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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Loonook" data-source="post: 5837725" data-attributes="member: 1861">[MENTION=4937]Celebrim[/MENTION]: Kobolds are crafty and have the ability to make various goods to sell and market.  Hell, 360 1st level Commoner Kobolds have the ability to bring 11-13 gp/week into the compound just through their trapmaking, and could even make skilled and masterwork traps for trade with underworld denizens and even trappers and others who don't really care about the Kobold's specific evil dragon-worshipping ways.Like little Satan's Helpers Kobolds sit and make their crafts.  They aid master craftsman in their upkeep of the traps they keep around the compound.  The Keykeepers for the compound who reset the traps and oil their gears are revered, and those who wish to go out into the world as Masters add their own little twist to the compound with their trap.Kobolds (at least through the interpretation I have seen in numerous games that really helped to form my opinion of them) have a sort of hyenalike opportunism.  They would love to move into a dungeon complex or old keep, any location that may have been cleared out.  They get the adventurers who decide to come through, and they collect the bodies of those who decide to stupidly enter their traps.  Honeypots abound around the location of the "real" lair, loaded with traps and making you yearn for a dwarf with a mushroom hat to tell you the princess is in the next castle <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />.Of course these honeypots also help to generate a couple of hundred/thousand GP extra every season from idiot groups of warriors who decide to come through and die in the lair.If even a quarter of the populace is working on traps through Aid, resetting, masonry repairs, cleanup, obfuscation, and general creation?  We're looking at around 1k GP/week just from their creations.  A silver/day, 3 GP per month for sustenance per kobold gives an amount of food and shelter for a Medium sized individual.So you are looking at around 2600/mo generated from a quarter of the able populace, not including Profession and other checks that help your Kobold society function a bit better by farming, using some of those traps, gathering, etc. from the countryside. A group of Kobolds is about as smart as any group of Humans; they aren't stupid, and could easily provide for themselves.Trading with caravans, other kobold warrens, underworlders?  Even better.  Say goodbye to worrying about water supply issues for the tribe.  Need troubleshooters to come through and test your traps?  New materials for masterwork traps? Need to purchase some magebred hounds (because I really do hate the Dire Weasel...).  The static economy of upkeep being supported by DMs is utterly irritating.  No culture grows that has scales, horns, or fur?  Specist <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />.  A similarly sized group of humans, elves, etc. seems to have support for all of your party's needs, and is just as ripe for the picking.Slainte,-Loonook.EDIT: Was just looking into the needs of a group of kobolds for water, going with basic levels of water use across cultures.  Figure 1/2 the amount of water for their size versus the 'water poverty' threshold of 12.5 gallons comes to an overall water need of ~ 2500 gallons of water.  That is around 9 minutes of use of a decanter of Endless water at a geyser setting posted in a cavern 40' in the air to prevent the geyser damage from killing some poor Kobold who decides to jump into the stream.  The average output of the geyser post-potability comes to 429,500 gallons/day.  This would allow the Kobolds to fill a reservoir at 25' deep and 100' diameter in 3-5 days.  Once filled to their hoped reservoir amount (allowing them to have enough water for 600 days of use not accounting for greywater feed back into the pool), they can begin to use this in water traps, irrigation methods, etc. in the surrounding areas.  Kobolds don't need a living benefactor; they need an old complex to move into and make their own.</blockquote>

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