Frost Giant 5e: Stats, Great Bow and War Cry Tactics

A frost giant is a CR 8 Huge Giant with AC 15, 138 hit points (149 in the 2024 rules), immunity to cold damage, and two weapon attacks a turn at +9 with 10 feet of reach. In 2014 that's a greataxe for 25 a hit or a single 28-damage rock. In 2024 the rock is gone: the giant carries a Great Bow with a 150-foot normal range, its axe adds cold damage, and a War Cry bonus action hands itself or an ally temporary hit points and Advantage. The 2024 frost giant fights like a soldier instead of a brute.

Table of Contents

• •Frost Giant Stat Block (2014)
• •The 2024 Frost Giant
• •How Frost Giants Fight
• •How Many Frost Giants for a Level 8 Party?
• •How Players Beat Frost Giants
• •Frost Giant vs Hill Giant
• •Frost Giant Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Frost Giant Stat Block (2014)

The 2014 frost giant from SRD 5.1. Its AC comes from patchwork armor, not hide.

Three things set it apart from smaller giants. It's proficient in Constitution, Wisdom and Charisma saves (+8, +3, +4), so the save-or-lose spells that wreck a hill giant land less often. Athletics +9 means it wins most grapple and shove contests against anyone who isn't a raging barbarian. Cold immunity turns off a big slice of a wizard's spell list.

Its offense is simple. Two greataxe swings at +9 for 25 each (3d12 + 6) average 50 if both land. At range it gets one rock per turn for 28, because its 2014 Multiattack covers greataxe attacks only.

The 2024 Frost Giant

The 2024 frost giant (SRD 5.2.1) keeps AC 15, the saves, the skills, cold immunity, CR 8 and 3,900 XP. Almost everything else is new.

Three of those changes reshape the fight:

• •Range. A 150-foot normal range covers most open battlefields. A party that sees the giant at 300 feet across a snowfield is still being shot at, with Disadvantage, all the way in. Each hit also cuts the target's Speed by 10 feet until the end of its next turn, so the approach takes longer.
• •War Cry. The giant picks itself or one creature that can see or hear it. That creature gets about 16 temporary hit points and Advantage on attack rolls until the start of the giant's next turn. On a 5 or 6 it recharges, so roughly one round in three it's available again.
• •Cold damage is split off. Every axe and bow hit is part physical, part cold. Cold resistance (from a Potion of Resistance, for example) halves only the cold part: 28 becomes 23 on an axe hit, not 14.

How Frost Giants Fight

Play frost giants as raiders who have done this before. They pick the ground, they shoot first, and they use their reach to protect each other.

The damage math. Against AC 16, +9 hits on a 7 or higher, 70% of the time. With Advantage that rises to 91%.

About 51 damage in one turn is a level 8 wizard's entire hit point total (50 with 14 Constitution). Without War Cry the giant needs both swings to land; with it, both land more than 80% of the time.

Open with the bow. A 2024 frost giant on high ground or across open ice should spend the first rounds shooting. Two arrows a turn at 24 each, and a hit drops a 30-foot Speed to 20 until the end of the target's next turn. Add deep snow as difficult terrain and that character covers 10 feet a turn. Archery at 150 feet also keeps the giant out of range of most cantrips (Fire Bolt reaches 120 feet).

War Cry on the right creature. It's a bonus action, so the giant can shout and still attack twice. Use it on itself the turn it reaches melee for the big 51-damage turn. When it's paired with winter wolves or another giant, give the cry to whichever ally is about to make the most attacks. Sixteen temporary hit points also soak up a couple of the party's hits.

Wall with reach. Two frost giants standing 15 feet apart threaten a line about 65 feet wide with their 10-foot reach. Anyone trying to run past to the giants' leader or their prisoners provokes an opportunity attack at +9.

Fight where the party can't see well, and it can. Frost giants have no darkvision, so they pick daylight and open ground. A party that attacks at night, or under magical Darkness, takes the bow out of the fight: the giant can't target what it can't see without Disadvantage, and it has no idea where to shoot.

When it retreats. Frost giants aren't suicidal. Below about a third of its hit points, a 2024 giant falls back with its bow, slowing pursuers with every hit.

How Many Frost Giants for a Level 8 Party?

A frost giant is 3,900 XP. Using the 2024 per-character budgets for a party of four:

Our encounter difficulty calculator uses the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines instead. By those, one frost giant against four level 8 characters is Medium (3,900 XP, over the 3,600 Medium threshold). A giant with four winter wolves becomes 13,400 adjusted XP after the ×2 group multiplier, well past the 8,400 Deadly line. The 2024 budget calls that same fight Moderate. Both are telling you something: the wolves add a lot of attacks, and a party with a strong area spell will clear them fast.

Rules of thumb:

• •A lone frost giant against a level 7 or 8 party is a good fight if it starts at range in open terrain. Up close and alone, it runs out of turns before the party runs out of hit points.
• •At level 5, one frost giant (3,900) eats nearly the whole High budget for four characters (4,400), and a 51-damage turn can kill a level 5 character outright. Use it as a threat they have to avoid or bargain with.
• •Give it a reason to be where it is: a raid, a toll, a hunt. Frost giants with nothing to defend should just leave when the fight turns.

How Players Beat Frost Giants

The frost giant's saves are Strength +6, Dexterity −1, Constitution +8, Intelligence −1, Wisdom +3, Charisma +4. It's immune to cold and has no other resistances.

• •Use Dexterity saves. Fireball and Lightning Bolt both target its −1 Dexterity save. At a level 8 spell DC of 16 it fails 80% of the time.
• •Leave the cold spells at home. Cone of Cold does nothing, and Ray of Frost deals no damage (only its 10-foot Speed reduction still applies on a hit). Swap them out before the trip north.
• •Close the distance in 2024. The Great Bow doesn't hit harder than the axe, but it controls the approach. Come in from full cover, through fog, at night (it has no darkvision), or by teleporting next to it with Dimension Door.
• •Time your burst to War Cry. Once the giant spends War Cry, it has only a 1 in 3 chance each round of getting it back. Burn through the temporary hit points on that creature, then focus the giant while the cry is down.
• •Wisdom saves are no longer free. At +3, a frost giant saves against a DC 16 Wisdom spell 40% of the time. Hold Person never works on it (giants aren't Humanoids); Hold Monster is the version that does.
• •Avoid its Athletics. Don't try to grapple or shove it unless the character has an Athletics bonus near +9 or Advantage from Enlarge or a barbarian's Rage.

Frost Giant vs Hill Giant

Both can show up before level 10 (CR 5 and CR 8), and they shouldn't feel alike at the table.

Play the hill giant as a hungry animal and the frost giant as a warrior with a plan. The hill giant charges the nearest target. The frost giant shoots the party's healer from 150 feet, shouts a war cry, and walks forward only once someone is down. The frost giant sits above the stone giant (CR 7) and below the fire giant and cloud giant (both CR 9) and the storm giant (CR 13).

Frost Giant Encounter Ideas

The glacier toll. Two frost giants have built a wall of ice blocks across the only pass and demand one wagon in five. They stand behind the wall (three-quarters cover, +5 AC) with Great Bows and 150 feet of open snow in front of them. Paying is cheaper than fighting. Fighting is possible if someone finds the crevasse that runs under the wall.

The hunting party. A frost giant and three winter wolves are tracking something across the tundra, and the party is between them and it. The giant isn't after the party at all, and would happily let them go if they point the way. What they're hunting is a lost child of the nearby village, who ran off with the giant's prized horn.

The frozen ship. A frost giant has hauled a merchant ship onto the pack ice and is living in its hold. It's been there for weeks, it's bored, and it's willing to trade the cargo for news of the south. If the party lies to it and it finds out, it will remember them by name the next time they come north.

That last one depends on someone at the table remembering what was said. Loreify can record your sessions and keep notes on NPCs and monsters so the giant's grudge stays on the record.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a frost giant in 5e?

A frost giant is CR 8 and worth 3,900 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 15 and 138 hit points (2014) or 149 (2024).

Is a frost giant immune to cold?

Yes. Frost giants are immune to cold damage in both editions. They have no other resistances, immunities or vulnerabilities.

How much damage does a frost giant do?

In 2014 it swings a greataxe twice for 25 (3d12 + 6) per hit, or throws one rock for 28. In 2024 its Frost Axe deals 28 per hit (19 slashing plus 9 cold) and its Great Bow deals 24 (17 piercing plus 7 cold), two attacks per turn in any combination.

What does a frost giant's War Cry do?

It's a 2024 bonus action that recharges on a 5 or 6. The giant or one creature of its choice that can see or hear it gains 16 (2d10 + 5) temporary hit points and has Advantage on attack rolls until the start of the giant's next turn.

What's the strongest giant in 5e?

Among the SRD giants, the storm giant is the strongest at CR 13 with 230 hit points. The frost giant is CR 8, below the fire and cloud giants (CR 9) and above the stone giant (CR 7) and hill giant (CR 5).

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.