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Troll

This tall creature has rough, green hide. Its hands end in claws, and its bestial face has a hideous, tusked underbite.

Longer description from Classic Monsters Revisited:

Lumbering out of the trees is, upon first impression, an enormous human with broad, thick shoulders and two solid, tree-trunk arms stretching down to almost drag on the ground. At further glance, its skin is a sickly, greenish hue and its eyes are pools of inky blackness. Its face is long and angular, with a solid, pointy chin and a crooked, hawkish nose, and its hair looks more like a mat of forest weeds and rests tangled and greasy on its heavy brow. There is an air of unsettled violence about it—its hands end in razor-sharp claws and its body seems taut and agile despite its size.

Troll CR 5

XP 1,600
CE Large humanoid (giant)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +8

DEFENSE

AC 16, touch 11, flat-footed 14; (+2 Dex, +5 natural, –1 size)
hp 63 (6d8+36); regeneration 5 (acid or fire)
Fort +11, Ref +4, Will +3

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.
Melee bite +8 (1d8+5), 2 claws +8 (1d6+5)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks rend (2 claws, 1d6+7)

TACTICS

During Combat Trolls are single-minded berserkers in combat. They attack the nearest foe without hesitation and don’t stop until that foe is down.

Morale Because of their regenerative abilities, trolls are fearless. Even flames or the presence of acid don’t slow them down—they always fight to the death.

STATISTICS

Str 21, Dex 14, Con 23, Int 6, Wis 9, Cha 6
Base Atk +4; CMB +10; CMD 22
Feats Intimidating Prowess, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Intimidate +9, Perception +8
Languages Giant

ECOLOGY

Environment cold mountains
Organization solitary or gang (2–4)
Treasure standard

Trolls possess incredibly sharp claws and amazing regenerative powers, allowing them to recover from nearly any wound. They are stooped, fantastically ugly, and astonishingly strong—combined with their claws, their strength allows them to literally tear apart flesh to feed their voracious appetites. Trolls stand about 14 feet tall, but their hunched postures often make them appear shorter. An adult troll weighs around 1,000 pounds.

A troll's appetite and its regenerative powers make it a fearless combatant, ever prepared to charge headlong at the nearest living creature and attack with all of its fury. Only fire seems to cause a troll to hesitate, but even this mortal threat is not enough to stop a troll's advance. Those who commonly battle with trolls know to locate and burn any pieces after a fight, for even the smallest scrap of flesh can regrow a full-size troll given enough time. Fortunately, only the largest part of a troll regrows in this way.

Despite their cruelty in combat, trolls are surprisingly tender and kind to their own young. Female trolls work as a group, spending a great deal of time teaching young trolls to hunt and fend for themselves before sending them off to find their own territories. A male troll tends to live a solitary existence, partnering with a female for only a brief time to mate. All trolls spend most of their time hunting for food, as they must consume vast amounts each day or face starvation. Due to this need, most trolls stake out large territories as their own, and fights between rivals are quite common. While these are usually nonlethal, trolls are aware of each others' weaknesses and will use such knowledge to kill their own kind if food is scarce.

Variants

The natural healing powers of trolls, combined with their long history, has led to a number of different breeds, some of which are summarized here.

Moss Troll: In the deepest equatorial jungles there exists an ancient cousin of the modern troll, long thought extinct. Called moss trolls, these precursors are more plant than giant. They stand barely taller than a human and weigh around 100 pounds. Thin, branch-like arms stretch the length of their body and end in curved, wicked claws that sprout from their fingertips like thorns. Their bodies resemble a humanoid shape of green jungle foliage and their eyes are hidden beneath a heavy brow and thick, bushy green eyebrows.

These bipedal plants exhibit similar traits to trolls: they regenerate wounds, they use their claws to deliver terrifying rend wounds during combat, and they know no fear. They also have a few key differences: they’re smaller and their bite delivers a debilitating poison that attacks the nervous system (Fortitude DC 15; initial 1d6 Dex and secondary 1d6 Dex).

Rock Troll: Many have attempted to experiment on trolls over the years, and the rock troll is one of the few successful strains. Rock trolls are much larger than their brothers, their bodies having been fused with flecks of granite, shards of diamonds, and veins of iron. Their blood was replaced with an alchemical solution that enhanced their regenerative powers, their skin hardened like steel, and their speed increased with secret blood magic. The alchemical solution in their blood had a dire side effect, though: during the day, it reacted to sunlight and sent a toxic hormone flowing through the veins of the rock trolls. After a few minutes beneath the burning sun, the creatures slow and eventually stop, descending into hallucinatory trances. As the shade of evening approaches, and the light of the sky dims, the hormone production stops and rock trolls can move again. Rock trolls frequently subjected to multiple days of this stupor eventually permanently turn to stone.    

Since their creation, rock trolls have been ruthlessly hunted and destroyed. Because of their long life and regenerative properties, they rarely feel the urge to breed, and most believe their extinction is imminent.

For a 3rd Party Publisher version of a rock troll, see the Tome of Horrors Complete rendition!

Scrag: Scrags dwell their entire lives in freshwater aquatic environments such as lakes, rivers, and stagnant ponds. They’re only vaguely related to trolls, bound in myth by the similar regenerative properties of both races. Scrags are air-breathers, more like frogs than humans (or even trolls), and their regenerative abilities only work when fully submerged in water. Scrags become increasingly uncomfortable the longer they stay dry, and after a few days outside of their habitat, they become sluggish and confused, eventually dying if not fully submerged or doused in water again.

Thin, hunched creatures that vaguely resemble their troll cousins, scrags differ in that their skin is slippery green and their backs possess long rows of sharp, defensive spines that start at the base of their necks and bristle down to their lower backs.

Classic Monsters Revisited. Copyright 2008, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, Joshua J. Frost, James Jacobs, Nicolas Logue, Mike McArtor, James L. Sutter, Greg A. Vaughan, Jeremy Walker.

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