Monster: Hearth Troll

You can now support Shaper Of Worlds on Patreon.

Troll, Hearth
A small, warty, ugly, hunched figure wearing rags.

CR 3; XP 800
LE Small Humanoid (giant)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +8

Defense
AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +2 natural, +1 size)
hp 30 (4d8+12); regeneration 2 (acid, cold, electricity, sonic)
Fort +7, Ref +3, Will +2

Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +6 (1d3+2), bite +6 (1d3+2)

Statistics
Str 14, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 13, Cha 7
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 16
Feats Dirty Fighting, Improved Initiative
Skills Climb +6, Disable Device +7, Knowledge (local) +5, Perception +8, Sleight Of Hand +8, Stealth +10
Language Common, Giant, Goblin
SQ knave

Ecology
Environment any urban
Organization solitary, pair, or family/gang (3–6)
Treasure standard

Knave (Ex) Hearth trolls are cunning scoundrels, treating Disable Device, Knowledge (local), Perception, Sleight Of Hand, and Stealth as their class skills.


Hearth trolls are a tribe of pygmy trolls that adapted to living in cities, scrounging through refuse, hunting vermin, and occasionally even trading goods and services with their urban hosts. As they lived in cities, their cunning and intellect grew, and as their stature diminished, their trollish hunger diminished. It is uncertain if they lost their sensitivity to fire because of living in cities, or if they were able to live in cities along other humanoids because of their lack of fire vulnerability—but they might also have been driven to urban areas while seeking refuge from thunders and lighting, truly lethal to them.

Hearth trolls are smart, usually callous but obsessed about deals and keeping the word—and they will wreck terrible, malicious, and cruel vengeance on those who break word given to them. They have much less regard for statutory laws, except for those they swore to upheld. Some legends imply that hearth trolls' obsession about keeping word is result of their bargain with some entity or a force that took away their sensitivity to fire.

Many hearth trolls practice urban magic, primitive occult rituals that attract or banish vermin, and may influence the events taking place in the city to a certain degree.