Anyone who wants to know how they should build a thematically appropriate kobold lair, I highly recommend that person look up the article "Tucker's Kobolds." It perfectly encapsulates how a warren of low-level enemies can be used to challenge even a mid-level party.
As for other Kobold tricks and traps.... I think slides could be fun too.... Have a slide lead down into a pit, with a rope that the Kobold can use to safely swing across to the other side, while the players chasing him tumble into the pit.... Or have the Kobolds put a spiked door at the bottom of the slide, that they can close and lock so anything else going down the slide hits the spikes on the door.... Or maybe the slide is their garbage chute and it leads to a pit with a Gelatinous cube at the bottom....
It's amazing how much flavour you can get out of your enemies when you RP them just as you would any (good) player character. The enemies want to live!
@@thegayerest Tfw your players say it's unrealistic for goblin bandits to do hit and run tactics instead of just throwing themselves at the barbarian frontline
Of the most sensational survivors, and scavengers of this forgotten universe. They are indeed criminals but they don't think like criminals and really now when they fully explore this slippery species! 😍👍🦎🐉
One creature I think is massively misused is lycanthropos. Ravenloff goes too far with the horror aspect and no other setting really gives them their due in regards to the threat they pose.
Thanks to all the kobold lovers I ran into I have kobolds being as intelligent as gnomes and a bit better at mining than dwarves but not always as supplied. Though someone also brought up that the monster alignments are likely the opinions of commonera
Thanks for covering my favorite monster (if you can call them that) Kobolds! I love them due to their flexibility and character, as they can be way goofier than goblins but also can still be incredibly dangerous. They hate gnomes because Garl Glittergold, god of gnomes, trapped their god in a labyrinth (I may be misremembering something about that though) and they serve for a fun encounter with gnome pcs or npcs, especially if one of them is a spellcaster and Kobolds automatically assume they serve Garl. Kobolds also sometimes protect and or carve out sewers for cities for payment in gems, and they can be a wonderful alternative to giant rats or spiders. Something steals a precious item and flees into the sewers and the party is sent to deal with it, only to find out that whatever stole the item was caught by the kobolds and now the party has to infiltrate their lair to get it back.
Thing about kobolds is, their evil stems from a persecution complex and it's often turned inwards. Their own mythology has them get massacred and everyone just kinda shrug and their everyday experience is people with superpowers coming in and stealing their crap. Aside from the gnome hate, which is religious, they can get along well with dwarves due to a shared work ethic. If exposed to people who don't make fun of them all the time nothing stops a kobold community from being good-natured, if perhaps sensitive and poe-faced. Besides their god being a vengeful wile e coyote.
One thing I thought would make for a fun plotline for Kobolds is what if their god came back? (With the effects of his return being their priests now suddenly having magic, and a huge explosion in the population of Kobolds that would be seen as an outright plague by anyone that sees them as vermin.... So much so that several Underdark races end up fleeing for the surface en mass as the Kobold population gets so large that they even are even able to wear down and overwhelm the dragons they normally worship...
@minnion2871 An interesting idea. Kurtulmak in older sources is repeatedly stated to be a higher level deity than Tiamat (although not necessarily in a straight fight and Tiamat is hells ward right now anyway.) Thing is, the stated result (I believe from a greenwood twitter post) is that the gnomes would believe it was the end times because that seal was supposed to be forever, the kobolds would believe it's their time of deliverance and go crazy, and likely the combined power of gnomish invention and human general dominance are the kobolds getting utterly whooped by a combined force of arms from anyone they mess with. It'd be a uniting event like a Vermintide, though Gods being Gods they'd prefer if mortals dealt with matters than ruin the world by fighting on it directly. I would find it delightfully ironic though if the majority of the evil dragons died due to their casual abuse during this period. Cause even after they get whooped kobolds would probably have a new sense of dignity about things. Maybe even turn en masse to new deities when this doesn't work out.
Animalistic races will always have these far out problems. Does the spell Air Bubble work for Thri-Kreen, since they breathe through their entire bodies not just their heads? I don't have the answers
first makee pit, then fill pit with chicken poop... lots and lots of chicken poop... can't swim in chicken poop! bad horrible way to go! *nod nod* hero sees there friend drown in chicken poop they turn around and go home! trust me is full proof!
Anyone who wants to know how they should build a thematically appropriate kobold lair, I highly recommend that person look up the article "Tucker's Kobolds." It perfectly encapsulates how a warren of low-level enemies can be used to challenge even a mid-level party.
As for other Kobold tricks and traps.... I think slides could be fun too....
Have a slide lead down into a pit, with a rope that the Kobold can use to safely swing across to the other side, while the players chasing him tumble into the pit....
Or have the Kobolds put a spiked door at the bottom of the slide, that they can close and lock so anything else going down the slide hits the spikes on the door....
Or maybe the slide is their garbage chute and it leads to a pit with a Gelatinous cube at the bottom....
It's amazing how much flavour you can get out of your enemies when you RP them just as you would any (good) player character. The enemies want to live!
EXACTLY! Not everyone's a serial killer with poor self preservation
@@thegayerest Tfw your players say it's unrealistic for goblin bandits to do hit and run tactics instead of just throwing themselves at the barbarian frontline
Of the most sensational survivors, and scavengers of this forgotten universe. They are indeed criminals but they don't think like criminals and really now when they fully explore this slippery species! 😍👍🦎🐉
One creature I think is massively misused is lycanthropos. Ravenloff goes too far with the horror aspect and no other setting really gives them their due in regards to the threat they pose.
Thanks to all the kobold lovers I ran into I have kobolds being as intelligent as gnomes and a bit better at mining than dwarves but not always as supplied. Though someone also brought up that the monster alignments are likely the opinions of commonera
1:20 "Three Kobolds in a trenchcoat" is how I'm going to run them from now on. Like a bigger cast of the "Our Gang" serials. Or "The Three Stooges".
Yes. Perfect.
Thanks for covering my favorite monster (if you can call them that) Kobolds! I love them due to their flexibility and character, as they can be way goofier than goblins but also can still be incredibly dangerous. They hate gnomes because Garl Glittergold, god of gnomes, trapped their god in a labyrinth (I may be misremembering something about that though) and they serve for a fun encounter with gnome pcs or npcs, especially if one of them is a spellcaster and Kobolds automatically assume they serve Garl. Kobolds also sometimes protect and or carve out sewers for cities for payment in gems, and they can be a wonderful alternative to giant rats or spiders. Something steals a precious item and flees into the sewers and the party is sent to deal with it, only to find out that whatever stole the item was caught by the kobolds and now the party has to infiltrate their lair to get it back.
In a campaign we just got a moat house with a dungeon below, so who best to hire to mine the minerals!
Thing about kobolds is, their evil stems from a persecution complex and it's often turned inwards. Their own mythology has them get massacred and everyone just kinda shrug and their everyday experience is people with superpowers coming in and stealing their crap. Aside from the gnome hate, which is religious, they can get along well with dwarves due to a shared work ethic. If exposed to people who don't make fun of them all the time nothing stops a kobold community from being good-natured, if perhaps sensitive and poe-faced. Besides their god being a vengeful wile e coyote.
One thing I thought would make for a fun plotline for Kobolds is what if their god came back? (With the effects of his return being their priests now suddenly having magic, and a huge explosion in the population of Kobolds that would be seen as an outright plague by anyone that sees them as vermin.... So much so that several Underdark races end up fleeing for the surface en mass as the Kobold population gets so large that they even are even able to wear down and overwhelm the dragons they normally worship...
@minnion2871 An interesting idea. Kurtulmak in older sources is repeatedly stated to be a higher level deity than Tiamat (although not necessarily in a straight fight and Tiamat is hells ward right now anyway.) Thing is, the stated result (I believe from a greenwood twitter post) is that the gnomes would believe it was the end times because that seal was supposed to be forever, the kobolds would believe it's their time of deliverance and go crazy, and likely the combined power of gnomish invention and human general dominance are the kobolds getting utterly whooped by a combined force of arms from anyone they mess with. It'd be a uniting event like a Vermintide, though Gods being Gods they'd prefer if mortals dealt with matters than ruin the world by fighting on it directly.
I would find it delightfully ironic though if the majority of the evil dragons died due to their casual abuse during this period. Cause even after they get whooped kobolds would probably have a new sense of dignity about things. Maybe even turn en masse to new deities when this doesn't work out.
They use blowguns? Don't they need lips to properly employ a blowgun?
Animalistic races will always have these far out problems. Does the spell Air Bubble work for Thri-Kreen, since they breathe through their entire bodies not just their heads? I don't have the answers
first makee pit, then fill pit with chicken poop... lots and lots of chicken poop... can't swim in chicken poop! bad horrible way to go! *nod nod* hero sees there friend drown in chicken poop they turn around and go home! trust me is full proof!