The rules, unfortunately, don't specify what part of the troll that this regeneration ability works from. A DM could choose to rule that a hand is enough or might say that you need a more conventionally vital body part, like a head or most of a torso, in order to regenerate a whole troll again.
RAW: Regeneration is an ability of living trolls, not of troll body parts. It helps the troll heal while it's still alive, but does not bring the troll back from the dead.
So no single severed troll body part would be enough to grow a troll.
RAW: Regeneration is an ability of living trolls, not of troll body parts. It helps the troll heal while it's still alive, but does not bring the troll back from the dead.
So no single severed troll body part would be enough to grow a troll.
However, Jeremy Crawford states (around the 42 min. mark) that even for a troll reduced to 0 hp, regeneration still occurs unless the body part(s) are torched or acid attacked. This is the rule interpretation of a head developer. So DMs are well within bounds to rule that the severed hand of a troll that is still alive can still regenerate even if it is in a Bag of Holding.
RAW: Regeneration is an ability of living trolls, not of troll body parts. It helps the troll heal while it's still alive, but does not bring the troll back from the dead.
So no single severed troll body part would be enough to grow a troll.
However, Jeremy Crawford states (around the 42 min. mark) that even for a troll reduced to 0 hp, regeneration still occurs unless the body part(s) are torched or acid attacked. This is the rule interpretation of a head developer. So DMs are well within bounds to rule that the severed hand of a troll that is still alive can still regenerate even if it is in a Bag of Holding.
Yes, the Troll stat block explicitly says that the troll does not die when it reaches 0hp unless something prevents it from regenerating that round. So until it's actually dead, it can regenerate. Once it dies, it can't.
We're not actually disagreeing here. I never said that a truly dead Troll could regenerate. The OP's question was RE: a hand cut off from a Troll. Without knowing whether the Troll is dead or whether the removed hand had been "treated" with fire or acid, we don't know whether the Troll is dead or not.
But is the hand a troll though? If there is one troll, and you cut off its hand, are there now 2 trolls?
I say no. Most people would say no.
If the troll is reduced to nothing but a hand, but no effect like acid or fire is applied to the hand to prevent it from regenerating, then yes technically the hand is a troll and can regenerate.
But is the hand a troll though? If there is one troll, and you cut off its hand, are there now 2 trolls?
I say no. Most people would say no.
If the troll is reduced to nothing but a hand, but no effect like acid or fire is applied to the hand to prevent it from regenerating, then yes technically the hand is a troll and can regenerate.
Is a troll that is reduced to a hand alive though? Given the regenerate functions at the start of a turn, that means the troll is regrowing it’s entire body in less than 6 seconds...otherwise it wouldn’t be functional as a troll on its turn. Remember that HP is not the entirety of a creatures life force. Reducing to 0 hp means you have damaged a creature to the point of death, not obliterated it’s body. there would be a lot more effort between striking a deadly blow (ie reducing hp to 0) and obliterating most of a creatures body (down to a hand). Most items and spells that do that (disintegration, vorpal sword, etc) go much further than reducing to 0 hp when describing extra effects that destroy bodily integrity.
if a DM wants to rule that a hand is still alive by itself, that’s one thing, but most would not say that a detached hand is still alive (the regeneration requires life) and there fore the hand does not regenerate
But is the hand a troll though? If there is one troll, and you cut off its hand, are there now 2 trolls?
I say no. Most people would say no.
If the troll is reduced to nothing but a hand, but no effect like acid or fire is applied to the hand to prevent it from regenerating, then yes technically the hand is a troll and can regenerate.
I don't know how you could incinerate/disinitgrate 99% of a troll leaving only a hand without having killed the troll.
My question was if you cut off the hand of a troll, and the troll grows an new hand, does the hand also grow a new troll making 2 trolls? If your answer to this is no, then a hand should never be able to grow a troll. If your answer to this is yes, then you are a crazy DM and I dont want to play in your troll apocalypse setting (actually, now I kind of do...).
But my point is, according to the rules corpses and body parts are not creatures. Therefore a severed hand does not have any of the troll's features.
If you chopped off a trolls hand, and then threw the rest of the troll through a wood chipper, but didn’t aim the wood chipper at a bonfire or an acid pit, then the hand would be the largest part and the troll would regrow itself from that. You couldn’t cut a troll in two and get two trolls.
But if you through that theoretical hand into a Bag of Holding, the Bag only has a finite supply of air. So depending on how long you left it in there you might only get a partially regenerated troll, or a suffocated troll that could then re-regenerate once it could breath again without the aforementioned fire/acid treatment.
PS- If you threw the hand into the wood chipper after the rest of the troll, then it would be dead.
If you chopped off a trolls hand, and then threw the rest of the troll through a wood chipper, but didn’t aim the wood chipper at a bonfire or an acid pit, then the hand would be the largest part and the troll would regrow itself from that. You couldn’t cut a troll in two and get two trolls.
But if you through that theoretical hand into a Bag of Holding, the Bag only has a finite supply of air. So depending on how long you left it in there you might only get a partially regenerated troll, or a suffocated troll that could then re-regenerate once it could breath again without the aforementioned fire/acid treatment.
PS- If you threw the hand into the wood chipper after the rest of the troll, then it would be dead.
Have you ever seen/read Ajin? I think this could lead to some shenanigans where trolls are essentially immortal. Say you kill a troll and burn the body, then the hand it cut off that morning starts regenerating a new troll. The clever troll then cuts off its hand again before heading out to ambush some unsuspecting adventurers.
No if you burn the body, the troll is dead. If you don’t burn the body, the troll can regenerate from the hand. It’s fun to have this almost unkillable thing to harass mid level parties with. A returning villain like Jaws from the old James Bond movies with Roger Moore, or Frieza from DBZ. The think they killed it, then whenever I need something to happen I can bust out their old foe. And with Troll Freaks and Loathsome Limbs there are great excuses to have the villain come back simultaneously more messed up and more bad ass each time like in a comic book. His name is Glorthak.
I would have had the mass mulch of troll peices connect together in that case rather than have a dead limb that is effectively no longer a part of the troll (as the troll has replaced the hand) suddenly become a whole living troll.
I kind of like the visual of the Troll hand crawling away Thing style into the underbrush behind the heroes as they walk away congratulating themselves.
If my players toss a severed troll hand into a bag of holding, will the hand grow into a troll and attack the next time they open the bag?
First, not a bug. This is a rule question.
Generally, no. A severed hand is not a living troll.
The rules, unfortunately, don't specify what part of the troll that this regeneration ability works from. A DM could choose to rule that a hand is enough or might say that you need a more conventionally vital body part, like a head or most of a torso, in order to regenerate a whole troll again.
RAW: Regeneration is an ability of living trolls, not of troll body parts. It helps the troll heal while it's still alive, but does not bring the troll back from the dead.
So no single severed troll body part would be enough to grow a troll.
Even if it could, there is only 10 minutes of air in the Bag of Holding sooo....
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However, Jeremy Crawford states (around the 42 min. mark) that even for a troll reduced to 0 hp, regeneration still occurs unless the body part(s) are torched or acid attacked. This is the rule interpretation of a head developer. So DMs are well within bounds to rule that the severed hand of a troll that is still alive can still regenerate even if it is in a Bag of Holding.
Yes, the Troll stat block explicitly says that the troll does not die when it reaches 0hp unless something prevents it from regenerating that round. So until it's actually dead, it can regenerate. Once it dies, it can't.
We're not actually disagreeing here. I never said that a truly dead Troll could regenerate. The OP's question was RE: a hand cut off from a Troll. Without knowing whether the Troll is dead or whether the removed hand had been "treated" with fire or acid, we don't know whether the Troll is dead or not.
But is the hand a troll though? If there is one troll, and you cut off its hand, are there now 2 trolls?
I say no. Most people would say no.
If the troll is reduced to nothing but a hand, but no effect like acid or fire is applied to the hand to prevent it from regenerating, then yes technically the hand is a troll and can regenerate.
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Is a troll that is reduced to a hand alive though? Given the regenerate functions at the start of a turn, that means the troll is regrowing it’s entire body in less than 6 seconds...otherwise it wouldn’t be functional as a troll on its turn. Remember that HP is not the entirety of a creatures life force. Reducing to 0 hp means you have damaged a creature to the point of death, not obliterated it’s body. there would be a lot more effort between striking a deadly blow (ie reducing hp to 0) and obliterating most of a creatures body (down to a hand). Most items and spells that do that (disintegration, vorpal sword, etc) go much further than reducing to 0 hp when describing extra effects that destroy bodily integrity.
if a DM wants to rule that a hand is still alive by itself, that’s one thing, but most would not say that a detached hand is still alive (the regeneration requires life) and there fore the hand does not regenerate
I don't know how you could incinerate/disinitgrate 99% of a troll leaving only a hand without having killed the troll.
My question was if you cut off the hand of a troll, and the troll grows an new hand, does the hand also grow a new troll making 2 trolls? If your answer to this is no, then a hand should never be able to grow a troll. If your answer to this is yes, then you are a crazy DM and I dont want to play in your troll apocalypse setting (actually, now I kind of do...).
But my point is, according to the rules corpses and body parts are not creatures. Therefore a severed hand does not have any of the troll's features.
If you chopped off a trolls hand, and then threw the rest of the troll through a wood chipper, but didn’t aim the wood chipper at a bonfire or an acid pit, then the hand would be the largest part and the troll would regrow itself from that. You couldn’t cut a troll in two and get two trolls.
But if you through that theoretical hand into a Bag of Holding, the Bag only has a finite supply of air. So depending on how long you left it in there you might only get a partially regenerated troll, or a suffocated troll that could then re-regenerate once it could breath again without the aforementioned fire/acid treatment.
PS- If you threw the hand into the wood chipper after the rest of the troll, then it would be dead.
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Have you ever seen/read Ajin? I think this could lead to some shenanigans where trolls are essentially immortal. Say you kill a troll and burn the body, then the hand it cut off that morning starts regenerating a new troll. The clever troll then cuts off its hand again before heading out to ambush some unsuspecting adventurers.
No if you burn the body, the troll is dead. If you don’t burn the body, the troll can regenerate from the hand. It’s fun to have this almost unkillable thing to harass mid level parties with. A returning villain like Jaws from the old James Bond movies with Roger Moore, or Frieza from DBZ. The think they killed it, then whenever I need something to happen I can bust out their old foe. And with Troll Freaks and Loathsome Limbs there are great excuses to have the villain come back simultaneously more messed up and more bad ass each time like in a comic book. His name is Glorthak.
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PS- I have seen Ajin. But I started running Trolls like that back in the ‘90s. AD&D2e.
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RAW, you don't actually have to burn the entire body. Doing some fire or acid damage to the troll when the troll is at 0hp is enough.
Exactly, so if they don’t burn/acid the troll’s remains it can regenerate from the largest part, in this case the theoretical hand.
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I would have had the mass mulch of troll peices connect together in that case rather than have a dead limb that is effectively no longer a part of the troll (as the troll has replaced the hand) suddenly become a whole living troll.
I kind of like the visual of the Troll hand crawling away Thing style into the underbrush behind the heroes as they walk away congratulating themselves.
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