D&D General Tucker's Kobolds: worth using in 5e?

[Zardnaar]

One of the downsides of doing a Tucker-esque type of scenario is that you end up having to use so many, many low-powered enemies on the field just to counteract the odds of those enemies ever actually hitting. That was one of the main points about the Tucker's Kobolds concept... that players who thought they could never be harmed by lowly kobolds after a certain character level (back in the AD&D/2E era) found that not to be true when so many got thrown at them continuously throughout the entire dungeon that they WERE finding themselves getting hit (and they being unable to hit any of them back because they were all behind arrow slits and the like.)

But all that means is you as the DM just have to roll so many gosh-darned attack rolls all the time, just to see if like you can manage any hits when you need like nothing but 19s or 20s because the kobolds are so low-powered. And then you are stuck with these rare hits doing extremely minor attack damage... slowly plinking away at the PCs hit points. The whole Tucker's thing very much becomes a battle of attrition over round after round after round after round... the PCs unable to escape the dungeon, but 90% of all the kobolds unable to actually hit.

Now if you decide to up the power of the scenario by making it all trap-based, where you are no longer using the kobold stats for attack and damage but instead raising the CR by using more powerful traps that can actually do significant damage to the PCs, then it probably wouldn't be the same sort of slog. But it also would no longer be a true Tucker's Kobolds scenario at that point (if that actually even matters, which it probably shouldn't.)

Tucker don't really engage them in combat.

More placing obstacles, traps and manipulating the environment.
There were similar adventures in Dungeon 18 and 19.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think Tucker's Kobolds are more alive than ever. Due to bounded accuracy, and the way movement works in 5e, Kobolds can come out of small holes attack PCs and back out again.
And readying actions allow only single attacks or cantrips (or the risk of losing a big spell).

I guess, a DM could easily kill a level 5+ party with some 20 Kobolds if they want.
My magic item heavy level 4 party struggled against 12 to 16 orc guards on equal terms. In the end, both opponents retreated.

If you design the dungeon around them it still works. Kobold holes and the like.

What doesn't work is more kobolds. I ran Tallows Deep 5E and a wave of kobolds got cleared out by radiance of the dawn.

There's to many zones effects on to many classes. Eg spirt guardians, druids etc.

 

[Gecko85]

There's a 5e Adventurers League adventure that's loosely inspired by Tucker's Kobolds. It's a lot of fun. Might be a worth borrowing some ideas from.

https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/209228

 

[UngeheuerLich]

If you design the dungeon around them it still works. Kobold holes and the like.

What doesn't work is more kobolds. I ran Tallows Deep 5E and a wave of kobolds got cleared out by radiance of the dawn.

There's to many zones effects on to many classes. Eg spirt guardians, druids etc.

Yes, zone effects are nasty. But against them, just wait until they run out.

 

[SkidAce]

I ran a sandbox campaign that had a section labeled fantasy #%^*ing Vietnam that was dirty with Tucker’s kobolds.

A group of PCs ventured there fairly early on. They came across a lone kobold, a decoy, that they wanted to torture for info. He ran into the bushes and they followed. There was a spiked pit trap on the other side of the bushes. Half the party fell in and took some damage. Then the waiting kobolds ambushed them. It was a deadly fight, CR wise. Starting down a few HP and a few PCs at the bottom of a spiked pit made it even harder.

None of the PCs died. Had two players rage quit because the trap wasn’t telegraphed. It must have given one of the other two PCs PTSD because he was hyper-cautious to the point of not taking a step anywhere without checking for traps for the rest of the game.

In my experience, new with 5E players cannot handle Tucker’s kobolds. And older players who wanted to deal with that kind of play would be playing OSR/NSR games, not 5E.

Good luck. But you probably shouldn’t.

Tucker's kobolds worked well for me.

Noob 5e players...infested kobold tunnels leading towards deeper dungeons.

They hated those kobolds. Game successful!