Player kept 2 kobold eggs, wants to raise them themselves. What should I do?

[Merudo]

My players came across a kobold nest. They killed most of it, except the druid who had a change of hearth when he saw the kobold eggs in the hatchery.

The druid pocketed two of the eggs, and now intends on raising the kobolds as babies / pets. I have no idea how to deal with this.

I could roleplay the two kobolds babies through their growth, but I'm afraid it would take too much attention away from the rest of the party. Also, I have zero idea what sort of care the kobold children would require, and how difficult it should be for them to be kept healthy.

Does anyone have tips on how to deal with this?

[Nagog]

If you have no idea, neither would your player. The first question I suppose is whether or not the player knows how to properly incubate the eggs. If they don't look for ways to learn and do that, the eggs may never hatch. If they do that, then you'll need to start coming up with stuff of how infantile Kobolds act and what they need to grow/survive. They don't reach adulthood until the age of 6, so in the meantime, the player has ~4 years of babysitting ahead of them, with one heck of a teething phase to boot. I'd recommend looking at the various life stages of geckos and alligators/crocodiles and see what you'd like to adapt into play.

[SkjaldenSkjold]

Of course let him do it! It is things like this that can make dnd fantastic!
It would realisticly take a while to hatch the eggs, and maybe the other characters or something else would make him change his mind in the meantime. Having to take care for two babies will certainly make it harder for him to commit fully to an adventuring life, and you should definetely make him realise this if it comes this far. Give him a dilemma and let him choose.

[Contrast]

The druid pocketed two of the eggs, and now intends on raising the kobolds as babies / pets.

I mean first things first, these are sapient creatures - they would be people, not pets. Your player can treat them like pets but I would be clear with them about the difference and that this is a decision they're making.


They don't reach adulthood until the age of 6

Aside from the issues already mentioned about actually getting the eggs to hatch, I would be clear with your player that this is a years long endeavour that isn't compatible with an adventuring lifestyle (the first AoE hitting the party is going to kill them). If you're playing a campaign that spans decades with years long downtime gaps, fair enough. If you're not then the character realistically either needs to find someone to hand them off to or become an NPC who left the party to go raise some kobolds.

This all assumes you haven't changed the lore for kobolds.

[Mastikator]

Kobolds are people, you raise them = you adopted some kids. The druid is about to become a parent.

[Amnestic]

Kobolds are people, you raise them = you adopted some kids. The druid is about to become a parent.

Yeah pretty much. Would they be doing the same with human babies they found...in a town that they just massacred?

In this circumstance I'd take the druid player aside and make sure they understand that they're not pets, they're people, and that adventuring isn't exactly a safe profession. If they don't want to risk the kobold babies dying, they should probably retire the character or hand the eggs off to an NPC.

[Mastikator]

Yeah pretty much. Would they be doing the same with human babies they found...in a town that they just massacred?

In this circumstance I'd take the druid player aside and make sure they understand that they're not pets, they're people, and that adventuring isn't exactly a safe profession. If they don't want to risk the kobold babies dying, they should probably retire the character or hand the eggs off to an NPC.

Also, if the kobolds grow up and find out where they came from, they may come to resent their adoptive parent. If you're a human raised by orcs, and find out that your adoptive orc parent killed your entire village, you may see them in a different light. Or internalize it. Either way I can't see it not being a trauma that never leaves them.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Have them find a town where a small group of Kobolds lives peacefully along side humans.

[Selion]

Also, if the kobolds grow up and find out where they came from, they may come to resent their adoptive parent. If you're a human raised by orcs, and find out that your adoptive orc parent killed your entire village, you may see them in a different light. Or internalize it. Either way I can't see it not being a trauma that never leaves them.

Yeah... they could be raised by a NPC while the adventure party that has spared them is traveling around the world. They found out the truth, they survived, but that at the same time their saviors have brutally slaughtered their tribe. They could search for the PC to seek answers and eventually revenge, also, it's not uncommon that kobolds develop arcane powers spontaneously.
They could actually... become my next character, backstory already served.
Also, I'm sure baby kobolds are super cute

[Aussiehams]

Have them be constantly hassled by Kobolds trying to get them back. He has basicly kidnapped some children. The Kobolds could try to talk, steal or ambush and attack as would suit your group.
Or have a party of NPC adventurers confront the druids party. The druid is basicly a slave at this point.

[Pex]

The intent is he didn't want to kill innocent babies and supposedly he would like these kobolds to be raised differently than normal kobold behavior to be good children and adults. Let it happen. One way is the druid retires from adventuring to raise the kobolds, and the player makes a new character. Presuming that's not what the player wants to do by coincidental convenience the druid knows or comes across a trustworthy NPC who can take care of the kobolds. Simple answer is an orphanage, but it could also be members of the druid's Circle who raise the kobolds as druids or anyone you can think of that would be appropriate. The eggs are given to the NPC to take care of. From time to time during downtime the druid meets the NPC and kobolds, learning about their funny antics and adorableness growing up in a happy home. The druid gets to bond with the kobolds. He's their Uncle Druid.

[stoutstien]

My players came across a kobold nest. They killed most of it, except the druid who had a change of hearth when he saw the kobold eggs in the hatchery.

The druid pocketed two of the eggs, and now intends on raising the kobolds as babies / pets. I have no idea how to deal with this.

I could roleplay the two kobolds babies through their growth, but I'm afraid it would take too much attention away from the rest of the party. Also, I have zero idea what sort of care the kobold children would require, and how difficult it should be for them to be kept healthy.

Does anyone have tips on how to deal with this?

The real question is what are kobolds in your given setting? Are they sapien? Do they have free will? What was their goals and aspirations? Why did the players kill them on the first place? Why was the nest there? What would have happened if the players simply didn't find the nest?

When trying to determine the best course of resolution of action choices it helps to have an idea of what is effected.

[Keravath]

Several considerations ...

1) Kobolds are sentient humanoids. Their intelligence range is the same as humans and they are a playable race. Try to get the entire idea of "pets" out of both your mind and your players. They will either be children, member of the family (the druid becomes a parent) or slaves which raises many other issues.

2) The PCs went in and slaughtered their parents. The PC will have to explain at some point "Sorry, we killed your parents and most of your siblings". The PCs will need to come up with some explanation and that could be a bit too heavy depending on your role playing group.

3) As DM, you need to come up with how the whole nature vs nurture aspect plays out in your world. Kobolds tend toward lawful evil - strong community loyalty combined with significant selfishness and desire to benefit themselves at whatever cost as long as the community isn't hurt and they will work together to oppose external threats. However, kobolds in your world can operate however you like and you can easily have good kobolds if you want.

4) There are the practicalities if incubating the eggs until they hatch. What do you feed baby kobolds? They might not eat meat right away for example. In addition, they will need constant supervision and care of some sort for quite a while - at least weeks or months if not a year or two and will require someone to look after them, educate and train them, etc. In addition, depending on where the PCs live, the kobolds could face a lot of animosity, prejudice, hatred and other issues depending on the reputation that kobolds have in your world.

5) As mentioned, kobolds take 6 years to reach adult hood. However, unless a DM explicitly adds downtime and large gaps in adventuring between adventures, it is very possible to reach level 20 in a period of months (or a year or two) of ingame time. The kobolds will be infants or children and the PCs would have to hire responsible care givers and educators when/if they go out adventuring.

Finally, if the PC and DM don't mind the overhead, they should absolutely be allowed to adopt a couple of kobolds. It is the kind of event that D&D plots and game memories can be based around. Perhaps discovering the eggs leads the PC to a greater understanding of the different species of creatures in the world, perhaps the world is a much more shades of gray than black and white place.

[KorvinStarmast]

The intent is he didn't want to kill innocent babies and supposedly he would like these kobolds to be raised differently than normal kobold behavior to be good children and adults. Let it happen. One way is the druid retires from adventuring to raise the kobolds, and the player makes a new character. Presuming that's not what the player wants to do by coincidental convenience the druid knows or comes across a trustworthy NPC who can take care of the kobolds. Simple answer is an orphanage, but it could also be members of the druid's Circle who raise the kobolds as druids or anyone you can think of that would be appropriate. The eggs are given to the NPC to take care of. From time to time during downtime the druid meets the NPC and kobolds, learning about their funny antics and adorableness growing up in a happy home. The druid gets to bond with the kobolds. He's their Uncle Druid.
This. The game isn't built to be the RPG of "raising orphans" (at least in this edition). For that, maybe play The Sims or something like that.

[TrueAlphaGamer]

Does anyone have tips on how to deal with this?

Yeah, don't have the players come across non-combatants/women/children/senile members of any given monster population. :smallbiggrin:

Though now that it happened, do they have a home base? If not, maybe consider giving them one, as well as some sort of NPC butler/steward - make sure the players know it's safe, too. Then proceed to very strongly nudge them into allowing the kobolds to be in the NPC daycare (kinda like Pokemon), and they can just visit and interact with the things when appropriate while also not having their entire adventuring course derailed by lawful evil humanoid-dragon babies.

[da newt]

To add to Korvin's post:

The game isn't built to be the RPG of making orphans, then "raising orphans" as if you didn't slaughter every other member of their race who was present, but then feeling guilty so you 'raise' some unhatched eggs in the hope that you could brainwash the kobold children into being more like good humans while actively separating them from their society and incorporating them into yours ...

Your Druid and the party killed a bunch of people and stole their babies to raise as their own - they have become the BBEGs (the party is now a coven of Hags).

Perchance was this nest of Kobolds aligned with a local Dragon? I'd think Momma Dragon might be a little miffed some schmucks stole some of her little ones ...

[noob]

To add to Korvin's post:

The game isn't built to be the RPG of making orphans, then "raising orphans" as if you didn't slaughter every other member of their race who was present, but then feeling guilty so you 'raise' some unhatched eggs in the hope that you could brainwash the kobold children into being more like good humans while actively separating them from their society and incorporating them into yours ...

Your Druid and the party killed a bunch of people and stole their babies to raise as their own - they have become the BBEGs (the party is now a coven of Hags).

Perchance was this nest of Kobolds aligned with a local Dragon? I'd think Momma Dragon might be a little miffed some schmucks stole some of her little ones ...

It is not stealing the babies to raise as their own: if they left the babies they would have probably died without parents around.
What was bad was killing the kobolds not sparing their children.
Or do you think they should have killed the babies too or left the babies to die?
If they left the babies to die it could have literally made undead (in some older dnd editions there is a specific kind of undead that is children that died due to a lack of care)
Do you think leaving babies to die thus causing a rare kind of undead that boosts death magic to form is a good thing relatively to taking the babies and raising them?
Also the party might have had a good reason to kill those specific kobolds (ex: those kobolds were going to summon a giant asteroid to explode the planet violently today) in which case it is only merciful to consider that the children who were innocent of the sins of their parents should be able to live.
Unless you somehow think that if someone had parents that tried to explode the planet violently then that they should do that which is a very weird view point.

[Amdy_vill]

My players came across a kobold nest. They killed most of it, except the druid who had a change of hearth when he saw the kobold eggs in the hatchery.

The druid pocketed two of the eggs, and now intends on raising the kobolds as babies / pets. I have no idea how to deal with this.

I could roleplay the two kobolds babies through their growth, but I'm afraid it would take too much attention away from the rest of the party. Also, I have zero idea what sort of care the kobold children would require, and how difficult it should be for them to be kept healthy.

Does anyone have tips on how to deal with this?

kobolds grow up really fast, IIRC like 4ish years before they are an adult. so some downtime is probably the place to start. has much as they look like reptiles they are a "Mammal" kinda they are at least more of a mammal than a reptile. the eggs and koboldlings are really sturdy, they can be cracked open nearly a month early and be fine. so care for the eggs is likely not much of a problem, and the same goes for the new kobold, they can be independent and survive on thier own so care for the kobold isn't really necessary. tho you druid probably don't want to leave them to the wolves and see. in terms of care, kobolds are omnivorous and really don't need coverings to stay warm, tho cold envorments would be a problem for them. if the envorment is very warm the koboldlings we need less food. the colder it is the more food the koboldlings will need. honestly kobolds in lore are kinda the easiest things they could try to raise.

on RP kobolds are naturally communalists. they would not just go along with the druid they would likely look at the whole party as their clan. using this you could bring the other players in and treat them more as a tag along NPC.

I do highly recommend a small time skip, 1-2 years. you could give them downtime to use or give them a free level and some items, time skips are very useful both in building connections between you players and making a story flow better. I would also suggest playing down thier cleptoness, it can become a problem if you over do it.

[Frogreaver]

Provide 2 options:
1. Caring for the kobolds yourself will entail retiring the character
2. Hire or talk someone in to caring for them

[KorvinStarmast]

Your Druid and the party killed a bunch of people and stole their babies to raise as their own - they have become the BBEGs (the party is now a coven of Hags).

Perchance was this nest of Kobolds aligned with a local Dragon? I'd think Momma Dragon might be a little miffed some schmucks stole some of her little ones ... Consequences. That's one of the things that makes D&D fun and challenging.
Wait, who got pissed off over what we did? Yikes!!!!
:smalleek:

[Kurt Kurageous]

Have them find a town where a small group of Kobolds lives peacefully along side humans.

Well, if not alongside, beneath. Volo's says this is possible, and I have incorporated kobold nests as city sewer management crews. They are actually supposed to be pretty good tunnel makers...

If you don't want to deal with it as a DM, there could be any number of reasons. Stillborn, fatal birth defects, etc. caused by not being in a regular kobold nest at precisely the right temperature.

[da newt]

It is not stealing the babies to raise as their own: if they left the babies they would have probably died without parents around.
What was bad was killing the kobolds not sparing their children.
Or do you think they should have killed the babies too or left the babies to die?
If they left the babies to die it could have literally made undead (in some older dnd editions there is a specific kind of undead that is children that died due to a lack of care)
Do you think leaving babies to die thus causing a rare kind of undead that boosts death magic to form is a good thing relatively to taking the babies and raising them?
Also the party might have had a good reason to kill those specific kobolds (ex: those kobolds were going to summon a giant asteroid to explode the planet violently today) in which case it is only merciful to consider that the children who were innocent of the sins of their parents should be able to live.
Unless you somehow think that if someone had parents that tried to explode the planet violently then that they should do that which is a very weird view point.

Fair point - Now try this:
Retell your entire story, but this time replace 'Kobolds' with 'villagers', and 'the party' with 'a troup of Kobolds' and 'kobold eggs' with 'human babies' and see if you don't understand exactly what I was getting at.

Your party are the bad guys. They think they are doing good things and being responsible / kind, but that's just what they are telling themselves to feel better about wiping out a population of some lower race and stealing their babies.

[strangebloke]

This single post basically highlights the confusion baked into DND's basic mechanics at this stage of the game.

Is "a nest of kobolds" something you stumble into and massacre? If so, what does that imply about your players and/or the kobolds? Either the kobolds are sapient creatures with free will and your players are murderhobos (was there really no for any of the kobolds to be spared? Really?) or kobolds are inherently evil dragonspawn that have no free will of their own and are basically constructs, and the idea of 'raising' them is farcical and doomed to failure.

Alternately, Kobolds are evil constructs AND your party are murderhobos, in which case everything makes sense. The Druid obviously just wants some minions! :smallamused:

The current problem is that modern DND plays with both approaches to 'evil races' at the same time, while tilting at windmills like Goliaths having strength modifiers as though that's the real issue.

In my game, kobolds are not playable and are basically constructs, though they aren't really evil, either. Collectively, a single nest is about as intelligent as a human but basically acts as an extensions of a dragon's consciousness, being created from their blood.

[noob]

Fair point - Now try this:
Retell your entire story, but this time replace 'Kobolds' with 'villagers', and 'the party' with 'a troup of Kobolds' and 'kobold eggs' with 'human babies' and see if you don't understand exactly what I was getting at.

Your party are the bad guys. They think they are doing good things and being responsible / kind, but that's just what they are telling themselves to feel better about wiping out a population of some lower race and stealing their babies.

With villagers I would consider the exact same thing.
None of my thinking was about the fact they were kobolds.
I said that the bad act was killing the adults not sparing the children.
I never contested the party was evil(they are unless they had a good reason to kill the kobolds for example if they saw the kobolds starting the world exploding ritual) just saying that we had few context on the reasons for killing the adults (if villagers were trying to explode the world then it would be the right thing to try to stop them and since it is dnd and that people for some reason only use killing to stop people then of course they would kill the villagers) and that taking the babies was actually a good thing relatively to just letting them die.
A more evil party would kill all the villagers then let the children die of thirst.
And if they had a good reason to kill the villagers(ex: it is the only way to stop them from destroying the world) then they were 100% right in killing all the villagers then saving their babies which are not guilty of what the villagers were trying to do.

I mean why did you assume I was using the fact it was kobolds in my argument: it was used at no point.

The use of murder to prevent bad actions is deeply ingrained in dnd players and very few tables says "it is evil to kill even when it is for preventing someone from destroying the world" but that is an issue with the dnd morality system itself which is a different thing.

However most tables would agree that killing children is worse than not killing them and leaving them to die after killing the rest of the population is the same thing as killing them.

[Battlebooze]

Have a wandering bard come by, offering a hundred gold each for the eggs. If anyone asks why, tell them he needs them for his favorite Kobold omelet.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Fair point - Now try this:
Retell your entire story, but this time replace 'Kobolds' with 'villagers', and 'the party' with 'a troup of Kobolds' and 'kobold eggs' with 'human babies' and see if you don't understand exactly what I was getting at.

Your party are the bad guys. They think they are doing good things and being responsible / kind, but that's just what they are telling themselves to feel better about wiping out a population of some lower race and stealing their babies.

Maybe retell the story with bandit camp. Don’t assume the kobolds were innocent.

[strangebloke]

Maybe retell the story with bandit camp. Don’t assume the kobolds were innocent.

There's a certain level of domesticity accorded to the term 'nest' that isn't present in other terms. Had OP specified "warcamp" we might assume that this was a group of raiding kobolds or as you say, bandits. But the usage of the term 'nest' and the additional context of the kobold eggs paints a portrait of a mostly civilian dwelling that would (by necessity) have young child kobolds as well as eggs and adults. After all, kobolds do take time to mature. It's still very messed up to kill every single person in the camp except for a pair of newborns.

so sorry, try again with the gotcha. The closest human equivalent to 'nest' would be 'nursery,' which does not make our fine heroes look better.

[rel]

Logistics is difficult. Also boring if the game isn't structured around it.

If you already include logistics in your game then by all means add a few NPC caretakers to your wagon train and some amount of upkeep cost for supplies. Then have the kobolds grow up in the background eventually becoming followers and henchmen.

However, if the PC's walk the earth with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the rations in their packs seeking quests and treasure then a different approach is required; A personal quest that conveniently involves raiding dungeons, fighting monsters and gathering loot.

The party must delve the Dungeon of Supply to secure the magic bag of near unlimited provisions then journey to the Plane of Twisted Time where days pass in moments.

Should the PC's be successful on their adventure, the druids character lives a subjective few years raising the kobolds while for the rest of the party a few days pass (and for the players about 30 seconds while you describe the above scenario).

End result, a fun adventure, some downtime and two new friendly NPC's following the party.
The next question is what to do with your new followers? The solution will likely involve a quest to some nearby dungeon...

[Talwar]

As mentioned above, the eggs could just not hatch. Maybe they weren't fertile, or got too warm/cool/dry/wet before the party even showed up. Maybe it happened after the druid nabbed them. Just a few hours of the wrong conditions can kill off the embryo.

Or one of the original kobolds responsible for the nest is actually still alive, follows after the party, sneaks in at night, and makes off with the two eggs.

Or somebody's familiar eats the eggs because nature is not sentimental.

Curious to know what ends up happening.

[Segev]

There is a third party book called "Stibbles Codex of Companions" that your druid player may like. If you get a copy, you could use the Grimalkin stats for kobold babies, refluffed a bit. It has rules for forming a bond with your companions and having pets and partners of that sort.

[thoroughlyS]

The majority of posts in this thread are all missing a big part of this game: what do your players want?

Ask the party if they want to raise the kobolds, and what they want that to be like (remember, you have a say too). If not, ask the druid player what they want to do because of it. Basically any of the answers above can be adapted based on the direction THE TABLE chooses. This a collaborative storytelling game. Your table should be working together to tell the story they want.

[Pex]

Whatever you do, don't make the party regret it. The player showed spontaneity, outside the box thinking, empathy to complete strangers NPCs, and an interest in the gameworld. These are traits to be encouraged. There can be obstacles to overcome, but they need to be obstacles the players want to because of logistical circumstances. As soon as you make players regret their decision to engage the gameworld you will turn them into the murderhobos DMs gripe about.

[Thrudd]

Let the dice decide what happens, that's how the game works, after all.
1. Ask the players what they do with the eggs. Choose a difficulty to decide if they hatch and have the players make a wis or int or animal handling roll for each one.
If they describe giving some sort of common sense care to incubate them, give advantage on the roll.

2. If any hatch, they are now tiny kobolds that will be very vulnerable, any attack will hit and any hit will kill them. Decide how long they take to mature, and start giving them HP, 1 at a time at regular intervals until they are young adults/full size (divide the span of time it takes to mature by 5, so they end up with 5hp). Maybe they can walk right away, maybe not, up to you.

3. Ask the players how they plan to care for the infants. Decide a DC for keeping them alive each week, month, whatever, that you decide the kobolds are not capable of caring for themselves (probably not too long, considering the nature of the species) and make a wis/int roll. Give advantage if the description makes good sense. If the players describe something not very practical or safe, give disadvantage. If the kobolds are anywhere near danger at this stage, but inactive (like in a backpack carrier during a fight), have the players make applicable saving throws to see if the babies survive.

4. If they survive to self sufficiency, give them the MM stat block or roll stats for them like PCs, I'd suggest 3d6 in order. Ask the players how they train the kobolds and how much time they devote to doing so. While kobolds may mature fast, they aren't inherently smarter than other races and so will need some years of training if the players want to get them a PC class. In the mean time, they'd have no proficiency in anything yet (so only stat modifiers to attacks). If you want to get really in-depth with their training, let the players make rolls to literally teach the kobold a proficiency (that the character knows), let's say once per month. The roll should be modified by the teacher's proficiency level and one of the mental stats (int, wis or cha), as well as the ability score of the kobold relevant to the proficiency. This can be done until the kobold has a full suite of level 1 proficiencies of the class they are aiming for.

5. If the players take the young classless kobolds on adventures with them, don't pull punches, but also don't forget that the kobolds can run away and hide. You should make wisdom saves (just pick a DC) for the kobolds each round they are in danger to see if they run away. A player can make a cha roll to give advantage on that wis save and keep full control (unless you want to control them during combats, yourself). If the players want to command them to do something you think the kobolds don't want to do, have the player make a cha roll vs the kobold's wis.

If, somehow, they survive childhood and enough game time passes for them to become adult lvl1 adventurer kobolds, then you've got a couple fine NPCs that the players are probably attached to.

[TyGuy]

For inspiration
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eSUBtv9iS-E