D&D 5E Making a Kobold Barbarian!

gyor

Legend
I'd suggest Beast Master Ranger, with a Mastiff companion, you can ride him like mount and give each other advantage on attacks because you both have pack tactics!

Kobolds fit Beast Masters unusually well and it fits thematically because Kobolds like like using pets to make up for their weaknesses.
 

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Mike Cavanaugh

First Post
Dump strength. I know what you're thinking. BLASPHEMY.

As soon as you get into the game, set yourself upon finding a belt of giant strength, and then when you find it, obsess over finding a better one.

Problems solved.

To do this, just find and attack the biggest things you can find looking for strength. The belts are all from giants - take giant as a language. Ogres, namely Oni's, would be especially adept at procuring vital parts for such an item. Be relentless.

To aid in this, be weak. Be feeble. Use Cower and Beg from the kobold list. Make it "a thing". BE the kobold barbarian whose dream is to be strong - whose scurrying, feeble race can't pickup greatswords, that halberds are too big for. This will be hard, because you will be weak, but play out that frustration. BE FRUSTRATED. RAGE. Sooner or later your DM will cave, or you will have just done so much to get that damned belt you can just have one enchanted for you. It'll be a long, slow trek. BUT IT'LL BE WORTH IT.

Until then, suffer under using Dexterity VS Strength. Focus on Finesse weapons. Whips, Shortswords, Scimitar's, Rapier's, Daggers and Darts. Bring plenty of Daggers (DM's will call you on being a small creature with 15 javelins on you) because you need to make an attack to keep your rage going. It doesn't distinguish it need be a melee or strength attack, so daggers will do just fine.

You will lose your Rage damage, but negotiating with your DM to get this on Dexterity based checks isn't a hard sell. It'll require training in game - probably with monks to fuel rage into dexterity, then flavor it as you balancing your rage with your acrobatics. It's definitely the biggest loss, because you lose that +2 to +4 (equal to a 1d4 or 1d8 extra damage). Your rage will become, mainly, a means of getting resistances - for pure defense. It'll also give you advantage on strength checks, which will offset how feeble weak you are.

Shield Master, Dual Wielding, Sentinel are great choices. Defensive Duelist will make you a bruiser in a melee fight.

Your AC will be quite high if you punch Dex and Con, due to unarmored defense, and you will block like a boss even at level 1.

Now, the belt of Giant Strength will ultimately render your level 20 / level 18 barbarian abilities largely moot. To fix this, I would recommend multiclassing 1-2 levels in another class to shore up your skills. You can wait until the very end if you like, but you can squeeze 3 levels in and only lose 1 ability score (which you won't need), indomitable might and primal champion. Losing Primal Champion sucks, but defensive duelist makes it moot as you can pump your AC anyway. The strength bust won't matter, because your belt does that anyway if you keep improving it. Indomitable might (guaranteed 19 on a str roll) is great, but it's more fun to roleplay that little kobold occasionally getting suckered even WITH the belt on.

Instead, I would plan on multiclassing. Into what, and when, is up to you, but those last 3 levels of barbarian are pretty useless to you. Multiclassing early pushes your multiattack away, and starts messing with game balance - it might be best to wait until, say 11 in barbarian. But at some point you'll want to multiclass. Rogue seems an excellent choice, but I'd stay away - eventually you will have to decide between sneak attack and STR with the belt - and when you get that STR, you'll want to go back to STR weapons.

Fighter for 3 isn't bad, especially if you go Champion to get crits on 19. Given your reckless attack and brutal critical, you will be a crit-fishing champ. Literally. Action Surge + Second + Fighting Style will go a long way. Ranger's get Absorb Elements / Zephyr Strike which are great and their basic class abilities are a nice touch. Ranger, paladin, fighter.... these do all a little bit of overlap for you though, as the proficiencies you get some you already have, or will never use.

Sorcerer / Bard / Wizard could give you a lot of utility. You will have focused Con / Dex, but just choose buffs that don't rely on your spell save DC. Sorcerer subclasses don't have much for you, which is a pity, because their features are great. After getting your Belt suddenly dipping 3 levels of bard might calm your DM down when he looks at your ability scores.

Clerics are fun. Warding Bond on a barbarian is siiiick since the resistance is recalculated after you take damage. It takes a while to figure it all out, but barbarian resistances do work on damage transferred by warding bond (since all damage has a type) and it'll keep you protecting somebody, though AOE's are bad news for you (150% damage anyone?). Shield of Faith + Sanctuary have staggering implications for making you super annoying to deal with.

Warlock's are always a great dip, and Eldritch Blast is a ranged attack to keep your rage going - and you can do a blade pact. Gift of the Ever Loving Ones (max healing!) is a great one if you're playing with a cleric - but also can be used via potions.

Druid's are excellent - circle of land gives you access to a bunch of unusual spells, and wild shape has great utility even when you can only do minor creatures.

But regardless - you know the strat. GET THAT BELT.
 


Slit518

Adventurer
Hey there folks!

I'm currently trying to see if i can make something decent out of this character concept: a melee-focused kobold warrior.

I know it's probably not the finest choice for it, since kobolds get a strength penalty and only a +2 at dex, but they do have a nice advantage: Pack tactics. this basically make them almost always attack on advantage, as long as there's another ally close to the target.

So, i've been trying to figure out which melee class would be most viable, useful (to the group) and funnier to play with. The group consists of a paladin, a fighter, and 2 mages (plus my character). Our group is currently using ONLY the vanilla books, so please no fancy-smancy stuff! ... the GM was already kind enough to allow a kobold!

I've considered either a rogue, a fighter, or a barbarian... and i think the barbarian, specifically the wolf-totem barbarian, is the most useful one for the rest of the group, since it'd give allies that are close to me advantage in their attacks. Also, being a barbarian would make up for the lack of AC in the character, due to the nice HP and resistances while raging... however, it wouldn't be able to receive major aspects of the class, such as the bonus damage, since i wouldn't be using STR to make my attacks.

The character i've build is something like this:

Wolf-Totem Barbarian LVL 5

10 STR, 18 DEX, 14 CON, 10 INT, 14 WIS, 8 CHA

2+1 attacks (2x (rapier+dex bonus) + 1 Scimitar (offhand: 1d6) --> 20,5 avarage damage per turn

Hit: +7 bonus
AC: 17 (half-plate (15) + 2 DEX)

So i was thinking... in your guys' opinion, would it be better to drop the bonus attack and use a shield (increasing my AC to 19), or to stick with dual wielding, which would slightly increase the damage output? Or should i consider another class entirely?

I remember my first mini-barbarian. He was a halfling barbarian with 19 strength who broke himself out of prison. He used to grunt, growl, and foam at the mouth a lot. This is also 2nd edition D&D and I ignored race rules for this character concept. If I recall correctly he wielded a Warhammer.
 


CAFRedblade

Explorer
Whelp, thanks to this thread necromancy, I now have two ideas for Kobold characters. One is a Kobold necromancer, trying to find ways to resurrect his lost(massacred) tribe. And the second is a Kobold Monk who is looking for enlightenment in all the wrong places.
 

Eis

Explorer
all I can say is that I play as a dex based Halfling barbarian and I have a blast....even without kobold pack tactics
 

Mike Cavanaugh

First Post
You know after more than a year I'm sure they already made this character or moved on.

People get a lot out of these threads other than the poster. I came here after all this time thinking about the same construct looking to see what other's had said.

There's already new posts.

Working it out in my head and then on paper helped me figure out what I wanted to do. I'd been frustrated with the build issue, just because mentally I couldn't picture the character.

Now, the frustration of being "weak" is a primary motivator and suddenly the RP starts to make more sense. Endlessly searching for strength for a barbarian seems intuitive, but when you need to get that strength from external sources it makes it all the cooler. I also need to find something to make him "heavier" so he can push in his weight class - a unique item that'd have to be homebrewed. Don't want those grapple checks at disadvantage. Lead shoes?

That and I'm sitting on characters I made over a year ago that I never got to play. Sometimes you see new things and think, "someday, that'll be awesome". Also a lot of these rules go for any pint-sized barbarian. People find their way here. I did, after it was older than a year.

Also someone mentioned Race Rules and ignoring them. A lot of DM's will allow substitutions as long as you thematically stay your character, and accept the alternative class. For instance picking Dragonborne might thematically be just fine for a kobold, stats and abilities all. Another useful tactic.

Also an ad-popped up for something completed unrelated.

Becoming a werewolf solves all these problems, as you get a 15 strength free even if you never use your form. It isn't "great" but it's not a bad solution, though very DM dependent (the rules are very loose on being a werewolf).
 

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