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Return of the Flumph 09-21-07, 07:51 PM

The first sequel to my Goblinoid Army thread, this is where I will be making sample NPC's from the kobold warrens, ready to fight with or against (mot likely the later, as kobolds in my world are pretty evil) the PC's. Like the goblinoid thread, this will cover everything from raiders to nightcrawlers to fortifications. To start out, here are my homebrew kobold racial traits. I'll post the first few units later tonight. -Small Humanoid: +1 to armor class and attack bonus, +4 to Hide checks, -4 to Grapple checks, carrying capacity 2/3 of the norm. -Speed: a kobold's base speed is thirty feet. -Natural Armor: a kobold's scaly skin provides a +1 natural armor bonus. -Abilities: -4 strength, -2 constitution, +2 dexterity, +2 charisma. Kobolds are frail and weak-boned, but as nimble and suave as serpents. -Powerful Legs: a kobold's powerful, double jointed legs provide a +4 bonus to Jump and Tumble checks. Treat the kobold's strength as if it were four points higher for the purposes of these skills. -Tail: a kobold's tail gives it a +2 bonus to Balance checks. -Trapsmith: kobolds gain a +2 bonus to Craft (trapmaking). -Racial Enmity: kobolds receive a +1 morale bonus to attack rolls against gnomes. -Poison Use: a kobold never risks accidentally poisoning himself when applying poison to a blade or other weapon. -Automatic Languages: Common, Draconic. -Bonus Languages: Gnomish, Orcish, Giant, Dwarven, Elvish, and Infernal. Historically, kobolds have lived in isolated city states called warrens, each led by a conniving sorcerer family. Today, the three most powerful families-the Sreekit, the Kig'ig, and the the Zagtoch-have established a unified oligarchy over most of the warrens in the known world. All three sorcerer clans have developed unique weapons and strategies, which, now unified, could pose a devastating threat to the civilized world. *Note: all units with "elite" in their names have elite ability array. *Note: while all three nations have frontmen, the feat, weapon, and spell selections vary depending on nationality, and so each of the sblocks has a different version of them. The Sreekits are known for their powers of enchantment and mind control; most of their rivals are terrified of them. Their current Prince rules from a warren hidden in a range of forested hills and cliffs, and thus has skilled mountaineers at his disposal as well. Sreekit Frontman First level kobold warrior. Equipment: studded leather armor, small light crossbow, two doses of concentrated snake venom, grappling hook, cordoscythe*. Feat: Weapon Focus (light crossbow) The "frontman," so called because he usually walks at the head of the strike force (but behind the slave soldiers), is the most common soldier in kobold armies. Like all kobolds, frontmen avoid letting the enemy get close enough to land a blow, excelling at ranged combat and letting the slaves keep the enemy at bay. A Sreekit frontman can poison his crossbow bolts with venom milked from the snakes that live in his rocky homeland, and carries a grappling hook to get up and down cliff faces quickly. In a seige, this hook can also be used to scale walls. Weapon: CORDOSCYTHE The cordoscythe is a small, curved blade attached to a ring. This ring can be worn around the tail of any creature that has one, and is a martial weapon. A cordoscythe deals 1d4 base damage, critical 20/x2. The advantage of a cordoscythe is that it does not need to be drawn, allowing the weilder to react to approaching enemies without wasting an action to pull out a melee weapon. Poison: RATTLESNAKE VENOM Harvested from rattlesnakes indiginous to the hills, this is an injury poison. Fortitude save DC 11, initial and secondary damage 1d6 constitution. Sentry Second level kobold warrior. Equipment: studded leather armor, small heavy crossbow, tower shield, two doses of concentrated snake venom, potion of cure light wounds, cordoscythe. Feat: Weapon Finesse Sentries are sent forward to lock down key positions once the frontmen have seized them. Due to the heavy items they carry, a sentry's speed is 20 feet per round (if he drops the shield, it rises to normal). Once the sentries get into position, they lower a kickstand on the back of their tower shields, allowing them to stand erect even against enemy arrows. A planted tower shield grants 9/10 cover to any Small creature and 3/4 cover to any Medium creature behind it. If the enemy circumvents or knocks over (strength check, DC 15) the shield, the sentry will resort to the cordoscythe. Ideally, there should be enough slave soldiers around to prevent the enemy from doing that, however. Engineer First level kobold expert Equipment: studded leather armor, light crossbow, shortspear, grappling hook, tool kit*. Feat: Skill Focus (concentrate) Engineers, as the kobolds call them, are combat technicians who excel at trapmaking, defense building, and-most notably-heavy weapons use. Engineers prepare the battlefield ahead of time by building traps and fortifications, and make themselves useful either repairing the above, or operating seige weapons (such as ballistae). Item: TOOL KIT This box contains a hammer, chisel, nails, sting, and several other handy instruments. A tool kit adds a +2 circumstance bonus to any Profession (engineering) or Craft (woodworking) check that it is used in. Elite Grenadier Third level kobold warrior with dire bat mount Equipment: studded leather armor, heavy crossbow, potion of healing, cordoscythe, 2 doses of rattlesnake venom, 3 vials of alchemist's fire, 3 vials of acid, smokestick, tanglefoot bag. Feats: Mounted Combat, Rideby Attack The dire bats of the Sreekit hills have been subject to kobold brainwashing and conditioning for generations. Adult dire bats are conditioned to recognize kobolds as their own kind, and have been passing this artificial behavior down from generation to generation. As a result, dire bats live in and around the warrens without molesting the small humanoids, and help with both agriculture (by eating the crows) and war (by being mounts for elite grenadiers). Kobold grenadiers soar high above the battlefield, looking for a situation that needs them. The bat flies just a few feet overhead, biting an enemy and letting the rider toss one of his deadly potion bottles. Wild Talent Kobold sorcerer 1/rogue 1 with toad familiar. Equipment: heavy crossbow, cordoscythe, grappling hook, potion of healing, potion of fire breathing, 2 doses snake venom, thunderstone. Feat: Silent Spell Spells Known: 0-acid splash, flare, light 1-magic missile, mage armor Kobolds with nominal skill at magic do occur among the commoners. These individuals have slightly higher status than mundane kobolds, but are below knights. They act as sergeants and troubleshooters, each leading a small squad of soldiers and slaves. They are especially good at fighting enemy spellcasters, deafening them with a thunderstone and using silent spells and sneak attacks while they can't cast back. Elite Knight Kobold fighter 1/sorcerer 1/assassin 1 with snake familiar. Equipment: masterwork studded leather armor, masterwork shortspear, masterwork light crossbow, masterwork cordoscythe, grappling hook, 2 potions of healing, 3 doses of extra concentrated snake venom (DC 14). Feats: Weapon Finesse, Improved Initiative, Combat Casting Assassin spells Prepared: suggestion. Sorcerer Spells Known: 0-ghost sound, dancing lights, resistance 1-magic weapon, true strike. All upper crust kobolds are sorcerers, but not all of them are very good at it. The knight class consists of families tangential to the mage-clans who have only limited magical ability. They make up for it by becoming deadly physical combatants, and use their magic to augment their own prowess. They serve as low to mid ranking officers on the battlefield. Elite Vassal Kobold sorcerer 6 with weasel familiar Equipment: bracers of defense (+4), masterwork shortspear, +1 light crossbow, grappling hook, 2 potions of healing, potion of glibness, boots of jumping (+20 Jump), mask of camoflauge (+4 Hide). Feats: Spell Focus (enchantment), Combat Casting, Heighten Spell Spells Known: . 6/4/2 0-daze, detect poison, detect magic, read magic, acid splash, resistance, light 1-hypnotism, charm animal (varient charm person), floating disk, grease 2-hideous laughter, sonic ray (varient scorching ray). 3-hold person. Vassals are either distant members of the Sreekit family, or from other sorcerer clans that the sreekit have risen to dominance over. Vassals are the elite of kobold society and military alike, and thus have ample time and resources to practice their magics. They act as field commanders or captains, directing knights and their respective squads around the battlefield. Slave Soldier First level human warrior Equipment: studded leather armor, longsword, large wooden shield, light crossbow. Feats: Toughness, Weapon Focus (longsword). Many human settlements are within easy reach of the Skreekit-controlled kobold warrens, and, as if their proximity wasn't enough, are sometimes kind enough to send soldiers against the kobolds, supplementing the ones captured during slave raids. Skreekit sorcerers are known for their enchantment spells, and they have quickly learned that trapping an enemy soldier is often better than killing him. Captured humans spend several months locked in a horrible dungeon, where the sorcerers work constant psychological and magical tricks against them. The soldiers are eventually brainwashed into serving the kobolds, and need no further magic to ensure their loyalty. These meat shields are usually sent in to draw enemy fire away from the kobold frontmen, and to serve as added muscle during offensive campaigns. Slave Brute Standard ogre. Far away in the mountains, on the borders of the orcish lands to the northeast, ogres are not an uncommon sight. Once every decade or so, a Skreekit raiding party will be sent to charm a few ogres and bring them back to kobold territory for brainwashing. Slave brutes are used as valuable-but ultimately disposable-living weapons, deployed against the enemy at choke points and other critical melee hot spots. Slave brutes do much of the manual labor in the kobold warrens, such as carving through stone and harvesting lumber. Slave brutes can also be seen operating trams. Scorpion The scorpion mini-ballista is a massive crossbow mounted on a swiveling wooden platform with a tower shield attached to the front. A mini-ballista is about four feet long and ways just shy of sixty pounds. It has 15 hit points, hardness 1, an armor class of 10, and 3/4 cover from the shield (the kobolds operating it also gets 3/4 cover, as there is not enough room for their entire bodies to hide and get the usual 9/10). Carried into position by a mule or pony, a scorpion must be planted on the ground before it can be used. Typically, one kobold engineer operates the ballista, and one frontman stands behind him to help reload. It takes this two-man crew six rounds to deploy or pack up the turret, and (once it is deployed) it can fire every other round. A scorpion has a range increment of eighty, deals 2d6 damage (critical 20/x2), and uses the firer's Profession (Seige Engineer) score as its attack bonus. The rotating pedastal allows the mini-ballista to swivel easily to face in any direction. More often than not, the bolts are coated in flaming oil, adding 1d6 fire damage to the ballista's shots. If it is pried or cut off of its pedastal, it can be weilded as an exotic weapon by a Medium or larger character. In this case, it uses a normal attack roll instead of a Profession check. It only takes one Medium character to load and fire the massive crossbow, but its rate of fire is static. Item: WINCH CLIP A winch clip is an oversized crossbow bolt holder that can latch onto shafts of almost any size. The clip can hold 8 normal crossbow bolts, 4 scorpion bolts, or 2 full-scale ballista bolts. Attaching a winch clip takes three rounds and a Profession (Seige Engineer) check (DC 13), and removing one takes one round (no skill check needed). Once attached, the repeating clip allows a heavy crossbow or ballista to be fired every round until the clip empties, at which point it must be taken off, reloaded, and reattached, a process that takes a total of six rounds. An empty winch clip weighs 15 pounds. They are usually carried by mules or ponies. Tram This ten by ten foot platform is weighted so that it will always remain fairly level, and is suspended from a sixty foot chain whose other end is wrapped around a portable spool. One side of the tram hugs the cliff face. The opposite side is protected by two tower shields (9/10 cover to all Small creatures on the tram, 3/4 cover to Medium ones) and a mounted heavy repeating crossbow (Small). The tram platform can carry large numbers of men and equipment up and down sheer cliffs and hillsides quickly, often leaving the enemy confused about where the kobolds could have escaped to. The platform and tower shields are camoflauged (Spot DC 15). A tram has 10 hit points, a hardness of 1, and an armor class of 11. When on the ground, the tram can only be attacked with melee weapons, as shooting a grounded tram is like shooting a camoflauged manhole cover. The winch to pull up or lower the chain is operated by a slave brute. The tram can be lowered at a speed of up to 20 feet, and raised at a speed of up to 10 feet. The tram and winch spool have small wheels on the bottom, so they can be easily rolled to another cliff face. Peephole into Thoughts This magical trap is a simply square of cloth, about 2 feet long and two feet wide, that is usually tied to a treetrunk or hung up against a wall. Embroidereed on the center of the cloth are three concentric circles that vaguely resemble an eye. Whenever a humanoid or group of humanoids look at the cloth from within thirty feet, the trap activates, casting mass suggestion on them (caster level 13, DC 19). The instructions so imparted are usually to the effect of "the kobold leader is coming to parley; put down your weapons and follow him when he arrives." This is where slave soldiers and slave brutes come from. A favorite trick is to leave them inside of pit traps, where they can pacify those who fall in. Peepholes are crafted by the Skreekit prince and his close confidantes. In order to recharge the trap, another mass suggestion can be casted into it without xp cost.