Severing troll limbs

[Minigiant]

'tain't that hard to model with mechanics, James: when the troll is crit with a slashing weapon, it spawns a TROLL LIMB in an adjacent square. Troll limbs have 1 hp, 10's for their defenses, and attack like the troll, but at disadvantage and dealing -4 damage (or whatever). Heck, it'd even be EASY to do in 4e, and make trolls an interesting Elite!

So, I don't buy the line he's feeding us there. If you WANT to do it, it's doable.

Personally, I think it's smart to do it. Trolls in D&D make good "elite"-level monsters. Things like regeneration and severed limbs that attack make them worthy of that XP total. This means that even at their normal level, trolls are scary things. Which works really well.

Possibly, they don't WANT to do it. And it's probably fine if they don't. I don't think it'll break any hearts. I think the possibility of doing it is a little more interesting, and deserves to be explored, but if they want it to be only color, it can be only color. The question being, would anyone who didn't narrate the trolls this way be missing some essential part of using a D&D troll? And I don't really think so.

It's poisoned fruit, isn't it.
A trap!

Oh no. They'd never but a complicated mechanic for severed arm in the troll entry. It'd be either too short and be extremely disassociated and filled with holes. Or extremely long paragraph or cumbersome mechanics.

But with the seed planted, foolish DMs will attempt it on their own... only to have their games bog down into a dragging oblivion of contradictions, confusion, and missing pieces.

Bravo.
Here are your 3 Evil points, Mr Wyatt. You have earned them.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

The question being, would anyone who didn't narrate the trolls this way be missing some essential part of using a D&D troll?

Absolutely. The DM in question would be required to re-read Three Hearts and Three Lions until his trolls comply with the source material.

 

[pemerton]

I read it to mean that the hacked-off, but still attacking arm was narrative description, but that it didn't have any mechanical impact on the combat. If ran that way, I'm not sure why it would be controversial.

Here is the reason I think it might be controversial:

'tain't that hard to model with mechanics, James: when the troll is crit with a slashing weapon, it spawns a TROLL LIMB in an adjacent square.

Easiest might be to notate it as a standard rule that a severed limb has something like 25% of the creature's hit point and is severed on a critical hit (or a "called shot" at -4, like ol' 2E).

My question would be: why are only trolls - which are ostensibly very tough - vulnerable to being maimed on a crit. If I crit against a claw/claw monster that does not regenerate or have self-sustaining limbs, can I hack of its claw and therefore reduce its number of attacks? If a monster crits against my PC, am I maimed and in need of a Regeneration spell?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Bwahah. Bwahahah.

 

[Mattachine]

I have always hated when some monsters have special rules for crits/different ACs/special stuff for being attacked, when using those same strategies on other enemies would be an instant win. AD&D was rife with them, in two main categories:

1. AC-by-body part
2. Severing heads/limbs

If the game lets your character sever limbs when fighting one monster, why not when fighting any similar monster?

If the game lets you target/call shots for eyes/special organs/etc, then why not when fighting anything?

If D&D combat is going to rely on abstracting, keep it that way. Keep your crawling troll hands to themselves.

 

[howandwhy99]

Hand waving stuff, IMO, means it is outside the referee's purview. It's basically up to the Players to come up with it. So if I want trolls in the world to have limbs that can be severed, then I need rules for it.

I think every monster is unique. Monsters with unique rules is something that has occurred through every edition of D&D. Trolls can have this too, just think of it as a 4e power or something.

1. Trolls (and Hydra, etc.) are more susceptible to being hacked, quite literally, into pieces.
2. Pieces of Trolls are not dead. They continue to fight on.
3. Trolls have a few body parts assigned to specific statistics.

• Heads for mental stats and Bite attack
• Legs for movement (only 1 is slower)
• Arms to claw attack (each) and slower movement
• Torso for attaching other parts too

4. Your DM might have internal organs accounted for too, for sneak attacks and so on, but they regenerate all types of damage.
5. Assemble into a a whole troll or partial as needed.


PS: This reminds me of our OD&D campaign when we found a bizarre sack full of rope that turned out to be a Sack of Endless Rope. Troll gut with intestine
No lie: that thing was a trap too. How do you think trolls reproduce?

 

[I'm A Banana]

My question would be: why are only trolls - which are ostensibly very tough - vulnerable to being maimed on a crit. If I crit against a claw/claw monster that does not regenerate or have self-sustaining limbs, can I hack of its claw and therefore reduce its number of attacks? If a monster crits against my PC, am I maimed and in need of a Regeneration spell?

By usual D&D lore, it is true that trolls are uniquely able to have their limbs severed. It is a trait of the troll. Presumably, because they have no large value in keeping their limbs attached, anyway.

 

[Minigiant]

By usual D&D lore, it is true that trolls are uniquely able to have their limbs severed. It is a trait of the troll. Presumably, because they have no large value in keeping their limbs attached, anyway.

So they block swords with their arms and don't dodge like normal fleshy beings?

 

[I'm A Banana]

So they block swords with their arms and don't dodge like normal fleshy beings?

Yeah, probably! I'd imagine they also don't feel much pain from the severing of limbs -- like cutting off a toenail (maybe a little close to the cuticle). Their bones are rubbery. Their blood vessels are localized. They feel a little plant-like, perhaps.

Adds a bit to the menace of the creature:

"Aye, I fought The Render once, in me callow youth, when I thought I could take on anything. I'd cracked the defenses of some of the best warriors around, slain some goblins, thought I was slicker than gnome oil, I did! I thought the ol' troll would be easy. Might not even have to kill it, I thought, just wound it, send it running back to whatever crevice it crawled from. Aye, I was a right fool. I led that company to their deaths, and me to this missin' eye.

See...turns out...the troll don't fight like you'd expect a critter to fight. It's got no sense of self-preservation, no pain or fear in it. A troll knows it'll live to see another day, even if it's chopped into little bits and scattered to the wind. Most folks don't want to get hacked with an axe, or blasted with ice, but to the troll, well, it might've been a splinter or a strong breeze for all they reacted. It fights more like a machine, like an undead creature, or a golem, but it's got more cunning than those automatons, too. It ain't a mindless shambling hunger or a staid resolute defender, it doesn't have programming you can exploit. It has its own thoughts, it's own desires, and mostly, they involve you gettin' strung up and eaten, even if it has to get cut in half to do it. It doesn't really seem to care how much damage it takes. Critter like that doesn't fight with tactics or strategy. It throws itself onto your spear, just so it can get close enough to rip your throat out. It takes an axe wound or a sword blow or a hammer's smash and doesn't particularly care. They don't flinch away, they don't hesitate to attack, when they reach out with their claws or their maw, they don't calculate or plan for an opening, they just lunge and lunge and lunge, with their stumps and their bone shards if need be, whatever they can do to destroy the person on the other side.

The Render's no joke, son. You go out there to fight it, you won't be comin' back unchanged. Even if you do manage to take him out, you'll have to pay a price. You won't look at the world the same way again, when you know it can produce a creature like that."

 

[Balesir]

Can't xp you, but nice story hour, there!

It still sounds dangerously "dissociated", to me, though...