Epic Adventurers v. Kobolds?

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Using the Fighting on the Run rule from Conan RPG I can easily do 40-60 hp damage/round to that guy (hitting on a '20' with full PA) with melee troops, more if I use cavalry with Spirited Charge & Ride-By Attack. Archers are far worse.

Full Power Attack? As Warrior 1 they can get one point extra damage... (remember. Limit is your BAB, not the sky )

 

[kanithardm]

Give me enough kobolds and I could kill any epic character.

I totally agree.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Low level types of almost any kind can be deadly if properly run. Old HERO games maxim: "Minions HURT!"

I never had the opportunity or privilege, but i understand there was a particular DM who used to run High-Level dungeons at Gen-Con...and had a particular love for kobolds. Some of the players said they'd rather fight dragons.

They're smart & cunning and they're generally fighting on their home turf. They'll have superior numbers. That's the same combo that allowed poorly armed Afghanis to kick the Soviet Army out of their country.

They'll use decoys, traps, and tactics. They will not stand toe-to-toe with adventurers...unless they've got something in mind.

They'll use the terrain-which is sized for THEM- to their advantage: no whips or chain weapons, no polearms, few 2-handed weapons. They will attack from ANY direction. You don't need levels to drop boiling oil on someone squirming up a 4'x4' passageway. And remember, don't cast Fireball into an enclosed space...

If it helps, read some accounts of what it was like fighting in the Viet Cong tunnels in the Vietnam War.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

They're smart & cunning and they're generally fighting on their home turf. They'll have superior numbers. That's the same combo that allowed poorly armed Afghanis to kick the Soviet Army out of their country.

Um...

Seriously, where do people get the idea that kobolds are smart?

I don't see a +2 modifier to their Intelligence, after all. They're average, like almost everyone else. They're not *stupid*, but neither is the average human.

They make mistakes like everybody else, like needing to breath (cast cloudkill at the top of their ventilation system), or going out to raid (cut them off and slaughter them to a dog-lizard). Sure, they can afford to spend lots of their own, for each adventurer they take down, but competent adventurers will pull back and heal, and it takes time to replace dead kobolds.

Personally, I'd use a wand or two of Summon Monster III. Nothing like a bunch of small elementals cruising through your tunnel to make a kobold's day painful, ugly, and short.

Brad

 

[S'mon]

Full Power Attack? As Warrior 1 they can get one point extra damage... (remember. Limit is your BAB, not the sky )

War-1 +2 pts damage - they use 2-h weapon; say a halberd w ST 14, that's d10+3 or d10+5 PA; 1 in 20 crit for x3 damage.

Edit: Glaive is good - 10' reach, x3 damage.

 

[S'mon]

If PCs are doing a standard "GM says do this" scenario with kobolds in 10' corridors, kobolds are no threat. However if the PCs just decide to attack the local kobolds, the kobold tunnels are 2'6" or so wide & high...

Incidentally I dislike the whole 3e "All kobolds are Tucker's Kobolds, also they're descended from dragons and are incredibly smart and have tons of Sorcerers and..."

IMC kobolds are 1e MM kobolds. Not so smart. You still don't want to fight them in 2'6" tunnels though, not unless you're under 2'6" yourself.

 

[S'mon]

There arn't enough kobolds in existence to be able to take my character.

Characters who think that IMC generally end up under the 5-ton stone block deadfall trap.

A 5-ton block is only about 1 meter across and can easily be winched into position, given time, even by kobolds. At 1d6/100 lbs that's about 100d6 damage. If it's a _tough_ Epic character a 10-ton block may be called for...