King of the Troll Haunt - I has it!
- Thread starter Rechan
- Start date
frankthedm
First Post
Shopping lists for the minis a DM will need is always appreciated!
King of the Trollhaunt Warrens is a D&D adventure for levels 11-13. It takes place in Moonstair, a border town with a semi-active portal to the feywild. Moonstair borders the Trollhaunt, a vast wilderness of marsh, moor, thicket and hill inhabited by many a dangerous monster, and the remnants of a troll kingdom.
Quoting the back of the adventure, "Armed with ancient Formorian magic, the troll-chief Skalmad has sworn to destroy the small border town of Moonstair."
The adventure deals with a troll warlord trying to bring his regenerating army to bare against Moonstair and the surrounding areas. It involves directly protecting the town! And delving into the Feywild, into Formorian country!
It does seem fairly dungeoncrawly, yes.
The single fold-out map is pretty. One side is what looks like Moonstair - a typical cobblestone town, with buildings and stuff. The other side is a cavern Complex/Throne Room of the Great Warren.
Quoting the back of the adventure, "Armed with ancient Formorian magic, the troll-chief Skalmad has sworn to destroy the small border town of Moonstair."
The adventure deals with a troll warlord trying to bring his regenerating army to bare against Moonstair and the surrounding areas. It involves directly protecting the town! And delving into the Feywild, into Formorian country!
It does seem fairly dungeoncrawly, yes.
The single fold-out map is pretty. One side is what looks like Moonstair - a typical cobblestone town, with buildings and stuff. The other side is a cavern Complex/Throne Room of the Great Warren.
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On to what I looked at initially:
NEW MONSTERS:
[sblock]Blightborn Demonthorn - Lvl 11 Controller
Blightborn Thorndrake - Lvl 11 Brute
Blightborn Troglodyte - Lvl 10 Controller (leader)
Blightborn Twig Blight - Lvl 1 minion
Blightborn Thorn Blight - Lvl 11 Minion
Fomorian Dark Initiate - Lvl 13 Solo Controller
Fomorian Dark Master - Lvl 19 Solo Controller
Displacer Beast Nightmare - Lvl 15 Elite Skirmisher
Briar Hag - Lvl 12 Controller
Nothic Gazer - Lvl 11 Artillery
Nothic Stalker - Lvl 11 Skirmisher
Ghost Troll Render - Lvl 13 Brute
Ghost Troll Devourer - Lvl 13 Lurker
Ice Troll - Lvl 10 Soldier
Troll Vinespeaker - Lvl 14 Controller
Will-o-Wisp (as seen on the WotC Site) Llv 10 Lurker.[/sblock]
Want to talk about a few of these.
Blightborn are fey that are "twisted by the darkest aspects of nature, which subtly or dramatically changes them into something evil and unnatural." I dislike "Unnatural" and "Fey" being together, but all right. I do like the Demonthorn creature, although I see an error in its statblock (it's called a mandrake).
The Fomorian solo controllers are dark fey magic users. The masters often create the Displacer Beast Nightmare (a two headed displacer beast) to aid them. These are how controllers should be; two immediate reaction powers (one at will, one encounter), and several options.
[sblock]Ghost trolls are very cool. They are created by rituals, and while insubstantial, they lose their insubstantial status if they take acid, fire or radiant damage. I like the Devourer - it basically bites someone and holds them in its teeth/stomach, restraining them until they save.[/sblock]
New hag, yay!
New Magical Items:
Eladrin Ring of Passage Lvl 14 (coulda sworn I've seen this somewhere)
Life Force Amulet - Lvl 17+ - Nice.
Mordant Weapon - Lvl 8+ - Does poison/acid damage. The daily is a close blast 3, however. Nice.
Torc of Fortune - Lvl 14+ - The daily power isn't worth writing home about, but the Property! Shift 2 when you make a saving throw on your turn.
Sunwrath - Lvl 12 - +3 Longsword, gives a minor encounter power that lets you do fire and radiant damage until the end of your current turn.
[sblock]There's also a nice Eye, can be used as an orb impliment, but is meant for a large spellcaster to put in their eye socket. There's a ritual that you can use with it, that teleports your body to a specified site when you die.
Then there's the Stone Cauldron - a site which acts as a trap until you overcome it, and can use it to return someone as a ghost with the troll's 'you're insubstantial until you take acid/fire/radiant'. The book spells out 'we assume your players won't do this. If they do, institute your own penalties.'[/sblock]
NEW MONSTERS:
[sblock]Blightborn Demonthorn - Lvl 11 Controller
Blightborn Thorndrake - Lvl 11 Brute
Blightborn Troglodyte - Lvl 10 Controller (leader)
Blightborn Twig Blight - Lvl 1 minion
Blightborn Thorn Blight - Lvl 11 Minion
Fomorian Dark Initiate - Lvl 13 Solo Controller
Fomorian Dark Master - Lvl 19 Solo Controller
Displacer Beast Nightmare - Lvl 15 Elite Skirmisher
Briar Hag - Lvl 12 Controller
Nothic Gazer - Lvl 11 Artillery
Nothic Stalker - Lvl 11 Skirmisher
Ghost Troll Render - Lvl 13 Brute
Ghost Troll Devourer - Lvl 13 Lurker
Ice Troll - Lvl 10 Soldier
Troll Vinespeaker - Lvl 14 Controller
Will-o-Wisp (as seen on the WotC Site) Llv 10 Lurker.[/sblock]
Want to talk about a few of these.
Blightborn are fey that are "twisted by the darkest aspects of nature, which subtly or dramatically changes them into something evil and unnatural." I dislike "Unnatural" and "Fey" being together, but all right. I do like the Demonthorn creature, although I see an error in its statblock (it's called a mandrake).
The Fomorian solo controllers are dark fey magic users. The masters often create the Displacer Beast Nightmare (a two headed displacer beast) to aid them. These are how controllers should be; two immediate reaction powers (one at will, one encounter), and several options.
[sblock]Ghost trolls are very cool. They are created by rituals, and while insubstantial, they lose their insubstantial status if they take acid, fire or radiant damage. I like the Devourer - it basically bites someone and holds them in its teeth/stomach, restraining them until they save.[/sblock]
New hag, yay!
New Magical Items:
Eladrin Ring of Passage Lvl 14 (coulda sworn I've seen this somewhere)
Life Force Amulet - Lvl 17+ - Nice.
Mordant Weapon - Lvl 8+ - Does poison/acid damage. The daily is a close blast 3, however. Nice.
Torc of Fortune - Lvl 14+ - The daily power isn't worth writing home about, but the Property! Shift 2 when you make a saving throw on your turn.
Sunwrath - Lvl 12 - +3 Longsword, gives a minor encounter power that lets you do fire and radiant damage until the end of your current turn.
[sblock]There's also a nice Eye, can be used as an orb impliment, but is meant for a large spellcaster to put in their eye socket. There's a ritual that you can use with it, that teleports your body to a specified site when you die.
Then there's the Stone Cauldron - a site which acts as a trap until you overcome it, and can use it to return someone as a ghost with the troll's 'you're insubstantial until you take acid/fire/radiant'. The book spells out 'we assume your players won't do this. If they do, institute your own penalties.'[/sblock]
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All right. I tried to combine as many as I could (you can substitute a troll for a troll shaman, etc), but there are quite a few unique ones. I only differentiated when there were minions involved, in case you wanted a different look.
[sblock]
1 Oni
5 Trolls
3 Flameskulls
1 Adult Black Dragon
1 Cave Bear
1 Large firebreathing lizard
1 Grell
1 Galeb Duhr
1 Roper
9 Troglodytes (1 is named and elite)
2 Briar Hags
2 Large skeletons
2 Drow Warriors
5 Worgs
3 Wyverns
1 Manticore
1 Blightborn Troglodyte
2 Kuo-toa Marauders
2 Chuuls
2 Ice Trolls
8 Grimlocks (6 minions, 2 Berzerkers)
1 Ogre Warhulk
3 Nothics
2 Blightborn Demonthrons
16 Blightborn Thorn Blights
3 Helmet Horrors
1 Fomorian mage-type
2 Crocodyles
2 Quicklings
9 Cyclopses (6 Guard minions, 3 Impalers)
1 Displacer Beast
6 Ghost Trolls (2 Renders, 4 Devourers)
1 Big Daddy King Troll[/sblock]
Additional Encounters (if they fail a skill challenge, you want to pad the Feywild, add stuff to the raid, etc)
[sblock]3 Will-o-Wisps
3 Chuuls
2 Constrictors
3 Bog hags
2 Stormrage Shambling Mound
2 Shambling Mounds
5 Dragonborn
1 Ettin
1 Medusa
1 Destrachen
6 Banshrae
1 Lamia
4 Hook Horrors[/sblock]
While I was skimming it to get the monster mini count, I noticed several things.
1) A few skill challenges. (Locating the Great Warren, activating two portals, one of which is to the Feywild, etc).
2) There are a lot of encounters here. There are a few I'd personally swap out for others.
3) [sblock]Skalmad, the big bad troll, is fought three times. He has a special magical item in his eye; when he dies, it returns his body to a specific site, and he gets brought back from the dead, bigger and badder. The PCs are expected to kill him, run back to Moonstair, fight (and possibly kill him), then go into the feywild and fight him at the end a third time when he is reincarnated as the King of All Trolls.[/sblock]
4) Barely any traps. Although one of the additional encounters that's in the DM booklet has a cool reflavoring:
[sblock]Some shambling mounds and stormrage shambling mounds are hunkered beneath some lightning-enhanced trees. The trees are laced with veins of mythical metal, and are treated as a Fire Jet trap that does lightning damage. Also the trees are mildly magnetic, treated as daggerthorn briar (DMG 89, 300xp) that only effect heavy-armor wearing characters.[/sblock]
I would like to see more of this reskinning to give a fantastic appearance more often.
1) A few skill challenges. (Locating the Great Warren, activating two portals, one of which is to the Feywild, etc).
2) There are a lot of encounters here. There are a few I'd personally swap out for others.
3) [sblock]Skalmad, the big bad troll, is fought three times. He has a special magical item in his eye; when he dies, it returns his body to a specific site, and he gets brought back from the dead, bigger and badder. The PCs are expected to kill him, run back to Moonstair, fight (and possibly kill him), then go into the feywild and fight him at the end a third time when he is reincarnated as the King of All Trolls.[/sblock]
4) Barely any traps. Although one of the additional encounters that's in the DM booklet has a cool reflavoring:
[sblock]Some shambling mounds and stormrage shambling mounds are hunkered beneath some lightning-enhanced trees. The trees are laced with veins of mythical metal, and are treated as a Fire Jet trap that does lightning damage. Also the trees are mildly magnetic, treated as daggerthorn briar (DMG 89, 300xp) that only effect heavy-armor wearing characters.[/sblock]
I would like to see more of this reskinning to give a fantastic appearance more often.
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The Little Raven
First Post
Are there really Formians (ant-like outsiders) or did you just misspell Formorian?
Mouseferatu
Hero
That's how it's spelled in the MM, too.
