ENworld eye for the troll guy

[Dirigible]

We are all familiar with this tool in the GM's arsenal: chaning the appearance and behaviour of a monster while retaining its stats.

I'm planning to do the same with a troll against a lowish level party. With its horrendous toughness and considerable damage output, it should make a mean challange for novice PCs, especially in a low magic world (Midnight, to be specific, where there just aren't any direct damage spells worth onsidering at low levels). They'll have to flee across its terrain at first, until they can gather the knowledge and resources to fight it. It's not just 'a' troll; it's a Grendelish, fabled monster that can overwhelm and maim them with ease.

But the 'wicked witch of rubber' look of D&D trolls doesn't really do it for me. I was kind of considering giving the beast a more Eddings look, kind of an ungodly ogre-bear hybrid, all fir and claws and frothing nastiness, but that's a little... bland. Does the unrivaled might of ENworld's creative brain have any other suggestions or angles on what this creature could look like?



Unrelatedly: I was looking for a name for spontaneous clerics in this world, and came up with 'the Called'. Could someone with better Latin than I help me translate that? The nearest I can come is Vocator, which is probably closer to 'the Caller'. I was never too hot on the grammar.

Cheers.

 

[der_kluge]

How about this:

Just add spider climb as an inate ability, and you've got your fiend.

 

[Whisper72]

Hmmm.... remember the movie 'Legend'? The 'swamp witch' is also a nice picture for a troll like being. There is another one the cover of a dragon mag, somewhere in the 130's, where a green/scaled monster attacks a barbarian with a spear in a small boat.

If you want to divert away from troll-likeness completely, then the characteristics fit with a more ghostlike being very well as well (i.e. regeneration etc.)

 

[Dirigible]

Yay. I have that issue.

Swamp witch, eh?

I'm shaking in my pantaloons!

Or did you mean:

'Cost that would make more sense. THough I also kinda like: This tomb tapper-esque abomination.
(large, fainlty disturbing image)

I lie the idea of making it a more ghostly creature... nifty.

 

[Impeesa]

I've always been a fan of the Warcraft troll look. Not quite such a haggard swamp creature.

--Impeesa--

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Trolls, as I have found in my readings, range in appearance from the Larry-Bird-in-a-rubber-suit look of the D&D troll to creatures that closely resemble D&D Earth elementals or hill giants or ogres. In some stories, "ogre" & "troll" are interchangeable terms. The ones in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books are actually silicon-based...

When Grendel appeared in Xena, he looked very much like a treant.

In many legends, they are essentially ambush predators...they so closely resemble the land in which they live as to be able to hide in plain sight, like a Stonefish.

In others, they turned to solid stone when hit by sunlight...depending on the legend, that was either their demise or how they slept.

So...you wish to change Trolls...

Keep it large, strong & cunning. Maybe even give it a nudge up in size...

Give it the ability to camoflage itself, either naturally like the stonefish, or by using its intelligence to drape itself with foliage like it was wearing a gilley suit. When it bursts out of cover at the party, they may foul themselves. I used a similar attack with a dragon whom the party thought was just another clump of moss and reeds in the swamp...until it attacked (the so-called Chia Dragon). Years later, I repeated this with a golem (the so-called Chia Golem). It is very effective.

This method works well for Trolls that either dwell in swamps (like the one from Legend) and the ones that look like stones or trees.

Perhaps instead of standing upright, it lopes or runs on fours, or it scuttles, crablike.

Other options...

Give it the Endurance, Run, Track & Scent feats, so it can chase the party for miles and miles...

(BTW, the "Swamp Witch" in Legend was called Meg Mucklebones, and played by none other than Robert Picardo of Star Trek: Voyager fame.)

 

[Soel]

Mortiis...

http://www.drownedinsound.com/images/7542.jpg

http://staal-j.greatnow.com/mortiis1.jpg

 

[Tinner]

How about making it bigfoot?
There are tons of legends about bigfoot/sasquatch floating around the net. You could easily rip off some of those for your critter.
Big, hairy, wild man of the woods kind of critter.

Or to really scare your players, you could make it look like a large dragon.
That would shake them up a little.

 

[diaglo]

the D&D troll comes from:

 

[Gold Roger]

I like the idea of a Troll that is mostly a standart D&D Troll on looks, but it walks nearly on all four, is bald and has black skin with a sickening slimy blue or green shimmer. Set the whole encounter in a foul dark swamp and add glowing red eyes and an array of rotten but very big and sharp teeth and claws and you have turned the silly looking (to me at least) D&D troll into a terrible beast.