Kobold Small-unit tactics

[D.Shaffer]

How much could one reasonably expect these traps to cost? I was under the impression DnD made traps ridiculously expensive for their effects. It'd be silly for this huddling shivering group of ten kobolds to have half a million GP worth of traps.

DMG2 introduced booby traps for this very reason. They're cheap, easy to create CR 1/2 traps that dont require GP to create (With a survival check). I figure kobold lairs are chock full of the things.

Unfortunately, they didnt include rules to designing the suckers. As a quick and dirty way, i just say any trap under CR 1 is a booby trap.

Out of curiosity, how muck of a CR 'boost' would you say adding Filth Fever to a spike trap would be?

 

[kigmatzomat]

equipping an army of even as few as a hundred kobolds with scale mail, tower shields and all the other equipement mentioned here would be monumentally expensive

Agreed. IMO only leaders would wear captured chainmail. For small forces, the troops all wear leather. For larger groups with dedicated ranged & melee troops, the melees would have studded leather with the ranged using padded or nothing. Most kobolds should use spears (regular or long) b/c they are the cheapest weapon, other than a club.

While alchemist fire and tanglefoot bags are expensive, regular oil is not and is something the kobolds could manufacture themselves. They could even use high-proof alchohol as their splash weapon and virtually every civilization on earth figured out fermentation. Other splash weapons (acid from the stomachs of animals, caustics like lye that can be mixed up out of wood ash) can also be created at a near-zero tech level if you have the man-hours. Err, goblinoid-hours. I'm fond of the "stink" weapons (rotten fruit/meat stuffed in animal bladder/stomach and left in the sun) that can make people sickened or nauseous as prime anti-caster toys.

Their stuff should be crude, simple, possibly filthy by design, but effective.

 

[haakon1]

RECON Mission Director/D&D Dungeon Master, Your team leader is reporting for duty.

Roger that.

 

[Bardsandsages]

Kobolds generally don't need superior equipment...just a nice ditch, some makeshift spikes, and some rope. I've always had the McGyver view of kobolds. It's not that they have great gear, they just come up with the damndest things with what they got. If kobolds had duct tape, they would rule the world!

 

[Wolfwood2]

The most obvious comparison to these kobolds is not the Viet Cong but United States soldiers trying to patrol Iraq. These kobolds can't afford to be sneaky. The whole idea is for them to "show the flag" and let everybody know that they're around and the dragon is in control. On the other hand, they're obviously going to have decent equipment because of their powerful backer and dominant position.

Good tactics for these kobolds are:

Cover, cover, cover. When under attack, take cover. Do not allow insurgents to lead you on chases into small dark alleyways.

Whistles, alarms, and flares. If trouble arises, support should arrive in a few rounds as the nearer patrols hear the alert and converge on the location.

Concentrate fire, don't be afraid to retreat.

Remember, in this situation it's the PCs who are "Charlie".

 

[Sejs]

Setting up a lot of traps is therefore not an option -- there are people walking these streets on a daily basis, going about their business. Killing or maiming them willy-nilly isn't going to be doing the kobolds much good, and is in fact likely to make their job more difficult.

Again: never fight fair.

Have the kobolds operate more like a secret police with a visible presence. Somebody's causing a ruckus? They arn't subdued there and then, they're nailed with a thrown packet of some kind of dye or similar substance.

Then later on when they're asleep, bathing, etc, they're swarmed by a massive force of kobolds with saps or the like, subdued, trussed up, taken away, and never heard from again.

A patrol isn't there the bully people on a one-for-one basis. They're tagging crews. If they get seriously threatened, they tag the offenders then scatter. And everybody in that city knows that if you get tagged, you disappear. They don't even ask what you did, they just take you.

 

[Slife]

How much could one reasonably expect these traps to cost? I was under the impression DnD made traps ridiculously expensive for their effects. It'd be silly for this huddling shivering group of ten kobolds to have half a million GP worth of traps.

Oddly enough, traps are too expensive to work well at low levels, and to cheap to work well at low levels. Mostly because of mass production (as I mentioned in another thread, a mid level character can afford a hundred automatic reset cantrip traps. 50d3 cold damage and 50d3 acid damage per round is nothing to sneeze at).

 

[haakon1]

Remember, in this situation it's the PCs who are "Charlie".

This is weird situation, if the kobolds and their dragon friend have really conquered the place. Not your typical kobold situation at all.

The tagging and "disappearing" people idea is interesting. Kobolds as Gestapo.

That makes the PC's the French Resistance -- a small, rag-tag band, hiding in shadows and sniping when possible, supported by the people, but not so much that most of them will do anything about it, or that a lot of them wouldn't sell the PC's out for protection and some quick cash.

A resistance needs some outside force to supply it and provide moral support. Who will be Her Majesty's Secret Service/the OSS for the PC resistance?