Pathfinder Player Companion: Kobolds of Golarion (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Player Companion: Kobolds of Golarion (PFRPG)
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Traps, Tribes, and Tenacity

Dwelling underground in the dark and twisting sprawl of their tunnels, kobolds make unlikely heroes. Pathfinder Player Companion: Kobolds of Golarion unlocks the potential of this cunning and skilled race, showing how the talents kobolds have trained in since birth—trapmaking, teamwork, and sneakiness—make them excellent dungeon delvers. Unlike some of the less intelligent creatures that share the Darklands with them, kobolds make allies among the surface races and exert influence in many of Golarion’s cities. Though they’re limited within their rigid tribal rules, kobolds have the ambition of dragons!

Many of the character options in this book can work for other types of characters who want to use traps or fight in the same style as kobolds. Others relate directly to the unique parts of kobold life, such as the significance of the way their scales mimic the hues of the chromatic dragons. Bring this reptilian race’s best skills into the adventuring life with Pathfinder Player Companion: Kobolds of Golarion!

Inside this book, you’ll find:

  • A look into the tightly ordered kobold tribes that live in the Darklands—their life cycles, worship, and cultural behaviors—and an overview of several specific tribes that have risen to prominence on Golarion.
  • More tools to build an interesting kobold character, from archetypes and feats to random kobold characteristics and traits.
  • Insight into the spiritual lives of kobolds, including the deities they worship, the sorcerous talents they excel at, and the dragons they revere.
  • The tools of the kobold trade, including an easy-to-use system for traps, a plethora of magic and alchemical items, and several trapped decoys!
This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but can easily be incorporated into any fantasy world.

Written by Tork Shaw, Mat Smith, and Jerome Virnich.
Cover Art by Dan Scott.

Each monthly 32-page Pathfinder Player Companion contains several player-focused articles exploring the volume’s theme as well as short articles with innovative new rules for all types of characters, as well as traits to better anchor the player to the campaign.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-512-9

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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Delightful Book!

5/5

Read my full review on my blog.

Kobolds of Golarion is a delight to read. It’s both informative and entertaining. It provides an illuminating insight into the kobold mindset and society, while also providing a wide range of new options for kobold characters, many of which can easily be used with non-kobolds as well. As a Player Companion, the book is unsurprisingly geared towards options for using kobolds as player characters, but the material is equally usable for NPCs, making this an extremely useful resource for GMs too, even GMs who aren’t fond of the idea of players running monster races as characters. These new options take the form of archetypes, traits, feats, spells, and so on. Most importantly, the book is loaded with new options for traps—the things kobolds are well known for being masters at creating.


Kobolds are AWESOME!

5/5

I purchased Kobolds of Golarion the other day at my local gaming store as I often love them and Goblins as my two favorite races. Having high expectations for this book, I finally got a chance to read through the whole thing and I have this to say: Its awesome. Details on their creation (and even alternate theories as far as their species believes), information on the different-colored scales and their possible locations, even the usual Feat, Trait and Archetypes you'd find in other books (the Rogue one is something my friends have been waiting for). I love the book and I think it is wonderful. I figure others will enjoy it just as well.


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Or primal/imperial-blooded kobolds. That would be cool.


I can't for this one, I love the race books.


Can we maybe get some boosts to Kobolds to make them vaguely balanced with the other races? I would really really like that. I keep trying to want to play them, but those crippling stat penalties.....

It's tough to stomach in a low point buy game.

The Exchange Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge

Use the Zobeck Kobolds from the Player's Guide to the Crossroads instead?

Liberty's Edge

I hope Kobolds are the subject for the 3rd Builder Series of Pathfinder Battles Miniatures!

A box of Kobolds would be awesome!


I can't wait for this one. Playing a Kobold Sorcerer now (yeah, sorta default). This looks to be fun.

Silver Crusade

I've only been able to take a quick glance at it so far, but this seems to be continuing the upwards trend of "monster" PC books having more flavor support for PCs outside the evil range.

Also, gold scaled kobolds.

Folks that enjoyed that panorama artwork from Dungeoneer's Handbook will get a 2-page encore this time around. :)


Hooray! Gold colored kobolds!

Contributor

casiel wrote:

I hope Kobolds are the subject for the 3rd Builder Series of Pathfinder Battles Miniatures!

A box of Kobolds would be awesome!

I can't see that happening yet. We've only got one kobold model so far, and if the previous two Builder Series are any indication, only about 1/3 of the models in a given set are new. That means that we'd need to see at least seven more kobolds added in various sets in order to have a good shot at seeing a kobold builder's series.

Shadow Lodge

So have my digital and have just gotten to skim it (Rasputin has eaten my attention) but here are some things that have popped out.

1.) Roles return. Now I'm one who's kind of on the fence about these but from what I've seen they have a tendency to either not add much for me personally or dominate too much of the work so are usually a bad omen when I'm skimming

2.) Couple of new subdomains including the Radiation subdomain for earth. Now I don't know how or who thought that was a good idea but thank you, more crazy and interesting concepts like that getting some love from paizo just makes me smile. Also you've made my cult of Cixyron all the more awesome.

3.)Dragon speaker (?) bard archetype. Now I can only assume what that might mean but if the image that goes with it is any indication then it will be awesome.

4.) Crap load of feats. Really happy to see that the roles blocks didn't eat up a ton of space and leave us shy on feat options. That being said I still have to comb through them. Also happy to see teamwork feats for Kobolds, they seem like the race most likely to utilize them.


Dragon Speaker? Should we expect a Thu'um or two there?

Also, Radiation sounds like a rather interesting subdomain choice.

Glad to hear about the support for non-evil kobolds and alternate scale colors.

I wonder if it's already in stores here in Finland. Won't know till I get my day off at thursday, though.

Shadow Lodge

Icyshadow wrote:

Dragon Speaker? Should we expect a Thu'um or two there?

Also, Radiation sounds like a rather interesting subdomain choice.

Glad to hear about the support for non-evil kobolds and alternate scale colors.

I wonder if it's already in stores here in Finland. Won't know till I get my day off at thursday, though.

Probably not. I think the hard copies don't hit stands till next Wednesday here in the states so my guess is you still have at least a week. Those of us talking are just some of the lucky few subscribers who's copies have shipped and now have access to the digital copies that come with it.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Not sure I need it currently. But when my group was working through Kingmaker this would have been great. Maybe I should give kobolds a bigger role in my next game.

Kingmaker:
My PC's sided with the kobolds and eventually named Chief Sootscale to the post of Royal Assassin of their kingdom.


New ranger traps! Support for an existing archetype!? Awesome!

Contributor

Cheapy wrote:
New ranger traps! Support for an existing archetype!? Awesome!

I was going to come into this thread and brazenly ask people to sell this book to me based on the crunch. You might have just single-handidly done this, Cheapy. Bravo!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Paizo, you can send my cut to my paypal account.

Shadow Lodge

Oh, I've been waiting for this for over a year. Step aside, goblins, right into that concealed pit over there!

I know that kobolds are traditionally supposed to build lots of traps for larger people to blunder into until they die, but that makes it hard to play as a kobold who pro-actively goes out to do things, other than as a tracker or a sorceress. Now it's their time to get a chance at building a falling empire!

Verdant Wheel

Beside player side, this book really make GM's kobolds, at least, a bit more dangerous (or a lot).


I've given this book a quick read over, and so far I think it is my favorite out of the race books. It has a lot of detail and options in it that cover the wide variety of themes that kobolds can cover.

Most importantly, the book not only gives plausible reasons for non-evil (or at least outcast) kobolds to exist: it also gives tools that will allow these non-evil kobolds to walk into towns without getting chased out by a mob. This kind of stuff is important for suspension of disbelief when you have a player running one of these.


Can any of the feats be used by non-kobolds?

Dark Archive

Very interested in reading about what sorts of religion kobolds follow. Classic Monsters suggests that some worship Asmodeus, but that seemed like a strange fit, at best.

Some sort of weird LE bastard amalgamation of Torag (protection and artifice) and Calistria (trickery and vengeance) would be perfect. :)

Silver Crusade

Set wrote:

Very interested in reading about what sorts of religion kobolds follow. Classic Monsters suggests that some worship Asmodeus, but that seemed like a strange fit, at best.

Some sort of weird LE bastard amalgamation of Torag (protection and artifice) and Calistria (trickery and vengeance) would be perfect. :)

That does sound fitting... Asmodeus is still a big one, along with Dahak. They don't get any new deities, but some unexpected(Nethys) and obscure(Andirifkhu) choices do get suggested.

New subdomains include Ambush, Trap, and RADIATION.

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Askanipsion wrote:
Can any of the feats be used by non-kobolds?

A few of them, mostly the trapsy ones. Quite a lot are kobold specifi-OH WOW I just saw Redeemed Kobold. Could be taken at any time as long as you're good and a kobold...

And so the metallic tribes begin. :D

edit-Wow....kobold monk styles. I expected the teamwork feats, but this was a surprise.


Can anyone supply details about the Radiation sub-domain for Earth, please?

(I'm asking in part because I'm cobbling together some house rules to flesh out space travel from Distant Worlds, and was wondering how to tackle issues like radiation/radioactive materials.)

Shadow Lodge

Bellona wrote:

Can anyone supply details about the Radiation sub-domain for Earth, please?

(I'm asking in part because I'm cobbling together some house rules to flesh out space travel from Distant Worlds, and was wondering how to tackle issues like radiation/radioactive materials.)

you lose acid dart and gain the ability to touch objects and make them radioactive for a short while. This makes them sicken people who get too close to them. Luckily you are immune to this ability so you can like put it on ammo or your weapons and start slinging, shooting, or stabbing people with said items and make them start saving vs. rad sickness. The rest of the spell replaces are meant to match the effects of radiation on people and the environment like you get blight, horrid wilting, and stuff like that.

I will say though I don't like the way they lock all of them behind a trait for kobolds. I mean I know we can just ignore it but my worry is that what will happen if we get a pfs option for kobolds or at tables with more stringent gms.

Shadow Lodge

Set wrote:

Very interested in reading about what sorts of religion kobolds follow. Classic Monsters suggests that some worship Asmodeus, but that seemed like a strange fit, at best.

Some sort of weird LE bastard amalgamation of Torag (protection and artifice) and Calistria (trickery and vengeance) would be perfect. :)

They also associate them with Mammon which really makes perfect sense. Greed, artifice, and earth in a portfolio? Lives in a giant trap filled domain containing the wealth of solar systems? Totally works as a Kobold god.

Shadow Lodge

Also was anyone else impressed by the fighter archetype? I loved the concept of a kobold that rushes the enemy, flips him, and then stands atop his target while stabbing the crap out of him. Makes me want to play a fighter.

Shadow Lodge

Hey quick question does the blightburn weapon spell affect the wielder of the weapon or is he immune?

Shadow Lodge

Ohh also check the cost for paralyzing snare. As it stands it literally is cheaper to buy 5 of them then make 1.


doc the grey wrote:
Hey quick question does the blightburn weapon spell affect the wielder of the weapon or is he immune?

I've been wondering the same thing. I assume so, but it'd be nice if it didn't!


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
doc the grey wrote:
Ohh also check the cost for paralyzing snare. As it stands it literally is cheaper to buy 5 of them then make 1.

Ok, that has got to be some kind of error...


Skeletal Steve wrote:

Can we maybe get some boosts to Kobolds to make them vaguely balanced with the other races? I would really really like that. I keep trying to want to play them, but those crippling stat penalties.....

It's tough to stomach in a low point buy game.

This is a big thing for me. I've loved Kobolds ever since Deekin's appearance in Shadows of Undrentide, but the stat penalties associated with a kobold PC make it difficult to remain on par with PCs of other races.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Kobolds weren't really in the business for PC characters. Give them -2 str, +2 Dex, and +2 Int and they'll be fine. We've been those stats for over a year with no issues. Make them kobold Paragons or something :)


I would be fine if they just got +2 Dex -2 Str and of course if I was the DM I would make it so.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32

Oh they gotta have a +2 Charisma! They're dragon-blooded and naturals as sorcerers! Also, they're charming!

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
James Martin wrote:
Oh they gotta have a +2 Charisma! They're dragon-blooded and naturals as sorcerers! Also, they're charming!

Kobold Quarterly's mascot is downright huggable, really.

Dark Archive

There aren't any small races that don't have a Strength penalty, so one option would be to just give them a +2 Dex bonus and no penalties. Maybe they are related to dragons, maybe they aren't, but a small sized kobold that's as strong as a full sized human or dwarf could be a surprise. (They'd still use weapons one die size smaller, so they'd still do less average damage than Medium sized races.)

Contributor

So, if I'm reading this correctly, the snare setter can use each individual trap a number of times per day based on their Int modifier. A level 1 snare setter with 16 Int would have tripwire 3/day and a second trap 3/day as well. Is that correct?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Small size playable races that do not have a racial penalty to Str.
Wayangs(+2Dex +2Int -2Wis)
Monkey Goblins(+4Dex -2Wis -2Cha)

Now I would like to see a small size playable race with a +2 racial bonus to Str.


Phillip0614 wrote:
Skeletal Steve wrote:

Can we maybe get some boosts to Kobolds to make them vaguely balanced with the other races? I would really really like that. I keep trying to want to play them, but those crippling stat penalties.....

It's tough to stomach in a low point buy game.

This is a big thing for me. I've loved Kobolds ever since Deekin's appearance in Shadows of Undrentide, but the stat penalties associated with a kobold PC make it difficult to remain on par with PCs of other races.

Check out the Kobold Kings by Super Genius Games, it presnets rules for kobolds balanced with the PC races (along with a cool alternate history for kobolds).

In regards to the product, I am very interested. I love kobolds, and might see about picking up the pdf when I have a chance.


Dragon78 wrote:

Small size playable races that do not have a racial penalty to Str.

Wayangs(+2Dex +2Int -2Wis)
Monkey Goblins(+4Dex -2Wis -2Cha)

Now I would like to see a small size playable race with a +2 racial bonus to Str.

Those are decidedly less core than even kobolds are, so of course once you stray so far away from Core, certain truths tend to falter :)


donato wrote:
So, if I'm reading this correctly, the snare setter can use each individual trap a number of times per day based on their Int modifier. A level 1 snare setter with 16 Int would have tripwire 3/day and a second trap 3/day as well. Is that correct?

That's not quite the way I interpreted it.

Kobolds of Golarion, Learn Ranger Trap wrote:

A ranger can use ranger traps a number of times per day equal to 1/2 his ranger level + his Wisdom bonus.

See the description of ranger traps for durations.

The use of the plural there of "ranger traps" implies to me that you may only use a TOTAL number of traps equal to your wisdom bonus + 1/2 level (or INT bonus for a Snare Setter).


False statement, the Wayang is a primary player race for Tian Xia along with Kitsune, Nagaji, Samsaran, and Tengu.


An enjoyable read. Awesome work! This may be my favorite race guide to date.

Contributor

Shiftybob wrote:
donato wrote:
So, if I'm reading this correctly, the snare setter can use each individual trap a number of times per day based on their Int modifier. A level 1 snare setter with 16 Int would have tripwire 3/day and a second trap 3/day as well. Is that correct?

That's not quite the way I interpreted it.

Kobolds of Golarion, Learn Ranger Trap wrote:

A ranger can use ranger traps a number of times per day equal to 1/2 his ranger level + his Wisdom bonus.

See the description of ranger traps for durations.

The use of the plural there of "ranger traps" implies to me that you may only use a TOTAL number of traps equal to your wisdom bonus + 1/2 level (or INT bonus for a Snare Setter).

Hmm, this is a bit confusing. The feat seems to imply that each time you take the feat, that specific trap gets its own number of uses per day.

Kobolds of Golarion, Learn Ranger Trap wrote: wrote:

Learn Ranger Trap

You learn how to create one kind of ranger trap.
Prerequisites: Survival 5 ranks.
Benefit: Select one ranger trap (see page 20). You may use this trap a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom bonus (minimum 1). The DC for your trap is equal to 10 + 1/2 your character’s level + your Wisdom bonus, and it lasts 1 day per two character levels.
If you are not a ranger, you can only set extraordinary traps with this feat; like all extraordinary ranger traps, this decreases the trap DC by 2.
Special: A ranger may use ranger traps a number of times per day equal to 1/2 his ranger level plus his Wisdom bonus. See the description of ranger traps for durations.

It states both that, "you may use this trap a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom bonus" and, "a ranger may use ranger traps a number of times per day equal to 1/2 his ranger level plus his Wisdom bonus." I might try to get some clarification on the rules board.


donato wrote:
Shiftybob wrote:
donato wrote:
So, if I'm reading this correctly, the snare setter can use each individual trap a number of times per day based on their Int modifier. A level 1 snare setter with 16 Int would have tripwire 3/day and a second trap 3/day as well. Is that correct?

That's not quite the way I interpreted it.

Kobolds of Golarion, Learn Ranger Trap wrote:

A ranger can use ranger traps a number of times per day equal to 1/2 his ranger level + his Wisdom bonus.

See the description of ranger traps for durations.

The use of the plural there of "ranger traps" implies to me that you may only use a TOTAL number of traps equal to your wisdom bonus + 1/2 level (or INT bonus for a Snare Setter).

Hmm, this is a bit confusing. The feat seems to imply that each time you take the feat, that specific trap gets its own number of uses per day.

Kobolds of Golarion, Learn Ranger Trap wrote: wrote:

Learn Ranger Trap

You learn how to create one kind of ranger trap.
Prerequisites: Survival 5 ranks.
Benefit: Select one ranger trap (see page 20). You may use this trap a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom bonus (minimum 1). The DC for your trap is equal to 10 + 1/2 your character’s level + your Wisdom bonus, and it lasts 1 day per two character levels.
If you are not a ranger, you can only set extraordinary traps with this feat; like all extraordinary ranger traps, this decreases the trap DC by 2.
Special: A ranger may use ranger traps a number of times per day equal to 1/2 his ranger level plus his Wisdom bonus. See the description of ranger traps for durations.
It states both that, "you may use this trap a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom bonus" and, "a ranger may use ranger traps a number of times per day equal to 1/2 his ranger level plus his Wisdom bonus." I might try to get some clarification on the rules board.

You're right. It's kinda ambiguous. I just figured that if you took a new trap every time you got a rogue talent it would end up being WAY too many traps per day. My 2nd level INT 16 Snare Setter would be able to set 12 traps per day! each of them lasting for two days each! Doesn't that seem more than a little bit overpowered?

I think the thing is, you don't take the FEAT multiple times, you only take a new type of trap that you can use. The way I interpret it, if I use my second level rogue talent for one extra trap, my 16 INT level 2 Snare Setter can set 4 traps a day, with three types of trap to choose from, with the number of traps per day going up every two levels, and the damage going up by 1d6 every three levels. That just seems a lot more balanced to me.

(edited for clarification).

Dark Archive

Dragon78 wrote:

Small size playable races that do not have a racial penalty to Str.

Wayangs(+2Dex +2Int -2Wis)
Monkey Goblins(+4Dex -2Wis -2Cha)

Ooh, good points. And, now that Aasimar and Tieflings can be size Small, they also count as Small sized options that don't have a Str penalty.

Quote:
Now I would like to see a small size playable race with a +2 racial bonus to Str.

Size Small Angel-blooded (+2 Str, +2 Cha) Aasimars or Size Small Demon-spawn (+2 Str, +2 Cha, -2 Int), Qlippoth-spawn (+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Int) or Oni-spawn (+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Int) Tieflings to the rescue!

Although a surprisingly strong humanoid small race would still be neat. :)


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Bellona wrote:
+1 for a We Be Kobolds module! :)

Check out the Forgotten King's Tomb from Kobold Press. It is written as an all Kobold Adventure with pre-gens included. This has been a shameless plug by the author.

Paizo Employee Developer

Shiftybob wrote:
I think the thing is, you don't take the FEAT multiple times, you only take a new type of trap that you can use. The way I interpret it, if I use my second level rogue talent for one extra trap, my 16 INT level 2 Snare Setter can set 4 traps a day, with three types of trap to choose from, with the number of traps per day going up every two levels, and the damage going up by 1d6 every three levels. That just seems a lot more balanced to me.

You've got the right of it. You have a total number of uses per day equal to your Int. The new traps you learn increase the number of options you have when picking a trap to use, but your Int is still the total number you can use.


Set wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:

Small size playable races that do not have a racial penalty to Str.

Wayangs(+2Dex +2Int -2Wis)
Monkey Goblins(+4Dex -2Wis -2Cha)

Ooh, good points. And, now that Aasimar and Tieflings can be size Small, they also count as Small sized options that don't have a Str penalty.

Quote:
Now I would like to see a small size playable race with a +2 racial bonus to Str.

Size Small Angel-blooded (+2 Str, +2 Cha) Aasimars or Size Small Demon-spawn (+2 Str, +2 Cha, -2 Int), Qlippoth-spawn (+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Int) or Oni-spawn (+2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Int) Tieflings to the rescue!

Although a surprisingly strong humanoid small race would still be neat. :)

I'll have to come up with a concept .3.

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