Tucker's Kobolds

[kpenguin]

Can somebody explain to me why kobolds have superior tactics than, let's say, drow, despite having only average intelligence and wisdom?

[Nerd-o-rama]

Because they have to. They're kobolds, everyone's out to get them. Drow at least aren't the subject of every first-level character's bloodlust.

Besides, drow can have tactics just as complex and annoying (though being Medium removes many of the advantages in mobility that kobolds have) as kobolds. See the novel Homeland (not later Drizzt novels) for some examples.

The key thing that might prevent drow from acting with the same effective tactics as Tucker's Kobolds is that, in character terms, they tend to have egos the size of adult dragons. Their overconfidence and inability to trust/work with their squadmates is a constant source of death at the hands of Power-of-Friendship-using adventurers (referencing Salvatore again, he rather beats the reader over the head with "this is why drow lose" in some of his novels).


And moving beyond the example, absolutely nothing keeps you from applying Tucker's Kobolds tactics to goblins, humans, whatever, besides a desire not to kill your players. The point of Tucker's Kobolds (which has now been ruined through repetition) is that it's so unexpected for the cannon-fodder little ratlizards to actually be a threat.

[kpenguin]

Why not goblins then? Or humans? Or really, any other monster. The problem I see with Tucker's kobolds is that it gives a bad sense of verisimilitude if a single race of creatures arbitrarily high level tactics in comparison with the rest of the world.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Addressed in my edit. Sorry for the synchronous posting.

And moving beyond the example, absolutely nothing keeps you from applying Tucker's Kobolds tactics to goblins, humans, whatever, besides a desire not to kill your players. The point of Tucker's Kobolds (which has now been ruined through repetition) is that it's so unexpected for the cannon-fodder little ratlizards to actually be a threat.

[Jack Mann]

Just as I've always said. The important thing is to make sure that the encounters aren't boring. That was the point of Tucker's Kobolds. Just going to bigger and badder monsters isn't enough. From the original article: "If kobolds could do this to a group of PCs from 6th to 12th level, picture what a few orcs and some low level NPCs could do to a 12th-16th level group, or a gang of mid-level NPCs and monsters to groups of up to 20th level. Then give it a try. Sometimes, it's the little things 'used well' that count."

[Rad]

From the original article: "If kobolds could do this to a group of PCs from 6th to 12th level, picture what a few orcs and some low level NPCs could do to a 12th-16th level group, or a gang of mid-level NPCs and monsters to groups of up to 20th level. Then give it a try. Sometimes, it's the little things 'used well' that count."

Could you point me to where the original article is?

[tainsouvra]

Why not goblins then? Or humans? Or really, any other monster. The problem I see with Tucker's kobolds is that it gives a bad sense of verisimilitude if a single race of creatures arbitrarily high level tactics in comparison with the rest of the world.

The original Tucker's Kobolds were an exercise rather than a strict racial guideline, I believe. In the current edition, however...well, just read the Monster Manual entry about their society. It actually makes perfect sense for kobolds to work that way now, in fact doing any less than that is basically houseruling them into fodder rather than showing their true nature.

Let me go into a little more detail while answering your other question...

Can somebody explain to me why kobolds have superior tactics than, let's say, drow, despite having only average intelligence and wisdom?

This may not have been true of Tucker's Kobolds themselves, but for their modern-version equivalent, that's actually quite easy to address. Three points:

Point One: Kobold society reveres trapmaking. Everyone studies it a little, and skilled trapmakers are famous celebrities. This tends to encourage a very powerful drive for excellence in this field, as well as making it a popular hobby/pastime. Practically everyone has a personal mission to be the best trapmaker he can possibly manage to be.

Point Two: Kobold society revolves around the community as a whole working together to create increasingly devious and deadly traps. Thus, those famous-celebrity trapmakers each have an entire city's worth of a willing labor/resources pool to draw from when creating their traps. This allows them to have otherwise-absurd quantities and quality of traps at their disposal.

Point Three: "Average intelligence and wisdom" means they use the same range as a human would, not that they are restricted to average intelligence. Consider carefully what that distinction means--the kobold range and distribution of intelligence equals that of humanity. If it's feasible for one human in a couple hundred to have thought of a nasty trap or tactic, the kobolds should know it by the same reasoning, and be using it because of the previous two points.

Now, put all of those together. Imagine if everyone in your hometown--hundreds or even a couple thousand people--were all obsessed with making traps, and if every kid wanted to grow up to be a famous trapmaker. Imagine them you all working together on trapmaking projects, a daily activity more important to you than TV/internet/gaming/sports combined. Imagine the horrors you could come up with given decades of that kind of effort.

That is what an adventurer faces when we walks into an established kobold warren--the product of decades of effort by an obsessed species whose intelligence matches our own.

It darn well better be deadly, in fact the only reason it's not pure suicide for anything less than an epic party is simply because the DM has a responsibility to water it all down to a CR-appropriate challenge. If CR were thrown out the window and their actual nature were allowed to be the only limit, it would be just plain suicidal to go in there.

[Debihuman]

Actually, Tucker's Kobolds were first mentioned in a Dragon 127 in article by Roger E. Moore about a gaming group he joined that had come across these. The idea was that these kobolds were organized, efficient and used tactics to defend against the PC party. They used their smaller size to an advantage in going where the PCs couldn't follow and made use of appropriate cover and other fighting choices that put the PCs at a disadvantage. Nobody ever really expects Kobolds to be that dangerous. Drow, you expect. Mindflayers you expect. However, Kobolds have low stats and are cowardly. They are easily dispatched -- most of the time. Tucker's Kobolds proved that even insignificant monsters can cause a lof of damage. In fact, Tucker's Kobolds attacked with such weapons as broomsticks!

My first adventure with kobolds was the Secret of Saltmarsh and my incredibly buff 1st-level cavalier (I rolled three or four 18s on this on) and she was filthy rich having been born into Upper Upper Class no less, so she had on the best armor she could afford. The kobolds couldn't even roll high enough to hit her armor class with a natural 20! In fact, I believe she didn't even bother to try to use her sword, she simply kicked them and they would die. It was a brutal slaughter that made me realize that that my my PC was terribly over-powered (and I retired her promptly after that adventure). My encounter was far more the norm.

That's why Tucker's Kobolds were worth mentioning. Even with lousy stats, a penchant for cowardice, and inferior weapons, these things terrified the PCs. In large numbers they were lethal.

Debby

[Ranis]

The kobolds couldn't even roll high enough to hit her armor class with a natural 20!

In fact, the Kobolds really could hit your character with a natural 20. Just sayin'.

[Wraithy]

double post, very sorry

[Wraithy]

because an LE race will allways be better at coordinating and strategy than a CE race of similar (or in most cases greater) intelligence.
kobolds make brilliant strategists because they have no singular sense of worth, a kobold does his work for the greater "good". a kobold doesn't care if he is a certain death bait in a brilliant plan, he will still die.
this partially comes from the fact that they believe in reincarnation, that those who die selfishly will be reborn as dire weasles (kobold prefered mounts), and that if you die for the good of the tribe enough times you will be reborn as a chromatic dragon. kamikaze kobolds are as common as a creature speaking common, whearas drow (and elves in general) want freedom in combat, they don't want to be told what to do by a strategist (or anyone for that matter). kobolds are like communists, except that they actually succeed.
strategy isn't all about intelligence, its also about coordination, something which the drow (for all their SR and LA) are decidedly lacking.

[Debihuman]

Back in old day of AD&D, rolling a natural 20 for auto success was still a houserule. That's why the kobolds couldn't hit the cavelier. It became official with the advent into the 3rd edition*. I should have made that clearer. The original adventure Secrets of Saltmarsh was an AD&D adventure. Obviously, the first mention of Tucker's Kobolds goes back to AD&D as well.

Debby

* A good thing too because having automatic successes and failures makes it a far more interesting game. There's always a bit of chance with things.

[SquireJames]

I think Tucker's Kobolds was mostly a demonstration of "if you can only hit PCs on a natural 20, then cobble together a bunch of things the DM can hand-wave as automatically hitting".

[Bassetking]

I think Tucker's Kobolds was mostly a demonstration of "if you can only hit PCs on a natural 20, then cobble together a bunch of things for which the DM can make flat-footed touch attack rolls ".

Fixed that for you.

[Debihuman]

I think Tucker's Kobolds was mostly a demonstration of "if you can only hit PCs on a natural 20, then cobble together a bunch of things the DM can hand-wave as automatically hitting".

I disagree. A single kobold wasn't an issue. A single kobold or even 4 or 5 was no threat at all. However, in groups they could stand a chance. There really was no need for DM handwaving to make it so. They simply had to combine their efforts to be effective. If anything, Tucker's Kobolds demonstrated how much better group tactics were for weak monsters. They weren't brilliant tacticians, but they were singleminded and persistent. The party was caught flat-footed and never recovered because they expected the kobolds to behave as single kobolds rather than as a group. This is much like how a crow isn't dangerous but a Murder of Crows is. I think this may have foreshadowed the use of swarms as monsters.

Debby

[mockingbyrd7]

Eh? Tucker's kobolds?

*googles Tucker's kobolds* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker%27s_kobolds

*sprays orange juice all over his screen*

PFFFFT! Haha! That is so awesome!

Oh, and who said that other races can't have good tactics?