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Okay! So Kobolds live to 120 because of their dragon blood... then why is it exactly that Dragonborn, humanoids with draconic blood, only live to be about 80 when humans live to 100 normally... some glaring inconsistencies in the power of dragon blood if the Kobolds really get their long lives from it...
Question, would it be wrong for a half-dragon character to knock out a kobold and then stuff it into its bag of holding to make one into their knew servant/slave? XD
Imagine your fighter turns a corner and get hit with a punch that sends him flying, around the corner comes an impressive looking 6 ft tall kobold monk using a ring of enlarge/reduce, initiate fight with kobold ant-man.
That would be pretty legit. He mentions Breath Weapons in the video, make it clear to your players Kobolds have breath weapons but are so small that they aren’t very potent. Give it a few sessions for your players to hopefully forget the “flavor” ability of Kobolds, then bring in the big guy.
so A dire kobold. you also could call the ones's with breath weapons either true/great kolbold. also since they are use alchemy have it they just create gun powder and simple blunder busts or flint lock pistols, either ceramic or cobber grenades. Also rename A crank gatling gun as A kobold gun
@@meganofsherwood3665 yeah its so easy top see scenarios with that thing a single path tunnel an adventuring party is too arrogant to check for any traps they reach hafe way of the tunnel suddeny at the end of the tunnel a flap opens up to revile kobald gun and crew ( mim is three max is six) the gunner starts cranking the crank the spotter is is barking out targets the loader is at the ready the party is mowed down. also pun intended with the spotter and his barks
my favorite memory of a kobold is of my "boyfriend" Zuzu: when my party and i were to investigate a mine being overrun with kobolds, i charmed the one guarding the entrance, Zuzu, to gather information. our DM rolled a nat 1 on his save and because of the crit fail, the dm had it fall head-over-heels in love with my character (as well as elongate the length the spell lasted, which was a homebrew rule at the time) and to keep him compliant, my character just went along with it. i just had to call him pet names and pat his head and he was smitten. i asked him to draw a map for our party and he drew a picture of my character and him holding hands. while we were in the mine he wandered outside and picked a bouquet of wildflowers to suprise my character on the surface. He even jumped in front of an arrow that one of his own fired at me (a critical hit with sneak attack bonus, and i was at 1 hp at the time). dm even let us have a little moment where i cradled him in my arms as he passed away- humoring him, mostly, but it was kinda sad still. my character actually kept the flowers he was given, pressed them in a book. it is still the best romance ive ever played in a game to this day.
Give one of the kobolds a helmet that he's forged a couple of iron rings to. when he sees the party, he slots a potion of hill giant strength into each one, and pushes a tube into each one, then puts the other ends in his mouth. Time to fight Foamdome The Terrible, Kobold Barbarian!
When said give them a mount, I thought of a giant centipede with the whole warren riding on the back. Party: "This room looks like a good place to take a rest." GM: "The far wall explodes as a giant centipede bursting in to the room, circling your party, shedding kobolds left and right. You now surrounded by dozens of kobold warriors. The chieftain grins as he maneuvers the centipede to attack. Roll initiative."
Even better, combine the 2 for a Kobold army. Kobold cavalry on basilisks or similar mounts, to lead the charge and provide flanking and scouting. Meanwhile, the Kobold troop transport centipedes ferry in the warriors. BOOM, the Kobold are now a modern, mobilized strike force
OnlyShadowsRemain I once had a campaign where most humans thought technology was terrible, but not kolbalds they had cannons on baskilisks, fun encounter that one.
Caramon Majere IMO Dex is almost as important or more important than Int in most cases. Not to mention dex saves and AC that has no ceiling (unlike armor which technically has a cap). Because going first as a mage, especially in mid/high tier is godlike. Our party had to fight it's mirror one session. We had two weeks to math/plan it. It really came down to which Wizard got off Prismatic Spray first. Also plan to take Alert ASAP. It is one of the best Wizard Spellcasting feats ever (while not being directly related to spellcasting).
Had a DM who loved putting Kobolds at the beginning of any dungeon adventure. They had murder holes, pit traps, flaming carts pushed down slight inclines ect. We would wade through them to reach the lower levels and kill the high level monsters and then quake in fear knowing that we would have to travel back through those little demons just to reap the benefits of what we had taken. Sometimes we would end up paying them for safe passage because we were at such a weakened state.
So, this is how you do it: The party is hired to purge a kobold tribe from a region. When they arrive, usually the party's tracker tries to find tracks of kobolds, and here the problems start: there are thousand of tracks over tracks, leading form everywhere to anywhere. Being daytime, kobolds are nowhere to be seen. Traps litter the countryside, forcing the thief to crawl along. Then, night comes. During the night, when they are not being sniped from afar, there's noise everywhere. Not people moving silently, but pans beng clanged about, loud screams, etc. rendering rest impossible; if the party moves toward the sound, the kobolds see them beforehand and vanish somewhere. When they attack, expect them to prod some rust monster with sticks towards the party, or make a troll follow them toward the encampment. When the party is in bad shape from not healing and having various exhausting point they attack in force, always with the support of something else. Their leader is an ancient wizard, whose soulstone was found by one kobold. He had trained several kobold with magical aptitude, and even found some sorcerer between them. If they manage to defeat him, he goes back to the soulstone, waiting for some poor sod to pick it up.
Bloody hell mate, that just sounds like a TPK session. But I love it for a one shot, with the right music and sound effects you could make this intense as.
My favorite kobold trap, are glass jars that are buried just under the ground like a mine, when you step on them, it unleashes the acidic slime from within, usually orchre jellies. Facing a Kobold isn't about dealing with a pack or group of them... it's about surviving the traps they have laid for you. In one dungeon i ran, we had a beserker style barb and i had the kobolds taunt him, and insult him which caused him to promptly laugh and charge them full steam!--- straight into a pit trap in front of them. They proceeded to drop alchemists fire ontop of him, basically kobolds don't have to be tougher then you. They just have to be smarter, and when used properly even without PC classes they can be quite a handful! Me biased? NO i dunno what you are talking about!
I remember one quest in Dungeons & Dragons Online where you chased the boss, a Kobold tunneller working for Droaam named Boom, through the whole quest while he dropped mines behind you, and sometimes you ran through huge minefields on this chase. I remember me and my little brother, both playing rogues (well, a fighter-rogue in my case), stopping in all the minefields to disarm every last mine once. There were over four hundred of the darn things. (Each one could yield fire trap parts when disarmed, too. We got mounds of them from that one run.) What I'm saying is, Kobold land mines are underutilized.
So I was lead to this video after finding out about Tucker's Kobolds and love the idea of high level characters not fight some big powerful creature for the BBEG of the campaign and instead fighting Kobolds, so I have started thinking up a campaign idea for this to happen. Your trap just went into the list on how to make the end battle scary. The campaign arc will probably be that a Kobold tribe is on the verge of freeing their god and that the players should stop it before the Kobolds become a threat to the "civilised" world.
Remember a campaign : swamp 'bolds who carved themselves a city on the side of a mountain. -3 days of crossing poisonous swamp under constant harassement from kobold assassin-archers. -basically a siege battle sandwiched between lancers on the wall and archers on our backs. -When when finally broke inside, the lancers would pepper us with smokescreens, rendering us virtually blind while they circled around, or just waited, and waited, until we walked into the smoke to eat a spear in the face ! -Once we'd gotten through all that, we found out the entire tribe (save the poor lancers) had ran of in tunnels ! We had to crawl through for a day before coming face to face with more spears and had to give up entirely 'cause our pyro had ran out of mana a day ago... Some entrepreneur king was reeaally bummed that his future swamp castle was not secure ! We told him to go do it himself... He's dead now...
I made a campaign around having the players helping a tribe of kobolds who live under the city they were staying in and it spiraled into saving their god from the maze he's trapped in, while they fought gnomes and their god.
I used a wyvern chained at the bottom of a pit, and forced the characters to walk across a thin ledge. Then when they were least expecting it, the wyvern flew up and attacked, while kobolds bombarded the panicking adventurers with arrows.
Love this one, reminds me of the time I had a Kobold tribe who found, hatched and revered a black dragon egg. My group was a party of 6 lvl 7's. This particular encounter was the 3rd of the day, they had easily dispatched large groups of kobolds before hand. This one was 7 kobolds and a black wyrmling, by no means a hard encounter. But through traps and poor party choices (and really bad luck) only the half orc barb (using the half orc resilience) was able to walk away.
Had a game around 20 years ago where we begged the dm to use the optional rule of one attack per lvl against creatures of 1/5 or less our lvl. He agreed. Unbeknownst to us, he adopted optional rules to counter it. He used a swarm of kobolds with over burdening rules. Several would jump and latch on to us without having to worry about our armor. If enough grabbed us we had to make saving throws or fall. The armed kobolds would run forward and stab at us then. It was devistating.
That feeling when you're binge watching DnD videos and considering how you would prevent your party from turning into a pack of dinosaurs because of pixies or how you'd go about making kobolds a challenging encounter... But you've also never played DnD in your life and have nobody willing to play with you.
Local game stores are great to look into. If you don't have any close by, check out Roll20. Its a bit less fun than in person, to me, but there are always a ton of games needing players and DMs
I gave my kobolds wacky and memorable personalities while at the same time keeping the best ones alive for the main story. A random kobold they capture and forgot to bring with them at the start of Hoards of the Dragon Queen ended up screwing over their plan to lure the cultists.
Same! I love using kobolds in my games explicitly because of how I imagine their personalities, too. I play them as silly little punks with high-pitched voices. (I LOVE doing my kobold voice at the table!)
First time I ever fought against kobolds was in a game I was playing alongside my dad and some of his friends. I was a sorcerer, he was a paladin, and we had other players rounding out the party. We had cornered some kobolds and, largely through luck, managed to avoid triggering any traps during the fight with them. They were on their last numbers when my dad called for us to stop so that he could try to make peace with them. He stepped forward, speaking Draconic to calm them - and stepped into a swinging log trap. Winded, he gets knocked to the floor and our one party member rushes forward to help him. Filled with righteous fury, myself and the other party member each let fly a crossbow bolt, killing another kobold. Getting to his feet, my dad tells us to stop, that he's fine. So he goes forth again. This time it's the pit trap that gets him. As the reasonable party member helps him out, we eliminate another one of the scaly runts. After clambering out of the pit, the paladin demands we curb ourselves and makes towards the kobold to broker peace. Only to be met with a spike trap. Two more crossbow bolts, and down the last kobold goes. My dad may not have have gotten the surrender of the kobolds, but he did find all their traps. That was the best experience I have ever had with kobolds.
@@mennograafmans1595 Poop spikes definitely and hell if you set fire to their underground warren and drive them into the light then you are a crueller man than I
@@frankieramos1748 My current character isn't that cruel. Worst he's done so far is killing a goblin by standing on him (my character is a large goliath), so it was like stomping on a baby. I have another character for an upcoming campaign however who is an extreme inquisitor and vampirehunter. You bet I'll use my knowledge of torture and hunting down hedens to the fullest. A quick death will feel like a reward for his enemies.
If you know warhammrr fantasy give them Skaven Tech. It's very... kobaldy. Especially the warp fire thrower. Or the look of shear panic as a rattling gun starts to go full auto down a hallway. Hell make it a trap only medium creatures would set off. So the gun starts up and fires till it either runs out of bullets, jams or explodes (The two foremost is the most likely).
Agreed. Kobolds are underdark. In some settings, gnomes are underdark. why wouldn't kobolds pick up some traits of the gnomish tinkers, alchemists, etc. that they slay. a couple tomes later and the tribe as a whole has Int scores of 12 and higher. throw in a few golems, automatons, kobolds with rifles, throwing flasks. Bam!
Wonderful video, Cody. This reminds me of how the current Tyranny of Dragons adventure I'm running started out. In the very first session a player whom I allowed to play a Muscle Wizard punched the very first Kobold he saw and rolled the minimum possible damage, which brought the poor little guy down to 1 HP but, because the flavoring my player sprinkled onto the scenario, I allowed to knock the Kobold out. After the fight ended, the Muscle Wizard went to check on the Kobold he punched square in the nose and found him still alive. The Muscle Wizard decided to take this as an omen, saying "I punched him as hard as I could in the face and he's still alive... He is the chosen one." He proceeded to drape the unconscious Kobold over his shoulders like a boa and carry him the rest of the way through the settlement until the party reached safety and he could nurse the little guy back to health. At which point he began training the Kobold - named Zup, but spoken as if one had a broken nose (which he did) - as his disciple. Zup now looks like Mr. Incredible: Beefy as all get-out, with itty bitty little stick legs.
RE: Punching up Kobolds. For a quick solution, remember the Half-Dragon veteran (p180) or even the Half-Ogre (p238) in the monster manual. You can swap around traits (parry for pack tactics) or you could use it as a jumping off point and get into some mad science to find that sneaky kobold niche. I'm thinking small sized, Half-Dragon Kobolds riding guard drakes (or maybe reskinned warhorses), using pikes and nets. Blue and white Guard drakes have a burrowing speed of 30, so they can surprise the squishies from below.
I had a dragon shrine that my adventures were ordered by the church to destroy to install their religion of dominance in the land. Well, let say the found out it wasn't really a shrine. But a grand capital city scaled down to the dragon kobolds with the most beautiful architecture ever seen. That was built around an ancient platinum silver dragon that had access to lvl 5 psionics and 9th lvl sorcery. This dragon was befriended by these little ones so they take care of each other as the dragon kobolds get some added low-level 1-2 scionics and crystal breath. They keep the dragon very safe and eat church assassins like its turkey Tuesday lol long story short. Out of a party of five 2 lived to find out the truth of the place. One was paid off to never return again and discourage any more adventures that the church pays to send their way again, and the second person fell in love with the dragonness humanoid form (lolXD) and shared a life bond with each other.
Kobolds rock! As a player and dm kobolds are among my favourite races. I play a kobold monk/rogue as a character. And in a game I dm'd I had a kobold encounter where traps lay everywhere, my players became more concerned with the traps that got increasingly harder, the further into their cave they travelled. They finally met a kobold sorcerer whom held a ring of mind shielding. She wasn't hard to beat but the person that took her ring, truly regretted it. Imagine having the most irritating voice in your head consistently trying to convince you to do things you normally wouldn't, taking absolute delight when you messed up, and whispering embarrassing thoughts in your head while in social situations
A player may and try and get rid of said ring, then just have it keep coming back. Sold to a shop, some common person bought it, killed by bandits, bandits attack party, "Oh look they have a ring of mind shielding. Hopefully this one isn't as annoying....." "Hello again.... Haha Haha."
I'm doing that right now. One guy has gone down once already (rolled a backup earlier). Cleric went down to 1, after triggering the same trap twice. Two others are in single digits HP. One Kobold Sorcerer was traced around the map after casting Expeditious Retreat, running all over the place. Oh yeah, the Sound. I found a Trap sound, which they are starting to hate. A player that missed the introduction session, FREAKED OUT when he heard the Trap sound.
A unique sound that goes off every time a trap is sprung?!? Great idea. LOL Do you make the trap sound, or do you have something pre-recorded that you play?
I use Roll20, and I have marked the map with the areas with traps. As the players move their tokens into the zones, I go to the Jukebox and press the sound. "Trap Mechanism by ottolenz" / "Trap by Jakyle"
DoStuffZ Ah, cool. Never used roll20 before. All the groups I run are in person. I'll have to get a trap sound for my ipad or phone, though. Really like the idea. 👊
Most memorable thing with Kobolds I remember is one where the Kobolds weren't the bad guys of the adventure. The setup was that the Kobolds were stealing things above ground in a large city, largely of religious nature, we got sent down to recover things and stop them from continuing what they were doing. After fighting out way part of the way through the hellhole of their burrow, we discovered that the entire thing was due to some nutjob necromancer who had been launching attacks to take over the city...with the only way the guy could have "easy" access was through the underground.
Great show, Cody!!! AND some really great subject for discussion! I'm guilty as charged... I WAY over-run low-level campaigns with kobolds, even having a couple "go-to" first adventure arcs for new or beginning parties... Like "The Great Kobold Menace"... which is basically a conspiracy theorist's campaign with a twist... it's always someone in cahoots with the Kobolds. Favorites? oh boy... Well, for some basis here, I like to examine stuff that kobolds would "find" under a simple enough premise question. "How important would it have to be, before you were willing to dive head-first into the toilet to get it back?"... AND anything less than that kind of importance, power, or direct influence, can probably qualify somewhere... I once invented a pair of Kobold twins, who had earned(?) a great deal of prestige in their tribe after they found a pair of Bracers of Ogre Strength... They had to wear the bracers like belts, but the offset of magic strength was still worth it, granting the two true Ogre Strength whenever they were together in the fight (within ten feet or so)... Theoretically, the enchantment would "fade" as the distance between the bracers got too big to be on the arms of a reasonable sized fighter (but it's D&D so fighters can get pretty big)... None the less, fighting with kobolds is hysterical when the Barbarian suddenly finds himself facing two of the little monsters with 18(00) strength! {no, that ain't right} Teamworking kobolds has never been more fun, (for me, GM, anyways) than when I find an excuse for them to work for Tinkergnomes, possibly in some kind of ritual-promise to get their deity out of the mystical labyrinth... or maybe gnomes are liars... whatever... Tinkergnomes are fairly well known for insane devices, and seige-engines of notoriously small and manageable size are no exception. Ordinarily, PC's might not think too much of Kobolds wheeling a Scorpion out, considering in their scale, it resembles about an average human-sized crossbow... On closer inspection (should there be time before the screaming, mayhem, and running around) the Tinker-special Kobold Scorpion is a compound model, DOUBLING the stats of even the most powerful of regular human hand-held projectile devices... some of the insanity is even giving such a thing to Kobolds in the first place(?) You also specifically mentioned that Kobolds are small, unusually so. I would like to point out, from my exploits at PC's regretting these creatures in all their opposition, that smaller creatures are less prone to being broken by falls. This is actually really helpful for creatures who might find firing themselves from catapults and siege engineering for the advantages of aerial assaults... Walls don't tend to help much if the Kobolds enlist Tinkergnome aid in producing an air force... however risky that might be... and a kobold dive-bombing with a spear is... well... sort of the D&D version of a "smart missile"(?) ...good luck on the sale, there. Finally, to resonate whole-heartedly with your employment of them in-game... TEAMWORK is the top-notch most important and effective advantage Kobolds can possess against the Party. It simply can't be over-stated that the most effective team involved in a numbers-combat is likely to be the surviving winner. Players learn quickly that organization and smart tactical thinking are a requirement to get very far... or they learn that lesson the second or third time they're putting Characters together. ;o)
Favorite ever was late into a campaign with fairly high levelled PC's. They we're crossing an arched mines of moria style narrow bridge and a large band of minimal CP unarmed kobolds came at the party halfway across, took no offensive actions and basically scrambled through the party trying to get past, getting tangled up in the party and making a huge mess. The drow slaver they were running from had fitted them each with collars with a single bead from a necklace of fireballs, which the party missed noticing in the rush. The mage with the slaver cast on the closest slave, setting off a chain reaction as beads got hit by multiple fireballs, breaking and setting each other off with the party in the middle. It didn't kill them, and wasn't intended to, but it did bring them down a peg, and made them much more cautious and respectful of the dangers in the dark.
I played a kobold as a character twice. The first time was D&D2E, he was a Ranger Beastmaster(cavarly) with a boar. The second time (different group same character sorta) in Pathfinder he was a Druid/Wizard with a boar companion that he also rode, but not for combat purposes. A feat called 'Companion Boon' allows you animal companion to also act as your familiar... aka Enlarge Person works on it. The second character had a lot more back story, being the descedant of a brass dragon who outcast for his appearance, behaviors and his odd choice to make the tribe's dinner his best friend. He was very whimsical and mischievious, the first magic item I had him purchase was a Robe of Many Things... it felt right. 😁 Both versions went out of their way to treat the boar companion/mount as if were a sentient humanoid. Those that didn't get fooled by a diplomacy check, usually just have him pass assuming the kobold was just "special".
Kobolds are absolutely my favorite D&D creature. I love creating elaborate trap-laden dungeons built by kobolds. That and also making them into a proper faction the players can work with or against. One adventure I prepared but unfortunately didn’t have the chance to run had a mine that was contested by both a powerful Dwarf merchant family and an upstart Kobold clan which had settled in an old mine the Dwarves had abandoned decades ago. The players could decide which faction to support, which would of course prosper and later go on to help the party during later stages of the campaign.
(in Jester's voice) Technically, the default setting for 5e is the whole multiverse, technically. (yes, even though FR has basically its own book in this edition)
My favorite kobold memory isn't even an encounter. One of the other players in my party was a kobold (I can't even remember what class) with an incredibly low intelligence. We basically used this kobold to do the dirty work for us when it came to traps, and eventually she got stuck with some arrows. Thinking that her new "spikes" looked cool, she demanded that we let her keep them in. It was. Fabulous.
Had a fellow party member not take a fight with a kobold seriously because of his high ac and vorpal shortsword. He decided to go for flair and throw his vorpal weapon into the chest of a kobold killing it. The DM then described how the Kobold standing next to the slain one takes the vorpal weapon and retreats with its remaining kin into the dark caverns. Our party was paranoid for the entire adventure of being ambushed by a kobold with a vorpal weapon.
I think my favorite Kobold experience was when my party was delving into a very upper end of the Underdark and they encountered a tribe of Kobold warring against a tribe of goblins. The players thought to focus the goblins over the Kobold, the latter of which pulled away from the conflict and coated their tunnel used for retreat with oil. When the players finished the goblins they decided that, rather than simply move along and continue excavating, they wanted to pursue the Kobold tribe and be murder hobos. A Kobold sorcerer then launched a fire bolt into the tunnel, igniting the oil. The players pretty quickly changed their minds.
These "Kill your party with" episodes are amazing and are the main reason I subscribed to taking 20. I'm now hesitant to run any more campaign modules as binging these episodes have given me so many ideas for homebrew stuff. Thanks man , really good work.
Never be afraid to get crazy and creative with those traps; Kobolds are great at that. A GM I once knew had a kobold trap which was a hollow rock with blood packs along the underside. As the party creeps down the corridor, the trap drops the rock down perfectly over a party member, trapping them inside with no room to move while blood splatters everywhere. The party figures that the character is dead (especially if you play that up telling the poor player to think of a new character) and when the party walks off, the kobolds come up and drag off the rock with their new hostage for the 'final room'. Another was taking a HUGE (and stupid) creature that they befriend and polymorphing it into a kobold, convincing the party to accept an arean challange for a reward/hostage. When they think its a simple kobold and the fighter says "i got this" watch the shock as that little kobold hits A LOT harder than it should. Honestly, with the way damage and stats are scaled with 5e, being a lot like AD&D with its sudden difficulty spikes for unprepared players, I think that a creative GM can make kobolds a mid or even end campaign threat without being forced to just beef up their block. Nothing more memorable than a group of lvl 10 players walking into the Inn needing healing and rest with the only word they can shakingly admit is 'kobolds'. Remember GM's, kobolds are dragons. And Dragons should be feared!
about 3 years ago I found my love for Kobolds when in D&D 3.5 when some NPC miners who were digging a new shaft into a player owned Silver Mine exposed a Kobold mine underneath. I used the hit & run tactics, combined with a Shaman using minor image spell to "boost the ranks" with a few fake Kobolds, to get them nice and lost within the caverns. Eventually the PC's came across "The Butcher" (Inspired by Diablo 1) which was a Flesh Golem (without its haste from lightning type damage & Described as a Huge Kobold), and also had to fight the Winter Wolf Calvary, which had doned Winter wolf pelts fashioned into Cloaks of Cold Resist to offset the cold blooded nature of the Kobolds This was a party of 4 Level 7-8 PC's, the Cleric was taken down in a single blow from the Butcher as it burst through the simple wooden door and charged the Cleric who had thought he was simply going to hold of more Kobolds, it was a tough fight, but they managed to strive through to the Temple below, where the four Monk priest's (The Ninja Turtles) were praying to the statue of a Black Dragon, that fight effectively knocked the Cleric out again, along with the Fighter, leaving the Rogue & Sorceress to run away. This was a One-Shot within a broader game that I was a player, and then had to leave the fate of the still alive, but left behind Cleric & Fighter to the main DM's, There were 2 DM's & 14 players, but every now and then a player would run a One-shot for 4-5 of the PC's..... Wish I had thought of Breath weapons though. I enjoyed them so much so, that when signing on to a Pathfinder game, which the DM locked to Core Rules Races only, and then added "Or you could play a Kobold because everyone knows they die too easily Mehehehehehe".... Yeah, cross-classed Ranger/Rogue who lived in the Half-Orc Barbarians backpack & tinkered with inventing, made myself a pair of "Riddick goggles" to function in daylight without disadvantages, and a quick release lever to drop out of the backpack that I lived in due to the Barbarian constantly Raging & Charging. It also made for some great Roleplay as the DM limited me to only being able to speak Dracoinic, which he did allow my best friend Half-Orc to have a basic understanding of what I was trying to say... Started at Level 1, never even came close to death.
"Kobold beat the odds! Kobold come home!" -Kobold Worker, Dungeons & Dragons Online The above-mentioned game also shows how dangerous Kobolds can be as early as your arrival in Stormreach. Their shamans pack a nasty Lightning Bolt, their lairs are usually chock-full of traps (like the nasty acid jet in front of the very first door in Clan Gnashtooth's sewers), and they come in very large numbers. (One quest involves your party versus two hundred Kobolds!) Their tunnellers are also utilized by Droaam to land a surprise attack on the Lordsmarch Palace, and later on, you'll find magically souped-up Paragon Kobolds that actually can be a significant threat, with one even managing to be the lieutenant of a Pit Fiend! (It also shows off Eberron's eased alignment restrictions in some cases, such as in Home Sweet Sewer, where you help one kobold lead guard dogs out of his sewer, and he specifically asks you not to kill them because he feels bad for them- though there are many kobolds that aren't as friendly as poor Scrag.)
So I just had two party members decide that they'd go explore the long (3 days' march) tunnel while the rest of the party was busy in a completely different part of the above ground portion of the dungeon... I used these tactics with a small band of kobolds harrassing these two, one a dwarf with darkvision and the other a human paladin with no darkvision. Once they caught sight of the two or three kobolds fleeing, of course these two pursued and landed right into a pit trap. Instead of getting up and retreating, they decided to give chase. Guess what? Right into a trap-filled dark lair. The dwarf takes off leaving the essentially blind paladin alone. I almost killed the both of them. They eventually had to turn tail and run away however it did teach them a lesson about splitting the party. Thank you Cody for this and your other videos - they really get the creative juices flowing!
One of my favourite characters I’ve ever made is Gnar, the bravest little Kobold. Gnar was a basic Kobold who worked within a group who worshipped a dragon. Gnar kinda believed the dragon was mean and wanted to convince the dragon to be nicer. He set up a trap which was only meant to bonk the dragon on the head but Gnar crushed the dragons head and killed it. The other Kobolds thought Gnar was evil for doing this and drove him out. Role playing Gnar was fun because I just tried to be so nice. I hated violence, even though I was a rogue, and spent most of the time just trying to be nice and help my party.
I ran a very similar group of Kobolds to the 'hulked out' ones you mention at the end. There was a dead black dragon that they were essentially boiling down the carcass into a paste and drinking it trying to become dragons themselves. Many died in the process but some became bigger, more scaled (and black scales to boot!) sprayed acid blood when killed and their leader even gained a full breath weapon wings, and became Large in size!
I remember reading about Tucker's Kobold. The players were so afraid to face them they would try to rush to the next level of the dungeon where there were harder monsters but not intelligent like the Kobolds
This video inspired me to try this and I somehow managed to kill a player and an npc with nothing but a single Kobold and traps. The players split the party with some of them going into a Kobold tunnel system which they had to crawl through and was littered with traps they had no way to avoid unless they spotted them and disarmed them, whilst the Kobold in there used gorilla tactics in the tunnels using a lot of aoe based attacks such as a breath weapon which ended up killing an npc because the player i mentioned dragged her across a trap he knew was there trying to save her and then got attacked from the other side by the kobold killing him in the process. Also side note the party waited to go to the dragons horde in this arc so there is now a kobold with a staff of the magi in the world which just makes me smile
Great podcast and can’t wait to share with my various groups. Enjoyed both the detail and the way you put it across. Thank you. Look forward to seeing much more. 😊
I'm a Pathfinder guy, so this probably doesn't work in 5e, but a Kobold tribe of Alchemists and Gunslingers, obliterating larger monsters in a hail of musketfire and hand grenades.
In one of my games, the DM created a joke character who was a kobold. They’d show up from time to time in the most random of places, even absurd places like a prison we’d get trapped in and- does nothing about it for most of the time. Only occasionally does he help the party out. It gotten to the point when our DM mentions something that we’d relate back to the kobold, the group gets all excited to see the little one again. No relevance to the plot besides aiding us in the final fight with the BBEG and that was the last time we ever saw him. That was until a much later campaign when we discovered a lot green kobold, hiding behind barrel as our party was raiding an enemy base, it was Pickle.
Don't forget grovel, cower and beg!Advantage for all their allies, and a group of 4 kobolds can do this 4 times. Use this while at range and not with terrain or home field advantage to allow your kobolds to close distance with the players. A sorcerer kobold can also make cover for the kobolds with the move earth cantrip. or restrict the players' movement options with the same cantrip. Once the kobolds are close, they can fully use their pact tactics, ducking in to attack and back out to cover every turn. Only one kobold per attack needs to go melee, probably sacrificing itself, but it would significantly improve the damage output of the remaining kobolds.
I like the idea of kobolds breathing fire but I want to take it further. What if kobolds can breathe the different dragon elements but only have the ability to do so after exposure to said element or environment. For example, maybe a tribe of kobolds built a cave into a volcano and now can breath fire or a maybe they took refuge in a moving glacier, carving pathways and even being able to steer it themselves with a pack of winter wolves dragging. That tribe would be able to breath cold damage. Another idea I really liked was a group of kobolds living in the sewers of a major city, slugging around rotten food and feces to eat, being able to spit acid but also delivering a highly toxic bite that can give a PC a disease
I learned long, long ago how to make kobolds deadly thanks to the ad&d 2e adventure Dragon Mountain. So fun to watch cocky players bragging how they're going to kill a dragon get destroyed by kobolds. My brother used kobolds as one of the main enemies in his 3.5e campaign (along with various undead). It was grueling and hard, but felt so good to win. Then he introduced a small tribe on half-dragon kobolds living in the sewers of a town... We were all scared to death. A long hard fight with one nearly wiped us out, then 8 more showed up. Only reason any survived was the cleric suicide bombing. He wiped them all out (and left a hell of a crater).
Region the tunnels are in affects things too. Not even the traps the kobolds use, but setting up a network of tunnels around a volcano presents other hazards like poisonous smoke inhalation, convection, obsidian deposits that randomly explode from heat pressure, etc.
Just discovered your channel. Have not played AD&D in 35 years. Just pulled my old 1st edition books down from the attic. And trying to figure out how to bring a few people into my world. I love your ideas regarding Kobolds, Knolls etc. (I will be viewing many more of your posts in the near future!) To me, the game is just not fun unless it unfolds with mysterious enemies, actions and motivations that later, through play, start to make sense. That's when the players REALLY enjoy connecting the dots, drawing their own logical conclusions and taking well thought out risks that pay off because the milieu was an interconnected plot and not just a random hack and slash fest. (Which is sometimes called for and bloodily awesome...) I liken a well planned campaign to a Kubrick film. Where one is thrown into a world without a clue as to what the Hell is going on, and must figure out the rhyme and reason as they go. Thanks Pal for the inspiration. But now I must ask myself if I am really willing to clime on to the back of this tiger...
I'm going to be DMing for the first time in a few months. I came up with an optional encounter that involves Kobolds. My idea is to have the kobolds be a bit more militaristic in their movement. As they are being commanded by an Orog. Under his leadership the kobolds managed to overcome their sensitivity to light and become more hardy. Along with their magical abilities improving. This is just a basic idea was hoping for some feedback.
I LOVE these videos. I've just recently gotten back into the game and my main group has been playing for roughly 40 years. Not 40 years combined, 40 years each- mostly together. Your content gives me a lot of knowledge that my fellow gamers just have. So thank you very much! Be well, friend.
I find it interesting that there is a cultural difference when it comes to Kobolds In the West, they are goblin sized lizard people In the East, they are human sized dog people I dunno why, but its an interesting thing to note
Actually there are 3 types of kobolds. The original D&D had small dog men. The later versions had small lizard men. And World of Warcraft has small rat men. I personally like all of them, but use the dog version, because that's what I encountered first so long ago.
Hmmm, I'm thinking... A kobold that got a hold of a Headband of intellect, and attempts to free Kartulak by lighting cities on magical fire in order to create a beacon to guide their god out of the maze. That should keep my players busy for a few sessions, non? Also, I'm thinking Gelatinous Cube Cavalry, though that might be more of a Goblin thing.
consider the ramifications if they dug up one of their gods and how that might affect them. Or what powers they could be granted following Tiamat. There is a lot of loose story tied to kobolds that a lot could be done with and could really change the dynamics of kobolds.
Why, yes. And let us not forget that we must rid the world of the furry menace so us scale lovers can live free from their oppressive and perverted fantasies!
I slashed the stats of a Young Green dragon, put four kobolds on his back with slings and had the dragon duck and weave between trees for cover while taking the dodge action. The 4th level party surrendered to them two rounds later. Didn't even make it into the convenient cover a hundred feet further up. Didn't even get to try and breach the fortress cave the kobolds had made. Never got to find out what happens when an armored knight stands on one of the cracked flagstones. Never found out what the stalactite tied with vines was for. Kobolds without even the tools to work stone are a force to be feared. Fortunately the party had trade skills and the dragon was all too eager to have them become his loyal subjects, eventually sending them out on a quest back to their homes. They're currently still nominally his subjects, but they don't seem to be displaying any intention to keep up their end of the bargain. Tip to all the DMs out there, have your kobolds be clever and eager, but inexperienced. Start them out primitive but have them catch onto new ideas very fast, adapting to what your PCs do (or if 'friendly', the concepts they introduce them to). It makes them endearing and infuriating at the same time, and pushes the players to be smarter because "we can't get outwitted by KOBOLDS ffs!"
A friend of mine had kobolds pushing around large boxes on wheels. Inside were basilisks that when a trigger was pulled, a small door opened for the gaze attack. It was awesome
My Favorite Kobold memory was during a War campaign, doing a night raid with Kobold allies and we successfully cut the enemy supply and really ruined their rest at camp by dousing torches and light sources before the kobold forces arrived. Didn't do much in casualties that night with the exception of the few creatures the Kobolds riled up and led their. Essentially the enemy just fixed camp when the full allied army arrived, and they were not equipped or rested. (for their affordable asking price the Kobold's made great night watchmen at camps as well)
I actually played a NE winged kobold who became something of a saturday morning cartoon villain in his own right. Kommander Skragg was a nasty character, but was funny and smart enough to know when to RETREEEAAAT. Maybe have a master mind kobold in your next game that throws your characters off with how charismatic and well-spoken they are?
I love this because I am literally building a Kobold sewer encounter for my players right now, and I'm wanting to make it a very memorable experience for them and set the tone that Kobolds in anything other that very small numbers are a force to be reckoned with.
Favorite kobold moment was in Pathfinder. A gnome rogue was scouting some tunnels and found a single kobold inhabiting a small room. The kobold had 13 levels of barbarian. The rogue was reduced to negative HP in a single round. The rest of the party was close enough to hear, so they managed to get in and save their companion. This incident is still talked about around the table and used as a kind of short-hand warning to not get overconfident. We refer to that encounter as "the sewing machine" since the kobold had three attacks in a single round with a spear.
Speaking of guerrilla tactics, I was recently told about an awesome story involving goblins. (Told by the dungeon master at the local comic con recently) A friend of the DM had recently got back from military service, and had expressed interest in joining a D&D game. Luckily the DM had a game coming up where the village the party was in was about to be attacked by a couple of hobgoblins and about 20 or so goblins, and decided to give control of the invaders to his friend. For a bit of context, in the previous session, the party (about 4 or 5 players) found out that the goblin raiding party was on its way to the village, and managed to rally some of villagers and guards and prepare for the raid. This included various barricades and traps that could be set up in at most a days notice. Now on to the shenanigans. As the raiding party arrived, the military friend had the hobgoblins assess the situation, and order the goblins to scout the area for any weakness in the village defences. Needless to say, the goblins managed to get into the village, unfortunately I don’t remember how. With a combination of hit and run tactics, hiding in building s and dark alleys, and using the village fortifications against the defenders and players, the goblins managed to kill many of the NPCs and corner the party. With the party cornered and weak, they were slaughtered, resulting in a total party kill, no casualties on the raiding parties side, and an awesome story of why you don’t underestimate the little guys. Oh and did I mention that all the characters in the party were level 18 at the time?
took a magical bow and had the kobolds make it into a kobold sized ballistae shooting at them from a higher point. that was fun and got a "Oh shit, you evil bastard!" moment.... though the breath and cavalry are good ideas as well.
I made a character at random in pathfinder because a DM though I was "a power gamer" so we random rolled a Kobold wizard with a 20 dex and 14 Intel with a random spell book and all scavenged gear he was so funny and crafty the DM said no done you cant play with us I don't know how to handle you
My fav part of D&D is the blending of stories and the creativity. There is Way too many role in my play then their rolling play. The idea of using a sleep spell to hunt bats for Buffalo Batwings and use broken glasses he insists are magical to use detect magic and read magic
How did you roll a 20 in dex when the max is 18 with the 3d6 technique? I have a power gamer and always have to be scepticle from him because he just “pulls armor out of his butt” that I never gave him. Either that or he likes to do as much as he can in one turn and pull things like, “yeah I prepared that spell before combat” yeah sure you did you liar
Could be a D20 roll, for my Trox [as an example] (also since I don't like going 100% by the rules for some things *cough* Haunts *cough*) I use a 5D20 pick highest, but if two dice are let's say 20 then you gotta reroll until either 1 is higher then the other or 1 is under 10 and the reroll can't bring the base stat below 10, so my Trox's stats are from STR to CHA 18, 15, 15, 19, 19, 18 before racial + or - while not counting any other + or - then it becomes 24, 15, 15, 17, 17, 16.
Now I really want to make a winged kobold mage, raised by a dragon, that took a liking to its worshippers (but not enough to care about their religion), because the tribe was more or less exterminated by an earthquake, leaving only a single egg behind. Shame I've never gotten to play dnd before, so I dunno if it might seem like an OP/(Mary/Gary) S(t)ue character or whatnot.
Thanks for the great video! I replaced the Stonecold Reavers in Icespire with a squad of white kobolds who set a load of traps. The result was much more satisfying. I appreciate the idea. It made more sense than what was in the base module.
I am a late subscriber and I don't know if you'll even see this comment, but I have really found this series of videos incredibly useful and very inspirational, I would love to see more of them. I have already written some of your ideas about Hags, Drow and bandits into my campaign. A kill your party with Devils/Demons or maybe kill your party with Vampires or ghouls would be a great addition to the series. I would also love to hear what you have to say about some of the 3.5 races from the BOVD like the Jerren and Vashar and how you would implement them in 5e. Thanks for the great content bro. Keep it up.
In Pathfinder, my first character was killed by a group of Kobolds who set traps for the party and managed to pick up and drop a large creature's war axe on my head. That poor alchemist. The whole party got wiped when they discovered that Goblins were helping the Kobolds.
Fun fact: In one of my first ever custom made campaign, I had a group of kobolds that specialized illusion magic work together using minor illusion to create a false red dragon. They were able to see right through it after they realized the dragon was missing its back half.
Imagine if the final encounter had the big bad ( preferably having something to do with a dragon) and the players are like "Yeah let's take them down!!" Then you say "Wait, don't forget about the 20 armored basilisk riding Kolbolds with magic artifacts". They would probably just stare at you...
I think with things like the breath weapon kobolds I'd go a little different. They don't TECHNICALLY have breath weapon.... they however have cobbled together Napalm or other substances that they use to mimic a mundane version of said breath weapons. Also given their subservient nature, perhaps an evil draconic wizard/sorcerer performing experiments on them so you have mutations ranging from the hulked out Kobolds, ones that perhaps have been linked to the Shadowfell giving them access to Shadow-like abilities... various mutations... etc. Maybe even throw in a creature that is like a miniature mutated mockery of Tiamet through the arcane merging of multiple dragon blessed Kobolds.
The breath weapons could come from alchemical sources much like their napalm and other sources. With the caveat that they are only designed to work with kobold/dragonoid physiology so they are ineffective or even poisonous for most other races.
Back in the 90s I ran a game where I used Kobolds in a very Die Hard with a Vengeance kinda way. They started undermining key locations in the city, causing sink holes and in some cases collapse of certain buildings. Meanwhile, a group was breaking into the merchant exchange to liberate all of the gold in the city. Plunder the funded an as yet unknown villain hiding in plain sight.
One of my favorite things to do with kobalds is to have one run up to a player, have them think, "Oh, easy kill" then have a kobald riding a boar charge in, doing additional damage, then have kobalds use pack tactics to hit with short sword attacks. It has downed like three characters, one of which was level 4.
Just found your channel. I like it! Of course, I was looking for references on kobolds while I painted up a few old school minis for the next encounter. These kobolds are a sort of elite hunter group that have been tracking the party for some time now. So far, only the halfling suspects anything and she's decided not to panic her companions by recounting the lore of a dragon cult of kobolds nesting in the region.
I was running a Kolbold tribe vs. Gnome village mini campaign and the most fun was designing the Koblod’s dwelling. There was a shrine to Kurtulmak that actually breathed fire. A rope bridge where the side hand ropes were tripwires that cause the whole thing to collapse. A stair case where if you jump over the one obvious step that is a pit fall you land on a pressure plate that will unleash rocks tumbling down on your party. Get creative with the traps.
Used kobold assassins. Really just made lv.5 kobold rouges with the DMG. Was great because the party wasn't expecting such a deadly fight. Using pack tactics and sneak attack rules they were doing massive damage in one hit and the ability to survive more than one attack. Sure it was cheap. But nobody knew that would happen and that's why I thought it was fun
Kolbold "commandos" was an idea I first saw outlined in Dragon magazine in the mid to late 80's. I ran with it and turned a mid level party into a quivering, shellshocked mass of (demi-)humanity. No one died but they lost most of their equipment and treasure buying their way out of the kolbold den. Good times, good times
I once just for fun (and because I love Kobolds) made a kobold PC He was a monk with very hight wisdom and dexterity but basiacly being below average in everything else (except inteligents where he was pretty average in) My backstory for him was (and I never realy fleshed it out because I assume I will never use him) that despite his pack mentality of being a kobold he strived for a little bit more than just being a miner (or similar ) his whole life, He was searching for a "greater purpose". And one day he hears about this monestry order and is facinated by it (while also not completly understanding it and thinking its also just something like a tribe or pack) and one day he just decides to defect from his tribe and go to this monestery who take him in (because they are very chilled who they take in) where he gets trained and then has to do a journey before he becomes a full fledge member (just a storypoint to make him hook up with any potential group) And I know this character is probaly pretty broken but hey sometimes you need characters like that even if they probaly not surive even 1 session.
I've actually been thinking of a kobold druid PC where their whole goal is to look for a safe place for their clan so that they don't need to be subjugated to the other races of the Underdark. And I'd make it work above ground by him insisting that he's actually just half-gnome, half-dragon born.
Great Video! Kobolds riding Basilisks sounds horrifying when adding in all the other capabilities of these little guys. When coming up with Challenging Kobold encounters I like to use the following: 1) Kobolds as 4e minions. 1 HP Easy to wipe out but still a threat in numbers 2) Similar to the stat up idea, re-flavoring another monster as a kobold. Want a massive mutant Kobold that hits like a truck? Re flavor an Ogre
Kobolds are my favorite little dragons, both as a player race, and as a monster. I'm currently running an all Kobold campaign, and can't wait to give them a bunch of traps to fend of humans next session!
My favorite use was during one shot that turned into campaign I ran. I had the friendly metallic kobolds (obviously based of the metallic dragons) and the chromatic kobolds (obviously based of the chromatic dragons). The campaign took place in a large icy wasteland so we had the white kobolds and silver kobolds. The white kobolds had a smaller warren (that was sadly unexplored) but were controlled by a savage half-dragon kobold that slaughtered many of the warriors to maintain his dominance of the tribe. Early on of the bards (since it was an all bard party) rolled a nat 20 and convinced a kobold scouting party to rebel against the half-dragon. This led to a rather memorable encounter where the kobolds and bards drew the half-dragon our of the warren and kobolds pouring out to defend the warren, some seeing the kobold scouts fighting the big bad and joining in to get rid of the unwelcome conqueror. The silver kobolds I made a bit less isolated, with a few buildings outside of the warren to trade with travelers and a modest tavern for the party to rest at.
I love kobolds. Ran my first campaign with them as the MAIN protagonist. Had my party meet with them, and try to figure out why the kobolds were holding the local mines hostage. They killed the first party they saw, a relatively small group standing on the path to the mine, surrounded by flags and beating drums. After that, I terrorized them with kobolds. Sneak attacks at night. Traps laid across trails, and more traps set in the bushes and trees, coupled with ambushes of kobolds with blowpipes, javelins, and short bows firing poisoned missiles (Charlie, they're in the trees!). Poisoning water sources so that they couldn't quench themselves. Harassing isolated farms. Undercutting the local miner's guild by selling to caravaneers at a MASSIVE loss, just to kill the local broker's markets. Then kobold cavalry riding medium sized dinosaurs. The tribe was run by a pair of Dragonwrought siblings with poison-breath. Eventually, the party had to raise a small force of NPCs from the local settlement, and met with reps from the tribe, only to learn that the first party that the party had come across, sitting out in the open and waving them over had been the designated representatives to the settlement, and the party had stomped them before even asking why none of them had attacked first. After that, the party had to work for the town at a discount price, forcing them to campaign at the absolute edge of poverty, though they did get to keep the shinys they found...that they could keep on their person. If it couldn't fit in their cell (they were in cells between adventures), it was sent up to the settlement's community armory/treasury. I made them work for every win, and they started getting real proud of all the insane ways they had to get around their handicap.
Kobolds in my Pathfinder setting value mountain goats above all else, for meat, textiles and work animals. They ride them into battle. I love these little guys
Your hulked kobold reminds me of how in Orcs Must Die, a great tower defense PC game, you get large kobolds if you give them magic mushrooms. Another great use of kobolds in this game are the ones that have exploding barrels strapped to their backs for kamikaze attacks.
This is an amazing video, Kobolds are my favourite "lesser" race of monster, because i am totally obsessed with dragons, but everyone love dragons, and u gave me so meny tips and ideas....my playere will have a GREAT TIME....
I found it very interesting that you mentioned "hulking out the kobolds." For the longest time I've thought it would be ingesting to have the party encounter a group of kobolds that would have one "hulk" in the group. The party will face a small group of regular kobolds and this hulk, or just the hulk. When the party took the "hulk" down, another normal kobold would rush to them, pull a ceremonial dagger that was already lodged into the hulk's chest, stab themself in the chest, and mutate into the hulk form within that round. Now a larger group of normal kobolds would join the new hulk. From here the party will need to decide if they want to keep fighting one hulk after another (meanwhile taking deceptive amounts of damage from the normal kobolds, as you mentioned) or avoid killing, or being killed by the hulk, while taking out as many normal kobolds as possible, until there is just the hulk remaining... it would be a tough call.
I wants was playing a game where some kobolds found a dragon egg and it hatched at the end of the battle with the kobolds, that dragon went out the window and eventually grew up to be a young dragon and that was our antagonist for level one through six of our campaign
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the tiny terrain looks so awesome. i may have to pick some up to use with my terrain tiles :D
Okay! So Kobolds live to 120 because of their dragon blood... then why is it exactly that Dragonborn, humanoids with draconic blood, only live to be about 80 when humans live to 100 normally... some glaring inconsistencies in the power of dragon blood if the Kobolds really get their long lives from it...
Question, would it be wrong for a half-dragon character to knock out a kobold and then stuff it into its bag of holding to make one into their knew servant/slave? XD
Well, aside from the fact that, in every version I've ever played, Bags of Holding don't actually have any air inside... nah :D
Imagine your fighter turns a corner and get hit with a punch that sends him flying, around the corner comes an impressive looking 6 ft tall kobold monk using a ring of enlarge/reduce, initiate fight with kobold ant-man.
That would be pretty legit.
He mentions Breath Weapons in the video, make it clear to your players Kobolds have breath weapons but are so small that they aren’t very potent.
Give it a few sessions for your players to hopefully forget the “flavor” ability of Kobolds, then bring in the big guy.
I see this and I'm just like
Yes
This is going in my campaign
*maniacal laughter*
so A dire kobold. you also could call the ones's with breath weapons either true/great kolbold. also since they are use alchemy have it they just create gun powder and simple blunder busts or flint lock pistols, either ceramic or cobber grenades. Also rename A crank gatling gun as A kobold gun
@@thomaskrogh85 I love the Kobald Gun idea!
@@meganofsherwood3665 yeah its so easy top see scenarios with that thing a single path tunnel an adventuring party is too arrogant to check for any traps they reach hafe way of the tunnel suddeny at the end of the tunnel a flap opens up to revile kobald gun and crew ( mim is three max is six) the gunner starts cranking the crank the spotter is is barking out targets the loader is at the ready the party is mowed down. also pun intended with the spotter and his barks
my favorite memory of a kobold is of my "boyfriend" Zuzu: when my party and i were to investigate a mine being overrun with kobolds, i charmed the one guarding the entrance, Zuzu, to gather information. our DM rolled a nat 1 on his save and because of the crit fail, the dm had it fall head-over-heels in love with my character (as well as elongate the length the spell lasted, which was a homebrew rule at the time) and to keep him compliant, my character just went along with it. i just had to call him pet names and pat his head and he was smitten. i asked him to draw a map for our party and he drew a picture of my character and him holding hands. while we were in the mine he wandered outside and picked a bouquet of wildflowers to suprise my character on the surface. He even jumped in front of an arrow that one of his own fired at me (a critical hit with sneak attack bonus, and i was at 1 hp at the time). dm even let us have a little moment where i cradled him in my arms as he passed away- humoring him, mostly, but it was kinda sad still. my character actually kept the flowers he was given, pressed them in a book. it is still the best romance ive ever played in a game to this day.
ItsaCaro lol, that’s wonderful!
Still a better love story than Twilight.
Zuzu’s petals :’) how sweet
Give one of the kobolds a helmet that he's forged a couple of iron rings to. when he sees the party, he slots a potion of hill giant strength into each one, and pushes a tube into each one, then puts the other ends in his mouth. Time to fight Foamdome The Terrible, Kobold Barbarian!
Totally stealing this for my next campaign
Same, consider this stolen.
its just like bane
but smaller.
amazing thanks
When said give them a mount, I thought of a giant centipede with the whole warren riding on the back.
Party: "This room looks like a good place to take a rest."
GM: "The far wall explodes as a giant centipede bursting in to the room, circling your party, shedding kobolds left and right. You now surrounded by dozens of kobold warriors. The chieftain grins as he maneuvers the centipede to attack. Roll initiative."
Even better, combine the 2 for a Kobold army. Kobold cavalry on basilisks or similar mounts, to lead the charge and provide flanking and scouting. Meanwhile, the Kobold troop transport centipedes ferry in the warriors.
BOOM, the Kobold are now a modern, mobilized strike force
Perfect
OnlyShadowsRemain I once had a campaign where most humans thought technology was terrible, but not kolbalds they had cannons on baskilisks, fun encounter that one.
Caramon Majere IMO Dex is almost as important or more important than Int in most cases.
Not to mention dex saves and AC that has no ceiling (unlike armor which technically has a cap).
Because going first as a mage, especially in mid/high tier is godlike. Our party had to fight it's mirror one session. We had two weeks to math/plan it. It really came down to which Wizard got off Prismatic Spray first.
Also plan to take Alert ASAP. It is one of the best Wizard Spellcasting feats ever (while not being directly related to spellcasting).
"I put my hands up!"
Had a DM who loved putting Kobolds at the beginning of any dungeon adventure. They had murder holes, pit traps, flaming carts pushed down slight inclines ect. We would wade through them to reach the lower levels and kill the high level monsters and then quake in fear knowing that we would have to travel back through those little demons just to reap the benefits of what we had taken.
Sometimes we would end up paying them for safe passage because we were at such a weakened state.
anthony livesay Oh, you mean exactly like the story of Tucker's Kobolds? Exactly like that story? That the one?
Damn your good! Figured sense that came out in the 90's no one would remember it.
This is the internet. Nothing is forgotten.
What is Tucker's Kobolds? I like your DM's usage, therefore I must know, is Tucker's Kobolds a resource or something?
@@foleylione Just search "Tucker's Kobolds" on google ps: it's not a resource
So, this is how you do it:
The party is hired to purge a kobold tribe from a region.
When they arrive, usually the party's tracker tries to find tracks of kobolds, and here the problems start: there are thousand of tracks over tracks, leading form everywhere to anywhere. Being daytime, kobolds are nowhere to be seen. Traps litter the countryside, forcing the thief to crawl along.
Then, night comes.
During the night, when they are not being sniped from afar, there's noise everywhere. Not people moving silently, but pans beng clanged about, loud screams, etc. rendering rest impossible; if the party moves toward the sound, the kobolds see them beforehand and vanish somewhere.
When they attack, expect them to prod some rust monster with sticks towards the party, or make a troll follow them toward the encampment.
When the party is in bad shape from not healing and having various exhausting point they attack in force, always with the support of something else.
Their leader is an ancient wizard, whose soulstone was found by one kobold. He had trained several kobold with magical aptitude, and even found some sorcerer between them.
If they manage to defeat him, he goes back to the soulstone, waiting for some poor sod to pick it up.
Bloody hell mate, that just sounds like a TPK session. But I love it for a one shot, with the right music and sound effects you could make this intense as.
My favorite kobold trap, are glass jars that are buried just under the ground like a mine, when you step on them, it unleashes the acidic slime from within, usually orchre jellies. Facing a Kobold isn't about dealing with a pack or group of them... it's about surviving the traps they have laid for you.
In one dungeon i ran, we had a beserker style barb and i had the kobolds taunt him, and insult him which caused him to promptly laugh and charge them full steam!--- straight into a pit trap in front of them. They proceeded to drop alchemists fire ontop of him, basically kobolds don't have to be tougher then you. They just have to be smarter, and when used properly even without PC classes they can be quite a handful!
Me biased? NO i dunno what you are talking about!
Cute sneaky kobold
I remember one quest in Dungeons & Dragons Online where you chased the boss, a Kobold tunneller working for Droaam named Boom, through the whole quest while he dropped mines behind you, and sometimes you ran through huge minefields on this chase.
I remember me and my little brother, both playing rogues (well, a fighter-rogue in my case), stopping in all the minefields to disarm every last mine once. There were over four hundred of the darn things. (Each one could yield fire trap parts when disarmed, too. We got mounds of them from that one run.)
What I'm saying is, Kobold land mines are underutilized.
So I was lead to this video after finding out about Tucker's Kobolds and love the idea of high level characters not fight some big powerful creature for the BBEG of the campaign and instead fighting Kobolds, so I have started thinking up a campaign idea for this to happen. Your trap just went into the list on how to make the end battle scary. The campaign arc will probably be that a Kobold tribe is on the verge of freeing their god and that the players should stop it before the Kobolds become a threat to the "civilised" world.
I'm almost sorry to say this, but... #swolebolds
I love this so much more than you know
Draconic Gods of Fitness
This reminds be of the lifting bro kobalds in "Not Another D&D Podcast".
My friend used that term a couple years ago against one of my Kobold bosses XD
Don't be; that's fucking awesome.
I’m so going to create a Dragonborn who was raised by a tribe of Kobalds.
So, Superman?
Remember a campaign : swamp 'bolds who carved themselves a city on the side of a mountain.
-3 days of crossing poisonous swamp under constant harassement from kobold assassin-archers.
-basically a siege battle sandwiched between lancers on the wall and archers on our backs.
-When when finally broke inside, the lancers would pepper us with smokescreens, rendering us virtually blind while they circled around, or just waited, and waited, until we walked into the smoke to eat a spear in the face !
-Once we'd gotten through all that, we found out the entire tribe (save the poor lancers) had ran of in tunnels ! We had to crawl through for a day before coming face to face with more spears and had to give up entirely 'cause our pyro had ran out of mana a day ago...
Some entrepreneur king was reeaally bummed that his future swamp castle was not secure ! We told him to go do it himself... He's dead now...
I made a campaign around having the players helping a tribe of kobolds who live under the city they were staying in and it spiraled into saving their god from the maze he's trapped in, while they fought gnomes and their god.
I used a wyvern chained at the bottom of a pit, and forced the characters to walk across a thin ledge. Then when they were least expecting it, the wyvern flew up and attacked, while kobolds bombarded the panicking adventurers with arrows.
Nice. Precarious terrain coupled with an ambush make for a nasty encounter. Did the PCs survive? 😁
Barely. It gave a sense of danger that they hadn't expected from an "easy" kobold dungeon crawl.
Springbok Games Awesome! "Remember the time we nearly TPK'd to a bunch of kobolds..."
Nice
Love this one, reminds me of the time I had a Kobold tribe who found, hatched and revered a black dragon egg. My group was a party of 6 lvl 7's. This particular encounter was the 3rd of the day, they had easily dispatched large groups of kobolds before hand. This one was 7 kobolds and a black wyrmling, by no means a hard encounter. But through traps and poor party choices (and really bad luck) only the half orc barb (using the half orc resilience) was able to walk away.
Had a game around 20 years ago where we begged the dm to use the optional rule of one attack per lvl against creatures of 1/5 or less our lvl. He agreed. Unbeknownst to us, he adopted optional rules to counter it. He used a swarm of kobolds with over burdening rules. Several would jump and latch on to us without having to worry about our armor. If enough grabbed us we had to make saving throws or fall. The armed kobolds would run forward and stab at us then. It was devistating.
That feeling when you're binge watching DnD videos and considering how you would prevent your party from turning into a pack of dinosaurs because of pixies or how you'd go about making kobolds a challenging encounter... But you've also never played DnD in your life and have nobody willing to play with you.
Skare75 same.
I'm running a game & most of the players have little to no experience with D&D. Keep looking, your local game store is a good place to check.
Local game stores are great to look into. If you don't have any close by, check out Roll20. Its a bit less fun than in person, to me, but there are always a ton of games needing players and DMs
Join Roll20!
I'm planning my first campaign soon so not far off from that...
I gave my kobolds wacky and memorable personalities while at the same time keeping the best ones alive for the main story. A random kobold they capture and forgot to bring with them at the start of Hoards of the Dragon Queen ended up screwing over their plan to lure the cultists.
Same! I love using kobolds in my games explicitly because of how I imagine their personalities, too. I play them as silly little punks with high-pitched voices. (I LOVE doing my kobold voice at the table!)
Yes! exactly what I do, little punks with high-pitched voices! They are so fun, and mine are usually petty and holds grudges.
Kobolds have a better survival rate when they have fun and whacky personalities.
So like Orcs in Shadow of Mordor
First time I ever fought against kobolds was in a game I was playing alongside my dad and some of his friends. I was a sorcerer, he was a paladin, and we had other players rounding out the party. We had cornered some kobolds and, largely through luck, managed to avoid triggering any traps during the fight with them. They were on their last numbers when my dad called for us to stop so that he could try to make peace with them.
He stepped forward, speaking Draconic to calm them - and stepped into a swinging log trap. Winded, he gets knocked to the floor and our one party member rushes forward to help him. Filled with righteous fury, myself and the other party member each let fly a crossbow bolt, killing another kobold. Getting to his feet, my dad tells us to stop, that he's fine. So he goes forth again.
This time it's the pit trap that gets him. As the reasonable party member helps him out, we eliminate another one of the scaly runts. After clambering out of the pit, the paladin demands we curb ourselves and makes towards the kobold to broker peace. Only to be met with a spike trap. Two more crossbow bolts, and down the last kobold goes. My dad may not have have gotten the surrender of the kobolds, but he did find all their traps.
That was the best experience I have ever had with kobolds.
So, treat Kobolds like they're the Viet Cong? Damn, that's vicious.
Drives my players nuts when the monsters won't stand and slug it out the end. I always tell them "welcome to A-Symmetric warfare"
Do they also use spiketraps with feces in it to cause infections? And should we burn the forest down to find them?
@@mennograafmans1595 Poop spikes definitely and hell if you set fire to their underground warren and drive them into the light then you are a crueller man than I
@@frankieramos1748 My current character isn't that cruel. Worst he's done so far is killing a goblin by standing on him (my character is a large goliath), so it was like stomping on a baby. I have another character for an upcoming campaign however who is an extreme inquisitor and vampirehunter. You bet I'll use my knowledge of torture and hunting down hedens to the fullest. A quick death will feel like a reward for his enemies.
@@mennograafmans1595 goliath? In dnd? Is that legal?
I love kobolds! In my steampunk/arcanepunk setting, kobolds are engineers and tinkers. Also sorcerers. Lots of sorcerers. Great video!
It's funny because there is literally a Kobold Tinkerer in the book.
That's awsome! I remembered the Academy Civ in Heroes of Might and Magic series.
If you know warhammrr fantasy give them Skaven Tech. It's very... kobaldy. Especially the warp fire thrower.
Or the look of shear panic as a rattling gun starts to go full auto down a hallway. Hell make it a trap only medium creatures would set off. So the gun starts up and fires till it either runs out of bullets, jams or explodes (The two foremost is the most likely).
Agreed. Kobolds are underdark. In some settings, gnomes are underdark. why wouldn't kobolds pick up some traits of the gnomish tinkers, alchemists, etc. that they slay. a couple tomes later and the tribe as a whole has Int scores of 12 and higher. throw in a few golems, automatons, kobolds with rifles, throwing flasks. Bam!
i wish i was in that game.
Wonderful video, Cody. This reminds me of how the current Tyranny of Dragons adventure I'm running started out. In the very first session a player whom I allowed to play a Muscle Wizard punched the very first Kobold he saw and rolled the minimum possible damage, which brought the poor little guy down to 1 HP but, because the flavoring my player sprinkled onto the scenario, I allowed to knock the Kobold out. After the fight ended, the Muscle Wizard went to check on the Kobold he punched square in the nose and found him still alive. The Muscle Wizard decided to take this as an omen, saying "I punched him as hard as I could in the face and he's still alive... He is the chosen one." He proceeded to drape the unconscious Kobold over his shoulders like a boa and carry him the rest of the way through the settlement until the party reached safety and he could nurse the little guy back to health. At which point he began training the Kobold - named Zup, but spoken as if one had a broken nose (which he did) - as his disciple. Zup now looks like Mr. Incredible: Beefy as all get-out, with itty bitty little stick legs.
RE: Punching up Kobolds. For a quick solution, remember the Half-Dragon veteran (p180) or even the Half-Ogre (p238) in the monster manual. You can swap around traits (parry for pack tactics) or you could use it as a jumping off point and get into some mad science to find that sneaky kobold niche.
I'm thinking small sized, Half-Dragon Kobolds riding guard drakes (or maybe reskinned warhorses), using pikes and nets. Blue and white Guard drakes have a burrowing speed of 30, so they can surprise the squishies from below.
As a DM with a NPC kobold sorcerer, I thank you good sir!
Two Words (if you go off Chris Zito's design)
*Dragon Chiuahuahs*
Dragon Doggo
I had a dragon shrine that my adventures were ordered by the church to destroy to install their religion of dominance in the land. Well, let say the found out it wasn't really a shrine. But a grand capital city scaled down to the dragon kobolds with the most beautiful architecture ever seen. That was built around an ancient platinum silver dragon that had access to lvl 5 psionics and 9th lvl sorcery. This dragon was befriended by these little ones so they take care of each other as the dragon kobolds get some added low-level 1-2 scionics and crystal breath. They keep the dragon very safe and eat church assassins like its turkey Tuesday lol long story short. Out of a party of five 2 lived to find out the truth of the place. One was paid off to never return again and discourage any more adventures that the church pays to send their way again, and the second person fell in love with the dragonness humanoid form (lolXD) and shared a life bond with each other.
Kobolds rock! As a player and dm kobolds are among my favourite races. I play a kobold monk/rogue as a character. And in a game I dm'd I had a kobold encounter where traps lay everywhere, my players became more concerned with the traps that got increasingly harder, the further into their cave they travelled. They finally met a kobold sorcerer whom held a ring of mind shielding. She wasn't hard to beat but the person that took her ring, truly regretted it. Imagine having the most irritating voice in your head consistently trying to convince you to do things you normally wouldn't, taking absolute delight when you messed up, and whispering embarrassing thoughts in your head while in social situations
Adding this ring to the next kobold encounter (tonight)
@@danieljones3291 good shout. It's such a fun thing to do lol
A player may and try and get rid of said ring, then just have it keep coming back.
Sold to a shop, some common person bought it, killed by bandits, bandits attack party, "Oh look they have a ring of mind shielding. Hopefully this one isn't as annoying....."
"Hello again.... Haha Haha."
I'm doing that right now. One guy has gone down once already (rolled a backup earlier). Cleric went down to 1, after triggering the same trap twice. Two others are in single digits HP. One Kobold Sorcerer was traced around the map after casting Expeditious Retreat, running all over the place.
Oh yeah, the Sound. I found a Trap sound, which they are starting to hate. A player that missed the introduction session, FREAKED OUT when he heard the Trap sound.
A unique sound that goes off every time a trap is sprung?!? Great idea. LOL Do you make the trap sound, or do you have something pre-recorded that you play?
I use Roll20, and I have marked the map with the areas with traps. As the players move their tokens into the zones, I go to the Jukebox and press the sound. "Trap Mechanism by ottolenz" / "Trap by Jakyle"
DoStuffZ Ah, cool. Never used roll20 before. All the groups I run are in person. I'll have to get a trap sound for my ipad or phone, though. Really like the idea. 👊
Most memorable thing with Kobolds I remember is one where the Kobolds weren't the bad guys of the adventure.
The setup was that the Kobolds were stealing things above ground in a large city, largely of religious nature, we got sent down to recover things and stop them from continuing what they were doing.
After fighting out way part of the way through the hellhole of their burrow, we discovered that the entire thing was due to some nutjob necromancer who had been launching attacks to take over the city...with the only way the guy could have "easy" access was through the underground.
Great show, Cody!!! AND some really great subject for discussion!
I'm guilty as charged... I WAY over-run low-level campaigns with kobolds, even having a couple "go-to" first adventure arcs for new or beginning parties... Like "The Great Kobold Menace"... which is basically a conspiracy theorist's campaign with a twist... it's always someone in cahoots with the Kobolds.
Favorites? oh boy... Well, for some basis here, I like to examine stuff that kobolds would "find" under a simple enough premise question. "How important would it have to be, before you were willing to dive head-first into the toilet to get it back?"... AND anything less than that kind of importance, power, or direct influence, can probably qualify somewhere...
I once invented a pair of Kobold twins, who had earned(?) a great deal of prestige in their tribe after they found a pair of Bracers of Ogre Strength... They had to wear the bracers like belts, but the offset of magic strength was still worth it, granting the two true Ogre Strength whenever they were together in the fight (within ten feet or so)... Theoretically, the enchantment would "fade" as the distance between the bracers got too big to be on the arms of a reasonable sized fighter (but it's D&D so fighters can get pretty big)...
None the less, fighting with kobolds is hysterical when the Barbarian suddenly finds himself facing two of the little monsters with 18(00) strength! {no, that ain't right}
Teamworking kobolds has never been more fun, (for me, GM, anyways) than when I find an excuse for them to work for Tinkergnomes, possibly in some kind of ritual-promise to get their deity out of the mystical labyrinth... or maybe gnomes are liars... whatever...
Tinkergnomes are fairly well known for insane devices, and seige-engines of notoriously small and manageable size are no exception. Ordinarily, PC's might not think too much of Kobolds wheeling a Scorpion out, considering in their scale, it resembles about an average human-sized crossbow... On closer inspection (should there be time before the screaming, mayhem, and running around) the Tinker-special Kobold Scorpion is a compound model, DOUBLING the stats of even the most powerful of regular human hand-held projectile devices... some of the insanity is even giving such a thing to Kobolds in the first place(?)
You also specifically mentioned that Kobolds are small, unusually so. I would like to point out, from my exploits at PC's regretting these creatures in all their opposition, that smaller creatures are less prone to being broken by falls. This is actually really helpful for creatures who might find firing themselves from catapults and siege engineering for the advantages of aerial assaults... Walls don't tend to help much if the Kobolds enlist Tinkergnome aid in producing an air force... however risky that might be... and a kobold dive-bombing with a spear is... well... sort of the D&D version of a "smart missile"(?) ...good luck on the sale, there.
Finally, to resonate whole-heartedly with your employment of them in-game... TEAMWORK is the top-notch most important and effective advantage Kobolds can possess against the Party. It simply can't be over-stated that the most effective team involved in a numbers-combat is likely to be the surviving winner. Players learn quickly that organization and smart tactical thinking are a requirement to get very far... or they learn that lesson the second or third time they're putting Characters together. ;o)
Favorite ever was late into a campaign with fairly high levelled PC's. They we're crossing an arched mines of moria style narrow bridge and a large band of minimal CP unarmed kobolds came at the party halfway across, took no offensive actions and basically scrambled through the party trying to get past, getting tangled up in the party and making a huge mess. The drow slaver they were running from had fitted them each with collars with a single bead from a necklace of fireballs, which the party missed noticing in the rush. The mage with the slaver cast on the closest slave, setting off a chain reaction as beads got hit by multiple fireballs, breaking and setting each other off with the party in the middle.
It didn't kill them, and wasn't intended to, but it did bring them down a peg, and made them much more cautious and respectful of the dangers in the dark.
I played a kobold as a character twice. The first time was D&D2E, he was a Ranger Beastmaster(cavarly) with a boar. The second time (different group same character sorta) in Pathfinder he was a Druid/Wizard with a boar companion that he also rode, but not for combat purposes. A feat called 'Companion Boon' allows you animal companion to also act as your familiar... aka Enlarge Person works on it. The second character had a lot more back story, being the descedant of a brass dragon who outcast for his appearance, behaviors and his odd choice to make the tribe's dinner his best friend. He was very whimsical and mischievious, the first magic item I had him purchase was a Robe of Many Things... it felt right. 😁
Both versions went out of their way to treat the boar companion/mount as if were a sentient humanoid. Those that didn't get fooled by a diplomacy check, usually just have him pass assuming the kobold was just "special".
Kobolds are absolutely my favorite D&D creature. I love creating elaborate trap-laden dungeons built by kobolds. That and also making them into a proper faction the players can work with or against. One adventure I prepared but unfortunately didn’t have the chance to run had a mine that was contested by both a powerful Dwarf merchant family and an upstart Kobold clan which had settled in an old mine the Dwarves had abandoned decades ago. The players could decide which faction to support, which would of course prosper and later go on to help the party during later stages of the campaign.
Will you do a KYPW Lizardfolk at some point in the future?
(in Jester's voice)
Technically, the default setting for 5e is the whole multiverse, technically.
(yes, even though FR has basically its own book in this edition)
That's how it always is. A whole universe, multi planets/planes to traverse.
I hate this edition.
My favorite kobold memory isn't even an encounter. One of the other players in my party was a kobold (I can't even remember what class) with an incredibly low intelligence. We basically used this kobold to do the dirty work for us when it came to traps, and eventually she got stuck with some arrows. Thinking that her new "spikes" looked cool, she demanded that we let her keep them in. It was. Fabulous.
Had a fellow party member not take a fight with a kobold seriously because of his high ac and vorpal shortsword. He decided to go for flair and throw his vorpal weapon into the chest of a kobold killing it. The DM then described how the Kobold standing next to the slain one takes the vorpal weapon and retreats with its remaining kin into the dark caverns. Our party was paranoid for the entire adventure of being ambushed by a kobold with a vorpal weapon.
I think my favorite Kobold experience was when my party was delving into a very upper end of the Underdark and they encountered a tribe of Kobold warring against a tribe of goblins. The players thought to focus the goblins over the Kobold, the latter of which pulled away from the conflict and coated their tunnel used for retreat with oil. When the players finished the goblins they decided that, rather than simply move along and continue excavating, they wanted to pursue the Kobold tribe and be murder hobos. A Kobold sorcerer then launched a fire bolt into the tunnel, igniting the oil. The players pretty quickly changed their minds.
Btw, I find a ton of value in your show. I’m getting back into gaming after many years away from it
Kobolds are very distinct from Goblins if you ask me. Goblins don't worship dragons last i checked.
These "Kill your party with" episodes are amazing and are the main reason I subscribed to taking 20. I'm now hesitant to run any more campaign modules as binging these episodes have given me so many ideas for homebrew stuff. Thanks man , really good work.
Never be afraid to get crazy and creative with those traps; Kobolds are great at that. A GM I once knew had a kobold trap which was a hollow rock with blood packs along the underside. As the party creeps down the corridor, the trap drops the rock down perfectly over a party member, trapping them inside with no room to move while blood splatters everywhere. The party figures that the character is dead (especially if you play that up telling the poor player to think of a new character) and when the party walks off, the kobolds come up and drag off the rock with their new hostage for the 'final room'. Another was taking a HUGE (and stupid) creature that they befriend and polymorphing it into a kobold, convincing the party to accept an arean challange for a reward/hostage. When they think its a simple kobold and the fighter says "i got this" watch the shock as that little kobold hits A LOT harder than it should. Honestly, with the way damage and stats are scaled with 5e, being a lot like AD&D with its sudden difficulty spikes for unprepared players, I think that a creative GM can make kobolds a mid or even end campaign threat without being forced to just beef up their block. Nothing more memorable than a group of lvl 10 players walking into the Inn needing healing and rest with the only word they can shakingly admit is 'kobolds'. Remember GM's, kobolds are dragons. And Dragons should be feared!
about 3 years ago I found my love for Kobolds when in D&D 3.5 when some NPC miners who were digging a new shaft into a player owned Silver Mine exposed a Kobold mine underneath.
I used the hit & run tactics, combined with a Shaman using minor image spell to "boost the ranks" with a few fake Kobolds, to get them nice and lost within the caverns. Eventually the PC's came across "The Butcher" (Inspired by Diablo 1) which was a Flesh Golem (without its haste from lightning type damage & Described as a Huge Kobold), and also had to fight the Winter Wolf Calvary, which had doned Winter wolf pelts fashioned into Cloaks of Cold Resist to offset the cold blooded nature of the Kobolds
This was a party of 4 Level 7-8 PC's, the Cleric was taken down in a single blow from the Butcher as it burst through the simple wooden door and charged the Cleric who had thought he was simply going to hold of more Kobolds, it was a tough fight, but they managed to strive through to the Temple below, where the four Monk priest's (The Ninja Turtles) were praying to the statue of a Black Dragon, that fight effectively knocked the Cleric out again, along with the Fighter, leaving the Rogue & Sorceress to run away.
This was a One-Shot within a broader game that I was a player, and then had to leave the fate of the still alive, but left behind Cleric & Fighter to the main DM's, There were 2 DM's & 14 players, but every now and then a player would run a One-shot for 4-5 of the PC's..... Wish I had thought of Breath weapons though.
I enjoyed them so much so, that when signing on to a Pathfinder game, which the DM locked to Core Rules Races only, and then added "Or you could play a Kobold because everyone knows they die too easily Mehehehehehe".... Yeah, cross-classed Ranger/Rogue who lived in the Half-Orc Barbarians backpack & tinkered with inventing, made myself a pair of "Riddick goggles" to function in daylight without disadvantages, and a quick release lever to drop out of the backpack that I lived in due to the Barbarian constantly Raging & Charging. It also made for some great Roleplay as the DM limited me to only being able to speak Dracoinic, which he did allow my best friend Half-Orc to have a basic understanding of what I was trying to say... Started at Level 1, never even came close to death.
"Kobold beat the odds! Kobold come home!"
-Kobold Worker, Dungeons & Dragons Online
The above-mentioned game also shows how dangerous Kobolds can be as early as your arrival in Stormreach. Their shamans pack a nasty Lightning Bolt, their lairs are usually chock-full of traps (like the nasty acid jet in front of the very first door in Clan Gnashtooth's sewers), and they come in very large numbers. (One quest involves your party versus two hundred Kobolds!) Their tunnellers are also utilized by Droaam to land a surprise attack on the Lordsmarch Palace, and later on, you'll find magically souped-up Paragon Kobolds that actually can be a significant threat, with one even managing to be the lieutenant of a Pit Fiend!
(It also shows off Eberron's eased alignment restrictions in some cases, such as in Home Sweet Sewer, where you help one kobold lead guard dogs out of his sewer, and he specifically asks you not to kill them because he feels bad for them- though there are many kobolds that aren't as friendly as poor Scrag.)
So I just had two party members decide that they'd go explore the long (3 days' march) tunnel while the rest of the party was busy in a completely different part of the above ground portion of the dungeon... I used these tactics with a small band of kobolds harrassing these two, one a dwarf with darkvision and the other a human paladin with no darkvision. Once they caught sight of the two or three kobolds fleeing, of course these two pursued and landed right into a pit trap. Instead of getting up and retreating, they decided to give chase. Guess what? Right into a trap-filled dark lair. The dwarf takes off leaving the essentially blind paladin alone. I almost killed the both of them. They eventually had to turn tail and run away however it did teach them a lesson about splitting the party. Thank you Cody for this and your other videos - they really get the creative juices flowing!
One of my favourite characters I’ve ever made is Gnar, the bravest little Kobold. Gnar was a basic Kobold who worked within a group who worshipped a dragon. Gnar kinda believed the dragon was mean and wanted to convince the dragon to be nicer. He set up a trap which was only meant to bonk the dragon on the head but Gnar crushed the dragons head and killed it. The other Kobolds thought Gnar was evil for doing this and drove him out. Role playing Gnar was fun because I just tried to be so nice. I hated violence, even though I was a rogue, and spent most of the time just trying to be nice and help my party.
I ran a very similar group of Kobolds to the 'hulked out' ones you mention at the end. There was a dead black dragon that they were essentially boiling down the carcass into a paste and drinking it trying to become dragons themselves. Many died in the process but some became bigger, more scaled (and black scales to boot!) sprayed acid blood when killed and their leader even gained a full breath weapon wings, and became Large in size!
I remember reading about Tucker's Kobold. The players were so afraid to face them they would try to rush to the next level of the dungeon where there were harder monsters but not intelligent like the Kobolds
This video inspired me to try this and I somehow managed to kill a player and an npc with nothing but a single Kobold and traps. The players split the party with some of them going into a Kobold tunnel system which they had to crawl through and was littered with traps they had no way to avoid unless they spotted them and disarmed them, whilst the Kobold in there used gorilla tactics in the tunnels using a lot of aoe based attacks such as a breath weapon which ended up killing an npc because the player i mentioned dragged her across a trap he knew was there trying to save her and then got attacked from the other side by the kobold killing him in the process. Also side note the party waited to go to the dragons horde in this arc so there is now a kobold with a staff of the magi in the world which just makes me smile
Tucker's Kobolds, anyone?
Justin Thompson scrolled through the comments looking for this.
Love them. Make any lower level monsters a lot more punchy with the proper set up. dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Canon:Tucker%27s_kobolds
Our party's pub has two Kobold brother regulars, Tucker and Pun :D
@@mathiascaboche7142 Just make sure Pun doesn't duplicate, and you'll be fine.
Great podcast and can’t wait to share with my various groups. Enjoyed both the detail and the way you put it across. Thank you. Look forward to seeing much more. 😊
I'm a Pathfinder guy, so this probably doesn't work in 5e, but a Kobold tribe of Alchemists and Gunslingers, obliterating larger monsters in a hail of musketfire and hand grenades.
In one of my games, the DM created a joke character who was a kobold. They’d show up from time to time in the most random of places, even absurd places like a prison we’d get trapped in and- does nothing about it for most of the time. Only occasionally does he help the party out.
It gotten to the point when our DM mentions something that we’d relate back to the kobold, the group gets all excited to see the little one again.
No relevance to the plot besides aiding us in the final fight with the BBEG and that was the last time we ever saw him. That was until a much later campaign when we discovered a lot green kobold, hiding behind barrel as our party was raiding an enemy base, it was Pickle.
Don't forget grovel, cower and beg!Advantage for all their allies, and a group of 4 kobolds can do this 4 times.
Use this while at range and not with terrain or home field advantage to allow your kobolds to close distance with the players.
A sorcerer kobold can also make cover for the kobolds with the move earth cantrip. or restrict the players' movement options with the same cantrip.
Once the kobolds are close, they can fully use their pact tactics, ducking in to attack and back out to cover every turn. Only one kobold per attack needs to go melee, probably sacrificing itself, but it would significantly improve the damage output of the remaining kobolds.
I like the idea of kobolds breathing fire but I want to take it further. What if kobolds can breathe the different dragon elements but only have the ability to do so after exposure to said element or environment. For example, maybe a tribe of kobolds built a cave into a volcano and now can breath fire or a maybe they took refuge in a moving glacier, carving pathways and even being able to steer it themselves with a pack of winter wolves dragging. That tribe would be able to breath cold damage. Another idea I really liked was a group of kobolds living in the sewers of a major city, slugging around rotten food and feces to eat, being able to spit acid but also delivering a highly toxic bite that can give a PC a disease
I learned long, long ago how to make kobolds deadly thanks to the ad&d 2e adventure Dragon Mountain. So fun to watch cocky players bragging how they're going to kill a dragon get destroyed by kobolds.
My brother used kobolds as one of the main enemies in his 3.5e campaign (along with various undead). It was grueling and hard, but felt so good to win. Then he introduced a small tribe on half-dragon kobolds living in the sewers of a town... We were all scared to death. A long hard fight with one nearly wiped us out, then 8 more showed up. Only reason any survived was the cleric suicide bombing. He wiped them all out (and left a hell of a crater).
Region the tunnels are in affects things too. Not even the traps the kobolds use, but setting up a network of tunnels around a volcano presents other hazards like poisonous smoke inhalation, convection, obsidian deposits that randomly explode from heat pressure, etc.
Just discovered your channel. Have not played AD&D in 35 years. Just pulled my old 1st edition books down from the attic. And trying to figure out how to bring a few people into my world. I love your ideas regarding Kobolds, Knolls etc. (I will be viewing many more of your posts in the near future!) To me, the game is just not fun unless it unfolds with mysterious enemies, actions and motivations that later, through play, start to make sense. That's when the players REALLY enjoy connecting the dots, drawing their own logical conclusions and taking well thought out risks that pay off because the milieu was an interconnected plot and not just a random hack and slash fest. (Which is sometimes called for and bloodily awesome...) I liken a well planned campaign to a Kubrick film. Where one is thrown into a world without a clue as to what the Hell is going on, and must figure out the rhyme and reason as they go. Thanks Pal for the inspiration. But now I must ask myself if I am really willing to clime on to the back of this tiger...
I'm going to be DMing for the first time in a few months. I came up with an optional encounter that involves Kobolds. My idea is to have the kobolds be a bit more militaristic in their movement. As they are being commanded by an Orog. Under his leadership the kobolds managed to overcome their sensitivity to light and become more hardy. Along with their magical abilities improving.
This is just a basic idea was hoping for some feedback.
Giving them a breath weapon is probably the best thing I've heard all week. I'm totally doing this to my group next week.
I LOVE these videos. I've just recently gotten back into the game and my main group has been playing for roughly 40 years. Not 40 years combined, 40 years each- mostly together. Your content gives me a lot of knowledge that my fellow gamers just have. So thank you very much! Be well, friend.
I find it interesting that there is a cultural difference when it comes to Kobolds
In the West, they are goblin sized lizard people
In the East, they are human sized dog people
I dunno why, but its an interesting thing to note
Actually there are 3 types of kobolds.
The original D&D had small dog men.
The later versions had small lizard men.
And World of Warcraft has small rat men.
I personally like all of them, but use the dog version, because that's what I encountered first so long ago.
@@chaosmastermind In Baldurs gate dark alliance you first fight rats and kobolds but they're the dog men variant.
Hmmm, I'm thinking... A kobold that got a hold of a Headband of intellect, and attempts to free Kartulak by lighting cities on magical fire in order to create a beacon to guide their god out of the maze.
That should keep my players busy for a few sessions, non?
Also, I'm thinking Gelatinous Cube Cavalry, though that might be more of a Goblin thing.
consider the ramifications if they dug up one of their gods and how that might affect them. Or what powers they could be granted following Tiamat. There is a lot of loose story tied to kobolds that a lot could be done with and could really change the dynamics of kobolds.
Kobolds have been the overarching villains for my campaign for the last 13 sessions. Always excited to see DMs talk about them.
The Tale of Tuckers Kobolds has become legend. Use tunnels, traps and ambushes and your players will dread the little guys!
Kobolds are for head pats, hugs and -fugging.- let them ride on your shoulders.
Gego/XAREN ゲゴザレン a person of culture i see
Why, yes.
And let us not forget that we must rid the world of the furry menace so us scale lovers can live free from their oppressive and perverted fantasies!
Well this channel is outnumbered me two to one :p
Fur is disgusting. Scales are oh-so-nice.
I agree I was very close with my pet snake
I slashed the stats of a Young Green dragon, put four kobolds on his back with slings and had the dragon duck and weave between trees for cover while taking the dodge action. The 4th level party surrendered to them two rounds later. Didn't even make it into the convenient cover a hundred feet further up.
Didn't even get to try and breach the fortress cave the kobolds had made. Never got to find out what happens when an armored knight stands on one of the cracked flagstones. Never found out what the stalactite tied with vines was for. Kobolds without even the tools to work stone are a force to be feared.
Fortunately the party had trade skills and the dragon was all too eager to have them become his loyal subjects, eventually sending them out on a quest back to their homes. They're currently still nominally his subjects, but they don't seem to be displaying any intention to keep up their end of the bargain.
Tip to all the DMs out there, have your kobolds be clever and eager, but inexperienced. Start them out primitive but have them catch onto new ideas very fast, adapting to what your PCs do (or if 'friendly', the concepts they introduce them to). It makes them endearing and infuriating at the same time, and pushes the players to be smarter because "we can't get outwitted by KOBOLDS ffs!"
that tshirt wins a sub XD great analysis over the little ones.
A friend of mine had kobolds pushing around large boxes on wheels. Inside were basilisks that when a trigger was pulled, a small door opened for the gaze attack. It was awesome
My Favorite Kobold memory was during a War campaign, doing a night raid with Kobold allies and we successfully cut the enemy supply and really ruined their rest at camp by dousing torches and light sources before the kobold forces arrived. Didn't do much in casualties that night with the exception of the few creatures the Kobolds riled up and led their. Essentially the enemy just fixed camp when the full allied army arrived, and they were not equipped or rested. (for their affordable asking price the Kobold's made great night watchmen at camps as well)
I actually played a NE winged kobold who became something of a saturday morning cartoon villain in his own right. Kommander Skragg was a nasty character, but was funny and smart enough to know when to RETREEEAAAT. Maybe have a master mind kobold in your next game that throws your characters off with how charismatic and well-spoken they are?
Love your ideas here. Hulking out some Kobolds because of a sorcerer seeking to evolve the tribe more like their dragon ancestors is amazing.
I love this because I am literally building a Kobold sewer encounter for my players right now, and I'm wanting to make it a very memorable experience for them and set the tone that Kobolds in anything other that very small numbers are a force to be reckoned with.
Favorite kobold moment was in Pathfinder. A gnome rogue was scouting some tunnels and found a single kobold inhabiting a small room. The kobold had 13 levels of barbarian. The rogue was reduced to negative HP in a single round. The rest of the party was close enough to hear, so they managed to get in and save their companion. This incident is still talked about around the table and used as a kind of short-hand warning to not get overconfident. We refer to that encounter as "the sewing machine" since the kobold had three attacks in a single round with a spear.
Speaking of guerrilla tactics, I was recently told about an awesome story involving goblins. (Told by the dungeon master at the local comic con recently)
A friend of the DM had recently got back from military service, and had expressed interest in joining a D&D game. Luckily the DM had a game coming up where the village the party was in was about to be attacked by a couple of hobgoblins and about 20 or so goblins, and decided to give control of the invaders to his friend.
For a bit of context, in the previous session, the party (about 4 or 5 players) found out that the goblin raiding party was on its way to the village, and managed to rally some of villagers and guards and prepare for the raid. This included various barricades and traps that could be set up in at most a days notice.
Now on to the shenanigans. As the raiding party arrived, the military friend had the hobgoblins assess the situation, and order the goblins to scout the area for any weakness in the village defences. Needless to say, the goblins managed to get into the village, unfortunately I don’t remember how. With a combination of hit and run tactics, hiding in building s and dark alleys, and using the village fortifications against the defenders and players, the goblins managed to kill many of the NPCs and corner the party.
With the party cornered and weak, they were slaughtered, resulting in a total party kill, no casualties on the raiding parties side, and an awesome story of why you don’t underestimate the little guys. Oh and did I mention that all the characters in the party were level 18 at the time?
took a magical bow and had the kobolds make it into a kobold sized ballistae shooting at them from a higher point. that was fun and got a "Oh shit, you evil bastard!" moment....
though the breath and cavalry are good ideas as well.
I made a character at random in pathfinder because a DM though I was "a power gamer" so we random rolled a Kobold wizard with a 20 dex and 14 Intel with a random spell book and all scavenged gear he was so funny and crafty the DM said no done you cant play with us I don't know how to handle you
LOL, I've never heard of a DM tell a player they can't play before, that's a super-dick-move.
My fav part of D&D is the blending of stories and the creativity. There is Way too many role in my play then their rolling play. The idea of using a sleep spell to hunt bats for Buffalo Batwings and use broken glasses he insists are magical to use detect magic and read magic
That was a bad DM
How did you roll a 20 in dex when the max is 18 with the 3d6 technique? I have a power gamer and always have to be scepticle from him because he just “pulls armor out of his butt” that I never gave him. Either that or he likes to do as much as he can in one turn and pull things like, “yeah I prepared that spell before combat” yeah sure you did you liar
Could be a D20 roll, for my Trox [as an example] (also since I don't like going 100% by the rules for some things *cough* Haunts *cough*) I use a 5D20 pick highest, but if two dice are let's say 20 then you gotta reroll until either 1 is higher then the other or 1 is under 10 and the reroll can't bring the base stat below 10, so my Trox's stats are from STR to CHA 18, 15, 15, 19, 19, 18 before racial + or - while not counting any other + or - then it becomes 24, 15, 15, 17, 17, 16.
Now I really want to make a winged kobold mage, raised by a dragon, that took a liking to its worshippers (but not enough to care about their religion), because the tribe was more or less exterminated by an earthquake, leaving only a single egg behind.
Shame I've never gotten to play dnd before, so I dunno if it might seem like an OP/(Mary/Gary) S(t)ue character or whatnot.
Thanks for the great video! I replaced the Stonecold Reavers in Icespire with a squad of white kobolds who set a load of traps. The result was much more satisfying. I appreciate the idea. It made more sense than what was in the base module.
I am a late subscriber and I don't know if you'll even see this comment, but I have really found this series of videos incredibly useful and very inspirational, I would love to see more of them. I have already written some of your ideas about Hags, Drow and bandits into my campaign.
A kill your party with Devils/Demons or maybe kill your party with Vampires or ghouls would be a great addition to the series.
I would also love to hear what you have to say about some of the 3.5 races from the BOVD like the Jerren and Vashar and how you would implement them in 5e.
Thanks for the great content bro. Keep it up.
In Pathfinder, my first character was killed by a group of Kobolds who set traps for the party and managed to pick up and drop a large creature's war axe on my head. That poor alchemist. The whole party got wiped when they discovered that Goblins were helping the Kobolds.
Fun fact: In one of my first ever custom made campaign, I had a group of kobolds that specialized illusion magic work together using minor illusion to create a false red dragon. They were able to see right through it after they realized the dragon was missing its back half.
This and the Hags KYPW are some of the most inspiring content i've ever read for thinking and brainstorming.
Imagine if the final encounter had the big bad ( preferably having something to do with a dragon) and the players are like "Yeah let's take them down!!" Then you say "Wait, don't forget about the 20 armored basilisk riding Kolbolds with magic artifacts". They would probably just stare at you...
I think with things like the breath weapon kobolds I'd go a little different. They don't TECHNICALLY have breath weapon.... they however have cobbled together Napalm or other substances that they use to mimic a mundane version of said breath weapons.
Also given their subservient nature, perhaps an evil draconic wizard/sorcerer performing experiments on them so you have mutations ranging from the hulked out Kobolds, ones that perhaps have been linked to the Shadowfell giving them access to Shadow-like abilities... various mutations... etc.
Maybe even throw in a creature that is like a miniature mutated mockery of Tiamet through the arcane merging of multiple dragon blessed Kobolds.
The breath weapons could come from alchemical sources much like their napalm and other sources. With the caveat that they are only designed to work with kobold/dragonoid physiology so they are ineffective or even poisonous for most other races.
Back in the 90s I ran a game where I used Kobolds in a very Die Hard with a Vengeance kinda way. They started undermining key locations in the city, causing sink holes and in some cases collapse of certain buildings. Meanwhile, a group was breaking into the merchant exchange to liberate all of the gold in the city. Plunder the funded an as yet unknown villain hiding in plain sight.
One of my favorite things to do with kobalds is to have one run up to a player, have them think, "Oh, easy kill" then have a kobald riding a boar charge in, doing additional damage, then have kobalds use pack tactics to hit with short sword attacks. It has downed like three characters, one of which was level 4.
Just found your channel. I like it! Of course, I was looking for references on kobolds while I painted up a few old school minis for the next encounter. These kobolds are a sort of elite hunter group that have been tracking the party for some time now. So far, only the halfling suspects anything and she's decided not to panic her companions by recounting the lore of a dragon cult of kobolds nesting in the region.
I was running a Kolbold tribe vs. Gnome village mini campaign and the most fun was designing the Koblod’s dwelling. There was a shrine to Kurtulmak that actually breathed fire. A rope bridge where the side hand ropes were tripwires that cause the whole thing to collapse. A stair case where if you jump over the one obvious step that is a pit fall you land on a pressure plate that will unleash rocks tumbling down on your party. Get creative with the traps.
Used kobold assassins. Really just made lv.5 kobold rouges with the DMG. Was great because the party wasn't expecting such a deadly fight. Using pack tactics and sneak attack rules they were doing massive damage in one hit and the ability to survive more than one attack. Sure it was cheap. But nobody knew that would happen and that's why I thought it was fun
Kolbold "commandos" was an idea I first saw outlined in Dragon magazine in the mid to late 80's. I ran with it and turned a mid level party into a quivering, shellshocked mass of (demi-)humanity. No one died but they lost most of their equipment and treasure buying their way out of the kolbold den. Good times, good times
I once just for fun (and because I love Kobolds) made a kobold PC
He was a monk with very hight wisdom and dexterity but basiacly being below average in everything else (except inteligents where he was pretty average in)
My backstory for him was (and I never realy fleshed it out because I assume I will never use him) that despite his pack mentality of being a kobold he strived for a little bit more than just being a miner (or similar ) his whole life, He was searching for a "greater purpose". And one day he hears about this monestry order and is facinated by it (while also not completly understanding it and thinking its also just something like a tribe or pack) and one day he just decides to defect from his tribe and go to this monestery who take him in (because they are very chilled who they take in) where he gets trained and then has to do a journey before he becomes a full fledge member (just a storypoint to make him hook up with any potential group)
And I know this character is probaly pretty broken but hey sometimes you need characters like that even if they probaly not surive even 1 session.
I've actually been thinking of a kobold druid PC where their whole goal is to look for a safe place for their clan so that they don't need to be subjugated to the other races of the Underdark. And I'd make it work above ground by him insisting that he's actually just half-gnome, half-dragon born.
Great Video! Kobolds riding Basilisks sounds horrifying when adding in all the other capabilities of these little guys.
When coming up with Challenging Kobold encounters I like to use the following:
1) Kobolds as 4e minions. 1 HP Easy to wipe out but still a threat in numbers
2) Similar to the stat up idea, re-flavoring another monster as a kobold. Want a massive mutant Kobold that hits like a truck? Re flavor an Ogre
Kobolds are my favorite little dragons, both as a player race, and as a monster. I'm currently running an all Kobold campaign, and can't wait to give them a bunch of traps to fend of humans next session!
My favorite use was during one shot that turned into campaign I ran. I had the friendly metallic kobolds (obviously based of the metallic dragons) and the chromatic kobolds (obviously based of the chromatic dragons). The campaign took place in a large icy wasteland so we had the white kobolds and silver kobolds.
The white kobolds had a smaller warren (that was sadly unexplored) but were controlled by a savage half-dragon kobold that slaughtered many of the warriors to maintain his dominance of the tribe. Early on of the bards (since it was an all bard party) rolled a nat 20 and convinced a kobold scouting party to rebel against the half-dragon. This led to a rather memorable encounter where the kobolds and bards drew the half-dragon our of the warren and kobolds pouring out to defend the warren, some seeing the kobold scouts fighting the big bad and joining in to get rid of the unwelcome conqueror.
The silver kobolds I made a bit less isolated, with a few buildings outside of the warren to trade with travelers and a modest tavern for the party to rest at.
I love kobolds. Ran my first campaign with them as the MAIN protagonist. Had my party meet with them, and try to figure out why the kobolds were holding the local mines hostage. They killed the first party they saw, a relatively small group standing on the path to the mine, surrounded by flags and beating drums. After that, I terrorized them with kobolds. Sneak attacks at night. Traps laid across trails, and more traps set in the bushes and trees, coupled with ambushes of kobolds with blowpipes, javelins, and short bows firing poisoned missiles (Charlie, they're in the trees!). Poisoning water sources so that they couldn't quench themselves. Harassing isolated farms. Undercutting the local miner's guild by selling to caravaneers at a MASSIVE loss, just to kill the local broker's markets. Then kobold cavalry riding medium sized dinosaurs. The tribe was run by a pair of Dragonwrought siblings with poison-breath.
Eventually, the party had to raise a small force of NPCs from the local settlement, and met with reps from the tribe, only to learn that the first party that the party had come across, sitting out in the open and waving them over had been the designated representatives to the settlement, and the party had stomped them before even asking why none of them had attacked first. After that, the party had to work for the town at a discount price, forcing them to campaign at the absolute edge of poverty, though they did get to keep the shinys they found...that they could keep on their person. If it couldn't fit in their cell (they were in cells between adventures), it was sent up to the settlement's community armory/treasury.
I made them work for every win, and they started getting real proud of all the insane ways they had to get around their handicap.
Kobolds in my Pathfinder setting value mountain goats above all else, for meat, textiles and work animals. They ride them into battle. I love these little guys
Your hulked kobold reminds me of how in Orcs Must Die, a great tower defense PC game, you get large kobolds if you give them magic mushrooms. Another great use of kobolds in this game are the ones that have exploding barrels strapped to their backs for kamikaze attacks.
This is an amazing video, Kobolds are my favourite "lesser" race of monster, because i am totally obsessed with dragons, but everyone love dragons, and u gave me so meny tips and ideas....my playere will have a GREAT TIME....
I found it very interesting that you mentioned "hulking out the kobolds." For the longest time I've thought it would be ingesting to have the party encounter a group of kobolds that would have one "hulk" in the group. The party will face a small group of regular kobolds and this hulk, or just the hulk. When the party took the "hulk" down, another normal kobold would rush to them, pull a ceremonial dagger that was already lodged into the hulk's chest, stab themself in the chest, and mutate into the hulk form within that round. Now a larger group of normal kobolds would join the new hulk. From here the party will need to decide if they want to keep fighting one hulk after another (meanwhile taking deceptive amounts of damage from the normal kobolds, as you mentioned) or avoid killing, or being killed by the hulk, while taking out as many normal kobolds as possible, until there is just the hulk remaining... it would be a tough call.
I wants was playing a game where some kobolds found a dragon egg and it hatched at the end of the battle with the kobolds, that dragon went out the window and eventually grew up to be a young dragon and that was our antagonist for level one through six of our campaign