Springing surprise tricks in the game.

[Coredump]

Kobolds with grapple checks? That's a foolish tactic, not a good one. Half of them are going to die from the attacks of opportunity, and kobolds are weak and small, together making grappling pretty much suicidal.

And players like you are what make kobolds so much fun for Dm's like me.

A kobold has a grapple check of -4, lets say a 4th lvl fighter has one of +8. And a 4th lvl wizard has one of +3.
They only get one AoO.
And a human can get grappled by up to 8 kobolds. Sure the fighter has a +12. But can you miss one of those? What about the wizard? Or the halfling thief with only +0 (+4 net).
And don't forget Aid Other. Other kobolds can (DC 10) help out to greatly increase those odds.

I would overwhelm a couple/three of the party, and then leave 2-3 each to keep them grappled, and have 2-3 each stabbing them. And just keep fighting the fighting types until the small/weak ones were dead.

Now, from the story, not sure what level the party was, or how many PC/Kobolds there were. But given enough kobolds, they can cause almost any party fits.

(Actually, they will probably have an easier time doing an overrun. Now isn't that embarrasing for the fighter. "I got overrun by a kobold")

 

[shilsen]

And players like you are what make kobolds so much fun for Dm's like me.

A kobold has a grapple check of -4, lets say a 4th lvl fighter has one of +8. And a 4th lvl wizard has one of +3.
They only get one AoO.
And a human can get grappled by up to 8 kobolds. Sure the fighter has a +12. But can you miss one of those? What about the wizard? Or the halfling thief with only +0 (+4 net).
And don't forget Aid Other. Other kobolds can (DC 10) help out to greatly increase those odds.

I would overwhelm a couple/three of the party, and then leave 2-3 each to keep them grappled, and have 2-3 each stabbing them. And just keep fighting the fighting types until the small/weak ones were dead.

Now, from the story, not sure what level the party was, or how many PC/Kobolds there were. But given enough kobolds, they can cause almost any party fits.

(Actually, they will probably have an easier time doing an overrun. Now isn't that embarrasing for the fighter. "I got overrun by a kobold")

Thank you. Couldn't have said it better myself. In the original story the party was 5th lvl and had a hell of a time with the kobolds (which were an EL5 encounter, IIRC ). And it worked almost exactly as you described, with a few kobolds getting killed, the rest swarming over the PCs, with some grabbing them and others stabbing the grappled PCs.

And I haven't even mentioned what happened when the trio of kobolds appeared ona ledge above the PCs, armed with vials of alchemist's fire (I think that's the fight which taught the PCs what touch AC is all about).

Or when the PCs charged the rough stone barricade the kobolds were behind, only to discover that there were concealed pit traps in front of it. And when the druid's animal companions fell in, the kobolds pushed in the stone wall on top of him

Man, I love kobolds!

 

[BSF]

OK, I will toss a story on the fire.

1st Ed - one of my compatriots is playing a Druid. We are trying to do a little scouting and she is checking out the marsh while shaped as a snake. The DM has a giant toad encounter that quickly swallows the snake. We all laugh a little bit then the Druid player declares that her character is going to turn into a bear.

It was a little messy when the larger form of the bear exploded from out of the toad.