Converting monsters from Dragon magazine

[freyar]

I'll go for Listen 2, Spot 2, Survival 2 for the skill points, plus Alertness, Weapon Focus (bite), and Track (bonus) for feats.

Treasure looks ok, and so does advancement.

Are we done mechanically? Tactics look like standard pack attacks, not necessarily flanking or anything, just attacking as a group.

 

[Cleon]

I'll go for Listen 2, Spot 2, Survival 2 for the skill points, plus Alertness, Weapon Focus (bite), and Track (bonus) for feats.

Treasure looks ok, and so does advancement.

Updating Trollhound Working Draft.

Are we done mechanically?

Assuming you're OK with the Challenge Rating of 2 we are.

Actually, I've just thought of a tweak. What if we added a "mixed pack" of trolls and trollhounds since the two monsters sometimes live together?

We could use the "troupe" organization employed by Lycanthropes:

Organization: Solitary, pair, gang (3–6), troupe (2–8 plus 1–4 trolls) or pack (7–24)

Tactics look like standard pack attacks, not necessarily flanking or anything, just attacking as a group.

They're capable of tactics, since having a pack leader "allows them to lead their packs with rudimentary tactics that often catch militiamen and adventurers off guard". I think it's more that they're too ferocious and chaotic to use them.

How about:

A trollhound normally charges into melee as soon as possible and uses its bite attack. Should it achieve a lockbite the trollhound tries to hold on until its enemy is torn to pieces. Trollhounds are intelligent enough to use pack tactics like ambushes and flanking attacks, but are so viciously chaotic they generally only cooperate under the strong leadership of an advanced trollhound or troll beastmaster significantly more powerful than them. A trollhound usually only considers retreat if it is injured and threatened with fire, but even then it often prefers to keep fighting.

 

[abe ray]

Updating Trollhound Working Draft.



Assuming you're OK with the Challenge Rating of 2 we are.

Actually, I've just thought of a tweak. What if we added a "mixed pack" of trolls and trollhounds since the two monsters sometimes live together?

We could use the "troupe" organization employed by Lycanthropes:

Organization: Solitary, pair, gang (3–6), troupe (2–8 plus 1–4 trolls) or pack (7–24)



They're capable of tactics, since having a pack leader "allows them to lead their packs with rudimentary tactics that often catch militiamen and adventurers off guard". I think it's more that they're too ferocious and chaotic to use them.

How about:

A trollhound normally charges into melee as soon as possible and uses its bite attack. Should it achieve a lockbite the trollhound tries to hold on until its enemy is torn to pieces. Trollhounds are intelligent enough to use pack tactics like ambushes and flanking attacks, but are so viciously chaotic they generally only cooperate under the strong leadership of an advanced trollhound or troll beastmaster significantly more powerful than them. A trollhound usually only considers retreat if it is injured and threatened with fire, but even then it often prefers to keep fighting.

Unless they are fire troll hounds of course.(potentially a subtype Of trollhound?)

 

[Cleon]

Unless they are fire troll hounds of course.(potentially a subtype Of trollhound?)

It'd be easy enough to add fire resistance or immunity with the addition of a templates - the SRD alone has Half-Dragon (Red) and Fiendish Creature - but that seems oustide the scope of this conversion.

Just imagine how long monster entries would be if they had to consider what templates to add to the beastie.

 

[freyar]

I like adding the troupe and also support your tactics!

4 to 6 ft tall, and I'd put them at 400-600 lb following the worg and winter wolf, since I don't think I saw anything particular saying that they're skinny or whatever.

 

[Cleon]

I like adding the troupe and also support your tactics!

Updating Trollhound Working Draft.

4 to 6 ft tall, and I'd put them at 400-600 lb following the worg and winter wolf, since I don't think I saw anything particular saying that they're skinny or whatever.

They're pretty muscular and hefty according to the original artwork by Mark A Nelson - which you can see in a gallery here.

That matches the description that they "bulge with thick muscles and tendons" and they certainly aren't as lean as an AD&D Troll is.

However a weight of 400-600 pounds doesn't match terrible well with their listed shoulder height if they're heavily built.

If we assume they have a build roughly similar to a Rottweiler. According to the FCI standard, a male Rottweiler should stand 61-69 cm at the "withers" (aka shoulder) and weigh 60-70 kg. Let's average that to 65 cm and 65 kg. Scaling that up to a 120-180 cm for a 4 to 6 foot "Rottweiler" gives us a weight range of 900 to 3000 pounds.

That seems too high.

Let's try a leaner dog breed - say an Irish Wolfhound. The American Kennel Club minimum for those is 30/32" and 105/120 pounds for male/female but they can get significantly bigger, with males averaging 34-35" and 140-180 pounds, so large wolfhounds 36" at the shoulder and 180 pounds are unheard of.

If we use 34" and 160 pounds as a base, that scales up to 450 pounds for a 48" dog. Trollhounds are bit heftier, so let's tweak that up to 500 pounds. It seems reasonable to have them on the cusp of the Medium/Large weight division.

So how about:

A typical trollhound stands about 4 feet tall at the shoulder and weighs around 500 pounds. Pack leaders can reach 6 feet at the shoulder and weigh up to 3000 pounds.

 

[freyar]

Hey, that first one is in the range I got just from eyeballing the SRD magical beast canines. I can go for that.

You have thoughts on description and background?

 

[Cleon]

Hey, that first one is in the range I got just from eyeballing the SRD magical beast canines. I can go for that.

Updating Trollhound Working Draft.

You have thoughts on description and background?

I didn't, but it ought to be easy enough to whip something up…

A hulking muscular canine that stinks like death and sewage whose eyesockets are dark pits from which sunken black eyes glitter balefully. Its body is an ugly patchwork of green-grey-violet skin with a disturbingly rubbery appearance, covered in places by patches of coarse wiry hair colored iron gray or black. The wolflike beast's lips, tongue and fangs are as inkblack as its eyes.

While they may resemble rubbery worgs, these beasts are actually more closely related to trolls. They live in packs who roam the night for prey, retreating to the comfortable darkness of a den when the sun rises. A family of trollhounds needs a lot of meat to feed so usually claim a substantial territory with multiple dens the pack cycles through, dens are usually burrows, caves or abandoned cellars. A trollhound's den is always dark and filled with offal and waste.

Trollhounds are viciously predatory towards other creatures but surprisingly gently to their own kind, never willingly attacking their own kind. They instinctively defer to the strongest trollhound they can smell, and should two packs scent each other the weakest pack always backs away. Trollhounds recognize normal trolls as being their own kind and frequently live with them, serving as guards and hunting animals.

 

[Cleon]

I just realized we're missing something:

"Sunlight and continual light spells hurt a trollhound’s eyes and it fights with a – 1 penalty on attack and damage rolls and armor class."

I guess we could represent that using the standard Light Sensitivity SQ:

Light Sensitivity (Ex): Trollhounds are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

However, the trollhound's version is more extreme than the standard AD&D/3E Light Sensitivity which only applies a -1 to attack. I'd be game to make it:

Extreme Light Sensitivity (Ex): In full sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell a trollhound takes a -1 penalty on attack and damage rolls and a -2 penalty on Search and Spot checks.

Which do you prefer?

 

[freyar]

I like the extreme version. Let's go with that.

If we go with CR 2, do these look done to you?