Ways to Make Kobolds Challenging

[Fishbone]

Forget Fighter Levels, a fistful of Warrior 6 Kobolds is pretty brutal. CR=NPC Level-4.
Elite stats
15+1+2 18 Dexterity
14-4 Strength
13-1 Constitution
12 Wisdom
10 Intelligence
10 Charisma
With PBS, Precise Shot, and Rapid Shot they get the chance to do plenty of 1d6+1 with their composite longbows. They also hit at +10/+10/+5. Don't forget to let the kobolds use things like overturned tables for cover, set up flanks, fire from elevation, shoot prone for the +4 AC bonus, use mithril chain shirts, and on and on. This is a great springboard for Kobolds because there are a lot of places you can go from here and still have a challenging encounter. A fighter with substitution levels could be pretty nasty and at CR 6 would be a great leader for all these minions. Further thoughts: Don't forget about the Dire Weasels and Spirited Charge. Rogue Levels are great for Warrior 6 snipers. Having a Dragonwrought Kobold caster, arcane or divine, is never a bad idea.

 

[FalcWP]

Play to a kobold's strengths. They are small, mobile, well defended, and clever (at least, they don't have a penalty to Intelligence or Wisdom). They also have bonuses in trapmaking and mining, as well as darkvision. They do not have the strength or constitution to go toe-to-toe with melee threats, especially if you aren't giving them class levels.

Create a variant pit trap that can hold a bit of weight (say, your average kobold, with gear), but will collpase if more weight is placed on it (say, your average human, with gear). This is particularly useful if the party's scout is, say, a halfling rogue, who might go past the trap. This could easily divide the PCs into *three* groups - the light PCs in front (halflings, gnomes, maybe elves with little or no bulky gear), the medium sized PCs in the middle (at least one at the bottom of a pit), and the rear guard. Make the pit wide enough that it can't be easily cleared, but not so wide that all the PCs will fall down - divide and conquer. Also, keep the ceiling fairly low - high enough that the PCs aren't *too* worried, but low enough that they would have severe penalties on their jump checks.

Provide at least one exit in the pit, but keep it small - let kobold guards fight the hampered PC(s) who try to crawl out. A few kobolds with spears, jabbing at the 6'8" tall barbarian who can't get at his great axe...

Be sure to give the kobolds ways to get rid of most light sources the PCs may have, unless they're investing heavily in them. Against PCs without darkvision, this can be far more effective than a couple class levels. This might be a decent spot for a kobold with a few class levels - dispel magic to take care of magical light sources, darkness if you have a few kobolds who took Blind Fight in place of Alertness, etc.

Don't rely heavily on melee damage - the strength penalty and the small weapons will ruin that. A bit of poison on some spears, arrows, or crossbow bolts, on the other hand, could be really effective.

Also - give the PCs an out. Maybe the pit trap left enough handholds to climb out the way they came. The kobolds know that, even with these traps, they're going to get torn up. And they probably don't want that. If the PCs run, the kobolds will probably let them, fix the hole, and design some new traps for the next group (whether the PCs or other adventurers).

 

[Kormydigar]

Get yourself a copy of Dragon # 127 and read the " Tuckers Kobolds" editorial. A great story with merciless kobold commandos!

 

[Fishbone]

Poison, thats a good suggestion. And I love that pit trap idea.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Rogue levels. Sorcerer levels. (Don't multiclass.)

According to the MM, 8th-level kobold sorcerers are not rare.

 

[SWAT]

True Story. By the end of a campaign I played in, all the characters, and all the players, were completely utterly terrified of kobolds. At 18th level. And not kobolds with class levels. Just the regular kind. Given the choice between fighting kobolds or pit fiends, we would have chosen pit fiends because the chances of survival would have been higher. So powerful was this terror that it persists to this day in other games run by other DMs.

Why? Because the DM in question figured that kobolds, being small and puny compared to most everything else, would have become trap and tactical experts. We got our butts kicked by kobold ingenuity so many times it wasn't funny anymore. Just think of the most insanely clever and devious trap 500 kobolds can come up with, and that doesn't put many of them in harm's way, and do that.

Example. We once came upon a portal and for some stupid reason decided to go through it, not knowing it was one-way. The kobolds that lived in the dungeon on the other end had long ago realized that sometimes things would suddenly appear in one of the rooms. So they built a very thick stone wall around that one spot. They made it airtight except for a few small holes at the top, which they connected to some water system. So anything that appeared would be trapped and drown as they filled the prison with water. It would have been a TPK without my teleport spells.

The trap had nothing to do with us. It was just something the kobolds had done. So instead of thinking about how the kobolds would survive with the PCs around, think about how they would survive with creatures twice as tough as the PCs around, and see if the PCs go up against whatever it is. Keep it up like that and your PCs will be terrified of kobolds too.

On a similar note, my character Trezav was once captured and bound by kobolds. Having nothing else to do but talk and annoy them, I wasn't inclined to shut up, and they didn't gag me. But they had a goblet, and they'd hit me with it whenever I talked, doing like 1 point of subdual damage. I ran with it until I was unconscious, and thus the Goblet of Trezav Slaying was born...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

1) Hit and run tactics- a few attack the target with slingstones, javelins, daggers, or even flaming oil, then run back into the warren. Do it a few times until a straggler presents himself as a likely target...right before the BIG trap gets sprung.

2) The pen of death- as above, but with some kind of barricade dropped behind the target to trap him in a killzone for oils or projectiles.

3) Overbearing swarm tactics- 2 attack dogs can knock down most human beings by grabbing, hanging on, and writhing. Instead of a couple of 80lb dogs, use a whole bunch of kobolds.

4) Fighting in 3D. Attack from above, from below, from nooks and crannies. They're small- they'll be able to strike from angles a Medium sized creature wouldn't expect. Its their warren, they'll know where the blind alleys and structural flaws are.

 

[The Forsaken One]

Small sized tunnels, or even tunnels where small sized creatures need to crouch. Even HINT at the presence of intelligent kobolds with resources and theres no way anyones entering that complex .

 

[SSquirrel]

Get yourself a copy of the old 2E Dragon Mountain box set. Kobolds from HELL! heh. They were a real menace and made life very hard for everyone in the adventure.

 

[Geoff Watson]

Get yourself a copy of the old 2E Dragon Mountain box set. Kobolds from HELL! heh. They were a real menace and made life very hard for everyone in the adventure.

Well, deadly poison and a 'volley fire' rule so they automatically hit wasn't really fair.

Geoff.