A raging troll in a sandstorm.

[Dark Kerman]

Hi all,

My players are currently in a situation where they (and a number of guards/villagers) are hunkered down in a flimsy tent, expecting an imminent attack off a large monster (to all effects and purposes, a troll).

I have given said creature and ability where it exudes a permanent sandstorm around it, that acts like obscuring mist.

As part of its combat tactics, I was hoping for it to attack by grappling at people as part of a charge, then carrying them off into the sandstorm to shred 'em.



My question is this: Is it possible for the troll to charge (moving twice its land speed), grapple, and carry off a hapless villager/player in the same round? My current reasoning is that the charge doubles the speed, and holding on to the grappled creature halves its speed,.

This means it can effectively carry off a villager into the duststorm at its normal land speed (in this case, 40ft). I know I could just Golden Rule it for the purposes of "It's cool", but I generally prefer to have a good rules basis behind my decisions. :smalltongue:


tldr: How does the charge and carrying whilst grappled rules work together?

Thanks for your time,

DK

[Waker]

The easiest way to go about it would be to give it Spring Attack and Improved Grab. Spring Attack would let you move 20ft, swing and try to trigger Improved Grab, then move 20ft back from whence you came. As for movement penalties, that would be based on the size difference between the targets and the creatures carrying capacity.

[Necroticplague]

My question is this: Is it possible for the troll to charge (moving twice its land speed), grapple, and carry off a hapless villager/player in the same round? My current reasoning is that the charge doubles the speed, and holding on to the grappled creature halves its speed,.

This means it can effectively carry off a villager into the duststorm at its normal land speed (in this case, 40ft). I know I could just Golden Rule it for the purposes of "It's cool", but I generally prefer to have a good rules basis behind my decisions. :smalltongue:


tldr: How does the charge and carrying whilst grappled rules work together?

Thanks for your time,

DK

The only problem is the "in one round" part, due to action economy. Charging is a full-round action, so that uses up one turn (with you replacing the attack at the end with a grapple attempt). Your next turn, it would need to use a standard action to maintain the grapple, then a move action to move the grapple. So no, you'd need two rounds worth of actions to full this off.

[dude123nice]

The only problem is the "in one round" part, due to action economy. Charging is a full-round action, so that uses up one turn (with you replacing the attack at the end with a grapple attempt). Your next turn, it would need to use a standard action to maintain the grapple, then a move action to move the grapple. So no, you'd need two rounds worth of actions to full this off.

Not to mention that for some characters this would be a sure death sentence, or at the least they would definitely be out of the fight. And no one likes or wants to be instantly taken out of a fight, especially by what is essentially a DM's homebrew monster.

[Bucky]

You could have the troll use any of the standard action economy cheats like a Quick Runner's Shirt or mythic Amazing Initiative. But those all imply a significant increase in either its treasure budget or its CR.

[stack]

Sounds like he wants to have it grab villagers, at least at first. This gives the party time to see what is going on and react to an unusual situation. I would say spring attack plus grab is a good plan, or just house rule a feat or ability to grapple and drag in place of an attack. For a one off monster I wouldn't get too hung up on the rules, honestly. Custom monster anyway, so just give it something like 'devouring storm: as a full round action the sand troll may move up to its speed and make a grapple check against a creature, then move up to its speed again. If successful, the sand troll may move the grappled creature with it until the end of its turn.'

[Dark Kerman]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the advice on things. Apologies I didn't reply, I had a lot of paperwork to fill in for a new job. ¬¬

I tried the creature and basically did as stack suggested. Long story short, it mangled one of the PC's badly, ate a lot of villagers and generally scared the party. Otherwise, it was well received.

Good times. :smallcool:

Thanks again!

DK

[Zaq]

If you've already run the encounter, my commentary is probably too late, but did you give the troll a way of seeing through its own sandstorm? At least in 3.5 (I don't know if PF changed this), you have to have line of sight to something to be able to charge it.

[Dark Kerman]

Hi Zaq,

I gave it Blindsight to 60ft, and the Scent ability. Got interesting at one point as the party druid had his wolf trying to locate it, whilst it was homing in on him. :smalltongue: