PDA

View Full Version : Variant PC race - Trolls



MrSeth
2006-03-30, 12:19 AM
Further excerpts from the writings of Conrad Ixion
Trolls

Overview:
Trolls are tall, muscular humanoids about six and a half cubits in height, with dark hair and horns, and skin color ranging from a light olive to a deep brown. Very rarely, some Trolls will have a sort of dusty, gray-violet skin shading, a recessive trait much like red hair in Humans. They reach adolescence at about fourteen years of age, and adulthood at twenty-two. The typical Troll will live to be between one-hundred twenty and one-hundred eighty years old.
Trolls have often been stereotyped as foul-smelling, unintelligent, snaggletoothed beasts, particularly after the Decade War. This could not be further from the truth. Trolls are highly intelligent in general, although their culture had been repressed in the years of the Decade War by the dictator Krulluth. Almost all of them have learned a few simple cantrips by the time they have reached adolescence. Troll hygene is highly involved, especially since their teeth continue to grow ad infinitum. Typically, a troll will spend fifteen minutes a day scraping them down with a small, porous stone at the end of a stick (referred to simply as a toothgrinder). The stereotype of the Trollish tusks came, again, from the soldiers in the Decade War, where hygene was very... loose. While a few modern Trolls can be seen with tusks, they are generally rather small, and seen in Trollish society as appearing a little hokey, much like an overgrown mustache to a human.
A Troll's horns portrude from the back of the skull, and are typically trimmed when they reach somewhere between ten thumbspans and a cubit, before they begin to curl. If they're left to grow, they resemble a ram's horns. They begin as soft and porous, but grow hard as rock by the time the Troll has reached sixteen.
Because of the stereotypes of the Decade War, Trolls have had a hard time getting along with most races (not for lack of their effort...). They still enjoy conjugal relations with the more isolated Human communities and the Drengu, though.

Society:
Trollish society has grown up on the borders of humanity for centuries, and is generally highly agrarian. Their main crops are browncorn, wheat, tubers of various sorts, tomatoes, onion, and pulpfruit. They also keep large flocks of lamb and grelts - a huge fowl distantly related to turkey. Trollish society also breeds large amounts of merchants, artificers, and scholars. Artisans among the Trolls are mainly students of the applied arts - architects, tinkers and historians. Almost all Trollish art serves a purpose. Most Trolls learn to play at least a little music, either on ocarina, mouthharp, or three-string, and it is not at all uncommon for a Troll to be an absolute virtuoso with his chosen instrument. However, there are few "professional" musicians in Trollish society, and there are some pretty strict expectations of the ones that they do have. The more "serious" musicians will often play lute, trellet (a variation of the fiddle), or twinpipes.
Trollish commerce is quite lively, and haggling plays a role in any purchase besides food. For four days of the week, a few sedate storefronts are the only sign of mercantile life in any troll village, but Satyrday through Moonday... watch out. The streets will literally be packed with ramshackle canvas-shaded stalls and shoppers perusing the merchandise. Trollish merchants will generally accept any sort of money, although they prefer either the local scrip or platinum pieces. Bartering is also used heavily, but you can expect any merchant worth his salt to balk at a trade offer. At first, anyway.
Trolls are ruled by a group of chieftains (Mogors, in their language), who meet several times a year at the Great Council Hall. For a brief time the chieftains, too divided by local interests, decided to make a High Chieftain to rule all of them - the experiment that ended in the subjugation of the Trolls by Krulluth and the Decade War. Since then, the Mogors have been much quicker to compromise.

Family:
Trolls have a very close family life; they are comfortable with their immediate family knowing every facet of their lives, and most Trollish children count their siblings as their best friends. The Troll's "immediate" family consists of parents, siblings, and grandparents (to a lesser extent). Cousins, Uncles and Aunts, and other odd relations are considered more "distant" relations, and are usually counted more as friends than family.

Cultural/Other:
Troll cities are always large, sprawling rural communities; dense farmland with a huge central city of many thousand individuals at the center. They have learned well the usage of plumbing from Drengu communities, and no Trollish household is without at least a spigot.
Trollish architecture is generally made of oak and brick, with elaborate woodcarvings in some areas of buildings. The carvings usually depict natural scenes, although they occasionally display scenes from Trollish myth or history, or bits of wisdom from well known philosophers - most often, the latter element is used in pubs. Almost all structures are one story, often with a small storage cellar. The Great Council Hall is three stories, and has both a cellar and sub-basement. Aside from sculpture, Trollish art is quite limited. They do, however, employ a rich tradition of music, with a broad spectrum of styles and instruments represented. There is no such thing as "common" Trollish music, just as in recent years there has been no such thing as "common" music amongst Humans.
Trolls have a rich oral tradition in storytelling and prose that has only recently been fully collected in writing. They have few contemporary authors, but many historians. As such, there are few formal Trollish libraries, although books are still a widely held (and traded) commodity.
Cuisine in Trollish society is always hot and filling. Stews and sandwiches are common, portions are large, and if one doesn't eat it is a signal to the host to make something else for the person, or else to put some bitterroot tea on because the guest isn't feeling well. Trolls typically serve two meals a day - one in the morning and a larger one at night - although they snack on various smaller items throughout the day.
Troll warriors aren't as common as many believe - in times of war, extensive drafts are performed, but professional soldiers comprise perhaps five out of every hundred working Trolls - less in larger areas. The few soldiers that are part of Trollish society are trained extensively, and take pride in the fact that "one Troll is worth six dozen goblins". The most common Trollish weapon is a precision-weighted wood and metal club, with various maces and flails also seeing widespread use.
Trollish monasteries have developed their own version of Gemenn, the Elven martial art, which has been dubbed "Kru Mot", or "Broken Fist". It is far more practical than Gemenn, quite a bit less elaborate, and just as rarely seen.
A few common Trollish expressions:
"Blow it out your hat" - shut up.
"The best stuff is behind the counter" - a reminder that everyone has a price, and anything can be bought.
"More than shorts, less than pants."- Whatever it is, it's not bad, but not great. Used to describe almost anything.
"Drink tonight, hangover tomorrow!"- For every reaction, there is a reaction.
"Legs were designed for walking, not sitting." - A classic proverb warning against laziness, but also used to explain why Trolls would rather walk than ride a horse or in a carriage.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Trolls

Medium Size

Base Speed - 30 feet

+2 con -2 wis. Trolls tend to be somewhat tougher than Humans, but are notoriously bullheaded.

Trollish resilliance - Trolls receive +1 to their fortitude saves and regain double the normal amount of hit points from a full night's rest.

Trolls recieve a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks to raise or lower prices through haggling; they've practically raised it to an art form.

Nasty Reputation - In many communities, especially Human, Trolls are outcasts due to their role in the Decade War. In these areas, Trolls take a -1 penalty to Diplomacy and Bluff checks, and most NPC attitudes will begin at unfriendly (instead of indifferent). Some NPCs may be more bigoted than others, and Troll PCs may take up to a -4 penalty with these.

Favored Class - Wizard

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any comments?

That Lanky Bugger
2006-03-30, 12:45 AM
+2 con - Trolls tend to be somewhat tougher than Humans.

This definately needs to be balanced out by something... Perhaps a WIS Penalty?

Trollish resilliance - Trolls receive +1 to their fortitude saves and regain double the normal amount of hit points from a full night's rest.

This is a fairly powerful ability, but adds a nice touch of flavour to the race. I'd drop the +1 to their Fort Saves though, they already get that with the Con bonus. More to the Fort save is double-dipping.

Trolls recieve a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks to raise or lower prices through haggling; they've practically raised it to an art form.

It suits. It's fairly weak as far as most of the misc. skill bonuses go.

"Legs are made for Walking" - Trolls recieve the feat Endurance for free at first level.

Uh, what? A free feat on top of a free +2 to Con?

Favored Class - Any

Why would I play a human again?


As is, this Race is a firm ECL+1 (perhaps even ECL+2, with the Trollish resilliance). The drawback is fairly weak and the race essentially gets a feat for free, forgiving multiclassing, and an uncountered Ability Score bonus... and double healing.

If you wanted to balance this against the PHB I'd drop the CON bonus entirely (or balance it out with a DEX or WIS penalty) and I'd restrict the Favored Class to something like Ranger or Barbarian. Lose the Endurance feat as well, or maybe tack on a CHA penalty to balance it out.

LordOfNarf
2006-03-30, 12:54 AM
Needs a new name, trolls are already in the MM, and they are alot different than this

MrSeth
2006-03-30, 01:08 AM
There are thousands upon thousands of sub-races for elves, but no one's bothered to do even ONE signifigantly different re-imagining of Trolls. I wanted to go back to the base stories and take `em in an entirely different direction...

...and, gotcha. Edited the stats a little. More balanced now?

Orion-the-G
2006-03-30, 01:14 AM
There are thousands upon thousands of sub-races for elves, but no one's bothered to do even ONE signifigantly different re-imagining of Trolls. I wanted to go back to the base stories and take `em in an entirely different direction...

...and, gotcha. Edited the stats a little. More balanced now?

Actually trolls have more subraces than most of the creatures in the monster manual--War Trolls, swamp trolls, Ice trolls, Spirit trolls, snow trolls, cave trolls, mountain trolls, and even a half-troll subtype. (these are from the top of my head, some may be 2nd ed.)

unless that 'gotcha' meant you're joking. In which case consider me to be 'got'

That Lanky Bugger
2006-03-30, 01:29 AM
Those are significantly better, yes. The Wisdom penalty automatically weakens the bonuses gained from being a Fighter-type because of the weakened Will Save, and the removal of the bonus Endurance feat makes the bonuses associated with the race a lot more palatable.

Nice work.

MrSeth
2006-03-30, 02:10 AM
Yes, the "gotcha" was joking. I actually read a guy a while back who was trying to justify the fact that he'd made a new dwarf subrace... apparantly he'd never heard of Gold Dwarves, Hill Dwarves, Duregar, Gully Dwarves, the Dark Sun Dwarf variant... let's face it, for every traditional fantasy race out there, there's gonna be a variation, an' making new ones doesn't have to be justified if yer jus' tooling around with it.

That being said... when I first started this, I had a specific scenario set up in my head:
DM - "As you're walking along, you see a tall, burly troll walk over the crest of the hill-"
Player 1 - "I WASTE IT WITH MY CROSSBOW!"
Player 2 - "Fireballs away!"
Player 3 - "I'm using my daily use of "Smite The Thing" on it!"
DM - (rolls) "Okay, he's dead. Now, if I can continue, the Troll was a High Cleric of Pelor on his way to the town behind you... seems he was the ambassador the barkeeper was talking about."

Overly silly, but I like it anyway.

Oh, and... Fighter type? Did you bother to read the text at the top? Physical traits aside, Trolls lean towards the arcane from an early age. Wizard is, after all, their favored class...

That Lanky Bugger
2006-03-30, 02:16 AM
Oh, and... Fighter type? Did you bother to read the text at the top? Physical traits aside, Trolls lean towards the arcane from an early age. Wizard is, after all, their favored class...

Yeah, I read it. However as is, the double healing and the Con bonus will make them pretty hardy warriors as well.

That's why I picked out the WIS penalty as being a good choice - It means that despite the bits waving the class towards a Fighter-type there's a significant penalty associated with a Fighter-type's already weak save, so it's more likely to be selected for a Mage-type.

Except for Cleric, because Wisdom penalties and Divine Magic don't go together. ;D