COOPERS COMPENDIUM

OF
CORRECTED CREA
TURES
REATURES
TROLL HUNTER AND OWL ANIMAL COMP
ANION
OMPANION

By John Cooper and the Skirmisher Game Development Group

For
ewor
d by Shane O Connor
orewor
eword

Cooper s Compendium of Corrected Creatures

COOPERS COMPENDIUM
OF
CORRECTED CREA
TURES
REATURES
TROLL HUNTER AND OWL ANIMAL COMP
ANION
OMPANION
By John Cooper and the Skirmisher Game Development Group

Skirmisher Publishing LLC

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Troll Hunter and Owl Animal Companion

Cooper s Compendium of Corrected Creatures

Foreword
The devil is in the details, someone once said.
While its unlikely that the person who said it played 3.5, they might as well have. After all, as any 3.5
Game Master will tell you, its a system thats all about the details, and nowhere is this more true than with
the games monsters. Just pick any monster in the SRD and take a look: from skill ranks to save bonuses, even
the simplest of creatures has an impressive arrangement of interrelated stats, all carefully crafted to faultlessness right?
Well, as it turns out, no. Looking through the Monsters section of the SRD with a close eye will turn up
numerous errors throughout the various creature entries. While none of them are game-breaking, it is distressing to know that incorrect material could affect the course of your game. Even the official errata doesnt
help much. After all, its burdensome to consult a separate collection of fixes, just to be safe, every time you
use a monster. Even worse, the errata overlooks a significant number of errors. What is needed is a complete
overhaul of all the monsters in the SRD, deconstructing and examining each and every single stat block,
fixing any errors found along the way. But who, you ask, would ever undertake such a herculean effort?
Enter John Cooper.
Having made a name for himself reviewing various third-party products and inexorably ferreting out
errors in their stat blocks, John has turned his unflinching gaze to the core monsters of the SRD. The series of
which this book is a part is the result. Here, you will find the monsters you have been playing with all this
time, meticulously combed over and, where necessary, corrected. Some of the changes are small (just what
is the correct Survival bonus for an allip?). Others are large (the retriever demon has way too many hit
points!). Some have been incorporated from the official errata (mariliths cant polymorph). And others are
fixed here for the first time (the hound archon heros CR). Even if you think many of these fixes are nothing
more than minute, superfluous details, now you will have them on hand for that unexpected instance when
you need them. After all, an athachs Jump skill bonus doesnt seem very important until you have one
leap out at your player characters!
The SRD has been reprinted and reproduced many times since its inception, but only in Coopers Compendium of Corrected Creatures will you find its monsters checked and corrected to perfection. After all, the
devil may be in the details, but now John Cooper has fixed the details in the devils and demons, aboleths,
couatls, and more.

Shane OConnor
OConnor,, July 2009

Troll Hunter and Owl Animal Companion

Introduction
For the benefit of those who have not yet heard of me, my name is John Cooper, and I am an EN World staff
reviewer. Each of the staff reviewers brings his own perspective when looking at RPG products; one of my
particular strengths has been an eye for detail when it comes to the correct application of the 3.5 SRD rules
to creature stat blocks. Over the years, Ive made something of a name for myself as the nit-picky stat block
guy, and in fact I usually include an unofficial errata section to my reviews of those products that have
stats included in them, including my suggestions on how to correct the stat blocks so as to conform to the 3.5
rules. Ive always believed that one of the many strengths of the 3.5 rules set is the standardized way the stat
block components all work together, and it has always irritated me to no end when the rules are overlooked
and a stat block gets published riddled with errors.
Unfortunately, not all products with incorrect SRD creature stats are necessarily the fault of the publisher
of that work, as the SRD itself is riddled with errors. Publishers use the SRD in good faith, never suspecting
that in many cases they are just promulgating the same errors over and over again.
Well, lets try to put an end to that, shall we?
This product is the fourth in a series of four PDFs in which I go through each of the monsters in the SRD,
finding and correcting any such errors. If you are a publisher of 3.5 material, I trust you will find these
corrected monster stats a big help in your quest to put out the best possible product. If you are just a DM
interested in making your game run that much more efficiently, then this product should likewise prove to be
beneficial.
Throughout the work, I have added Coopers Comments sidebars explaining exactly what it was that I
changed in a particular stat block, so you can be aware of the original errors in the stats and the steps I took
in correcting them. After all, in some cases most arguably in skill point allocation there is not really just
one right way to fix a given error, and you may very well feel that the solution I have provided is not the one
you would have chosen. By pinpointing the changes Ive made, it makes it that much easier for you to make
your own alterations to the monster stats in the areas where they need to be fixed. I also use these sidebars
to point out some areas where the specific choices you make may end up changing a particular stat block.
This is most often a situation where a creature has a generic skill like Knowledge (any) or Craft
(any) that, when the specifics are chosen, might provide synergy bonuses to related skills.
Besides the corrections to the stat blocks in the SRD, I also took the liberty of cleaning up some of the
verbiage, correcting the occasional punctuation mistake, and fixing typographical errors. When necessary, I
reworded a few sections to make them more user-friendly. Finally, in a couple of instances here and there, I
went ahead and built a separate stat block for a variant creature described in a monsters entry, so those of
you interested in using these variants have the work all done for you. (Here Im talking about such things as
the Bactrian camel and Indian elephant; sahuagin mutants and malenti; the juvenile bronze dragon mounts
serving hound archon heroes; noble djinn; all subraces of dwarves, elves, gnomes, and orcs; stone giant
elders; pyrohydras and cryohydras; and the aquatic versions of the gargoyle, ghoul, ogre, and troll. I also took
the liberty of splitting all of the monstrous spiders into hunting and web-spinning varieties, and giving
separate stat blocks for each.)
I hope you enjoy this series of products. And be on the lookout for possible additional products along the
same lines.

John Cooper
Cooper,, July 2009

Cooper s Compendium of Corrected Creatures

TROLL HUN
TER , 6TH-LEVEL RANGER
HUNTER
Hit Dice:
Initiative:
Speed:
Armor Class:
Base Attack/ Grapple:
Attack:
Full Attack:

Space/Reach:
Special Attacks:
Special Qualities:
Saves:
Abilities:
Skills:
Feats:
Environment:
Organization:
Challenge Rating:
Treasur
e:
easure:
Alignment:
Advancement:
Level Adjustment:

Large Giant
6d8+6d8+72 (126 hp)
+1
30 ft. (6 squares)
21 (1 size, +1 Dex, +6 natural, +5 +1 chain shirt), touch 10, flat-footed 20
+10/+21
Claw +16 melee (1d6+7) or +1 battleaxe +17 melee (2d6+8/3)
or javelin +10 ranged (1d8+7)
2 claws +16 melee (1d6+7) and bite +11 melee (1d6+3);
or +1 battleaxe +17/+12 melee (2d6+8/3) and claw +12 melee (1d6+3)
and bite +12 (1d6+3); or javelin +10 ranged (1d8+7)
10 ft./10 ft.
Rend 2d6+10, spells
Animal companion, darkvision 90 ft., favored enemy elves (+4),
favored enemy humans (+2), low-light vision, regeneration 5, scent, wild empathy
Fort +16, Ref +8, Will +8
Str 25, Dex 12, Con 22, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 10
Knowledge (dungeoneering) +6, Knowledge (nature) +8, Listen +13, Move Silently +9,
Search +6, Spot +13, Survival +11 (+13 above- or underground and following tracks)
Alertness, Cleave, EnduranceB, Improved Natural Armor, Improved Two-Weapon
FightingB, Iron Will, Power Attack, TrackB, Two-Weapon FightingB
Cold mountains
Solitary
11
Standard
Usually chaotic evil

+5

Trolls walk upright but hunched forward with sagging shoulders. Their gait is uneven, and when they run,
their arms dangle and drag along the ground. For all this seeming awkwardness, trolls are very agile.
A typical adult troll stands 9 feet tall and weighs 500 pounds. Females are slightly larger than males. A
trolls rubbery hide is moss green, mottled green and gray, or putrid gray. The hair is usually greenish black
or iron gray. Trolls speak Giant.

COMBA
T
COMBAT
Trolls have no fear of death: They launch themselves into combat without hesitation, flailing wildly at the
closest opponent. Even when confronted with fire, they try to get around the flames and attack.
Rend (Ex): If a troll hits with both claw attacks, it latches onto the opponents body and tears the flesh.
This attack automatically deals an additional 2d6+9 points of damage.
Regeneration (Ex): Fire and acid deal normal damage to a troll. If a troll loses a limb or body part, the lost
portion regrows in 3d6 minutes. The creature can reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump.

TROLL HUNTER
Some trolls, more cunning than most, are not satisfied with merely eating civilized beings but train to hunt
them relentlessly. These troll hunters are fearsome rangers who focus on slaying and devouring humanoid prey.

COMBA
T
COMBAT
A troll hunter makes full use of its scent ability to track its favored enemies and generally prefers to hunt in
darkness. The troll hunter uses its limited repertoire of spells to protect itself from damaging forms of energy
and to immobilize enemies.
Typical Ranger Spells Prepared (2; save DC 12 + spell level): 1stentangle, resist energy.

Troll Hunter and Owl Animal Companion

Cooper s Comments
I dropped the troll hunters average hit points by 4, as it looks like it was originally given maximum hit
points for its first level in ranger which it shouldnt get, as it already had 6 HD at that point as a
standard troll. I also added animal companion to its special qualities, as this is a class ability it gains
from its levels as a ranger. Finally, I added in the +2 synergy bonus to Knowledge (nature) it earned by
having 5 or more ranks in Survival.

OWL ANIMAL COMP

ANION
COMPANION
Hit Dice:
Initiative:
Speed:
Armor Class:
Base Attack/Grapple:
Attack:
Full Attack:
Space/Reach:
Special Attacks:
Special Qualities:
Saves:
Abilities:
Skills:
Feats:
Environment:
Organization:
Challenge Rating:
Treasur
e:
easure:
Alignment:
Advancement:
Level Adjustment:

Tiny Magical Beast (Augmented Animal)

3d8 (13 hp)
+8
10 ft. (2 squares), fly 40 ft. (average)
20 (+2 size, +4 Dex, +4 natural), touch 16, flat-footed 16
+2/-9
Talons +7 melee (1d43)
Talons +7 melee (1d43)
2-1/2 ft./0 ft.

Evasion, link, low-light vision, share spells

Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +3
Str 5, Dex 18, Con 10, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 4
Listen +15, Move Silently +17, Spot +7*
Alertness, Improved Initiative, Weapon FinesseB
Temperate forests
Solitary

None
Always neutral
4-7 HD (Small)

The troll hunters owl animal companion is a nocturnal bird of prey about 2 feet long, with a wingspan of 6
feet. It combines both talons into a single attack.

COMBA
T
COMBAT
Owls swoop quietly down onto prey, attacking with their powerful talons.
Skills: Owls have a +8 racial bonus on Listen checks and a +14 racial bonus on Move Silently checks.
*They have a +8 racial bonus on Spot checks in areas of shadowy illumination.
Bonus T
ricks: Heel, seek.
Tricks:

Cooper s Comments
I decided to go with an owl as the troll hunters animal companion for a very good reason: with its flight
ability, it stands the best chance of actually staying alive on those instances when the trolls hunger
overrides its desire for companionship! It can also serve as a very effective airborne scout for its master.
All of the changes to the owls stats are the result of applying the upgrades an animal companion
gets (as described in the druids section of the Players Handbook). When it came time to decide on how
to spend its two extra skill points (the result of its bonus 2 HD), I put a point each into Listen and Spot,
and chose Improved Initiative as its 3rd-level feat.

Cooper s Compendium of Corrected Creatures

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