Tomb troll
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Shorter than the common troll, but no less ugly, the tomb troll is squat and covered in a mottled and oily albino skin. Bare but for patches of lanky yellow strands of hair that cover the back, chest and arms of the troll, the tomb troll has adapted to a world far from the sun -- the darkness of crypts, the source of her favorite food. Fat, pointed ears extend from the side of her head, framing larger than normal silver eyes with horizontal slits set above a maw full of jagged teeth.
Hunting strategies
The tomb troll will take double damage when hit by fire based spells or weapon flares. In addition, the tomb troll has the regenerative ability, as most trolls (self-healing, similar to empath spells). If the tomb troll is hit by fire, this will prevent the trolls regenerative capabilities for approximately two minutes. Stunning a tomb troll will not prevent its regenerative ability as it will with most lower level trolls.
Shield Bash
The tomb troll carries a pitted wooden shield covered in rusty black iron spikes, which has spikes that activate when the tomb troll uses the Shield Bash combat maneuver.
A tomb troll lunges forward at you with her wooden shield and attempts a shield bash!
[Roll result: 134 (open d100: 43)]
A tomb troll lashes at you with a mediocre shield bash, but you manage to partially avoid it.
... 5 points of damage!
Blow leaves an imprint on your chest!
** A spike on the tomb troll's wooden shield jabs into you! **
... 10 points of damage!
Strike pierces upper arm!
Roundtime: 8 sec.
Although little more than a nuisance to squares of larger races, this attack is frequently deadly for pures of smaller races. These two extremes result from typical differences in the cost of training Combat Maneuvers as well as the fact that the power and success of shield bash considers the relative size of the attacker compared with the target. Keep in mind trolls are not shy about this attack, and may execute it even on a character quickly passing by the troll, or as their first attack upon entering an area.
Cannibalism
Tomb trolls will sometimes eat other creatures in the area that have been killed, including other tomb trolls. This does not prevent the dead body from being skinned or searched, but it does regenerate their HP's if they are missing any (this is separate from their normal regenerative abilities). Searching your kills quickly will prevent them from doing this, though if you rely mostly on crit kills it may be to your advantage to leave the bodies laying around to distract the trolls.
Sorcerers
Owing to the strong potential threat of shield bash and the regenerative properties of trolls, successfully hunting these creatures requires a little consideration. Upon facing the troll, a shot of Mind Jolt (706) or Grasp of the Grave (709) is a good idea to prevent them from using their shield bash maneuver. The first actual attack should be one to prevent the troll's natural regeneration, either Fire Spirit (111) or Dark Catalyst (719); as the trolls are considered non-magical, they are not canonically a good target for Dark Catalyst, but it serves as a means to deal fire damage via a warding check rather than as a bolt if one prefers. Since the troll is prevented temporarily from regeneration, Limb Disruption (708) on the troll's left arm entirely prevents it from executing a shield bash (which may be unnecessary if Mind Jolt was used and had a sizable warding). At this stage, a lot of mana was expended to successfully disable the troll, so a few shots of Mana Disruption (702) can finish the job at the least additional cost, without concern that it takes some time. While the above methodology may not be the fastest nor the cheapest manner for combating tomb trolls, it is extremely consistent in the results: the troll dies and the player remains unharmed.
Alternatively, since they're the easiest critter to both ward and stun in the dungeon of the Keep, a much more mana efficient way of dealing with tomb trolls is to hit them with a combination of Mind Jolt (706) and either Energy Maelstrom (710) or Torment (718) and allowing the second spell to take them out while dealing with any other critters that are in the room. It's unnecessary to use fire on the trolls first since both of these spells will usually be able to get the job done with critical damage rather then attrition.
Other information
Upon a successful hit, the tomb troll can disease its opponent.
If one has a culling task, the fact that tomb troll necromancers reanimate can be used to advantage. One receives a kill credit both for the initial kill and an additional credit for killing the subsequent animated tomb troll. This can reduce by up to a factor of two the number of tomb trolls one needs to find in order to complete a culling task, which is useful since a total of four creatures spawn in the Marsh Keep.
Messaging
References
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