|
There is something about Golarion Goblins that no one else's goblins seem to have. There is something about their wide head that just makes them that much better looking.
I love the image in Ultimate Combat where a goblin is crying because someone stole his sword. I just think of a little child saying "No... Mine!"
I've showed my wife the pictures of the goblins and she said they remind her of Lilo in Lilo and Stitch.
All the other goblins I have seen seem to be generic and bland but Golarion goblins seem to have some evil childlike flair to them.
I have no idea how Paizo took something common and generic and created something truly unique out of them.
Ok, I will now shut up about how much I love Pathfinder goblins. Just had to get that off my chest.
Yeah, the Goblins in Pathfinder are great. But i think most who like Pathfinders goblins probably have played the first Adventure of Return of the Runelord, as it really show the personality of the goblins.
Where other systems showed the Goblins as just another Low level cannon fodder enemy, Pathfinder actually showed us how twisted, and hilarious these little monsters are ;)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I personally don't find them appealing. I prefer goblins to be cunning, using they're wits to overcome they're physical weakness. I'd expect the behavior exhibited from Pathfinder goblins to come from creaturea like gremlins, not goblins.
I personally don't find them appealing. I prefer goblins to be cunning, using they're wits to overcome they're physical weakness. I'd expect the behavior exhibited from Pathfinder goblins to come from creaturea like gremlins, not goblins.
Cant say you are wrong in interpeting Goblins as such in your games. After all, we each have our own preferences about how monster behave. Some play Dragons as big brutes who live by "might makes right" other play dragons as the schemers and powerplayers behind the curtains.
But in my old games i often found most small races to VERY similar. Goblins, Kobolds, small Fey creatures, gremlins etc., all where using traps, and other sneaky and cunning methods to beat larger opponents, and I found little that distinguished between them beyond appearance. (only small exception was that Kobolds usually revered dragons... but that to became mostly a part of their description because if you put Kobolds with dragons, Kobolds yet again became just Cannonfodder to the players as when they where able to deal with a dragon, kobolds where usually no threat at that point).
What Pathfinder did with Goblins was taking one of the small, uninteresting races and creating something unique, and a race with personality that my players actually remembers, not just cannonfodder to wade through to earn experience. :)
I have no idea how Paizo took something common and generic and created something truly unique out of them.
There's a funny story about that, and if you ever get me, James, or Wayne in a room we'll tell you the entire thing - a story involving unsettling bathtubs and malign sponges.
But, until then, you can get one PG version of the story from the blog right here.
I feel like we've told this tale in more detail in quite a few places before - the introduction to Classic Monsters Revisited jumps to mind.
Seems like that was a long time ago, but folks are still digging them! Good times. :)
(Oh, and your wife is very astute in her observation.)
The only goblins I like better than Golarion goblins are James P. Blaylock goblins, because they're even crazier.
I may try to write them up one of these days. :)
Ah, but look at the Goblins' average stats: Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 6. They're by no means stupid. Sure, their culture makes them impulsive little pyromaniacs who hate reading. But bomb-making Alchemists still thrive among them, even if they have to keep their notes hidden or presented as something other then writing (I actually imagine their notebooks would only involve pictures.)
That's more of a matter of they're stats not reflecting they're fluff. They should have a penalty to Wisdom at the very least.
I rather think the Goblins of Golarion and Pathfinder remind me of the folkloric notion of the goblin - as a fey creature, actually: mischievous, amoral, dangerous.
This takes them out of the Tolkienesque category of "small orcs." Though in the Hobbit the Goblins have a bit more of the old-school MacDonald and Rossetti feel than the Orcs of the LotR and the Silmarillion.
Of course, Warhammer was featuring wild and crazy Goblins before PF. I think the aspects that make the PF version stand out is the sense that these are representative of what adults are afraid of in children and particularly teens around Halloween - pyromania, cruelty, and running in packs.