[MENTION=83242]dave2008[/MENTION] Thoughts on trolls? They're one of the monsters I seem to use in my games, and also are sort of one-trick ponies. Any subsequent battles with trolls after the first combat are likely to end in judicious application of fire. Narratively, D&D lore on trolls has been kind of scant. And while VOLO'S provides variety for several of the more common humanoid monsters, there's just one Troll stat block in the MM.
I'll frame some of my thoughts and strategies for making trolls more interesting...
First, there's something about the
4e troll art that I find appealing. Artwork from 5e, 3e, and AD&D paints trolls as having very little facial expression - dumb brutes with no expression beyond a grimace or a snarl. What's interesting about the 4e art IMO is there's expression of malign cunning, a dim evil light in their brooding eyes and lips pulled back into an almost shark-like grin. To me, that speaks to the fairytale/mythological origins of trolls. They're just smarter than ogres after all (Int 7 vs. ogres 5). An ogre may be subjugated by stronger evil monsters, serve reliably as a mercenary, or be outwitted with a simple ruse...but a troll not so much. Ogres may smash you up out of stupid curiosity and hunger...but for a troll there's something truly malicious there.
So how does a troll's appetite (one of their signature traits) compare to other "hungry monsters" like ogres, hill giants, and ghouls? What makes a troll's appetite unique?
Ogres play with their food, essentially, chasing them and tormenting them and asking them how to best season elves-in-a-blanket. They eat people because they find people tasty. People usually kill ogres unless the civilization is evil in which case they may be made into a mercenary force.
Hill Giants aren't picky, going for the easiest pickings like herds of animals first. Eating is just what an idle hill giant does, perhaps in macabre imitation of other culture's meal time traditions. They are just hungry, and don't think about who their eating might hurt. Hill giants are given a wide berth, but if one wanders into the lowlands, people will either organize a giant-hunting party or seek to "go over the giant's head" to a more senior giant in the Ordning to get the hill giant out of their hair.
Ghouls are ravenous and go into a blood frenzy like sharks, biting on the fingers of the living, and feasting on dead bodies right then and there unless dissuaded. People don't tolerate ghouls and kill them.
Trolls, in my way of imagining them, are a bit more about the psychology of their meal. Their appetites are "horrific" not in that they desire human or demihuman flesh like ogres, but that they crave specific things like "marrow from a blushing maiden full of fear" or "the knee-bone of Saint what's-his-name who trespassed in our caves." When not hunting animals, they want to be given tribute of food or manipulate humans/demihumans to their downfall in the troll's maw. Trolls keep that eternal craving for flesh just ever so slightly in check...like they're playing a wicked game...hoping that the humans/demihumans they're interacting will slip up and give the troll the "excuse" it wants to eat them alive. Why not just kill outright? Two reasons: (1) Because trolls are smart enough to know that humans/demihumans command that magical substance known as fire, and (2) Trolls enjoy the wicked thrill of mounting dread as a creature realizes the troll now has an "excuse" to eat them. And humans/demihumans, for their part, know how dangerous a hungry pack of trolls can be, so either give them a wide berth, hire adventures to kill them, or set up barely tolerated offerings of tribute (hence the "bridge troll" phenomenon). At least, that's how I run trolls!
Brainstorms on trolls that could influence stat blocks...
- Trolls regenerate and have a weakness which undermines that regeneration, like the ones in Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. However, in D&D there are several variants which have a different weakness than fire (e.g. desert trolls being vulnerable to water/acid).
- Their regenerative ability doesn't just lead to the Loathsome Limbs optional trait; it can also lead to trolls mutating. In The Gates of Firestorm Peak troll mutates have a trait that causes them to regrow unpredictable body parts after sustaining a certain amount of damage. Definitely sounds like another sidebar optional trait akin to Loathsome Limbs.
- Trolls adapt to every environment imaginable, leading to many varieties from ice trolls to desert trolls.
- They live in caves or "trollholes" with entrances that are basically covered pit traps.
- A troll pack will be led by a dominant female who acts as shaman/chieftain and has 7th level spellcasting ability (from the priest spheres of Charm, Divination, Sun (Darkness only), and Weather). She maintains her position by regularly fighting for it, and has an especially fierce appetite for sentient flesh.
- Some trolls worship Vaprak the Destroyer, the ogre deity.
- Trolls are always on the look-out for an opportunity to get more food, so dropping supplies can be a way for PCs to distract a troll from chasing them. To the troll mindset, this is just "tribute" by another name.
- They don't speak the pure Giant tongue, instead speaking "Trollspeak" which is a polyglot of Common, Giant, Goblin, and Orc. Moreover, "Trollspeak" is highly regional so not all trolls will be mutually intelligible even to each other.
- Their green blood can be used to make potions of healing.
). I'll be definitely using some of those Ogres in the near future.
