Kobolds

Kobolds are

  • canines

    Votes: 40 13.7%
  • reptiles

    Votes: 140 47.9%
  • a subrace of dragon

    Votes: 70 24.0%
  • something else entirely

    Votes: 42 14.4%

kobold.gif


Whatever that is.
 

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I voted reptile-like, but IMC some tribes might have distant dragon ancestory. However, this is no different than some humans having distant dragon ancestory, really. Most coulnd't proove it, but the kobold sorcerers will tout their dragon heritage to anyone who will listen to a kobold. They're usually quite wrong. Poor kobolds.
 


Since people are talking about kobolds in their settings, on Dragon Earth kobolds are descended from rhesus macaques from southern India. To further confuse matters, they get along famously with gnomes.

I do know an Aussie who made his kobolds klingons. Part of the SSGCLA (Slavic Small Giant Class Liberation Army). He also had dragons with howdahs running around. (Long story.)

As to therapsids etc.: Last I heard therapsids et al weren't even reptiles. Heck, the first reptiles weren't even reptiles. The progression now is: Amniotes (first animals to produce egg shells) from which first the synapsids and then the diapsids (modern reptiles and crocodilians) split off. The synapsids gave rise to first the pelycosaurs, then the therapsids proper. From the therapsids you get the proto-mammals and then mammals themselves.

As far as I can tell it would appear that turtles aren't proper reptiles. That designation is reserved for lizards, snakes, and mosasaurs these days. Other former reptiles include thecodonts, pterosaurs, pterodactyls, crocodilians, saurisuchians, and ornitheschians. Aves is incorporated into the saurisuchians nowadays.

This schema is subject to change without notice.
 

As to therapsids etc.: Last I heard therapsids et al weren't even reptiles. Heck, the first reptiles weren't even reptiles. The progression now is: Amniotes (first animals to produce egg shells) from which first the synapsids and then the diapsids (modern reptiles and crocodilians) split off. The synapsids gave rise to first the pelycosaurs, then the therapsids proper. From the therapsids you get the proto-mammals and then mammals themselves.

*nod* Right. Exactly - one of the mid steps between reptiles and mammals.
 


Imc...

Neither dog nor reptiles. They are warm blooded and nurse their young, but their young are hatched from eggs. Their skin is made from microfine scales but feels as soft as leather. Their diet consists almost entirely of insects, grubs, and snails. They do bark when excited and tug their tails when nervous.

Klaus actually gets pretty close to my mind's eye with his sorcerer and his modern kobold. Most of the 3.5 art has them way too thin.

Best ever kobold art is in the Al-Qadim main book with the Kobold thief wearing a fez and being surprised as he breaks into a chest.
 


They were originally reptilian, before the dragons tried to adapt them into a servitor race, including selectively breeding with them to make them more intelligent and useful.

The common Kobolds are descendants of the tribes controlled by the chromatic dragons-- Kobolds manifest a connection to one of the chromatic bloodlines seemingly at random. (Sorcerors in my games are heavily influenced by their draconic ancestry. Since Kobolds have Sorceror as a Favored Class...) There are long-lost tribes of Kobolds who manifest metallic features instead, and are Lawful Good in alignment. (Kobolds are Lawful regardless of their specific draconic features.)

In my games, Kobolds are more than the vermin of the humanoid world-- they're the Jawas, the dark reflection of the Gnomes. They have the same drive to tinker as the Gnomes, but they're more larcenous and more vindictive in their inventions. They're fiendishly intelligent and crafty, and they can take advantage of the fact that other races treat them as harmless. (I tend to take an Eberronian approach to humanoids, with cosmopolitan communities and relations based more on politics than race.)

In Galactic Planescape (a combination of Planescape and the Star*Drive setting), I treat Kobolds and T'sa as very close relations and make Draconic and T'sa equivalent languages.
 

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