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 have AC +3.
- Claws 3: Trolls have claws for hands. They also get a passive (hidden) to-hit bonus when using them. These claws inflict heavy bleeding and can decapitate hydras.
- Gourmand: Trolls can eat chunks even when not hungry.
- 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 directly, 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 any armour but robes, cloaks, animal skins, troll hides, troll leather armour, dragon hides, or dragon armour. Bucklers are also 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 (though they cannot move normally through 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 by an animal skin or robe.
- Any helmet is replaced with a cap.
- Meat rations replace bread rations, and trolls receive an extra ration.
- Any Armour skill is replaced with Dodging.
- If their class 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, despite first appearances. They have the worst aptitudes in almost every skill, and hunger three times faster than average. However, trolls are actually highly effective as all-out Unarmed Combat attackers; they have a decent aptitude, 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.
On top of that, access to large rocks makes a huge difference in survival. Even with 0 Throwing skill, spamming large rocks at an oncoming foe can soften them up tremendously before you start going at them by hand.
Their hunger rate is astonishingly fast, but their Gourmand intrinsic allows them to make the most of corpses while still giving them full access to every permafood you come across. So long as you take the time to tear apart anything edible, you can spend the majority of your game at Engorged with no actual fear of starvation. If you can find a source of poison resistance, the menu gets even broader and staying well-fed even easier. By the time you reach those branches where corpses are a rarity, you'll likely have enough permafood to keep you very safely in the clear. To be safe, though, there's nothing wrong with carrying a bunch of rations around with you.
The largest obstacle trolls have to success lies in their peculiar approach to defense; that being to take a tremendous amount of damage and bounce back remarkably fast. 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 a decent AC can be tricky. Evasion is hard to come by, too; they have a lousy aptitude for it (-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 tremendous health pool and regenerative properties to keep them going. Few single opponents in the early game can kill them fast enough to survive a troll's claws. The real threat lies in overconfidence; taking on multiple opponents at once (a band of orcs or halberd-wielding gnolls, for example) 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 and scrolls is vital.
Eventually, however, trolls can couple their vitality with excellent defense. Finding an early dragon armour is a godsend, but it's entirely possible to survive long enough to find a dragon and make your own gear from it. Trollish strength and size make it easy to operate in even heavy dragon armours, and although it does slow your unarmed attacks somewhat, the added durability is well worth it. Alternatively, shields are an excellent way to add durability early on. A troll's low Shields skill aptitude is less of an issue because they can negate shield penalties at lower skill levels than medium sized creatures, and the penalty to damage output is tolerable. So long as they make the effort to avoid fighting multiple opponents at once, a shield can make your troll significantly less of a glass cannon.
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, it takes intense effort to get higher level spells available for them, and is 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 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 a much less 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 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:
- 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. Just mind your hunger.
- 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 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 let 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.
- 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.
- 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 fill slots you 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.
- 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. 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.
The only god that really doesn't mesh well with trolls is Zin. While his abilities are just as useful to trolls, 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, and god abilities are your best bet here.
Guides
- Elynae's Troll Conjurer guide newbie-friendly, Chei, Oka, Makh, Veh
- Buddy23Lee's Troll monk of Jiyva ("slime troll") guide (0.12)
