Kobolds

[Anxe]

My players is planning on attacking a Kobold camp. They're ninth level and I need lots of ideas to throw at them when they get there. I've already got a few, but my biggest problem is them flying in while invisible. I should describe the encounter though...

The Kobolds live on a plain with trees scattered around it, but no real forests. Yeah, that's actually all I've got so far...

I need help, please?

[Inyssius Tor]

Ah, I love kobold threads. Let's see...

Can you give me some background? Why is your party attacking them? How powerful, in terms of character levels, are these kobolds expected to be?

[Iku Rex]

Which DnD books do you have?

[ClericofPhwarrr]

Well, if they're planning on nuking from orbit, just have a network of tunnels underneath where most of the kobolds stay. Then, traps... everywhere. If you're feeling really mean, google search Tucker's Kobolds.

[lukelightning]

This one time, at kobold camp...

[Anxe]

None of the Kobolds should be over 9th level in power. The party is attacking them, because they hate Kobolds. It's not that hard to motivate my players... Oh! There is a Dragon nearby that the Kobolds worship.

I've got the MM 1-3, Monsters of Fauerun, Complete Divine, Arcane, Warrior, and Adventurer, Draconomicon, Savage Species, PHB, and DMG too.

[Inyssius Tor]

Kobolds are natural tunnel-dwellers; have you already determined that this camp is on the surface?

[Citizen Joe]

Get some dominated halflings as facemen and then have all the surface kobolds disguised as halflings. When the party arrives... "This is not the village you are looking for..."

EDIT: and then direct them to the "Real Kobold village" which is a dangerous trap filled gauntlet which dumps them into the dragon's feed pile.

[Saithis Bladewing]

To be any form of danger to a 9th level party, there's going to have to be hundreds of them, tons of traps, sorecerors, or any combination of what I've mentioned already.

It might help to make it an underground camp. Maybe they 'pitched camp' by tunneling down into a mound of earth, ala prairie dogs? A couple hundred kobolds could make a lot of progress in a day.

[Anxe]

I could do the tunnel thing. Most of the camp is supposed to be above ground though.

[Miraqariftsky]

Get some dominated halflings as facemen and then have all the surface kobolds disguised as halflings. When the party arrives... "This is not the village you are looking for..."

EDIT: and then direct them to the "Real Kobold village" which is a dangerous trap filled gauntlet which dumps them into the dragon's feed pile.

GAHAHAHA! Genius! Hmm, it might have a hole, though... What if some PCs have Scent, or what if they have someone who's maxed out in Detect Motive?

[Accersitus]

You could say that the camp is only the tip of the iceberg, and they have lot's of tunnels beneath (Possibly containing a dragon, or maybe a Sarruhk that gives them powers, only not quite as much as pun-pun)

[Inyssius Tor]

Where does the dragon live? Because, really, a wide-open plain is kind of a really stupid place for kobolds to live, even if they all lair underground.

[JellyPooga]

If you're worried about the party flying causing problems, simply respond in kind: With flying Kobolds! Nothing deterres intruders like a flight of Kobolds armed with crossbows.

Even if you don't want to have a bunch of high (6th+) level kobolds (that have the Improved Draconic Wings feat), you can give them Draconic Wings as their 1st level feat and have them launched by catapult .

If you're worried about them being Invisible, simply have one member of every airborne patrol have access to the See Invisibility spell.

For more mundane methods, Traps. Traps, Traps, Traps, Traps, Traps. Pit Traps, Trip-Wires, Man-Traps (like a bear trap but designed for catching...well, men), Catapult Traps (making those adventurers that don't fly do so unwillingly), Custard-Pie Traps, Fake-Tree Traps (it looks like a real tree at first glance, especially in the dark, but when you trip the wire, it falls on you), Venus Fly Traps (of the giant variety)...the list goes on. Kobolds, if nothing else, like traps and being prepared for eventualities (which is why they normally live in caves and mines...it puts their small size to good use and they can control intruders a lot easier by funneling their movements with the aforementioned traps)

Just out of curiosity, why are these Kobolds living above ground in the open? I mean, it's not their usual habitat.

[Anxe]

The dragon lives a few miles away in a cave. I've already designed that place. One of my plans was that the Kobolds go rushing off to get Papa Dragon to defend them.

[Anxe]

Just out of curiosity, why are these Kobolds living above ground in the open? I mean, it's not their usual habitat.

It's their habitat now. Stupid people messing around with the environment of monsters. Good ideas for traps! Thanks.

[Miraqariftsky]

If you're worried about the party flying causing problems, simply respond in kind: With flying Kobolds! Nothing deterres intruders like a flight of Kobolds armed with crossbows.

Reminds me of something from Eberron's Dragonshards column. Y'all read of the article, "The Kobolds of Eberron"? There are winged kobolds there--- probably packing natural magic as well. Named "irsvern", if I remember aright.

[Yeril]

to make kobolds more of a challange vary them, stick in a group of Kobold rogues who try to flank and ambush the party, maybe a group of skilled warriors who are level 3, add in a few sorcerers, Kobolds -love- sorcerers.

For weapony I suggest Spears, Longspears, Crossbows and Picks (kobolds get Racial Profficiency Dire pick, one handed weapon 1d8 damage (1d6 with small) with a X4 multiplier)

Maybe a dragon? a weak one probaly a wyrmling or very young, I love the idea that a mighty dragon has gifted a tribe of kobolds with the sacred duty to guard a Dragon egg and care for it once it has hatched.

Also how about a half dragon kobold sorcerer as the leader? Kobolds have a Magimarchy meaning those who control the magic are the leaders, so A sorcerer whos Dragon heritiage is so rich they can breath fire then they are a natural leader for the kobolds

Don't forget traps and ambushes, Remember to play kobolds as smart as they are, they are very unlikley to charge in with swords drawn but more likley to stand out of reach and snipe with their crossbows before ducking back into cover.

The only time a well prepared group of kobolds should be within charging distance of a PC is when theres a heavily concealed 40ft drop between them.


And don't forget that a tribe isn't 100% warrior and sorcerer, there will be commoners too, ones who are elderly and infants, How would your PC's react to a hut with two scared kobolds holding spears to defend their those who cant defend themselves, Would they accept a surrender and spare the kobolds or would they slaughter the "Vermin"

[Inyssius Tor]

Still, plains? They're little more than an XP carpet there! They can't use their superior odds (like they could, were they in a forest); they can't do much mining (like they could, were they on a mountain); they can't really do much with traps (since they're sitting out in the open like that, they can really only effectively use pit-traps); they're dazzled in bright sunlight (and there's not much shade out there) and they don't exactly have high HP (er, fireball! Fireball! Fireball!).

[Saithis Bladewing]

You could also go for random traps just lying around the camp, maybe subtly marked by something the kobolds would know. Pit traps, nets, that sort of thing. Even just 'physical' alarms to alert the camp of their presence and give them a chance to prepare a defence.

You could even go so far as to give them things like alchemist's fire, acid and thunderstones to use. And have them run from anything even resembling close combat while the others pepper the foe with crossbows. Remember, it only takes 20 crossbow shots to statistically guarantee that at least one will hit. Given how many numbers the kobolds SHOULD have, this can only get better.

Of course, we don't know much about the party's composition, which doesn't help that much planning an encounter for them.

How many of them are there, and what classes/races?

[Wraithy]

first off REMEMBER: kobolds are MASTER trapmakers, make as many traps appear as often as possible! do not stop, even to breath!
i suggest making the camp empty, and all of the buildings filled with glyphs of warding and explosive runes.
try making it so that they fall into 40ft deep spike pits (preferably poisoned), from there, the pits are surrounded by kobolds using repeater crossbows.
make a few of the pits filled with unintelligent undead (unable to escape the pit also). remember to make one or two of the kobolds dragon wroat. make the gaps between the trees filled with razor wire (benefiting from improved invisibility). remember that kobolds sometimes use dire weasles for mounts, make a hidden force spring from the bushes.
by making the battle on open ground you have given the kobolds a disadvantage, kobolds hate open ground because most of the time their daylight sensetivity comes into play, there are very few places for ambushes, because the ground is flat, their enemy can easily engage in melee combat, which kobolds really hate. if you do make the kobolds engage in melee combat, ensure that they use reach weapons to keep them away from harm. try using a ration of AT LEAST 4 kobolds per party member, probably more because they are higher level. make the area filled with long grass to grant them concealment and litter the ground with caltrops in a specific patter which the kobolds can avoid easily, use rough terrain to make the gaps between ranged combat and melee larger. give some of the kobolds interesting prestieges like shadowdancer, hide in plain sight will give your players a headache.
the best thing you can possibly give your players is a narrow escape with their hitpoins barely in the tens. try making an homage to tuckers kobolds.

and remember that they hate melee

[Yeril]

Did I mention traps? the nearest to a celebrity in Kobold society is a good trapsmith.

[JellyPooga]

Reminds me of something from Eberron's Dragonshards column. Y'all read of the article, "The Kobolds of Eberron"? There are winged kobolds there--- probably packing natural magic as well. Named "irsvern", if I remember aright.

Personally I had Ride of the Valkyries playing in the background to a visual of around 50-100 flying (catapult-launched, so they're gliding really) kobolds, all armed with crossbows, delivering a sustained airborne barrage to the helpless land-locked adventurers as they wheel by in formation, in my mind...the fact that this tribe had so many winged members explained why they were living on the surface too...

[Saithis Bladewing]

make the area filled with long grass to grant them concealment and litter the ground with caltrops in a specific patter which the kobolds can avoid easily, use rough terrain to make the gaps between ranged combat and melee larger.

Amen to that. Caltrops sound very koboldy, I can't believe I forgot about them.

[Wraithy]

And don't forget that a tribe isn't 100% warrior and sorcerer, there will be commoners too, ones who are elderly and infants, How would your PC's react to a hut with two scared kobolds holding spears to defend their those who cant defend themselves, Would they accept a surrender and spare the kobolds or would they slaughter the "Vermin"

actually kobolds are banned from the commoner and aristocrat classes, they are experts, warriors, or player classes

[Saithis Bladewing]

actually kobolds are banned from the commoner and aristocrat classes, they are experts, warriors, or player classes

Since when? As far as I know, NO race is banned from ANY class.

[Wraithy]

Since when? As far as I know, NO race is banned from ANY class.

it says in races of the dragon, the ultimate book concerning kobolds.

[Inyssius Tor]

Races of the Dragon kobolds. They don't have any aristocracy, and everyone is held to the same standard of excellence.

On the other hand, yeah, that part of RotD smelled of over-idealization.

[Anxe]

Oh! Right! The party. We've got a:
A Feinting Ninja
A Batman wizard who summons monsters
A Warmage
And a Favored Soul

[Darrin]

It might help to make it an underground camp. Maybe they 'pitched camp' by tunneling down into a mound of earth, ala prairie dogs? A couple hundred kobolds could make a lot of progress in a day.

I concur with the underground idea. Kobolds are tunnel dwellers with a natural aptitude for trapmaking/trapsetting. They would never build a settlement out in the open without a serious good reason or widespread psychological trauma.

If there was such a settlement out in the open, I'd make the entire settlement an elaborate network of pit traps, rope snares, tripwires, collapsing walls, pressure plates, concealment/cover blinds, silent images, etc., on top of a much larger underground settlement, a network of caves with even more traps, snares, etc. The kobolds in the open settlement would be trained to draw an attacking force into the town square (using the Goad feat, maybe a wands of Suggestion/Rage), which suddenly collapses into a giant pit trap surrounded by kobold spearmen/archers.

As far as countering fly and invis... flying would nullify the pit traps, but chasing the kobolds into the tunnels brings them back into melee range. A few kobold clerics with Command: "Fall" might get lucky with a failed Will save. Otherwise, a level 6 kobold sorcerer could just use Dispel Magic.

For invisibility, Obscuring Mist is really easy to cast and helps even the playing field. Otherwise, Glitterdust+Glitterdust+more Glitterdust.