Jack Daniel
Legend
Presented here is the "goblin" entry for my campaign. I use a very Tolkienesque lineup for the servants of the Shadow. None of this "orcs are their own separate race" crap. None of this "kobolds are yappy little lizards" trash. And if you're wondering what a lutin or a trow is, learn your French and German mythology. Incidentally, those of who you don’t care for good-aligned surface drow may find the older legend of trow to be more to your liking: trow, like Tolkien’s trolls, turn to stone in sunlight! Oh, and bonus experience points to anyone who can guess what inspired the flavor text for my kobolds!
Note: My house rules track hit points more like Star Wars than D&D, so you can pretty much ignore the fp/hp entry unless you know what it means. Likewise for armor protection.
Lutin
Lutins are impish, forest- and cave-dwelling goblins who would lead rather harmless existences, if it weren't for the fact that their favorite pastime is playing violent, even lethal pranks on hapless passersby. Characterized by large, halfling-like eyes and sweeping pointed ears set on ugly, goblinoid heads, lutins are not at all pleasant to look upon. They have long, clever fingers affixed to long, shambling arms that hang almost to the ground. Most are skinny to the point of being waifish, like a halfling who missed one too many elevensies... and then had unspeakable tortures inflicted upon it.
Lutins speak the language common to whatever forest or cave they haunt, but with a chattering, hissing, and altogether repetitious speech impediment.
Darkvision: Lutins have 60-foot darkvision.
Light-sensitive (Ex): Lutins suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Skills: Lutins receive at +4 bonus to Move Silently and Swim.
Other Traits: Lutins recive a +1 bonus to hit halflings, who they hate irrationally.
Combat: Lutins don’t engage in combat, if they can avoid it. They much prefer to sneak up on their victims from behind, and strangle the life out of them.
Society: Lutins are typically solitary creatures, inhabiting underground caverns with lakes or forgotten corners of dark forest ponds. When they do band together, it is usually to form waylaying parties to attack forest travelers.
Characters: A lutin’s favored class is rogue. The leader of a lutin band is typically a rogue or fighter/rogue.
Kobold
The kobolds are a (mostly) organized race of (mostly) intelligent goblins who detest all who live on the surface. The kobolds inhabit the deepest tunnels, slaving away for their rulers to dig up precious gems and metals; their kings, meanwhile, prefer to amuse themselves by taking these raw materials and turning them into magical trinkets. Each and every kobold firmly believes that they are the rightful owners of all the gems, metals, and other products of the earth, and that men, dwarves, and gnomes who would mine them first are the most wretched sort of thief. Kobolds resemble odd, round-bodied gnomes with spindly, thin limbs and skin the color of gray granite. Kobolds look so much like rock, in fact, that they are barely distinguishable from the walls of their own tunnels.
Kobolds speak their own language, though their wizard-kings typically make it a note to learn the languages of the “vile surface-worlders” above them.
Darkvision: Kobolds have 120-foot darkvision.
Light-blindness (Ex): Kobolds are blinded for 1 round by abrupt exposure to bright light. In addition, they suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls in bright conditions.
Skills: Kobolds receive a +2 bonus to Listen and Hide checks. Their Hide bonus improves to +4 in dark, underground areas. Kobolds have the same Stonecutting bonuses dwarves receive.
Other Traits: Kobolds get a +2 racial bonus to all saving throws, spell resistance of 11 + their character level, a +1 bonus to attack gnomes (their eternal mortal enemies), and a +4 dodge bonus against any surface-dwelling creature.
Spell-Like Abilities: Kobolds can cast blindness, blur, and change self once per day each.
Nondetection (Su): Kobolds have a continuous nondetection ability, as the spell.
Combat: As a rule, kobolds are extremely militant. When encountered, most adventurers will either run into a group of miners trying not to be noticed, or a military patrol that will likely attack on sight. Kobolds will make full use of their ability to go practically unseen while underground, springing ambushes in likely caverns and ravines.
Soceity: Kobold society is a rigid magocracy, where those with the intelligence to become wizards sit on top of the rock-heap. Most kobold kings keep very large standing armies, often to the exclusion of the lowest-class kobolds, the miners.
Characters: A kobold’s favored class is transmuter; almost all kobold leaders are single-classed transmuters.
Orc
Orcs are by far the most common of the goblin races. They are so common, in fact, that humans and halflings tend to refer to them as “goblins;” only members of the elder races, and rangers who know better, are wont to make the proper distinction. In the darkest reaches of prehistory, the orcs were elves once, twisted into their present horrid forms by torture at the hands of pure evil incarnate. Orcs tend to be less intelligent than other goblins, characteristically violent and aggressive, even amongst one-another. They cannot be said to have proper tribes or chiefdoms; the rate at which they breed makes “swarm” a more appropriate term to describe a unit of orcish society.
Darkvision: Orcs have 60-foot darkvision.
Light-sensitive (Ex): Orcs suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Other traits: Orcs receive a +1 bonus to hit their racial enemies, the elves. When riding atop their allies, the worgs, they recive a +6 bonus to Ride checks. Finally, orcs receive a +4 racial bonus to Move Silently and Climb checks.
Combat: Orcs prefer to use their superior numbers to overwhelm their adversaries. They tend not to have much of a mind for tactics, unless organized by a more intelligent force. They are a favorite troop of evil mages, given their fast birthrates, innate strength, natural cruelty, and of course, their obvious expendability.
Society: When not conscripted into the service of a Dark Lord or an Evil Boss or a Big Giant Head, orcs inhabit caves and tunnels under the earth in more or less a state of anarchy, with the strongest orcs forming chiefdoms that eventually give way to tribes if they last long enough, without another war diminishing their numbers.
Characters: Orcs favor the fighter class. Most orc leaders are fighters.
Trow
The trow are said to share a common ancestor with dwarves, who they constantly war with from the deepest caverns. In perhaps the best explanation for why dwarves don’t overly care for elves, their true racial enemy, the trows, look like ugly, dwarf-sized elves with night-black skin and shocks of tufted hair. It is said that these most dangerous of goblins descended from the dwarves, tempted into the depths of the world by their greed as they searched for ever more precious treasures. In the end their avarice cursed them with forms more hideous and misshapen than any dwarf, and a deep aversion to the world above, so strong that they can only venture onto the surface at night. This doesn’t happen often of course, and most humans hardly believe the trow exist as anything more than a story to frighten their children.
Darkvision: Trow have 120-foot darkvision.
Light-vulnerable: Any exposure to bright light blinds a trow for 1 round, and they suffer a -1 penalty to all attack rolls made in bright conditions. Even momentary exposure to natural sunlight is all that is required to turn a trow into a stone statue for eternity (only a wish or miracle can revive a sun-stoned trow).
Other Traits: Trow have spell resistance of 11 + their level, immunity to sleep, a +2 bonus to all saving throws, and a +1 bonus to hit their racial enemies, the dwarves.
Spell-Like Abilities: Once per day each, dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire.
Combat: Trow use stealth whenever they can in a fight, something they’ve learned from their competition with kobolds in mining for gems and metal. Most trow favor the elegant swords and axes that they expertly craft, though many would just as soon tear a foe limb from limb with their bare hands.
Soceity: Trow don’t have much of a society to speak of; they are among the more savage and degenerate of goblins. About all they do well is mine and work metal, something they seem to have retained from their dwarvish ancestors. Trow who display a talent for evil sorcery are the most likely to achieve some sort of status among their peers, though the trow are just as likely to award a chiefdom to a warrior who has braved the surface and returned with a few human or dwarven body parts as trophies.
Characters: A trow’s favored class is sorcerer. Most trow leaders are sorcerers or fighter/sorcerers.
Uruks and Ologs
These two “demigoblin” races were created through evil sorcery and blending of orc blood with that of men and ogres, respectively. Unlike half-orcs, which are the actual hybrid of a human and an orc, the uruks (and ologs) were bred to be soldiers, and unlike orcs, they can withstand the sunlight. Uruks are strong fighters with a militant edge; ologs take after their ogrish ancestry, and remain savage and undisciplined, relying on their great strength and bulk in a fight.
The terms “uruk” and “olog” are thought to be dwarvish in nature, and are really only used by dwarves, elves, gnomes, and rangers who hunt goblins. Most humans and halflings know these creatures as “hobgoblins” and “bugbears.”
Darkvision: Uruks and ologs have 60-foot darkvision.
Skills: Uruks and ologs receive a +4 racial bonus to Move Silently checks.
Combat: Uruks and ologs are used to make up the bulk of an evil army’s elite troops. Uruks are masters of combat tactics, and make no mean foemen on the battlefield. Ologs are typically set loose in a melee and told to smash this, bash that. And they’re good at it, too.
Society: Outside of Big Bad Evil Armies, uruks and ologs tend to degenerate into normal orcs. They typically rejoin the orcish tribes and head underground, where their superior intelligence or strength may be all they need to lead the comparatively comfortable life of an orc chieftain.
Characters: An uruk’s favored class is fighter; ologs take after their ogre heritage and favor the berskerer. Uruk and olog leaders are typically fighters and berserkers (called uruk-hai and olog-hai respectively).
Note: My house rules track hit points more like Star Wars than D&D, so you can pretty much ignore the fp/hp entry unless you know what it means. Likewise for armor protection.
Code:
[color=silver]Goblin
Lutin Kobold
Small Humanoid (Goblin) Small Humanoid (Goblin)
Level: 1 1
FP/HP: 4/11 5/12
Initiative: +1 (Dex) ±0
Speed: 20 ft. 20 ft.
AC: 15 (+1 size, +1 Dex, +3 studded leather) 16 (+1 size, +4 chain shirt, +1 small shield)
Attacks: Morningstar +1 melee; or dart +3 ranged Short sword +2 melee; or light crossbow +2 ranged
Damage: Morningstar 1d8-1; or dart 1d4-1 Short sword 1d6-1; or light crossbow 1d8
Protection: Studded leather 1d4 (2) Chain shirt 1d4 (2)
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft. 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60', Light Sensitivity Kobold traits
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +1, Will ±0 Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +2
Abilities: Str 8, Dex 13, Con 11, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8 Str 8, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 11
Skills: Hide +6, Listen +3, Move Silently +4, Spot +3 Listen +4, Spot +2
Feats: Alertness Weapon Focus (short sword)
Climate/Terrain: Any forest and underground Any underground
Challenge Rating: 1/4 1
Treasure: Standard Standard
Alignment: Usually chaotic evil Usually lawful evil
Advancement: By character class By character class
-
Orc Trow
Medium-size Humanoid (Goblin) Medium-size Humanoid (Goblin)
Level: 1 1
FP/HP: 4/11 3/8
Initiative: ±0 +1 (Dex)
Speed: 20 ft. (scale mail); base 30 ft. 30 ft.
AC: 14 (+4 scale mail) 15 (+1 Dex, +3 studded leather, +1 small shield)
Attacks: Scimitar +3 melee; or javelin +1 ranged Longsword +1 melee; or longbow +2 ranged
Damage: Scimitar 1d6+2; or javelin 1d6+ Longsword 1d8; or longbow 1d8
Protection: Scale mail 1d6 (3) Studded leather 1d4 (2)
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft. 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60', Light Sensitivity Trow traits
Saves: Fort +2, Ref ±0, Will -1 Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +2
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 10, Con 11, Int 9, Wis 8, Cha 8 Str 10, Dex 13, Con 8, Int 11, Wis 11, Cha 11
Skills: Listen +2, Spot +2 Hide +3, Listen +5, Search +3, Spot +2
Feats: Alertness Weapon Focus (longbow)
Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground Any underground
Challenge Rating: 1/2 1
Treasure: Standard Standard
Alignment: Usually chaotic evil Usually neutral evil
Advancement: By character class By character class
-
Uruk Olog
Medium-size Humanoid (Goblin) Medium-size Humanoid (Goblin)
Level: 1 3
FP/HP: 5/13 16/13
Initiative: +1 (Dex) +1 (Dex)
Speed: 30 ft. 30 ft.
AC: 15 (+1 Dex, +3 studded leather, +1 small shield) 17 (+1 Dex, +3 natural, +2 leather, +1 small shield)
Attacks: Longsword +2 melee; or javelin +2 ranged Morningstar +4 melee; or javelin +3 ranged
Damage: Longsword 1d8; or javelin 1d6 Morningstar 1d8+2; or javelin 1d6+2
Protection: Studded leather 1d4 (2) Leather 1d2 (1)
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft. 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60' Darkvision 60'
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +1, Will ±0 Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +1
Abilities: Str 11, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10 Str 15, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 9
Skills: Hide +1, Listen +3, Move Silently +3, Spot +3 Climb +2, Hide +3, Listen +3, Move Silently +6, Spot +3
Feats: Weapon Focus (longsword) Alertness
Climate/Terrain: Any underground Any underground
Challenge Rating: 1/2 2
Treasure: Standard Standard
Alignment: Usually lawful evil Usually chaotic evil
Advancement: By character class By character class[/color]Lutins are impish, forest- and cave-dwelling goblins who would lead rather harmless existences, if it weren't for the fact that their favorite pastime is playing violent, even lethal pranks on hapless passersby. Characterized by large, halfling-like eyes and sweeping pointed ears set on ugly, goblinoid heads, lutins are not at all pleasant to look upon. They have long, clever fingers affixed to long, shambling arms that hang almost to the ground. Most are skinny to the point of being waifish, like a halfling who missed one too many elevensies... and then had unspeakable tortures inflicted upon it.
Lutins speak the language common to whatever forest or cave they haunt, but with a chattering, hissing, and altogether repetitious speech impediment.
Darkvision: Lutins have 60-foot darkvision.
Light-sensitive (Ex): Lutins suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Skills: Lutins receive at +4 bonus to Move Silently and Swim.
Other Traits: Lutins recive a +1 bonus to hit halflings, who they hate irrationally.
Combat: Lutins don’t engage in combat, if they can avoid it. They much prefer to sneak up on their victims from behind, and strangle the life out of them.
Society: Lutins are typically solitary creatures, inhabiting underground caverns with lakes or forgotten corners of dark forest ponds. When they do band together, it is usually to form waylaying parties to attack forest travelers.
Characters: A lutin’s favored class is rogue. The leader of a lutin band is typically a rogue or fighter/rogue.
Kobold
The kobolds are a (mostly) organized race of (mostly) intelligent goblins who detest all who live on the surface. The kobolds inhabit the deepest tunnels, slaving away for their rulers to dig up precious gems and metals; their kings, meanwhile, prefer to amuse themselves by taking these raw materials and turning them into magical trinkets. Each and every kobold firmly believes that they are the rightful owners of all the gems, metals, and other products of the earth, and that men, dwarves, and gnomes who would mine them first are the most wretched sort of thief. Kobolds resemble odd, round-bodied gnomes with spindly, thin limbs and skin the color of gray granite. Kobolds look so much like rock, in fact, that they are barely distinguishable from the walls of their own tunnels.
Kobolds speak their own language, though their wizard-kings typically make it a note to learn the languages of the “vile surface-worlders” above them.
Darkvision: Kobolds have 120-foot darkvision.
Light-blindness (Ex): Kobolds are blinded for 1 round by abrupt exposure to bright light. In addition, they suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls in bright conditions.
Skills: Kobolds receive a +2 bonus to Listen and Hide checks. Their Hide bonus improves to +4 in dark, underground areas. Kobolds have the same Stonecutting bonuses dwarves receive.
Other Traits: Kobolds get a +2 racial bonus to all saving throws, spell resistance of 11 + their character level, a +1 bonus to attack gnomes (their eternal mortal enemies), and a +4 dodge bonus against any surface-dwelling creature.
Spell-Like Abilities: Kobolds can cast blindness, blur, and change self once per day each.
Nondetection (Su): Kobolds have a continuous nondetection ability, as the spell.
Combat: As a rule, kobolds are extremely militant. When encountered, most adventurers will either run into a group of miners trying not to be noticed, or a military patrol that will likely attack on sight. Kobolds will make full use of their ability to go practically unseen while underground, springing ambushes in likely caverns and ravines.
Soceity: Kobold society is a rigid magocracy, where those with the intelligence to become wizards sit on top of the rock-heap. Most kobold kings keep very large standing armies, often to the exclusion of the lowest-class kobolds, the miners.
Characters: A kobold’s favored class is transmuter; almost all kobold leaders are single-classed transmuters.
Orc
Orcs are by far the most common of the goblin races. They are so common, in fact, that humans and halflings tend to refer to them as “goblins;” only members of the elder races, and rangers who know better, are wont to make the proper distinction. In the darkest reaches of prehistory, the orcs were elves once, twisted into their present horrid forms by torture at the hands of pure evil incarnate. Orcs tend to be less intelligent than other goblins, characteristically violent and aggressive, even amongst one-another. They cannot be said to have proper tribes or chiefdoms; the rate at which they breed makes “swarm” a more appropriate term to describe a unit of orcish society.
Darkvision: Orcs have 60-foot darkvision.
Light-sensitive (Ex): Orcs suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Other traits: Orcs receive a +1 bonus to hit their racial enemies, the elves. When riding atop their allies, the worgs, they recive a +6 bonus to Ride checks. Finally, orcs receive a +4 racial bonus to Move Silently and Climb checks.
Combat: Orcs prefer to use their superior numbers to overwhelm their adversaries. They tend not to have much of a mind for tactics, unless organized by a more intelligent force. They are a favorite troop of evil mages, given their fast birthrates, innate strength, natural cruelty, and of course, their obvious expendability.
Society: When not conscripted into the service of a Dark Lord or an Evil Boss or a Big Giant Head, orcs inhabit caves and tunnels under the earth in more or less a state of anarchy, with the strongest orcs forming chiefdoms that eventually give way to tribes if they last long enough, without another war diminishing their numbers.
Characters: Orcs favor the fighter class. Most orc leaders are fighters.
Trow
The trow are said to share a common ancestor with dwarves, who they constantly war with from the deepest caverns. In perhaps the best explanation for why dwarves don’t overly care for elves, their true racial enemy, the trows, look like ugly, dwarf-sized elves with night-black skin and shocks of tufted hair. It is said that these most dangerous of goblins descended from the dwarves, tempted into the depths of the world by their greed as they searched for ever more precious treasures. In the end their avarice cursed them with forms more hideous and misshapen than any dwarf, and a deep aversion to the world above, so strong that they can only venture onto the surface at night. This doesn’t happen often of course, and most humans hardly believe the trow exist as anything more than a story to frighten their children.
Darkvision: Trow have 120-foot darkvision.
Light-vulnerable: Any exposure to bright light blinds a trow for 1 round, and they suffer a -1 penalty to all attack rolls made in bright conditions. Even momentary exposure to natural sunlight is all that is required to turn a trow into a stone statue for eternity (only a wish or miracle can revive a sun-stoned trow).
Other Traits: Trow have spell resistance of 11 + their level, immunity to sleep, a +2 bonus to all saving throws, and a +1 bonus to hit their racial enemies, the dwarves.
Spell-Like Abilities: Once per day each, dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire.
Combat: Trow use stealth whenever they can in a fight, something they’ve learned from their competition with kobolds in mining for gems and metal. Most trow favor the elegant swords and axes that they expertly craft, though many would just as soon tear a foe limb from limb with their bare hands.
Soceity: Trow don’t have much of a society to speak of; they are among the more savage and degenerate of goblins. About all they do well is mine and work metal, something they seem to have retained from their dwarvish ancestors. Trow who display a talent for evil sorcery are the most likely to achieve some sort of status among their peers, though the trow are just as likely to award a chiefdom to a warrior who has braved the surface and returned with a few human or dwarven body parts as trophies.
Characters: A trow’s favored class is sorcerer. Most trow leaders are sorcerers or fighter/sorcerers.
Uruks and Ologs
These two “demigoblin” races were created through evil sorcery and blending of orc blood with that of men and ogres, respectively. Unlike half-orcs, which are the actual hybrid of a human and an orc, the uruks (and ologs) were bred to be soldiers, and unlike orcs, they can withstand the sunlight. Uruks are strong fighters with a militant edge; ologs take after their ogrish ancestry, and remain savage and undisciplined, relying on their great strength and bulk in a fight.
The terms “uruk” and “olog” are thought to be dwarvish in nature, and are really only used by dwarves, elves, gnomes, and rangers who hunt goblins. Most humans and halflings know these creatures as “hobgoblins” and “bugbears.”
Darkvision: Uruks and ologs have 60-foot darkvision.
Skills: Uruks and ologs receive a +4 racial bonus to Move Silently checks.
Combat: Uruks and ologs are used to make up the bulk of an evil army’s elite troops. Uruks are masters of combat tactics, and make no mean foemen on the battlefield. Ologs are typically set loose in a melee and told to smash this, bash that. And they’re good at it, too.
Society: Outside of Big Bad Evil Armies, uruks and ologs tend to degenerate into normal orcs. They typically rejoin the orcish tribes and head underground, where their superior intelligence or strength may be all they need to lead the comparatively comfortable life of an orc chieftain.
Characters: An uruk’s favored class is fighter; ologs take after their ogre heritage and favor the berskerer. Uruk and olog leaders are typically fighters and berserkers (called uruk-hai and olog-hai respectively).
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