| Stone Giant | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Realm |
 Nature | |
| ||
| Spell Rarity | Rare | |
| Casting Cost |
 450 | |
| Upkeep Cost |
9 per turn | |
| Research Cost |
 1,040 | |
| ||
| # of Figures |
 1 | |
| Moves |
 2 | |
| Melee Attack per figure |
 15 | |
| Ranged Attack per figure |
 15 | |
| Defense per figure |
 8 | |
| Resistance |
 9 | |
| Hit Points per figure |
 20 | |
| ||
|
 Stoning Immunity | ||
The Stone Giant is a type of Fantastic Unit featured in Master of Magic. It is summoned using the Nature Summoning Spell of the same name. A Stone Giant is a great all-around unit, possessing a strong Melee Attack, a powerful Ranged Boulder Attack, and good defensive properties. It can be a useful support unit for any army, or defeat many weaker monsters on its own.
The Fantastic Unit[]
Physical Description[]
A Stone Giant is a large humanoid, about twice as tall as a grown man, and quite muscular to boot. Stone Giants wear primitive leather armor, which they seem to decorate with wild flowers. Stone Giants carry a crude but massive club for use in combat.
The Stone Giant is a Single-Figure Unit.
Attack Properties[]
The Stone Giant is a powerful warrior with somewhat versatile capabilities. Its Melee Attack is quite strong and very accurate. It also has an equally dangerous Ranged Attack, though it may only use that attack twice in each battle.
The Melee Attack has a strength of 15, making it as strong as the highest tier of Normal Units. On top of this, the Stone Giant has a 
+20% To Hit bonus, enabling it to deliver half of that 
damage potential ( 7.5) on average with each attack. This is often enough to kill several smaller creatures with one strike, especially if they are lightly-armored.
Before reaching Melee range, the Stone Giant can launch 2 Ranged Attacks per battle, by throwing massive boulders at its enemies. This attack has the same strength as its Melee attack, at 15, but is of course subjected to To Hit penalties for any long-distance shots. At the same time though, since it also benefits from the Stone Giant's +20% bonus, it is still quite deadly.
Both attacks further enjoy the benefits of the 
Wall Crusher ability. The Stone Giant can target individual City Wall sections, and has a certain chance to destroy them. This is 25% for the Ranged Attack, and 50% in Melee. In both cases, if an enemy unit is standing adjacent to and inside the targeted wall section, the Stone Giant's attack targets both the wall and the enemy unit. Any wall section destroyed by this attack will remain in ruins for the rest of the battle – but will be entirely fixed when the next siege begins.
Defensive Properties[]
The Stone Giant is quite tough to kill. For one, its high Defense rating of 8 can block an average of 2.4 points of Conventional Damage per attack. The creature also has a total health of 20, meaning that even damage that gets through will need to pile up before it can bring down the Giant.
To top it off, the Stone Giant has a Resistance score of 9. This gives it a base 90% chance to resist Unit Curses and ill effects – at least those that do not incur a Resistance penalty. It also possesses both 
Poison Immunity and 
Stoning Immunity, making it invulnerable to such maledictions from both Special Attacks and enemy spells.
Other Properties[]
Thanks to its great stride-length, the Stone Giant can move at a rate of 2 both in and out of combat. On the overland map, it only spends 1 Movement Point when entering a Mountain or Hill tile thanks to its 
Mountaineer ability. Any army stacked with the Stone Giant enjoys this benefit as well. On the other hand, the unit and its entire stack must spend 3 Movement Points when entering any Grassland tile.
Basic Tactics[]
In combat, Stone Giants can begin by pummeling the enemy from afar with their boulders, then closing in swiftly to take out any exposed enemy units. They can often wrestle with tough monsters in one-on-one combat, but are far more dangerous against masses of Normal Units which they can kill with ease. Stone Giants can serve as good scouts in Mountainous regions, and do well breaking down City Walls in an attack on an enemy Town.
Most interestingly however, thanks to its immunities, the Stone Giant is exceptionally good at fighting other Fantastic Units from the Nature Realm, since many of these deliver Poison Damage and Stoning Damage, which the Giant can simply shrug off.
Enemy Stone Giants[]
Stone Giants frequently appear as neutral monsters in mid-level Encounter Zones. In such cases they are commonly supported by Sprites or War Bears. Stone Giants also often appear as support for Great Wyrms, and this combination can be deadly to many armies.
Taking down a Stone Giant may be tough, especially for low-level units. However, their armor is not thick enough to ward off attacks by large numbers of mid-level Normal Units or better. Nonetheless, the Stone Giant is likely to do some damage before it dies, which needs be taken into consideration before charging in headlong; especially if it's on the defending side, and can go first with its Ranged Boulder Attack.
Ability Overview[]
Ranged Attack x2[]
- This unit may use a Ranged Boulder Attack instead of a Melee Attack twice in each battle. Once the unit's ammo is expended, it must resort to Melee Attacks.
+20% To Hit[]
- This unit has an extra 20% chance to hit its target with every die of its Attack Rolls. This improves its statistical chance to inflict more Damage with each attack it makes.
Mountaineer[]
- This unit may move through any Hill, Mountain or Volcano tiles at a rate of 1 Movement Point per tile.
- When this unit is stacked with other units, the entire stack may move through these tiles at a rate of 1 Movement Point per tile.
- On the other hand, traveling into Grassland tiles costs this unit and its stack exactly 3 Movement Points.
Wall Crusher[]
- When besieging a Town, this unit can target map tiles with intact City Wall segments as if there were enemy units on those tiles.
- Any attack made by this unit against a tile – or an enemy on a tile – with an intact wall segment has a chance of destroying the wall segment on that tile for the remainder of combat. This chance is 50% if the unit is adjacent to the tile, or 25% otherwise and, if an enemy is also hit, is rolled after resolving the attack against that enemy.
Poison Immunity[]
- This unit cannot be hurt by Poison Damage. It will automatically pass any Resistance roll to avert such damage.
Stoning Immunity[]
- This unit cannot be petrified by Stoning Damage. It will automatically pass any Resistance roll to avert such damage.
The Summoning Spell[]
Usage[]
Stone Giant may only be cast overland, for the base Casting Cost of 450. Upon successfully casting the spell, the new Stone Giant unit will appear in the Town currently containing the Wizard's Summoning Circle, with full Movement Allowance, and may move and/or attack immediately as necessary.
To keep the Stone Giant in play, its controller is required to pay an Upkeep Cost of 9 per turn. This is drawn automatically from the caster's Mana pool at the beginning of each turn while the unit exists. Failure to pay this Upkeep due to lack of Mana will lead to the Stone Giant immediately disappearing, along with any Unit Enchantments currently affecting it. However, this upkeep is for the unit, not for the spell: Summoning Spells can not be dispelled by the enemy once cast.
Naturally though, if the unit is destroyed, then it is gone from the world entirely, and there is no further need to pay its Upkeep Cost. Units summoned on the overland map may also be dismissed manually from their unit statistics window the same way as any other overland unit (during their controller's turn, while not in combat).
Acquisition[]
As a Rare Spell of the Nature Realm, Stone Giant may become available to any Wizard who acquires at least 2 Spellbooks. With any less, the spell can not be learned during the campaign. This is the minimum requirement for it to be traded for, appear in Treasure, or be found in the spoils of victory when conquering the Fortress of a rival Wizard who already knows it.
The base chance for Stone Giant to be researchable (at some point) in the campaign is roughly 10% (with 2 books), which gradually increases with the amount of Nature Spellbooks possessed or found during gameplay. With 10 or more, the spell is certain to show up sooner or later, unless acquired from another source. It has a Research Cost of 1,040, although its research is quicker for Wizards possessing the Sage Master, Conjurer, and/or Nature Mastery Retorts; or a bookshelf containing 8 or more.
Stone Giant may also be selected as a starting spell by players who allocate all of of their picks into Nature books when creating their Wizard. In this case, it will be available for casting as soon as the game begins.