Goblin love

[Madara]

So, monster races are pretty cool. People enjoy playing something unusual. With the coming of RotD, Kobolds have gone from being sad runts to one of the most loved races, almost reaching humans. While making a Walker in the Waste, I came across the Bhuka. Their bonus feat allows me to get into my prestige class, which is what I would have done with my human feat. But, I didn't choose human, I wanted something different.

Anyway, the question is where are the goblin classes, feats, and substitution levels?

Probably homebrew, but are there any options for other races that could be given to the goblins?

What options are official(probably none)?

[Novawurmson]

If you like Pathfinder, there's Goblins of Golarion; not that great, unfortunately.

[Zaq]

The only goblinoid-specific PrC I can think of offhand is the Stonedeath Assassin, in Races of Stone, unless you count a few of those older ones that have "savage humanoid" or something like it as a prereq.

WotC hates goblins.

[Violet Octopus]

Races of Eberron has one feat for goblinoids which is decent if you want to use a dire flail or spiked chain. Perhaps other Eberron sourcebooks have more, but I don't think there were any that focused on the monster nations.

[sonofzeal]

It's a crying shame that neither Eberron nor ToB does anything for goblinoids mechanically. Awesome flavour, awesome backstory... but little to nothing to make them more playable. Sigh.

At least drop Hobgoblin to LA+0.... =/

[Thurbane]

There used to be a nice, homebrew trio of racial paragon classes (Goblin, Hobgoblin & Bugbear) of at http://www.wakinglands.com , but it looks like their site is gone. :smallfrown:

[Greymane]

I was just about to put up a similar thread. While running the Red Hand of Doom and re-building every Hobgoblin Fightan Man from the ground up to include some delicious Iron Heart, I've really grown to love the guys. The lawful evil samurai vibe is just about one of the coolest things this side of Dwarves, but I'm just sad at the complete lack of crunch for Goblinoids in general, but mostly Hobgoblins.

I've been thinking I may have to scour homebrew everywhere to find neat things for them, because as Zaq said, WotC hates goblins. :smallfrown:

[Feytalist]

Races of Faerun gave a bit of love to goblinoids. Not a lot, to be sure, but still a bit.

Dragon magazine had an "ecology of the hobgoblin" feature at some point. Somewhere in the early #300s, I seem to recall. I can't actually remember most of it, but I'm sure it could be useful.

[Keegan__D]

Dragon magazine had an "ecology of the hobgoblin" feature at some point. Somewhere in the early #300s, I seem to recall. I can't actually remember most of it, but I'm sure it could be useful.

The magazine is #309. I went to look up more about them, and the Wiki had that in their publication history.

[Daftendirekt]

Yeah, gotta love me some goblinoids, particularly bugbears. I like that they were made playable in 4e (albeit only as a Monster race, with zero support). 3 RHD and +1LA is tough to eat in 3.5...although I do plan to actually play one some day.

It is sad, though, how underrepresented goblinoids are in official material.

[Pilo]

The Kingdoms of Kalamar setting has some nice things for hobgoblins, which are a standard race in this setting.

[Darrin]

Air Goblins (http://srd.realmspire.com/unearthedElementalVariants.html#air-goblins) make decent sneak-stabbers. And they're one of the few LA +0 races that can go Dragonborn of Bahumat and still have a Dex bonus.

[nyarlathotep]

If you like Pathfinder, there's Goblins of Golarion; not that great, unfortunately.

To be totally honest with the support if one assumes the various subdomains are goblin exclusive it puts them just behind humans and dwarves as the best over all race.

[shadow_archmagi]

If you're willing to eat third party supplements, there's A Slayer's Guide To Goblins (which is entirely fluff I'm afraid) and Cromagh's Guide to Goblinoids (Which has prestiege classes and feats and special items and is generally pretty nifty. You can buy a PDF for like five bucks)

[Morty]

Races of Faerun gave a bit of love to goblinoids. Not a lot, to be sure, but still a bit.


Mostly reiterations on how ugly, dirty and evil they are, so same ol', same ol'.
The facts are that, like others have said here, there's no official WoTC material for goblinoids aside from some fluff in Eberron.

[Novawurmson]

To be totally honest with the support if one assumes the various subdomains are goblin exclusive it puts them just behind humans and dwarves as the best over all race.

I was running Burnt Offerings at the time I picked it up, and I was portraying the goblins as vicious, greedy, and vindictive, but overall reasonable humanoids; Goblins of Golarion is basically a tome of "goblins are stupid, evil, and silly." It was very amusingly written, but not what I was really looking for.

I think this thread needs a little Goblin Defense Fund (http://www.goblindefensefund.org/points.html). Very interesting little site :D

[nyarlathotep]

I was running Burnt Offerings at the time I picked it up, and I was portraying the goblins as vicious, greedy, and vindictive, but overall reasonable humanoids; Goblins of Golarion is basically a tome of "goblins are stupid, evil, and silly." It was very amusingly written, but not what I was really looking for.

I think this thread needs a little Goblin Defense Fund (http://www.goblindefensefund.org/points.html). Very interesting little site :D

Yeah I don't especially like pathfinder goblins fluff, but the crunch which helps support them as a player race is very solid.

Personally I usually run goblins as very smart but on the whole rather child-like . Due to of their short life-span (goblins can in theory reach 50 but due to bad living conditions most don't live past 30) the goblins very rarely have time to learn from their elder, and it is only in areas where they have sufficient peace to live longer that they develop more disciplined cultures.

[Madara]

yeah, I was hoping for stuff from Eberron, since it has made some really awesome things (like the gnomes), but they seem to get the table scraps. I'm fairly ammused that the classic dnd enemy(besides orcs), never got any upgrades or extra hype.

[Godskook]

It's a crying shame that neither Eberron nor ToB does anything for goblinoids mechanically. Awesome flavour, awesome backstory... but little to nothing to make them more playable. Sigh.

Its called swordsage, and its for Air Goblins. Being a small sized, 30' movement speed race with a +4 dex bonus makes them *PERFECT* swordsages. That amounts to a +3 to-hit, +3 AC compared to humans, for the cost of a feat. Looking long-term, a CL 20 greater mighty whallop covers up the size difference on damage dice with unarmed attacks(due to the way the spell's worded), should you go that route.

[lorddrake]

I'm sorry to deviate from the thread a little, but I was a little concerned that this might have been a thread about attempting little half-goblins.

[Cieyrin]

There was a homebrew project for Races of the Horde, providing support for Goblinoids and Orcs, though it's kinda boiled down to Bhu making a 2 and a half metric **** tons of PrCs plus supporting materials. He's had 2 threads of it over in Homebrew, he's currently working on Goblinoid hybrids. Check it out (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193515), if you wish.

[Fyermind]

Not for players so much, but MM4 added the Monstrous humanoid(goblinoid) type collection as well as some unique hobgoblin template/races.

Monster classing Spell Eater Hobgoblins could be fun.

From the DMs perspective, those races gestalted with something to boost power/survivability make great villians. A hobgoblin who absorbs your spells to make himself stronger with levels as an Occult slayer and crusader loves punishment and is very hard as melee guys go to pull one over on. Furthermore, his Crusader levels make him a natural boss. With a few duskblade hobgoblins as backup, they will be a fight to remember.

[SpaceBadger]

Have you looked at the Orc/Goblinoid Resources thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193515) over in the Homebrew forum area?

[Madara]

Pretty nice stuff. Next time I have a GM that uses homebrew, it will be well used.

[Narren]

The Dragonlance supplement Races of Ansalon has 15 pages dedicated to goblinoids. It has a little crunch (stats mostly) and a lot of fluff on goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and half-goblins. It also has some alternative class features for goblin fighters, rangers, and rogues. I can't remember all of them, but I do remember that the rangers can gain +10 feet land speed. One of my players had a goblin ranger/barbarian with 50 ft per round base movement. It wasn't really optimized, but my group never is.