Troll (Dungeons and Dragons)

Publication history

While trolls can be found throughout folklores worldwide, the D&D troll has little in common with these. Instead it was inspired partly by myth, and partly by a regenerating troll that appears in Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. This includes their appearance, as tall skinny humanoids with long noses and rubbery skin, their ability to regenerate, and their weakness to fire.

Dungeons & Dragons (1974–1976)

The troll was one of the first monsters introduced in the earliest edition of the game, in the Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set (1974), where they are described as thin and rubbery, loathsome creatures able to regenerate.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977–1988)

The troll appears in the first edition Monster Manual (1977), where they are described as horrid carnivores that know no fear and are able to regenerate damage taken.

Several new varieties of troll were introduced in the Fiend Folio (1981), including the giant two-headed troll, the giant troll, the ice troll, and the spirit troll. The module The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (1982) introduced the marine troll, also known as the scrag, which was later reprinted in Monster Manual II (1983).

The black troll and rock troll were introduced in Dragon #141, in the Dragon's Bestiary column (January 1989).

Dungeons & Dragons (1977–1999)

This edition of the D&D game included its own version of the troll, in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (1977), and Expert Set (1981 & 1983). The troll was featured as a player character race in the gazetteer The Orcs of Thar (1989). Trolls were also later featured in the Dungeons & Dragons Game set (1991), the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991), the Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game set (1994), and the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game set (1999).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989–1999)

The troll appears first in the Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989), and is reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993) along with several troll variants.

The Monstrous Compendium Fiend Folio Appendix (1992) reintroduced the ice troll. The snow troll first appeared in Dungeon #43 (September 1993), and was later reprinted in the Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume One (1994).

Several new types of trolls were introduced in Dragon #199's " Dragon's Bestiary" column (November 1993), including the fire troll the gray troll, the phaze troll, the stone troll, and the trollhound. The fire troll was later reintroduced in Paizo's Dragon Compendium, Volume 1 (2005).

Monstrous Compendium Annual Four (1998) included the Far Realm creature, the troll mutate.

Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000–2002)

The troll appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000).

The troll is further detailed in Dragon #301 (November 2002), in "The Ecology of the Troll", which also introduced the deep sea troll, the fiendish troll, the ice troll, the rock troll, and the scrag.

Savage Species (2003) presented the troll as both a race and a playable class. The Forgotten Realms product Unapproachable East (2003) introduced the fell troll, the ice troll, the mur-zhagul (or demon troll), and the slime troll.

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003–2007)

The troll appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003), which also included information on the scrag. Several new trolls were introduced in Monster Manual III (2004), including the cave troll, the crystalline troll, the forest troll, the mountain troll, and the war troll. The wasteland troll was introduced in Sandstorm: Mastering the Perils of Fire and Sand (2005), the filth-eater troll and the tunnel thug troll were introduced in Drow of the Underdark (2007), and the bladerager troll was introduced in Monster Manual V (2007).

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008–2014)

The troll appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), along with the war troll and fell troll.

Environment

Trolls are most often found in cold, mountainous regions, but can be encountered nearly anywhere.

Typical physical characteristics

The average troll stands nine feet high and weighs roughly 500 pounds, though females tend to be a bit larger than males. The hide of trolls is rubbery, and usually either moss green, putrid grey, or mottled gray and green. Their coarse hair is typically iron grey, or greenish-black.

Trolls initially seem to be somewhat shorter, due to their sagging shoulders and tendency to hunch forward. They walk with an uneven gait, and their arms dangle and drag the ground when running. Despite this apparent awkwardness, trolls are quite agile.

Trolls are infamous for their regenerative abilities, able to recover from the most grievous of wounds or regenerate entire limbs given time. Severing a troll's head results merely in temporary incapacitation, rather than death. After cutting off a troll's head or other limbs, one must seal the wounds with fire or acid to prevent regeneration. Because of this, most adventurers will typically carry some sort of implement capable of creating fire.

Alignment

Trolls are usually chaotic evil.

Society

Trolls speak Giant, and usually worship Vaprak the Destroyer.

Troll variants

Related creatures

Critical reception

The troll was ranked second among the ten best mid-level monsters by the authors of Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies. The authors described the troll as "a great mid-level monster that can challenge heroes for a number of levels" noting that "the troll is the players' first introduction to a regenerating monster – a creature that's almost impossible to kill unless you've got fire handy".

Additional reading

Miniatures

Trolls appear in the D&D Miniatures: Harbinger set #77 (2003).

Other publishers

The troll is fully detailed in Paizo Publishing's book Classic Monsters Revisited (2008), on pages 58–63.