Troll

Version 0.13: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This page is about the player species. For the monster, see Troll (monster). If you were looking for monstrous trolls in general, see List of trolls.

Trolls are like Ogres, but even nastier. They have thick, knobbly skins of any colour from putrid green to mucky brown, which are covered in patches of thick fur, and their mouths are full of ichor-dripping fangs. They can rip creatures apart with their claws, and regenerate very quickly from even the most terrible wounds. They learn slowly indeed - as slowly as High Elves - and need a great amount of food to survive.

Innate Abilities

• Shaggy Fur 1 and Tough Skin 2: Trolls get +3 AC.
• Claws 3: Trolls have claws for hands, as well as an unstated to-hit bonus when using them. These claws inflict heavy bleeding and can decapitate hydras.
• Gourmand: Trolls can eat chunks at any time.
• Regeneration 2: Trolls heal very quickly.
• Fast Metabolism 3+: On top of the +3 hunger penalty from this mutation, trolls receive an additional +3 racial penalty, for an unmatched base metabolism of 9 food/turn.
• Saprovore 2: Trolls can tolerate rotten meat, and have a reduced chance of getting sick from contaminated meat.
• Trolls are large and can use giant clubs and giant spiked clubs (unlike smaller species), but their bodies do not fit into boots, gloves, gauntlets, helmets, or most body armour. Bucklers are too small for them to use, but they can handle shields and large shields easily.
• Trolls are large enough to attack normally while standing in shallow water, but they still move slowly in it.

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Fighter, Gladiator, Monk, Hunter
• Zealots: Berserker, Death Knight, Healer
• Mages: Wizard

Level Bonuses

• +1 strength every 3rd level.
• 30% more HP than average.
• 20% less MP than average.
• +3 magic resistance per level.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Trolls start with the skills and equipment listed for their background, with these exceptions:

• Incompatible body armour is replaced with an animal skin or robe.
• Helmets are replaced with caps.
• Meat rations replace bread rations, and trolls receive an extra ration.
• Any Armour skill is replaced with Dodging.
• If their background does not start with Unarmed Combat skill and offers a choice of weapon, trolls have the extra option of "claws" (and Unarmed Combat skill).
• Troll hunters are offered a choice of large rocks instead of javelins.

Difficulty of Play

Trolls are an extremely easy race in the early game. While they have the worst aptitudes in almost every skill, and their hunger rate is three times faster than average, trolls are highly effective as all-out Unarmed Combat attackers. They have the highest STR in the game, +6 bonus damage (from the Claws 3 mutation), a passive +4 to hit bonus, and they occasionally inflict the bleeding condition for 9% of a living monster's health per turn. With or without Blade Hands, a troll specialized in Unarmed Combat is one of the deadliest melee fighters possible, competitive with an ogre with a fully enchanted giant spiked club. Trolls can also throw large rocks. These are easily the best Throwing weapons in the game, and even with zero Throwing skill, they are very effective at softening up enemies before engaging in hand to hand combat.

Their hunger rate is astonishingly fast, but their Gourmand intrinsic allows them to eat chunks like a carnivore without losing access to vegetarian permafood. It's not unusual to spend the majority of your game at Full or better with no actual fear of starvation. Poison resistance makes this even easier by expanding the range of edible corpses. Assuming you stick to eating corpses whenever possible, you should have more than enough permafood to survive the later corpseless branches.

The biggest challenge most trolls face is achieving a solid defense. Their large size prevents them from wearing any gloves or boots, and the only body armour they can wear initially are robes and animal hides, so getting decent AC can be tricky. Evasion is hard to come by, too; they have a lousy Dodging aptitude (-2), and their large size and low dexterity both reduce their EV significantly.

Instead of negating enemy attacks through AC and EV, trolls rely on their large health pool and regenerative properties. This is the case in spite of their slightly below-average Fighting skill aptitutde: their excellent HP modifier magnifies your gains from this skill. Assuming you get into melee range, few single opponents can kill a troll before getting torn to pieces. The real threat lies in overconfidence; taking on multiple opponents at once (a band of orcs or halberd-wielding gnolls, for example) or charging ranged attackers is an easy way to lose an otherwise promising troll. Until you've established some sort of solid defense, cautious play and intelligent use of potions, scrolls, and thrown weapons is vital.

Eventually, however, trolls can couple their vitality with excellent defense. Their high strength and large size make it easy to operate even in heavy dragon armours. Although these do slow your unarmed attacks somewhat, the added durability is well worth it. Shields are also an excellent way to add durability. A troll's low Shields skill aptitude is counteracted by the lower-than-normal skill level needed to negate the shield penalty.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	-2	Armour	-2	Spellcasting	-5
		Dodging	-2
Maces & Flails	-1	Shields	-1	Conjurations	-3
Axes	-2	Stealth	-5	Hexes	-4
Polearms	-2			Summonings	-3
Staves	-2	Invocations	-1	Necromancy	-2
Unarmed Combat	0	Evocations	-3	Translocations	-3
Throwing	-1	Shapeshifting	-1	Alchemy	-3
				Fire Magic	-3
Short Blades	-2			Ice Magic	-3
Long Blades	-2			Air Magic	-4
Ranged Weapons	-4	Experience	-1	Earth Magic	-1

Strategy

Trollish intelligence and magic aptitudes are some of the worst in the game. While this doesn't rule out magic entirely, trolls require intense effort to get access to higher level spells, and it's generally not an efficient use of experience. Some 1st and 2nd level spells, however, are perfectly viable for trolls: Confusing Touch and Beastly Appendage are decent 1st level combat enhancers, Sting is excellent for softening up approaching opponents, and Swiftness, Shroud of Golubria, and Repel Missiles are all useful level 2 buffs well within the reach of trolls. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but you should definitely try to have your physical offense and defense in order before more than dabbling in magic.

Evocations is one of a troll's better aptitudes (at least compared to their magic skills), and it offers less of an uphill battle for magical support. Finding a useful rod can immediately give a troll access to high-level spells they'd normally have to devote massive amounts of training for, and a troll's capacity for eating corpses makes it much easier to deal with the hunger costs involved (just be careful when exploring corpse-free branches). Rods, unfortunately, are by no means guaranteed to generate, so consider this a tactic to take up if the opportunity presents itself, and not something to rely on.

A vital resource that is guaranteed to present itself are gods. Trollish Invocations has an astounding aptitude of -1, and there are a number of excellent gods to complement their limited skill set:

Recommended

• Okawaru's Heroism buffs Unarmed Combat performance tremendously, as does Finesse, and his armour gifts occasionally include early dragon armour.
• Trog's abilities require no skill training to activate, and provide free berserking, magic resistance, even greater health regeneration, and very abusable summons.
• Elyvilon's normal hunger restraints are less of a concern for the voracious troll, who benefits immensely from excellent panic buttons and the ability to pacify most dangerous opponents with smite targeting.
• Likewise, Makhleb's HP costs for spells are of little concern when you regenerate them back almost immediately, and having powerful ranged attacks and high-level summons lets you handle anything you're afraid to get into clawing range for. The healing-on-kills helps trolls recover from fights even faster than normal.
• Nemelex Xobeh's deck gifts are a more reliable way to make use of Evocations than hoping for a rod, and if you really want to turn your troll into a spell caster, drawing a Shuffle card is a means of acquiring a phenomenal boost to intelligence.
• Jiyva's random mutations don't get in the way of your equipment slots, as most of them are already off-limits, and the various resistances it grants you can protect you from elements you'd otherwise have difficulty with. Slimify is a very effective method for disabling dangerous opponents, and his jellies will help keep you well-fed as they devour every item in sight. Just be prepared to occasionally lose a lot of your strength when Jiyva decides to shuffle you.

Acceptable

• The Shining One restricts you from a number of useful items and tactics (curare needles, wands of draining, attacking confused or paralysed enemies, etc.), but he does offer defensive boosts (particularly if you already use a shield) and powerful summoned allies. His cleansing flame works wonders against undead or demonic opponents, however, and his free healing for killing evil monsters is very nice.
• Ashenzari provides sizable boosts to your skills through cursed equipment. Although you can't improve unarmed combat this way, cursing one's jewellery grants you bonuses to your magical skills which go a long way toward getting spells online, and it's always helpful to know when a band of monsters is lurking around a corner. Without a weapon to curse, however, farming piety might take a while.
• Kikubaaqudgha's corpse deliveries can provide you with dragon hides after enough uses in the later portions of the dungeon, and provides snacks at the same time. Also, trolls aren't entirely useless with Necromancy if you should choose to dabble in that, and the ability to invoke torment (which you'll partially resist) on powerful foes goes well with the fact that you regenerate faster than them.
• Vehumet's spell support is another method for getting access to Conjurations, but you'll probably find little use for the later spell gifts he offers.
• Cheibriados' stat boosts are extremely useful for unarmed combat fighters, especially if they intend to use Blade Hands, and Step From Time can get you directly into melee range rather than getting peppered with ranged attacks as you crawl toward your foes. Also, +15 intelligence is a good method for making up for magic aptitudes. Unfortunately, the loss of movement speed makes it difficult to choose your battles; don't be afraid to Step From Time when things look bad.

Not Recommended

• The only god that really doesn't mesh well with trolls is Zin. While his abilities are just as useful to trolls as they are to everyone else, his dietary restrictions cut your corpse access quite harshly. Worshiping Zin as a troll is one of the easiest ways to find yourself actually starving to death.

Finally, don't use trollish unarmed combat against hydras. It's a very bad idea. Large rocks, powerful attack wands, god abilities, or simply retreating are your best bets here.

Guides

• Elynae's Troll Conjurer guide newbie-friendly, Chei, Oka, Makh, Veh
• Buddy23Lee's Troll monk of Jiyva ("slime troll") guide (0.12)