Monster of the Week: Ettin

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Originally just a word for a giant, an Ettin is now a two-headed giant or ogre-like creature. The fit a nice niche in D&D: they’re stronger than Ogres, which are a good foe for a low-level party, but they are weaker than true Giants, which are better for high-level parties. Truly, a creature that’s worth using and fighting. Good for laughs, too, since the heads think independently.

As implied above, Ettins fit in basically the same part of society as Giants and Ogres. They’re random creatures in the wilderness, generally too stupid to amount to anything. They make a good random encounter, and are a general-purpose solution to all sorts of monster-induced problems. Like Ogres, their stupidity can lead to their imprisonment by lesser races, particularly goblins and the like, making them a form of heavy artillery, deployed for serious threats (such as adventurers). The easiest way to put an Ettin in is thus: oh no, a creature is terrorising the countryside, etc etc, please go kill it. Oh, yeah, and we’ll give you this magical longsword, which we couldn’t actually use ourselves and is worth more than the village.

Ettins are simply the in-between step from Ogres to Giants. Giants are great and all… but they’re mostly quite powerful. Ogres are nice… but once the party gets some decent weapons, they’re a speedbump at best. The actual levels of the Ogre -> Ettin -> Giant transitions vary depending on the edition and how strong the party is: as stupid creatures, a strong party has an escalatingly big advantage.

Like Ogres and Giants, Ettins are traditionally solitary creatures. Oh, sure, you can have more than one… but it doesn’t really make all that much sense. It’s not like they have a society, and besides, mythology says Giants and the like are solitary creatures.

3.5 Edition

There’s just one Ettin; it’s CR 6.  This fits nicely between the Ogre CR 3 and Giants, which range between CR 7 and 11. Usage is pretty simple: they don’t really have special abilities or strategy. Chuck one in front of the party, and roll some dice.

For a more interesting fight, using the Ettin when the party is only around level 2-4. This means they can’t go toe to toe with it: Ettins hit hard, have a lot of hitpoints, and Full Attack four times. By making a direct confrontation impossible, you encourage far more interesting combat, roleplaying, and creativity. D&D doesn’t have to be a hack and slash game. Ranged weapons, traps… that kind of thing. The players will have to use everything in their arsenal. I would advise getting rid of the Monster Manual’s listed javelins if you do this, because there’s nothing less fun than trapping a creature only to have it use ranged weapons on you.

4th Edition

Well, there’s two Ettins now… but one’s not really Ettin-y. I mean, it’s a caster.

The Ettins have more utility, now, with lots of Pushing stuff. They two-headed thing has also been taken further: they act separately, which has all sorts of nice side-effects. Ettins are also resistant to Daze, Stun, Charm, and, interestingly, being Flanked (for the Marauders only). Ettin Marauders suffer from lousy Reflex and Will, although the Spirit-Talker patches these up a lot.

Unfortunately, the damage has been lowered. A lot. Yeah, they get to attack twice, but 4E characters have more hitpoints than 3.5, and the Ettins’ basic attacks deal only 1d8 + 9 (1d8 + 7 for Spirit-Talker) damage! That’s pitiful! Ogres got errata’d with extra damage, but no love for Ettins, it seems.  The Spirit-Talker gets the Curse of Shattered Bone, which helps: spending an action to make the next attack 1d12 + 15. Since the Ettins get two actions a round, this isn’t a bad trade. Even so, don’t expect the Ettins to be doing much without backup.

Suffice to say, like many creatures in 4E, Ettins benefit from a bit of help. They’re tough, and they can push people around, but throwing in some Artillery (lots of Goblin Sharpshooters or Hobgoblin Archers, say) and the Ettin is more likely to be a real threat to the party.

That’s it for another Monster of the Week, then. Happy gaming; see you all next week.

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