A Bugbear, a Hobgoblin and a Goblin walk into a Tavern...

[Wasp]

Hi everyone

we had the idea to do a game where all the PCs are monstrous races - basically the sole survivors when a "real" adventuring party cleared out their evil wizard master's dungeon who then decide to do the same "and rescue some dragons from princesses and stuff".

Which builds would your recommend for such a scenario (3 player party)? Chosen races are Bugbear, Hobgoblin and Goblin. Bugbear Fighter, Hobgoblin Wizard, Goblin Rogue?

It's normal point buy plus free feat at first level.

[Blood of Gaea]

Hobgoblin Abjuration Wizard, Bugbear Cavalier Fighter, and Goblin Shadow Monk.

[jaappleton]

Hobgoblin Abjuration Wizard, Bugbear Cavalier Fighter, and Goblin Shadow Monk.

Goblin Shadow Monks are legit awesome.

Though I’d make the Bugbear into a Strength based Rogue. They get a little Dex for AC but it gives the party a good skill money, and Rogues can take a few hits starting at 5th level.

[col_impact]

Hobgoblins make good Wizards since they get light armor proficiency and a couple of weapons of your choice.

Goblins make excellent Druids or Wizards. Nimble Escape is one of the best feats in the game.

Kobolds make excellent frontline dex-based fighters.Pack tactics is very potent.

Bugbears are okay. Best for those guys is strength based rogue or rogue 2/fighter x

[noob]

and they turn out to be three moon druids.
the tavern burst into vegetation and a forest starts spreading from here.
you might lack offence but you have all the spell-casting support and tankyness you want.

[Kyutaru]

If you wanted to make this more of an Animaniacs party.....

The Bugbear is the kindest and gentlest member of the party, nary even harming a fly. As such he's the druid of the group and spends his time healing wounds, speaking with a stutter, and summoning his woodland friends to attack the bad men. Dump intelligence for this one but keep his physical stats up with below average charisma. He might not be the party face but he will crush you into goo if you are mean to the cat.

The Hobgoblin is the raging alcoholic of the team, preferring to solve every problem with sufficient amounts of violence or explosives. He probably has a scar down one eye and a thick brutish accent but he's got the same answer to everything and that's annihilating it because other methods are a waste of time and he's highly impatient and volatile. But to his credit, he defers to the party leadership and just does as he's told despite giving unwanted input. Stat him out as a Fighter/Rogue with a flair for traps and ambushes.

The Goblin meanwhile is the only remotely sane member of the group, boasting the highest intelligence of any bar he walks into. He may be small and fragile and chained to these two lunatics but he's the crafty leader and the party's illusionist wizard. All plans are made by him with frequent (though usually useless) advice from the rest. He serves as the face of the team having the highest charisma between them but prefers to deal in trickery and bribery, taking genius shortcuts over well planned schemes. Maybe even multi-class him as a sorcerer and spam low level spell slots instead of going for higher tier powers.

[Blood of Gaea]

Goblin Shadow Monks are legit awesome.

Though I’d make the Bugbear into a Strength based Rogue. They get a little Dex for AC but it gives the party a good skill money, and Rogues can take a few hits starting at 5th level.
Aye, there are a few good options for the Bugbear, Ancestral Guardian Barbarian is another one, +2 Str +1 Dex is perfectly suitable for a medium armor user, though point buy would be preferable over the standard array in this case.

Thinking about it, this would actually be a good time to for one of those fun 1-3Fighter/X Rogue builds.

[Skylivedk]

Optimization?

Check the two builds from Ludic Savant (Hobgoblin Iron Wizard and Goblin Druid). I'd go for Rogue X / Battlemaster 5 / Barb 3 ( you can scratch one of the last two) for the Bugbear. Reach is really really nice with sneak attack. Rogue and Fighter synergise really well for damage and rogue and barbarian do it for tanking

[JakOfAllTirades]

They're all Bards, of course.

The Hobgoblin is the brains of the outfit; he's a Lore Bard.

The Goblin is a shifty Bard of the Whispers College.

The Bugbear is a Berserker with the Entertainer background.

He thinks he's a Bard and nobody has the stones to tell him otherwise.

[Wizard_Lizard]

hobgoblin paladin
Goblin ranger
bugbear rogue

[spartan_ah]

Bugbear = Barbarogue

[Mercurias]

I would play the Hobgoblin as a Wizard with 10 Str, 14 Dex, 16 Con, 16 Int, 10 Wis, and 8 Cha (though you can always dump Str if you want to min/max). For the feat, I would choose Moderately armored. I would choose either Abjuration or War Magic for the school. You now have a Hobgoblin Wizard tank who can use a finesse weapon for SCAG cantrips if they ever get caught in melee. It can run intelligence skills like Investigation for the group.

I would play the Goblin as a Druid with 10 Str, 16 Dex, 15 Con, 10 Int, 15 Wis, and 8 Cha. For the feat, I would choose Resilient (Con) to bump Con to a +3 or Observant to bump Wis to a +3 (Probably Wis now that I look at it). I’d pick the Circle of the Land (underdark) for your chosen spells, because . You now have a Granola-Ninja that can throw down helpful concentration spells as a main action, Bonus action Hide, and Thorn Whip things to haul them into hazards like Entangle or Web on their next turn before hiding again. For added bonus, the Urchin background will give it Thieves Tools so it can be your lockpick monkey.

For the Bugbear, I would make it a Barbarian with 16 STR, 16 Dex, 14 Con, 8 Int, 12 Wis, and 8 Cha. For its feat, I would go full Damage-Sponge at the beginning and have it take Tough. As he levels, I’d make him a Bear Totem or Berserker Barbarian. Berserker seems like the best Roleplay choice for that race.

God, this looks like a lot of fun in my head. I see the Hobgoblin as the Disciplined Soldier-Mage who believes itself to be in charge, the Goblin to be the cunning Booyahg that believes itself to be in charge, and the Bugbear to be the lazy-but-brutally-violent thug that actually calls the shots when it can be bothered to. Not that the players will actually play them that way, but a man can dream...

[vostyg]

For goblin, you want to pick from the classes that benefit most from the bonus action Disengage and bonus action Hide. Rogue is out, because it renders your racial feature redundant. I would say monk, but they have too many other uses for their bonus actions. My pick is therefore Gloomstalker Ranger with a focus on archery style combat. Stay outside the radius of any light sources, attack with your bow at advantage due to being invisible, use your bonus action to Hide so that you cannot be targeted unless the opponents guess your location, move to a different location, rinse and repeat. If an opponent gets in melee range, use a bonus action to Disengage. As a goblin, your stats are also optimal. The build relies on your Dexterity. A lot of the great Ranger spells do not require a maxed out Wisdom, and having a high Constitution will increase your toughness and improve your ability to concentrate on spells like Hunter's Mark. Pick up Sharpshooter for the feat.

[Arial Black]

My problem with this scenario is that, without any plot device shenanigans, my group invariably create a new adventuring party where I create a human (or maybe elf, half-elf or aasimar-basically someone who would be welcome in just about any village in the land. Even my aasimar take steps to de-emphasise their 'otherness') and the others create various bugbears, goblins, kobolds, lizardmen, orcs (half and full), teiflings, tabaxi, dog-men...you name it, they want to play it...except human, elf, dwarf, halfling, half-elf or gnome.

Whenever we turn up it's like the circus has come to town!

And who gets criticised? I do! For 'being boring/predictable', of for 'power-gaming' because vHumans are OP.

Is it just me?

[Wasp]

Thank you all very much for all the ideas! So many options.

I really like the Hobgoblin Iron Wizard idea - and also the Goblin Druid. Even though a Goblin Shadow Monk just sounds cool.

But assuming we go the Hobgoblin Wizard and Gobin Druid route - what would be the best build for the Bugbear? It seems it would be the Str-Rogue/Fighter area?

[Blood of Gaea]

Thank you all very much for all the ideas! So many options.

I really like the Hobgoblin Iron Wizard idea - and also the Goblin Druid. Even though a Goblin Shadow Monk just sounds cool.

But assuming we go the Hobgoblin Wizard and Gobin Druid route - what would be the best build for the Bugbear? It seems it would be the Str-Rogue/Fighter area?
I'd personally go straight Barbarian, wearing medium armor. If the Goblin is a Moon Druid everyone would be solid in defense, and Barbarian lets you dish out of a lot of damage. A Fighter would also work well, but you'll get less mileage from the +1 Dex.

[Nidgit]

I'd go Bugbarian, Goblin Druid, and Hobgob Arcane Trickster, personally. Should cover most bases, and allows for a full-party stealth approach with a bit of preparation.

[Mercurias]

My problem with this scenario is that, without any plot device shenanigans, my group invariably create a new adventuring party where I create a human (or maybe elf, half-elf or aasimar-basically someone who would be welcome in just about any village in the land. Even my aasimar take steps to de-emphasise their 'otherness') and the others create various bugbears, goblins, kobolds, lizardmen, orcs (half and full), teiflings, tabaxi, dog-men...you name it, they want to play it...except human, elf, dwarf, halfling, half-elf or gnome.

Whenever we turn up it's like the circus has come to town!

Cool. That's part of the game, and people can play what they want.


And who gets criticised? I do! For 'being boring/predictable', of for 'power-gaming' because vHumans are OP.

Is it just me?

Yep. If your entire table is into playing as a squad of freaks and you're playing the token human/dwarf/elf/Aasimar adventurer, it doesn't make much sense. Why is the Human/Aasimar there? Why is the Human/Aasimar traveling with a Kobold and a Bugbear?

You're entitled to play what you want, too, but sometimes it's easier to play it at a different table.

If I were you, though, and I wanted to play a 'people-friendly' race in a group of monsters, I'd have made the human the monsters' captive servant, bullied and cowed within an inch of his life and too afraid to shake free of them.

[Arial Black]

Cool. That's part of the game, and people can play what they want.



Yep. If your entire table is into playing as a squad of freaks and you're playing the token human/dwarf/elf/Aasimar adventurer, it doesn't make much sense. Why is the Human/Aasimar there? Why is the Human/Aasimar traveling with a Kobold and a Bugbear?

You're entitled to play what you want, too, but sometimes it's easier to play it at a different table.

If I were you, though, and I wanted to play a 'people-friendly' race in a group of monsters, I'd have made the human the monsters' captive servant, bullied and cowed within an inch of his life and too afraid to shake free of them.

My problem is not that I'm against players choosing their own PC's race, my problem is that it's never dealt with in a realistic manner.

When our menagerie turns up, the reaction should be, "Help! The monsters have come to town! Call the watch! Call the wizards! Call the paladins! Oh my gods, they're coming to the bar! Run for your lives!"

But what the reaction actually is when our circus trots up to the bar is, "Ah, adventurers!"

Incidentally, another thing that annoys me is that I (and conceivably the whole party) can deliberately create PCs who do not look like 'adventurers' (whatever they are!), by wearing normal clothes and avoiding things like plate armour and carrying two-man tents around town and so on, deliberately looking ordinary, and yet when we trot up to the bar, what does the barkeep say? "Ah, adventurers!"

...and they wonder why we turn into murderhobos...! :smallsmile:

[Kyutaru]

I imagine most NPCs are busy hiding indoors and barricading their windows any time a heavily armored team of anyone enters town.

[noob]

I imagine most NPCs are busy hiding indoors and barricading their windows any time a heavily armored team of anyone enters town.

like "the tax perceptors are coming hide your wealth fast!"
Or "the church is sending paladins of protection quickly hide or else you might be trapped in small boxes for your own safety"
Or "the pyromaniac poorly disguised fire elementals are coming barricade yourself to help the fire to burn you"(It is the reason why adventurers have an so easy time killing people in fires)