Troll
T troll 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 9 |
| Attacks |
Weapon 4d2, claw 4d2, bite 2d6 |
| Base level | 7 |
| Base experience | 97 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 4 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | −3 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 2 (Quite rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 800 |
| Nutritional value | 350 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed | None |
|
A troll:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line1798 |
- For the monster class, see Troll (monster class).
A troll, T, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is the most basic type of troll and generally the first that you will encounter. A troll has enhanced regeneration and will follow you to other levels if adjacent, and can often revive from its corpse when killed.
A troll has a weapon attack, a claw attack, and a bite attack.
Contents
Generation
Randomly generated trolls are always generated hostile.
Trolls may appear among the hostile T that generate in throne rooms, as well the monsters randomly generated by looting a throne while confused and carrying gold (provided there is no chest on the level).[1]
Trolls are the second quest monster for Barbarians, and make up 24⁄175 of the monsters that randomly generate on the Barbarian quest - they can also generate among the random T that are part of the second quest monster class and make up 6⁄175 of the monsters that are randomly generated there.
The Wizard of Yendor may create a clone of himself in the guise of a troll via the Double Trouble monster spell.[2]
Trolls have a 1⁄2 chance of being generated with a ranseur, partisan, glaive, or spetum, with an equal probability of each polearm.[3]
Strategy
Trolls hit hard, move as fast as an unhasted unburdened player, and will often need to be fought multiple times before they are fully defeated. However, they have no elemental resistances or MR score to speak of, making them vulnerable to many type of magical attacks including sleep or slowing.
While a player may be capable of fighting a troll once or twice, repeated fights can whittle down your HP over time if the troll revives quickly enough, and it is risky to rely on a troll simply failing to revive eventually. To get rid of them permanently, you can eat them (though they may still revive as you are doing so), throw them into water or lava, or turn them to stone. You can also lure them to the Rogue level, where corpses do not drop, as they can follow you up or down stairs. A meat-eating pet or a tinning kit will reliably dispose of a troll corpse, and you can also lug the corpse to a nearby container that you can lock it in.
History
The troll first appears in Hack 1.21 and Hack for PDP-11, both based on Jay Fenlason's Hack, and is included in the initial bestiary for Hack 1.0.
Origin
A troll is a being that appears in Norse mythology and later Scandinavian folklore. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rock, mountains, or caves, living together in small family units, and were rarely helpful to human beings - the Old Norse nouns troll and trǫll are variously used to mean "fiend", "demon", "werewolf", and "jötunn". The trolls of NetHack are derived from Dungeons & Dragons, whose portrayal of them is partly inspired by Poul Anderson novel Three Hearts and Three Lions.
D&D trolls are typically nine feet tall on average, with rubbery green or gray hide, gaunt and deceptively-thin builds, and long arms that drag across the ground and dangle when running. A troll's hunched posture and uneven gait masks great physical strength and agility: they are fearless fighters that attack relentlessly with their claws and teeth, rarely using weapons, and have the ability to rapidly heal wounds and even animate disembodied parts of themselves, as well as a weakness to fire. Trolls hunt most other living creatures for prey and have no natural predators, though they respect groups that are known to wield fire - both fire and acid were the only ways of counteracting a troll's regenerative abilities.
Variants
SLASH'EM
In SLASH'EM, trolls hit as a +1 weapon, and tame trolls may turn traitor.
Grund's Stronghold has a 4⁄5 chance of generating a troll at level creation.
dNetHack
In dNetHack, two trolls are generated in the forested area on the Ancient Temple level of the Chaos Temple Quest at level creation.
Trolls may appear in the court of a throne room ruled by an ogre king.
TNNT (the game)
In TNNT (the game), the DevTeam Office has a 1⁄5 chance of generating a peaceful troll named MR SHOUTY at level creation.
Encyclopedia entry
The troll shambled closer. He was perhaps eight feet tall,
perhaps more. His forward stoop, with arms dangling past
thick claw-footed legs to the ground, made it hard to tell.
The hairless green skin moved upon his body. His head was a
gash of a mouth, a yard-long nose, and two eyes which drank
the feeble torchlight and never gave back a gleam.
[...]
Like a huge green spider, the troll's severed hand ran on its
fingers. Across the mounded floor, up onto a log with one
taloned forefinger to hook it over the bark, down again it
scrambled, until it found the cut wrist. And there it grew
fast. The troll's smashed head seethed and knit together.
He clambered back on his feet and grinned at them. The
waning faggot cast red light over his fangs.
