Metallac kobolds

[Reaper34]

One of my PC's ask me an interesting question eairler. if kobolds are related to dragons, why do you onle see cromatic kobolds? where are the metallic kobolds? and would they be good? what are your thoughts?

[Eldamar]

5E MM only states they worship evil dragons and one of their deities was a servant of Tiamat in the Nine Hells. I don't see why you couldn't allow good dragons to have kobolds of a good alignment if you so desire.

[Ninja_Prawn]

It would be easy to homebrew some coloured kobolds - either metallic or chromatic - in fact I did a bit of that here (https://www.dropbox.com/s/1u0jm3ysj495hky/Kobolds.pdf?dl=0) (these were conceptually based on green dragons, but it only shows in the spell selection on the shaman & sorcerer).

I might do a range of good-aligned ones and add them to that document later today. Sounds like fun!

[Regitnui]

Eberron, with it's distaste for deities, made the kobolds the living blood of the progenitor dragons. The Irvhir are the blood of Khyber and typically have a talent for corruption and darkness spells. The Iredar kobolds claim descent from Eberron and use spells of defence and binding with skill. A third, rumoured subspecies are the wnged kobolds; Irsven, who are the children of Siberys.

The trick is that the Irvhir and Iredar look practically identical to outsiders, and behave similarly. They tell each other apart by smell, and hate the other. Nobody's even sure the Irsven exist,.so there's less lore on them.

If you want good-aligned 'metallic' kobolds, the Irsven might be a concept worth borrowing. We already have winged kobolds in the MM, after all.

[Democratus]

When I ran HotDQ, all kobolds were a dull brown but would change color (and demeanor) to match any dragon within 1 mile.

When the giant blue dragon was attacking the town, all the kobolds were blue and behaved erratically. When the characters approached a red dragon's lair, all of the kobolds were red, angry, and greedy.

The influence of a metallic dragon could easily do the same thing, I suppose.

The best part was when the party was infiltrating a kobold lair and all the little brown buggers suddenly turned bright green. Incoming dragon alert!

[Daishain]

We only see chromatic kobolds because they're an easy source of evil cannon fodder, not necessarily because the metallic counterpart doesn't exist. Same as with the metallic dragons themselves. Presumably they're at least nearly as populous as their chromatic counterparts, but because they aren't usually valid subjects for an opponent, we don't hear from them as often.

5E simplified matters by stating that kobolds only serve evil dragons, but it wasn't always that clear cut, and that statement doesn't make much sense to begin with.

I tend to portray them as being somewhat malleable and highly subject to the influence of true dragons, though not to the dramatic chameleon like degree Democratus describes. A kobold hatched with no master will be brown or tan in appearance, and have no distinctive trend in personality, falling somewhere in the same diverse range found with the average human. A kobold that is born within the influence of a true dragon's lair will however boast a scale pattern featuring the color of said dragon, and tend to have a base personality at least leaning in the same direction as said dragon.

[hymer]

My fluff is that kobolds believe themselves descended from dragons. They cling to it, actually, having a species wide inferiority complex. They're also completely and utterly wrong. Kobolds and dragons are no closer related than humans and baleen whales. But the evil dragons use this belief as unscrupulously as you'd expect.

[MrFahrenheit]

You could refluff them as descendants of draconians. Of course, that would switch which colors are evil or good.

[Mith]

In my setting, I see kobolds as having a clan structure based on the dragon that they use for an emblem (with a clan for each colour of dragon). These clans are then part of great clans that revere Tiamat and Baumat depending on whether they are chromatic or metallic. Historically, these clans are established by a dragon either breeding or taking over an existing kobold tribe. If the tribe was of a different colour prior to the takeover, the takeover is generally a form of a purge that only can work out because kobolds can breed very fast.

These clans are frequently warring against each other (with chromatics vs. metallics being the most common) but there is also in fighting between individual chromatic and metallic clans as well.

That being said, all kobolds unite against common threats. To make things amusing, one event like this is when a kobold proclaimed himself a prophet of Io (who is a dead god in my setting). The response to this was a gathering of clans that drove the the kobold and his tribe out of their lands. This started with a call of a Gathering that states a truce among all Dragons at the gathering (True Dragons have done the same). The Ioan tribe didn't realize that they were considered outcasts and therefore fair game. The name of this gathering in the annuals of history?

The Diet of Wyrms. :smallbiggrin:

So this is an idea that could be useful to you.

[fishyfishyfishy]

Eberron, with it's distaste for deities, made the kobolds the living blood of the progenitor dragons. The Irvhir are the blood of Khyber and typically have a talent for corruption and darkness spells. The Iredar kobolds claim descent from Eberron and use spells of defence and binding with skill. A third, rumoured subspecies are the wnged kobolds; Irsven, who are the children of Siberys.

The trick is that the Irvhir and Iredar look practically identical to outsiders, and behave similarly. They tell each other apart by smell, and hate the other. Nobody's even sure the Irsven exist,.so there's less lore on them.

If you want good-aligned 'metallic' kobolds, the Irsven might be a concept worth borrowing. We already have winged kobolds in the MM, after all.

Where did you get this information from? I'd like to read that particular source. It sounds very interesting.

[Regitnui]

Where did you get this information from? I'd like to read that particular source. It sounds very interesting.

Dragonshards: The Kobolds of Eberron. I don't have a link, but it should show up on Google.