Troll

Trolls look spindly and fragile but are frighteningly strong, with long awkward limbs, three-toed feet and broad clawed hands. Their rubbery hide is moss green, gray-green or putrid gray, and a writhing hairlike mass of greenish black or iron gray crowns the skull. Sunken black eyes give 90-foot infravision. Females are larger and stronger than males. Trolls lope hunched over, knuckles dragging when they run, yet are agile climbers with an 80% chance to scale even sheer cliffs. Hearing is poor; smell is excellent. Their 'trollspeak' is a crude jumble of common, giant, goblin, orc and hobgoblin that drifts so fast that two trolls from different regions have only a 25% chance of understanding each other.

A troll claws twice and bites, and can split these among several foes. One that picks up a weapon adds +8 to damage. About a quarter of the time it hurls stones first: 10 to 20 pounds each, 20 yards maximum, 1d8 damage. Trolls feel no fear and fling themselves at whoever is closest, but they detour around large fires, magical or natural, and half the time a pursuing troll stops to scoop up food dropped by fleeing prey.

Three rounds after first being wounded, a troll regains 3 hit points per round until whole. At 0 or fewer hit points it collapses, still regenerating, and rises once its total turns positive. A natural 20 with an edged weapon lops off a limb, which keeps attacking at normal odds (hands strangle, a stepped-on head bites) until the fight ends, then crawls back to reattach. A limb that cannot rejoin dies within 24 hours, which hardly matters since a troll regrows any lost part, head included, in a week. If the body is hacked apart and scattered, the biggest piece regrows and the rest die within a day. Only fire and acid cause lasting harm, and a downed troll must be burned or dunked in acid to be killed.

Trolls live in every climate but prefer deep forest and underground haunts, because sunlight hurts their eyes, though without any combat penalty. They block cave mouths with boulders and sleep on rough nests of grass among bones and loot. Where caves are lacking they dig a trollhole near trees and hide its mouth with twigs and leaves; it is 90% undetectable, and anyone stepping on it has a 75% chance of dropping into the den.

Packs of 3 to 12 follow a dominant female, a 7th-level priest usually drawing on Charm, Divination, Weather and the Darkness side of Sun. Rule is won by combat, so dominance brawls are common and limbs fly, but nobody dies; custom demands the loser's head be thrown far away, and the loser waits a week to grow a new one. The chieftain leads nightly hunts, sniffing for scent before the pack races ahead with a howl, and in return chooses her mates. Females bear one young about every five years. Trolls lair near roads and villages but not too near, since they respect organized humans carrying torches. Packs seeking new lairs travel by night and have been known to eat whole humanoid villages.

Trolls devour anything from grubs to bears and people, sparing only the mightiest creatures. They fear dragons and feud constantly with good giants. One troll's green blood, worth 400 gp, makes three potions of healing or poison antidote.

This troll and ettin crossbreed has mottled greenish brown skin and dresses in rags or furs. It claws twice, possibly at separate foes, and bites twice at one target, or rarely wields a weapon at +6 damage. Its thick limbs cannot be severed on a 20, it regenerates just 1 hit point per round, and lost limbs never reattach. Like an ettin it is surprised only on a 1. It lives in damp caverns, often leading lesser trolls, and speaks trollspeak.

Freshwater scrags, or river trolls, are gilled, blue-green to olive, with thin arms and broad mouths full of needle teeth. They regenerate only while immersed in fresh water and can last an hour on land. They lure victims with gems left at the water's edge, bury themselves in sand or shallows, tangle boat rudders, or lurk under bridges and ferries charging a toll of about one cow per troll per week. Livestock and children vanish around them, and they especially like dwarves. Marine scrags are big, pot-bellied, scaly and green, with seaweed-colored hair, webbed feet, short weak limbs and huge mouths of teeth. They regenerate only in salt water, also survive an hour in air, lair in sea caves or under docks, and climb aboard ships at night in packs of four to six, or dozens against a large vessel. Shamans of both kinds can use Elemental (water) spells.

Tan but able to shade to rocky brown, it imposes -2 on opponents' surprise and is itself surprised only 1 time in 10. It attacks like a common troll, ignores normal fire, heat and cold, but cannot regenerate acid, magical fire or fire breath. Water burns it permanently: 1d4 per vial, 2d4 per flask, 4d4 per skin, 25 points per round from a decanter of endless water aimed at it (attack roll needed), double for purified or holy water. A potion of sweet water deals 6d6 and forces a save vs. poison to survive. Tougher and lonelier than its kin, it haunts the edges of settlements and fouls clean water.

These jet-black undead trolls take form only in darkness and hate all living things. They attack like normal trolls, can be hit only by silver or magical weapons, and are turned as spectres. A humanoid they kill rises as one in three days unless a priest of its faith buries it properly. Sunlight does not hurt them; they fade and reappear on the same spot at nightfall, which has let even captured or stasis-bound ones slip away.

A hill giant and troll cross, red-brown skinned with red-rimmed eyes and a hill giant's head. It clubs for 2d6+7 with a tree trunk or beam, claws for 1d6+1 without one, or more often swings a grabbed human-sized victim as a club. It throws small attackers into trees, catches missiles 25% of the time and hurls boulders for 2d8, but never bites. It regenerates 2 hit points per round, cannot reattach limbs, and must take at least 10 fire damage before it can die; otherwise it stops at 1 hit point. Bands of 1d12 keep 2d6 ordinary trolls as servants and snacks and guard strong hill giant chiefs.

A smaller, smarter, cold-skinned troll that keeps humans as livestock. It regenerates 2 hit points per round only in water, takes double damage from fire, ignores cold and needs magical weapons to hit. See its own entry for full details.

An invisible mutation, perhaps of spectral trolls bred with invisible stalkers, looking like a slightly shorter, blurry troll. Only magical weapons harm it; fire works normally and cold not at all. It regenerates like a troll and splits its attacks among up to three foes. Its 2d4+2 bite heals it by the damage dealt. Its 1d4+2 claws also drain equal Strength, returning in 2d4 turns; 0 Strength kills, and 1 or 2 leaves the victim comatose until hit points restore Strength to 3. It has keen smell and 120-foot infravision.