[✗] [Playable CA Race] The Kobolds

[Dight 52]

THE KOBOLDS

 

Introduction

 

Kobolds are a race of small, lizard-like folk. Stronger and tougher than halflings, these are a people of cunning traps and servitude to their draconic masters. They live in caves which they have dug out themselves, with traps, dead-ends and secured halways where their warriors are stationed. Their diets different than others’, consisting of mostly meat, but sometimes vegetables if they’re desperate. In nature, these small creatures are selfish, but are loyal to their masters and peers, making them into perfect minions or servants. However, their capacity for learning magic is flawed, which greatly hinders their use of magic and alchemy. They are also victims of cowardice which springs up at one on one combat or when a group is outnumbered.

 

Biology

 

A kobold looks like a reptile with human physice, standing between 2’ to 3’ (though some have been known to grow up to 3’1’’, but that’s rare), with scaly skin from reddish brown to even a bit more black. Its eyes are lizard like, with colour hues going from yellow to orange to amber (sometimes silver like in the picture below). Its legs are sinewy digitigrat and have a single claw on each toe. When adult, it has horns of a white to tan colour poruding from its head. Its fingers are long with claws and can be used as a means for combat. It usually smell like a dog and stagnant water.

(just look up DnD Kobold for refrence)

A kobold’s skin is pretty resistant, used as their natural armour. One can skin them and use it to tan and make it into a decent armour. However, it doesn’t protect well against weight and impact, it only resists seperation pretty well from something like a dagger’s thrust or slash. It’s also pretty uncomfortable for a kobold to wear armour; not clothing, but armour, because of the added weight that press down on their skin. Another minus to this skin is how direct sunlight affects the skin. It weakens the skin untill it’s just like an average human’s squishy skin (a way of disterning if it’s been affected is if the skin’s lacking colour or not. When exposed to sunlight, it will lose pigmentation momentarily), this is because of how the sunlight gives energy. That kind of energy is not good for the kobold’s skin. Process is pretty slow, about two hours in direct sunlight will weaken it to it’s minimum. When leaving sunlight, the skin will slowly “repair” itself, pigmentation returning and the skin becoming stronger again.

 

 A kobold rarely are confident in battle, even with it’s strength and tough skin because of their natural cowardice. Only time a kobold feels safe or confident is around other kobolds or people they trust (like say an orc that it knows can and will protect it). A kobold is also stronger than a halfling and are able to lift an arming sword at the smaller spectrum and used it somewhat efficiently. They have a dark vision, which they use to help them navigate darker places, but in exchange have sunlight sensetivity. Basically, the sunlight or anything near the same brightness. Due to its cave dwelling, a kobold’s sense of smell is also very sensetive, becoming overwelmed easily when entering a place like a flowerfield or a forest in spring.

 

After hatching from an egg, they grow up fairly quickly, reaching full growth at 14 years old, but can live up to around 130. Though, with their aggressive nature and with their tendencies to be at war with other tribes, they tend to only live to around 25 years. While growing up, a kobold has to eat a lot in order to grow up well. They also aren’t considered as adults untill 18.

 

General Personality

 

A kobold tends to resent their short stature and hates those who poke fun at it for it even more. But they try to compensate for their minuses with humor, ingenuity or fierce loyalty. One unifying trait that almost all kobolds have is the common trait of seflishness aswell as their love for owning objects and territory. A kobold tends to love owning items like gold, trinkets and shiny stuff. Wealth is also something the wish to have at times.

But there is an important thing to remember; Kobold’s are selfish, not greedy. They don’t want to share what they personaly own with others and don’t want to risk their lives to earn more wealth.As stated before, kobolds tend to be very loyal to their masters and rarely betray them.

Kobolds can quickly become envious of their fellows or peers. They typicaly envy traits (or situations) like height, cunning or if they are having it easy. Other times because of them having more than what the kobold have or because that they are more loved than what the kobold are. Kobolds love being their master’s favorite and those that take that away can become enemies of the kobold.

Races at their height, however, is a different story. They are rarely afraid of races by their size, as they know that the kobold’s skin is more resistant than a bunny’s or maybe a deers. Normal animals don’t really scare them, excluding bears and wolves. However, animals in general rarely get along with kobolds due to their eating habits, and most small animals and rabbits knows this. Due to this, they don’t generaly try to tame any sort of animal at all. To races like halflings, they tend to have a general amusement around them. Kobolds find halflings funny and pathetic for they do not have the strength that the kobolds do.

 

Society.

 

The society of the kobolds are formed as tribes, lead by a cheiftain that either give out orders, protection and promises like an actual leader or behave as an extention of the tribe’s master’s will. Alongside the cheiftain is the shaman, a kobold priest who speaks to “the dragons in the endless skies”. Under these two comes the rest of the population who’re devided into specific roles, from miner, warrior, scavenger, constructioneer and other necessary jobs. Kobolds generaly have specialized laborers, like trappers and weapon inventors, yet the majority of kobolds are miners. This is mostly because of their darkvision which allowed them to navigate the mines. Generaly, these tribes live in caves or very thick forests. Often the lairs were crowded, but most have no problem with it because of how much they like company from their own kind. This common overcrowding often led to (often) non-lethal conflict to settle their differences which lead to parts of each tribe being hostile against eachother, not unlike most noble families or gangs within other races’ societies. But while each kobold did value their own lives, they cared more about the tribe at times and saw its success as the kobold’s own.

 

Kobolds in general prefered exile over execution. Sometimes when a tribe becomes too overcrowded, they split off into numerous different tribes. Like how humans, elves or other races maintain their bodies, so does kobolds. They take care of their teeth and claws mostly, polishing and brushing them to be effective and comfortable. When it comes to clothes, kobolds prefer colors ranging from red to yellow, with green, brown and blue colours being weird to see amongst them.

 

Military

 

While their lairs were protected with traps through the entrances to their storage, guards and warriors where common too because of how important it was to keep order within a crowded lair and to protect them from the outside. These kobolds go from using spears to pole arms, because with their strength and their reduced size they could use the extra reach to protect themselves, rarely using shields or armour because of expenses. Their ranged fighters used crossbows or slings depending on what they prefered or if the situation called for it. A kobold’s poleaxe is really just a handaxe with a longer handel, but they do call it a “Yerip”. They usually make their metalic weapons in iron they find from their mining expeditions. Sometimes bronze if they don't have much iron.

 

A kobolds battle tactic is simple. Added numbers and ambushes. Due to their size and weakness relative to bigger races, they use surprise attacks and ambushes to (quite obviously) surprise their enemies and use their weight of numbers to win combat. As soon as they are down to equal or lower amount of fighters relative to their opponent, they change to hit and run tactics. However, that is only if they need to leave their lair. Otherwise, their first attempt in winning combat is leading their opponents into their traps and their trapped riddled lairs, filled with blindspots, places made for ambushes and height advantage. Kobolds aren’t afraid to use stealthy or cruel tactics.

Cavalry is rare to see. But when you do see it, they are probably riding on armoured tamed boars.Usually with a spear or a crossbow.

 

 

(Why did I make this, you might ask. I really just wanted to see a small race that wasn’t peaceful like halflings are. I wanted to see if there could come more smaller races that grew to max 3’1’’ ft. Really, the only race I’ve seen is halflings but they in my opinion was pretty much just peaceful small humans with a quirky and fun backround. I really just wanted a race that could both bully halflings and have fun as a whole to act like a coward and blame something for it. Even if this doesn’t get in, it was really fun making this piece of lore and making my own little twist on these little lizards. Thank you for reading (P.S i’m not making a religion to these buggers))

 

Edited June 15, 2019 by Visage

[Bethinwonderland 1042]

Thumbs up!

[Emery 737]

+1 !!!!

[Gustando 1453]

-1 no pictures SMH

[Boonay 50]

Why you hatin’ on halflings?

Anyways

+1 Finally a race where I can steal kneecaps

[JustMeMorgan 1000]

yes, let us make dnd in lotc

[frill 2276]

kobolds turning from an npc to a playable race in dnd stole thematic niche of “haha silly trapmaker tinkerer that die in droves” from goblins.

 

the lore you’ve written (tribal system, tinkering+trapmaking, shamans) feels like reskinned goblin and orc lore but with the added bonus that they have more appeal to furries

 

honestly you’ve put a lot of work into this application but my blood boils to pink steam the moment i even think of a “yap-yap” koboldpost getting made thanks to years of failed dnd campaigns getting sidetracked by koboldplayers

[slattador 511]

+1 My boi Tylmora did a great job in writing this lore, the Kobolds sound like a complex race that need to be in Lord of the Craft.

[NotEvilAtAll 9926]

Next can we get Gnome lore?

[slayerofslender 41]

+1 kobolds would be cool

[ScreamingDingo 16792]

imagine even trying to reskin a blatant rip off and incorporate it into lotc's universe :^)

[Ford 1990]

Let’s not

[DarkSoundwave 70]

U NO TAKE CANDLE! +1

[Dight 52]

I think it’s finaly time for me to answer to something.

13 hours ago, frill said:

kobolds turning from an npc to a playable race in dnd stole thematic niche of “haha silly trapmaker tinkerer that die in droves” from goblins.

 

the lore you’ve written (tribal system, tinkering+trapmaking, shamans) feels like reskinned goblin and orc lore but with the added bonus that they have more appeal to furries

(I’m only interested in the first two parts)

 

First: I can see where you’re coming from. It’s pretty hard to change a core mechanic, y’know? Besides, most of this is just ideas for smaller races. When I said core mechanic, I meant something that had been established in other mediums (these kind of kobolds come from DnD, a personal fav). I tried to remake them into something less like goblins and something more interesting.

 

Second: To be fair, I didn’t pay much attention to society and religion since those things I suck at recreating and reimagening. But to say that they are reskins kinda hurt me considering that there are more qualities that differ from orcs. That part just made me think that you didn’t read the whole thing or maybe I wasn’t straight foward with the idea that they’re cowards beyond anything. When did I say they were tinkers? Trapmakers, yeah, not tinkerers. If you feel like they are too alike orcs, tell me what can be changed to make them less so. I’m all ears.

 

But thank you for the critique, even though the last part was less critique and more about opinions. I’d appreciate it if you guys could give me ideas instead of just giving me your opinions and insults.

 

For you who said that this is a ripoff or just simply a reskin, read the whole thing instead of just reading a couple of lines each. Thank you.

Edited June 15, 2019 by Visage
forgot to write something.

[Haseroth 949]

15 hours ago, ScreamingDingo said:

imagine even trying to reskin a blatant rip off and incorporate it into lotc's universe :^)

like 99% of the damn lotc lore isnt already ripoff from something

Edited June 15, 2019 by Haseroth