Trolls biting

[davecake]

How much damage does a trolls bite attack do? Are there any rules covering it somewhere?

[Mirza]

Sea Trolls bite at 65% skill at SR 9 for 2d8+2d6 damage in the Glorantha Bestiary. So 2d8 (crushing damage?) at SR 6 before Dex and Siz SR are added on as an "unarmed" weapon (base 25% skill) seems to be the norm for a trolls bite.

I assume that the reason it's left off the Dark Troll and other non-Sea Troll stat blocks is just because they're better armed, and thus far less likely to use their jaws as weapons, compared to the unarmed Sea Troll.

Also keep in mind that Sea Trolls are a bit stronger and much bigger than a typical Dark Troll, so that 2d6 strength and size bonus should come down for them.

[davecake]

If normal trolls could do 2d8 with their bite, they would not, in fact, be better armed using anything less than a Maul. 

[Lordabdul]

I imagine that Sea Trolls have razor sharp teeth to help catch and eat sea creatures (like a shark's teeth). Land-dwelling trolls would have blunter teeth, like that of wolves or other such predators. Telmori in wolf form, bears, and dogs give 1D8+Db in bite damage so I would go with that.

[French Desperate WindChild]

1 hour ago, davecake said:

If normal trolls could do 2d8 with their bite, they would not, in fact, be better armed using anything less than a Maul. 

There is an issue to use bite and not external (?!) weapon.

You have a greater risk to be wounded : a good parry from your opponent, and you can no more eat flesh or stone or... What a pity !

Don't remember you are less armored too (no sire, you cannot use full helmelt )

[gochie]

Bite damage seems to depend on the size of the beast/mouth/teeth.

I would probably go with 1D6 or 1D8.

[Joerg]

7 hours ago, lordabdul said:

I imagine that Sea Trolls have razor sharp teeth to help catch and eat sea creatures (like a shark's teeth).

I would rather suspect that they use the tactic of gulping down lots of water, washing in their smaller prey. For larger prey, their dentition resembles that of Polar Bears, except for the stone-crushing molars.

 

7 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Land-dwelling trolls would have blunter teeth, like that of wolves or other such predators. Telmori in wolf form, bears, and dogs give 1D8+Db in bite damage so I would go with that.

Yes, go with a bear of similar size. Note that trollkin (who regularly chew rock) should have quite the nasty bite. Especially those trained to tunnel. Swarming trollkin may attack to grapple, then to bite. And I would give them a STR bonus for calculating bite damage.

[dumuzid]

I've been thinking about this a bit myself, and given the skull similarities I agree with giving dark trolls the same bite damage as an equivalently-sized bear or other large omnivorous mammal

Edited June 2, 2020 by dumuzid

[John1000]

I think in the original Trollpak it mentions Dark Trolls bite as doing d6, but they don't use it to attack, unless things are desperate. Probably because to a troll, risking damaging how you eat is a terrible thought.
I pulled out my copy of Trollpak, but haven't found it yet. It's to easy to get distracted by how awesome it is as a suppliment.

[Lordabdul]

9 hours ago, John1000 said:

I think in the original Trollpak it mentions Dark Trolls bite as doing d6

You might be remembering the special Rune Magic spells that let troll Rune Priests/Rune Lords turn their head into a giant Spider/Beetle/Grasshopper head (from the Aranea and Gorakkiki cult write-ups). These spells give temporary head armour points and give a 1D6 damage bit attack.

Searching for "bite" in the Trollpak PDFs, I can also find some nasty new troll types like the Midget-Slashers who get a whooping 3D6 bite attack (that's without any damage bonus, because they get 0 Db as they're average-human size, so that's 3D6 worth of pure teeth ugliness). Interestingly enough, the Sea Trolls in there only get a 1D6+2D6 Bite attack damage. Some Troll NPCs get a bite attack in their stat blocks and as far as I can tell it's set to 1D4+Db (including one NPC which I think has an error in its stat block on that front, but I'm not sure).

Edited June 3, 2020 by lordabdul

[soltakss]

RQ Classic Trollpak has the following:

• Spider Bite does 1D6 base damage, Transform Head from Gorakiki Beetle and Gorakiki Locust does 2D6 base damage.
• Midget Slashers: Bite of 3D6 
• Sea Trolls: Bite of 1D6 + DB 

RQ2 Rulebook doesn't have a Bite attack for Trollkin, Dark Trolls, Cave Trolls, Great Trolls or Mistress Race Trolls and does not have a generic Bite damage. I seem to remember it being written down as 1D3, somewhere, but can't remember where.

RQ3 Glorantha Bestiary has Sea Trolls with a Bite of 1D10 + DB.

The Gloranthan Bestiary has Sea Trolls with a Bite of 2D8+DB, which I think is a misprint, 1D8 sounds more reasonable.

 

[John1000]

Finally found it in the AH Trollpak. It's in the Dark Troll stat block in Book of Uz. 20% starting chance, d6+DB damage. With wonderful quote of "rarely used in combat. but occasionally significant" 

 

[Brootse]

8 hours ago, John1000 said:

Finally found it in the AH Trollpak. It's in the Dark Troll stat block in Book of Uz. 20% starting chance, d6+DB damage. With wonderful quote of "rarely used in combat. but occasionally significant" 

 

One of my players has used it with great effect. I've required that you need to be wrestling to use it. Same goes for the baboons.

[Lordabdul]

5 hours ago, Brootse said:

One of my players has used it with great effect. I've required that you need to be wrestling to use it. Same goes for the baboons.

That's actually a great rule, to require grappling first. I'll use that!