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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Elite Kobolds!



Ninja_Prawn
2016-02-25, 02:55 PM
Hey all, I'm working on some things for a new campaign and I just wanted to double-check some monster designs to make sure I'm getting the CRs right.

And, if you like them, you're welcome to use them in your own games!

Without further ado: Ninja_Prawn's Kobolds on Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/s/1u0jm3ysj495hky/Kobolds.pdf?dl=0) and on Google drive (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxtHUzt8dPyKSDZNZFFUWGhoelE/view?usp=sharing)!

SouthpawSoldier
2016-02-25, 03:05 PM
At first skim, I like what I see. Downloaded and saved for more intense perusal later.

Have you given any thought to borrowing form 3.5's Dragonwrought Kobolds? Fluff and design fits right in with your Elite tier Kobolds.

Ninja_Prawn
2016-02-25, 03:13 PM
I hadn't thought of that, but only because I haven't heard of them. I never played 3.5; these were mostly inspired by the commandos from Baldur's Gate.

Is the material available for free?

SouthpawSoldier
2016-02-25, 03:48 PM
There was a Dragon Article about them, before WOTC purged legacy material. Might be archived somewhere. Race and most of the material come from Races of the Dragon.

Essentially, they're kobolds who's draconic heritage is a little stronger than usual. From hatching, they're groomed for leadership. Smarter, stronger, and longer-lived than your average kobold.

PoeticDwarf
2016-02-26, 02:40 AM
New versions of my #7 minions !

I'll give feedback when I'm on my computer. I don't have dropbox on my mobile phone

Seruvius
2016-02-26, 07:13 AM
I hadn't thought of that, but only because I haven't heard of them. I never played 3.5; these were mostly inspired by the commandos from Baldur's Gate.

Is the material available for free?

First off, I love the quite nasty kobolds you created. I always appreciate creatures that look like some base creature the party may underestimate, that then turns out to be much more powerful than they first thought. Just a bunch of kobolds? Easy, we killed 20 of them last fight, why should we be scared of these 4? Even if they are in plate armour, and wield shields... and are hugely musceled.... Bugger. :smallbiggrin: I will be running RoT in the near future, and little things like this go a long way to making my task as DM easier and more entertaining. :smallsmile:

Dragonwrought Kobolds mechanically speaking in 3.5 were kobolds that took the Dragonwrought feat at level 1. The feat is described in Races of the Dragon p100. It is well known as being one of the extremely cheesy munchkin favourite feats of 3.5, as it let you gain the mental bonuses from an older character, while ignoring the physical penalties that age usually applied, thus gaining a ton of "free" stat boosts.

Races of the Dragon also containes some 20 odd pages all about kobold society and their history, along with other kobold specific mechanical features, that might work as an inspiration for even more kobold themed shenanigans for you.

Ninja_Prawn
2016-02-26, 08:22 AM
First off, I love the quite nasty kobolds you created. I always appreciate creatures that look like some base creature the party may underestimate, that then turns out to be much more powerful than they first thought. Just a bunch of kobolds? Easy, we killed 20 of them last fight, why should we be scared of these 4? Even if they are in plate armour, and wield shields... and are hugely musceled.... Bugger. :smallbiggrin: I will be running RoT in the near future, and little things like this go a long way to making my task as DM easier and more entertaining. :smallsmile:

Dragonwrought Kobolds mechanically speaking in 3.5 were kobolds that took the Dragonwrought feat at level 1. The feat is described in Races of the Dragon p100. It is well known as being one of the extremely cheesy munchkin favourite feats of 3.5, as it let you gain the mental bonuses from an older character, while ignoring the physical penalties that age usually applied, thus gaining a ton of "free" stat boosts.

Races of the Dragon also containes some 20 odd pages all about kobold society and their history, along with other kobold specific mechanical features, that might work as an inspiration for even more kobold themed shenanigans for you.

I'll definitely look it up then, sounds like a valuable resource.

And yeah, I specifically set about creating these with a party of 4 level 9 PCs in mind. I did some maths and realised that the MM didn't have enough monsters from CRs 3 to 5 that would make sense in the context of the campaign. As an added bonus, a monster group of hero, sorcerer, shaman and commando works out as a perfect hard-to-deadly challenge for said group of 4 PCs! I'll definitely be using them as a quirky miniboss squad (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/QuirkyMinibossSquad)!

Ninja_Prawn
2016-06-05, 05:30 AM
Hey, everyone. I just wanted to bring this thread back up, because I've added a lot of additional material (the old link should still work). I'm particularly proud of the undead kobolds; I've been thinking I might add some kind of lycanthrope.

I had a look at the dragonwrought kobolds, but I wasn't really feeling them, so I did a half-dragon/half-kobold instead that is based on the same sort of idea.

Any new thoughts would be welcome!

JNAProductions
2016-06-05, 10:37 AM
I don't really use Dropbox-any chance of putting the Kobolds on the thread itself, or on a Google Doc or something?

I am very curious as to these little guys-you do good work, NP.

Ninja_Prawn
2016-06-05, 11:03 AM
I don't really use Dropbox-any chance of putting the Kobolds on the thread itself, or on a Google Doc or something?

I am very curious as to these little guys-you do good work, NP.

Is that like a religious thing? Because I'm fairly sure you can download a dropbox file without actually having dropbox. I can't really format all these kobolds for the forum, but I can try to put it on the google drive... does this (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxtHUzt8dPyKSDZNZFFUWGhoelE/view?usp=sharing) work?

Latest changes: added Silver Kobold Wizard and White Kobold Dragonslayer. Corrected the Berserker's battleaxe to slashing damage.

In the pipeline: Gold Kobold Monk, Bronze Kobold Knight, Kobold Clerics (Bahamut, Kurtulmak, Tiamat), Koboldwere.

JNAProductions
2016-06-05, 11:04 AM
The drive works. Time to look at kobolds!

Ninja_Prawn
2016-06-05, 11:13 AM
The drive works. Time to look at kobolds!

As usual, I just noticed a typo. I've taken the old file down and put a new one up... is there a way to update a file on Google drive without changing the link?

JNAProductions
2016-06-05, 11:14 AM
As usual, I just noticed a typo. I've taken the old file down and put a new one up... is there a way to update a file on Google drive without changing the link?

I don't think so-just keep a most current in the OP, and you should be good.

PoeticDwarf
2016-06-05, 12:11 PM
For the blue kobold BM. Are thwy hostile if the kobold attacks them? Feel as if you should include that

But I really like this!

SouthpawSoldier
2016-06-08, 02:52 PM
Green Kobolds have no fluff like the other varieties?

Ninja_Prawn
2016-06-08, 03:24 PM
Green Kobolds have no fluff like the other varieties?

Green fluff will be implemented in a future release. It's weird, because the green stat blocks were the first ones I wrote, but what can you do? I only started writing fluff to fill in gaps in the page layouts, and the green stat blocks happen to fill a page neatly.

Most likely, I'll either move the shaman pic to the 'religion' section when that gets written or the bronze/copper sections will introduce new gaps to be filled.

I promise I'm not racist against green people (https://beyondthetortilla.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/aint_easy_being_green.jpg).