Canonfire!

Fri Apr 01, 2005 10:36 am Trolls in Greyhawk

Hi

Does troll have different species in GH (swamp, cave, forest e.t.c.) or not?

Thanks

Fri Apr 01, 2005 11:46 am

if you want them too... various "species" of troll appear in differnt monster manuals, and dragon articles etc... and a DM is free to use them if he or she wants to.

There are few canon references to varient trolls (Other then skrags, aquatic trolls do appear in greyhawk canon), but that doesn;t mean that they do not nessicarily exist in the world of greyhawk.

Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:14 pm

As I recall 1e MM, as used for the Hool Marsh and Baltron's Beacon, uses aquatic trolls.

Fri Apr 01, 2005 9:04 pm

Trolls are horrid carnivores found in nearly every clime Shocked

You have your basic mean and nasty common troll types.
Some with leader types maybe incountered within brood lairs.
Along with your Scrags. -Fresh and salt water troll types.
The AD&D fiend folio address 3 further sub types.
1) Giant troll-HD 8
2) Giant 2-headed troll- HD 10
3) Spirit troll - breed with invisible stalker. Special attacks and defences

-I also remember that in Gates of Firestom Peak there were a group of mutated troll types.
-Also some fire resistive trolls are rumored witinin the scarlet Brotherhoods expermintal breeding program.
-I have always concidered that larger trolls have the ability to throw rocks/boulders as a lesser hill giant.
Any thoughts Question

Fri Apr 01, 2005 10:35 pm

Vasiliy,

The Cave Troll (MM3) is exceptionally powerful. And stupid. I think it's CR (8) is far too high. Turn the Halfling Rogue loose on it, and pop some popcorn; it'll be fun to watch. Using it as a large, bipedal beast of burden should be fine in the deeper caves and mountains of Greyhawk. Anywhere else in any other role, they'd be distracted by shiny objects and slaughtered.

Crystalline Trolls (MM3 again) are just silly. If my DM threw one at me, I think I'd quit his game.

Forest Trolls (yep, MM3) are very nice. Tougher and smarter than an ogre, they fill in the gap nicely between ogres and base trolls. Dropping SMALL tribes of these in the Dreadwood, Phostwood, even the Burneal... good spots for these dangerous variants. Don't go overboard, as they are as intelligent as humans and would probably tend to dominate the area if there are more than a handful.

Mountain Trolls (take a guess) are just too big for Greyhawk. Drop them in the Crystalmists, and Geoff and Sterich and the Yeomanary become buffet tables. Drop them in the Griffs, and the Stonehold and Pale cease to exist. These things are... well, they're too big. You can achieve the same end result by dropping Old Chromatic Dragons around the countryside.

War Trolls (DDG... kidding!) are nifty leaders. Drop one in for every 500-1000 "regular" trolls and scare the crap out of your players. Used VERY sparingly, these things are great. Or you could just give a regular troll six character levels. That'd work too.

Forest and War Trolls... keepers and "fit" into Greyhawk. The others... don't really work.

Hmmm... I hope you were asking about 3.0/3.5...
_________________
There is no problem that cannot be resolved with the application of more firepower.

Sat Apr 02, 2005 9:01 am

As far as canon sources go, here's what I'm aware of (all 1st or 2nd Edition):

- Scrags appear in various sources
- A two-headed troll appeared in UK3 The Gauntlet
- Desert Trolls, Giant Trolls, and Spectral Trolls were all detailed in WGR1 Greyhawk Ruins, though I only remember Giant Trolls actually being encountered in the adventure.

But use whatever works best for your campaign. :-)
_________________
~basiliv

I didn't design the world,
I merely facilitated its creation

Sat Apr 02, 2005 9:03 am

Oh, and note that the original Spectral Troll was undead (sort of like a lesser wraith), quite different from the spirit troll mentioned by starbreaker.
_________________
~basiliv

I didn't design the world,
I merely facilitated its creation

Sat Apr 02, 2005 6:09 pm

I wrote an article on the Trolls of Oerth follow the link http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=402 and see what trolls are really like.

If your looking for carrot nosed monsters then your reading the wrong article.

Sun Apr 03, 2005 6:37 am

I read somewhere (I can't remember now, but I'll look) that the trolls from the Troll Fens have copperish skin and are more resistant to fire.

Saludos,
Gabriel
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Discord: @GrillWizard

Mon Apr 04, 2005 7:10 am

I cannot remember it all, but in the Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien's Sam Gamgee has a poem about trolls that might give you inspiration:

Troll sat alone on his seat of stone,
And munched and mumbled bare old bone,
For many a year he had gnawed it near,
For meat was hard to come by
Done by, gum by
In a cave in a hill, troll dwelt alone
For meat was hard to come by

Mon Apr 04, 2005 8:19 am

Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:59 am

for those who might be interested the normal D&D troll is a direct "barrowing" of the troll in Poul Andersons "Three Hearts and Three Lions".

Mon Apr 04, 2005 11:24 am

Wed Apr 06, 2005 7:31 am

As mentioned above for trolls in the v3.5 game, I suggest looking at Monster Manual III. While none of the material in MM3 is GH specific, there are some nice variations, and with a tough kick for more experienced PCs.

The Cave Troll and the War Troll are nice.

I've used the War Troll as a Scarlet Brotherhood creature. War Trolls are tough as hell... but definitely use them sparingly.

.....................................Omote
FPQ
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Prince Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Castles and Crusades Society

Thu Apr 07, 2005 10:21 am I can only add...

I vaguely recollect giant trolls being made canonical by the wandering encounter tables in the '83 World of Greyhawk boxed set (though I don't have it handy to verify that).

I also have written in the past that trolls are distantly related to dwarves, taking a slightly different approach from Argon, but both trying to bridge the mythological troll with Poul Anderson's original re-invention.

~Scott C.