For the fact it's reusable it might actually be the strongest up until you reach some of Mercer's antimagic monstrosities. There's a horrifying enemy called The Death's Head of Bhaal who can do that trick three times a day but it has to be from an attack and they don't get health back (the reason they're horrifying is they have an aura of murder where everyone else around them gets vulnerability to piercing damage in addition to being able to shrug attacks).
another part of lore of the nilbog I love is that due to superstition of the nilbog goblin troops will assign a mischievous goblin the roll of jester just incase a nilbog decides to possess one of their clan, so that they'd possess the jester as its drawn to chaos. that way if an actual nilbog is created nothing really has to change for the clan as there was already a nilbog stand in
I thought it was that they keep the Jester around to appease the entity that makes nilbogs. As long as they have 1 goblin Jester in the host, a nilbog will not appear.
@@d1g1beastpr1me7The trick if I remember Volo's guide correctly is that the Hobgoblins and Bugbears are all scared of the Nilbog (understandably so. Imagine if you shot ten bows at a funny pink goblin, 2 of the archers missed, 5 of them started praising the Nilbog for some weird reason, one more is just laughing nonstop and didn't even fire and the last two hit, one of which hurts it then the other one heals it. I'd be scared of that abomination too). They therefore let the jester do whatever they like because there's no way to tell if the jester is a Nilbog until you make it mad at which point it's going to mess with you in particular and Nilbogs basically always win the 1v1 (and they come back if you can convince a friend to help you kill it).
@@RooflessM Eldritch Blast, Scorching Ray, and any 5th level Martial character with access to Extra Attack also work. Basically, anything with a multi-hit.
The last time I used a Nilbog, he was in a troupe of about a dozen Goblins.... and he had a wand of wonder. The party which could easily slaughter such a group nearly died to the Nilbog and probably would have if I hadn't rolled the fireball (on the wand) which killed all the goblins at once. Leaving the Nilbog alone and easily slashed by the Paladin to finally finish him and the combat. That was the day I learned of the OPness that are Nilbogs.
You forget he is wearing a Dark star proof loincloth. It's also Fireball proof, Meteor Swarm proof and Disintegrate proof. Oddly enough not Magic Missile proof based on how most people run the spell but that's possibly one of the moments where the Nilbog reaction healing might come into effect.
We need more silly trickster monsters. Not just big HP sponges who hit with the force of a collapsing building but goofy dudes who just clown on you and everything you stand for. Every time you think for sure you've killed um, nope they're good and are now insulting your fashion sense.
Reminds me of the meme about the uber goose. It's a regular goose in every way except divination magic doesn't work on it, an identical goose comes along when the first one dies ad inifinitum and it can appear and disappear from spaces it has no logical way of entering or exiting.
@@consolescrub4031 that's another good one. The whole campaign is just little goofball monsters like this, not real threats but instead just ones that drive you up the wall
@@Master_E444 My suggestion there is to go into a 5e bestiary and select the modifiers for 'Fey' and 'CR 2 and below'. There's some magnificent bastards there from Boggles (who can exude slippery goo and make portals in any nearby opening such as doors, windows or the gap under your bed) to Brigganocks (which can speed up time around themselves so they can do one hours work in seconds such as removing your door and replacing it with a brick wall). There's a lot of fun possibilities with the Conjure Woodland Beings spell beyond the T-rex party.
In an encounter my party once faced, none but the goblin camp's Nilbog and their warboss remained. Turns out that when standing next to each other, those two become a horrifying combo of neverending pain (and worship) since the boss gets to deflect one attack made against it onto a nearby goblin, which then forces you to make the charisma save if said goblin is a nilbog (at least that's how our dm ruled it back then). Somehow we managed to overpower the boss, leaving nothing but the Nilbog. After another half an hour of laughter and annoyance, instead of trying to kill it directly we tied it up and threw it in a lake. No clue if it is still alive or not but as far as we were concerned it was a good enough job. It was a great evening of us roleplaying how our characters would worship the Nilbog and laughing our arses off; great mob, amazing encounter.
Nilbogs, the reverse of us, the best of us. Fear the power of deadly sillyness until we're filled with silly deadness, but there shall always be more! The Goblins are dead, long live goblins! Also, the healing in the reaction is in reference to previous editions! They used to be healed from damage and hurt by healing. So the only way to remove the threat was with weaponized kindness, as directly attacking would only make it stronger! Just like goblinkind, in a way! Or, you know, pin it down and pour a health potion into it. Also used to reverse your intentions! You came here to loot the place? No, you're going to put your stuff in this empty chest and leave. Then snap to attention halfway through walking away, realizing you just got Bugs Bunny'd.
came across a Nilbog in my first campaign. not being able to kill it was SUPER frustrating! because of this, my rangers favoured enemy become Goblinoids so i could kill it!
One fun fact I recall from these little guys is when the Hobgoblins form a horde to conquer the world, or at least their part of it, they sometimes will take a goblin, give him a silly outfit, and dub him the Niblog. From then on, that goblin can do whatever he wants, and nobody can touch him. They do this to try to avoid a true Nilbog showing up, since if they already have one (minus the magic), they won't get the worse one. That said, I love the idea of the powerful and honorable Hobgoblin trying to negotiate with the human commander, giving the usual "Surrender or die" speech, while a Nilbog in the corner is just talking smack about everybody. And/or causing the entire negotiating team to break into dance.
I once ran an encounter with a group of these guys, who worked for a goblin feylock booyahg, named Nibbletack. He appeared while the party were being chased by the wild hunt, to inconvenience all involved. He was especially proud of his magical club, that dealt no damage, but had a chance of forcing victims to pretend they had been greviously wounded.
It's made even more amusing in that the trickster being broken into shards and can 'possess' a goblin is kind of similar to the Shards of Khaine in 40k too.
"Hey do you high boys remember that one time when clown goblins invaded the Imperial Palace?" Master of the Administratum, one of the High lords of Tera
I disagree. They have the comedy aspect down but if you want to give players the pain of fighting/getting pranked by Harlequins then you need the Quickling. Those little bastards have one of the highest movement speeds in the game so having one of those with the jump spell and boots of haste would be close to a Solitaire.
Oh but you cant even use indirect damage against these things without activating the praise ability, if you attempt to harm it an any way, by any means, Cha-cha save or you go to work on its mani-pedi
Logan really is one of dad's greatest advocates of silliness. Like most DM: this will be my fantasy opus to rival Tolkein himself! Logan be like: let's write a book or dnd Pokémon cause thay sounds funner. More silly in your dnd people.
i had one of these guys in my campaign, for extra chaos let him teleport. I tried to make him super annoying so the players would bully him and get to experience his abilities but they met him and went "this guy rules" and gave him gold. So when they ended up fighting a hobgoblin merc group Nilbog helped them and otto danced the leader. Good times
This is just Joy Boy. Its literally Joy Boy with infinite uses. I can see it now. Just a whole Goblin war going on and suddenly drums start playing and a goblin priest yells out “HES RETURNED…THE NILBOG!”
I randomly came across Nilbogs one day and decided to use them in a session as opposed to just a regular Goblin ambush. Needless to say that the party was frustrated but the encounter was also hilarious. Fantastic enemy, would definitely recommend using.
During a straad campaign I was in, our Dm offered us the choice sometimes for random encounters, between normal, hard or goofy. One of the goofy encounters he had for us as 1 nilbog and 2 salamanders I think. The thing was unkillable and everyone was making jokes and goofy voices the whole time and it was one of my favourite moments from the campaign. Another was when our 3 int barbarian sharted on one of straad’s fancy dining chairs as an intimidation tactic, and it actually made him leave us alone for a bit.
These guys are my favorite! As a DM, I stumbled across these by accident. I've run them twice, and both were great. It's hilarious seeing the players try to fight them as he tells jokes.
The most funny/epic thing you could do with this guy is use him as reusable Kamakazi guy to run in with powerful explosives, or use him to help take less fall damage by falling on him since you’re technically dealing damage to him that way.
I have a reocurring character in any applicable fantasy campaigns called the Time Goblin. It is an immeasurably powerful goblin of time who cannot be damaged and can show up effectively anywhere, but it also acts like the "I'm just a small little goblin" meme. The first time it showed up in a campaign a player immediately hit it with an axe. They know me so well.
you and your cats are all beautiful. I can picture a group of starting adventurers camping at night, being surrounded by a group of chanting and dancing goblins- but only one ever comes out of the shadows to play pranks on the group
This is amazing and I’m so glad you told me about it. There has to be a way to make a cult of NPCs who hate the nilbog, but are forced to praise it, and know better than to fight.
Thank you for covering this monster, it's been one of my favorites for ages and I've read a lot on it when I was in long car rides. So it's awesome seeing it on the channel of my favorite RUclipsr
When this book came out several+ years back, I ran a monster campaign where all of the players were bad guys. One of my players decided he wanted to be a Goblin. I found the Nilbog interesting so I said to the player he could add the Nilbog benefits to his character. The party had so much fun comboing the Nilbog's abilities with the party dynamic.
Cool thing to keep note: It's CR is less than 3, meaning you can summon two of these as a level 7 Druid, level 13 Ranger, level 10 Bard (as magical secrets) or level 11 Warlock(Who have to use a higher spell slot and can only summon 1) At the absolute maximum (Level 15 Druid or Bard(as magical secrets)) You can summon 6 at a time.
@@mslabo102s2 Aye, NIlbogs are fey. I spent way too much time researching summons and I remember writing down Nilbogs while researching summonable fey.
Last year (or maybe two years ago) I came across the Nilbog and was immediately infuriated. So I wrote this, enjoy. I need to make this known Nilbog (Found in "Volo's Guide to Monsters, Page 182) has a Challenge Rating of 1. Just 1. With an AC of 13 and a Hit Points of 7 (2d6) you'd expect him to have a CR of 1. But this is wrong. Because of two abilities, and three spells. Nilbogism and Reversal of Fortune, then Vicious Mockery, Tasha's Hideous Laughter and Confusion. Nilbogism: "Any creature that attempts to damage the nilbog must first succeed on a DC 12 Charisma saving throw or be charmed until the creature's next turn. A creature charmed in this way must use its action praising the nilbog. The nilbog can't regain hit points, including through magical healing, except through it's Reversal of Fortune reaction." Reversal of Fortune: "In response to another creature dealing damage to the nilbog, the nilbog reduces the damage to 0 and regains 1d6 hit points." Let's put this into context. A fighter walks up to the nilbog, swinging at it with a longsword. Assuming he beats the Charisma save and assuming he gets past the ac, the only thing he does is give the nilbog more hit points. The nilbog also has vicious Mockery, which if failed, gives disadvantage on their next attack. To even hit the nilbog, not damage it, the fighter needs to get past 3 rolls, one of which at disadvantage. In order to deal damage to a nilbog, a player needs to hit it, and have another player hit it, since it only has one reaction per round. That's two characters that have to roll above 13 twice in a row. That's not taking into consideration the vicious mockery, the confusion or God knows what else. Confusion is a 4th level spell that has an 80% of having players not do anything on their turn, oh and also its a 4th level spell, at a CR of 1. Because of course it is. So with all that considered, here's how you damage a nilbog, not even fucking kill it, with confusion and vicous Mockery factered in, demonstration with fighter and ranger. Fighter needs to roll a 9 or 10 to avoid confusion, then needs to get past the Charisma save, then rolls agaisnt AC with disadvantage, then heals the nilbog. Ranger goes next, needing to roll a 9 or 10 to get past confusion, then needs to get past Charisma save, then needs to beat AC, then, and only then, does he deal damage. Repeat until you give your players PTSD-Nilbolg. Oh, and you can't fireball it. Nilbogism states "Any creature that attemps to damage the nilbolg", that means swinging at it, shooting it, fireballing it, or even laying out fuckimg caltrips, triggers Nilbogism, and Nilbogism, can be used an infinte number of times. CR, motherfucking, 1.
I switched back to this window right at 1:52 and accidentally paused right after logan finished saying hruggek's name, but i didn't realize it cause pausing to appreciate that art rather than give a description like the other two is exactly the type of bit logan would do!
I *loved* an encounter my party had with a Nilbog when attacking a goblin hideout. The Nilbog was _trying_ to cause mischief and get rid of the domineering hobgoblins, which caused it to intentionally provoke a group of adventurers. They fought it in a cave with a few different entrances from the surface, and it was a fantastic mix of frustration & humor. We had a homebrew artificer whose basically had damage scaling like a rogue. She landed a crit on the Nilbog, which he stopped with a finger and then _healed_ from. It ended when they found a loophole in the rules: nilbogism only affects creatures trying to _damage_ the Nilbog. So they tackled him to the ground, and then pinned him with an immovable rod where he couldn't reach it. Then they buried him under like 10 feet of dirt and camped out for an hour just to be sure the jerk was gone.
I can imagine the situation of, after struggling to kill the thing, one paty member finally lands a succesful blow after it has used his reaction and finally dying, only for another goblin with the same mischevious smile to walk in, look directly into the corpse and say "Glad I wasn't that guy".
I love Nilbogs. In my campaign, to stop the PCs from foiling his plan, my goblin leader sent two goblins and one nilbog to their camp over night. The nilbog faced the party while the other two goblins stood in the bushes. It was a delight to see my players' faces go from "One goblin? Ok" to "How do we hit him?!" in two rounds. And when the nilbog finally died, one of the other two goblins became a nilbog and faced the party, and the same happened with the third
I love this so much. In my campagne, the gods of the feywild are actually there. The goblins are led by maglubyet and everytime they are killed, their spirit posseses a new goblinoid. So they might be a goblin one day and a bugbear another. Also they reproduce like orks in warhammer 40k, so good luck trying to kill them all.
I'm now imagining a Hobgoblin general who started treating his goblins with the proper amounts of harshness and fairness a soldier deserves First out of fear of the Nilbog and later because he realised having motivated, disciplined soldiers is far more effective than an unorginised hoard of trodden-down goblins
In my Out of the Abyss, there was a goblin abjurer that managed to bind and control his spirit of nilbogism. Then captured six more in the same way. He was a part of a goblinoid group that tried to resurrect goblin gods and kill Maglubiyet and he was supposed to become a new trickster god. If he were to loose his special talisman in any way, he would be overtaken by the spirits and become a super nilbog. Aside from increased nilbog abilities, its powers included: aura of wild magic (if there's already a chance of wild magic surge, it increases by another 5%, there are two rolls and he chooses the effect), aura of healing reversal (necrotic damage heals, healing spells deal damage) and a whole bunch of nasty spells.
I did it, internet funny man. I backed the book. Twisted taverns is probably my favorite project so far (and I wish my group used it more...), looking forward to this one.
I have a question. If Nilbogs are beings possessed by fractured pieces of a dead god, what happens if you bring a bunch of them together? Could you theoretically revive the trickster god? It would probably be impossible anyway. Collecting. Nilbogs sounds like herding cats times a thousand.
After seeing this vid...imagine a Nilbog saving a setting world just by distracting a Terrasque for several days by simply being annoying and refusing to die.
I’ve given these little guys an ability in the past where they have the ability to switch the minds of PCs until a long rest. I would only reccomend doing it once, but it was hilarious when it happened
in a christmas one-shot i ran, i reflavored these guys into "Yule Goblins". it was pretty fun to have them prance around with thier candy can magic and stuff
Area of effect spells cannot bypass the Nilgbog's charm effect. The trait says that any creature that attempts to "damage" Nilbog has to make the saving throw. It does not specify attack. This means that if you are at all aware of the Nilbog being inside of an area of a damaging spell that you want to cast, you are attempting to damage the Nilbog which means that you have to make the saving throw.
A fun place where you could use a Nilbog is for a town/city fair, where a merchant and a Nilbog has teamed up to scam folk. You could have a fair game where the players pay a small amount of coin to try and hit the Nilbog with a tomato or something similar, and if they hit the Nilbog they earn a big price. However, the showrunner obviously lets this out to be any other goblin, and so the players will be failing and losing their money.
I remember reading the Nilbog page a few years ago and really wanting to make an encounter using them with my players. Just like Umber Hulks and Shambling Mounds they're just begging for an interesting encounter. I just hope my players don't watch this video before I get to throw a pimpy immortal gobbin at them. Also I appreciate the Troll 2 Reference. Talking to both you and WotC.
you posted this while I dm'd my game where the party's goblin companion is slowly transforming into a nilbog (patches of his skin are slowly becoming pink)
First Nilbog i come across in a game was one who was living under a stump connected to a mine. Lil guy possess a goblin that was being abused by Hobs and made them all run for the hills... the diference was that this Nilbog had a habit of carrying with them a collection of minor magical items with odd but not harmfull effects... like a coat of holding but it was full of bugs that made it itchy. After we help him, he ended the possesion and went somewhere else... we later found them possessing a goblin girl who was running a farm with some orcs and the owner wasa douche (we helped them deal with him). That Nilbog ended become besties with my Sorcerer cause we just vibed. Honeslty a Nilbog can be a great NPC the party keeps coming across since Goblins are usually the punching bags of DnD, so befriending a Nilbog can be both really fun and really helpfull throughout the game.
The first ever DND session I was *ever* a part of had a Nilbog in it. This was the second time the party had met this Nilbog after killing him the first time in-game MONTHS ago. Every time someone says “magic goblin,” I do 180 degree head turn in paranoia.
Fun fact: the Nilbog concept ACTUALLY PREDATE Troll 2!! The concept was actually born the « Fiend Factory » column of the first incarnation of White Dwarf, the official Magazine of Games Workshop aka the Warhammer People, because in the VERY EARLY 80’s, GW had the exclusive rights to port in the UK the USA based first edition of D&D… Was during the TSR Days… I think « the Fiend Factory » and its still present influence on D&D would make an interesting video… Like did you know the Giths were also invented in there?!!!
I used to let players go on basically 1 minor random exploration encounter and attempt alchemy once a session with the herbalist fan addon. It was a popular way to get some intrigue without ending up wasting time. I had them find a nilbog, but here's the thing. If violence is worship, then the nilbog is a place of worship. Thus kindness is desecration. Thus, healing the nilbog actually hurts it. And this nilbog was NOT immune to the pain of either act. So they had this very uncomfortable situation where they thought they were just killing a solo goblin and had this creature that was only harmed by healing and was just in excruciating agony no matter what you do.
I feel like this is the sort of encounter the DM throws at a highish level party as side quest. All village such and such has put a bounty on goblins raiding the area. The party thinks this will be a quick way to earn some spending coin. But little do they know what they are in for.
The lore I heard was that the old gods didn't get "exploded into dust", they were killed by the other Goblinoid Gods (specifically the ones of Hobgoblins and Bugbears), as part of subjugating them. The Trickster God, as Trickster gods are oft to do, pulled the lol-nope card and vanished to come back later as a gigantic thorn in the side of any Hobgoblin general trying to run a camp.
My wizard player who personally incited the war in my campaign between Vecna and Tiamat (At level 1): Gets wrecked by a single nilbog because the barbarian had a -2 charisma save and garbage dice, and the other party members were chilling in the inn watching on familiar-tv
Honestly, having one of these as a reoccurring Enemy/Ally/Whirlwind of Chaos would be really fun to have. Imagine your party is just traipsing the countryside, looking for shit to do when BAM! Nilbog is here, and he's hired a band of goblins to annoy your party by constantly throwing rotten oranges at you. Then later on you are fighting something like an overpowered Mindflayer that is kicking your party's ass when he suddenly pops in ready to troll you only to get mad and yell "I'm the only one allowed to harass them!" And then turns the tides so that the fight becomes fair.
You know I think mailbox actually use the hostility to worship mechanic on their own camp, if the spirit of nilbog truly possesses the worst treated out of the group it only makes sense that they're all so beaten by the group.
Almost thought you were talking about Squee, a goblin from the MtG lore. He is more or less deathless. He can 'die' temporarily but quickly reconstitutes.
I wrote an entry level session where players had to infiltrate a hobgoblin fortress, but everything was weird. Guards were sleeping and the change was literally them getting woken up, walking away and the new guard sleeping. All sorts of childish games being played and much more stupid stuff, all because the hobgob leader was possessed by the "bohnilbog" and the others were forced to do what he says.
omg... I knew the nilbog thing because of Worm (the web serial by Wildbow). I can only assume *they* got it from the troll 2 thing and lmfao that's. so good.
It's been a while since I've read Worm, but I remember their version of Nilbog being pretty damn creepy. I'm wanting to say its powers cause some sort of city-wide zombie apocalypse scenario, except instead of zombies, it turns things into these messed up puppet creatures? I need to try getting back into the sequel Ward. I only read part of it, but I remember there being some more stuff involving Nilbog in that one.
I can imagine a group of hobgoblins trying to hire adventurers to assassinate a nilbog because they can’t act against it directly and they’re losing control over their horde
I used a nilbolg with a group of goblins to make a labyrinth reference by having it the goblin king. I ended up giving my party tips for fighting it. I had to play automatic opportunity attacks so that my players could beat it checkers style.
I came up with an adventure with a war band of goblinoids stealing the King’s Crown so it can use its gems for the top of his jesters hat that will also matches the hat on the head of his jester’s staff. Then give the rest of the crown to his pet ogre as a ring, that he convinced that he was actually a goblin. Also on the back of the ogre is his throne when he is laying down. And when he stands up is it acts like a fort to give him cover, so he is actually a Howdah.
The last episode of the anime "Goblin Slayer" had a canonical goblin riding a dinosaur in the last episode. You should check out the anime, it's actually based on a D&D campaign. Goblin Slayer plans everything in combat so that the DM can't beat him on rolls.
Love the idea of the party killing a frustrating nilbog to just have a new one walk out, point to its old corpse and say "Glad im not that guy!" The. Cast hideous lapughter on the entire party as a reaction
I would have interpreted the reversal of fortune such that if the attack reduced it to 0 hp it would still die, because it can't use it's reaction if it's dead; but I like the idea of it just saying 'Nuh-Uh" to being nuked better, so I think I'll do the same.
Love that just a silly little guy has arguably the most powerful reaction in the entire game
For the fact it's reusable it might actually be the strongest up until you reach some of Mercer's antimagic monstrosities. There's a horrifying enemy called The Death's Head of Bhaal who can do that trick three times a day but it has to be from an attack and they don't get health back (the reason they're horrifying is they have an aura of murder where everyone else around them gets vulnerability to piercing damage in addition to being able to shrug attacks).
Gob Bombadil
At least it’s not from AD&D where it’s reverse in EVERYTHING, Fighter be damned, they can’t do anything against it, not even red potion
@@yamuda Thank you, I am stealing that.
another part of lore of the nilbog I love is that due to superstition of the nilbog goblin troops will assign a mischievous goblin the roll of jester just incase a nilbog decides to possess one of their clan, so that they'd possess the jester as its drawn to chaos. that way if an actual nilbog is created nothing really has to change for the clan as there was already a nilbog stand in
I thought it was that they keep the Jester around to appease the entity that makes nilbogs. As long as they have 1 goblin Jester in the host, a nilbog will not appear.
Pretty counter-intuitive if you ask me. You wouldn't even be able to tell the difference until you tried to kill it
@@d1g1beastpr1me7The trick if I remember Volo's guide correctly is that the Hobgoblins and Bugbears are all scared of the Nilbog (understandably so. Imagine if you shot ten bows at a funny pink goblin, 2 of the archers missed, 5 of them started praising the Nilbog for some weird reason, one more is just laughing nonstop and didn't even fire and the last two hit, one of which hurts it then the other one heals it. I'd be scared of that abomination too). They therefore let the jester do whatever they like because there's no way to tell if the jester is a Nilbog until you make it mad at which point it's going to mess with you in particular and Nilbogs basically always win the 1v1 (and they come back if you can convince a friend to help you kill it).
Then bang, that's a player character.
BBEG destroys the entire plane of existance.
Nilbog floating in the lifeless void. "HA! You missed me!"
"Try to not miss the entire universe next time!"
In previous editions, damage would heal the nilbog, the only way to kill it was with healing Magic. Even more chaos.
I am so using that in my next campaign!
Power word kill.
This is the only way to kill one, no damage, instant death.
Magic missile should also work
(Nilbog transfers over to another goblin)
Nilbog: NUH UH!
You can't kill an idea
@@RooflessM Eldritch Blast, Scorching Ray, and any 5th level Martial character with access to Extra Attack also work. Basically, anything with a multi-hit.
You have to make the Charisma save first though.
Squee, the immortal
I understood this reference. What a magical guy he is.
@@consolescrub4031Can you explain to me, please.
My very first rare was Nabob. That little bugger is incredible in all his incarnations!
The last time I used a Nilbog, he was in a troupe of about a dozen Goblins.... and he had a wand of wonder. The party which could easily slaughter such a group nearly died to the Nilbog and probably would have if I hadn't rolled the fireball (on the wand) which killed all the goblins at once. Leaving the Nilbog alone and easily slashed by the Paladin to finally finish him and the combat. That was the day I learned of the OPness that are Nilbogs.
Fitting that the biggest factor in their defeat was their own flub
My wizard: "Dark star!!" *creates collapsed matter strong enough to suck in all Matter and Light itself*
Nilbog: "NUH UH"
Wizard:"TF you mean 'nu-uh'!?"
clothes dont count. you didnt hit me
You forget he is wearing a Dark star proof loincloth. It's also Fireball proof, Meteor Swarm proof and Disintegrate proof. Oddly enough not Magic Missile proof based on how most people run the spell but that's possibly one of the moments where the Nilbog reaction healing might come into effect.
Wait is dark star a legit spell in DnD and not a fan-made one?
@@Beepers559Yes, but it's from the Explorer's Guide to Wildemont book iirc
We need more silly trickster monsters. Not just big HP sponges who hit with the force of a collapsing building but goofy dudes who just clown on you and everything you stand for. Every time you think for sure you've killed um, nope they're good and are now insulting your fashion sense.
Reminds me of the meme about the uber goose. It's a regular goose in every way except divination magic doesn't work on it, an identical goose comes along when the first one dies ad inifinitum and it can appear and disappear from spaces it has no logical way of entering or exiting.
@@consolescrub4031 that's another good one. The whole campaign is just little goofball monsters like this, not real threats but instead just ones that drive you up the wall
@@Master_E444 My suggestion there is to go into a 5e bestiary and select the modifiers for 'Fey' and 'CR 2 and below'. There's some magnificent bastards there from Boggles (who can exude slippery goo and make portals in any nearby opening such as doors, windows or the gap under your bed) to Brigganocks (which can speed up time around themselves so they can do one hours work in seconds such as removing your door and replacing it with a brick wall). There's a lot of fun possibilities with the Conjure Woodland Beings spell beyond the T-rex party.
Kind of like evil Tom Bombadil. I like it
The Ochre Jelly. Seriously, it's hilarious.
In an encounter my party once faced, none but the goblin camp's Nilbog and their warboss remained. Turns out that when standing next to each other, those two become a horrifying combo of neverending pain (and worship) since the boss gets to deflect one attack made against it onto a nearby goblin, which then forces you to make the charisma save if said goblin is a nilbog (at least that's how our dm ruled it back then). Somehow we managed to overpower the boss, leaving nothing but the Nilbog. After another half an hour of laughter and annoyance, instead of trying to kill it directly we tied it up and threw it in a lake. No clue if it is still alive or not but as far as we were concerned it was a good enough job. It was a great evening of us roleplaying how our characters would worship the Nilbog and laughing our arses off; great mob, amazing encounter.
I'd give it clown logic rules. If it's funny enough (you make the dm laugh) the Nilbog dies
Now imagine that BOTH goblins were Nilbog Warbosses!
"Nilbog! It's Goblin spelled backwards!" Love the Troll 2 references. Just don't piss on their hospitality and you're good
The Nilbog has existed in D&D since the 1981's Fiend Folio. I'd anything, Troll 2 is the reference.
Nilbogs, the reverse of us, the best of us. Fear the power of deadly sillyness until we're filled with silly deadness, but there shall always be more! The Goblins are dead, long live goblins!
Also, the healing in the reaction is in reference to previous editions! They used to be healed from damage and hurt by healing. So the only way to remove the threat was with weaponized kindness, as directly attacking would only make it stronger! Just like goblinkind, in a way! Or, you know, pin it down and pour a health potion into it. Also used to reverse your intentions! You came here to loot the place? No, you're going to put your stuff in this empty chest and leave. Then snap to attention halfway through walking away, realizing you just got Bugs Bunny'd.
came across a Nilbog in my first campaign. not being able to kill it was SUPER frustrating! because of this, my rangers favoured enemy become Goblinoids so i could kill it!
One fun fact I recall from these little guys is when the Hobgoblins form a horde to conquer the world, or at least their part of it, they sometimes will take a goblin, give him a silly outfit, and dub him the Niblog. From then on, that goblin can do whatever he wants, and nobody can touch him. They do this to try to avoid a true Nilbog showing up, since if they already have one (minus the magic), they won't get the worse one.
That said, I love the idea of the powerful and honorable Hobgoblin trying to negotiate with the human commander, giving the usual "Surrender or die" speech, while a Nilbog in the corner is just talking smack about everybody. And/or causing the entire negotiating team to break into dance.
I actually ran a Nilbog..he became a recurring villain as he was able to escape from the party.
It was pretty amazing, they hated him so much.
I once ran an encounter with a group of these guys, who worked for a goblin feylock booyahg, named Nibbletack.
He appeared while the party were being chased by the wild hunt, to inconvenience all involved. He was especially proud of his magical club, that dealt no damage, but had a chance of forcing victims to pretend they had been greviously wounded.
That club is fantastic!
Yeah that club really does sound like hilarious fun
Anyone who gets hit has to do the Family Guy "Kssssss...aaaaaaaaaaah..."
Fun Fact! These guys are essentially the closest thing I've seen other media get to 40k's Harlequins, as far as lore goes.
It's made even more amusing in that the trickster being broken into shards and can 'possess' a goblin is kind of similar to the Shards of Khaine in 40k too.
I got a funnier fact for you then! These guys where originally published in a magazine produced by....GW!
"Hey do you high boys remember that one time when clown goblins invaded the Imperial Palace?"
Master of the Administratum, one of the High lords of Tera
I haven't seen the video yet, but that premise disturbs me
I disagree. They have the comedy aspect down but if you want to give players the pain of fighting/getting pranked by Harlequins then you need the Quickling. Those little bastards have one of the highest movement speeds in the game so having one of those with the jump spell and boots of haste would be close to a Solitaire.
Oh but you cant even use indirect damage against these things without activating the praise ability, if you attempt to harm it an any way, by any means, Cha-cha save or you go to work on its mani-pedi
My headcannon is that almost all of the movements a Nilbog makes is some kind of dance move/stunt jump
A nilbog could survive indefinitely in a tarrasque's stomach
Logan really is one of dad's greatest advocates of silliness. Like most DM: this will be my fantasy opus to rival Tolkein himself! Logan be like: let's write a book or dnd Pokémon cause thay sounds funner. More silly in your dnd people.
i had one of these guys in my campaign, for extra chaos let him teleport. I tried to make him super annoying so the players would bully him and get to experience his abilities but they met him and went "this guy rules" and gave him gold. So when they ended up fighting a hobgoblin merc group Nilbog helped them and otto danced the leader. Good times
that sounds like a hilarious time
They basically got their own personal Mr. Mxyzpltk
Aaaahhhh... I wanna pet Nilbog! I wanna pet him right meow! Dammit! He got me again, didn't he!
That’s why he has nine lives, just cleverly timed reactions.
5:54 Everyone PLEASE take at a closer look at the goblins as they get shoved into the cannon
Why?
Goblin centipede??
@@michaelnelson2976 😱
This is just Joy Boy. Its literally Joy Boy with infinite uses. I can see it now. Just a whole Goblin war going on and suddenly drums start playing and a goblin priest yells out “HES RETURNED…THE NILBOG!”
I randomly came across Nilbogs one day and decided to use them in a session as opposed to just a regular Goblin ambush. Needless to say that the party was frustrated but the encounter was also hilarious. Fantastic enemy, would definitely recommend using.
0:52 - Yeah, well, _pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo_ to you too, sunshine.
I love Nilbogs, I'm glad more people are spreading the word about these silly little guys.
"Now I have a cat named 'Nilbog'."
Perfectly reasonable for a cat.
All hail our new Internet Overlord.
I swear, goblin god names are generated by throwing a typewriter down a flight of stairs.
Who doesn’t love themselves a Nilbog?
Now Logan has Nilbog as a familiar, he's unstoppable.
Fun fact: Nilbogs first were introduced in the 80s "Fiend Factory" which was a fan supplement to DND
During a straad campaign I was in, our Dm offered us the choice sometimes for random encounters, between normal, hard or goofy. One of the goofy encounters he had for us as 1 nilbog and 2 salamanders I think. The thing was unkillable and everyone was making jokes and goofy voices the whole time and it was one of my favourite moments from the campaign. Another was when our 3 int barbarian sharted on one of straad’s fancy dining chairs as an intimidation tactic, and it actually made him leave us alone for a bit.
These guys are my favorite! As a DM, I stumbled across these by accident. I've run them twice, and both were great. It's hilarious seeing the players try to fight them as he tells jokes.
The most funny/epic thing you could do with this guy is use him as reusable Kamakazi guy to run in with powerful explosives, or use him to help take less fall damage by falling on him since you’re technically dealing damage to him that way.
6:48 I love the power this image exudes. Nilbog cannot be contained.
I have a reocurring character in any applicable fantasy campaigns called the Time Goblin. It is an immeasurably powerful goblin of time who cannot be damaged and can show up effectively anywhere, but it also acts like the "I'm just a small little goblin" meme.
The first time it showed up in a campaign a player immediately hit it with an axe. They know me so well.
When someone takes 7 minutes to tell you they got a cat and a new kickstarter.
Not that I'm complaining.
you and your cats are all beautiful.
I can picture a group of starting adventurers camping at night, being surrounded by a group of chanting and dancing goblins- but only one ever comes out of the shadows to play pranks on the group
Literally my favorite DnD creature of all time. Thank you for covering it
This is amazing and I’m so glad you told me about it. There has to be a way to make a cult of NPCs who hate the nilbog, but are forced to praise it, and know better than to fight.
Thank you for covering this monster, it's been one of my favorites for ages and I've read a lot on it when I was in long car rides. So it's awesome seeing it on the channel of my favorite RUclipsr
When this book came out several+ years back, I ran a monster campaign where all of the players were bad guys.
One of my players decided he wanted to be a Goblin.
I found the Nilbog interesting so I said to the player he could add the Nilbog benefits to his character.
The party had so much fun comboing the Nilbog's abilities with the party dynamic.
Ok, so now we just need a bag of holding and the patience to collect every living Nilbog to reform the Goblin trickster god lol
Cool thing to keep note: It's CR is less than 3, meaning you can summon two of these as a level 7 Druid, level 13 Ranger, level 10 Bard (as magical secrets) or level 11 Warlock(Who have to use a higher spell slot and can only summon 1) At the absolute maximum (Level 15 Druid or Bard(as magical secrets)) You can summon 6 at a time.
Wait, is that a fey?
@@mslabo102s2 Aye, NIlbogs are fey. I spent way too much time researching summons and I remember writing down Nilbogs while researching summonable fey.
Last year (or maybe two years ago) I came across the Nilbog and was immediately infuriated. So I wrote this, enjoy.
I need to make this known
Nilbog (Found in "Volo's Guide to Monsters, Page 182) has a Challenge Rating of 1. Just 1.
With an AC of 13 and a Hit Points of 7 (2d6) you'd expect him to have a CR of 1. But this is wrong. Because of two abilities, and three spells. Nilbogism and Reversal of Fortune, then Vicious Mockery, Tasha's Hideous Laughter and Confusion.
Nilbogism: "Any creature that attempts to damage the nilbog must first succeed on a DC 12 Charisma saving throw or be charmed until the creature's next turn. A creature charmed in this way must use its action praising the nilbog. The nilbog can't regain hit points, including through magical healing, except through it's Reversal of Fortune reaction."
Reversal of Fortune: "In response to another creature dealing damage to the nilbog, the nilbog reduces the damage to 0 and regains 1d6 hit points."
Let's put this into context.
A fighter walks up to the nilbog, swinging at it with a longsword. Assuming he beats the Charisma save and assuming he gets past the ac, the only thing he does is give the nilbog more hit points. The nilbog also has vicious Mockery, which if failed, gives disadvantage on their next attack. To even hit the nilbog, not damage it, the fighter needs to get past 3 rolls, one of which at disadvantage. In order to deal damage to a nilbog, a player needs to hit it, and have another player hit it, since it only has one reaction per round. That's two characters that have to roll above 13 twice in a row. That's not taking into consideration the vicious mockery, the confusion or God knows what else. Confusion is a 4th level spell that has an 80% of having players not do anything on their turn, oh and also its a 4th level spell, at a CR of 1. Because of course it is.
So with all that considered, here's how you damage a nilbog, not even fucking kill it, with confusion and vicous Mockery factered in, demonstration with fighter and ranger.
Fighter needs to roll a 9 or 10 to avoid confusion, then needs to get past the Charisma save, then rolls agaisnt AC with disadvantage, then heals the nilbog. Ranger goes next, needing to roll a 9 or 10 to get past confusion, then needs to get past Charisma save, then needs to beat AC, then, and only then, does he deal damage. Repeat until you give your players PTSD-Nilbolg.
Oh, and you can't fireball it. Nilbogism states "Any creature that attemps to damage the nilbolg", that means swinging at it, shooting it, fireballing it, or even laying out fuckimg caltrips, triggers Nilbogism, and Nilbogism, can be used an infinte number of times.
CR, motherfucking, 1.
🫡
I switched back to this window right at 1:52 and accidentally paused right after logan finished saying hruggek's name, but i didn't realize it cause pausing to appreciate that art rather than give a description like the other two is exactly the type of bit logan would do!
RUclips really be making sure I don't miss these episodes putting it on the home page. Good. Lol
I *loved* an encounter my party had with a Nilbog when attacking a goblin hideout. The Nilbog was _trying_ to cause mischief and get rid of the domineering hobgoblins, which caused it to intentionally provoke a group of adventurers. They fought it in a cave with a few different entrances from the surface, and it was a fantastic mix of frustration & humor. We had a homebrew artificer whose basically had damage scaling like a rogue. She landed a crit on the Nilbog, which he stopped with a finger and then _healed_ from.
It ended when they found a loophole in the rules: nilbogism only affects creatures trying to _damage_ the Nilbog. So they tackled him to the ground, and then pinned him with an immovable rod where he couldn't reach it. Then they buried him under like 10 feet of dirt and camped out for an hour just to be sure the jerk was gone.
I can imagine the situation of, after struggling to kill the thing, one paty member finally lands a succesful blow after it has used his reaction and finally dying, only for another goblin with the same mischevious smile to walk in, look directly into the corpse and say "Glad I wasn't that guy".
Goblin Slayer: Is that a challenge?
A cat named Nilbog is a great fit, considering their proverbial seven lives!
I love Nilbogs. In my campaign, to stop the PCs from foiling his plan, my goblin leader sent two goblins and one nilbog to their camp over night. The nilbog faced the party while the other two goblins stood in the bushes. It was a delight to see my players' faces go from "One goblin? Ok" to "How do we hit him?!" in two rounds. And when the nilbog finally died, one of the other two goblins became a nilbog and faced the party, and the same happened with the third
I love this so much. In my campagne, the gods of the feywild are actually there. The goblins are led by maglubyet and everytime they are killed, their spirit posseses a new goblinoid. So they might be a goblin one day and a bugbear another. Also they reproduce like orks in warhammer 40k, so good luck trying to kill them all.
Nilbog Time LETS GGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Fun fact, my dm put this creature in our campaign, we put him in charge of the goblin camp, and he became the new BBEG
I'm now imagining a Hobgoblin general who started treating his goblins with the proper amounts of harshness and fairness a soldier deserves
First out of fear of the Nilbog and later because he realised having motivated, disciplined soldiers is far more effective than an unorginised hoard of trodden-down goblins
In my Out of the Abyss, there was a goblin abjurer that managed to bind and control his spirit of nilbogism. Then captured six more in the same way. He was a part of a goblinoid group that tried to resurrect goblin gods and kill Maglubiyet and he was supposed to become a new trickster god.
If he were to loose his special talisman in any way, he would be overtaken by the spirits and become a super nilbog. Aside from increased nilbog abilities, its powers included: aura of wild magic (if there's already a chance of wild magic surge, it increases by another 5%, there are two rolls and he chooses the effect), aura of healing reversal (necrotic damage heals, healing spells deal damage) and a whole bunch of nasty spells.
I did it, internet funny man. I backed the book. Twisted taverns is probably my favorite project so far (and I wish my group used it more...), looking forward to this one.
I love these little guys. Pure annoyance but no bite.
having a cat named Nilbog is one of the best life achevement.
Congrats on reaching the kickstarter goal on the first day. Also, cute cat
I have a question. If Nilbogs are beings possessed by fractured pieces of a dead god, what happens if you bring a bunch of them together? Could you theoretically revive the trickster god? It would probably be impossible anyway. Collecting. Nilbogs sounds like herding cats times a thousand.
I lost this channel a while ago, glad I found it again. Hope you're doing better now man
After seeing this vid...imagine a Nilbog saving a setting world just by distracting a Terrasque for several days by simply being annoying and refusing to die.
I’ve given these little guys an ability in the past where they have the ability to switch the minds of PCs until a long rest. I would only reccomend doing it once, but it was hilarious when it happened
in a christmas one-shot i ran, i reflavored these guys into "Yule Goblins". it was pretty fun to have them prance around with thier candy can magic and stuff
Area of effect spells cannot bypass the Nilgbog's charm effect. The trait says that any creature that attempts to "damage" Nilbog has to make the saving throw. It does not specify attack. This means that if you are at all aware of the Nilbog being inside of an area of a damaging spell that you want to cast, you are attempting to damage the Nilbog which means that you have to make the saving throw.
0:52 - Well that was completely unnecessary. And frankly more than a bit unhinged with how out of pocket that was.
Love your sweet stinky pet nilbog
Thanks for the idea! I'm starting a campaign soon in which all the players will be goblins. Can't wait to spring this on them. 😁
A fun place where you could use a Nilbog is for a town/city fair, where a merchant and a Nilbog has teamed up to scam folk. You could have a fair game where the players pay a small amount of coin to try and hit the Nilbog with a tomato or something similar, and if they hit the Nilbog they earn a big price. However, the showrunner obviously lets this out to be any other goblin, and so the players will be failing and losing their money.
I remember reading the Nilbog page a few years ago and really wanting to make an encounter using them with my players. Just like Umber Hulks and Shambling Mounds they're just begging for an interesting encounter. I just hope my players don't watch this video before I get to throw a pimpy immortal gobbin at them.
Also I appreciate the Troll 2 Reference. Talking to both you and WotC.
Best. Story. For a video. Ever. Long live Nilbog.
Quest idea: A group of goblins hires the party to get rid of the Nilbog that's tormenting them in any way they can
you posted this while I dm'd my game where the party's goblin companion is slowly transforming into a nilbog (patches of his skin are slowly becoming pink)
First Nilbog i come across in a game was one who was living under a stump connected to a mine.
Lil guy possess a goblin that was being abused by Hobs and made them all run for the hills... the diference was that this Nilbog had a habit of carrying with them a collection of minor magical items with odd but not harmfull effects... like a coat of holding but it was full of bugs that made it itchy.
After we help him, he ended the possesion and went somewhere else... we later found them possessing a goblin girl who was running a farm with some orcs and the owner wasa douche (we helped them deal with him). That Nilbog ended become besties with my Sorcerer cause we just vibed.
Honeslty a Nilbog can be a great NPC the party keeps coming across since Goblins are usually the punching bags of DnD, so befriending a Nilbog can be both really fun and really helpfull throughout the game.
The first ever DND session I was *ever* a part of had a Nilbog in it. This was the second time the party had met this Nilbog after killing him the first time in-game MONTHS ago. Every time someone says “magic goblin,” I do 180 degree head turn in paranoia.
Fun fact: the Nilbog concept ACTUALLY PREDATE Troll 2!!
The concept was actually born the « Fiend Factory » column of the first incarnation of White Dwarf, the official Magazine of Games Workshop aka the Warhammer People, because in the VERY EARLY 80’s, GW had the exclusive rights to port in the UK the USA based first edition of D&D…
Was during the TSR Days…
I think « the Fiend Factory » and its still present influence on D&D would make an interesting video…
Like did you know the Giths were also invented in there?!!!
I used to let players go on basically 1 minor random exploration encounter and attempt alchemy once a session with the herbalist fan addon. It was a popular way to get some intrigue without ending up wasting time.
I had them find a nilbog, but here's the thing.
If violence is worship, then the nilbog is a place of worship. Thus kindness is desecration.
Thus, healing the nilbog actually hurts it.
And this nilbog was NOT immune to the pain of either act. So they had this very uncomfortable situation where they thought they were just killing a solo goblin and had this creature that was only harmed by healing and was just in excruciating agony no matter what you do.
I feel like this is the sort of encounter the DM throws at a highish level party as side quest. All village such and such has put a bounty on goblins raiding the area. The party thinks this will be a quick way to earn some spending coin. But little do they know what they are in for.
The lore I heard was that the old gods didn't get "exploded into dust", they were killed by the other Goblinoid Gods (specifically the ones of Hobgoblins and Bugbears), as part of subjugating them. The Trickster God, as Trickster gods are oft to do, pulled the lol-nope card and vanished to come back later as a gigantic thorn in the side of any Hobgoblin general trying to run a camp.
My wizard player who personally incited the war in my campaign between Vecna and Tiamat (At level 1): Gets wrecked by a single nilbog because the barbarian had a -2 charisma save and garbage dice, and the other party members were chilling in the inn watching on familiar-tv
Honestly, having one of these as a reoccurring Enemy/Ally/Whirlwind of Chaos would be really fun to have. Imagine your party is just traipsing the countryside, looking for shit to do when BAM! Nilbog is here, and he's hired a band of goblins to annoy your party by constantly throwing rotten oranges at you. Then later on you are fighting something like an overpowered Mindflayer that is kicking your party's ass when he suddenly pops in ready to troll you only to get mad and yell "I'm the only one allowed to harass them!" And then turns the tides so that the fight becomes fair.
You know I think mailbox actually use the hostility to worship mechanic on their own camp, if the spirit of nilbog truly possesses the worst treated out of the group it only makes sense that they're all so beaten by the group.
Almost thought you were talking about Squee, a goblin from the MtG lore. He is more or less deathless. He can 'die' temporarily but quickly reconstitutes.
I wrote an entry level session where players had to infiltrate a hobgoblin fortress, but everything was weird. Guards were sleeping and the change was literally them getting woken up, walking away and the new guard sleeping. All sorts of childish games being played and much more stupid stuff, all because the hobgob leader was possessed by the "bohnilbog" and the others were forced to do what he says.
You: *Slice the Nilbog in half, killing it instantly*
The Nilbog: *Walking in from off-screen, completely fine* "Boy, glad I'm not THAT guy."
omg... I knew the nilbog thing because of Worm (the web serial by Wildbow). I can only assume *they* got it from the troll 2 thing and lmfao that's. so good.
It's been a while since I've read Worm, but I remember their version of Nilbog being pretty damn creepy. I'm wanting to say its powers cause some sort of city-wide zombie apocalypse scenario, except instead of zombies, it turns things into these messed up puppet creatures? I need to try getting back into the sequel Ward. I only read part of it, but I remember there being some more stuff involving Nilbog in that one.
I can imagine a group of hobgoblins trying to hire adventurers to assassinate a nilbog because they can’t act against it directly and they’re losing control over their horde
I used a nilbolg with a group of goblins to make a labyrinth reference by having it the goblin king. I ended up giving my party tips for fighting it. I had to play automatic opportunity attacks so that my players could beat it checkers style.
You think you can just sneak that Shrek reference in and get away with it without anyone noticing?
Well played 😂
So essentially he’s a silly union rep ensuring fair treatment for his people in the goblin hoarde
I came up with an adventure with a war band of goblinoids stealing the King’s Crown so it can use its gems for the top of his jesters hat that will also matches the hat on the head of his jester’s staff. Then give the rest of the crown to his pet ogre as a ring, that he convinced that he was actually a goblin. Also on the back of the ogre is his throne when he is laying down. And when he stands up is it acts like a fort to give him cover, so he is actually a Howdah.
The last episode of the anime "Goblin Slayer" had a canonical goblin riding a dinosaur in the last episode. You should check out the anime, it's actually based on a D&D campaign. Goblin Slayer plans everything in combat so that the DM can't beat him on rolls.
Much love to Nilbog, the goblins but more importantly, the cat.
Love the idea of the party killing a frustrating nilbog to just have a new one walk out, point to its old corpse and say "Glad im not that guy!" The. Cast hideous lapughter on the entire party as a reaction
A Deacons of the Deep--style goblin boss with this mechanic would be lit
I would have interpreted the reversal of fortune such that if the attack reduced it to 0 hp it would still die, because it can't use it's reaction if it's dead; but I like the idea of it just saying 'Nuh-Uh" to being nuked better, so I think I'll do the same.