Kobold Small-unit tactics

D&D. Typical sort of setting, lacking the "high magic" feel of Eberron. A black dragon rules a large city, and the surrounding territory, with the aid of a vast army of kobolds. Said kobolds aren't all that tough, but they're smart, well trained, and know how to work as a unit.

And of course, there's a lot of them....

So what I'm thinking is this, for a typical patrol:

The bulk of the unit is made up of first level warriors, armed with a light crossbow, longspear, and shortsword. Typically, they will take cover (if possible) and concentrate crossbow fire on a single target, as directed by the unit's leader. In melee, they break into three groups of four (along with the rest of the unit), with half of each group using the spears and the other half swords.

The unit is led by a third level fighter, typical feats to be determined. Weapon Focus, most likely.

Second in command is a 3rd level sorcerer. First action is always to use Dancing Lights to create a ring of red-colored flames about 50 ft. above the caster's head. Any other kobolds seeing this will immediately converge on this point to offer support. Following this, the sorcerer will use whatever offensive spells that he possesses to support the units' attacks.

Finally, we've got a 2nd level Dragon Shaman to provide support. He'll fight along side the rest of the unit, but will use his auras as necessary: Senses while patrolling, Power when attacking, and Vigor when things get ugly.

Perfect this isn't. Nor is it meant to be -- the Dancing Lights S.O.S., for example, is something that the PCs can, and almost certainly will, exploit. But even so, I want these guys to be reasonably effective, and scary, opposition for a bunch of 4th level players.

Any tactics to suggest? Or avoid? Keep in mind that the kobolds will not be sitting in their lair building traps; they're going to be on the city streets, actively patrolling and looking for trouble-makers.

Why are kobolds always made into friggin tactical geniuses? What's wrong with "overwhelming the enemy with vastly superior numbers"?

The things you suggest are fine; but remember that if the kobolds have significantly better resources/equipment than listed in the MM you should up their CR and the xp the players get.

lukelightning said:

Why are kobolds always made into friggin tactical geniuses? What's wrong with "overwhelming the enemy with vastly superior numbers"?

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I agree. My personal kobold moto is: Use at least 10 kobolds per character.

Stating them correctly of course. If the party is all level one or two, then the kobolds would be lvl 1 commoners using unarmed strikes or daggers.

lukelightning said:

Why are kobolds always made into friggin tactical geniuses? What's wrong with "overwhelming the enemy with vastly superior numbers"?

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From the kobold entry:

"They begin a fight by slinging bullets, closing only when they can see that their foes have been weakened. Whevever they can, kobolds set up ambushes near trapped areas. They aim to drive enemies into the traps where other kobolds wait to pour flaming oil over then, shoot them, or drop poisonous vermin onto them."

From that and other sources, we keep getting the message that kobolds never -ever- fight fair. They use terrain, traps, overwhelming numbers, attack from range, hit and fade, use poison (particularly str poison), ambush and use teamwork.

Kobolds are individually weak. They'd need to learn how to fight smart in order to thrive.

lukelightning said:

Why are kobolds always made into friggin tactical geniuses?

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Why wouldn't the weakest common humanoid race in the world rely on the best minds their tribe has to offer? They're just as smart as humans -- why would a given kobold tribe operate with less efficiency than a typical human military squad? They're a highly lawful race.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:

Why wouldn't the weakest common humanoid race in the world rely on the best minds their tribe has to offer? They're just as smart as humans ...

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Right. As regular humans. I'm not opposed to them being organized, just that DMs love to go overboard by making the weak monsters super dangerous (normally by giving them way more equipment than is warranted), like the only thing kobold society does is prepare for a band of 4 humanoids (one fighter, one wizard...) to enter their territory.

Also remember that if kobolds are using poisoned weapons then they better have some feat or something spent on poison use.

I thought Bohemian Ear-Spork's proposed tactics were fine.

lukelightning said:

Why are kobolds always made into friggin tactical geniuses? What's wrong with "overwhelming the enemy with vastly superior numbers".

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I think you have low standards for a Tactical genius. Kobolds are as smart and as wise as a human. If a human could come up with a plan, so could a kobold. Overwhelming works for INT 8 & WIZ 7 orc warriors, who where sent to the front lines to die due to thier CHA 6.

Those who want a beer and pretzles fight should tangle with orcs and ogres. Those who mess with kobolds and hobgoblins better expect opponents that do all they can to:

Deny thier foes actions.
Only engage when they have the upper hand.
Make every victory costly.

As far as gear value goes, Lawful NPCs with PC classes are free to distribute thier gear value amoung their allies. Poision is awful pricey, though alchemist fire is a semidecent value. An even better value when 3 of each 4 kobolds are given lamp oils flasks. 1st kobold tosses a alchemist fire, the rest toss cheaper lamp oil onto the already ignited target.

That's pretty much my thinking. They're no smarter than human beings, it's just that -- in this particular case -- they're rather more disciplined than the average peasant. And while they are indeed numerous, they're an occupying force and overwhelming swarms just aren't a viable option.

(The dragon is the archvillain of the piece, obviously, and he's surrounded himself with his own spawn. His elite guard, who largely occupy the flooded palace, are half-dragon lizardmen. His most trusted officers are a pair of half-dragons with class levels. And this entire kobold tribe is composed of his descendants.)

What gets sticky is that they are, man-for-man, weaker than their foes, which means that their planning needs to reflect this simple fact. The weapon choices are meant to even that out a bit -- crossbows and longspears to keep the enemy at a distance, and finessable short-swords for when they close in. I should probably give them shields as well , but I want to keep their load-out reasonable. But fighting defensively will, I imagine, be another typical tactic.

The longer you can stay alive, delaying the foe, the more time you have for your many allies to arrive and bail you out.

And, for the record, this is how I try to run any opposition that's got some kind of military discipline. My Eberron hobgoblins were really damned effective against characters who had them badly outclassed...at least, the first time around.

Things will get really ugly for the patrols when the PCs get AoE spells, but I've got a plan to deal with that as well.

But anyway, I don't want to create an impossible foe -- as I've said, the tactics I have planned have some easily exploitable weaknesses. I just want the enemy to come off as effective and competant, and to inspire a bit of respect.

You might want to replace some of the crossbows with "wimpy old slings." That way the kobolds can move and sling a stone in the same round. Why not a bow? Because you can use a shield with a sling. Sure, it's like 1d3 damage, but that adds up quickly.

Greetings...

Well, that's good... for a start.

We are talking about kobolds here. Now, what advantages do they have? Well, they are a small. So, if they control/patrol the region... especially for a significant amount of time. This is what I think they would be doing...

Traps -- The surrounding territory would be absolutely FILLED with traps. You think they are making traps in their lairs? Hell no! They consider this city and the surrounding region their lair. No matter where they patrol, they wouldn't be more than a quick run to some area with various traps that they could use to against a party of invaders.

I would see them having traps to attack an entire party... collapsing abandoned buildings. They would have traps to divide parties up. They would have traps to contain partiest or individual enemies. They'd also have traps for collecting food too, not that that's important right now.

Fire a few crossbolts at the party, turn and run... running across a concealed pit trap that they know their weight won't cause it to trigger/collaspe, but one of this big heavy stupid humans...

Fire a few crossbolts at a party and run through an abandoned building that is set to collapse to kill or contain these big stupid humans...

I would have the outer region littered with various traps, first deadly traps, that poison.. or knock enemies out to capturing them... like net traps, or deep-pit traps, in the regions that the kobolds patrol. Then more traps even further in that they can run to in case they meet up with a party.

Tunnels -- Since they are kobolds, I would have networks of tunnels small enough for them, but not big enough for humans... or better yet... tunnels that start out big enough for everyone... but sooner or later get pretty small. So as to trap all those stupid humans that that don't realize you should never chase a kobold down a tunnel.

I would have networks of tunnels going into the sewers, abandoned buildings, and every so often along their patrol routes as well. That way if reenforcements are ever needed, they can be sent through the tunnels... same for retreats. We're talking tunnels that would make the Việt Cộng envious.

Networks of confusing tunnels with secret passages so they can trap their invaders and then overwhelm them with vastly superior numbers. Just because they are small and lizardoids doesn't mean that they don't realize that they small and at a physical disadvantage.

Of course, I would bump of the CR of these kobolds. Just combine their CR with the EL of the traps your throwing at the players.