Keen Smell. The troll has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Regeneration. The troll regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn. If the troll takes acid or fire damage, this trait doesn't function at the start of the troll's next turn. The troll dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn't regenerate.
Multiattack. The troll makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.
Description
Fearsome green-skinned giants, trolls eat anything they can catch and devour. Only acid and fire can arrest the regenerative properties of a troll’s flesh.
Describe the following to your players to provide better immersion - (show, don't tell during their first encounter):
This large, bipedal green-skinned giant is about one and a half times as tall as a human but very thin. It has long and ungainly arms and legs. The legs end in great three-toed feet, the arms in wide, powerful hands with sharpened claws. The hide is rubbery, and its hair is thick and ropy, and seems to writhe with its own energy.
In addition, you might want to allow them an Intelligence - History check to know the following (accumulated - a roll of 25 or above would know all):
DC5 (very easy): attacks with a bite and two claws
DC10 (easy): can hunt its prey using smell
DC15 (medium): has the ability to regenerate health
DC20 (hard): acid or fire damage halts its regeneration ability
DC25 (very hard): only dies if it can't regenerate when unconscious - additionally that it has darkvision out to 60'
Thanks a lot! This is really helpful. Though I suggest that it should be an Arcana Check, not a History Check
troll (84) -14 Aria final hit!
Where’s the information about chopping off pieces of the troll that are still alive?
Can there be a rule for them to be turned to stone by the sunlight?
Your description says "The legs end in great three-toed feet", which is clearly untrue. Not only does the official artwork show five toes, so does the picture of the miniature you've included.
Additionally, and this may be more opinion than anything, I would think that trolls are known for their ability to regenerate. It's basically their defining feature, is it not? I don't see how people would know that they hunt by scent or attack with bites/claws without knowing that. I would swap the DC5 and DC15 items.
Yep... I thought about that when I originally posted. Suppose I'm an old fart and been playing the game since the blue box in 1980 - 1st, 2nd, 3rd - trolls had 3, not five. In 5th edition there's not much of a description which has been a bit of an annoyance in my opinion. I thought it might be beneficial to add the 3rd edition description for folks. I figure the 5th edition illustrator saw a troll under the bridge and ran away, therefore their depiction is a bit "off" in their interpretation of a troll. The model is by Wizkids and their new line of plastic models - they are fantastic by the way and relatively inexpensive at $4.99 for a large creature or two medium creatures. For more information on the model and my complete paintjob see my miniature painting blog.
It's interesting to see the evolution of official monster manual descriptions - first edition is a bit vague, second edition is extremely detailed and that is true in every book or module, third edition brought a bit of editing to make it not so encyclopedic and more dynamic, and 5th edition has an extremely vague description and a bit of attributes and some monsters don't have any description at all:
1st - Troll hide is a nauseating moss green, mottled green and gray, or putrid gray. The writhing hair-like growth upon a troll’s head is greenish black or iron gray. The eyes of a troll are dull black. Picture shows 3.
2nd - Trolls are horrid carnivores found in all climes, from arctic wastelands to tropical jungles. Most creatures avoid these beasts, since trolls know no fear and attack unceasingly when hungry. Their frame appears thin and frail, but trolls possess surprising strength. Their arms and legs are long and ungainly. The legs end in great three-toed feet, the arms in wide, powerful hands with sharpened claws. The trolls’ rubbery hide is colored a moss green, mottled green and gray, or putrid gray. A writhing hairlike mass grows out of their skulls and is usually greenish black or iron gray in color. Their dull, sunken black eyes possess 90-foot infravision. Females are easily distinguished from males; they are both larger and more powerful than their male counterparts. Picture shows 3.
3rd - This big, bipedal creature is about one and a half times as tall as a human but very thin. It has long and ungainly arms and legs The legs end in great three-toed feet, the arms in wide, powerful hands with sharpened claws. The hide is rubbery, and its hair is thick and ropy, and seems to writhe with its own energy. Interestingly the picture shows 3 toes and a thumb with 3 fingers for a total of 4 appendages to the hand.
5th - Fearsome green-skinned giants, trolls eat anything they can catch and devour. Only acid and fire can arrest the regenerative properties of a troll’s flesh. I have lots of problems with this - the only "description" is Fearsome green-skinned giants. The remainder is stating what they eat and a bit on how they can be stopped - not really a description.
And then, this is getting to be a bit of a long post, but here's the thoughts on the DC checks....
The 3rd edition had a lot of skill points and abilities that players would invest in various knowledges. I brought that thought process into 5th edition as follows:
Skill Check: Monster Type
Intelligence (Arcana): Aberrations, Constructs, Dragons, Monstrosities
Intelligence (History): Giants, Humanoids,
Intelligence (Nature): Fey, Oozes, Plants
Intelligence (Religion): Celestials, Elementals, Fiends, Undead
Wisdom (Survival): Beasts
As a Troll is considered to be a Giant - it therefore uses Intelligence (History).
Then the template for what's known about the monster is as follows (and this is simply my opinion, you could use whatever arrangement you want):
Difficulty Check: Knowledge Known
DC5 (very easy): how it attacks
DC10 (easy): abilities
DC15 (medium): damage resistance/vulnerabilities
DC20 (hard): damage immunities
DC25 (very hard): condition immunities
Now, the thing I've been toying with in my games is that I think the knowledge should be progressively more difficult based upon something. Earlier editions had a frequency scale such as common, uncommon, rare, very rare, and mythical. You could adjust the DC accordingly. I've been using Challenge with the idea that the higher the challenge rating the less frequent the monster and not as much knowledge would be around (or correct knowledge). So the troll being a Challenge of 5, the DC's should actually be...
DC10 (very easy): attacks with a bite and two claws
DC15 (easy): can hunt its prey using smell
DC20 (medium): has the ability to regenerate health
DC25 (hard): acid or fire damage halts its regeneration ability
DC30 (very hard): only dies if it can't regenerate when unconscious - additionally that it has darkvision out to 60'
For now, that appears to be working well with my groups that I'm running. Give it a try and of course the greatest characteristic about D&D is the ability to use the rules simply as guidelines. That was the intent from the very first printing of the rules when Gygax writes that... “rules are merely guidelines” in the original 1973 publishing of Dungeons and Dragons.
So don't be Troll and may your dice roll 20's - enjoy!
Rick
I like that you systematized it. But you should consider in game implications of requiring a DC 30 check for how a troll is killed. If players kept meta-knowledge out of the game they'd almost assuredly be unable to ever kill a troll. It also doesn't make any sense whatsoever for immersion reasons. If there was 1 thing people know is that they're brutal savage killer monsters, if there is a second thing it is that they regenerate, and the third is that fire stops that regeneration. Those ARE what the troll legends speak of. That should be their common myths. Locking that info behind trained and high level scholar's knowledge is weird and doesn't make sense in-game. Like, only a handful of wizards and history fanatics know how to kill them? Why not the people who would actually encounter them? Rangers, druids, barbarians maybe fighters. Those are the people who would have actual practical first hand experience fighting them. But they wouldn't know how to deal with them or even that they have regeneration?
How to kill a magical creature is like very high in the list of things people remember about legends and myths. You can ask just about anyone in real life how to kill a vampire and they all have answers for you. Every single person will have an answer. But you'd have that knowledge be secret and locked away in a world where these creatures actually exist and are real? Why? How to kill it is the first question people ever have. That is the easiest thing for people to know, not the hardest.
Interesting thought. This thread would probably be better somewhere else and I did mention that one could use any arrangement of the table they desired as a DM. It's the version I chose to create and having run a few groups through some long campaigns I've been making my own adjustments.
I would argue that it's more interesting when they don't know or that the legends and mythologies are slightly incorrect. There's a reason why we DM's have tried to keep the Monster Manual out of the player's hands for almost 50 years - or build homebrew monsters - or tweak monsters just a bit to throw in a surprise. It's more of an adventure when the troll pops back up and the players have to figure out what puts it down for good. Players are more excited when they learn their character's damage doubled because of a vulnerability and likewise intrigued when it's halved because of a resistance and as a DM I give them a picture of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of their attack. They write notes in their notepad and reference back to those notes when encountering the creature again. I want pre-knowledge earned to be difficult and an exciting die roll - of course a d20 roll would know all.
As a DM you can modify any of those DC's as desired or completely take it away - going to an in-game source of knowledge such as an ancient library for the sacred book on history of vampires or the woodcutters shack in the deadwood forest for first hand accounts on trolls - there is so much imagination and adventure a DM can throw into the game. For example, in one of my games they went to a fort staffed by the Lord's Alliance with troops from Waterdeep and Neverwinter. There they met the captain who provided inside knowledge during a fireside chat and opened up an ancient artifact for their use - the Trollkiller 5000 - which led to adventures in the swamp and a coven of hags, but that's another story. In this case I completely abandoned the DC knowledge checks because they had a platoon of soldiers with direct first hand knowledge.
Do what's fun for you and your table - experiment and happy gaming!
Rick
I'm going to throw my two cents in here for a sec.
"If knowing how to kill it requires a 30DC Knowledge check, then characters will never be able to kill it without using meta knowledge."
Not necessarily true. Just because your characters don't know that the troll will continue to get back up unless you burn it or hit it with acid, that doesn't mean that characters can't start experimenting and escalating how dead they try to make it when it keeps getting back up. Hercales didn't know the hydra's heads would grow back when cut off, so when they started growing back he changed his approach in dealing with it. Eventually burning and cauterizing the wounds of the beast after severing each head, which ended up working to kill it.
When a character kills something and it gets back up, even if they don't know exactly how to kill it, they can logically try new things to put it down permanently.
"Oh, we stabbed it to death and it got back up? Whelp, get it down again and remove its head, that usually does the trick. Oh, the monster is on its feet again? Well crap, maybe if we immolate it, the beast will stay down. Ok, looks like that worked." thumbs_up_emoji
Unless, of course, they're not very smart and just want to keep trying to hack the troll apart, then yes. Its going to keep getting back up, and they will probably never kill it. Although I will point out that even an average intelligence human knows to try new things when something doesn't seem to be working. Even below average intelligence humanoids may figure it out eventually.
Agreed.
I think acid and fire are common and loved in use enough (probably more so fire) that it doesn't matter what the players know, it's likely to be figured out as a result of firebolt being a high power cantrip and the love of fireball to land an initial high power blow. A good DM will make a 10 HP regeneration known subtly.
If you want to give your DM an Aneurysm, just have your party necromancer or shadow sorcerer hit it with Chill Touch. No need to figure out how to stop the regeneration if there's a one-size-fits-all solution :P
You can homebrew a new troll that turns to stone in sunlight as the trolls in Tolkien's universe do. The best part of D&D is that you can use your judgement and creativity to create anything you like.
Wow. If DND had computers, he could be a literal internet troll!!!
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the troll monster has also been shown to have conservative political views such as believing that the irradiated water that frogs drink has turned them gay, obviously a plan devised by the leftist snowflakes
The stat block here isn't meant for the trolls of Tolkien lore, they were based off of the trolls in Poul Anderson's "Three Hearts and Three Lions".
That is more in line with a Tolkien troll I believe, I don't think there's anything in D&D lore that has them turning to stone by sunlight. BUT the beauty of this game and especially being a DM for this game is you can alter/change/modify/add things as you please! If you want your trolls to be lumbering, nocturnal hunters who fear the sun and must retreat or be turned to stone then go right ahead! No one is ever fully beholden to what is written in a Monster's stat block so have fun with it!
If you really wanted to play up the sunlight angle without going full Tolkien you could reduce their regeneration based on coverage.
No Sun or Heavily shadowed - Full regen
Dappled Shadows - 7 regen
Partial sunlight - 4 regen
Full sunlight - 1 regen
Basically making it easier to keep down each iteration until the party can flee, kill it, or the sun dips below the horizon.
half damage 40 points