Troll: Dwellers of Wells and Bridges

Lore: Wolverine, Nasty Edition

Despite lacking civilized social abilities, trolls can often be found working as mercenaries for creatures like orcs, ettins, or hags. Their price is simple: food. However, even should it be paid, these savage, disgusting creatures are far from easy to control.

Trolls have a freakish ability to regenerate wounds quickly. As such, killing one is rather difficult, as only fire and acid can cause permanent damage. Worse, this rapid healing makes the creatures susceptible to mutation. The result: trolls with horrifying deformities, some of which make the already dangerous brutes even more deadly.

And… that’s it. Yeah, I guess Wizards didn’t want to bother with these guys for too long.

This lore is… fine. It’s just fine. At least, if you’re looking for an early game boss encounter. If you want anything with more depth than that, you’ll need to find a different monster or start making up your own stuff.

Design: Not-So Jolly Green Bastard

I’ve been trying to come up with a joke for this one, but I won’t lie: I’ve got nothing. So let’s just move on.

Stick this guy in a shampoo commercial, I’m sure it’ll sell products

This design is pretty boring. Oh, sure, it certainly looks dangerous. And anyone looking at it could figure out that it’s a troll pretty quickly. It all works just fine for what it’s trying to do.

It just isn’t very interesting. We’ve already seen plenty of ‘big green naked monster with fangs and claws.’ At this point, it just feels tired and boring.

I wish they had gone further and shown us some of those freaky regeneration mutations the lore mentioned. Give the thing a second, malformed head, maybe some displaced limbs. Add some body horror to the look! That could have been so much more interesting, striking, and memorable than just ‘big green dude!’

Stats: Burn the Undying

While undeniably tough, trolls aren’t particularly complicated enemies. They’ve got some decent stats, between their HP and their damage, but it’s mostly a basic slugfest. The only real hiccup is the Regeneration ability, which allows them to heal from any damage that isn’t acid or fire.

Unless you count Keen Smell as a game changer.

However, the Loathsome Limbs variant is a whole different beast. With this version of the troll, you roll a d20 every time the troll takes 15 points of slashing damage. The results are as follows:

1-10: nothing
11-14: one leg is severed; troll’s movement is reduced
15-18: one arm is severed; troll loses one claw attack
19-20: the troll is decapitated, but only dies if it cannot regenerate; troll loses bite attack

Until such point as the limbs regenerate, they act on the troll’s initiative, using their own action and movement. While the legs can only move to rejoin the body, the arms and head are capable of making attacks, albeit feeble ones.

This variety adds a fun – if gruesome – twist to battle. It encourages the players to go for the limbs, while adding a potentially dangerous consequence to doing so. Do they go for the benefits of cutting the limbs off and risk having multiple enemies to fight? Or do they go for the slashing-fire combo to deal more permanent damage? At the very least, it’s more interesting than hitting it with fire until it dies.

Even if, in the end, that’s exactly what you’ll be doing.

Placement

The hot streak couldn’t last forever.

Honestly, this one was kinda boring. None of the three categories are bad in any way; the stats are actually pretty decent. But nothing really stands out as being actually impressive. It’s middle of the road, through and through.

With all that in mind, the Troll is going to #116 on the Best of the Bestiary!

Beholder
Death Tyrant
Mind Flayer
Dragon Turtle
Tarrasque
Mummy/Mummy Lord
Nagas (all three of ’em)
Green Dragons
Red Dragons
Blue Dragons
Black Dragons
White Dragons
Silver Dragons
Couatl
Behir
Aboleth
Sea Hag
Slaadi (all six of ’em)
Lamia
Bronze Dragons
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Copper Dragons
Gold Dragons
Chuul
Kuo-Toa
Gibbering Mouther
Kraken
Intellect Devourer
Thri-Kreen
Shadow
Chimera
Sphinxes
Death Knight
Fomorian
Bone Devil
Dracolich
Faerie Dragon
Gelatinous Cube
Lich
Treant
Peryton
Troglodyte
Remorhaz
Orcs (all four of ’em)
Magmin
Shield Guardian
Kobold
Kenku
Hobgoblins
Night Hag
Green Hag
Black Pudding
Ankheg
Hook Horror
Succubus/Incubus
Oni
Purple Worm
Storm Giant
Hill Giant
Empyrean
Efreeti
Grimlock
Minotaur
Dao
Cloud Giant
Manticore
Scarecrow
Drow (all four of ’em)
Shadow Demon
Modrons (all five of ’em)
Marilith
Drider
Aarackockra
Azer
Demilich
Spectator
Gray Ooze
Ochre Jelly
Hydra
Rakshasa
Marid
Salamander
Harpy
Werejackal
Otyugh
Satyr
Half-Dragon
Cambion
Fire Giant
Nothic
Pixie
Animated Armor
Roper
Banshee
Basilisk
Yochlol
Bulette
Cloaker
Darkmantle
Doppelganger
Revenant
Ghoul and Ghast
Sahuagin (all three)
Ettin
Sprite
Medusa
Pit Fiend
Erinyes
Chain Devil
Bearded Devil
Barbed Devil
Spined Devil
Ice Devil
Mimic
Djinni
Troll <——————-
Merrow
Nalfeshnee
Glabrezu
Chasme
Grell
Barlgura
Horned Devil
Balor
Skeletons
Shadow Dragon
Myconids (all four of ’em)
Piercer
Werebear
Lizardfolk
Vrock
Dretch
Pseudodragon
Gnolls (all three)
Goristro
Hezrou
Manes
Quaggoth
Frost Giant
Weretiger
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Duergar
Quasit
Dryad
Shambling Mound
Flumph
Goblin
Nightmare
Rust Monster
Wereboar
Wererat
Githyanki
Owlbear
Planetar
Imp
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Roc
Clay Golem
Flameskull
Displacer Beast
Carrion Crawler
Githzerai
Grick
Invisible Stalker
Rug of Smothering
Bugbear Chief
Bugbear
Flesh Golem
Vine Blight
Twig Blight
Needle Blight
Mephits (all six of ’em)
Bullywug
Hellhound
Ettercap
Gas Spore
Cockatrice
Lemure
Homonculus
Merfolk
Solar
Deva
Gorgon
Hippogriff
Griffon
Cyclops
Centaur
Ghost
Pegasus
Fire Elemental
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Stone Giant
Deep Gnome
Dinosaurs (All six of them)
Stirge
Specter
Iron Golem
Stone Golem
Earth Elemental
Galeb Duhr
Helmed Horror
Flying Sword
Crawling Claw
Violet Fungus
Shrieker
Gargoyle