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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

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Troll, Tombstone

Sometimes, when a troll is regenerating from life-threatening wounds inflicted by necromancy or negative energy, the vile energy takes hold in the troll's supernaturally resilient regeneration. The force that should have killed the troll instead becomes a part of the troll's strange physiology. These trolls are not undead, but the force inside them eats at their bodies and souls, turning them into shrunken mockeries of their former selves. These so-called “tombstone trolls” resemble withered, diminutive trolls, bloated with starvation and obviously sickly. Their teeth, hair, and fingernails rot, fall out, and regenerate every few days in an endless cycle that is both painful to experience and sickening to see.

Other trolls shun and despise tombstone trolls, who earn their name from their habit of digging up graves in their search for an easy meal that can't fight back. Tombstone trolls shun confrontation of any kind, especially in areas where their grave-robbing might put them at odds with powerful undead. They often lair underground, safe in their graveyard burrows for days at a time, gradually tunneling through the earth to devour nearby corpses. If the tombstone troll is clever, the surface might not bear any evidence of their presence except for a few divots or soft spots in the soil. Once a tombstone troll has run out of easy pickings in a cemetery, it moves on in the dead of night to find a new hunting ground. If their travel is lengthy or difficult, their hunger might drive them to attack the living.

Unspecific Lore: DC 15
Specific Lore: DC 12

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

Changes from being Weak are marked in red below.
NOTE: The -2 damage penalty to non-strike offensive abilities (-4 if the ability is limited, such as spells) is NOT factored in.

Weak Tombstone TrollCreature -1

Legacy Content

Uncommon CE Small Giant Troll 
Source Pathfinder #181: Zombie Feast pg. 88
Perception +7; darkvision
Languages Jotun
Skills Athletics +5, Stealth +5
Str +3, Dex +2, Con +1, Int -3, Wis +0, Cha -2
AC 11; Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +3
HP 15, regeneration 5 (deactivated by acid, fire, or positive)
Immunities negative Weaknesses fire 5, positive 5Attack of Opportunity [reaction]
Speed 25 feet, burrow 5 feet
Melee [one-action] jaws +7 [+2/-3], Damage 1d6-2+3 piercingMelee [one-action] claw +7 [+3/-1] (agile), Damage 1d4-2+3 slashingDeath Feast [one-action] (manipulate) Requirements The troll's last action was a jaws Strike that damaged a living creature or a corpse; Effect The troll deals 1d6 bleed damage to the target as it swallows a mouthful of meat and converts it into negative energy. Its jaws and claw Strikes deal 1 additional negative damage for 1 minute or until it uses its Grave Breath, whichever comes first.Grave Breath [two-actions] (death, negative, occult) Requirements The troll is bloated with negative energy from a Death Feast; Effect The troll breathes a 15-foot cone of putrid, soul-chilling gas. Each living creature in the area takes 2d6 negative damage (DC 12 basic Fortitude save). On a failure, the creature also becomes sickened 1. The troll can't use Grave Breath until it uses Death Feast again.Rend [one-action] claw

Sidebar - Additional Lore Stolen Family

Other trolls who encounter tombstone trolls pity these creatures for mere moments before disgust takes over and they try to slaughter their sickly kin. Tombstone trolls breed by stealing infant trolls and nearly killing them, then exposing them to their grave breath, hoping that the energy might take root in their victims

All Monsters in "Troll"

NameLevel
Cavern Troll6
Frost Troll4
Jotund Troll15
Troll, Tombstone1
Troll5
Troll King10
Two-Headed Troll8

Troll

Source Bestiary pg. 314
Slavering, cruel, practically invincible brutes: this is the villager’s stock description for the dread monsters known as trolls. But words hardly do justice to trolls’ capacity for destruction. They are as bloodthirsty as orcs but lacking the discipline, as massive as giants but capable of regenerating wounded flesh in an instant, and as reprobate as ogres but with twice the strength. The only way to really understand the wanton violence of a troll is to experience it firsthand—a fate few would wish even upon their worst enemies.

The first thing that comes to mind when most think of trolls is the creatures’ power of bodily regeneration. So potent is this regeneration that the only way to overcome it is to exploit the troll’s vulnerability to acid and fire. It is not enough to slay the troll with caustic or flaming weapons, though—even the smallest scrap of a troll’s flesh can regenerate into a full-size troll given enough time. The only sure way to eradicate a troll menace is to burn the monster’s entire body until nothing remains.

Trolls are solitary hunters, for their wickedness is anathema even to other giants. They occasionally roam in small gangs of two to four, but only when prey is plentiful or a particularly strong counterforce has broached their hunting grounds. In rare instances, an old and powerful troll comes to lead small tribes of trolls. Such “troll kings” possess enough cunning to lead their hordes in devastating raids and massacres, and their presence permanently alters the surrounding ecosystem. A wide variety of trolls exist, from the terrible monster traditionally associated with the name to the water-dwelling scrag and hybrid flood troll. Regional variations exist as well—mountain trolls among stony peaks, for instance, or moss trolls in swampy bayous— but all share the same trademark regenerative powers and insatiable thirst for blood.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Troll Augurs

Particularly devout trolls, called augurs, claim to possess the so‑called “gift of sight,” which they believe was granted them by the demon lord Urxehl. Augurs practice a disturbing method of future‑telling, in which a troll slashes open its own abdomen and pulls out its entrails to interpret the prophecies in its quivering innards. Other cultists prod and agitate their gutted diviner to keep it conscious throughout the gruesome ordeal.

Sidebar - Treasure and Rewards Troll Blood

The blood of trolls is a valuable and difficult-to-procure substance of intense interest to alchemists, witches, and doctors the world over. Though initially it is of little interest other than its unnaturally vibrant hue, when processed correctly its applications are numerous. Experiments have produced oils that restore lost limbs, potions that grant the imbiber supernatural strength, and even smoke bombs that cause anyone caught in the haze to fly into an unstoppable rage.