Kobold - Tumblr Posts
Pathfinder 1E Traits - Kobolds
Art by Pathfinder artist Pavel Guzenko
More cool Pathfinder Traits! This time for kobolds.
I really think you could make a whole character concept by starting with some of these and building outwards.
Firebug
Like the red dragons that inspire your tribe, you’re blessed with a small spark of incendiary magic.
Benefit: You are able to cast spark three times per day as a spell-like ability. The caster level is equal to your character level. This spell-like ability’s save DC is Intelligence-based.
Ooze Defense
The murky tunnels of your tribal home were infested with voracious oozes, which were a constant threat to your tribe. To protect yourselves, you and your tribes-people never strayed far without anti-ooze acid.
Benefit: You begin play with three alkali flasks. These don’t count against your starting character wealth.
Golden Scales
Your distinctive golden scales strongly reflect the light, making other kobolds mistrust you, but aboveground races favor you.
Benefit: You take a –1 penalty on Bluff checks and Diplomacy checks when dealing with other kobolds, but a +2 bonus on Bluff checks and Diplomacy checks when dealing with non-reptilian humanoids.
What I love about these ones is that they capture how adaptive and varied kobolds are in-lore, and their relationship with dragons.
A clan of red kobolds guarding a red dragon's volcano lair and some green kobolds with no dragon living a forest would act so differently, they might as well be different creatures entirely!
If I Ran the Zoo: Bestiary 1 Humanoids
Pathfinder 1e did a much better job keeping its monsters on an even level of balance between products than its progenitor, D&D 3.x, did. But even so, there was some room for improvement. One of the most notable gaps, I feel, is the power level of classic D&D humanoids compared to other monsters of their CR. The power discrepancy between a gnoll and an orc is a well known example, where the orc has a lower CR on paper but is a much nastier combatant. But compare across the same CR and you’ll notice similar patterns. Look at a boggard, a bugbear and a morlocks, for example, and it’s pretty clear that the bugbear is rather less powerful than its supposed peers. I suspect that’s for reasons of backwards compatibility.
I don’t care about backwards compatibility.
So here’s how I would alter and augment some of the classic D&D humanoids to be more in tune with their Pathfinder flavor text, and to be more challenging to your players. Many of these are just adjusting mental ability scores upwards, but there’s a few more complicated changes in store as well.
Bugbear Boo! (Ex) A bugbear can make an Intimidate check to demoralize a single target as a move action. If it takes a standard action instead, it gains a +2 bonus. Tools of the Trade (Ex) Bugbears count saps, light hammers, warhammers and earthbreakers as simple weapons, and treat one exotic weapon of their choice as a martial weapon for the purposes of proficiency (bolas, garrotes and lassos are popular choices).
Drow Fueled by Spite (Su) As a standard action once per day, a drow can grant itself temporary hit points equal to their Hit Dice plus Charisma modifier (minimum 1 temporary hit point). These hit points last for 1 hour, or until expended.
(Yes, I know that PF2e is writing the drow out as part of them continuing to cut ties with D&D. I have my own ideas of how to handle that).
Giants Greatclubs are simple weapons, so any giant with Martial Weapon Proficiency (greatclub) can trade it for a different feat. A suggested feat for hill giants is Dazzling Display or Toughness, and a suggested feat for stone giants is Combat Reflexes or Improved Initiative. Fire giants gain weapon familiarity with greatswords and longswords, treating them as simple weapons. Suggested replacements for Martial Weapon Proficiency for a fire giant include Greater Sunder, Greater Overrun, or Improved Critical (greatsword). Frost giants gain weapon familiarity with battleaxes and greataxes, treating them as simple weapons. Suggested replacements for Martial Weapon Proficiency for a frost giant include Improved Initiative, Iron Will, or Vital Strike.
Gnolls Bite Attack: All gnolls have a bite attack as a primary natural weapon that deals 1d4 points of damage. The Snapping Bite feat still exists; it increases the bite damage to 1d6, and allows the gnoll to make bite attacks while wielding weapons at a -2 penalty, as if it had the Multiattack feat. Weapon Familiarity (Ex) Gnolls treat flails and heavy flails as if they were simple weapons, and nunchaku and flindbars as martial weapons.
In addition, there are two subraces of gnolls, the Carrion Crewe and the Packmasters. Carrion Crewe gnolls tend to be chaotic evil in alignment, whereas Packmaster gnolls tend to be neutral. Each has an additional unique ability modifier, and its own racial ability.
Carrion Crewe Gnolls: +2 Con Plague Born (Ex) Carrion Crewe gnolls gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease, ingested poisons, and becoming nauseated or sickened.
Packmaster Gnolls: +2 Wis Hopeful (Ex) Packmaster gnolls gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against fear effects and emotion effects such as despair, grief or boredom. They do not gain this bonus against rage effects, or other types of emotion effects, such as an unnatural lust or overwhelming presence spell (GM’s discretion).
Goblin -2 Str, +4 Dex, -2 Wis: Goblins are fast, but physically weak and prone to foolishness
Hobgoblin Spurn Elf-Magic (Ex) Hobgoblins gain a +2 racial bonus to all saving throws against arcane spells.
Kobold -4 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Cha: Kobolds are physically very weak, but have agile muscles and strong personalities
Ogre +8 Str, -2 Dex, +4 Con, -4 Int. Ogres do not have a penalty to Charisma, as they are very good at jug playing, dancing, and terrifying their victims.
Orc +4 Str, -2 Int, -2 Cha. Orcs are in tune with their senses and surroundings, even if they do tend to fight first and think later.
Troll +10 Str, +4 Dex, +12 Con, -2 Int, +2 Wis, -2 Cha. Golarion’s trolls are not as stupid as their cohorts in other versions of reality. They are stubborn, and have the keen senses of a predator.
Vegepygmy A vegepygmy is as it appears in Pathfinder Bestiary 1, but is a CR 1/3 creature. Their endonym is a succession of short popping sounds. If you dislike the word “pygmy” in the name (which is fair, and I’ve had people discuss in my notes before), consider calling them “russetoids” or “stemons” (named after the brown slime mold genus Stemonitis)
This is about how cross eyed I feel drawing on this phone. Here we go! First* Post!
*Shh no one saw me rename my main blog shhh go away
Old doodle I had. Was trying to suggest a different pose that someone else drew of my dude. Didn’t get used, but I still thought it looked neat.
Finished some lines and cleaned up (as much as my lazy butt is going to). Looks terrible, but I still like it.
wip of making a kobold because gods knows why i chose one’a the most difficult fucking species i can never draw
wip of making a kobold because gods knows why i chose one’a the most difficult fucking species i can never draw
wip of making a kobold because gods knows why i chose one’a the most difficult fucking species i can never draw
wip of making a kobold because gods knows why i chose one’a the most difficult fucking species i can never draw
Sebastian (or Sebastion if You cant spell like my dm) my dnd character! Hes a self obsessed little cleric kobold thats a little useless asshole
Edit: SPELL I MENT SPELL NOT SOELL AA
Drew a kobold girl named Roarin flat line work for now I dunnow what colors she will be.
i drew pretty lady ://33 asdm,fsd,l;fsd,l;fsd
she is big and extremly fluffy and cuddly :3 !
god i love women... :D
Some doodles I used to reply to some tweets one time.
Weirdly expressive lizard guy.
The edgier-looking one gets it too
D is for Dragon available now at our lulu.com store.
Here’s the fully painted kobold lair.
Support ‘D is for Dragon’ on our kickstarter page!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1350162308/d-is-for-dragon-an-alphabet-book-for-your-inner-ne