Big single foes in combat

[Falenthal]

How do you handle fights against single big foes, like a lonely Troll or Marsh Ogre.
I've had this kind of combat twice in my campaign, and both times the brutes did fall down without inflicting great damage. The heroes went into defensive stance, where the creatures had a hard time hitting them.
On the other hand, the heroes outnumbered the creature, so that with 3 or 4 rolls per turn, it was easier for them to roll a Gandalf (or simply hit), which also meant getting an Edge.
And, from what I've seen, a Troll's armor is not so great as to have an easy time agains an Axe, for example.

The worst example happened last session: in Those Who Tarry No Longer there's a combat in an arena of one hero against a single Hill-troll. The woodman in the group had to fight him and I can tell you he's not the best warrior in the group. He just had an axe and a buckler. By stepping into Defensive stance he avoided turn after turn almost every attack by the Troll (Wits 6 +1 for the buckler). He did roll some great numbers (with two 6s three times), but remember that as a Woodman he only had a Body of 3, so his damage wasn't as great as could be.

Midcombat I even had the idea of using the orcs around the arena to force him into Open or Forward position (he was killing the Troll without receiving a single blow!). Even then, he managed to kill the Troll (0 Hit Points and a Wound) without getting too hurt himself. And the combat was long, so that a few good rolls here and there didn't change the outcome at all. The troll rolled average, but that wasn't near enough to hit the hero.

We saw it as an heroic feat, but I feel that the Troll was simply weaker than it should be.

What are your experiences with Trolls and such against your heroes?

[Elfhelm]

It seems you must have done something wrong. Hill trolls have 3 attack dice, which means they have an average roll of about 15. The woodman had TN19 in defensive position, so perhaps 1/3 of the troll's attack should have hit. Also, one hit from the heavy hammer is usually 8-15 damage, (or even 22 in a single blow) so no more than 2 och 3 hits would have brought the woodman down, and he would have benn weary after the 2nd hit. Not to mention the risk of the troll scoring a piercing blow (1 in 12)

[Glorelendil]

Also enemies tend to have at least 1 favored weapon, so you automatically add his attribute level to his attack roll result using that favored weapon. That plus the 3 dices a Troll roll, you should have been able to hit at leat once a 19 TN, unless your very unlucky.

Not Hill trolls, though.

[Fenton Hardy]

I could not tell from your description of the combat, but did you make use of the Troll's special abilities Great Size, Hideous Toughness and Strike Fear?

[Deadmanwalking]

Well first, Hill Trolls are also one of the two weakest varieties of 'Big Single Foes' along with rock Trolls. Everything else that fits that criteria tends to be tougher.

And even then...what axe skill did the Woodman have that he was hitting TN 17 something like 4 times as often as the Troll was hitting a 19? Because a Hill Troll has 84 Endurance and triple the max a Woodman can have, and a Parry of 5. Actually, with Hideous Toughness adding an effective 49 more Endurance ...it's more like 4 or five times the Endurance.

That math just doesn't work out unless the Woodman had an Axe skill much higher than the Troll's weapon skill or got ridiculously lucky.

I mean...the Woodman needs to inflict over 100 Endurance and a Wound in the same time the Troll needs to inflict, what, 27 Endurance? And the Woodman's TN is only 2 point lower. So...4 times as much damage plus a Wound.

That's...not a pretty fight, and if your Woodman won, well, he got lucky as all hell or was, in fact, really skilled.

[Falenthal]

Glups... after reading your comments (thanks for taking the time to answer!), I noticed some differences between the stats and abilities of the troll you mentioned and the ones I used. Puzzled by that, I took a look at the notes of the troll I had and at those of the Revised Book... and I saw that "my troll" was weaker than the one in the rules. And then, in an insight, I flipped pages to see the troll that appears in The Marsh Bell: this weakened troll was the one that I was using!

The woodman still can say that he fought like a hero (this troll had Horrible Strenght, which resulted in some nasty blows!), but nonetheless it wasn't a normal troll.

I'll have to give the Shadow forces a second round for revenge, now without a weakened adversary.

[Glorelendil]

Maybe it was actually a Huorn, which might explain the Woodman's deadly effectiveness.

[Falenthal]

Maybe it was actually a Huorn, which might explain the Woodman's deadly effectiveness.

As always, Glorelendil, you got it right!