Yes, kobolds make fantastic little rangers, rogues, sorcerer's and sneaks. Maximize on their Dex and put them out of harm's reach, you should be good to go.
But what about the front-line barabarian? The monk? Ever seen a kobold paladin or cavalier?
Or how about a kobold who is exceptionally good with his little sling? Yes, just a sling. Or wrangles big beasts and hogties them with just a length of rope? (Cowbold? Kolboy?)
I love kobolds and I adore oddball character choices. It only makes sense that the two combined would be unbelievably lovable!
Using the standard build rules (20 pt buy, 2 traits, 3 with a drawback, 7 min 18 max for any individual stat) and no limits on sources, what would you conjure to make a character that fills a role that you wouldn't expect a kobold to fill?
An archaeologist bard that made the most out of the luck ability (getting an additional +1 via Fate's Favored and tripling effective rounds via Lingering Performance). With that, you can get +2 to attack, damage, skills, and saves for 18/rounds per day at level 1.
With this, you are pretty much making up for the damage from the kobold's disastrous stats. Heck, on a 20 point buy, I could make a strength build using this on a 20 point buy (by....completely tanked INT and WIS, which is not as painful for a bard that gets luck bonuses to saves anyway).
So you could then move into another martial class with little lost. Forget the spells and the need for light armor. If you are only taking this bard dip, you only get 1 level 1 spell. The cantrips can be spammed enough to ignore Arcane spell failure. Just enjoy all the class skills and ability to use some useful wands without much trouble.
Note: The 18 rounds/day last for most fights in a day, although you might also want to take Extra Performance at some point to double your effective rounds, making the limits effectively moot.
Thematically, it works well. It focuses on a character that relies upon luck to get by in a surface world not made for them. The kobold character I wrote up for this build was a rather...special... fellow that gained his skill at avoid traps because he simply forgot where his warren set their defenses. So he would have to dodge them every day on his way to work. But this also encapsulates the way I've always viewed archaeologist bards: they are people that use perform (protagonist)
An archaeologist bard that made the most out of the luck ability (getting an additional +1 via Fate's Favored and tripling effective rounds via Lingering Performance). With that, you can get +2 to attack, damage, skills, and saves for 18/rounds per day at level 1.
I once mad a build for an archaeologist 1/brawler fighter 3 using a fighting fan. It was a pure dex build without agile enchant. The same build, perhaps with a different close weapon, could work with a kobold as well.
Let's say you give him str 14 then you have no penalty. +2 from Luck, +3 from close combatant, +2 from weapon spec and +4 from piranha strikes =+11 damage bonus.
For a cavalier be a ranged huntmaster with two dogs and the enfilading fire teamwork feat and pheromone arrows.
I played a kobold crossbowman who almost became a paladin. Sadly, the campaign ended before I could take the initiative and multiclass. He was excessively patronizing at all times, afraid of children due to his own bad childhood, and very bigoted against elves. However, he was friendly (in his sarcastic way), altruistic, and honorable.
Whenever people talk about how miserably underpowered something is, I always think of Adalclak. He may not have been the most powerful, but he easily kept up, and I was never bored.
Need Advice For Kobold Crossbow Fighter Build
...and getting tons of "Use a bow, play a human, and be a ranger" responses.
Dragon slayer kobolds. Good and evil, it doesn't matter.
A kobold summoner whose eidolon looks like a mermaid.
My kobold monk practically broke the game mechanically. (cant recall the archetype/s)
My kobold internal alchemist that became a mummy, only slightly less so.
The kobold sorcerer that thought he was the epitome of Dragon evolution sent back in time to educate dragons on how to reach his status? Weak mechanically but priceless in story line.