I want to throw a wandering troll at my party as they explore the sewer dungeon I'm making. I've been thinking about it for a while and want to gush about it/ get some feedback. I'm trying to think of the difference the troll would have being in his lair vs. out of his lair.
I want to shake up the troll by giving it an INT boosting item so it can plan and strategize. He's a type of scientist and has grafted different material onto his skin to negate his fire and acid weakness. I'm thinking of giving him another elemental weakness that disturbs his regenerative abilities but I haven't settled on a type.
The deal is he's a Dire Troll, who are known for taking pieces of their enemies and sticking them on themselves, giving them multiple arms and legs and stuff. However, he's come into a headband of intellect and has been collecting arms of magic users, granting him those abilities as long as he is using their arms. I imagine him having a cloak or a bandoleer of arms or something and as he fights, he will cut off the arm he's using and swap it out as needed. For example, using a cleric's arm to cure himself and using a necromancer's arm to cast Inflict Wounds or something. I don't have a list of spells he can use, but the idea is sticking with me and seems so cool to me.
I think out in the field he only has access to at most 2 or 3 arms, and in his lair he has an organized wall of them that offers him greater variation in his attacks.
The more I type this out the more I want this to be a recurring enemy or even a wary ally.
So what do you think? How would this intelligent troll act, and how would its fighting style change with it having access to all these spells?
Well, he would be smart enough to understand his strengths and weaknesses, especially how his regeneration works. I can see him dancing around in combat and targeting the few opponents who can really hurt him while avoiding the melee opponents who can wear him down and annoy him but can’t kill him. He would definitely take advantage of cover and he would use whatever spells he has very effectively. He does have Absorb Elements as one of his spells, doesn’t he?
As of now, he has nothing. I don't want to exceed the Dire Troll's actual damage capabilities, which right now is... oh wow I did not see the 5 multi attack.
So the vanilla troll gets 5 attacks, (1 bite and 4 claws). +11 to hit for both, Average damage 10 + 5 poison on bite and 16 for claw. Special ability DC 19 DEX Save or take average 44 damage to enemies within 10 feet of him.
I can definitely see him having a permanent arm of Absorb Elements; that's how I say he gets around the Fire/Acid weakness. An arm of some kind of sharp wind spell to replace his Whirlwind of Claws, but effectively does the same thing.
So that gives him 1 weak arm to replace the bite, because this dignified troll shall not lower himself to that sort of barbarism, and 4 spell arms.
The weak arm can be a Firebolt-ish kind of thing that does comparable damage.
1 arm is Absorb Elements
1 arm is Whirlwind of Claws replacement
I'm really not sure if the other arms should be damaging or if they should be utility. I'd really love Slow to be incorporated, as my Paladin has stupid high AC. Though with a +11 to hit, that may not matter as much as it usually does.
What do you think? Any particularly useful spells a hyper intelligent troll can use?
Seems like that’s the kind of troll that would have minions, especially if you want him to be recurring. Like a pack of kobolds or goblins or were rats he sends out to harvest things for him. Or even other trolls, once he shows them fire doesn’t hurt him, other trolls could start lining up. Either he promised them the same power, or they treat him like some kind of chosen one religious figure. And that would help with making him recurring, he hides behinds his gang, slinging spells, then when it looks like he’s going to lose, he’s smart enough to know to run.
And you probably thought Of this, but make sure you’re ok with the PCs having that headband of intellect. If you don’t want them to, you can always say he’s just a freakishly smart troll. He just happened to be born that way.
I gave my party a Headband of Intellect when they were 5th level and I didn’t think twice about it. It’s not going to have much impact on the campaign at all, and it wouldn’t even if the party had a wizard in it. Every wizard that I’ve played had an intelligence of 16 at 1st level and that headband only gives a mechanical +1 bonus to intelligence based checks to a PC who has an intelligence of 16. And giving it to a less intelligent PC who will never use an ASI to increase their intelligence doesn’t break anything, it primarily increases their skills that are based on Intelligence. It’s mechanically more of a flavor item than anything else in my campaign, even though it looks super powerful at first.
The Headband of Intellect sets the character's INT to 19, no matter what. You can't go higher while wearing the headband and you can't go lower. The first inkling of this enemy was that I wanted to throw my wizard a bone, as he hasn't gotten any cool magical items in a while. Then it just kind of grew from there.
On the roleplay side of the troll, he lives in a sewer and is conducting Frankenstein-like experiments, trying to create artificial life. There is a pack of Kobolds who give him offerings to experiment on in exchange for not wiping them out. A watch captain who was patrolling of the sewer killed the sacrifice, and the troll killed him and stuck him on a pike as a warning to all to not take the troll's food. This is a problem for the party as he has the code to get through the door into the base they need to sneak in to. The party doesn't know the captain is dead, just that he's been missing for a while. The troll isn't evil necessarily, just an "ends justify the means" scientist. He would have no reason to fight the party outside of self-defense or if they disrupt his experiments.
There is also a pack of goblins,
led by my party's druid's sister, who so happens to have a piece of the cleric's god which is giving inspiration to blacksmiths in the city to produce masterwork weapons
who are tunneling their way into the city to try and take it over/destroy it.
The plot to my campaign is really cris-crossed and convoluted, I can definitely type out more and explain it further if you think it'll help build this troll.
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I want to throw a wandering troll at my party as they explore the sewer dungeon I'm making. I've been thinking about it for a while and want to gush about it/ get some feedback. I'm trying to think of the difference the troll would have being in his lair vs. out of his lair.
I want to shake up the troll by giving it an INT boosting item so it can plan and strategize. He's a type of scientist and has grafted different material onto his skin to negate his fire and acid weakness. I'm thinking of giving him another elemental weakness that disturbs his regenerative abilities but I haven't settled on a type.
The deal is he's a Dire Troll, who are known for taking pieces of their enemies and sticking them on themselves, giving them multiple arms and legs and stuff. However, he's come into a headband of intellect and has been collecting arms of magic users, granting him those abilities as long as he is using their arms. I imagine him having a cloak or a bandoleer of arms or something and as he fights, he will cut off the arm he's using and swap it out as needed. For example, using a cleric's arm to cure himself and using a necromancer's arm to cast Inflict Wounds or something. I don't have a list of spells he can use, but the idea is sticking with me and seems so cool to me.
I think out in the field he only has access to at most 2 or 3 arms, and in his lair he has an organized wall of them that offers him greater variation in his attacks.
The more I type this out the more I want this to be a recurring enemy or even a wary ally.
So what do you think? How would this intelligent troll act, and how would its fighting style change with it having access to all these spells?
That’s awesome! I love the concept!
Well, he would be smart enough to understand his strengths and weaknesses, especially how his regeneration works. I can see him dancing around in combat and targeting the few opponents who can really hurt him while avoiding the melee opponents who can wear him down and annoy him but can’t kill him. He would definitely take advantage of cover and he would use whatever spells he has very effectively. He does have Absorb Elements as one of his spells, doesn’t he?
Professional computer geek
As of now, he has nothing. I don't want to exceed the Dire Troll's actual damage capabilities, which right now is... oh wow I did not see the 5 multi attack.
So the vanilla troll gets 5 attacks, (1 bite and 4 claws). +11 to hit for both, Average damage 10 + 5 poison on bite and 16 for claw. Special ability DC 19 DEX Save or take average 44 damage to enemies within 10 feet of him.
I can definitely see him having a permanent arm of Absorb Elements; that's how I say he gets around the Fire/Acid weakness. An arm of some kind of sharp wind spell to replace his Whirlwind of Claws, but effectively does the same thing.
So that gives him 1 weak arm to replace the bite, because this dignified troll shall not lower himself to that sort of barbarism, and 4 spell arms.
The weak arm can be a Firebolt-ish kind of thing that does comparable damage.
1 arm is Absorb Elements
1 arm is Whirlwind of Claws replacement
I'm really not sure if the other arms should be damaging or if they should be utility. I'd really love Slow to be incorporated, as my Paladin has stupid high AC. Though with a +11 to hit, that may not matter as much as it usually does.
What do you think? Any particularly useful spells a hyper intelligent troll can use?
Seems like that’s the kind of troll that would have minions, especially if you want him to be recurring. Like a pack of kobolds or goblins or were rats he sends out to harvest things for him. Or even other trolls, once he shows them fire doesn’t hurt him, other trolls could start lining up. Either he promised them the same power, or they treat him like some kind of chosen one religious figure. And that would help with making him recurring, he hides behinds his gang, slinging spells, then when it looks like he’s going to lose, he’s smart enough to know to run.
And you probably thought Of this, but make sure you’re ok with the PCs having that headband of intellect. If you don’t want them to, you can always say he’s just a freakishly smart troll. He just happened to be born that way.
I gave my party a Headband of Intellect when they were 5th level and I didn’t think twice about it. It’s not going to have much impact on the campaign at all, and it wouldn’t even if the party had a wizard in it. Every wizard that I’ve played had an intelligence of 16 at 1st level and that headband only gives a mechanical +1 bonus to intelligence based checks to a PC who has an intelligence of 16. And giving it to a less intelligent PC who will never use an ASI to increase their intelligence doesn’t break anything, it primarily increases their skills that are based on Intelligence. It’s mechanically more of a flavor item than anything else in my campaign, even though it looks super powerful at first.
Professional computer geek
The Headband of Intellect sets the character's INT to 19, no matter what. You can't go higher while wearing the headband and you can't go lower. The first inkling of this enemy was that I wanted to throw my wizard a bone, as he hasn't gotten any cool magical items in a while. Then it just kind of grew from there.
On the roleplay side of the troll, he lives in a sewer and is conducting Frankenstein-like experiments, trying to create artificial life. There is a pack of Kobolds who give him offerings to experiment on in exchange for not wiping them out. A watch captain who was patrolling of the sewer killed the sacrifice, and the troll killed him and stuck him on a pike as a warning to all to not take the troll's food. This is a problem for the party as he has the code to get through the door into the base they need to sneak in to. The party doesn't know the captain is dead, just that he's been missing for a while. The troll isn't evil necessarily, just an "ends justify the means" scientist. He would have no reason to fight the party outside of self-defense or if they disrupt his experiments.
There is also a pack of goblins,
led by my party's druid's sister, who so happens to have a piece of the cleric's god which is giving inspiration to blacksmiths in the city to produce masterwork weapons
who are tunneling their way into the city to try and take it over/destroy it.
The plot to my campaign is really cris-crossed and convoluted, I can definitely type out more and explain it further if you think it'll help build this troll.