Design Challenge: What powers and stats might an undead troll have? A player spoke about one when I asked what rumours he’d heard about the guardian on the underwater tower they’re investigating.
Design Challenge: What powers and stats might an undead troll have?
Design Challenge: What powers and stats might an undead troll have?
Rising up again even when it appeared to be dead: could be fun 🙂
Demanding an unusual/impossible toll.
I have time to go over how I’d define the stats, but I don’t have time to do moves right this minute.
I never make a monster anymore without Jeremy Strandberg’s monster-builder one-sheet:
drive.google.com – Monster Creation Cheat Sheet.pdf – Google Drive
Hunting by itself + huge + uncanny endurance + kept alive by something beyond biology = 28 HP. If it is undead due to favor of the gods, that would give it 30 HP.
If you count its hide as thick, that would give it 1 armor. In my view, a troll who is used to regenerating and the benefits of undeath would not be skilled in defense or actively defend itself.
I usually go down the damage column for each attack move. Those moves really depend on how you want to use it in the fiction.
A default move: We already know it hunts by itself, it’s huge, and its strength is unrelenting, and it could probably tear metal apart. That would make d10+5 damage, close, reach, forceful, messy, and 3 piercing with its bare hands. Supposing trolls are ancient, that would give it d12+5 damage, close, reach, forceful, messy, and 3 piercing.
Tags and qualities so far would be Solitary, Huge, Regenerating, and Intelligent.
Oh, and since you mentioned underwater tower, I would add the quality “Unbreathing”—or maybe just “Undead”.
Moves and qualities are really just reminders of cool stuff you want to highlight when playing, and they really depend on the creature’s individual origin in the fiction. Like, what are trolls? Are they faerie creatures? Fallen Ents? Mutant humans? Humans raised by faeries? Wakened rocks? Silicon-based lifeforms? Volcano babies?
And what made this particular troll undead? Did he make a deal with Death? Foul sorcery? Is he just holding on to unrequited love? Does he have library books he needs to return? Is he cursed?
Deciding those things will go a long way to giving you the moves you need to give this monster “life”, as the rules say.
Agree with what Deep Six Delver. I think it is less about the stats and more about the pitch and the presentation. What kind of undead is it – Troll Zombie, Troll Abomination, Troll Skeleton, Troll Vampire?
I like to keep things simple. For example:
Troll Lifestealer – This is a Troll that was fed on by a Vampire, giving it some Vampiric abilities. It’s normal regeneration is consumed with trying to fight off the vampirisim so it is a hybrid. It can’t regenerate passively, but it can regenerate by stealing life. The thing that makes it more terrifying than a regular troll is that it does damage and regenerates with a single move.
Keep all of the stats and moves from the core book except for the following changes:
-Replace Regenerating special quality with Half-Vampire
-Update the Troll’s first move to something along the lines of “Steal their life to undo the effects of an attack (unless caused by a weakness, your call)”
-You decide what kind of additional vampiric qualities it gains from being a half-vampire
-You decide how the Troll steals life – a bloodsucking bite, octopus type suckers on its hands,, etc.
-You decide the weaknesses that prevent the regeneration move, e.g. it can’t regenerate from holy water (which burns it like acid) or from wounds done by holy weapons.
Robert Finamore lmfao Deep SEX Delver. Might need an edit.
That’s what happens when you spend too much time thinking about trolls…
I think there are a lot of great ideas here already. I have some questions that might prove useful for this conversation:
* Have you introduced trolls in your game already?
* Have you tended to stay close to D&D tropes?
* Will the troll actually be under water?
It sounds like your player wants to see something pretty terrifying! Keep us in the loop!
Undead Troll (Solitary, Devious, Terrifying)
Talons (d8 damage)12 HP, 1 armor
Close
Special Qualities: Regenerates all damage except acid and fire; touch causes paralysis in non-elves
Actually a rare form of ghoul; an undead troll is a troll victim of ghoul attack that arises after death as an undead monster that can only be “slain” by fire or acid. Undead trolls do hate sunlight which causes them great pain and suffering without killing them. A single monster has been known to devour a whole village in the course of an evening. Reasonably intact victims of an undead troll will arise after death as ghouls. Instinct: Devour the living!
Here’s a move:
* Severed limbs and chunks take on their own life, only fire will put the trolls pieces to rest.
Let them lop chunks off the troll, but moments later describe the pieces shuddering and making cracking noises as the bones realign into grotesque little abominations hell bent on rending living flesh. The trolls natural regeneration ability and it’s undead nature have created and evil combination. How do you overcome it?