D&D 5E Oh god, not goblins again...

[SkidAce]

Try using evil halflings instead of goblins. Your players won't be expecting that I'm sure.

I was going to say gnomes.

 

[TerraDave]

1st Please define "Level Approriate" challenge. In 1e terms. Be specific, quote pages.

What a strange response.

Why would I do that?

If you have something to prove, then go ahead, get the module, and make your argument. Please be specific and quote pages. Also please note the printing and if it was stand alone or part of T1 as the pagination will be different.

 

[Hussar]

THere's also nothing wrong with going with animals as well. Spiders and maybe an ettercap or two are pretty reasonable for 1st level parties. There's a fair number of low level fantasy animals - that flying snake thing, things like that. Or, there's always things like Twig Blights and various low level plant critters.

Heck, drop demons on them. Lemurs and spinagons are small enough to use in low level adventures.

 

[tardigrade]

I know the feeling! It seems like almost every single time I pick up a book or watch a movie or tv show it has humans in it! I mean, there must be a million stories written about humans at this point and we have all seen hundreds or thousands of them, is it really possible to write another one that is in any way entertaining? Do we really ever need to see a fight between humans again?

Just noticed I completely forgot to mention it in the original post, but the most likely swap will be for more of the bandits that they've already faced off against a few times

I suspect a lot of players automatically assume that human/elf/dwarf/etc groups have a backstory - there's a reason that they're doing what they're doing - but that for goblins it's just 'what they do'. (I plan to fix that, but we're only about four sessions into this campaign yet and most of this group hasn't played before.)

 

[tardigrade]

Just because it's LotR, doesn't make it false! Goblins with bipedal pets/slaves would certainly feel different.

I don't play as much Dwarf Fortress as I used to, but from memory the gobllins there farm trolls for their wool - I might have to borrow that...

 

[cmad1977]

Giant Ants!! Clear the hive!
Pack of hungry/mind controlled wolves?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chaosmancer]

I like to think, personally, that my players are glad I don't use goblins more often. Even at level 11 in my steampunk world, goblin pirates caused a significant amount of damage to my players (granted, they did have a cannon and out numbered the party by a large number), but I have altered goblins for my own ends.

I increased their mental stats up to 10's and 12's and play them as sneaky, conniving and a bit like a special forces assault squad, sometimes I give them better armor too (they have an empire after all).

That was all I needed to make these things one of the great terrors of my world. Make them smart and don't make them sniveling cowards.



But, if you truly need something else, I've also enjoyed using Gnolls (though they might be a bit much for 1st level characters) and the suggestion of using animals is a good one.

I also tend to skip to level 3, just so I can feel confident enough the players can survive a wide variety of enemies. Let's me skip the simple stuff without fear of steamrolling the party, but that is personal preference.

 

[Imaculata]

Just because it's LotR, doesn't make it false! Goblins with bipedal pets/slaves would certainly feel different.

Oh believe me, I have done that multiple times. When I throw goblins at my players, they are rarely alone. They love keeping pets.

 

[Mecheon]

I don't play as much Dwarf Fortress as I used to, but from memory the gobllins there farm trolls for their wool - I might have to borrow that...

They do! Of course Dwarf Fortress trolls and D&D trolls are pretty different

It also needs to be said that Dwarf Fortress goblins don't ride wolves. They ride Beakdogs.

What are beakdogs? They're basically those weird monster things from Golden Axe you could ride around on

 

[Al2O3]

My group have used 3 published adventures as far as I can recall: the 4e DMG one (while playing 4e) with kobolds, LMoP (with me as DM) and now we are level 6 in SKT.

In my opinion SKT itself does a great job of spicing up the goblins. They are whacky as they should, they are nasty as they should and the internal cutthroat politics of the dripping caves made for an interesting session.

The one thing I would maybe have liked my DM to do different is too better telegraph just HOW nasty the goblins are. My group probed the dripping caves while now on hit points and spell slots, thus starting a "timer". To prevent a TPK we later had to retreat and take a long rest. We wished that we would've taken the rest first...

Sent from my Nexus 6 using EN World mobile app