The Slayers Guide to Hobgoblins

[Tuerny]

Originally appeared on www.AtFantasy.com

The Slayer's Guide to Hobgoblins, the first in Mongoose Publishing's Slayer series, is a sourcebook detailing hobgoblin society. It is designed to be easily insertable into most campaign settings. It retails at US $7.99.

Presentation
The Slayer's Guide to Hobgoblins is a thirty-two page, stapled booklet. The front inside cover has an anatomical drawing of a hobgoblin male. The back inside cover has a map of a hobgoblin fortress described within the Guide. The margins are one inch wide and are illustrated with alternating pictures of weapons hanging or leaning against a wall.


The cover illustration, by Anne Stokes, is a dark piece depicting a hobgoblin warrior standing at the crest of a hill with an army of hobgoblins gathered behind him. The interior artwork, by Chris Quilliams, Anne Stokes, and Nathan Webb, is composed of a number of pieces detailing hobgoblins and instruments of war.

Overview and Analysis
The Slayer's Guide to Hobgoblins is divided into twelve sections. They are the Introduction, Hobgoblin Physiology, Habitat, Hobgoblin Society, Methods of Warfare, Role-Playing with Hobgoblins, Scenario Hooks and Ideas, Hobgoblins as Player Characters, Graven Hill Fort, Hobgoblin Reference List, the Open Gaming License, and the d20 License.

The Introduction details the premise behind the Slayer's Guides. This includes a description of the depiction hobgoblins have received in previous works, an explanation of the premise behind the Slayer's Guides, and a summary of the contents of the book. On the facing page is a short piece of fiction that serves as an introduction to the potential of hobgoblins as dangerous foes. This section serves its purpose, as an introduction, well.

Hobgoblin Physiology, Habitat, Hobgoblin Society, and Methods of Warfare all discuss important facets of what a hobgoblin's life are like. The motivations and results of their combative tendencies serve as the focal point of this material. According to the Slayer's Guide it is the primary motivation of their entire culture, and everything else, their living habits, their relations with other races, their religion, and their government are centered on this. This focus makes sense considering the previous body of work that has been composed on hobgoblin, and will increase the ability to ease this into campaigns who do not deviated wildly from this standard depiction of hobgoblins. The section on religion is lacking considering the effect religion has on most cultures. Beyond this, the details provided are logical and internally consistent.

Roleplaying with Hobgoblins, Scenario Hooks and Ideas, and Hobgoblins as Player Characters have direct information on using hobgoblins in a campaign. It primarily stresses that hobgoblins are both intelligent and competent and should be dangerous when encountered in groups. The story hooks are mere examples of this, with the hobgoblin as player characters section highlighting these facets. The advice that is granted is good advice and the story hooks provide a series of adventure ideas that could be formed into a campaign with minimum difficulty. The hobgoblins as player characters section provides a slightly unbalanced depiction of the hobgoblin as PCs. The hobgoblin attribute modifiers are +1, allowing for ease of ability score min-maxing, and the amount of abilities is somewhat excessive when compared to the races in the Player's Handbook. Many of these abilities appear to have been the result of a misreading of the Monster Manual's hobgoblin entry.In addition it appears that the authors did not have a firm grasp on what charisma stands for in D&D 3e, with the penalty for charisma being explained as being a result of their relations with other people being based on fear and domination.

Graven Hill Border Fort and the Hobgoblin Reference List provide a working example of how to use hobgoblins. Statistics of some sample hobgoblins, and details of a sample fortress, and two new spells are included. The Graven Hill Border Fort is a good sample fortress, providing a history of the fortress, details of the inhabitants, and how to use the fortress. The Reference List's sample hobgoblin NPCs usefulness is limited by its inconsistencies with the material presented earlier in the chapter on hobgoblin PCs. The spells are fitting additions to the hobgoblin's arsenal and do not appear to be imbalanced.

Conclusion
The Slayer's Guide to Hobgoblins can serve as a useful gaming aid if you have not yet detailed the hobgoblin culture in your campaign, are using the standard hobgoblin culture found in the Monster Manual, or are merely looking for ideas to expand on an existing hobgoblin culture in your campaign. The cultural ideas contained within are internally consistent and are easily adapted to most campaigns, quasi-medivel or otherwise. Its rule problems constitute but a small portion of the overall material and are hardly fatal. Overall it is a good buy for $7.99.


Publisher's Note:
After I finished the review Mongoose Game's Matthew Sprange contacted me with these clarifications:

First off, the pros/cons of min/maxing with +1 ability scores - this really only applies at the lowest level of character as, if you go down this route, it naturally takes longer to get the next bonus on the stat line. You need, of course, two raises in the ability score if you min/maxed at level one. I have some of my own (personal) feelings on the place of min/maxing within RPGS (as opposed to wargaming, where it is rife), but they are best left to another forum. Yes, it can be a factor in the hack-and-slash style of playing, but for most regular groups, any effect will be minor - but this is something for our readers to decide. Any comments will be welcomed.

As for the Charisma issue, within Hobgoblin society you are, of course, 100% right. However, this is something that _only_ applies to PCs who are, for the most part, operating outside of that culture. Reactions towards them, coming from an inherently evil race, will be much lower than any of the standard races. This was what I was trying to illustrate. They can bully a Goblin around all they like. But a Dwarf Barkeep may take a very dim view of a Hobgoblin's demeanour and attitude.

With regards to the characters being a little too powerful, I must disagree The first draft of these rules made Hobgoblin PC's very weak, to the point where anyone may question the sanity of playing them. If I were to go back and revise these rules though, I may be tempted to remove the bonus to saving throws.

Last of all is the point that these rules have not been applied in full to the Reference Chapter - this was intentional, as I believe PCs should be noticeably better than the average member of their race, perhaps even above and beyond base stats. Hobgoblin characters have enough going against them already! Carte blanche rules need not apply to individual monsters, in this fashion at least, though GMs who believe in sauce for the goose are free to apply the PC rules to their own monsters as they see fit.

Mongoose is always happy to listen to gamers, however, so if anyone violently disagrees with any of this, please let me know!

 

[Psion]

Slayer's Guide to Hobgoblins

The Slayer's Guide to Hobgoblins is the first product from D20 System publisher Mongoose Publishing. The book is part of a series to be published by Mongoose called the Slayer's Guides. Each Slayer's Guide cover a monstrous race featured in the standard D&D set of creatures.

When I first heard of the Slayer's Guide series, the concept seemed very interesting to me. I run my own game world, but sometime little details fall by the wayside. These books could be used to fill in blanks about the cultures of races that I use but I dedicate little time to. That seemed like a concept that I would get more mileage out of than a published adventure.

In the case of this book, the creature is the hobgoblin. In the D&D game, hobgoblins are relatives of goblins, the same size or slightly larger than humans. They are orderly and warlike in nature. The book covers a variety of topics concerning the race: physiology, society, warfare, role-playing, adventure hooks, rules for PCs, and a fort inhabited by these brutal creatures.

A First Look

The Slayer's Guide to Hobgoblins (SGH) is a 32 page full size booklet. The cover is color, and has a nice picture of a hobgoblin decked out in plate armor in front of a hobgoblin standard bearer and a variety of hobgoblin troops.

The interior is black and white. The interior artwork is appropriate, but not necessarily keyed to depict the topic at hand. The artwork is average to excellent. I found the work by illustrator Chris Quilliams especially good, including some nice facial sketches of hobgoblins, a nice anatomy sketch on the interior cover, and some well-done scenes featuring hobgoblins.

I do have some concerns about the use of space. The margins and the font size seem about average for the industry, and the inside covers are utilized. However, header text was done in a very large font, and the paragraph spacing is rather wide on some pages.

Most surprising, however, is that the book dedicates a whole page to a copy of the D20 System License. This is strange because there is no requirement for D20 System publishers to redistribute the D20 System License with their products, only the Open Game License. I am uncertain whether they did this out of confusion over the requirements or to pad the book.

A Deeper Look

The SGH leads off with an introduction, stating what the book, and the Slayer's Guides in general, are all about. They describe hobgoblins as a "worthy foe", a dangerous martial race worthy of respect. That concept fits well with the depictions in my campaign and the D&D game in general.

The next section discusses the physiology of hobgoblins. In addition to some exposition regarding the hobgoblins physique and senses, the section discusses the relationship of the hobgoblin to the other goblinoid races, the possible origins of the hobgoblin race, diet, life cycle, and psychology. As would be expected, hobgoblins are a warlike race, an attribute that pervades their makeup.

The next section, already lightly touched upon, is the society of the hobgoblins. The section describes how the hobgoblins are divided into tribes, how their tribal command structure works, how challenges are used to resolve disputes within the tribe, the disposition of wealth, military structure, mercenary bands, and religion.

The section describing the system of resolving challenges is interesting. The tribal challenge method fits the nature of the hobgoblins well and presents interesting plot possibilities. As good as it is, I had hoped to see more of this sort of thing. A more developed code of honor for such an orderly militant race seemed natural to me and could be used to bring them even more flavor.

After the section on society, a section is dedicated wholly to how hobgoblins conduct warfare. This includes a discussion of troop types, the use of ambushes, how combat against hobgoblins is likely to run.

One page is spent discussing roleplaying of hobgoblins. The primary points touched upon are the intelligence and martial nature of hobgoblins.

A little over a page is devoted to adventure ideas involving hobgoblins. I honestly cannot say I am all that impressed with these. For example, the first adventure suggests that the players investigate disappearances along a well-traveled caravan route that is being raided by hobgoblin. I would be surprised if most DMs couldn't come up with that one on their own.

A small section is devoted to playing hobgoblins as player characters. This section seems rather odd to me and deviates from standard D&D / D20 System conventions in a number of ways. First off, their ability score modifiers do not match the ones provided for hobgoblins in the DMG. Since those modifiers are not balanced like other PC races, it may not be surprising that they changed them. However, the modifiers that they did assign are allocated in odd increments, which deviates from the conventions used by all other races, monstrous or not. They are given save modifiers, which the DMG hobgoblin does not have, and access to extra class skills, which is not done for any other 1 HD race.

A few pages are dedicated to the Graven Hill border fort, a well illustrated hobgoblin lair, complete with a nice map and picture, tribal structure, and stat blocks for leaders.

The last section (aside from the licenses in the back) is a "hobgoblin rules reference." It includes some standardized hobgoblin stat blocks ready to use. It also includes two new hobgoblin spells: fortitude (which reduces damage inflicted to nearby hobgoblins in combat) and vengeance of the mighty one (which give hobgoblins with 25 feet of the warband's banner bonuses in combat).

Conclusions

Alas, I was a little disappointed by this book. It struck me as rather vanilla. It doesn't make a bad starting point for a hobgoblin culture in a game. However, for the most part, it seemed like fairly straightforward extrapolations from the existing material on hobgoblins. While on a basic level that is a good thing -- I much prefer that to outlandish extrapolations -- I would have liked to have seen more creative takes on hobgoblin codes of honor and characters.

Another problem with SGH is that it didn't appear to use the D20 system rules well. Since the book seemed primarily concerned with exposition, that it didn't utilize highly mechanical constructs like prestige classes to expand upon hobgoblins. However, even its treatment of basic classes seemed rather uninspired.

For example, SGH implies that an overwhelming majority of hobgoblin PCs and NPCs are warriors, fighters, adepts, rogues, and clerics. Albeit that it mentions hobgoblin scouts, it doesn't even consider the possibility that hobgoblins might be rangers. Even the fairly dry NPC generation tables in the DMG imply that many hobgoblins are monks and wizards, as well the occasional barbarian, druid, or sorcerer. Those charts inspired me to imagine hobgoblin war wizards wearing rune-covered robes and strange fetishes. Alas, the book presented nothing so unique and interesting.

However, the book isn't all that expensive, and is rather well laid out and attractive. It still may prove a worthwhile investment for someone who intends to use hobgoblins in there game, but can probably afford some sprucing up.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

What I said about the Slayeres guide to the Gnolls holds largely for this book as well.
It provides much needed insight into a cultural and ecological aspects of the monsters that are too often choosen as the adversaries based on their stats rather then on the plot development.

Once again, good prose and excellent art make the book very enjoyable read and the indepth treatment of the hobgoblin race gives the plethora of ideas for the DM to use in the adventuer development and even in modifying the existing adventures - the first two "Slayer's Guides" have affected the way I intend to run the "Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil" quite significantly.

Only objection I can think of is that the actual layout of the book is not optimal for the greatest possible ammount of text per page but as the ammount and quality of information is very high already (particularily compared with the average adventure module) this is not a big deal.

In my oppinion Moongoose are shaping up to be among the greats of the d20 movement and I am looking with anticipation to their bigger releases to see whether they will maintain the very high quality of the initial "Slayer's Guides".

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Good art, mostly flavor text rather than rules. good price.
Not for everyone, but for a DM looking to perk up an old familiar monster, it's OK.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Art is ok, some is quite good excellent (though they should put the excellent stuff on their covers which seem to be getting worse as they go along RE: Gladiators).

The book covers what you would expect it to but does not try to go any further than that. The book overall was uninspiring -why not make some ultra-cool prestige classes to go along with all the fluff? The saving grace for me was the Hill fort which can be ripped out and used in a pinch.

What I really expected out of this work was something that can be used at CAPAIGN-LEVEL design. Honestly, people are not buying this type of book to run one or two encounters so that people can think hobgoblins are really cool and rife with history. They are not buying it to "insert in any campaign" so that it needs to be lighter and fluffier and real content. They ARE buying it to have a large chunk of adventures that somehow have a hobgoblin focus. Now this is where the product does not deliver. They should have spent 1/4 to half this book on the adventure ideas section and expanded it immensely to include multi-session multi-adventure campaign ideas. DM's need fuel for thought. They have good imaginations but not always good structure, so it would have been great to give some overall story arcs, tools for running a tribe or group overall a long time and discussed the evolution of a particular tribe over a long period of time -perhaps on how other influences may tribe a tribes hierarchy or belief systems over time. That way, a group of adventurers may *feel* the change in a tribe of hobgoblins after many encounters over time -and a DM could plot this evolution on some neato utility chart or meta-rules guidelines to really immerse players in this humanoid culture.

This book is not an "idea" generator but an affirmation on longstanding fantasy beliefs on hobgoblins.

Unfortuantely I was unhappy with this product because I was looking for an intriguing and very crunchy background for hobgoblins to use as a base for a new edition of my old campaign where players are giving a shot at new 1st level characters. This book confirmed my suspicions on hobgoblin culture but Mongoose really needs to push the envelope further to grab my attention.

 

[Simon Collins]

Beware! This review contains major spoilers.

The Slayers Guide To Hobgoblins is a sourcebook on Hobgoblins for D&D. It costs $7.99.

Presentation: This sourcebook is softcover and the page-count is 32. The front cover is a decent picture of a hobgoblin chief in armour with a standard bearer and horde behind him, blurred slightly by the type of finish used on the cover. The back cover has some basic blurb about the book. The front inside cover is an anatomical drawing of a hobgoblin whilst the back inside cover shows a map and drawing of Graven Hill Border Fort from the book. The first page contains credit and contents, the last two pages contain the OGL and D20 licence. Each page is bordered by a drawing of various weapons which takes up nearly 1 and 1/2 inches of an 8 inch wide page. In addition, there is plenty of white space throughout the main text and between paragraphs. The black and white internal artwork is good on the whole, though not related directly to the text in several cases.

Whats Inside: The book's one page introduction gives an overview of the purpose of the Slayer's Guides and of hobgoblins. Ther is also apiece of flavour text. Four pages on Hobgoblin physiology follow which include sections on diet and psychology. Two pages on Habitat includes 3/4 page of flavour text on a hobgoblin tribe subjugating local humanoid populations. Seven pages on Hobgoblin Society deal with tribal challenges, technology, war, and religion (with a page of flavour text as an adjunct to the religion section). Four pages on Methods of Warfare look at various military structures and tactics. There follows a page on Role-playing With Hobgoblins which really deals with their cunning military tactics, and there is a sidebar on Hobgoblin names with 9 examples. The next two pages give six short adventure ideas and a short section on Hobgoblins as PCs with racial traits and some basic advice on running all-hobgoblin adventures. Four further pages detail a hobgoblin lair, the Graven Hill Border Fort and its ruling tribe, the Black Drakes. The last two pages are vaunted as a Hobgoblin Reference List, which is actually some basic stats for various Hobgoblins (chieftain, warrior, young, etc.) and a couple of hobgoblin spells (mass healing via a tribal banner, and the equivalent of a mass bless spell via a tribal banner).

The Good: Probably the best thing about this sourcebook is the underlying idea of a book focused on a particular species. I also liked the Graven Hill Border Fort section, which can be dropped into most any campaign, and exemplifies the focus on military tactics which the rest of the book has. It did manage to deal with some of the issues that you don't normally think about regarding hobgoblins.

The Bad: Despite the attempt to portray the non-stereotypical aspects of hobgoblins, I still came away with most of my preconceptions still intact. The text was often repetitive - hobgoblins are cunning and not stupid, and they hate elves was repeated several times in different ways. One sidebar that dealt with Hobgoblin tribal names (Gold Takers, The Mighty Horde, Ravagers) accentuated my feeling that there were not enough new ideas in the book. The large amounts of white space and the regular addition of large chunks of 'flavour text' also showed that there was just not enough meat to fill the page-count.

Conclusion: Despite the good underlying idea, the book itself failed to live up to my expectations and I felt it was certainly not value for money. I would have liked to have seen more complex hobgoblin NPCs, a short fully-developed adventure (say three or four pages), some alternative cultural/political slants on the traditional tribe, and some more imagination in general. Would be useful to rookie DMs or those who are going to centre an adventure around the military tactics of a local hobgoblin tribe.

 

[Ron]

I really enjoyed the old TSR's Monster Arcana series and, as such, I was anxious to get the Slayers Guide to Hobgoblins. The book features a very nice cover while the interior art is usually good. Although the text is very well written, it doesn't tell much. Hobgoblins are described as a lawful evil warrior species with average intelligence. Although the book runs for 32 pages, the previous sentence pretty much resumes all of it.

The layout clearly wastes a lot of space as weapons illustrations ornate the text, which is printed with a rather large spacing between the paragraphs. A few pages of the book are dedicated to flavor text, perhaps too much for a 32 pages supplement. The main text starts with an article on hobgoblin?s physiology that is perhaps to long and not much enlightening. A brief piece on hobgoblin's society follows, being a little too naïve to my taste. The next chapter deals with warfare. The author points out that hobgoblins are not stupid but does not provides any new insight in their unique techniques. A hobgoblin's lair is detailed next, followed by hobgoblins' templates and a few new spells.

Although I like the idea of race specific books, Mongoose first release needs much improvement. The production values are high and text is well written, however, the book is too superficial to provide any worthy information to DMs.

 

[Ron]

I've made a mistake rating this product. The actual score is 2. I'll correct it as soon as the editor become functional.

 

[DM_Jeff]

The Slayers Guide to Hobgoblins

Anne Stokes again does the cover, art and design, and they are very good and professional for “small press”. Matthew Sprange`s writing is superb, it`s both inspirational and detailed enough to paint a realistic, gritty picture. Alexander Fennell`s editing appears flawless.

The Slayers Guides help a DM interested in detail and fine gaming achieve that end through in-depth looks at various creatures. It contains full information on the motivations behind the creature`s actions, their relationship with the campaign environment, within their tribe or pack, and their personal outlooks. What`s great is if you are a creative DM who has even given some thought as to the origins and premise behind your hobgoblins, you`ll be quite happy to know that they amazingly preserved your campaign in the process, offering detailed information but not the type to step on your campaign`s toes.

As for combat tactics and the like, we are treated to what I refer to as a “DM`s pep rally”. Instead of detailing tactics within the d20 system breaking down individual rules, it`s almost like a DM `coach` giving inspiration, ideas, and general practices, i.e. we`re not given stat-by-stat maneuvers but a general overall strategy. Reading this fills anyone`s head who knows the d20 system with ideas and thoughts to use the various combat maneuvers available within the rules to better effect.
The book also offers a detailed lair, a captured fort for the hobgoblins with excellent illustrations and cartography and a superb story tied to it, giving them a feeling of being alive. Throughout there is also flavor text, which I found helped give the books a more dynamic feel. In this case we get the likes of scrolls from someone who is studying the beasts in a fantasy campaign environment, and accounts from adventuring parties as to the first-hand dangers these monsters possess.

We also get a super section detailing each creature as a player character and how best to make it work, and comprehensive d20 stat blocks (with very good attention to detail and d20 faithfulness) for various types, leaders, clerics, warriors, etc. of the base creature. To help use these creatures in upcoming games, there is a host of scenario ideas in their own section, helping spur your imagination with plots.

While the backs of the books state they are for DM and players alike, they are clearly written with DM`s in mind. If a player stole a peek through one, especially a ranger with one as a racial enemy, it would promote excellent roleplaying, and I see no harm in that.

For $7.99 you a get a unique style of product among a host of basic adventures out there. Here`s one of the first to offer to stretch your campaign and rules scope at the same time, making a better experience for you and your players. These are very worth the cover price and worth a look for any good DM.

PLAYTESTING COMMENT: By happenstance I was able to procure my copy of the Hobgoblin`s book the night before I was running a 3E adaptation of the old 1st edition adventure Secret of the Slavers Stockade. As some will fondly recall, there are hobgoblins tossed about as guards. In reading the Slayer`s Guide to Hobgoblins, I quickly decided on a basic history for how the hobgoblins came to work for the slavers and their role and tactics. I managed to pull out an amazing amount of ad-libbed detail that really immersed the players into the setting and had them respecting the hobgoblins just a little more. Did my players still trounce them to dust? You bet they did, and then some, but they had much more fun than if they were stock creatures to be taken down one by one, they knew they had to think and plan, not just swagger in and start hacking.

-Jeff Ibach

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Nominated for 2 ENnies!

The Slayer's Guide to Hobgoblins is the first in a new series of comprehensive sourcebooks from Mongoose Publishing. It features extensive information on the military race of Hobgoblins, from their complex tribal structure to their very efficient methods of waging war. Games Masters will find a huge amount of new material they can incorporate into their existing campaigns, allowing them to portray Hobgoblins with incredible depth. Players will find each Slayer's Guide to be an invaluable tool for their survival, giving them that necessary vital edge.