Two-headed troll
T two-headed troll 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 12 |
| Attacks |
Claw 1d6, Claw 1d6, Bite 1d10, Bite 1d10 |
| Base level | 10 |
| Base experience | 211 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | 8 |
| Base MR | 0 |
| Alignment | -3 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 1200 |
| Nutritional value | 300 |
| Size | Large |
| Resistances | None |
| Resistances conveyed |
None |
|
A two-headed troll:
| |
| Reference | SLASH'EM_0.0.7E7F2/monst.c#line3154 |
A two-headed troll, T, is a type of monster that appears in SLASH'EM, SlashTHEM and Hack'EM. It is somewhat stronger than a normal troll, and can revive from its corpse like all trolls.
A two-headed troll has two claw attacks and two bite attacks, owing the latter attacks to its second head. In SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM, two-headed trolls hit as a +2 weapon.
Tame two-headed trolls may turn traitor.
Generation
Randomly generated two-headed trolls are always generated hostile. Two-headed trolls do not generate in Gehennom.
Two-headed 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]
Grund's Stronghold has a 2⁄5 chance of generating a two-headed troll at level creation.
Two-headed trolls can generate among the random T that are part of the second quest monster class for Barbarians, and make up 6⁄175 of the monsters that randomly generate on the Barbarian quest.
A two-headed troll has a 1⁄2 chance of being generated with a ranseur, partisan, glaive, or spetum, with an equal probability of each polearm.[2]
Strategy
Though a two-headed troll has worse AC than most other trolls and its attacks are individually slightly weaker than the base troll, they still move at the same speed as an unhasted and unburdened character, and the extra bite attack gives it a higher damage range that makes it more dangerous to fight in melee. Damage reduction from negative AC can make their attacks much easier to weather - much of the same strategies that apply to other trolls also apply here, including disposing of a two-headed troll corpse.
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 even 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.
Dungeons & Dragons introduces giant two-headed trolls, also known as "fell trolls", in the 1981 Fiend Folio for the 1st edition. Fell trolls are believed to be a cross-breed between troll and ettin, and are one of the larges types of troll in the setting, standing taller than most hill giants at 15 feet (4.6 meters). A fell troll's two heads makes the use of spells that are mind-affecting or otherwise intended to deceive difficult, and they possess the same regenerative abilities as other trolls; in earlier editions, their ability to regenerate is somewhat weaker, and they cannot reattach lost limbs.
The second chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien novel The Hobbit has a character comment on trolls as being slovenly and lacking table manners, "even those with only one head each", implying that the trolls of that world are often two-headed.
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.
