Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Stuffburger 11-01-07, 11:38 PM	In honor of the two party tanks getting cleave and great cleave, I want to send a small tribe worth of kobolds at my party. Problem is, I can't figure out a good number of kobolds, and what the book says (16) seems far too low. I plan to give the kobolds some terrian (maybe a cliff) and some minor traps to spice things up some, and have about a quarter armed with light crossbows instead of slings, and maybe a low-level sorcerer or druid or some other interesting boss kobold. My party is a fairly standard, not particularly optimized group of cleric, wizard, fighter, rogue, and barbarian/ranger, all at level 4. The cleric has wings of flying and the rogue has a ring of jumping. Any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas?
Tedronai 11-01-07, 11:47 PM	First off...Wings of Flying at lvl 4? :eek: :eek: :eek: As for the encounter itself, if you are looking for a truly epic encounter (that you expect the party survive) nothing beats a choke point. With that party composition, I would suggest a 15' wide gorge, with the kobolds swarming up out of their warrens within, the party taking up one exit, and the cliffs above. I've personally seen a party (4 characters, non-optimized around 5th level) in such a situation take out around 100 goblins, before the rest decided it would be in their best interest to 'relocate'.
Stuffburger 11-02-07, 12:05 AM	First off...Wings of Flying at lvl 4? :eek: :eek: :eek: Oh WOW did I mess that up, when I put that as a treasure I read the price as 5,400 gp and not 54,000:( (Fortunately I used the 3e description which says it has a 20ft wingspan, making it useless in most indoor areas) I like the idea of a swarm through a gorge, but that doesn't really fit the kobolds who I want to portray as devious, as well as willing to throw away dozens of lives if need be.
Mock26 11-02-07, 02:24 AM	Do a google search for Tucker's Kobolds.
pigknight 11-02-07, 09:31 PM	50, no seriously. 49 1st level warriors in the book, and one 4th level sorcerer.
Mr_Seth 11-02-07, 10:16 PM	What Mock26 said - Tucker's Kobolds. Remember, there's a reason that Kobolds are still alive - they're devious. Trap masters. Lords of deception and misdirection. Lure the players into the Kobold lair... and make sure that while they see lots of shadows darting around that might be kobolds, they rarely see one up close. A deathtrap around every corner, a cunning death up every corridor. Also remember, Kobolds are sadistic. Don't be afraid to add insult to injury. An example: within the Kobold warren, dead center, is a grand door (grand for Kobolds, anyway... it's big enough to let a big human through easily). Gold, engravings, and written above it in large draconic letters "ONLY THE TRULY STRONG MAY PASS THROUGH." Make it look like the entry to the BBEG's den. The catch: The door's on a spring. The harder the players try to force it open, the more tension's put on it. Strength check DC15 at first, then 20.. then 25... keep going. The harder they push, the more damage they take when they fail a check and it snaps back, splatting `em against the wall.
SokenzanMarauder 11-02-07, 11:56 PM	Do a google search for Tucker's Kobolds.I think he wants his PCs to survive. :P
Return of the Flumph 11-03-07, 12:02 AM	Good one, Mr. Seth. Anyway, considering that there is a lot of jumping/flying in this party, here's what I recommend. The kobolds are laired in a cliff face with several shallow caves connected to each other a little ways in. At the bottom of the cliff is a pool of water, so the PC's don't die if they fail a Climb check.
Thubby 11-03-07, 12:09 AM	throw a theoretically endless number at them and have the rest retreat, for example, a few caves have them streaming out, if you don't have enough you can add more without hesitation, and if you have too many, the others retreat in fear of stabbity death.
Frankencow 11-03-07, 12:16 AM	First off...Wings of Flying at lvl 4? :eek: :eek: :eek: As for the encounter itself, if you are looking for a truly epic encounter (that you expect the party survive) nothing beats a choke point. With that party composition, I would suggest a 15' wide gorge, with the kobolds swarming up out of their warrens within, the party taking up one exit, and the cliffs above. I've personally seen a party (4 characters, non-optimized around 5th level) in such a situation take out around 100 goblins, before the rest decided it would be in their best interest to 'relocate'. FOR SPARTA!!! XD If it worked for the Greeks it can work for you!
Rood_Inverse 11-03-07, 01:11 AM	See, this is supposed to be a reward for the players. A chance to exercise their new cleaving muscles. I don't think kobolds are going to work for you. Goblins, orcs, something that "hordes," so to speak, is what you want. Maybe a town overrun by plague rats? Have the magic users start flame-broiling the town at one end and stand at the other with your tanks to finish the plague rats. It's like having flamethrower soldiers funnelling insurgents into an independent contractor's bottleneck. Even epic heroes are sometimes asked to do low-level dirty jobs. Even Superman still nabs muggers and bank robbers from time to time.
Krusk 11-03-07, 01:42 AM	I like the valley idea, so ill build off that. The players exit a cave at the bottom of a valley. to their left the valley extends about 20 or so feet, before it rises into a dam of some sort the players know a river was stopped up on the otherside forming a lake. To the right the valley extends to the horizon, at the end of which rests a town. The valley is ~75-80 feet deep with multiple layers. Every 10-15 feet up and down there is a cave opening on both sides of the wall. As the characters emerge from the cave, the kobolds use this point to stage their ambush. On the caves up above squads of 3-4 kobold crossbow-man attack. Out of the ground level caves swarms of spear armed kobolds file out in an attempt to keep the players together with their back to the dam, and from above a kobold sorcerer or two rains down evocation spells. Also from the top you can include rock/log pushers, who work in teams to push large avalanches onto the people below, some of whom may be kobolds. Have this take like 3 rounds, and deal Xd6 falling damage to anyone in a large area reflex save for half. As a last resort some of the final kobolds may decide to attempt to blow the dam and wash away the adventurers. Have some sort of blasting powder rigged in for that. This might add even more urgency to this encounter if they visably see a lit fuse, and several unlit ones. This should give the new cleavers plenty to cleave through. Plus it makes some use of the mobility of your cleric and rogue, who can deal with the higher up kobolds. if the encounter starts ending too quick, send in more kobolds, these can even be wearing leather armor and look to be bigger than the others. -more AC HP and damage.
Stuffburger 11-03-07, 03:44 AM	thanks for all the feedback guys, It really gave me some food for thought. Just got back from tonights session. I ended up using a mix of both the "huge mob" and "clever bastard" approaches. I started off with a big 45ish kobold fight on a smallish island. It was really fun to use the entire battle mat for a change, and I got to use my shiny new kobold tokens. I think the cleric enjoyed being able to use her wings to full extent for the first time. It had some pretty epic moments, such as 5 kobolds jointly tackling the goliath ranger and pushing him over a cliff, or when the fighter ended up dealing 36 damage to one kobold and I ruled that another nearby kobold died from fright from witnessing such carnage. Afterwards I did a little of the clever trappy stuff, having the players locked in a section of tunnel by portcullises while kobolds fired arrows, alchemists fire, acid at them and poisonous insects flooded in from a decoy shrine.