Pathfinder 2E Paizo Previews Hobgoblin Ancestry

The Hobgoblin appears as a playable race in the Lost Omens World Guide. Paizo's Eleanor Ferron has previewed it.

Hobgoblins get 8 Hit Points from their ancestry, are Medium, and have a speed of 25 feet. A hobgoblin speaks Common and Goblin, plus any additional languages they might pick up. Hobgoblins have incredible endurance and are trained for physical discipline, giving them an ability boost to Constitution, and they possess keen minds, getting another ability boost in Intelligence. Like most ancestries, they also get one free ability boost to put in any score. Hobgoblins were originally created from goblins, however, meaning the two ancestries share an ability flaw to Wisdom. With these traits, hobgoblins seem like they’d be perfectly suited to be wizards… if not for the absolute, bone-deep loathing they hold toward almost all magic. Oops!

In fact, hobgoblins hate magic so much that they can choose the Elfbane Hobgoblin ancestry, which can help them resist spells:

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More details over at Paizo.com.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My own version of hobgoblins are like a mixture of the background of the klingons from Star Trek and the gorillas from the planet of the apes. Sometimes I imagine them with levels of martial adepts (crusader, swordsage and warblade from "Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords" and "Path of War" by Dreamscarred Press. In the hands of the right warlord hobglobins could be a very serious menace, like Daenerys Targaryen's unsullied army.

 

[Aldarc]

As if a "hatred of magic" will stop people from rolling hobgoblin wizards...

 

[Blue]

As if a "hatred of magic" will stop people from rolling hobgoblin wizards...

It will absolutely work. It stopped players from rolling non-Evil drow, didn't it...

 

[Aldarc]

It will absolutely work. It stopped players from rolling non-Evil drow, didn't it...

"Yes, hobgoblins hate magic, BUT that's what makes my (tragic) hobgoblin wizard - with a 50 page backstory written in single-space 8 point font - different!"

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Lots of players like to go against the tide, to feel they are special and different. It is like fashion waves. When something become too normal, then is fogortten.

I imagine them like unfriendly but enough honorable, a PC hobgoblin would be a renegade who rejected their own people because he suffered the tall poppy syndrome ( = hostility by rivals and envious) and he would rather other folk who show sincere respect for his fight skills, or maybe a fugitive former soldier-slave, and horrible social skills.

 

[Aldarc]

They will also certainly make GREAT alchemists too. I'm just skeptical that lore flavor like "hatred of magic" will stop players from picking hobgoblins for their stats that will be beneficial for wizards.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Lots of players like to go against the tide, to feel they are special and different. It is like fashion waves. When something become too normal, then is fogortten.

Back when WotC had the Star Wars RPG license and were running Living Force, I looked at the species and class restrictions, and I immediately wanted to play an Ewok Crimelord.

 

[Aldarc]

Back when WotC had the Star Wars RPG license and were running Living Force, I looked at the species and class restrictions, and I immediately wanted to play an Ewok Crimelord.

I'm not the biggest fan of RPing in a IP like Star Wars, but I would love to see that character.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I'm not the biggest fan of RPing in a IP like Star Wars, but I would love to see that character.