Malapterus
2017-11-04, 04:09 PM
Last night I was looking over Kobolds and how under-balanced they seem when played as a race. I know kobolds are the bottom-of-the-barrel kick-around sapients of the world, but I like them a lot & their lack of a hard-and-fast alignment makes them very versatile story-wise.
I thought about trying to 'fix' them, maybe by reducing the penalties or throwing in a bonus feat, but then I had a more fun idea.
Thematically, the idea is that the kobolds have gotten tired of being kicked around by everyone from goblins to paladins & decided to do something about it. They made contact with tribes of Lizardfolk, and got them to take kobold brides in exchange for various benefits a kobold alliance can provide. A generation later, half lizardfolk/half kobolds are born and taken back to their mothers' tribe to be raised as great heroes and defenders.
Starting off, here is a quick list of the benefits of each class, simplified, minus anything relating to HD.
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KOBOLD
Small
30 ft
Darkvision
Light Blind
(none)
(no proficiency)
+1 Natural Armor
(no natural weapons)
+2 Craft, Prof., Search
Sorcerer
LA: +1
LIZARDFOLK
Medium
30 ft
(regular vision)
(not light blind)
Hold Breath
Proficient with shields & simple weapons
+5 Natural Armor
Natural Weapons: 1d4 claws & bite
+4 Jump, Swim, Balance
Druid
LA: +1
------
The idea is to make an LA-free class that combines the speed & intelligence of kobolds with the superior physical aspects of the Lizardfolk. Kobolds are very fast; their speed is 30 feet, but keep in mind that puts them 10 feet faster than the contemporary 'fair' races at Small size. The best name I can come up with for these hybrid offspring at the moment is 'Great Kobold.'
------
Great Kobold
Great Kobolds are the product of intentional union between kobolds and lizardfolk. Bred to add size and physical prowess to the kobold frame, they exist as natural-born heroes of their smaller kin. Considerably stronger than kobolds, smarter than lizardfolk, and faster than nearly anyone their size, the great kobolds are quickly becoming an unpleasant surprise for anyone who bullies their villages.
A typical great kobold stands 5-6 feet tall, proud and upright. They weigh about 150-200 pounds with taut, trim muscle. They have smooth scaled skin, often mottled with spots, splotches, or stripes depending on their tribe, and faintly tinted the color of whatever dragon their lineage stretches back to. They have clever eyes and snouts full of needle-like teeth, and have somewhat considerable tails. They stand on theropod digitigrade feet with long toes topped in slightly oversized claws that grant them great speed and traction.
Great Kobolds see no shame in their smaller cousins' ambush tactics; there is nothing wrong with fighting smarter instead of harder. That said, they are capable of direct assault and do not shy away from it. A group of great kobolds will often open with an impressive tactical ambush and then move in for a direct assault for a quick victory. As treasures of their people raised to be heroes, great kobolds almost always have PC levels and their choice of class varies wildly, though the archetypical great kobold hero is a Ranger specializing in a bow or javelin & using their taloned feet if enemies get close.
Great Kobold
Medium Humanoid (Reptilian)
-2 Str, +2 Dex
A great kobold's base speed is 40 feet
Low-Light Vision
+2 to Fortitude saves for holding breath or resisting gaseous effects
+2 Natural Armor
Greak kobolds have +2 to any one Craft skill, chosen at character creation.
Great kobolds also have a racial +2 to Search.
Great kobolds have tails that give them a racial +4 to Balance and Jump checks
A great kobold's digitgrade feet give it a +4 racial bonus to Tumble checks.
A great kobold's taloned feet do damage as if they were one size category larger & deal the great kobold's full Strength bonus to damage. This applies to class features that increase the damage of natural or unarmed strikes. However, attacks with the feet take a -2 penalty which stacks with other penalties.
Favored Class: Ranger
LA: +0
------
What I really need to know is, is this balanced for a base race? I know the -2 hit to Str is pretty huge, given that a bonus to Str always incurs double penalties on a base race. It makes logical sense balancing out the -4 the kobold gets and the +2 the lizardfolk gets, so while I do not really WANT them to have it, it makes logical sense & I feel it opens them up for more racial features than another penalty would.
Also, even with -2 to Str, I still think they can make impressive front-line fighters because of their natural defense and high mobility; -1 to attack and damage in exchange for a total of +3 AC (from the dex and natural armor) seems to put them on par with someone who has no penalty or bonus to either of these things.
I tried to make the lizardfolk skills a little more terrestrial, and the +2 Fort saves is a watered-down version of Hold Breath.
As their intelligence is key, they are encouraged to learn to engineer & so that is why they can choose what Craft skill they get their bonus in, and also why they do not get bonus to mining. Labor is not a task for the great heroes.
I think I might have gotten a little carried away on the taloned feet. I wanted them to have something cool and useful that is unique to them, and since kobold claws and teeth are too small to attack with and lizardfolk claws and teeth are big enough, I thought a nice medium would be that only the biggest claws of the great kobold are fit for attack. This also suits their powerful legs due to their high Move speed, but I also thought that kicking out with them would be a little unnatural for their upright shape, hence the -2. At the same time, it allows them to take Monk and use these feet for Large monk damage, albeit at the -2 plus the penalty for Flurry of Blows. I worry that this is too much & also would force anyone to play a Monk or waste this feature.
SO! Do you guys think this is a suitable race for a base race? What would you take away, or add?
I hope to someday run a campaign centered around these so I want them to be good. The campaign would be the first batch of trained Great Kobolds starting out in their little tribal village and eventually working their way up through beating bullies to reclaiming the homeland of all the local kobolds, which had been taken over and turned into a human city.
I thought about trying to 'fix' them, maybe by reducing the penalties or throwing in a bonus feat, but then I had a more fun idea.
Thematically, the idea is that the kobolds have gotten tired of being kicked around by everyone from goblins to paladins & decided to do something about it. They made contact with tribes of Lizardfolk, and got them to take kobold brides in exchange for various benefits a kobold alliance can provide. A generation later, half lizardfolk/half kobolds are born and taken back to their mothers' tribe to be raised as great heroes and defenders.
Starting off, here is a quick list of the benefits of each class, simplified, minus anything relating to HD.
-----
KOBOLD
Small
30 ft
Darkvision
Light Blind
(none)
(no proficiency)
+1 Natural Armor
(no natural weapons)
+2 Craft, Prof., Search
Sorcerer
LA: +1
LIZARDFOLK
Medium
30 ft
(regular vision)
(not light blind)
Hold Breath
Proficient with shields & simple weapons
+5 Natural Armor
Natural Weapons: 1d4 claws & bite
+4 Jump, Swim, Balance
Druid
LA: +1
------
The idea is to make an LA-free class that combines the speed & intelligence of kobolds with the superior physical aspects of the Lizardfolk. Kobolds are very fast; their speed is 30 feet, but keep in mind that puts them 10 feet faster than the contemporary 'fair' races at Small size. The best name I can come up with for these hybrid offspring at the moment is 'Great Kobold.'
------
Great Kobold
Great Kobolds are the product of intentional union between kobolds and lizardfolk. Bred to add size and physical prowess to the kobold frame, they exist as natural-born heroes of their smaller kin. Considerably stronger than kobolds, smarter than lizardfolk, and faster than nearly anyone their size, the great kobolds are quickly becoming an unpleasant surprise for anyone who bullies their villages.
A typical great kobold stands 5-6 feet tall, proud and upright. They weigh about 150-200 pounds with taut, trim muscle. They have smooth scaled skin, often mottled with spots, splotches, or stripes depending on their tribe, and faintly tinted the color of whatever dragon their lineage stretches back to. They have clever eyes and snouts full of needle-like teeth, and have somewhat considerable tails. They stand on theropod digitigrade feet with long toes topped in slightly oversized claws that grant them great speed and traction.
Great Kobolds see no shame in their smaller cousins' ambush tactics; there is nothing wrong with fighting smarter instead of harder. That said, they are capable of direct assault and do not shy away from it. A group of great kobolds will often open with an impressive tactical ambush and then move in for a direct assault for a quick victory. As treasures of their people raised to be heroes, great kobolds almost always have PC levels and their choice of class varies wildly, though the archetypical great kobold hero is a Ranger specializing in a bow or javelin & using their taloned feet if enemies get close.
Great Kobold
Medium Humanoid (Reptilian)
-2 Str, +2 Dex
A great kobold's base speed is 40 feet
Low-Light Vision
+2 to Fortitude saves for holding breath or resisting gaseous effects
+2 Natural Armor
Greak kobolds have +2 to any one Craft skill, chosen at character creation.
Great kobolds also have a racial +2 to Search.
Great kobolds have tails that give them a racial +4 to Balance and Jump checks
A great kobold's digitgrade feet give it a +4 racial bonus to Tumble checks.
A great kobold's taloned feet do damage as if they were one size category larger & deal the great kobold's full Strength bonus to damage. This applies to class features that increase the damage of natural or unarmed strikes. However, attacks with the feet take a -2 penalty which stacks with other penalties.
Favored Class: Ranger
LA: +0
------
What I really need to know is, is this balanced for a base race? I know the -2 hit to Str is pretty huge, given that a bonus to Str always incurs double penalties on a base race. It makes logical sense balancing out the -4 the kobold gets and the +2 the lizardfolk gets, so while I do not really WANT them to have it, it makes logical sense & I feel it opens them up for more racial features than another penalty would.
Also, even with -2 to Str, I still think they can make impressive front-line fighters because of their natural defense and high mobility; -1 to attack and damage in exchange for a total of +3 AC (from the dex and natural armor) seems to put them on par with someone who has no penalty or bonus to either of these things.
I tried to make the lizardfolk skills a little more terrestrial, and the +2 Fort saves is a watered-down version of Hold Breath.
As their intelligence is key, they are encouraged to learn to engineer & so that is why they can choose what Craft skill they get their bonus in, and also why they do not get bonus to mining. Labor is not a task for the great heroes.
I think I might have gotten a little carried away on the taloned feet. I wanted them to have something cool and useful that is unique to them, and since kobold claws and teeth are too small to attack with and lizardfolk claws and teeth are big enough, I thought a nice medium would be that only the biggest claws of the great kobold are fit for attack. This also suits their powerful legs due to their high Move speed, but I also thought that kicking out with them would be a little unnatural for their upright shape, hence the -2. At the same time, it allows them to take Monk and use these feet for Large monk damage, albeit at the -2 plus the penalty for Flurry of Blows. I worry that this is too much & also would force anyone to play a Monk or waste this feature.
SO! Do you guys think this is a suitable race for a base race? What would you take away, or add?
I hope to someday run a campaign centered around these so I want them to be good. The campaign would be the first batch of trained Great Kobolds starting out in their little tribal village and eventually working their way up through beating bullies to reclaiming the homeland of all the local kobolds, which had been taken over and turned into a human city.