I would like to gather opinions and thoughts toward how to adjust the kobold stats to be on par with the Pathfinder core races. I would like to retain the scrappy wee guys theme.
How much adjustment do they need? Can they get by with a -4 strength (presuming bonuses are added to other abilities to bring them up to the overall +2 total)?
-4 Str, +4 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Int, +2 Cha
Kobolds are very weak and not very tough, but they are stunningly swift, dangerously cunning and possessed of a natural strength of personality (perhaps to compensate for their small size).
The very dramatic bonus to dex worries me, but it seems the only fitting balancer for the very poor strength.
I would remove light sensitivity as that's bound to be a problem for any PC race, and its removal is not likely to break things.
What else? I welcome suggestions and discussion.
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Light sensitivity is actually relatively minor (-1 to hit in bright light).
My group gave them a very small property to give them a tiny boost without completely negating their somewhat underdog status:
Slight Build (Ex): A kobold may treat itself as either its current size or one size smaller for any of the following purposes:
Escape artist checks to squeeze through a tight space.
Competitive rolls, such as stealth checks.
Ability to wield weapons without sizing penalty.
The biggest boost is the stealth modification, boosting their stealth checks by 4 (making the average kobold have a +10 stealth modifier). Very good for laying ambushes.
Right now I'm still a bit iffy over granting +4 dex. Combined with small size that makes them stunning wizards and sorcerers.
So slight build lets them count as tiny for those purposes?
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Basically, they are treated as tiny for stealth checks and squeezing through spaces, and can wield tiny sized weapons without penalty. If they get hit with an "enlarge person" spell that goes up to small. Not much of a boost, but enough to make things interesting as they become viable stealthers no matter what class they play and give a couple other (very) minor benefits.
How often does one wish to wield a tiny weapon?
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Well if we go through the old 3.5 rules for stating out monstrous races, the Kobold was rather screwed for the life of the game. They gave up a ton of stats for not much balance.
Obviously they were intentionally supposed to be weak fodder types, but Kobolds hold a special place in a lot of our hears.
I think the easiest thing to do probably would be to hit them up and properly stat them.
-2 Str, +2 Dex should more then likely be the baseline for them in 3.5. Light sensitivity should cover the natural armor and honestly the 30 movement got thrown out later in the edition.
Pathfinder wise I'd say just toss them say a +2 Charisma as they by the more part were usually written to favor sorcerer style casters too.
Though small sorcerers that are fast, small and have NA is almost too good.
Don't forget the bite and claws as well. I think I've seen them listed as 1d3 for each in an excerpt from Races of the Dragon from 3.5.
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I would like to gather opinions and thoughts toward how to adjust the kobold stats to be on par with the Pathfinder core races. I would like to retain the scrappy wee guys theme.
How much adjustment do they need? Can they get by with a -4 strength (presuming bonuses are added to other abilities to bring them up to the overall +2 total)?
-4 Str, +4 Dex, -2 Con, +2 Int, +2 Cha
Kobolds are very weak and not very tough, but they are stunningly swift, dangerously cunning and possessed of a natural strength of personality (perhaps to compensate for their small size).
The very dramatic bonus to dex worries me, but it seems the only fitting balancer for the very poor strength.
I would remove light sensitivity as that's bound to be a problem for any PC race, and its removal is not likely to break things.
What else? I welcome suggestions and discussion.
My preference is to give them a -2 to Str, +2 to Dex and no other attribute modifier, balanced out by their +1 natural armor, small size and 30 ft. speed, which is already a significant advantage over the other small races (halflings and gnomes).
Darkvision paired with light sensitivity seems the best option, but I would allow them to buy that off with a feat or even a trait.
Other abilities could include the usual racial bonuses to some skills, the slight build feature and / or claws and a bite attack. Some of these adjustments can be seen in the Races of the Dragon Web Enhancement.
With all of that added, the need for them to have any bonuses to other attributes, such as Int or Cha, is greatly reduced. They can be 'merely' as clever and good with crafts as dwarves and 'merely' as arrogant and assured of their own racial superiority as elves without any need for a mechanical bonus to Intelligence or Charisma.
Classic Monsters Revisited adds some options for Kobolds who are more closely related to the dragons they idolize, such as white scaled kobolds who gain a +1 save DC to cold-based spells and a +1 bonus to Charisma, but those suggestions are not well balanced among each other, IMO.
My own suggestion for more dragon-like Kobolds (which I call Wyrmkin, to differentiate them from the dog-men of previous editions) would be to use the following stats;
and then adjust each by the following;
Hold breath for 4x Con rounds, +6 racial bonus to Swim checks, can take 10 while swimming (even in distracting situations) and can use the run action while swimming in a straight line.
Bluescale - +4 Fort / Con checks to avoid the effects of suffocation, Electricity Resistance 1 / HD, +2 saves vs. attacks that inflict Electrical damage, +4 racial bonus to Bluff, Disguise or Survival checks that would benefit from the kobold’s talent for vocal mimicry (to imitate the voice of another person, or the vocalization of a particular animal).
Greenscale - +4 Fort / Con checks to avoid the effects of drowning, Acid Resistance 1 / HD, +2 saves vs. attacks that inflict Acid damage,
Hold breath for 4x Con rounds, +6 racial bonus to Swim checks, can take 10 while swimming (even in distracting situations) and can use the run action while swimming in a straight line.
Redscale - +4 Fort / Con checks to avoid the effects of environmental heat, Fire Resistance 1 / HD, +2 savs vs. attacks that inflict Fire damage, -4 penalty to saves vs. Cold attacks or checks to avoid the effects of environmental cold, and suffers +1 hit point / die from Cold effects. Generates internal heat that causes it to inflict +1 hit point of Fire damage on any bite attack. +4 to Craft (alchemy) checks to create Alchemist’s Fire, only needs to spend ½ materials cost to do so, if willing to take 1 point of Constitution damage by using one’s own blood as an ingredient, and does not need to be a spellcaster to create Alchemist’s Fire (but requires at least one level of spellcasting ability to craft any other alchemical formula). Can acquire a feat that allows the red kobold to spit alchemical fire with a range increment of 10 ft. up to once / day per HD (this sputem must be used immediately and cannot be saved or stored).
Whitescale - +4 Fort / Con checks to avoid the effects of environmental cold, drowning or suffocation, Cold Resistance 1 / HD, +2 savs vs. attacks that inflict Cold damage, -4 penalty to saves vs. Fire attacks or checks to avoid the effects of environmental heat, and suffers +1 hit point / die from Fire effects. Hold breath for 4x Con rounds, +6 racial bonus to Swim checks, can take 10 while swimming (even in distracting situations) and can use the run action while swimming in a straight line.
Each set of the above modifiers would effect where and how one would be likely to encounter the critters. Blackscales, greenscales and whitescales would be likely to have lairs that make extensive use of their improved swimming abilities, and perhaps even take advantage of their racial resistances, with pools of tainted water that causes 1 hp of acid damage seperating chambers for a black or green lair, or near-freezing water separating chambers in the ice-warrens of a whitescale wyrmkin lair. Bluescales would burrow under the sand to spring up along caravan routes in the desert, trusting to breathing tubes and their own ability to stave off the effects of suffocation to remain buried for lengths of time that human bandits would be unwise to try and duplicate, as they would be unlikely to survive anything going wrong with their breathing tubes. Redscales could live in hot volcanic regions, that would sap the strength from less well-adapted intruders. Particularly psychotic redscales might even have developed a variation on alchemist's fire that serves as any oily coat that they can ignite and charge into the fray like little howling fire elementals, doing an extra point of fire damage with each natural attack (or even +1d3 fire damage) for the rounds that the oil remains lit, giving rise to local legends of 'fire demons' attacking villages.
So what's wrong with the Kobolds as Characters part of their write-up (pg. 183) in the PF Bestiary I?
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So what's wrong with the Kobolds as Characters part of their write-up (pg. 183) in the PF Bestiary I?
Many (myself included) believe that the kobold as shown in the "Kobolds as Characters" section is weak, as partly evidenced by the fact that even the bestiary says that it's CR is lower than normal for a character with an NPC class. The fact that it doesn't modify the PC class CR shows that it is in a weird "-1/2" state.
Personally, I don't think they're really all that far behind, which is why I gave them the (relatively weak) property I did.The main thing that goes against them is that instead of having a net +2 to stats they have a net -4. This is a huge difference, especially to a player. This may not matter much as a caster, but it will still hurt some. As a non-caster, this is crippling.
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Darkvision, 30' speed, small size bonuses, and natural armor isn't enough? Then add a +2 to their dex bonus, or cut out the -2 con penalty.
But really what effectively adds up to a +3 armor class (dex, size and natural armor), having darkvision, various skill bonuses, and a 30' speed for a small character is enough in my book. I like them that way.
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The main thing that goes against them is that instead of having a net +2 to stats they have a net -4. This is a huge difference, especially to a player. This may not matter much as a caster, but it will still hurt some. As a non-caster, this is crippling.
My number one changes would be setting them at -2 Str and +2 Dex, much like a 3.5 Halfling. The armor bonus, darkvision and higher than normal speed for a small size would make up for them having a net +0 compared to the other races with their net +2, IMO.
Everything else would be fluff, and if any sort of draconic stuff got tacked on, I'd drop the speed back down to 20 ft. as well.