Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 7023848" data-attributes="member: 6796661">Basically, desert animals with adaptions for travelling over hot sand have adaptions that allow them to (1) minimize the amount of their body exposed to the hot sand and (2) prevent them from sinking in. For snakes this is side-winding (found in both African and USA snakes) for many lizards and mammals (birds too?) they have feet that follow the snoe-shoe principle. You could say that this would also help with quicksand, mud, and loose dirt.  You can also say that they can run over any very hot surface with less damage.  Again, how often this comes up depends on your campaign. Given them advantage to escape grappling, or, they cause damage to anyone grappling them who is not wearing heavy armor.  Maybe some they cause damage to the biter when biting. Maybe advantage to escaping from being swallowed.  All seem like good things for a small humanoid to have. Depends on how far you take it. Would you include resistance to fire damage, for example? Longer reach? More movement?  Lighter color is just flavor. If you don't like a big, thick, fat tail, what about one that looks normal but fans out at the end. I.e. the shade-giving varient. Their ancestors evolved them for shade, but the their culture has developed a fighting skill that allows them to use it as a shield, increasing armor class as if they had a sheiled, even when using a two-handed weapon. Maybe they have leather armor or special metal plates they developed protect the tail when used as a shield in combat. You could give them a venomous bit, but that's not particularly unique.  Maybe they can use a bonus action to squirt blood from their eyes, rolling attack with dex bonus to hit. Any creature hit with the blood has disadvantage on attacks and disadvantage on any dex saves for the next round. Desert camoflauge. Could also be helpful in old ruins and dungeons with stone floors and walls. (Feels like I'm pushing it with this one). Digging. Give them an underground move rate for digging in dry or loose soil. With the right conditions could help with digging under gates, quickly creating pit traps, etc. Infrared sensing. The kobold hat pit organs that that give the kobold ability to sense infrared thermal radiation. Can detect warm bodies within 10'  Even with the blinded condition, the kobold can attack a nearby creatures vulnerable body parts. It suffers no disadvantage on attack rolls and enemies have not advantage on attack rolls when the kobold is blinded, but it still automatically fails any ability check that requires sight. I think there would need to be a lot of DM adjudication with this one. really depends on how "sight" is used in spells and the likes, because it can "see" warm bodies within range (10'). Many desert animals have adaptions to keep sand out of eyes, ears, and nose. Some can close their noses and ears, along with their eyes. Some have hairs to filter out sand.  This along with infrared sensing cold allow the kobold to chase and attack or avoid prey even if dust is kicked up, help them get through poison gas clouds, etc. You could give limited regeneration of fingers, toes, and tail, but I can't remember the last game where party members lost a finger for example.</blockquote>

Verification