I think it would be absolutely wonderful to change things up a little and have a slightly more intelligent and dignified tribe of kobalds worshipping an ancient gold dragon, for many generations, that were polite to invited guests. A kobald dignitary would greet the expected visitor at a designated entrance to the lair, and then guide them through the precise path so that they don't get killed by the traps. The guide making constant random gestures, while giving warnings of potential injuries during the walkthrough, would give a nice touch to the role-play. Even make their scales a bit more brownish gold, and dress them in little white tunics with gold threading and gold buckles.
I had a similar thought, however mine is an ancient red dragon who has selectively bred them to be larger, smarter and generally more useful. I figure a 1500 year old dragon could easily breed a whole new race if it had the desire especially with creatures that literally worship it and has a drive to protect the tribe, I imagine that between using magic to alter offspring in the egg, sterilizing undesirable offspring and maybe even crossing in true dragon genetics/ maybe dragon borne slaves you could make the perfect evil minions. Maybe over time their numbers build up to the point that their worship begins to elevate their dragon overlord into a demigod
Just had an awful vision of a bunch of kobolds upset because the master is asleep and won't wake up when they call. So they lure a group of adventurers in to see if that will work.
There were some really fun shenanigans one could do during character creation with Kobolds in 3.5. I had a Kobold monk with wings who went through the entire deflect missiles tree of feats. By the end of his career he could slap fireballs back at wizards, and knock boulders back at giants. Very fun.
In Dungeons & Dragons Online the lore behind Kobolds says that they came about because some dragon from the distant past was trying to hide from some enemy that was trying to track it down and kill it. To this end, the dragon polymorphed itself into a halfling and was living in some halfling community and fell in love with a female halfling.They mated and the resulting offspring was the first kobold.
I'm a huge fan of kobolds, mostly because of Deekin from Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark. So many possibilities for traps and underground societies. Great video for an often underrated monster
I also have a great love of Kobolds.. many the adventurer has rolled many dice to save vs Filth Fever at the hands, stakes, spears, darts, arrows and sess pits of these vicious little draconoids, infesting the dark caverns of my campaign worlds.
Those have probably been suggested somewhere in the comments already, but here are some kobold trap thoughts this video inspired. A tunnel section filled with flammable gas to basically explode on a spark. A tunnel section partially filled with a less dense than air toxic gas of some sort so as to hit everything in the face that is noticeably taller than a kobold. A part of the floor that is filled with a gelatinous cube with a bag of ash over it for a quick disguise. In the dark ppl see a kobold hop up and release a cloud of ash behind it, having PCs stumble intot he cube. And the simplest most often overlooked one (imho): Tunnels that suddenly get way too small for anything medium sized to more than crawl through while th ebolds enjoy full speed movement. Good luck nuking them in there, or cramming your half ork barbarian down those tunnels.
I love Kobalds due to the fact they are easily mutable when my bad guy wizards and death priests reach sufficient levels to experiment with them. They really gave me the opportunity to flesh out my specialist necromancer character,an anatomist/ vivisectionist/torturer I rolled up out of the Necromancers Guide!
It is theorized that the Germanic folklore concerning Kobolds has its origins in Indo-European lore that pre-dates ancient Rome, and that Kobolds were a form of guardian spirit of the homestead, possibly a dead ancestor, of which the Lares would become the closest Roman approximation. Later, they were believed to be akin to the northern Goblin or the Brownie of Britannia, who alternately resided in homes doing chores and guarding against intruders at night while the human inhabitants slept. Another version is the Tommyknocker (German: Wichlein), master miners who got their name by tapping with hammers and picks in the shafts to warn of an imminent mine collapse or deadly gas, that would often play pranks on the human workers, which were of course annoying but not deadly. The Klabautermann (I hope I spelled that right) was a Kobold who resided on sailing ships, cleaning and catching rats by night and warning sailors of storms or other misfortune by making himself visible to the captain. In some parts of Germany, Kobolds were the restless spirits of murdered children, commonly seen with a knife stuck in their back or waterlogged and leaving wet footprints as a result of murder by drowning. It is curious to note that as the D&D version of the Kobold was drastically changed from its ancient origins to become a reptilian creature, the folklore Kobold was believed to be able to assume the form of a candle, a fireball or ball of lightning, and as an animal such as a snake or other serpent.
Kobolds are also one of my favorite races in D&D. Both as opponents and playable race. Opponents because of them being masters of traps. Playable race because nobody takes them seriously at first. I had one player play a Kobold sorcerer with a black dragon theme. He used all acid based spells including an acid based fireball. (It did acidic damage instead of fire) All of his magic would come out like a breath weapon. He would go around saying, "I'm a dragon!" In a squeaky voice and belch acid at anyone that laughed at him. I had another player with a winged kobold druid. Actually she was a gold dragon wrought kobold. She leaned heavily into the spell casting of the class. She became a godlike force of nature. She could stop armies with entanglement spells. And I remember her rolling a critical hit to dissipate a powerful ghost with radiant damage.
I would imagine that a significant portion of the Kobolds in the Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Good, and Neutral Good alignments would be complete pessimists, even if they did have strong desires for good in the world. I can just imagine what they would say, " Well, there is no way I am going to make it. I can die from something as meager as a stubbed toe.", their humor could easily be dark, maybe with a mix of irony and sarcasm.
A human might think like that, but a Kobold has a draconic nature, they have an indefatigable, gutsy sense of confident caution and hey, it has been thousands of years and they are still going strong, so, though many shall die, some will always live, and those who do, are not the ones who spent their energy on making wise cracks, they are the ones who put 100% into being one step ahead of the next thing trying to murder them.
Well, they could still be quite determined and filled with perseverance while still sounding like a pessimist. I said that some of them would be pessimists but I did not say that they would be hopeless. You are right in saying that they are still quite tough.
Of course, with some of the unique races there are definitely some underlying themes which tend to influence the members of that particular race on a psychological scale. With the Warforged, it is identity, and with the Kobold, it is weakness. There would be many ways individual Kobolds to cope with this "weakness" either it be through vigorous compensation, humor, restless idealism, die-hard loyalty, or anything in between. I did not make a lot of things clear in my initial comment, so hopefully this should better convey my thoughts on the subject.
Anyone who thinks that kobolds are weak needs to read "Tucker's Kobolds", you can find it in dragon magazine #127 I think. These little bastards can be unforgiving to those that underestimate them.
I remember the first time I played a kobold. It was late in 2nd, so I played a Fighter/Thief and he was the “minion” of our party’s mage. It was a riot playing Runt. He kept a tally of the mages he sniped with his light crossbow and would routinely sneak into wizards’ towers to steal spellbooks for his master, sometimes actually managing to come back with one, instead of just a random book. The other players thought it was unfair that our mage took two shares of the treasure instead of me taking my share, so it was always fun listening to them try to explain how I was being mistreated.
You know, watching this, I realized that although you sort of alluded to the answer to this when you mentioned their god and its close relation to Tiamat, you didn't answer the rather important question of what Kobolds think of the good Metallic Dragons. I mean, if they really do worship Dragons as divine beings, but are pretty much wholly evil, well then that presents them with a bit of a problem in reconciling the fact that basically half of the worlds dragons are pretty much directly opposed to them in their world view. Although they may be listed as Lawful Evil in the Monster manual, I would think that it wouldn't be too inconceivable to have a tribe of them be good or at least neutral if they're worshiping one of the good-aligned Metallic Dragons as opposed to the Chromatic ones they're normally associated with.
Good question, I think this comes back to an issue with "Who is good to Who?", using Kobolds is an excellent example. A Lawful Evil kobold is more like a Lawful Neutral Kobold when in service to a Metallic Dragon, but still lawful evil to non dragonkind.. take humans and cats, for instance.. an owner will swear their cat is a sweet and lovely creature, the neighbor might think it is a bird murdering little monster. A Metallic dragon might feel the same way about its loveable little scamps, those devoted, sweet little kobolds who strive every day to serve their master with unwavering loyalty.. but, the Dragon has to watch them around strangers, because they might react poorly out of fear and ignorance, falling back on their more aggressive nature. In short, there is no need to alter Kobolds, they serve all dragons equally well, it is the perspectives of the adventurers and therefore the players, that makes it a very interesting situation.
That is what I went with when making my Kobold characters. They're from a tribe/community that worshipped a metallic. Usually my little kobolds were usually kicked out for one reason or another. One was a "special" case since they didn't come from any tribe.
I love love love kobolds they’re absolutely adorable and so hard to picture in a negative light despite their annoying nature. And I love the idea of a tribe of kobolds finding a good metallic dragon and fanatically worshipping it while it’s so confused about it because it doesn’t want slaves cuz that’s wrong but at the same time doesn’t want to cause them physical harm to chase them away which is the only way this particular group can be made to leave so it’s stuck with them and feels obligated to teach and mold them into honest living critters so it just puts up with it begrudgingly
I played Kobolds as a more dog/wolf like in first and second edition I did Not like the changes in later editions there were to many reptilian races they were a useful NPC pack willing to work for food as porters, teamsters, and guards. Granted a clan of Kobolds worshiping a dragon born PC would be funny .......
is it wrong I think these little bastards are cooler than dwarves? I make a point to always include kobolds in any fantasy rp and what not (albeit with minor edits to cultural structures if I'm the one actually controling them)
my favourite kobold was a pretty fun neutral good one; there'd been a prophecy of a powerful leader being born who would lead the tribe to 'take their rightful place' in the mid-sized city they lived below - he trained in their shamanic traditions when young & went on a vision quest that lasted longer than expected, eventually encountering a group of adventurers from the city above who were tracking down some nasty unnatural creatures he'd also seen signs of and decided to investigate. He had the paragon template (prophesied leader & all that) & was able to overcome them pretty easily but since he felt more curious about the surface races than particularly threatened by them he didn't use lethal force, just knocking them out, disarming them then patched them up and waited for them to regain consciousness so he could talk to them. One of the party was a bit of a fanatic about all the horrible things below the city & the kobold successfully counter-argued, with the agreement of the party's druid, that while a lot of it wasn't particularly pretty or nice by 'civilised' standards there was still a lot of perfectly natural stuff there too but yes, unnatural and dangerous things should indeed be dealt with so he joined up them to help in that mission & ended up working with them for a few years. He was inspired by the druid & the idea of such an intimate connection to nature & trained in the druidic traditions, though focussed mainly on his own preferences of the creatures found underground. On returning to his people, a powerful druid in his own right, he took his place as the leader of the tribe but instead of leading them to war as some of the elders had expected, ended up making a treaty with the officials in the city above, allowing his people rights in trade, mining etc. in return for managing the creatures underground & assisting if the city was ever threatened - thus fulfilling the prophecy of the tribe 'taking their place' in the city :)
this was useful as kobolds play an interesting roll in my campaign, as we have a home brewed world, where Dragonborn, kobolds, and several other groups of creatures where rounded up and forced to a mountain, where they now live in a massive city, relatively peacefully with the Dragonborn and so on, my friend played a pirate kobold in our campaign. named intermission. due to the home-brewed nature of this campaign(s) I am dm for the dragon city so this was useful in interactions of the players and npc. thanks, ~ps kobolds in our campaign are designed after geckoes and lizards, its helpful to have a campaign full of artists from time to time
LOL, laughing at your descriptions of all the Traps. By the way, have you by chance read the "Ren of Atikala" book series which feature kobolds as the main characters? They're good reads.
we recently had a group that contained two kobolds PCs. One of them had convinced himself he was Asmodeus reincarnated, and the player really leaned into that fanatical side of the kobold race. The funny thing was he knew nothing about Azmodius and was too stubborn to read up on him, all he knew was that Asmodeus tried to take over the world and failed because "he had no friends" so this kobold, who called himself Az (we never learned his real name) was on a mission to make an army of friendship in the name of Asmodeus (which got him banned from several inns and taverns and the local church because the town we were in had some bad history specifically with Asmodeus). our other kobold 100% believed him and kind of ended up serving him, but was actually way more powerful in almost every single way, and the townspeople often thought Az was the other guy's sidekick.
I love the idea of having the players in a small city in a small valley and in benonced to them and the city there is a large amount of goblins on one side and a large amount of kobolds on the other and having both try to raid the city at the same time and the ensuing chaos
They are one of the creatures I am most interested in. I am really only a beginner but am doing some DM for a small group when time able. My first idea have been a reformed by silver dragon Kobold tribe with silver or grey scales following Bahamut, but made the mistake of letting in an evil red Kobold group that took over, and the low level party sent cull some will get help from a good Kobold to get past most of traps to kill the evil leader and disorganise the faction. Because a player is having time finding time, I am starting an evil campaign with a few where the party will work for a Black dragon with some Kobold as intermediary, with the option that the players could try and organise the particularly feral Kobold in the swamp into a dangerous force.
My party caught a little kobald that was trying to steal from our camp at night and we basically kidnapped it and scared it into our party. Our bard is training it now.
Perhaps, we went and got permission from the ancient green dragon that was the boss of the kobold. Fortunately our bard had info that the dragon decided would be more valuable if we were alive.
One correction. kobolds in the game didn't start evolving until 78, when they first became dog like in appearance though hairless and with chronic psoriasis . They didn't become reptilian until 3rd edition in 2000 Also not everyonbe loved the draconic kobolds. some of us want our dog-like goblin-dwarfs back.
I recall an adventure where we found ourselves at a large citadel over a volcano. As we entered the citadel we came to a ravine with a narrow bridge. A small group of kobolds where camped on the other side. One kobold came out on the bridge and challenged our strongest warrior. The guy playing the paladin, who was a complete jerk, stroking his ego jumped onto the bridge and laid waste to the kobold leader. As the lifeless body of the kobold fell off the bridge the other 6 or so kobolds all hurled fireseeds at the now exposed paladin. Needless to say, they blasted him nothing but good and he nearly fell off the bridge.
Kobolds are to dragonborn as goblins are to orcs in my opinion.Do a video on monster slayer ranger or storm sorcerer in a pirate adventure with a swashbuckler subclass
I grew up playing an RPG who's kobolds were little dog people, had their own little dog people villages and such. So it has been difficult imagining them as anything dragonoid
+Alex Cordova That is a very good question! To answer that, we first take a look at the alignment of the species in general, which is Lawful Evil, and while the Kobold is sometimes not evil, they are almost always Lawful, so, they are unlikely to seek the patronage of a Chaotic Good Dragon (Brass, Copper), but might seek out a Lawful Good Dragon (Gold, Silver, Bronze) and among the Chromatic Dragons, they prefer Blue and Green for temperament, Red for power, and are less likely to want to be under the control of a Black or White Dragon. If there were Kobolds in service to a Metallic Dragon, they could paint themselves with metal pigments, wear polished jewellery and spend a lot of time out collecting books, scrolls and specimens from nature for the Dragon to study, and may well interact with other intelligent races, however, even a good hearted Kobold is going to be very jumpy and prone to violence or suspicion when dealing with larger humanoids.. it is just their nature.
I am thinking of a tribe of kobolds living in an area with a bronze dragon. they might still build traps and plan ambushes to hunt and steal from people, but they will also try not to kill their victims. that way a dm doesnt have to feel too bad if he overwhelms his players with kobolds, they will wake up a few min-hours later without their foodsupplies and money. and in addition it might become a plothook for later when they have to stand against a really eavil force ("lets find the goodhearted dragon, protector of the hills. maybe there pestering kobolds know where to find him.")
in a campain i'm running, the players are hired to assist a kobold scholar/wizard in her search for a lost race. a home brewed race i made called the Fayla. the last living fayla has a bunch of pseudo dragons with her so the kobold's reaction when meeting should be great.
I have to wonder, how would a sneaky little Kobold helper act if one of those in a party it was leading into an ambush was actually a Metallic Dragon?knowing how they view the larger dragon kin?
Well, what I know for sure is that it can be broken down into various large mechanical parts, and once assembled and powered up, it is essentially a massive Mecha golem capable of opening a serious can of whoop ass on dragons.
There was a dragon magazine with an article called Tucker's Kobolds or some such... and it gets hits with google. Probably deserved some kind of mention.
AJ Pickett OK, just wondering. I only have experience with 1st and 2nd Edition... and with these later editions, I sometimes wonder why the didn't just focus on streamlining the rules rather than rewriting the campaign world. After all, the DM can handle that task. But course some of the changes they made are also interesting.
If you want to visualize a full-out kobold ambush attack on a large creature like an ogre, just think of a compy attack from Jurassic Park. Heh, heh. At first the ogre would try to shoe them away with rocks, until it got frustrated and demoralized, fell on a rock while backing up; and the wily kobolds sensed their opportunity and swarmed the ogre. Ew.
Late to this video, but, I have to wonder, why can't you have a Kobold PC in the current edition of D&D aside from there not being any rules for it. Since Kobold PCs existed in previous editions of D&D, couldn't you simply port over those rules and then adjust it to fit the current edtion's rule set?
When I use kobolds, I expand on their trapmaking abilities... Yeah, primitive kobold tribes use lots of guerilla warfare types of traps, sure, but I use a large number of more civilized kobolds. Their skill with making traps I expand into a general skill of crafting things with moving parts. Kobold lairs get filled with clockwork devices and clockwork guardians, and the kobolds themselves are like a lawful evil evil draconic reflection of tinker gnomes.
I hate how in Baldur's Gate I, you are always fighting toe to toe with small bands of kobolds. That is not how the kobolds would actually behave. They would instead set lots of traps for you. Snipe at you from cover. Have clever ambushes. Attack all at once as a huge army you could not stand against. It is just stupid how in that video game, three or four kobolds will draw their short swords and charge a band of six humans, elves, and dwarves that are armed to the teeth.
Considering the kobolds are individually so weak, one wonders how they have survived the millennia. And I wonder what are the dragons's attitude toward them?
Edison Trent kobolds obey the wishes of the Dragon they serve, this doesn't make them like non draconic species more, the gold dragon just keeps the kobolds under control and away from harm.
AJ Pickett but if the gold dragon tel them to help some 1 day wil do it so in a way day don't are evil day just wish to serve a dragon so if the Dragon is good won't day be that 2 I can see a dungenmaster using this to suprice players with a place wer kobolts and oder live in 1 comunety do rare it mite be a fun thing to do as a dm by making the kobolts the protecting a small vilige sins the Dragon did order th to do so
AJ Pickett the true is I never played d&d sins wer I grey up I don't know any 1 how play it do I stil enjoy the lore a lot and if I know people how play it near me I wil likly give it a schot sins I must admit I always liked the id of d&d a lot
Their cower and beg ability grants advantage to allies, and they gain advantage against any target if an ally is just standing within 5 feet and not incapacitated... now, give that Kobold sneak attack (just cross class one level as a Rogue) and you have a death dealing machine. So, yeah, I am fine with it.
AJ Pickett Well that was fast. My msin disappointment was how boring a cower ability is and how they are one of two races (the other being orc thst was added at the same time) that gets a stat penalty. Every other race gets a net stat bonus of +2 except those two.
I understand why the chromatic colored ones are evil but what about the metalic colored ones.Surely gold and silver kobolds would not be evil.Do those exist.
+blank blank i was wondering this exact thing by the end of the video. it would be interesting to set up political dynamics (at least on one particular world) where the evil races of kobolds tricked the humans, elves, and dwarves into obliterating or at least decimating the metallic-oriented kobolds. the gnomes, perhaps, didn't fall for this being masters of tricks themselves, instead striking against the kobolds or even the dragons themselves, further infuriating and stoking the bad-blood between evil kobolds and gnomes.
I think it would be absolutely wonderful to change things up a little and have a slightly more intelligent and dignified tribe of kobalds worshipping an ancient gold dragon, for many generations, that were polite to invited guests. A kobald dignitary would greet the expected visitor at a designated entrance to the lair, and then guide them through the precise path so that they don't get killed by the traps. The guide making constant random gestures, while giving warnings of potential injuries during the walkthrough, would give a nice touch to the role-play. Even make their scales a bit more brownish gold, and dress them in little white tunics with gold threading and gold buckles.
Big D Sounds cool!
I had a similar thought, however mine is an ancient red dragon who has selectively bred them to be larger, smarter and generally more useful. I figure a 1500 year old dragon could easily breed a whole new race if it had the desire especially with creatures that literally worship it and has a drive to protect the tribe, I imagine that between using magic to alter offspring in the egg, sterilizing undesirable offspring and maybe even crossing in true dragon genetics/ maybe dragon borne slaves you could make the perfect evil minions. Maybe over time their numbers build up to the point that their worship begins to elevate their dragon overlord into a demigod
That's a great idea have you had a chance to use it yet? Thinking of doing something similar in my campaign.
Kobolds are evil.
I have something similar going in a game right now actually. Working rather well.
Make good rangers and scouts.
Just had an awful vision of a bunch of kobolds upset because the master is asleep and won't wake up when they call. So they lure a group of adventurers in to see if that will work.
There is literally an entire module based on this plot line.
That first picture looks like the kobald is saying to the Dragon "look mommy I'm doing it just as you said "
Kobold trap making 101:
Step 1: Does it sound like crazy Rigamarole?
Step 2: Use it
Roboute Guilliman step 3: add a smear of poop.
Step 3: profit
@@AJPickett step 3: profit
There were some really fun shenanigans one could do during character creation with Kobolds in 3.5. I had a Kobold monk with wings who went through the entire deflect missiles tree of feats. By the end of his career he could slap fireballs back at wizards, and knock boulders back at giants. Very fun.
In Dungeons & Dragons Online the lore behind Kobolds says that they came about because some dragon from the distant past was trying to hide from some enemy that was trying to track it down and kill it.
To this end, the dragon polymorphed itself into a halfling and was living in some halfling community and fell in love with a female halfling.They mated and the resulting offspring was the first kobold.
That is certainly a popular way to start a fight with a halfling in taverns all across Faerun.
Kinky.
I like it.
Say that to a bunch of kobolds. I dare you 😂
I kinda wanna make a kobold jeweler that somehow pisses off an elven jeweler because it somehow learned to make better jewelry.
I'm a huge fan of kobolds, mostly because of Deekin from Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark. So many possibilities for traps and underground societies. Great video for an often underrated monster
I also have a great love of Kobolds.. many the adventurer has rolled many dice to save vs Filth Fever at the hands, stakes, spears, darts, arrows and sess pits of these vicious little draconoids, infesting the dark caverns of my campaign worlds.
Those have probably been suggested somewhere in the comments already, but here are some kobold trap thoughts this video inspired.
A tunnel section filled with flammable gas to basically explode on a spark.
A tunnel section partially filled with a less dense than air toxic gas of some sort so as to hit everything in the face that is noticeably taller than a kobold.
A part of the floor that is filled with a gelatinous cube with a bag of ash over it for a quick disguise. In the dark ppl see a kobold hop up and release a cloud of ash behind it, having PCs stumble intot he cube.
And the simplest most often overlooked one (imho): Tunnels that suddenly get way too small for anything medium sized to more than crawl through while th ebolds enjoy full speed movement. Good luck nuking them in there, or cramming your half ork barbarian down those tunnels.
I love Kobalds due to the fact they are easily mutable when my bad guy wizards and death priests reach sufficient levels to experiment with them. They really gave me the opportunity to flesh out my specialist necromancer character,an anatomist/ vivisectionist/torturer I rolled up out of the Necromancers Guide!
I like what Pathfinder did with them giving a redeemed option to the players of playing a good metallic version as well
It is theorized that the Germanic folklore concerning Kobolds has its origins in Indo-European lore that pre-dates ancient Rome, and that Kobolds were a form of guardian spirit of the homestead, possibly a dead ancestor, of which the Lares would become the closest Roman approximation. Later, they were believed to be akin to the northern Goblin or the Brownie of Britannia, who alternately resided in homes doing chores and guarding against intruders at night while the human inhabitants slept. Another version is the Tommyknocker (German: Wichlein), master miners who got their name by tapping with hammers and picks in the shafts to warn of an imminent mine collapse or deadly gas, that would often play pranks on the human workers, which were of course annoying but not deadly. The Klabautermann (I hope I spelled that right) was a Kobold who resided on sailing ships, cleaning and catching rats by night and warning sailors of storms or other misfortune by making himself visible to the captain. In some parts of Germany, Kobolds were the restless spirits of murdered children, commonly seen with a knife stuck in their back or waterlogged and leaving wet footprints as a result of murder by drowning. It is curious to note that as the D&D version of the Kobold was drastically changed from its ancient origins to become a reptilian creature, the folklore Kobold was believed to be able to assume the form of a candle, a fireball or ball of lightning, and as an animal such as a snake or other serpent.
Words kobold and cobalt are related.
YYou kind of missed the racial alliance with Goblins, Since 1ed Gobs and Kobolds tended to be quite friendly with one another.
Kobolds are also one of my favorite races in D&D. Both as opponents and playable race. Opponents because of them being masters of traps. Playable race because nobody takes them seriously at first.
I had one player play a Kobold sorcerer with a black dragon theme. He used all acid based spells including an acid based fireball. (It did acidic damage instead of fire) All of his magic would come out like a breath weapon. He would go around saying, "I'm a dragon!" In a squeaky voice and belch acid at anyone that laughed at him.
I had another player with a winged kobold druid. Actually she was a gold dragon wrought kobold. She leaned heavily into the spell casting of the class. She became a godlike force of nature. She could stop armies with entanglement spells. And I remember her rolling a critical hit to dissipate a powerful ghost with radiant damage.
I would imagine that a significant portion of the Kobolds in the Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Good, and Neutral Good alignments would be complete pessimists, even if they did have strong desires for good in the world. I can just imagine what they would say, " Well, there is no way I am going to make it. I can die from something as meager as a stubbed toe.", their humor could easily be dark, maybe with a mix of irony and sarcasm.
A human might think like that, but a Kobold has a draconic nature, they have an indefatigable, gutsy sense of confident caution and hey, it has been thousands of years and they are still going strong, so, though many shall die, some will always live, and those who do, are not the ones who spent their energy on making wise cracks, they are the ones who put 100% into being one step ahead of the next thing trying to murder them.
Well, they could still be quite determined and filled with perseverance while still sounding like a pessimist. I said that some of them would be pessimists but I did not say that they would be hopeless. You are right in saying that they are still quite tough.
Of course, with some of the unique races there are definitely some underlying themes which tend to influence the members of that particular race on a psychological scale. With the Warforged, it is identity, and with the Kobold, it is weakness. There would be many ways individual Kobolds to cope with this "weakness" either it be through vigorous compensation, humor, restless idealism, die-hard loyalty, or anything in between. I did not make a lot of things clear in my initial comment, so hopefully this should better convey my thoughts on the subject.
Yeah, much clearer, thanks BliskFox, interesting food for thought!
Anyone who thinks that kobolds are weak needs to read "Tucker's Kobolds", you can find it in dragon magazine #127 I think. These little bastards can be unforgiving to those that underestimate them.
I remember the first time I played a kobold. It was late in 2nd, so I played a Fighter/Thief and he was the “minion” of our party’s mage.
It was a riot playing Runt. He kept a tally of the mages he sniped with his light crossbow and would routinely sneak into wizards’ towers to steal spellbooks for his master, sometimes actually managing to come back with one, instead of just a random book. The other players thought it was unfair that our mage took two shares of the treasure instead of me taking my share, so it was always fun listening to them try to explain how I was being mistreated.
One of my characters is a kobold trapmaker rogue wich is a really funny combo.
QorinHalfhand. Natural combination. :)
My son befriended a kabold in an adventure, Katuck now 2nd level Fighter.
You know, watching this, I realized that although you sort of alluded to the answer to this when you mentioned their god and its close relation to Tiamat, you didn't answer the rather important question of what Kobolds think of the good Metallic Dragons. I mean, if they really do worship Dragons as divine beings, but are pretty much wholly evil, well then that presents them with a bit of a problem in reconciling the fact that basically half of the worlds dragons are pretty much directly opposed to them in their world view. Although they may be listed as Lawful Evil in the Monster manual, I would think that it wouldn't be too inconceivable to have a tribe of them be good or at least neutral if they're worshiping one of the good-aligned Metallic Dragons as opposed to the Chromatic ones they're normally associated with.
Good question, I think this comes back to an issue with "Who is good to Who?", using Kobolds is an excellent example. A Lawful Evil kobold is more like a Lawful Neutral Kobold when in service to a Metallic Dragon, but still lawful evil to non dragonkind.. take humans and cats, for instance.. an owner will swear their cat is a sweet and lovely creature, the neighbor might think it is a bird murdering little monster. A Metallic dragon might feel the same way about its loveable little scamps, those devoted, sweet little kobolds who strive every day to serve their master with unwavering loyalty.. but, the Dragon has to watch them around strangers, because they might react poorly out of fear and ignorance, falling back on their more aggressive nature.
In short, there is no need to alter Kobolds, they serve all dragons equally well, it is the perspectives of the adventurers and therefore the players, that makes it a very interesting situation.
+AJ Pickett (The Mighty Gluestick) That is a great explanation, particularly the cat analogy. I will have to check out the rest of your videos.
Better grab some snacks, there are quite a few! :)
That is what I went with when making my Kobold characters. They're from a tribe/community that worshipped a metallic. Usually my little kobolds were usually kicked out for one reason or another. One was a "special" case since they didn't come from any tribe.
One of the things I heard is that in the absence of their god they are likely to worship dragon gods instead.
I love love love kobolds they’re absolutely adorable and so hard to picture in a negative light despite their annoying nature. And I love the idea of a tribe of kobolds finding a good metallic dragon and fanatically worshipping it while it’s so confused about it because it doesn’t want slaves cuz that’s wrong but at the same time doesn’t want to cause them physical harm to chase them away which is the only way this particular group can be made to leave so it’s stuck with them and feels obligated to teach and mold them into honest living critters so it just puts up with it begrudgingly
I played Kobolds as a more dog/wolf like in first and second edition I did Not like the changes in later editions there were to many reptilian races they were a useful NPC pack willing to work for food as porters, teamsters, and guards. Granted a clan of Kobolds worshiping a dragon born PC would be funny .......
is it wrong I think these little bastards are cooler than dwarves? I make a point to always include kobolds in any fantasy rp and what not (albeit with minor edits to cultural structures if I'm the one actually controling them)
Yes and no
Yes because they are kobolds
No because dwarves are dwarves
Thank the gods for Volo's guide and playable Kobolds
Kobold: the younger brother playing Minecraft.
Dragon's: the older brother begrugingly giving advice
my favourite kobold was a pretty fun neutral good one; there'd been a prophecy of a powerful leader being born who would lead the tribe to 'take their rightful place' in the mid-sized city they lived below - he trained in their shamanic traditions when young & went on a vision quest that lasted longer than expected, eventually encountering a group of adventurers from the city above who were tracking down some nasty unnatural creatures he'd also seen signs of and decided to investigate.
He had the paragon template (prophesied leader & all that) & was able to overcome them pretty easily but since he felt more curious about the surface races than particularly threatened by them he didn't use lethal force, just knocking them out, disarming them then patched them up and waited for them to regain consciousness so he could talk to them.
One of the party was a bit of a fanatic about all the horrible things below the city & the kobold successfully counter-argued, with the agreement of the party's druid, that while a lot of it wasn't particularly pretty or nice by 'civilised' standards there was still a lot of perfectly natural stuff there too but yes, unnatural and dangerous things should indeed be dealt with so he joined up them to help in that mission & ended up working with them for a few years. He was inspired by the druid & the idea of such an intimate connection to nature & trained in the druidic traditions, though focussed mainly on his own preferences of the creatures found underground.
On returning to his people, a powerful druid in his own right, he took his place as the leader of the tribe but instead of leading them to war as some of the elders had expected, ended up making a treaty with the officials in the city above, allowing his people rights in trade, mining etc. in return for managing the creatures underground & assisting if the city was ever threatened - thus fulfilling the prophecy of the tribe 'taking their place' in the city :)
playing a kobold that serves a silver dragon. Favorite character I've ever made
Them Dragon Mountain kobolds, tho..
Yeah, that was a long combat, defending the village. What were there, seven hundred or so?
this was useful as kobolds play an interesting roll in my campaign, as we have a home brewed world, where Dragonborn, kobolds, and several other groups of creatures where rounded up and forced to a mountain, where they now live in a massive city, relatively peacefully with the Dragonborn and so on,
my friend played a pirate kobold in our campaign. named intermission.
due to the home-brewed nature of this campaign(s) I am dm for the dragon city so this was useful in interactions of the players and npc.
thanks,
~ps kobolds in our campaign are designed after geckoes and lizards, its helpful to have a campaign full of artists from time to time
Oh the *KOBOLD* the neverending cannonfodder of D&D
LOL, laughing at your descriptions of all the Traps. By the way, have you by chance read the "Ren of Atikala" book series which feature kobolds as the main characters? They're good reads.
we recently had a group that contained two kobolds PCs. One of them had convinced himself he was Asmodeus reincarnated, and the player really leaned into that fanatical side of the kobold race. The funny thing was he knew nothing about Azmodius and was too stubborn to read up on him, all he knew was that Asmodeus tried to take over the world and failed because "he had no friends" so this kobold, who called himself Az (we never learned his real name) was on a mission to make an army of friendship in the name of Asmodeus (which got him banned from several inns and taverns and the local church because the town we were in had some bad history specifically with Asmodeus). our other kobold 100% believed him and kind of ended up serving him, but was actually way more powerful in almost every single way, and the townspeople often thought Az was the other guy's sidekick.
I love the idea of having the players in a small city in a small valley and in benonced to them and the city there is a large amount of goblins on one side and a large amount of kobolds on the other and having both try to raid the city at the same time and the ensuing chaos
They are one of the creatures I am most interested in. I am really only a beginner but am doing some DM for a small group when time able. My first idea have been a reformed by silver dragon Kobold tribe with silver or grey scales following Bahamut, but made the mistake of letting in an evil red Kobold group that took over, and the low level party sent cull some will get help from a good Kobold to get past most of traps to kill the evil leader and disorganise the faction. Because a player is having time finding time, I am starting an evil campaign with a few where the party will work for a Black dragon with some Kobold as intermediary, with the option that the players could try and organise the particularly feral Kobold in the swamp into a dangerous force.
Just came up with an idea for a Kobold Alchemist who serves a Blue Dragon as an magic item and weapons dealer.
I always thought these dudes were goblin kin. Shows how wrong I am. That's why I love these videos. I learned something.
The archeologist Jocktor Dones had my players collecting treasures until they had enough to be worth ambushing. The kobold is always a trap.
I can't say I know them well, except having killed a few! They were a useful low level monster in 1st edition!
They're so cute ^_^
I'm playing kobold in pathfinder
ps this was published on my birthday nice
My party caught a little kobald that was trying to steal from our camp at night and we basically kidnapped it and scared it into our party.
Our bard is training it now.
You're all in terrible danger.
Perhaps, we went and got permission from the ancient green dragon that was the boss of the kobold. Fortunately our bard had info that the dragon decided would be more valuable if we were alive.
If I ever take control of a tower/mansion in the forgotten realms. I'm going to contract a bunch of Kolbols for traps.
5:19
And then the kolbold ninjas attacked!
130 years? Not 11 days?
One correction. kobolds in the game didn't start evolving until 78, when they first became dog like in appearance though hairless and with chronic psoriasis . They didn't become reptilian until 3rd edition in 2000
Also not everyonbe loved the draconic kobolds. some of us want our dog-like goblin-dwarfs back.
Q:
What's the best weapon to use against Kobalds?
.
.
.
.
A:
Usually a 9 iron.
I recall an adventure where we found ourselves at a large citadel over a volcano. As we entered the citadel we came to a ravine with a narrow bridge. A small group of kobolds where camped on the other side. One kobold came out on the bridge and challenged our strongest warrior. The guy playing the paladin, who was a complete jerk, stroking his ego jumped onto the bridge and laid waste to the kobold leader. As the lifeless body of the kobold fell off the bridge the other 6 or so kobolds all hurled fireseeds at the now exposed paladin. Needless to say, they blasted him nothing but good and he nearly fell off the bridge.
Kobolds are to dragonborn as goblins are to orcs in my opinion.Do a video on monster slayer ranger or storm sorcerer in a pirate adventure with a swashbuckler subclass
I do really love the Swashbuckler and Duelist character types.
That’s always what I thought
I grew up playing an RPG who's kobolds were little dog people, had their own little dog people villages and such. So it has been difficult imagining them as anything dragonoid
humanoid Aardvarks that slowly turn into Armadillos.
Do kobolds love all dragons or just chromatic dragons?
+Alex Cordova That is a very good question!
To answer that, we first take a look at the alignment of the species in general, which is Lawful Evil, and while the Kobold is sometimes not evil, they are almost always Lawful, so, they are unlikely to seek the patronage of a Chaotic Good Dragon (Brass, Copper), but might seek out a Lawful Good Dragon (Gold, Silver, Bronze) and among the Chromatic Dragons, they prefer Blue and Green for temperament, Red for power, and are less likely to want to be under the control of a Black or White Dragon. If there were Kobolds in service to a Metallic Dragon, they could paint themselves with metal pigments, wear polished jewellery and spend a lot of time out collecting books, scrolls and specimens from nature for the Dragon to study, and may well interact with other intelligent races, however, even a good hearted Kobold is going to be very jumpy and prone to violence or suspicion when dealing with larger humanoids.. it is just their nature.
I am thinking of a tribe of kobolds living in an area with a bronze dragon. they might still build traps and plan ambushes to hunt and steal from people, but they will also try not to kill their victims.
that way a dm doesnt have to feel too bad if he overwhelms his players with kobolds, they will wake up a few min-hours later without their foodsupplies and money. and in addition it might become a plothook for later when they have to stand against a really eavil force ("lets find the goodhearted dragon, protector of the hills. maybe there pestering kobolds know where to find him.")
Can’t think kobold without thinking of Deekin
are kobolds considered dragon kin, or do they just worship them?
+trenton maloney They are related to Dragons, yes.
really like the trapmaker kobold idea too, that would make a cool character.
distant relatives
I have a Kobold rogue. Love playing her :3 I can recommend them as player charahters.
They are humanoids, but distant cousins of the dragons.
I always liked these guys, they're adorable.
13:54 Jar Jar Binks must have been a Kobold! He does the weedy little voice & everything. He even has the skull-shape & the scaly skin.
Oh, I guess he's way too tall lol
I think of the wild things from David Bowie’s labyrinth when I see them.
in a campain i'm running, the players are hired to assist a kobold scholar/wizard in her search for a lost race. a home brewed race i made called the Fayla. the last living fayla has a bunch of pseudo dragons with her so the kobold's reaction when meeting should be great.
I love kobolds so much! Have you heard of tucker's kobolds? Very OP
I'm watching this to see if I can play a kobold warlock
amazon kobold tribes.
that's all i'm saying.
Rp Sketchbooks skinks
Sign me up!
MrRhexx: Kobolds change their gender depending on the ratio of their tribe.
I have to wonder, how would a sneaky little Kobold helper act if one of those in a party it was leading into an ambush was actually a Metallic Dragon?knowing how they view the larger dragon kin?
Well, that would change things considerably.
@@AJPickett hmm, Well how would you see something like that playing out AJ?
12:22 how can something that looks so cute be evil to the core?
You just have to give them some love
Well, what I know for sure is that it can be broken down into various large mechanical parts, and once assembled and powered up, it is essentially a massive Mecha golem capable of opening a serious can of whoop ass on dragons.
I'm actually playing a Kobold, Warlock, in service to an Archfey. xD
There was a dragon magazine with an article called Tucker's Kobolds or some such... and it gets hits with google. Probably deserved some kind of mention.
Topical now, might look into it, thanks
Question... What would a the hybrid of a goblin and a kobold be like? stats, traits, skills? this is for a character I plan to play.
Does it bother you at all the way they have radically revamped some of the most iconic monsters in D&D in 4th Edition?
+Shice Squad No, not at all.
AJ Pickett
OK, just wondering. I only have experience with 1st and 2nd Edition... and with these later editions, I sometimes wonder why the didn't just focus on streamlining the rules rather than rewriting the campaign world. After all, the DM can handle that task. But course some of the changes they made are also interesting.
Ever since Wizards made kobolds a playable race I’ve been using them ever since
I played one in 2nd edition. Wizards didn’t start them being playable.
Can a sorcerer with dragon ancestry befriend kobalds
Hey aj, what do you think about a wise kobold monk?
I love this concept, probably more than I should.
AJ Pickett yeah it would be like yoda!
4:48 Freudian slip hahahahah 😂
theyre like chicken raptors
Love your content
So how do kobolds respond to Dragonborn?
If you want to visualize a full-out kobold ambush attack on a large creature like an ogre, just think of a compy attack from Jurassic Park. Heh, heh. At first the ogre would try to shoe them away with rocks, until it got frustrated and demoralized, fell on a rock while backing up; and the wily kobolds sensed their opportunity and swarmed the ogre. Ew.
Would a kobold sacrifice itself for a dragon?
Yes, absolutely.
The better question is, would the kobold rather face the dragon's wrath, or die?
I do to, there fun to play
Late to this video, but, I have to wonder, why can't you have a Kobold PC in the current edition of D&D aside from there not being any rules for it. Since Kobold PCs existed in previous editions of D&D, couldn't you simply port over those rules and then adjust it to fit the current edtion's rule set?
What is the race that acts as mediators between goblins & kobolds?
Could be the Pech, or the winged Urds, or the Norker goblins, the Hobgoblins could just order the goblins not to bother the kobolds.
@AJPickett You mentioned a race that mediated between them in this video,and showed a drawing but the name was none listed here.
@@AJPickett Check 6:05 into video,svass?
Regarding the kobold's relation to dragons:
Imagine the offspring of a dragon and a halfling.
I am thinking a particularly powerful Urd.
Good morning everyone, I am back & I need to sleep.
My name is sniv; you should remember me.
I really need a drink, use a small cup!
I will admit the intro saying master of monsters... prevented me from taking this and other videos seriously.
Fair enough, frankly I have problems with angry cats, let alone slavering beasts from the far realm.
When I use kobolds, I expand on their trapmaking abilities... Yeah, primitive kobold tribes use lots of guerilla warfare types of traps, sure, but I use a large number of more civilized kobolds. Their skill with making traps I expand into a general skill of crafting things with moving parts. Kobold lairs get filled with clockwork devices and clockwork guardians, and the kobolds themselves are like a lawful evil evil draconic reflection of tinker gnomes.
Its a fact! Kobolds are smol,and cute,and totally not going to nibble your hat
I hate how in Baldur's Gate I, you are always fighting toe to toe with small bands of kobolds. That is not how the kobolds would actually behave. They would instead set lots of traps for you. Snipe at you from cover. Have clever ambushes. Attack all at once as a huge army you could not stand against. It is just stupid how in that video game, three or four kobolds will draw their short swords and charge a band of six humans, elves, and dwarves that are armed to the teeth.
Yeeeeeah! Kobold!
You can play a kobold in pathfinder.
Yeah I kind of Kobo can I see that was different like dog ligand Dragon Lake what's the difference between those two
Considering the kobolds are individually so weak, one wonders how they have survived the millennia. And I wonder what are the dragons's attitude toward them?
I do talk about those points in the video.
high birth rate... very very high!
Anget Al elbari they breed like skaven
should have just made a video on traps.. lol
heh, maybe I should!
I don't care what your level is, they will make you miserable.
qwestion but what if cobalts service a gold dragon sins day in genral seem to be nice dragons
Edison Trent kobolds obey the wishes of the Dragon they serve, this doesn't make them like non draconic species more, the gold dragon just keeps the kobolds under control and away from harm.
AJ Pickett but if the gold dragon tel them to help some 1 day wil do it so in a way day don't are evil day just wish to serve a dragon so if the Dragon is good won't day be that 2 I can see a dungenmaster using this to suprice players with a place wer kobolts and oder live in 1 comunety do rare it mite be a fun thing to do as a dm by making the kobolts the protecting a small vilige sins the Dragon did order th to do so
Edison Trent Sure, I am always in favor of DM creativity, I am not a person who is about to tell someone how to run their game. :)
AJ Pickett the true is I never played d&d sins wer I grey up I don't know any 1 how play it do I stil enjoy the lore a lot and if I know people how play it near me I wil likly give it a schot sins I must admit I always liked the id of d&d a lot
Edison Trent I hope you get to play, it's a very rewarding and sociable activity.
I'm curious as to how you feel about the Kobold playable race for 5e in Volo's Guide to monsters. Do you find if as underwhelming as I do?
Their cower and beg ability grants advantage to allies, and they gain advantage against any target if an ally is just standing within 5 feet and not incapacitated... now, give that Kobold sneak attack (just cross class one level as a Rogue) and you have a death dealing machine. So, yeah, I am fine with it.
AJ Pickett Well that was fast. My msin disappointment was how boring a cower ability is and how they are one of two races (the other being orc thst was added at the same time) that gets a stat penalty. Every other race gets a net stat bonus of +2 except those two.
My volume is on max and i can barely hear
Scale squad
SKULL SKULL!
I liked them better when they were more dog than dragon.
I understand why the chromatic colored ones are evil but what about the metalic colored ones.Surely gold and silver kobolds would not be evil.Do those exist.
+blank blank Not officially.
AJ Pickett Well they should lol.What about a kobold that is say red or blue but goes against its society.That should exist to.
+blank blank Kobolds may live underground, but they are not set in stone.. make them your own.
+blank blank i was wondering this exact thing by the end of the video.
it would be interesting to set up political dynamics (at least on one particular world) where the evil races of kobolds tricked the humans, elves, and dwarves into obliterating or at least decimating the metallic-oriented kobolds. the gnomes, perhaps, didn't fall for this being masters of tricks themselves, instead striking against the kobolds or even the dragons themselves, further infuriating and stoking the bad-blood between evil kobolds and gnomes.
Rp Sketchbooks That sounds really cool!I really wanna play in a setting like this now as a gold or silver kobold.x D
I really think kobolds work better as rat-like.
Jake Sisko I disagree
So, there no real way to actually befriend a kobold?
friendship is a strange thing that takes many forms and occurs in almost any place.
I wuv koboldz
Hypodermic poo spear trap? Jesus Christ...
*kobloids