

They should use a scythe and harvest their enemies like wheat.

A club would do a better job

Why did you cough three times?

>Muh English longbows
Not user you replied too, but do you westernians know only fairy tales about english bow?
Reflex bow, read about it.

After hearing of some of the horror stories of a cable snapping on a military base or chains coming loose in the old shipyards, wouldn't a giant chain be the ideal anti-personal weapon, assuming that we're talking about the standard 30 something foot tall Giant.

Most hilarious band of cat burglars in the kingdom.

>Reflex bow
Utter rubbish

>Giants mowing down human settlements to clear the land with push mowers
>weedwacking towers and stone buildings with trail clearers and clubs
>salting the earth with tons of salt dredged from the sea
>letting loose bags of heavy gas to suffocate shorter races
>all while wearing heavy jeans to block swords and sun hats to block artillery fire

Swords made of stone

Some kind of weaponised wheelbarrow perhaps.

Getting all that metal, forging it, and dealing with its weight and usefulness scaling for armor sounds like a nightmare. Better to go with Hide, but that presents its own problems with giants being so damn big and animals being relatively small.
Giant Hide is a guaranteed commodity if Giants are around though. They just tan and wear their fallen friends or dudes they fucked up because Giants.

Rope armor would be pretty useful as well.

that would explain why giants are usually solitary, another giant walking around is a potential new pair of pants and a week's worth of food

Well if there are giants, there is no reason to exclude giant fauna.

I'd say a metal or (more practically) a hide apron that covers the midsection down to the feet, the places where I'm most likely to be attacked by puny humans. As far as weapons go, I'd go with mallets or other hammers with heavy weights and wide flat surfaces, that way I maximize my advantage (size and strength) and its killing power.

Depends. If giants have the same scale movement, toughness and strength as a human they would have no more problem collecting and refining metal then a human would. I'd note that if the giant has human-scale physical capabilities it also likely doesn't need weapons, however. Square-cube law means if a giant is twice the size of a human and can do normal human stuff the giant would be eight times stronger and tougher then a human.

A 24' tall giant would have skin tougher then Kevlar and bones like a carbon fiber drive shaft. When they swung a club they'd break the sound barrier. Weapons scaled like those of humans would be extremely fragile, a spear might break under it's own weight.

They're really tall, and extremely strong, so ranged weapons of any sort.
Bows, crossbows, javelins, slings if you want a bit of irony, etc.

Why not just throw things you pick up off the ground? Why complicate things with tools?

depends on what size of giants we're talking about
1.5 to 3 times a normal human size? you could easily outfit them with metal armor and forged weapons. Would want to prioritize axes and maces over swords since their additional size and height would make them perfect for chopping or crushing heads/necks. Tower shields would also function as regular shields to them and be more effective at knocked opponents around. Would want heavy armor on the limbs to allow for kicks, punches, and grabs.
4-9 times the size of normal human? Would probably have to resort to wooden and makeshift armor to get full coverage. Whips, chains, and flails would be possible to scale up without being any more fragile and could easily sweep enemies without needing to bend over.
10+ times larger? At this point we have to assume their size grants enough strength and toughness that they could effectively fight naked and still be incredibly dangerous. A stomp with moderate effort would rock the immediate area enough to knock everyone over. They could pick up handfuls of earth and drop it to create a dustscreen in addition to knocking most people out with debris.

Would a sling full of grapeshot work? You might need to keep the shot in a loose cloth bag so it doesn't go spraying everywhere until thrown.

Yep, I agree.