What do you do do with kobolds?

[Sizzlefoot]

In my currently-under-development setting, there are five major races: humans, orcs, merfolk, gnomes, and kobolds. Gnomes already fill the niche of the creative, inventive, tinker-y race. This doesn't leave much room for the humble kobold. Sure, they have trap-building, but that's encompassed by the whole "tinkering gnome" thing too. What are your kobolds like?

[Nifft]

- Remove the idea that race = culture.

+ Figure out what sorts of cultures might grow up from different race / religion / environment mixtures.

Then instead of Kobolds being "the ______ guys", Kobolds are: part of the Mugwaer Fenwalker tribes (who live in the great central swamp with merfolk and lizardfolk, mercantile traders and herbalists who are experts at bargaining and escape); part of the Kakhovijh Imperial Republic (with humans and dwarves, who are engineers and master stonemasons famous for their slaves and arches), and part of the Wyrmbjorn Skystriders (with orcs, who are barbarian wanderers well-known for their shamanistic connection with dragons).

[PhoenixPhyre]

I agree with Nifft here.

My setting only has a very few kobolds--one tribe right now (although they're growing).

They're castoffs from a dragon-soul research project. What happens when you forcibly merge pieces of dragon soul into unborn gnome clones? Kobolds. Not the harem-quality dragon-girls that the researcher wanted (it's a long, silly story), but they picked up a bit of the mechanical know-how from their gnome ancestors, along with a strong sense of clan, and escaped to take up a life as covert brewers of fine liquor (using a greedy human as a front-man). They were created with a dependency on an herb to allow breeding, but some adventurers both helped them out with an ample supply and gave them courage to show their scaly faces to the world (by being kind and not attacking on sight).

[Xuc Xac]

The last time I used them, they were a cross between the mafia and an international bank. You could get loans from them for funding various ventures but they charged high interest rates and/or took a controlling share in your business. Each kobold "clan" was led by a dragon that served as figurehead, vault guard, and tactical nuclear extortionist.

They hired human mercenaries to act as their regular enforcers, but if some dude with a castle thought he could give behind his walls and skip his payments, the kobolds would send the dragon.

A single kobold with a chest full of gold is pretty easy to kill, but you'd have to be stupid to try it.

[Tvtyrant]

Kobolds are very small, about 2 ft. Tall and 30 pounds. That opens up a lot of avenues for them to fill unique niches. They are also inventive and have flying members.

Most Kobolds are members of tribes called Houselings. They are hired to hunt rats, mice, and other vermin as well as to repair plumbing and do other hard to reach jobs. A Manor without a tribe of Houselings is looked down on as dirty and at risk of plagues. Farms often allow smaller tribes to live in their barns or to make mounds inside their properties.

Cities hire tribes to keep the city clean of vermin as well, and they are allowed great leverage to access homes and sewer systems in their hunts.

Winged Kobolds are often hired as messengers by lords and mages, and tribes of Kobolds can make better bargains by having a winged kobold to rent to a city.

Individual kobolds are often hired as bodyguards for children, kobolds being playful but protective.

Wild or Feral Kobolds are usually looked down upon by the much exploited civilized Kobolds, living in dens which they often lose to stronger races or beasts. The Kobold Empire is a loose coalition of old dens which operate together under an elected King of Kings. They look down on civilized Kobolds for surrendering to the Bigs, but also run deep spy networks among them and believe they can spark the Rising and throw down the Bigs.

[jqavins]

What do you do with Kobolds? Well, they're pretty touch, so you need to marinate them for a long time an an acidic environment; wine vinegar works well to soften them up and add flavor. After a few days to a week, rub generously with seasonings to taste - I like salt, pepper, rosemary, and garlic - then cook low and slow with some potatoes, onions, and carrots. Serve with fortified red wine or strong beer.

[redwizard007]

In my currently-under-development setting, there are five major races: humans, orcs, merfolk, gnomes, and kobolds. Gnomes already fill the niche of the creative, inventive, tinker-y race. This doesn't leave much room for the humble kobold. Sure, they have trap-building, but that's encompassed by the whole "tinkering gnome" thing too. What are your kobolds like?

Your mistake was using tinker gnomes instead of woodland gnomes, (or perhaps including gnomes at all.) That doesn't mean that you can't have an evil equivalent to gnomes, that's not a bad spot for kobolds.

Gnomes may fill the poorly-thought-out-unintentionally-dangerous inventors, but what about the no-oversight-or-moral-compass inventors? Gnomes invent mustard gas while trying to top a hot dog, but kobolds invent battlemechs (that have a 20% chance of exploding each round) intentionally.

Or kobolds could be to gnomes what gully dwarves are to mountain dwarves, loosely related poor imitations.

Seriously though, just eliminate gnomes.

[the_david]

I've got a problem with small races.
Dwarves and kobolds prefer to live underground, while gnomes and hobbits live in burrows.
Dwarves and duergar are good at mining and smithing, kobolds are good at mining and trapmaking and gnomes are good at tinkering or creating alchemical items. (Or any 1 craft or profession in Pathfinder.)
Dwarves get a bonus on saves vs. poison, spells and spell-like abilities, gnomes get a bonus on saves vs. illusions and halfling gain a racial bonus on all saves and a morale bonus on saves vs. fear.
Small races are surprisingly similar. If you take a look in the 1st edition AD&D Player's Handbook this becomes even more obvious.

My advice is to use a single small race and give it the most important traits of the small races. The +2 bonus to craft or profession in Pathfinder is a good start. Darkvision isn't a bad idea either. A bonus on saves is also possible. You could also look into folklore for inspiration.
Why do I want a single small race? Because one race could fill every niche that all the other small races could. There is simply no need for other small races.

Edit: Yes, dwarves are small in this example.

[Sizzlefoot]

I've got a problem with small races.
Dwarves and kobolds prefer to live underground, while gnomes and hobbits live in burrows.
Dwarves and duergar are good at mining and smithing, kobolds are good at mining and trapmaking and gnomes are good at tinkering or creating alchemical items. (Or any 1 craft or profession in Pathfinder.)
Dwarves get a bonus on saves vs. poison, spells and spell-like abilities, gnomes get a bonus on saves vs. illusions and halfling gain a racial bonus on all saves and a morale bonus on saves vs. fear.
Small races are surprisingly similar. If you take a look in the 1st edition AD&D Player's Handbook this becomes even more obvious.

My advice is to use a single small race and give it the most important traits of the small races. The +2 bonus to craft or profession in Pathfinder is a good start. Darkvision isn't a bad idea either. A bonus on saves is also possible. You could also look into folklore for inspiration.
Why do I want a single small race? Because one race could fill every niche that all the other small races could. There is simply no need for other small races.

Edit: Yes, dwarves are small in this example.

I like it, although I'm kinda attached to all the "little guys". Probably what I'll do is make them subraces of one all-encompassing small race. I was already going to do that with the monstrous humanoid types (orcs, hobgoblins, etc.)

[Sizzlefoot]

What do you do with Kobolds? Well, they're pretty touch, so you need to marinate them for a long time an an acidic environment; wine vinegar works well to soften them up and add flavor. After a few days to a week, rub generously with seasonings to taste - I like salt, pepper, rosemary, and garlic - then cook low and slow with some potatoes, onions, and carrots. Serve with fortified red wine or strong beer.

Do you eat the scales, too?

[Eldan]

Well, personally, I use Kobolds as the worker caste of the dragon species. Dragon queens lay hundreds of eggs which hatch into kobolds, who engage in lair-building and food scavenging for her. In contrast, dragon bulls tend to be solitary and often nomadic and considerably more aggressive.

[Lacuna Caster]

Well, personally, I use Kobolds as the worker caste of the dragon species. Dragon queens lay hundreds of eggs which hatch into kobolds, who engage in lair-building and food scavenging for her. In contrast, dragon bulls tend to be solitary and often nomadic and considerably more aggressive.

The dragonewts from Glorantha function a little like this, but in the other direction- they can eventually evolve, physically and spiritually, from biped lizard-people into full-on dragons. Also have somewhat buddhist-like notions of reincarnation and karmic balance mixed in.

[jqavins]

If you take a look in the 1st edition AD&D Player's Handbook this becomes even more obvious.

Yes and no. In AD&D kobokds weren't a playable race and duergar didn't exist until some of that later material came out. (Was it the UA or the Fiends Folio? Probably the FF, 'cause that's where most of the really silly monsters were.) Kobolds were adeventure fodder and duergar were chasidic dwarves. Gnomes were pretty much cute dwarves who were good with illusions, so I agree with you about them being redundant.

Do you eat the scales, too?

As with most meat, the skin is removed. The scales are mostly discarded when the skin is tanned, but some are used as hard plates for various purposes, inferior to metal plates but cheaper. Tanning the hide with the scales still attached is possible, but it's more difficult, slow, and a PITA, so attaching metal to the leather is cheaper. Taxidermists do it.

(Of course I'm joking, but the joke represents kobolds' role in core AD&D, which is where I have the most experience by far. When you need a weak sub-one hit die monster, whether to challenge a first level party or to fill up a swarm, when even goblins are a little too strong, you use kobolds. Or giant rats. They're mostly the same bar the cosmetic differences. Oh, sure, kobolds are sentient [barely] but who cares.)

[sktarq]

Or even take the question what "tinker" means and apply it in different ways.

For examples
If gnomes are about individual achivement having a device that does something automatically is considered socially desirable. Investing the time to create a labor saving device that pays off over the gnome's extended life (200-600+ years depending on edition last I payed attention) could again be seen as socially desirable. And since carrying two of an item is inefficient combination items and items that give options are also pushed.
Gnome devices could well be highly personalized, push choice and options, quite likly artistic, involve 1 user or 1 prime user, etc

kobolds could well be ultimate team players. They could well be entirely about consequences. They aim to not give a kobold options but the kobold hive options they didn't have before. things that help mass production, or things that allow them to dothings that qualitatively different than what 100kobolds could do (100 kobolds can carry rock away from a mine face but no kobold can throw rocks 100 yards so a catapault is more useful than a auto-cart)
So kobold come out as more "industrious" in some ways. Big projects with several users. They do weird and highly specialised things because carrying both just means assigning two kobolds and the spare kobold is usually right there anyway.

Very quickly two "tinker" races will feel very different.

[Potato_Priest]

As with most meat, the skin is removed. The scales are mostly discarded when the skin is tanned, but some are used as hard plates for various purposes, inferior to metal plates but cheaper. Tanning the hide with the scales still attached is possible, but it's more difficult, slow, and a PITA, so attaching metal to the leather is cheaper. Taxidermists do it.

(Of course I'm joking, but the joke represents kobolds' role in core AD&D, which is where I have the most experience by far. When you need a weak sub-one hit die monster, whether to challenge a first level party or to fill up a swarm, when even goblins are a little too strong, you use kobolds. Or giant rats. They're mostly the same bar the cosmetic differences. Oh, sure, kobolds are sentient [barely] but who cares.)

This is reminding me of an episode of "ask an adventurer" in the Guilded age comic.

Spoiler: What do you do with kobolds?

Show

[Grim Portent]

I took a leaf from folklore and reverted them to being small mean spirited spirits associated with mines, houses and ships. They're rarely seen and willing to help out when left alone if given an offering of food or coin, but if they feel disrespected, bored or are not given offerings often enough they break things, introduce vermin to an area, sabotage equipment and hide stuff. They're always cruel to animals when they get the chance, trying animals hair into knots, or trapping them in tight spaces and that sort of thing. Sometimes they kill things, usually by engineering accidents.

What I kept from modern incarnations is the greediness of D&D kobolds. They love gold and gems, especially the subterranean ones, and will gather in larger numbers in places treasure is to be found, and become possessive, paranoid and spiteful when they find lots of wealth. While not powerful by most standards they can manipulate people into having a similar paranoia about their treasure. Groups of them slowly make the wealthy into misers who seal their gold away, barely spend any and protect it with cruelty and malice, which leaves the kobolds able to obsess over 'their' treasure knowing it's guarded by the mortal owner. If no mortal owns the treasure they find they guard it themselves, trying to hide it and scattering obstacles in the way of anyone who tries to find it until their need to be somewhere with living people forces them to abandon it.

They're not really something you fight, being spirits they're pretty hard to catch and kill by mundane means. You excorcise them like ghosts and the like or beat them in puzzle games or trap them in boxes and throw the box in the sea and that sort of thing.

[Cyclops08]

I've always seen kobolds as the master craftsmen of the evil races.

Goblinoids are raiders, stealing their weapons and fine goods. For skilled workers they enslave other races...especially kobolds.
Why?
kobolds are expert miners. they can smelt ore and make excellent tools and weapons. We already know of their cunning traps.

Spending their history as slaves and being pushed around by everyone has made them evil at heart. They are driven by REVENGE! They will rule the world with an iron claw! They have the blood of dragons after all! They want you to grovel before them.

If you want to make them scary...make them scientists and engineers. Give them Gunpowder! Let your 10th level players saunter into a kobold enclave only to meet with a volley of bullets!

Let kobolds be the only ones to know the secret of the mysterious black powder. imagine the city guard laughing as an army of kobolds camp outside the walls only to reveal 100 cannons at dawn.
Or better yet let the players encounter a castle leveled by some mysterious force, and the only survivor says...'Ko...bolds." and dies. The players should be going...WTF?

[ReaderAt2046]

My kobolds are the larval forms of dragons. Dragons lay hundreds of eggs with each mating that hatch into kobolds. Then maybe one kobold in a hundred lives long enough and gathers enough experience to metamorphose into a dragonborn. Dragonborn in turn can mate and lay one or two eggs that hatch kobolds, and a very few dragonborn manage to gather the wealth, experience, and power necessary to make the second metamorphosis and become a full dragon.

[jqavins]

I took a leaf from folklore and reverted them to being small mean spirited spirits associated with mines... they break things, introduce vermin to an area, sabotage equipment and hide stuff.

And, interestingly, sour the ore in the mine so you don't get the metal you were going for. Silver ore in particular is often mixed with things like lead, which is blamed on kobolds. A new metal in the silver mines was therefore called "kobold metal", which is where we get "cobalt". (How many of us as kids or teens, first discovering D&D, made a joke of calling the annoying little monsters "cobalts" never knowing that we were right?)

[ahyangyi]

Yeah, we really need kobolds associated with cobalt dragons.

[noob]

Yeah, we really need kobolds associated with cobalt dragons.

Are not metallic dragons good aligned?
Then kobolds would be good aligned and nobody would ever not play a kobold again?

[Tvtyrant]

Well, personally, I use Kobolds as the worker caste of the dragon species. Dragon queens lay hundreds of eggs which hatch into kobolds, who engage in lair-building and food scavenging for her. In contrast, dragon bulls tend to be solitary and often nomadic and considerably more aggressive.

I've done a similar one where dragons lay a dozen eggs, but only one of them is a dragon. The rest have multiple embryos in them, with a few being dragonspawn and the vast majority having 100+ Kobolds in each of them. The Kobolds build the dragons cave and feed it, the dragonspawn protect it and the dragon slowly grows up until it doesn't need them anymore.

So a blue dragon might have a Godslayer, some of the blue rhinos and leopards, and a thousand Kobolds to take care of it into adulthood.

[jqavins]

Are not metallic dragons good aligned?
Then kobolds would be good aligned and nobody would ever not play a kobold again?

They're in the rebellious adolescent phase*. Prior to that they are indistinguishable from ordinary lizards or one sort of another, and afterward they are, umm... something else.

So what about the other metallics' children of similar age? Someone needs to stat new creatures called auroids, argentods, cuproos, etc.

* Cobalt dragons are derided by the other metallics as bad parents, for obvious reasons.

[noob]

They're in the rebellious adolescent phase*. Prior to that they are indistinguishable from ordinary lizards or one sort of another, and afterward they are, umm... something else.

So what about the other metallics' children of similar age? Someone needs to stat new creatures called auroids, argentods, cuproos, etc.

* Cobalt dragons are derided by the other metallics as bad parents, for obvious reasons.

After being a kobold you are dead because the end of times happened.
Or it never happens because you outlast time.
Kobolds does not ascend to become dragons.
It is the reverse: dragons ascend to become gods then ascend a second time to become kobolds.

[Mith]

I like the idea that goblin, gnomes, halflings, and kolbolds are more tribes that diverged to different allegiances after being hit by a cataclysm. Gnomes sought shelter with elves and dwarves (Forest and Rock), Goblins scattered but tried to hold land. Halflings became nomadic.

[DuctTapeKatar]

I mentioned in a previous post how kobolds in my setting are basically small dog-people who are the best friends to dwarves and their families will often attach themselves to dwarf clans and act as servants under them.

However, I was thinking that a twist I can pull off with my kobolds is that they are actually only one subspecies to a large race of lupine-humanoids, kinda like how elves are separated out into high elves, dark elves, and wood elves.

Firbolgs are wolf-men from a series of islands away from the main continent, and are basically vikings. Though they are much larger than the kobolds that dwarves are used to, and are much fiercer they are actually part of the same species and their temperament is actually based more on their societies than their natures. I'm thinking of designing others, but I don't know what other twists there are that are original enough to warrant a name.

My personal advice is to get creative. My setting is actually based around the idea of taking typical fantasy tropes and turning them on their sides instead of trying to subvert them completely. Since most people see kobolds as tiny dragon-people, it might be a good idea to let them have a straighter connection to dragons or dragonborn.

[jqavins]

However, I was thinking that a twist I can pull off with my kobolds is that they are actually only one subspecies to a large race of lupine-humanoids, kinda like how elves are separated out into high elves, dark elves, and wood elves.

Firbolgs are wolf-men from a series of islands... but I don't know what other twists there are that are original enough to warrant a name.

One method for your desire might be to replace some races or creatures with kobold variants, changing their appearance but not their roles. Gnomes would be a natural for this, coming from clans of kobolds that, thousands of years ago, chose to take what they'd learned from their dwarf benefactors and strike out on their own. (I've long considered gnomes to be little more [not nothing more, but little more] than dwarves-but-cuter, so these gnomes would be dwarves-but-uglier.) Goblins could become feral kobolds. I'm not suggesting a world of kobolds, so don't do everything that could be done this way. I'm just brainstorming.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

What do I do with Kobolds? I rename them dragonspawn, and have them as the hive workers to the brood queen dragon.

They dig out the nest, and defend it with traps and their vast numbers. The oldest dragons have thousands of kobold dragonspawn minions. The youngest wyrmling will be accompanied by a gang of dragonspawn, planning to set up a new nest.
They steal treasure, and add it to the horde - which is used in the ritual magic to turn one or more of the dragon's eggs into a true dragon.
Some of the eggs produce dragonkin - advanced dragonspawn who act as the elite guard. I emulate these by applying the half-dragon template to orcs, or ogres, and changing their sub-type to reptilian.

When the brood queen dragon dies, the surviving dragonspawn will make every effort to get at least one egg away safely, and try to start the ritual to create a true dragon.

Sometimes, an upstart dragonspawn or dragonkin will try to transform themselves long after they've hatched - by starting on the path of the dragon disciple. Once they reach maximum level in that class, they attempt to change the egg ritual to work on themselves - rumour has it, some of the most dreadful great wyrms started out that way.

Dragonspawn are a nuisance, but there's always something far worse lurking behind them.

[theVoidWatches]

Well, my dragons are semi-divine beings which warp the world around them by their very presence. A dragon does not fly because it has wings (although many do) - a dragon flies because it wishes to be over there, and through the air is the most direct route. A dragon does not breath fire because it has glands which produce incendiary gas, it breaths fire because it wants to. A dragon inspires fear not just because it's an enormous scaly beast that could kill you without any visible effort, it inspires fear because somewhere in your mind, you recognize that it the universe cares more about it than you.

Kobolds, then, are basically manifestations of the dragon's desire to be served. They just kind of... appear. Anywhere a dragon settles, kobolds are sure to follow (actually, the kobolds appear first, in order to prepare a suitable lair for their leader).

Kobolds are widely variable, depending on the attitude of the dragon in question. Some are smarter, or more independent, or more skilled... but all kobolds are bound to one specific dragon, whose presence created them from wherever kobolds come from. If that dragon dies, its kobolds will not live long after. If it leaves, the kobolds will clean up behind it (if it cares) and then perish.

[Xania]

As calling the MM kobolds by that name feels strange, it's kept for evil looking gnomes, or even simply as a tittle for normal evil gnomes.

The tiny dragon folk is quite untouched, just being like termites and having a soldier caste, about the size of humans or elves, who are the ones sacrifizing themselves for the tribe.

I'm not a fan of them serving dragons, though, and rarely happens.