Troll
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. |
Contents
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 nutrition penalty from eating 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
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
| Simple • Intermediate • Advanced |
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. However, many L1 and L2 spells, such as Swiftness and Repel Missiles, provide a lot of return for their skill investment. Confusing Touch is particularly useful to Trolls, since they will nearly always being fighting unarmed.
Rods are also a viable option for Trolls, since their Evocations aptitude is not too terrible. However, good rods are by no means guaranteed to generate.
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.
- 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.
- 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 snacks. 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.
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)
