Killing Trolls

[spectre72]

That's generally how we handle it - heck, we fought a troll last night that they brought down by throwing a flaming goblin onto him. Its not a big deal after the fight - but if you want to keep one down while a fight is still going on you're going to need to give it some fire or acid damage.

Earlier I was not commenting on dragging combat out against an unconscious troll, and if there are no standing opponents we will usually just tell the GM we are building a BBQ and we will have someone keep whacking the troll to keep it unconscious until the fire is ready

I was giving our interpritation of the rules once we had looked at the FAQ, and how we play it if in the middle of combat.

The confusion comes from the computer game TOEE which allows you to CDG trolls, but I think that was included to give a way to kill trolls with a limited amount of fire/acid and weapons that do fire damage. So they gave a way around not being able to do fire damage in the game.

The key to the reading of the CDG rules with the FAQ is that acording to the SRD/rules subdual damage is not "Real Damage".

Since you do no real damage there is no CDG because damaging your oponent is a requirement for the save.

So if the combat is over we gloss over the killing portion, but during combat we are always aware that unless we keep beating on the troll he will get back up and rip our arms off

 

[Kyrail]

Monster Manual 3.5 Page 314 actually sites this exact instance.

A regenerating creature that has been rendered unconcious through non lethal damage can be killed with a coup de grace (see page 153 of the Player's Handbook). The attack cannot be of a type that automatically converts to nonlethal damage.

 

[MerakSpielman]

"A regenerating creature that has been rendered unconcious through non lethal damage can be killed with a coup de grace (see page 153 of the Player's Handbook). The attack cannot be of a type that automatically converts to nonlethal damage. "

In the case of a troll, the only types of damage that are not converted to nonlethal damage are fire and acid. Thus, those are the only types of attacks that can be used to CDG them.

Glad we got that cleared up.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Fought a half-fiend troll last night, as a matter of fact. Since all the mages thought they were up against a devil, they had no fire magic prepared, and the ER 10 vs. fire and acid made it coup-proof. We stayed up all night hacking on it (two skeletons with +1 weapons helped) until the mages could prepare new spells.

I argued that the rogue could sneak attack it with a torch for 6d6 fire damage, but no one believed me.

 

[Pielorinho]

We once fought fiendish trolls, and had only one vial of acid to split between them. We ended up knocking them unconscious, opening their chests, and having the rogue drip acid into their hearts; the DM ruled this was sufficient to gain both CDG and sneak-attack damage, even though technically you can't CDG with a grenadelike weapon, I think.

Another time we were fighting an ogre mage, and by the time it went unconscious, we were out of spells. The druid changed into a horse; the other players strapped the ogre mage to the horse's back; and as the horse clopped off toward the nearest underground river, the other PCs followed behind, klonking the unconscious ogre on the head. Two minutes underwater (with regular underwater head-clonkings) finished it off.

Daniel

 

[Pielorinho]

I argued that the rogue could sneak attack it with a torch for 6d6 fire damage, but no one believed me.

I believe you, man. I believe you.

On the one hand, it does seem like if a critter isn't burned by a torch, you can't burn it with the torch just by hitting it real good.

On the other hand, it's not immune to fire, just resistant: if someone did a critical hit with scorching ray, they could certainly do extra damage, presumably by hitting it somewhere extra-painful.

I woulda let you stuff that torch down the troll's gullet, or into its chest cavity, and finish it off.

But then, I'm a softie like that.

Daniel

 

[MerakSpielman]

Fought a half-fiend troll last night, as a matter of fact. Since all the mages thought they were up against a devil, they had no fire magic prepared, and the ER 10 vs. fire and acid made it coup-proof. We stayed up all night hacking on it (two skeletons with +1 weapons helped) until the mages could prepare new spells.

I argued that the rogue could sneak attack it with a torch for 6d6 fire damage, but no one believed me.

Seems like it would have been faster to build a bonfire and cook the sucker.

 

[Loghar]

In an adventure I ran, I allowed a normal attack to CDG a troll. This was mostly because the troll was half red dragon and immune to fire. With only a cleric in the party, their options were rather limited.

 

[diaglo]

"A regenerating creature that has been rendered unconcious through non lethal damage can be killed with a coup de grace (see page 153 of the Player's Handbook). The attack cannot be of a type that automatically converts to nonlethal damage. "

In the case of a troll, the only types of damage that are not converted to nonlethal damage are fire and acid. Thus, those are the only types of attacks that can be used to CDG them.

Glad we got that cleared up.

i guess i gotta start writing page numbers in my posts. i said the same thing back on page 1 of this thread.

 

[Ferret]

What I'd like to know is if dumping it on a not flaming but still hot campfire after it's knocked out would kill it? Thats what my players did, and I ruled it would because otherwise it would eventually kill them, them being 2nd level and not having any other way to kill it.