Finally got a companion off of the Whiterun Jarl (Lydia or someone), went out exploring and after five minutes she ended up dead thanks to a giant. Seriously, a giant and mammoth took like five-ten minutes of almost continuous dual-wield flame thingy.

Whats yer level?

Level 4/5 when I fought them last.

Looks like you're used to Oblivion's level scaling. In Skyrim, you won't be able to kill everything at a low level.

I killed a giant at level 6.

best way to kill em at a low level is to kite them to a nearby watch tower and go inside. They won't be able to go through the door, so just pelt em with spells/arrows till they die.

Or wait till your higher levled and try again.

Both giants and mammoths are around level 30-35 so yeah at low levels they are hard.

GIANT KILLED LYDIA! NOOOOOOOOOooo!

This is what I dd when I was like, level 3. The guards even helped me out, but they didn't last very long.

Did you wait for 1 minute or longer? Lydia or the other companions can't be "killed" by anyone apart from you, if you play on Adept or higher afaik.

Good idea to wait a minute to see if she's just staggered.

I killed my first mammoth at level 17, in a kind of unfair way. xD
I started attacking it at the giant camp near Whiterun, then lured it back towards Whiterun's walls - it wouldn't climb over, so I kept running backwards and forwards until it died, picked up it's mammoth tusk, and quest complete!

Well my first thought when reading the title of this topic was: "Yes they are... What did you expect exactly?"

Hi,

I've been taking out Giants and Mammoths since about level 7 - only cos one hassled me when I was just passing, now I make a note to kill all I find...a personal vendetta if you will lol.

Anyway, the key for me has been to use stealth and archery with some fire too. I've used those little stone buildings to hide in where niether the Mammoth or Giant can reach me a couple of times. Mainly though I get somewhere high and snipe.

One time I got in close and Lydia got hit by a Giant. I saw her fly several hundred feet into the air, she actually faded from view at one point, whether that was her going above cloud level or not I don't know...lol Anyway she fell to earth (very very fast, no air resitance with Skyrim physics is seems) and landed in a heap, not moving.

I wandered over only to have her wake up when I got there. Note: she was flat out, not in the crouched / cowering badly hurt state so I was quite suprised.

Scoob.

Yes they can... after a while they actually die if they take enough damage... Faendal and Lydia was killed in battle while with me

Oh and for anyone who wants to know, this I gleaned from reading a book in game:

(Spoilered if you want to find out on your own.)

I am level 14 and I have never killed a Giant, and probably never will, they are impossible. Literally.

I was playing on novice (the loyest difficuly) and she was dead. I looted her body.

Im on lvl 6 and I killed a giant with the help of a dragon and a few soldiers. He ended up killing the soldiers so I ran to a rock in the middle of this pond and started firing arrows at him, he wouldnt come in the water after me.They are hard just gotta use strategy.