Making Kobolds powerful

[Particle_Man]

I played a gnome of str 2 once. When the party discovered an ioun stone that let one go without eating or drinking, others did not care, but I was overjoyed that I no longer had that particular encumbrance problem.

And one set of clothing is always free of encumbrance. Might as well be styling with the explorer's outfit.

 

[Knight Otu]

-4 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Con
(odd, their "average" scores does not bear this out)

That's because they actually use the non-elite stat array instead of the average stat array.

The kobold warrior presented here had the following ability scores before racial adjustments: Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8.

To play into their favored class and the dragonkin idea, you could give kobolds a +2 Charisma. Before the revised edition gave them (in my mind, rightfully) the -2 Constitution, they were pretty much on par with other PC races, so if you think the -2 Con hurts too much, that could also go away.

The fighter idea, however, I do not like. It goes against the D&D vision of kobolds of sneaky little "nuisances". Ranger might work, though.

 

[Knight Otu]

And one set of clothing is always free of encumbrance. Might as well be styling with the explorer's outfit.

I've heard that a few times now, and I have had no luck finding it in the SRD so far. Can you give me a pointer which file I need to look in?

 

[the Jester]

Strength 1? Loincloth means medium encumbrance ?

He typically wears clothes and carries a crossbow and that's it. Everything else is on Ethel, his riding dog.

 

[Particle_Man]

I've heard that a few times now, and I have had no luck finding it in the SRD so far. Can you give me a pointer which file I need to look in?

I am not sure if it is in the SRD, but I think it is under Equipment, Clothing in the phb.

 

[Knight Otu]

I am not sure if it is in the SRD, but I think it is under Equipment, Clothing in the phb.

Thanks, it's definitely not in the SRD.
And sorry about the hijack!

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I've got some ideas for a campaign, and one of them is to make some viable pc races out of LA+0 monster races. The kobolds seemed a bit weak, but I think I found a way to make them better, without modifying them too much, and also solving another problem I had.

a) Make kobold's favored class = fighter. (Wait! Read the rest first!)
b) Make kobolds the only race that can take fighter as a class. Other races can be warriors.
c) Prohibit members of other races from taking any feats on the fighter bonus feat list as feats. Note: kobolds can take fighter feats either as fighter class bonus feats (if they are fighters) or in their general feat slots. Exception: classes that grant bonus feats that are on the fighter list still grant those bonus feats to non-kobolds of those classes.

This would hopefully make kobolds more attractive, without making the game dominated by fighters. (Oh, I make barbarians both orc-only and NPC-only).

I do other weird things too, but I just wanted to see if this would make kobolds more viable. I just liked the idea of making a race more powerful by taking power from all other races.

Is this the right forum for this stuff?

I hope you're joking. This seems to be a poorly thought through idea heard. What if my barbarian wanted to take power attack? Or my ranger wants to fight two weaponed or take point blank shot?



Somebody back me up so I don't seem like a jerk.

 

[Nifft]

Somebody back me up so I don't seem like a jerk.

Hear, hear! Aust is not a jerk!

If you want more interesting Kobolds, take a peek at my version -- they're more dragon/sorcerer/rogue-flavored than fighter-flavored.



Kobold

Small size (+1 Attack & AC, +4 Hide checks, 75% carrying capacity)
Base Speed 30 ft.
Str -4, Dex +2
+2 Racial bonus on Climb, Jump, Move Silently, Spot, Search, Craft (Trapmaking), and Profession (Miner) checks. Natural Armor bonus +1.
Daylight Blindness: Dazzled by Daylight spell or natural sunlight, no save vs. Flare spell.
Darkvision 60 ft.
Draconic Heritage (Ex): Choose one chromatic Dragon type, which is your ancestor. Your scales are tinged with this color, and you have Energy Resistance 5 against damage of one energy type:
* Red: Fire
* Green: Acid
* Blue: Electricity
* Black: Acid
* White: Cold

Favored Class: Sorcerer

Special : A kobold may take levels in a racial prestige class. (As a Prestige Class, these levels cannot cause a multiclassing XP penalty.)

Racial PrCs are here: http://klimt.cns.nyu.edu/~fishman/DnD/DHE/prc.shtml#kobold

-- N

 

[Particle_Man]

I hope you're joking. This seems to be a poorly thought through idea heard. What if my barbarian wanted to take power attack? Or my ranger wants to fight two weaponed or take point blank shot?

Somebody back me up so I don't seem like a jerk.

You are not a jerk. I am using the kobold in a certain homebrew, the context of which is described in a link above, and which might make the whole thing make more sense. The short version is, the ranger (and monk) get to use class abilities that give them fighter feats, but can't take fighter feats otherwise. Also, my homebrew is designed specifically to tone down the fighter (and barbarian), and to tone up the kobold, and my idea was to kill two birds with one stone (I played AD&D so the idea of restricting classes to certain races is not new to me, although before it usually was humans that got the benefits of class exclusivity). In fact, I make the barbarians the NPC orc bad guys (as in, all barbarians have to be npc orcs) so players have to be non-barbarians. I borrow other classes from Complete Warrior, Complete Divine, and XPH to fill in some gaps. Maybe this makes more sense in the context of the 9 God world I developed. Certainly, my kobold is not for all campaigns.