I’m just imagining an encounter where players have to deliver a still living troll head to complete a spell. But the body keeps following them trying to get the head back
Ok, weird random thought: Trolls can mutate and take on traits of Fey creatures they eat. What if a Troll, the epitome of ugly, ate something like a Nymph, that is so beautiful that it blinds people? A gorgeous troll? A troll so ugly that it burns out your retinas?
Maybe through some magic if you can make troll very smart, maybe it will start doing experiments on itself. Becoming strong, bigger, maybe prettier and more smarter by eating very specific species.
It’s be super easy for a relatively strong party too. The only hard part would be trapping it. After that you just go into the cage and drain it of its blood every once in a while, and you’d get quite a bit of money out of that thing.
Or set up a for profit blood drive, not that it would be easy to convince them to participate. Okay coaxing them into a trap with tasty food would be easy, you could use Presdigitation to make anything you have on hand taste/smell like something the local Trolls would enjoy.
In Norwegian myths, where Trolls originate from, they can grow to be the size of literal mountains, and often predicted with entire forests growing on top of them. There were also Trolls that practised magic, but they were more akin to Hags than D&D trolls in most cases.
Then they secretly popularize something akin to a ring of hive mind that allows people to have a magical social media device, derive the nutrients they need from the regenerating troll brain and the memories they need from the constant live streams of the populace.
I have a great idea. I'm currently playing a low-level alchemist-themed wizard in 5e. If we ever come across a troll, I'm going to immobilize it instead of killing it, then talk to it. I'll give it food and treasure, in exchange for letting me regularly harvest its blood. It's gonna go horribly wrong and I cannot WAIT to see how.
Just pass out headbands of intellect to all the unreasonable creatures and reason with them. It occurs to me now that chaotic evil creatures would still be chaotic evil.
I remember reading in a DnD book that the firsts trolls grew from fragments of a god? or powerful entity? Some researchers raised one in a lab away from other trolls. They taught to speak common and such, after a point in time, it started talking about stuff that it had no way of knowing. As if as it aged it was accessing some form of genetic memory.
My favorite character I play was a half troll. His back story was he's father was a bard who crit failed his seduction roll on the female dragon but got her female troll bodyguard .
This raises an interesting question for me: Would a troll be intelligent enough to understand that the mutations they undergo are an effect of regenerating? Could a troll repeatedly dismember itself over and over for years on end to grow all sorts of extra limbs and torture itself to grow resistant to various types of attacks? Could they even overcome their weakness to fire and acid through by exposing themselves through gradually more and more dangerous heat/acid? I'd imagine that over a 100 year lifespan they could undergo an absolutely huge amount of mutations like that if they put themselves up to it. If the trolls aren't smart enough or willing to endure such agony, I'm sure some evil overlord would cage one and have it done forcefully to create an immensely powerful beast to unleash. You mention a single troll's blood could be worth about 400 gold coins, but wouldn't a troll have infinite blood due to it's regeneration? Would the blood drained from a living troll count as a missing body part and thusly "disappear" once the troll rests, hence meaning you can only take the blood from a dead troll? As someone who never played D&D I find myself getting more and more fascinated by all this.. Love the video as always. Keep it up!
What's to stop someone from capturing a troll and harvesting infinite blood from it? If it can regenerate itself completely every few minutes to an hour.... I'm picturing an underground bleeding operation with dozens of trolls hooked up to blood siphoning machines and an assembly line for potion making.
@@Gabriel-fl8ek Ah but it would be even more interesting if the mage was good-aligned with a hatred of trolls, using their blood to create potent healing potions at low cost for the townsfolk while simultaneously getting their revenge. Until the trolls escape that is... mwahahaha
@@vargunbard3526 sounds like a good point to introduce to the players the gray morality in DnD, th mage could have a backstory giving reason to why their hatred of trolls is justified to them. Especially if their home/hometown or even whole countryside could have been devoured leaving the survivor to develop this elaborate plan, taking and returning the suffering to the leader or last of the trolls that ate his family, be it a sibling, parents or whoever. I'd love to see both the players reactions and interactions as adventurers debating if they would want cheap potions at the risk of innocent civilians and then trolls well being... Or to put an end to the messy situation, leaving the simple adventurers and innocent townsfolk at risk if it escaped, especially if it's a low level adventurers.
Nah, he just carries some twine & a knitting needle, both for stitching things back in place while they heal. He might be an idiot, but he's brilliant among his own kind.
"What they don't tell you about vampires". You've covered the Succubi, which are related to the origins of vampirism in the Forgotten Realms, and you've talked about vampirism in your Elder Scrolls lore vids. Plz do D&D's Vampires next.
As someone playing a (Half-)Troll Paladin (LG), I been waiting for this. Character was made for 3.5 but finally got to play him in 5e. Basically I took a Goliath and Half-Orc as a template for stats and gave it Powerful Build and Regeneration. The Regen here though is literally "When you use a HD to restore hit points, the total is doubled. Can also regrow lost limbs as per the Troll Stat page." No reoccurring healing, just a very toned down version of a Ring of Regeneration.
@@beastwarsFTW Long story short? Party of adventurers were sent to wipe out a band of trolls who were terrorizing a village. (Missing people, livestock, the like.) When the party got here, the realized that some of the women were "used" for other reasons before they died. The heroes slaughtered all the trolls but came across an infant. Only one. So the cleric couldn't condone killing it as the baby was an innocent. She raised him despite protests of her party and her temple.
I think the disparity in Troll imagery in recent years at least has come from the Lord of the Rings movies and their depictions in those - which obviously is far different than the D&D versions/apperances of trolls.
More like Trolls have never had a unified imagery. In original Scandinavian myths trolls range from small dwarf-like creatures to giants larger than mountains, and from big nosed brutes to cow-tailed beauties. And then there's modern things like Moomintrolls from 1940s or the Troll Dolls from the 80s. The fact that "regenerating brute" kinda stuck around as a "default" shows how popular D&D is, even if most depictions show them as stout and pot-bellied rather than skinny and rubbery.
@@kevincass9917 yeah, Warcraft and DnD both influenced each other a lot The trolls in Warcraft II were based off DnD trolls, then WoW became super popular in the early 2000s and definitely influenced 5e You can see influences in a lot of other areas as well, in most cases they don't clone each other, but DnD influenced Warcraft in a lot of ways and then Warcraft in turn influenced DnD, I guess it goes with being the two most popular (and genre defining TTRPG and MMORPG respectively, especially since they cater to a very similar audience, even if you don't play either game you know what they are
I've been watching these "What they don't tell you" videos about DnD for a while now, but only now I've realised this guy is the same of that "Skyrim: The best way to start a new game!" video from eight years ago, lol.
Hey Rhexx, just wanted to say that I've gotten into your videos during the course of being quarantined. Watched all the D&D lore videos in the span of about a week and was super excited to hear you're planning on doing multiple videos a week. Keep up the amazing work, man!
With a troll's regenerative abilities and propensity for collecting treasure, would an extremely anemic troll resort to becoming a professional blood-donor? A living troll regenerates limbs so easily, imagine how easily they might replenish their blood. Can trolls blood replace human blood for warlock/vampire uses? Lots of interesting questions arise from looking at trolls from the "how can i exploit this creature" perspective. It might be a good idea to avoid letting savy players capture a troll alive, even if they just bring it back to town as a prisoner..
Trolls need to eat a huge amount of food to keep regeneration permanent. So chopping them up and harvesting can’t last forever. Plus they are so stupid donating blood is something they would not do. And would fight to death normally.
I have an Kenku NPC character in my character that makes healing potions inside of her own unfertilized eggs using troll blood. I have a random table that indicates the amount healed and the side effects, which are proportional to each other. 🥚
Good idea for a boss; have a massive troll that hunts and grafts other troll's arms to it a troll with thirty arms and could cast spells would be sick just a mass of arms and hatred.
these really help me come up with encounters, you can just imagine while listening to this video A village has a cleric hired to clear out some incorporeal undead from a local mine, a troll moves in, and your party is then hired to take it out at the request of the town and urgency of local alchemist who wants it's blood for potions.
In the forgotten realms, they are solitary carnivores who live in dungeons and labrynths. They were originally created by a cult dedicated to Baphomet.
@@cheepcheep4499 makes sense with their original function and creation of the creature in greek mythology for example. Zeus got horny and turned into a cow banging a human woman leading to the monster to be imprisoned by his mortal grandfather, and then, in DnD has them made/created to serve Baphomet as you described. This is why I got into DnD as a kid
@@TheBeastr ummm that makes no sense. First off:, I thought that it was that a woman was cursed to fall in love with a bull and hired Daedalus to make her a cow suit to fuck it and the baby was the minotaur. Second off: why would the story you described make a minotaur? Zeus has sex with women in animal forms all the time and they are usually just demigods. I think you confused the story with that of Europa
Great videos, keep em coming I actually wrote a subclass based on the other day’s death knight video for the paladin, I’ll put it under read more if anyone’s interested. You basically trade healing for a strong magic weapon. Starting at level 3 when you take this subclass, you count as undead. You lose all healing abilities and spells, become immune to magical healing, and all radiant damage you deal is replaced with necrotic. You must choose a weapon to become your Soul Weapon. This weapon is now magical and deals an additional 1d8 necrotic damage. Think about the atrocity you did to gain this power, and write a song dedicated to it. This song now follows you, sung by banshees that appear in the night. At night, you have advantage on intimidation checks. At level 7 you are immune to poison damage, your Soul Weapon is +1 and deals an additional 1d8 necrotic on top of what it already did. You can speak Abyssal. At level 15 you are immune to necrotic damage. Your Soul Weapon is now a +2 and deals an additional 1d8 necrotic damage on top of what it already did. Your Soul Weapon can now be summoned to your hands as a bonus action. At level 20, your Soul Weapon is now a +3 weapon, deals an additional 1d8 necrotic, and if you die, you may roll 1d20. On a 10 or higher, you return to life (undeath) within 1d4 days.
hmmm... the weapon growing stronger with a +1, +2, +3, is already controversial for balancing, because it can be faster or slower than how the GM drops magic weapons. Adding 1d8, 2d8, 3d8 necrotic dmg on top of that looks way too much. Now, it could be made "balanced" by not giving it much more features, but then the mechanics will feel uninteresting
I like it but i think losing lay on hands is kind of harsh i might replace it with a reverse lay on hands. like you touch something and do damage to them.
texteel I think it’s fair considering all the debuffs of being immune to healing and undead, but it’s not like you have to follow what I wrote exactly. If you want to be a death knight you should talk to your DM about how you can make it work with your group. I just really like writing bizarre and extreme abilities and classes
Expertionis I thought about that, but I couldn’t think of a good way to put it in in the day I wrote it. Maybe at 7th you get a Lay on Death that requires the enemy to succeed against your spell save DC or take the damage
I think you mean virtually indestructible rather than virtually immortal as they live to be around 100. Love this channel btw, by far the best lore channel around imo.
I think the reason the Monster Manual keeps things like Troll society out, and why this series is needed at all, is to give you the same mindset as the average adventurer in-universe who would only know what they read until they experience the monsters themself.
So, first of all, now we know for sure: Deadpool is a Troll! ^^ I always thought it strange, that Trolls in DnD don't have sunlight sensitivity. You know, with all that "turn to stone in sunlight"-thing. Also, this interested me for a while now: Do Halftrolls exist in DnD, and if yes, how do they come to be?
You are just cranking these out! I freaking love it man, so happy every time one of your new vids pops up in my feed. Here's an idea for a vid, What They Don't Tell You About D&D Languages. Would be cool to get some of the hidden and old lore about the languages of D&D.
Been binging these off and on and just wanted to interject a thought on why each edition would vary so much in some monster lore mechanics, they tend to be different campaign settings. 5e seems to be mainly forgotten realms while 3e I think is Greyhawk, and the source books are written from those worlds perspectives.
Thanks for the lore & dnd background. I love having Trolls in my campaign, and I love Trudvang and Paul Bonner trolls. Old European troll myths are fantastic and bringing them into a dnd campaign really adds some Faerie tale authenticity, methinks. Thanks again!
Great video , the whole “ what they don’t tell you “ series reminds me in a way of “ the ecology of...” series that used to be included in Dragon magazine back in the 80’s . Don’t know how long it ran for . Thank you as you’ve gotten me interested again in finding a group to game with. Anyone in the NYC area considering a game after lockdown is over please contact me or with any info on how to find other gamers. Thanks again for the interesting and well made videos 😷👍
I have a Troll as the BBEG of my campaign world atm He was once the runt of his clan until he stumbled upon a giant tomb containing a shard of a storm giant lich's phylactery. The fragment of the lich's spirit whispered too him and taught him secrets. The young troll learned of magic, and that fire and acid were his to command. He challenged his tribes leader to combat and bested him with his newfound magic, and then he devoured the leader to gain his strength. Over the centuries the troll became more powerful in the ways of magic and warfare, and now seeks to restore his master's phylactery so she can be returned to physical form. But although they are allies for now the troll plans to do much the same too her as he did his old clan master and consume her magical knowledge. He's terrifying because he's slowly mutating in to a Dire Troll (when the party met him he was already Huge), but he's also got the metal stats and spells of a powerful mage. He keeps getting stronger every time the party fight him and his final form will be basically a Dire Troll with Archmage stats and maybe a few other tweaks.
Little recommendation: Absorb Elements. It'll help with the Regeneration weakness and maybe give it a magic item or two. Not much, just a reflavored Ring of Acid or Fire Resistance that also prevents it's regeneration from stopping. So you try someone tries to burn um with fire, only for them to laugh it off and beat them down while on fire. Could probably shift the weakness instead too like with the Spirit Troll. That one is weak to Psychic and Force Damage so I'd substitute them for another two or even just one. Maybe Radiant and Cold Damage. Just some ideas I had
@@Master_E444 That was the third spell he learned after firebolt and acid stream :D I like that suggestion about the cold damage, freezing them solid and ice-burning wounds so they don't regenerate. Maybe a spell that when it does damage cause the target to gain vulnerability too that type for a turn
I stick with the bits, if completely severed from the troll, grow into troll children while the largest piece grows into the original troll. If the severed head must regrow the body, it is a troll child with all of the original memories while the largest part regenerates into the original troll too... also with all of the original memories. The bits will always try to bond together first. I also did the troll language as a regional thing which is a broken form of Giant. So, if you speak the common tongue of the Giants, you can understand a bit of Troll from all over the planet. To be fluent in Troll, you must learn each regional Troll as a separate language... not really worth it unless you have infinite time on your side.
I've got this image in my head now of a Drow butcher who constantly cuts bits and pieces from still living trolls, reselling the same limbs every time they grow back.
Healing potions that can debuff you if you fail a constitution save would be a fun mechanic. Umagine "dwarvish healing liquor", which is an alcohol-based healing potion that is more cost effective than conventional healing potions by allowing you to drink from the bottle 5 times before running out, but poisons you if you fail the con save which gets progressively harder the more you drink, or you could just swig it all in one go for lots of healing but a high dc for the save. or "bargain value" healing potions sold by a shady alchemist which have a table of random effects similar to wild magic if you fail a low dc constitution save. or mabye expired healing potions looted from a crypt, an abandoned town, or a goblin camp that make you hallucinate if you fail the constitution save.
5:48 that was me one game when my party all used invisibility one the first turn before the trolls acted, I was last in initiative lol 😂😅😭 I went down quick...
I ended making a Troll who got trapped Deeeep in the fey wild and after eating an incredibly powerful dead fey monster it became a powerful, clever...shall we say giant druid/bard who literally can alter the world around him in he sings with all living creatures around him providing background music...Is a good guy so more a fun crazy encounter made to scare your party early and testing to see what they do.
Your videos are awesome. Every time I watch one I learn something new, some new lore for this game that makes me sit upright. And you do it in such a way that it sounds like it's not part of a game, but real world history. Keep up the good work, I think I can safely say we all appreciate it
There is something else I have read about trolls that is canon to the Forgotten Realms but is strangely absent from everything else D&D related. In R. A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books, he describes that trolls can actually reproduce from severed limbs, if the limb is large enough and not harmed by fire or acid. In the books, he describes that hordes of troll become possible because every severed limb that isn't reattached can grow into an entirely new troll. For the longest time I had believed that this was how trolls reproduced and I'm shocked that there has been absolutely no other mention of this ability.
In pathfinder i played an alchemist who had captured a troll, he fed it our home towns garbage and harvested the blood. Took to making inexpensive healing items in order to help he people living in and near the town. Suddenly mortal wounds where survivable, and the locals where able to prosper and develop. When we went to war, the army marched with “troll serum” to keep the soldiers going even after losing a limb. The troll inevitably tried to break free, but by that time id moved onto Ooze related projects and had “troll flesh” that i harvested from anyway. Troll was consumed by my pet ooze with only the loss of some glass ware. Gnome “bio” alchemist was fun.
I'm playing a barbarian in pathfinder that is partially troll descendent as overtime will awaken their regeneration powers. Combining that with some class features that reduces all physical damage by their lvl and energy damage by half their lvl and they'll be terrifyingly powerful. Oh, they also have ferocity so they stay do not get rendered unconscious when they hit 0 hp
It’s been a year now since I ran my Troll Mountain story. A farming community was plagued by troll attacks. The adventurers kept getting reports of trolls with red, or blue skin. When they finally encountered Trolls the trolls flew in on feathered wings. Behind the scenes a cabal of male Drow spellcasters lead by a transmuter had left their matriarchal society to create perfect minion/soldier for the Drow to conquer the underdark. Deliberately mutating trolls within their laboratory inside a nearby mountain. The rejects were pushed out and wandered out many running into the farmlands. The story unfolded over weeeks of game time, and allowed me to introduce some of my absolute favorite NPCs ever. The Troll Patrol was a group of teenage farm kids that had been pushed too far and began training to work as a team to exterminate trolls. The would pop up over and over again for the remainder of the campaign due to the players just loving them! I digress, back at the mountain I had ice trolls, iron trolls, fire proof trolls, harpy trolls, and many others. I had found this insane kids toy that looked like a huge troll with extra eyes, and bone like spikes. This I used as the ultimate Hulk Troll. The battle was insane as the party struggled like crazy trying to figure out how to stop its regeneration and put it down for good. Meanwhile the Drow Cabal escaped with all their notes allowing me to set the stage for even more dangerous Troll mutants in the future. Edit, I had forgotten about my Mindflayer Troll oh man did that send out waves of terror!
Really really good, thank you mr rhexx. That was a awesome illustration of troll lore, would be cool if game development actually used these kinds of lore videos as inspiration.
Love your videos MrRhexx, been watching you videos since you talked about the dragons in a deeper dive. I'm glad your putting allote of videos during a time were finding things to do at home is slowly running out.
Now i want to know if throwing up on a troll will stop its regeneration. Since vomit has stomach acid in it. That would be hilarious. "Oh, its so ugly, bluarg. Uh, hey, it stopped regenerating!"
Nope. That'd probably be weaker then a basic Cantrip like Acid Splash so unless it's already been thoroughly beaten down to 0 Hit Points, it'll just be an annoyance. Maybe 1D4 Acid Damage at max, I'd normally say 1 Acid Damage
Hii! I was trying to findout more about nightmares, they seem super interesting, but the monster manual doesn't say much. Just that they were Pegasus who's wings got ripped off and that they can travel to other planes as an action. Sounds great for this Chanel, but also, were can I Reed more about them?
@@fgregerfeaxcwfeffece According to some of the other commenters it was ad&d that had that rule, which is where I started so I guess that's where I got it from, but it's not like it's a hard rule to ignore if you want it in other editions.
I actually had a brilliant DM that made the main antagonist a troll. Problem was? He was a troll freak, as in he had feasted on a clan of dopplegangers and was living disguised as a human alchemist through the entire campaign. He was a hyper-regenerative living psychic mortar. Man did shit get wild in that one. And for the record. He killed us hardcore.
It is interesting that the lore includes instances of trolls being decapitated as a form of punishment/humiliation. I would’ve always ruled that decapitation effectively incapacitated the troll without killing it, the rational being that it can grow a new head, but until then it has no means of processing information or making executive decisions.
Thanks again for the extra videos! Really appreciate the extra work your putting in for us in these times. I don’t have tv cuz I can’t stand cable anymore😒 so this is my entertainment and your videos ALWAYS give me more to work with in my game sessions man! Again I really appreciate the extra work
This gave me quite a few ideas for my world... Might tweak their regenerative ability so that they grow from any limb, making them a tad more deadly as you ought to destroy everything.. For cauterized heads: Trollball leagues in neighbouring cities
I forget which edition it was (likely AD&D), but severed pieces had a chance to grow into new trolls. You'd basically be doubling your problems if you didn't use fire or acid to stop the regeneration.
I've got that covered as well in things that I can sell to merchants. For example, being a copper dragon, I can summon dirt to turn into stone and shape its self into brick to sell to a merchant, and sever heads from a hydra to sell leather to a leather worker and fangs to a fletcher. Problem is, I haven't found a single fucking merchant this year until THIS month.
On re growth un AD&D, a round isn’t the 10 seconds we think of in 5e. a “round” is actually an hour(making regrowth very similar to 5e, with 3-8 rounds being about a long rest on the far side or a short rest after a couple hours on the short side). I found this out the hard way when my Druid’s only spells took a round to cast, and I started casting it during combat thinking it would take effect on my next turn only to realize I had either wasted a spell entirely or I’d have to sit out the entire encounter.
Dude keep making these vids. I don't even play d and d but it's amazing how their monster ts have basically become the standard for all fantasy. Fantastic vids. Look forward to them. Great job
Your videos!! Makes a great learning too for us DMs. I run games for my two sons and use your videos to help me describe the amazing monsters of DND to them.
Troll < Dire Troll / mutated Trolls < Frost Giant Everlasting One < Mutated Frost Giant Everlasting One Also, what if the mutations are combined?! what if A Storm Giant Becomes a Everlasting One?! WHAT IF A STORM GIANT BECOMES A EVERLASTING ONE & THEY GET ALL THE MUTATIONS COMBINED?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!
In a world I was designing for a game an evil cult kept a troll captive and used its blood as a material component to make rings of regeneration for its highest ranked members.
Absolutely love your vids bro. Although, the word you're looking for is "invulnerable". "immortal" means won't die from old age, which you stated they only live to about 100. Invulnerable means immune to all forms of damage. (except those you mentioned in this case). 👐 Edit: typo.
Kinda waited for you to mention that line from Mordenkainen's that in their beliefs the god only devours them if they're "cooked or digested", sending them to fight back in other cases.
Idea for a troll farm: - capture a troll (somehow) - slice off the limbs and immediately cauterize the stumps - keep it in a cage and attach multiple syringes to it to collect a constant supply of blood - make sure to feed it every few hours with VERY long tongs - sell troll blood - profit
"A troll's regenerative ability makes them susceptible to mutation. Hmm. That would explain why there are SOOOOOO many different models for Trolls, from the various depictions of them in Lord of the Rings (movies and book illustrations) to World of Warcraft, to various other Germanic, Polish, or euro centric folk lore. Some aren't even that big and would be more like smarter goblins. Some are just giant men. Others can be mutant monsters with skin that ranges from being like tree bark, to elephant skin, to snake scales. Artemis Fowl Trolls were quite interesting, like a Brute from Halo with Predator Dreads.
heh, the physical description of dnd trolls actually sounds a lot more like warcraft jungle trolls, than i would have thought based off of DND trolls illustrations
War trolls from 3rd ed where a really interesting sub species, both in lore and mechanics. During the 3.5 era, there was a treaty between myself (as DM) and my players that neither side would deploy war trolls in any way, so much did we fear them...
@@dorianrobinette9712 I don't know that much about either, but they're both undead spellcasters who have gained immortality by putting their soul into a phylactery. One is a humanoid and the other is a dragon. Both require very obscure knowledge generally gained by ancient evil tomes or evil deities.
@@asherdevin Dracoliches = Dragons who seek immortality and power over undead beyond their normal limits using a rituals with lots of assistance from high level spell casters to create a phylacteury that can even contain their soul and reform their mighty bodies. Liches = Spooky nerds.
Hey MrRhexx, I love all of your videos, and have watced them many times. I was wondering if instead of a video strictly about a monster, you could go over unused or outdated game mechanics, Eg: infravision, the old damage resistance. or possibly some spells or similar effects that didnt make it into 5th edition. Thanks for all you do!
In 3E & Pathfinder, Trolls definitely have culture. Troll oracles are revered and would actually disembowel themselves to read their own entrails in order to offer portents and predictions.
I just imagine: Noob Troll: oh Wise Tribe Seer, tell me the weather? Wise Troll Tribe Seer: sure (smashes their stomach open casually) it'll be cloudy with a chance of thunder and lamb meat (ate some lamb meat earlier) Noob Troll: Thank you. (Leaves like nothing happened) Wise Troll Tribe Seer: (puts their entrails back in)
My theory wiith those guys is just that the Troll-Soul is tightly bound to it's Troll-Bowl. Basically the true essence of the creature is saved in cloud storage, that is why it can always come back. It's just made to constantly download itself from the cloud, even if there's no brain to retain the information
Been binging your channel since I found it a few weeks ago. I'd love to see your take on What They Don't Tell Us About Halflings, my absolute favorite race.
Funnily enough, I tend to run trolls slightly differently, growing up with Warcraft 3 and all that. I keep solitary trolls and mutations, but most trolls live in tribes that offer their services to various inhabitants of their area, and every village has a set of traits and flaws that affect whose mastery they prefer. For example, a tribe of trolls could be dominantly farmers, but all trained in combat to defend their heards and fields that help satiate their ravenous hunger, prefering to keep to themselves and maybe even ally with adventurers, while, five miles south, there could be a nomadic tribe of specialised warrior trolls that are hellbent on conquest and consumption, serving a Goblinoid warband that follows closely behind, giving reinforcements, picking off stragglers and looting, however, if the Hobgoblin warlord who hired the trolls into service ceases conquest for the time being, and the trolls have no way to sate their hunger, the trolls have a likelyhood of turning against them, giving the players an option of convincing the Hob Warlord to bide his time, and have the trolls attack the goblinoids, potentially solving a great issue trough diplomacy alone.
I’m just imagining an encounter where players have to deliver a still living troll head to complete a spell. But the body keeps following them trying to get the head back
Wouldn't they just incinerate the body so it can't get back up?
@@johandori7795 the head would die if the body dies
Thanks for the quest
It would balance out to a moderately handsome fella.
@@archam777 crap, my bad
Ok, weird random thought: Trolls can mutate and take on traits of Fey creatures they eat.
What if a Troll, the epitome of ugly, ate something like a Nymph, that is so beautiful that it blinds people?
A gorgeous troll? A troll so ugly that it burns out your retinas?
An Ok looking fellow?
A troll with the face of "Handsome Squidward"?
@@thegreattotemaster
Every time you smash it's face it gets more handsome.
It’d be me...
Maybe through some magic if you can make troll very smart, maybe it will start doing experiments on itself. Becoming strong, bigger, maybe prettier and more smarter by eating very specific species.
I am now ready to watch Trolls: World Tour.
And I'm ready to walk in there with napalm and a flamethrower!
A man of culture.
@@Grinnar I try.
The McElroy brothers will be in trolls 2
I don't get it
A human reacting to trolls in a famous play: "They're eating her. And then they're going to eat me! Oh my gooooooood"
Those are Nilbogs though
That's Goblins silly!
Mrrhexx: Troll blood is worth a small fortune
Players: Troll happy farm time
Demiurge would be proud
They're like green sheep.
It’s be super easy for a relatively strong party too. The only hard part would be trapping it. After that you just go into the cage and drain it of its blood every once in a while, and you’d get quite a bit of money out of that thing.
Or set up a for profit blood drive, not that it would be easy to convince them to participate.
Okay coaxing them into a trap with tasty food would be easy, you could use Presdigitation to make anything you have on hand taste/smell like something the local Trolls would enjoy.
This doesn't sound like it's going to be too happy.
In Norwegian myths, where Trolls originate from, they can grow to be the size of literal mountains, and often predicted with entire forests growing on top of them. There were also Trolls that practised magic, but they were more akin to Hags than D&D trolls in most cases.
I'd guess the magic trolls were akin to the Oni creature in 5e
Troll Hunter is a fantastic movie dealing with Norwegian Trolls if you haven't seen it.
@@michaelsorensen7567 I know at least in Swedish the word troll used to mean witch, no idea about Norway though
@@ADT1995 thanks for the info, had no idea
Troll: I go smash! I no fear not fire and acid! I regenerate!
Mind flayers: Regenerative brain, looks delicious.
The mind flyers are snobs so i don't think that they enjoy low inteligent beings
Then they secretly popularize something akin to a ring of hive mind that allows people to have a magical social media device, derive the nutrients they need from the regenerating troll brain and the memories they need from the constant live streams of the populace.
Maybe feed a troll a bunch of shambling mounds and treants until they get brain trees
@@antoniosanchez-qd4cg i think it would be equiwalent of fast food... low quality fast food.... very low quality
“Trolls have no society to speak of.” Sounds like someone hasn’t even been to 4chan.
Gascoigne Perhaps, but do they not live in one?
/b/ for the win
@@redtexan7053 A society requires order, so 4chan doesn't count as one. :P
@@redtexan7053 bottom text
Omggg XD
I have a great idea. I'm currently playing a low-level alchemist-themed wizard in 5e. If we ever come across a troll, I'm going to immobilize it instead of killing it, then talk to it. I'll give it food and treasure, in exchange for letting me regularly harvest its blood. It's gonna go horribly wrong and I cannot WAIT to see how.
Artificially boost its intelligence and you might have a chance.
offer it Int, tell him it's power far greater than any slash a red dragon can preform. in fact I wanna see someone tell a story on how this turns out.
Just pass out headbands of intellect to all the unreasonable creatures and reason with them. It occurs to me now that chaotic evil creatures would still be chaotic evil.
@@danielknapp159 Fireball?
Teach it you have become death destroyer of worlds
You can also have all of the troll steak that you an eat... just don't tell others and don't eat the steak rare!
I remember reading in a DnD book that the firsts trolls grew from fragments of a god? or powerful entity? Some researchers raised one in a lab away from other trolls. They taught to speak common and such, after a point in time, it started talking about stuff that it had no way of knowing. As if as it aged it was accessing some form of genetic memory.
My favorite character I play was a half troll. His back story was he's father was a bard who crit failed his seduction roll on the female dragon but got her female troll bodyguard .
That is absolutely marvellous! XD
He knew exactly what he wanted to seduce xD
Peak character development
And a hey ho
He’s ploughing a troll!
This raises an interesting question for me: Would a troll be intelligent enough to understand that the mutations they undergo are an effect of regenerating?
Could a troll repeatedly dismember itself over and over for years on end to grow all sorts of extra limbs and torture itself to grow resistant to various types of attacks?
Could they even overcome their weakness to fire and acid through by exposing themselves through gradually more and more dangerous heat/acid?
I'd imagine that over a 100 year lifespan they could undergo an absolutely huge amount of mutations like that if they put themselves up to it.
If the trolls aren't smart enough or willing to endure such agony, I'm sure some evil overlord would cage one and have it done forcefully to create an immensely powerful beast to unleash.
You mention a single troll's blood could be worth about 400 gold coins, but wouldn't a troll have infinite blood due to it's regeneration? Would the blood drained from a living troll count as a missing body part and thusly "disappear" once the troll rests, hence meaning you can only take the blood from a dead troll?
As someone who never played D&D I find myself getting more and more fascinated by all this..
Love the video as always. Keep it up!
You fool! Don't give the trolls any ideas!
@@patrickleighpresents749 Y-you don't think they mi-might be.. reading this right now... do you? Oh Gods! What have I done?!
@@topazhb2069 You fool! You foolish, foolish fool!
Me playing a chaotic evil character: *Evil laughter* THANKS FOR THE IDEA!
@@topazhb2069 don't worry they can't read
I’ve always thought the big muscular trolls looked cooler but the thin lankier trolls were much scarier.
The fact those scrawny winps can still tear you a new asshole like a Goliath-sized Terminator?
Agree. Been playing adnd since I was 7, used to be terrified of my uncle's yard cuz I thought it looked like exactly where a troll would be found
What's to stop someone from capturing a troll and harvesting infinite blood from it? If it can regenerate itself completely every few minutes to an hour....
I'm picturing an underground bleeding operation with dozens of trolls hooked up to blood siphoning machines and an assembly line for potion making.
I was instantly considering a setup pretty much like modern dairy farms
thats a really cool thing for an evil mage to have in their tower, I can think of a pretty badass laboratory combat with that idea
@@Gabriel-fl8ek Ah but it would be even more interesting if the mage was good-aligned with a hatred of trolls, using their blood to create potent healing potions at low cost for the townsfolk while simultaneously getting their revenge. Until the trolls escape that is... mwahahaha
@@vargunbard3526 sounds like a good start for a dungeon crawl
@@vargunbard3526 sounds like a good point to introduce to the players the gray morality in DnD, th mage could have a backstory giving reason to why their hatred of trolls is justified to them. Especially if their home/hometown or even whole countryside could have been devoured leaving the survivor to develop this elaborate plan, taking and returning the suffering to the leader or last of the trolls that ate his family, be it a sibling, parents or whoever.
I'd love to see both the players reactions and interactions as adventurers debating if they would want cheap potions at the risk of innocent civilians and then trolls well being...
Or to put an end to the messy situation, leaving the simple adventurers and innocent townsfolk at risk if it escaped, especially if it's a low level adventurers.
I can only picture this kind of troll medic, going with a throng, just carrying waterskins and wet hides.
"Troll Medic" There's a job for underachievers.
Nah, he just carries some twine & a knitting needle, both for stitching things back in place while they heal. He might be an idiot, but he's brilliant among his own kind.
@@muninrob that sounds hilarious
"What they don't tell you about vampires". You've covered the Succubi, which are related to the origins of vampirism in the Forgotten Realms, and you've talked about vampirism in your Elder Scrolls lore vids. Plz do D&D's Vampires next.
Wait, succubus have something to do with vampirism? How?
@@CombatSportsNerd In the Forgotten Realms if you survive a Succubis kiss you become a true Vampire.
As someone playing a (Half-)Troll Paladin (LG), I been waiting for this. Character was made for 3.5 but finally got to play him in 5e. Basically I took a Goliath and Half-Orc as a template for stats and gave it Powerful Build and Regeneration. The Regen here though is literally "When you use a HD to restore hit points, the total is doubled. Can also regrow lost limbs as per the Troll Stat page." No reoccurring healing, just a very toned down version of a Ring of Regeneration.
How are you half-troll? Was one of your parents a troll or did you mutate because you hade troll blood or a troll organ?
@@beastwarsFTW Long story short? Party of adventurers were sent to wipe out a band of trolls who were terrorizing a village. (Missing people, livestock, the like.) When the party got here, the realized that some of the women were "used" for other reasons before they died.
The heroes slaughtered all the trolls but came across an infant. Only one. So the cleric couldn't condone killing it as the baby was an innocent. She raised him despite protests of her party and her temple.
I think the disparity in Troll imagery in recent years at least has come from the Lord of the Rings movies and their depictions in those - which obviously is far different than the D&D versions/apperances of trolls.
More like Trolls have never had a unified imagery. In original Scandinavian myths trolls range from small dwarf-like creatures to giants larger than mountains, and from big nosed brutes to cow-tailed beauties. And then there's modern things like Moomintrolls from 1940s or the Troll Dolls from the 80s. The fact that "regenerating brute" kinda stuck around as a "default" shows how popular D&D is, even if most depictions show them as stout and pot-bellied rather than skinny and rubbery.
@@ADHadh Not to mention WoW which shows Trolls as something far different.
@@kevincass9917 yeah, Warcraft and DnD both influenced each other a lot
The trolls in Warcraft II were based off DnD trolls, then WoW became super popular in the early 2000s and definitely influenced 5e
You can see influences in a lot of other areas as well, in most cases they don't clone each other, but DnD influenced Warcraft in a lot of ways and then Warcraft in turn influenced DnD, I guess it goes with being the two most popular (and genre defining TTRPG and MMORPG respectively, especially since they cater to a very similar audience, even if you don't play either game you know what they are
I've been watching these "What they don't tell you" videos about DnD for a while now, but only now I've realised this guy is the same of that "Skyrim: The best way to start a new game!" video from eight years ago, lol.
Hey Rhexx, just wanted to say that I've gotten into your videos during the course of being quarantined. Watched all the D&D lore videos in the span of about a week and was super excited to hear you're planning on doing multiple videos a week. Keep up the amazing work, man!
+1 on this. I've learned more from your series than I have in 20+ years of playing and Dming the game. Keep up the good work mate.
What they don't tell you about trolls:
They are everywhere on the internet
I don't see any here. :^]
No they aren't. Whoever told you that is lying, trolls are very rare on the internet and keep to the weakest social media sites.
With a troll's regenerative abilities and propensity for collecting treasure, would an extremely anemic troll resort to becoming a professional blood-donor? A living troll regenerates limbs so easily, imagine how easily they might replenish their blood. Can trolls blood replace human blood for warlock/vampire uses? Lots of interesting questions arise from looking at trolls from the "how can i exploit this creature" perspective. It might be a good idea to avoid letting savy players capture a troll alive, even if they just bring it back to town as a prisoner..
Trolls need to eat a huge amount of food to keep regeneration permanent. So chopping them up and harvesting can’t last forever.
Plus they are so stupid donating blood is something they would not do. And would fight to death normally.
I have an Kenku NPC character in my character that makes healing potions inside of her own unfertilized eggs using troll blood. I have a random table that indicates the amount healed and the side effects, which are proportional to each other. 🥚
Do a video on doppelgangers and changelings in the forgotten realms.
I second this
I wanted to run a game where doppelganger hives start taking over major populations centers.
@@FxUxCxMx That sounds like a GREAT idea! That would be interesting.
Why just in the forgotten realms?
@@eerigbal7169 Because that is the main world that has the most lore.
Good idea for a boss; have a massive troll that hunts and grafts other troll's arms to it a troll with thirty arms and could cast spells would be sick just a mass of arms and hatred.
Godrick the Grafted.
@@azakranos8100 Wow I was ahead of my time predicted a Elden ring boss 2 years before it's release
these really help me come up with encounters, you can just imagine while listening to this video
A village has a cleric hired to clear out some incorporeal undead from a local mine, a troll moves in, and your party is then hired to take it out at the request of the town and urgency of local alchemist who wants it's blood for potions.
What is Minotaur culture like? Do they live in clans, or cities. Are they tribalistic or are they near civilized?
Daylight Morning Crown depends, dragonlance makes them noble warriors, others make them savage
In the forgotten realms, they are solitary carnivores who live in dungeons and labrynths. They were originally created by a cult dedicated to Baphomet.
@@cheepcheep4499 makes sense with their original function and creation of the creature in greek mythology for example. Zeus got horny and turned into a cow banging a human woman leading to the monster to be imprisoned by his mortal grandfather, and then, in DnD has them made/created to serve Baphomet as you described. This is why I got into DnD as a kid
@@cheepcheep4499 well, i remember in the very same Forgotten Realms some (fallen) minotaurs kigdom in Underdark called Labyrinth.
@@TheBeastr ummm that makes no sense. First off:, I thought that it was that a woman was cursed to fall in love with a bull and hired Daedalus to make her a cow suit to fuck it and the baby was the minotaur.
Second off: why would the story you described make a minotaur? Zeus has sex with women in animal forms all the time and they are usually just demigods. I think you confused the story with that of Europa
They never tell you that feeding trolls only makes them stronger.
Great videos, keep em coming
I actually wrote a subclass based on the other day’s death knight video for the paladin, I’ll put it under read more if anyone’s interested. You basically trade healing for a strong magic weapon.
Starting at level 3 when you take this subclass, you count as undead. You lose all healing abilities and spells, become immune to magical healing, and all radiant damage you deal is replaced with necrotic. You must choose a weapon to become your Soul Weapon. This weapon is now magical and deals an additional 1d8 necrotic damage. Think about the atrocity you did to gain this power, and write a song dedicated to it. This song now follows you, sung by banshees that appear in the night. At night, you have advantage on intimidation checks.
At level 7 you are immune to poison damage, your Soul Weapon is +1 and deals an additional 1d8 necrotic on top of what it already did. You can speak Abyssal.
At level 15 you are immune to necrotic damage. Your Soul Weapon is now a +2 and deals an additional 1d8 necrotic damage on top of what it already did. Your Soul Weapon can now be summoned to your hands as a bonus action.
At level 20, your Soul Weapon is now a +3 weapon, deals an additional 1d8 necrotic, and if you die, you may roll 1d20. On a 10 or higher, you return to life (undeath) within 1d4 days.
hmmm...
the weapon growing stronger with a +1, +2, +3, is already controversial for balancing, because it can be faster or slower than how the GM drops magic weapons. Adding 1d8, 2d8, 3d8 necrotic dmg on top of that looks way too much.
Now, it could be made "balanced" by not giving it much more features, but then the mechanics will feel uninteresting
I like it but i think losing lay on hands is kind of harsh i might replace it with a reverse lay on hands. like you touch something and do damage to them.
texteel I think it’s fair considering all the debuffs of being immune to healing and undead, but it’s not like you have to follow what I wrote exactly. If you want to be a death knight you should talk to your DM about how you can make it work with your group. I just really like writing bizarre and extreme abilities and classes
texteel I also based the mechanics directly on the death knight statblock
Expertionis I thought about that, but I couldn’t think of a good way to put it in in the day I wrote it. Maybe at 7th you get a Lay on Death that requires the enemy to succeed against your spell save DC or take the damage
I think you mean virtually indestructible rather than virtually immortal as they live to be around 100. Love this channel btw, by far the best lore channel around imo.
You're putting out a lot of content the past few days. Love it. Thank you
I think the reason the Monster Manual keeps things like Troll society out, and why this series is needed at all, is to give you the same mindset as the average adventurer in-universe who would only know what they read until they experience the monsters themself.
So, first of all, now we know for sure: Deadpool is a Troll! ^^
I always thought it strange, that Trolls in DnD don't have sunlight sensitivity. You know, with all that "turn to stone in sunlight"-thing.
Also, this interested me for a while now: Do Halftrolls exist in DnD, and if yes, how do they come to be?
A very adventurous bard meets a troll that ate a especially beautiful nymph
Another great bedtime story, wish me luck on my exam tomorrow covering the shoulder complex, elbow and forearm, and wrist!
If their blood is useful for healing potions and they regenerate, there should be troll farms.
There probably already is or there are in people’s campaigns
Last time I was this early, elves could still change shape.
I'm not super early but last time I came this kinda early the evariel weren't an endangered species
You are just cranking these out! I freaking love it man, so happy every time one of your new vids pops up in my feed.
Here's an idea for a vid, What They Don't Tell You About D&D Languages.
Would be cool to get some of the hidden and old lore about the languages of D&D.
Been binging these off and on and just wanted to interject a thought on why each edition would vary so much in some monster lore mechanics, they tend to be different campaign settings. 5e seems to be mainly forgotten realms while 3e I think is Greyhawk, and the source books are written from those worlds perspectives.
Thanks for the lore & dnd background. I love having Trolls in my campaign, and I love Trudvang and Paul Bonner trolls. Old European troll myths are fantastic and bringing them into a dnd campaign really adds some Faerie tale authenticity, methinks. Thanks again!
I need to go back and brush up on some of these basic monsters, this has some great story ideas in it!
Would love videos on elementals, including elder elementals. Also videos on the rulers of the elemental planes
Great video , the whole “ what they don’t tell you “ series reminds me in a way of “ the ecology of...” series that used to be included in Dragon magazine back in the 80’s . Don’t know how long it ran for . Thank you as you’ve gotten me interested again in finding a group to game with. Anyone in the NYC area considering a game after lockdown is over please contact me or with any info on how to find other gamers. Thanks again for the interesting and well made videos 😷👍
I have a Troll as the BBEG of my campaign world atm
He was once the runt of his clan until he stumbled upon a giant tomb containing a shard of a storm giant lich's phylactery. The fragment of the lich's spirit whispered too him and taught him secrets. The young troll learned of magic, and that fire and acid were his to command. He challenged his tribes leader to combat and bested him with his newfound magic, and then he devoured the leader to gain his strength.
Over the centuries the troll became more powerful in the ways of magic and warfare, and now seeks to restore his master's phylactery so she can be returned to physical form. But although they are allies for now the troll plans to do much the same too her as he did his old clan master and consume her magical knowledge.
He's terrifying because he's slowly mutating in to a Dire Troll (when the party met him he was already Huge), but he's also got the metal stats and spells of a powerful mage. He keeps getting stronger every time the party fight him and his final form will be basically a Dire Troll with Archmage stats and maybe a few other tweaks.
Little recommendation: Absorb Elements. It'll help with the Regeneration weakness and maybe give it a magic item or two. Not much, just a reflavored Ring of Acid or Fire Resistance that also prevents it's regeneration from stopping. So you try someone tries to burn um with fire, only for them to laugh it off and beat them down while on fire. Could probably shift the weakness instead too like with the Spirit Troll. That one is weak to Psychic and Force Damage so I'd substitute them for another two or even just one. Maybe Radiant and Cold Damage. Just some ideas I had
@@Master_E444 That was the third spell he learned after firebolt and acid stream :D
I like that suggestion about the cold damage, freezing them solid and ice-burning wounds so they don't regenerate. Maybe a spell that when it does damage cause the target to gain vulnerability too that type for a turn
@@cameronpearce5943 there is a Spell that gives vulnerability, Elemental Bane. It's a good spell for this.
@@Master_E444 Oh nice :D I like it
@@cameronpearce5943 your welcome. Though remember that Counterspell is useful against that and other Spells.
Great video, keep up the good work. I would love to see lore on the Oni soon.
I stick with the bits, if completely severed from the troll, grow into troll children while the largest piece grows into the original troll. If the severed head must regrow the body, it is a troll child with all of the original memories while the largest part regenerates into the original troll too... also with all of the original memories. The bits will always try to bond together first. I also did the troll language as a regional thing which is a broken form of Giant. So, if you speak the common tongue of the Giants, you can understand a bit of Troll from all over the planet. To be fluent in Troll, you must learn each regional Troll as a separate language... not really worth it unless you have infinite time on your side.
I've got this image in my head now of a Drow butcher who constantly cuts bits and pieces from still living trolls, reselling the same limbs every time they grow back.
I’m gonna have to let my little sister watch this one, since she likes to call me a troll.
Wonderful video as always friend!
It seems pretty risky to use a healing potion made from a Troll. I'd put some very low DC Constitution Save vs mutation.
Healing potions that can debuff you if you fail a constitution save would be a fun mechanic.
Umagine "dwarvish healing liquor", which is an alcohol-based healing potion that is more cost effective than conventional healing potions by allowing you to drink from the bottle 5 times before running out, but poisons you if you fail the con save which gets progressively harder the more you drink, or you could just swig it all in one go for lots of healing but a high dc for the save.
or "bargain value" healing potions sold by a shady alchemist which have a table of random effects similar to wild magic if you fail a low dc constitution save.
or mabye expired healing potions looted from a crypt, an abandoned town, or a goblin camp that make you hallucinate if you fail the constitution save.
Thanks for all of the hard work- I love sitting back and watching these lore videos, what a treat!
5:48 that was me one game when my party all used invisibility one the first turn before the trolls acted, I was last in initiative lol 😂😅😭 I went down quick...
I ended making a Troll who got trapped Deeeep in the fey wild and after eating an incredibly powerful dead fey monster it became a powerful, clever...shall we say giant druid/bard who literally can alter the world around him in he sings with all living creatures around him providing background music...Is a good guy so more a fun crazy encounter made to scare your party early and testing to see what they do.
Your videos are awesome. Every time I watch one I learn something new, some new lore for this game that makes me sit upright. And you do it in such a way that it sounds like it's not part of a game, but real world history. Keep up the good work, I think I can safely say we all appreciate it
There is something else I have read about trolls that is canon to the Forgotten Realms but is strangely absent from everything else D&D related. In R. A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books, he describes that trolls can actually reproduce from severed limbs, if the limb is large enough and not harmed by fire or acid. In the books, he describes that hordes of troll become possible because every severed limb that isn't reattached can grow into an entirely new troll. For the longest time I had believed that this was how trolls reproduced and I'm shocked that there has been absolutely no other mention of this ability.
In pathfinder i played an alchemist who had captured a troll, he fed it our home towns garbage and harvested the blood. Took to making inexpensive healing items in order to help he people living in and near the town. Suddenly mortal wounds where survivable, and the locals where able to prosper and develop. When we went to war, the army marched with “troll serum” to keep the soldiers going even after losing a limb. The troll inevitably tried to break free, but by that time id moved onto Ooze related projects and had “troll flesh” that i harvested from anyway. Troll was consumed by my pet ooze with only the loss of some glass ware. Gnome “bio” alchemist was fun.
Dude i spent my formative years drawing/painting DnD trolls. you want troll art I will provide.
@Bob Bob Drow work for you?
@Bob Bob msg me your character sheet. Yes I work for free.
Last time I was this early, mages could cast 12 th level spells
I'm playing a barbarian in pathfinder that is partially troll descendent as overtime will awaken their regeneration powers. Combining that with some class features that reduces all physical damage by their lvl and energy damage by half their lvl and they'll be terrifyingly powerful. Oh, they also have ferocity so they stay do not get rendered unconscious when they hit 0 hp
It’s been a year now since I ran my Troll Mountain story. A farming community was plagued by troll attacks. The adventurers kept getting reports of trolls with red, or blue skin. When they finally encountered Trolls the trolls flew in on feathered wings. Behind the scenes a cabal of male Drow spellcasters lead by a transmuter had left their matriarchal society to create perfect minion/soldier for the Drow to conquer the underdark. Deliberately mutating trolls within their laboratory inside a nearby mountain. The rejects were pushed out and wandered out many running into the farmlands. The story unfolded over weeeks of game time, and allowed me to introduce some of my absolute favorite NPCs ever. The Troll Patrol was a group of teenage farm kids that had been pushed too far and began training to work as a team to exterminate trolls. The would pop up over and over again for the remainder of the campaign due to the players just loving them! I digress, back at the mountain I had ice trolls, iron trolls, fire proof trolls, harpy trolls, and many others. I had found this insane kids toy that looked like a huge troll with extra eyes, and bone like spikes. This I used as the ultimate Hulk Troll. The battle was insane as the party struggled like crazy trying to figure out how to stop its regeneration and put it down for good. Meanwhile the Drow Cabal escaped with all their notes allowing me to set the stage for even more dangerous Troll mutants in the future. Edit, I had forgotten about my Mindflayer Troll oh man did that send out waves of terror!
When I read this title I instantly thought of the Trolls from that one movie, haha.
Really really good, thank you mr rhexx. That was a awesome illustration of troll lore, would be cool if game development actually used these kinds of lore videos as inspiration.
Love your videos MrRhexx, been watching you videos since you talked about the dragons in a deeper dive. I'm glad your putting allote of videos during a time were finding things to do at home is slowly running out.
Now i want to know if throwing up on a troll will stop its regeneration. Since vomit has stomach acid in it. That would be hilarious. "Oh, its so ugly, bluarg. Uh, hey, it stopped regenerating!"
Nope. That'd probably be weaker then a basic Cantrip like Acid Splash so unless it's already been thoroughly beaten down to 0 Hit Points, it'll just be an annoyance. Maybe 1D4 Acid Damage at max, I'd normally say 1 Acid Damage
Hii! I was trying to findout more about nightmares, they seem super interesting, but the monster manual doesn't say much. Just that they were Pegasus who's wings got ripped off and that they can travel to other planes as an action.
Sounds great for this Chanel, but also, were can I Reed more about them?
I thought every piece of the troll grew into a new troll?
I think it's a rare "could" situation like regrowing too many limbs.
@@fgregerfeaxcwfeffece According to some of the other commenters it was ad&d that had that rule, which is where I started so I guess that's where I got it from, but it's not like it's a hard rule to ignore if you want it in other editions.
I actually had a brilliant DM that made the main antagonist a troll.
Problem was? He was a troll freak, as in he had feasted on a clan of dopplegangers and was living disguised as a human alchemist through the entire campaign.
He was a hyper-regenerative living psychic mortar. Man did shit get wild in that one.
And for the record. He killed us hardcore.
It is interesting that the lore includes instances of trolls being decapitated as a form of punishment/humiliation. I would’ve always ruled that decapitation effectively incapacitated the troll without killing it, the rational being that it can grow a new head, but until then it has no means of processing information or making executive decisions.
Thanks again for the extra videos! Really appreciate the extra work your putting in for us in these times. I don’t have tv cuz I can’t stand cable anymore😒 so this is my entertainment and your videos ALWAYS give me more to work with in my game sessions man! Again I really appreciate the extra work
This gave me quite a few ideas for my world... Might tweak their regenerative ability so that they grow from any limb, making them a tad more deadly as you ought to destroy everything.. For cauterized heads: Trollball leagues in neighbouring cities
I forget which edition it was (likely AD&D), but severed pieces had a chance to grow into new trolls. You'd basically be doubling your problems if you didn't use fire or acid to stop the regeneration.
Troll blood is worth a small fortune.
Me, playing a troll: Infinite money you say?
I've got that covered as well in things that I can sell to merchants. For example, being a copper dragon, I can summon dirt to turn into stone and shape its self into brick to sell to a merchant, and sever heads from a hydra to sell leather to a leather worker and fangs to a fletcher.
Problem is, I haven't found a single fucking merchant this year until THIS month.
Would love to see lore on Worms. Purple, Frost, etc. Great videos and top notch info btw.
On re growth un AD&D, a round isn’t the 10 seconds we think of in 5e. a “round” is actually an hour(making regrowth very similar to 5e, with 3-8 rounds being about a long rest on the far side or a short rest after a couple hours on the short side). I found this out the hard way when my Druid’s only spells took a round to cast, and I started casting it during combat thinking it would take effect on my next turn only to realize I had either wasted a spell entirely or I’d have to sit out the entire encounter.
Dude keep making these vids. I don't even play d and d but it's amazing how their monster ts have basically become the standard for all fantasy. Fantastic vids. Look forward to them. Great job
Dude, you are a legend. Thank you so much for all these.
Goddamnit man I appreciate you. The info you give makes homebrewing so much easier!
Thx for the info on a potion reagent :3 so trolls blood is used for making higher tier potions :3
Need a video on that dark Earth Mother
Your videos!! Makes a great learning too for us DMs. I run games for my two sons and use your videos to help me describe the amazing monsters of DND to them.
The video about DnD trolls uses a Pathfinder thumbnail, how precious
Troll < Dire Troll / mutated Trolls < Frost Giant Everlasting One < Mutated Frost Giant Everlasting One
Also,
what if the mutations are combined?!
what if A Storm Giant Becomes a Everlasting One?!
WHAT IF A STORM GIANT BECOMES A EVERLASTING ONE & THEY GET ALL THE MUTATIONS COMBINED?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!
Could you cover the Fomorians next ? They are my favorite of the giantkin.
In a world I was designing for a game an evil cult kept a troll captive and used its blood as a material component to make rings of regeneration for its highest ranked members.
Absolutely love your vids bro.
Although, the word you're looking for is "invulnerable". "immortal" means won't die from old age, which you stated they only live to about 100.
Invulnerable means immune to all forms of damage. (except those you mentioned in this case). 👐
Edit: typo.
Kinda waited for you to mention that line from Mordenkainen's that in their beliefs the god only devours them if they're "cooked or digested", sending them to fight back in other cases.
Idea for a troll farm:
- capture a troll (somehow)
- slice off the limbs and immediately cauterize the stumps
- keep it in a cage and attach multiple syringes to it to collect a constant supply of blood
- make sure to feed it every few hours with VERY long tongs
- sell troll blood
- profit
The was a very old module in the Dungeon magazine about a singer troll with a beautiful voice that lived in a swamp. So... not only cave paintings.
woo hoo, i hope we get more information about the fae in the future
"A troll's regenerative ability makes them susceptible to mutation. Hmm.
That would explain why there are SOOOOOO many different models for Trolls, from the various depictions of them in Lord of the Rings (movies and book illustrations) to World of Warcraft, to various other Germanic, Polish, or euro centric folk lore. Some aren't even that big and would be more like smarter goblins. Some are just giant men. Others can be mutant monsters with skin that ranges from being like tree bark, to elephant skin, to snake scales.
Artemis Fowl Trolls were quite interesting, like a Brute from Halo with Predator Dreads.
Take your time and have fun with it. I really do enjoy your videos
heh, the physical description of dnd trolls actually sounds a lot more like warcraft jungle trolls, than i would have thought based off of DND trolls illustrations
War trolls from 3rd ed where a really interesting sub species, both in lore and mechanics. During the 3.5 era, there was a treaty between myself (as DM) and my players that neither side would deploy war trolls in any way, so much did we fear them...
I'm really surprised he hasn't done a lich episode yet.
Well he did the dracolich, which is the same thing but with a dragon.
Considering how different dracoliches are from liches it's not really the same.
@@dorianrobinette9712 I don't know that much about either, but they're both undead spellcasters who have gained immortality by putting their soul into a phylactery. One is a humanoid and the other is a dragon. Both require very obscure knowledge generally gained by ancient evil tomes or evil deities.
@@asherdevin
Dracoliches = Dragons who seek immortality and power over undead beyond their normal limits using a rituals with lots of assistance from high level spell casters to create a phylacteury that can even contain their soul and reform their mighty bodies.
Liches = Spooky nerds.
Hey MrRhexx, I love all of your videos, and have watced them many times. I was wondering if instead of a video strictly about a monster, you could go over unused or outdated game mechanics, Eg: infravision, the old damage resistance. or possibly some spells or similar effects that didnt make it into 5th edition. Thanks for all you do!
In 3E & Pathfinder, Trolls definitely have culture. Troll oracles are revered and would actually disembowel themselves to read their own entrails in order to offer portents and predictions.
I just imagine:
Noob Troll: oh Wise Tribe Seer, tell me the weather?
Wise Troll Tribe Seer: sure (smashes their stomach open casually) it'll be cloudy with a chance of thunder and lamb meat (ate some lamb meat earlier)
Noob Troll: Thank you. (Leaves like nothing happened)
Wise Troll Tribe Seer: (puts their entrails back in)
The Warhammer Troll Art made me happy
My theory wiith those guys is just that the Troll-Soul is tightly bound to it's Troll-Bowl. Basically the true essence of the creature is saved in cloud storage, that is why it can always come back. It's just made to constantly download itself from the cloud, even if there's no brain to retain the information
Been binging your channel since I found it a few weeks ago. I'd love to see your take on What They Don't Tell Us About Halflings, my absolute favorite race.
Funnily enough, I tend to run trolls slightly differently, growing up with Warcraft 3 and all that.
I keep solitary trolls and mutations, but most trolls live in tribes that offer their services to various inhabitants of their area, and every village has a set of traits and flaws that affect whose mastery they prefer. For example, a tribe of trolls could be dominantly farmers, but all trained in combat to defend their heards and fields that help satiate their ravenous hunger, prefering to keep to themselves and maybe even ally with adventurers, while, five miles south, there could be a nomadic tribe of specialised warrior trolls that are hellbent on conquest and consumption, serving a Goblinoid warband that follows closely behind, giving reinforcements, picking off stragglers and looting, however, if the Hobgoblin warlord who hired the trolls into service ceases conquest for the time being, and the trolls have no way to sate their hunger, the trolls have a likelyhood of turning against them, giving the players an option of convincing the Hob Warlord to bide his time, and have the trolls attack the goblinoids, potentially solving a great issue trough diplomacy alone.
Grendles are cool, I like the Dwarf/Troll version
Also of note: Wretches, Hag/Troll hybrids
Wouldn't mind a video on the midnight realm and nightwalkers, if theres any lore of them at all.