Monster of the Week: Kobold

“ELEVEN DAYS!” -Chris Perkins’ Kobold PC, Spurt

Now, contrary to what Spurt told the Mighty Nein, Kobolds typically live longer than 11 days… anywhere from 50-135 years in fact!

Kobolds are reptilian humanoids typically seen with reddish brown or black scaley skin. They have long, clawed fingers, horns, and a crocodile like jaw. They are 2 feet tall, but don’t bring it up… they are pretty sensitive about their height. Despite their short stature, Kobolds are aggressive, but introverted creatures. I’m sure the loner thing has nothing to do with the fact that they also smell like wet dog…

You’ll likely find tribes of them in dark areas, ideally underground or in a thick forest.  Their lairs are often created by mining them from rock, much thought was put into these underground dens, even using divination magic to locate ore and mineral deposits. Kobolds are omnivorous, eating just about anything if they’re hungry enough. Due to their cold-blooded nature, if they’re in a warm place they don’t need to eat too much.  

In battle…

Kobolds typically use their cunning and numbers to win fights. They commonly lay traps or set up ambushes, rarely attacking head on unless the foe was already weakened. They have sunlight sensitivity, so they will be at disadvantage if attacking in sunlight. DMs, if you’re looking to set a trap for your players, the go-tos for Kobolds are spike pits, tripwires, flaming oil, and poisonous vermin. Kobolds use Pack Tactics and their favored weapons are daggers and slings. They’ll loot whatever treasure they can carry, occasionally enslaving/selling foes they did not kill.

Subraces

If you’re looking to change things up a bit, there are various subraces of Kobold:

• Aquatic
• Arctic
• Desert
• Dragonwrought
• Earth
• Jungle

Or, homebrew something! You want 3 purple kobolds in a trench coat, go for it!

Kobolds are a versatile little monster that you can easily add into your campaign as an enemy, or perhaps as a PC! Tell us about the Kobolds in your campaign in the comments.

And don’t forget to check out last week’s Monster: The Bugbear!