Cave Troll

Cave Troll (CR 9)

Chaotic Evil - Large - Monstrous Humanoid (Giant)

Lore:	Know (Nature)
16		32
Basic DC		Full DC

Initiative

17

Perception:
24	+14
Passive	Active

Ambush:

9+

on a d20

Senses:

• Standard Senses

Movement Types:

Defense

AC

27

Man Def

27

Monster Health
178	89	14
Hit Points	Bloodied	Hit Dice

Saving Throws
Fort:	+11
Refl:	+6
Will:	+4

Strong Against:

Weak Against:

Offense

Size:	Large
10 ft.		10 ft.
Space		Reach

To-Hit

+15

Man Off

+16

Action

0

Points

Standard Attack (Melee):

• 1x Cave Troll Gnash +15 (2d10+12/x2)
  as gnashing (physical, uncommon)

Full Attack (Melee):

• 1x Cave Troll Gnash +15 (2d10+12/x2)
  as gnashing (physical, uncommon)
• 2x Cave Troll Slash +15 (2d6+5/x2)
  as slashing (physical, common)

Standard Attack (Ranged):

• 1x Troll-Tossed Rock +15 (2d10+12/x2)
  as bludgeoning (physical, common)
  (Increment: 20 ft.; Max Range: 100 ft.)

Full Attack (Ranged):

• 3x Troll-Tossed Rock +15 (2d10+12/x2)
  as bludgeoning (physical, common)
  (Increment: 20 ft.; Max Range: 100 ft.)

Siege Damage: Not siege capable

Statistics

26

STR

20

DEX

24

CON

8

INT

10

WIS

8

CHA

Skills:

• Perception: 14
• Stealth: 17
• All other skills: 9 (no ranks)

Languages: Giant, Common

Feats:

• Combat Reflexes (EFFECT: Monsters with this feat make up to 4 attacks of opportunity per round instead of one.)

Special Abilities

Burst of Speed (Su)

Once per encounter, as a swift action, a Cave Troll may generate a tremendous burst of speed. This grants it several benefits. Its Regeneration ticks, healing it for 21 points of damage. If its regeneration was disabled this round because of fire or acid damage, that disability is cleared, and then the regeneration goes off. It gains one additional bite attack in its next attack action. It immediately gains a move action.

Regeneration (Ex)

Cave Trolls regenerate 21 points of damage at the start of their turns. However, if the troll takes any fire or acid damage, he cannot regenerate on the following turn. Regeneration will allow a troll to reattach severed limbs or regrow them if they aren't available for reattachment. This regeneration continues to operate even past 'death', and a troll can only be killed by reducing them to half again their maximum hit points past zero (-89 hit points), while their regeneration is suppressed by fire or acid damage. Completely destroying the body by burning it in a large fire such as a massive bonfire, a house or building fire, lava, or a forest fire, or submerging it in a vat of acid will also work.

Cave Troll

Trolls are horrible dwellers in the outdoors, the uneasy smaller cousins of Giants, who are more tightly tied to the native world than either the Giants or their terrible cousins, the ogres.

Trolls tend to be tall and lanky, often with a stooped, hunched posture. Their faces tend to be long and narrow of feature, with filthy, rotten, but very sharp teeth, long flexible limbs, and a loose, shambling gait. Trolls almost always have razor sharp claws to go with their teeth, and tend to prefer fighting with their natural weapons.

Trolls are not comfortable with the trappings of civilization, and tend to live "as nature meant," without benefit of tools, fire, or clothing. Trolls can readily tolerate this lack of comforts due to their incredible powers of regeneration. Trolls are easy to hurt, but exceedingly hard to kill.

Trolls tend to have skin of shades of green, often with an amazing array of warts, moles, hairs, and other noisome protuberances. Troll eyes tend to be black, although milky white and shades of grey-blue are not unheard of.

Trolls are uniformly terrible. They delight in tormenting the weak and will eat fellow sentient creatures alive, entertained by their screams and pleas. Trolls will work with other terrible creatures such as orcs and norkers, have an uneasy love/hate relationship with their fatter cousins, the ogres, and tend to like and look up to the giants, especially frost giants, fire giants, death giants, and fomaorians.

Cave Trolls are bigger, meaner, and much, much faster than regular trolls, but have weak eyes so that they actively avoid being out in daylight. As a consequence, Cave Trolls are almost always found in cave systems, dungeons, dark ruins, and the like. But that said, Cave Trolls pride themselves on their intelligence and sense of adventure, and the murderous fiends can be found roaming the surface at night, even up to a few hours walk from their lairs.

Given how fast Cave Trolls walk, that's a really long way, too.

Cave Trolls look exactly like their smaller Troll cousins, except that while most Trolls are almost skinny, Cave Trolls are quite meaty. They are certainly not fat, and nowhere near as rotund as the Ogres, but they are stout, with big hands and feet, thick, strong wrists, and big arms. They are the same height and have the same reach, but a Cave Troll will weigh triple what a regular Troll weighs.

Despite their bulk, Cave Trolls are ridiculously fast and quick, and their agility has to be seen to be believed. They can shamble on their long bulky legs as fast as a horse can run, and when they put on a burst of speed, its sobering and educational, to put it mildly.

Combat Tactics

Cave Trolls are surprisingly capable combatants. They love to drop onto unsuspecting victims from the ceiling, counting on their large size and heavyset looks to make it unlikely that people will look up for something so large. It's eerie watching a Cave Troll climbing with fluid agility, their massive hands and toes clinging to rock and wood like a gecko's toes.

They will charge into melee combat otherwise, using their high land speed to get into melee. Note that they cannot use Burst of Speed after a charge! They need a swift action to trigger it.

In general, some Cave Trolls use Burst of Speed as soon as possible, so they can move and take a full attack with the extra attack. Other Cave Trolls will save it, and use it to flee a battle that's going poorly.

In combat, Cave Trolls are just horrible to deal with. They use five foot steps to open the range, and they just beat the melee sorts to death with attacks of opportunity due to their reach and Combat Reflexes. They are smart enough to bypass a strong melee combatant and go attack the back of the party, too. They know what healers are, and don't like them. If they can't reach the back line, they carry some handy rocks, too.

If things are going poorly, Cave Trolls will abandon a battle to go regenerate, think things over, and come back again for another try. Doing this gives players a hard choice: Pursue the fleeing cave trolls, or neutralize the very quickly regenerating one's they've defeated already.

Out of Combat

Cave Trolls are as horrible as all other trolls, and are thus in some demand as 'muscle' for weaker clans of monsters. Orcs, in particular, like Cave Trolls for their sneaky ways and ability to climb well. Most smaller monsters, however, look too much like victims for Cave Trolls to resist their baser urges.

More powerful creatures rarely bother with Cave Trolls. Their inability to take orders or follow direction consistently, combined with their delight in roaming and weak eyes to make other creatures more suited for service to the mighty.

On their own, Cave Trolls form up into loose bands, often blood-related. Not exactly family, but definitely with bonds between them, on the principal that its better to know the devil next door than not. Such loose clans of Cave Trolls will stake out a ruin, cave, tunnel, even sewers and less common habitats, and move right in. Cave Trolls are hardy and adaptable.

Rewards

XP: 6,400

Treasure: Sellable Goods worth 5,125 gp.

Weight: 90 lbs.     Volume: 3.6 cu. ft.

Optional Treasure Rules: Roll a d20 on Table 1 below once per encounter (NOT per creature). Any items discovered are in addition to the normal treasure for the encounter.

Table 1: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 10	Nothing Found
11 - 14	1 Languid Remnant (tier 1)
15 - 17	1 Pale Remnant (tier 2)
18 - 19	1 Bright Remnant (tier 3)
20	Roll on Table 2
###	Nothing to see here!
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 2: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Languid Remnants (tier 1)
6 - 10	3 Pale Remnants (tier 2)
11 - 14	1 Intense Remnant (tier 4)
15 - 17	1 Blazing Remnant (tier 5)
18 - 19	1 Vital Remnant (tier 6)
20	Roll on Table 3
###	Or here. Move along.

Table 3: Remnant(s) Found
1 - 5	3 Bright Remnants (tier 3)
6 - 8	3 Intense Remnants (tier 4)
9 - 11	3 Blazing Remnants (tier 5)
12 - 14	3 Vital Remnants (tier 6)
15 - 17	1 Prime Remnant (tier 7)
18 - 19	1 Mythic Remnant (tier 8)
20	1 Empyrean Remnant (tier 9)