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As a side note, haven't kobolds been talked about to death? Somebody nominate a new mook to talk about already. :P
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Flagged for racism. Let's stay on-topic, people. Kobolds: Should they have an innate +4 Charisma...or a +6?
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"The crusader" has a good point:
Kobolds live in narrow small tunnels and caves.
If you fight in a close enviroment you will not use weapons which need a lot of space to be used effectivly (like most bludgeoning or slashing weapons). Also ranged weapons loose their biggest benefit (the range) as most fights are close/melee combat.
You will also use a relative compact weapon so you don't get stuck if you run thru the tunnels.Based on this the best weapon would be a relative small stabbing (piercing) weapon >> aka shortspear.
So the weapon choice is logical (and "world building")
Except it's not. Slings take more space to use than bows or crossbows and have a higher arc, meaning they'll be obstructed more by the ceiling in caves. Crossbows have the flattest arc of non-firearm weapons in the game and are the appropriate ranged weapon for cavern dwellers.
Axes, picks and maces are very short and take very little space to use. If picks took too much space to swing in a tunnel mining with them would be impossible. Swords tend to be longer for a given weight, but short swords are a thing. And short swords in PF are thrusting weapons. Spears have two big problems. First, they're long. Even if you stab when you fight with them you swing them around when carrying them. Second, they use wood. Kobolds are not known for their woodsmen. Wood should be either an expensive import or an expensive product of rare surface acclimated kobolds.
Imagine a game of Dwarf Fortress in which you aren't allowed to perform any tasks outside. There are giant mushrooms growing in the underdark you can use as fuel and for shoring up mine tunnels, but they're softer than surface growing softwoods and completely useless for spear shafts or bows. Any spears would need to have all metal shafts. Long metal poles are heavy and kobolds have a huge strength penalty. Axes would need all metal shafts too. Military picks and maces, often do have all metal shafts and short swords are...
Well, it isn't that kobolds can't go outside- they just need to be smart about it. They have darkvision and a sensitivity to light- why not go outside during the dark? Fewer predators, fewer angry villagers and meddling adventurers. Seems like a good deal.
And really....a good deal of the equipment listed would be near impossible to make as we understand it without wood, at least with medieval technology levels. Axe and pick handles? A lot of the crossbow and almost all of a regular bow? All those traps are made from rocks tied together with rocks?
Hell- how are you smelting iron without wood to burn? I know about dwarf fortress, with its convenient lava flows...but really? That is cartoony. And I doubt you are going to find both veins of iron ore and coal in the same immediate area (ie- same cave system, since you are limiting us to never go outside).
I mean...a spear could be fashioned out of a stalactites ...stalagmites.... the point rock things. Not good ones, but it is possible.
Also- if the kobolds NEVER leave the undergound...why are adventurers bothering them? If they are in their hidey holes, why are you going down there to bother them, when they cannot do anything to you? Are you exterminating a tribe of sentient race for their mines (and do you have a party paladin that somehow fails to fall from this)?
As a contrivance for low level quests, the kobolds must leave their caves in order to bother the local farmers, or there is no reason to see them. They would just be an underdark creature of minor note (And fun fact- in setting, almost no one outside of the elves even know that drow exist- they have that little interaction with the surface)
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That creature having Reach is perhaps even more powerful, because the only safe ways to engage them are with successful Acrobatics checks for melee (otherwise they get attacked, potentially hit, and therefore killed without any sort of reprisal)This is the most spectacular leap of logic I've ever seen. We're still talking about kobolds, right? 9 Strength, CR 1/4 kobolds? "Hit and therefore killed"? At +1 to hit for 2.5 average damage I'd hardly think so. Maybe if the kobolds use the brace function and a PC is foolish enough to charge in, but even then the kobolds have such a dismal hit chance that it's almost a non-factor.
If our kobolds are ranked four spaces wide (any deeper and they forgo attacks of opportunity due to soft cover), they'll each get a single attack of opportunity against whoever approaches (in this case, likely a heavily armored fighter with upwards of 17AC (i.e., they only hit on a 16 or higher, a 1 in 4 chance to hit. Against our foolhardy charging fighter, those odds are improved somewhat, they can now hit on a 14 or higher. Not great odds.). The rest of the party are free to move in and cut them to ribbons at their leisure, as the kobolds have spent their attack of opportunity for the round (that is, if they haven't already been incapacitated by a sleep, burning hands, acid flask, ranged attack or anything else that takes advantage of their dismal saves and 5 hit points. Finally once our fighters are within their reach they're forced to withdraw and forgo their attacks for the round.
This is the only context I can see these longspear toting kobolds being deadly. Leading the PC's deeper into the complex where they'll be beset with other hazards. They're still hopelessly ineffective in melee even with the better equipment. They're there to serve as an annoyance and distraction. They don't become instagibbing death machines the second you give them reach. Weapon Finesse and Precise Strike are fair suggestions for giving...
You completely missed the point I was making there. The original point I made was that weapons (in addition to armor and other resources) do have an impact on CR, albeit minimal, and is doubly true for beginning-level CRs, since gear is almost absent (and therefore almost not a factor to consider when calculating CR).
Compared to the in-book Kobold, the Longspear + Quilted Armor Kobold is a significant increase, both offensively and defensively. You put the in-book Kobold against the Longspear + Quilted Armor Kobold, he'll be less likely to win than his slightly-altered counterpart, since he has a means to engage without being immediately put at risk. There are still many things that can trivialize the encounter, and that's because the encounter itself is still trivial; it's easily something that's combatted with the likes of a Color Spray, or a beefed-up Burning Hands, and that's stuff that can all be accomplished with a 1st level caster, which you already referenced. And that's working as intended.
But you're also deciding to ignore their ability to flank, or make effective use of Combat Maneuvers (a Fighter's AC might be high, but his CMD, perhaps not so much), such as Trip, which would put the Fighter on his butt, unable to attack or defend himself properly, etc. I can go on, but Tucker's Kobolds have a reputation for a reason, and it sure as hell wasn't because the Kobolds were geared to the teeth.
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In fairness, adventurers might be going to help out svirfneblin. Haha just kidding. Nobody goes to avenge a gnome, just like nobody goes to avenge a squirrel.
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In fairness, adventurers might be going to help out svirfneblin. Haha just kidding. Nobody goes to avenge a gnome, just like nobody goes to avenge a squirrel.
Hey, some druids might avenge a squirrel, since they are small and fluffy.
And some druids might try to avenge a gnome. The NE 'rules of the jungle' type druids. And it is more 'avenge my lost lunch'. Gnomes are nicely bite sized when you become a large creature, and they taste like skittles.
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Why would you be more likely to be TPK'd by these kobolds than the default? Either monster will TPK players if the GM is inclined to TPK you. It's not the build that matters, it's what you do with it.unless your talk about GM cheat (look! The kobold crits you! Again!), then no, by no means that's true. Your can play tactically sound with your orcs and flank and focus fire and whatever, but an orc with a club and skill focus is not goibg to be as dangerous as an orc with a great axe and power attackattack that is equally tactically soundExcept I'm not talking about cheating, nor about tactics. I'm talking about what the GM does with a monster.
That orc with the greataxe is nasty, but a good GM would send him in alone, or in very small numbers. The club-wielding orcs would likely be more numerous.
It's about
ethics inencounter design.
While we're at it, why don't we rearrange their stat array. And let's adjust their racial ability scores. And some of these racial traits aren't that useful, so let's exchange them for something else. I don't really need them to be undergound. And frankly, I've never really cared for the name kobolds... can we just call them something else?Yeah, why can't Kobolds be on level with real PC races?
+2 Charisma, +2 Dexterity,–2 Strength seems right-- small/weak, but nimble and draconic related CHR bump.
Hmmm... I must not be laying the sarcasm on thickly enough. I'll work on that.
Suffice to say, if you want a stronger base creature to challenge your PC's, without adding any templates or adjusting any starting equipment... Instead of reprinting all of the core bestiaries, why don't you just use the goblin, orc, hobgoblin, gnoll, bugbear, ogre, minotaur, or cyclops?
Because most of those creatures are also hindered with horrible racial attribute adjustments?
How do you design worthwhile orc encounters when orcs are hindered with negatives to all mental attributes?
It's a problem that extends beyond Kobolds, but they are the most obvious example of it. "evil" creatures whose only purpose is to be slaughtered are given awful attribute adjustments to ensure they aren't equal.
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How do you design worthwhile orc encounters when orcs are hindered with negatives to all mental attributes?
Well, in addition to their horrible mental penalties, orcs have the benefit of owning all of the terrain that they'll ever do battle on. They have this secret power that allows them to manipulate it to give themselves every advantage with the swipe of a single dry-erase marker! They can summon weapons and equipment the way Neo and Trinity do. They have the power, at will, to summon additional packs of orcs anytime they need them.
So, you might try using your as DM to build the encounter, rather than hoping someone else will do all of the work for you...
And the really weird thing is, from the Monster Codex and NPC Codex to Adventure Paths to all the other 3rd party stuff out there, someone actually has done all or most of the work for you.
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While we're at it, why don't we rearrange their stat array. And let's adjust their racial ability scores. And some of these racial traits aren't that useful, so let's exchange them for something else. I don't really need them to be undergound. And frankly, I've never really cared for the name kobolds... can we just call them something else?Yeah, why can't Kobolds be on level with real PC races?
+2 Charisma, +2 Dexterity,–2 Strength seems right-- small/weak, but nimble and draconic related CHR bump.
Hmmm... I must not be laying the sarcasm on thickly enough. I'll work on that.
Suffice to say, if you want a stronger base creature to challenge your PC's, without adding any templates or adjusting any starting equipment... Instead of reprinting all of the core bestiaries, why don't you just use the goblin, orc, hobgoblin, gnoll, bugbear, ogre, minotaur, or cyclops?
Because most of those creatures are also hindered with horrible racial attribute adjustments?
How do you design worthwhile orc encounters when orcs are hindered with negatives to all mental attributes?
It's a problem that extends beyond Kobolds, but they are the most obvious example of it. "evil" creatures whose only purpose is to be slaughtered are given awful attribute adjustments to ensure they aren't equal.
I have to say, I'm with you all the way on kobolds - but you've lost me here.
Orcs are not at all what I'd call 'hindered'. +4 STR, -2 all mental stats. So they're not bright, but they're tough as the hells and they have GREAT weaponry (A Falchion is hands-down one of the best weapons in the game.)
So they might not win any intellectual arguments, but with your average orc sporting a 19 STR and wielding a two-handed 18-20 crit weapon for 2d4+6 (Or +9 if they're Power Attacking and they're ALWAYS power attacking, and turning that into 4d4+18 at THREE TIMES the normal rate) damage means they won't need to win any debates after they've turned their opponent into paste. The lowly 1/3CR Orc can potentially one-shot a 3rd level Wizard with a lucky swing.
Edit: I actually just ran the numbers here, and you can up to a 5th level wizard (Average HP with a +2 Con and the favored class bonus = 35) The orc's crit caps at 34. So if Mr. Squishy had some unfortunate rolls on his way to fifth level he's still in danger from an orc who has decided his head looks better separated from his shoulders.
Sure orcs are stonrg, but set up to be incapable of being worthwhile spellcasters of any variety.
Since we already know the worst spellcaster > than the best possible martial from other posts on these boards, then the -2 to all mental attributes is nowhere near being worth +4 strength.
You know who gets +4 strength? Human spellcaster with Bull's Strength. That spellcaster also got +2 to Int or Wis or Cha to match.
Again, I'd much rather have orcs who have genuine PC attributes (two +2s one -2) than +4 str imbecilic, moronic, stutterers.
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Sure orcs are stonrg, but set up to be incapable of being worthwhile spellcasters of any variety.
Since we already know the worst spellcaster > than the best possible martial from other posts on these boards, then the -2 to all mental attributes is nowhere near being worth +4 strength.
You know who gets +4 strength? Human spellcaster with Bull's Strength. That spellcaster also got +2 to Int or Wis or Cha to match.
Again, I'd much rather have orcs who have genuine PC attributes (two +2s one -2) than +4 str imbecilic, moronic, stutterers.
Casters are built up as better than martials for their versatility, not because they always kill things better. Barbarians kill things (Especially puny wizards!) damn well.
I just ask myself, "What are orcs?" They're raiders. They don't spend a lot of time in quiet contemplation or study, and their gods are venerated by war and bloodshed - not burning incense and meditating on the universe.
Being simple works because they have the Strength to back it up.
As for Bulls Strength - A) It's limited to so many times per day, B) It's a short duration, C) It is wasted on a spellcaster with no good weapon proficiencies and half BAB and (most importantly) D) As a 2nd level spell, it is easily within the reach of an orc spell caster with 12 Wis to use on an orc Warrior for an even more ridiculous slash chop.
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Sure orcs are stonrg, but set up to be incapable of being worthwhile spellcasters of any variety.... If only there was an Orc-specific full casting archetype that didn't use a mental stat to cast.
Average NPC warrior orc would have a Str of 15 (base 11 +4). Which means the average orc is equal to a heroic human fighter.
Tucker's Kobolds is a meme. In actuality, with anyone capable of using magic, Tucker's Kobolds would have been easily eradicated a long time before. Using invisibility, gaseous form, or wraithform to scout their tunnels; fireballs and cloudkills to saturate them; confusion spells to get them fighting one another; dominating their leaders...
Tucker's Kobolds were only effective if they only resources you had were non-magical, where it basically came down to you're fighting them on their home ground, so of course they have advantages.
It was a great article on how to make them dangerous...to non-casters. To any real casters, they should have been a joke that was steamrolled early on.
==Aelryinth
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Average NPC warrior orc would have a Str of 15 (base 11 +4). Which means the average orc is equal to a heroic human fighter.
Tucker's Kobolds is a meme. In actuality, with anyone capable of using magic, Tucker's Kobolds would have been easily eradicated a long time before. Using invisibility, gaseous form, or wraithform to scout their tunnels; fireballs and cloudkills to saturate them; confusion spells to get them fighting one another; dominating their leaders...
Tucker's Kobolds were only effective if they only resources you had were non-magical, where it basically came down to you're fighting them on their home ground, so of course they have advantages.
It was a great article on how to make them dangerous...to non-casters. To any real casters, they should have been a joke that was steamrolled early on.
==Aelryinth
I imagine that any well equipped group of martials would have done a lot better as well.
Smoke sticks to block sniper LoS, Tower Shield walls backed up by adamantine cutting weaponry to breach barricades and get to the juicy squishy lizards behind them, stuff like that.
The real lesson of Tucker's Kobolds is that attacking a well prepared defensive position should be an absolute nightmare unless you significantly outclass the defenders in capabilities and/or numbers. Walking into a labryinth of defences should get your *** handed to you unless you are stupidly powerful (aka a competent mid-high level fullcaster) or you are well prepared to defeat or bypass the defenses put up to stop you. Magic just happens to be the best way of defeating tunnels full of kobolds, but it isn't the only way.
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Meh... if you have infinite time and infinite resources, then nothing is a real challenge. But, if you only have one day to save the world, and the ticking bomb is on level two surrounded by CR appropriate challenges, then Tucker's Kobolds on level one are absolutely devastating.
I don't go in for the 15 minute workday schroedingers wizard argument.
Also, better weapons on the kobold wouldn't really change anything in either of these examples.
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You know who gets +4 strength? Human spellcaster with Bull's Strength. That spellcaster also got +2 to Int or Wis or Cha to match.
Oh, we gon' play dis game?
You know who gets +8 strength? Orc spellcaster with Bull's Strength. The orc spellcaster also got Diehard for free, which might help him survive a teensy bit longer than the squishy human mage.
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Average NPC warrior orc would have a Str of 15 (base 11 +4). Which means the average orc is equal to a heroic human fighter.
Well, no, probably not.
The average NPC Warrior orc uses the NPC array, as a monster with NPC class levels.
13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8
Given that it is an orc, you could pretty much use the array in that order, except possibly switch Dex with Con and Int with Wis.
So Str 17, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 7, Wis 8, Cha 6
Oh wait, that's exactly what it has in the Bestiary! /shock
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I'll accede to that. NPC array has also been presented as 11, 11, 11, 10,10,10 as well, and that's what I was working off of.
In other words, when you're looking at the racial bonuses of a creature, you figure all ability scores are either 10 or 11 base.
So an 'average' orc should have 14 or 15 Str.
==Aelryinth
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So an average orc commoner? What does he have to worry about? Ocelots? Fishing cats?
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Kobolds in his privy?
==Aelryinth
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Kobolds in his privy?
==Aelryinth
Only if he swallowed whole and didn't chew.
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I'll accede to that. NPC array has also been presented as 11, 11, 11, 10,10,10 as well, and that's what I was working off of.
In other words, when you're looking at the racial bonuses of a creature, you figure all ability scores are either 10 or 11 base.
So an 'average' orc should have 14 or 15 Str.
==Aelryinth
The creature’s ability scores are listed here. Unless otherwise indicated, a creature’s ability scores represent the baseline of its racial modifiers applied to scores of 10 or 11. Creatures with NPC class levels have stats in the standard array (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8), while creatures with character class levels have the elite array (15, 14, 12, 11, 10, 8); in both cases, the creature’s ability score modifiers are listed at the end of its description.
And
And that's equal to a heroic human fighter on the high stat and inferior elsewhere.
Sorry, I only meant that the average orc warrior wouldn't have Str 15, not that he was equal/unequal to a heroic human in any particular way.
So... the average Orc can match the Strength of a Human using a much rarer stat array.
I call that a win for the Orc.
Not that much rarer. The "class" 13/12/11/10/9/8 spread is used on all NPC-classed humanoids - including the orc - so comparing that to the "average" spread 11/11/11/10/10/10 of non-classed stuff like owlbears is kinda wonky. If you compare the "class" spread to the heroic spread, yeah, that's much rarer, but the orc has +2 Str compared to a str-focused human, which is good but not fantastic.
Granted, it is a win for the orc in specifically the strength department, and orcs are dangerous, but lets' not pretend a 15/11/11/8/8/8 is a combat-wise match of 14/13/11/8/10/9 or 16/13/11/6/8/7 is a match of 16/15/13/10/12/8. The strength may be a technical match, but the lower array means they have less chance to capitalize on it (less AC/HP/ranged attack bonus/saves).
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Maybe the kobold wasn't allowed into the weapon shop, because he's a kobold. He had to scrounge up a spear - doubly hard, because he's Small, and all the weapon-crafters are making Medium weapons, because that's where the money is. He took Craft (trapmaking) instead of Craft (weapons), so no luck there. He's stuck with his sad little spear.
Mites are weird. Maybe they like darts.
Pretty much this. Humans have the entire backing of their civilization supporting them and thus allowing specialization of tasks, and for warriors, a diverse weapon training spectrum across all nations.
The humans "won". In a campaign where say, the kobolds have won, where they have a globe-spanning empire and more than a dozen distinct cultures across the globe, I would say you should feel free to adjust the "basic kobold" stat block, and perhaps knock down the humans a few pegs as they hide in their caves, with no real access to steel and set traps against these nasty, hopelessly strong kobolds! ;)
Uhm... Kobolds live in huge colonies, are great miners andcommunaly-minded. They are mechanically skilledand of average intelligence. As generally lawful creatures with well-organized communities theres really no reason for them to have worse weapon imdustry than say, goblins or lizardfolk. Now, theres been good arguments here for why their resources are limited and equipment mediocre, some i a gree with and some not, but "humans dont allow them in their shops" is a really crappy one.
It works for ogres or bugbears, not for kobolds.
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incorrigible egos and continuous backstabbing to gain prominent positions might be a problem for kobolds, too. :o
==Aelryinth
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Uhm... Kobolds live in huge colonies, are great miners andcommunaly-minded. They are mechanically skilledand of average intelligence. As generally lawful creatures with well-organized communities theres really no reason for them to have worse weapon imdustry than say, goblins or lizardfolk. Now, theres been good arguments here for why their resources are limited and equipment mediocre, some i a gree with and some not, but "humans dont allow them in their shops" is a really crappy one.
It works for ogres or bugbears, not for kobolds.
I will say that might limit some of the weapon options.
I mostly mean the lucerne hammer, the Bardiche, the Glaive-glaive-glaive-guisarme-glaive- that long list of martial reach weapons that came about due to large scale production for weapons of war and advancements in metallurgy in the medieval period. Those were born from centuries of experimentation with a rather large amount of resources. So unless you spend time getting up close look at human weapons (and for kobolds, that is a euphemism for 'death'), then it might be hard to justify the breadth of unique and sometimes specialized reach weapons.
But that certainly doesn't exclude long spears or glaives, which are fairly simple and and carry obvious advantages.
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Kobolds' civilization has largely failed to keep up with humans because they're in the Underdark/lands. They're also extremely weak individually, so unlike duergar or drow* they can't really just hunker down when a herd of rabid bullettes moves in. And they're hostile to most races that could help them make advancements.
Arguably worst of all, though, they're obsessed with serving evil dragons. Said evil dragons are content to send half of these kobolds to their certain deaths if it suits their "long-term" goals. This makes cultural evolution...challenging.
*The fact that the backstabbing drow can have a whole empire and kobolds can't even have a united kingdom is one of the dumbest conceits of D&D, but that's more "drow favoritism" than "kobold hate".
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Uhm... Kobolds live in huge colonies, are great miners andcommunaly-minded. They are mechanically skilledand of average intelligence. As generally lawful creatures with well-organized communities theres really no reason for them to have worse weapon imdustry than say, goblins or lizardfolk. Now, theres been good arguments here for why their resources are limited and equipment mediocre, some i a gree with and some not, but "humans dont allow them in their shops" is a really crappy one.
It works for ogres or bugbears, not for kobolds.
I will say that might limit some of the weapon options.
I mostly mean the lucerne hammer, the Bardiche, the Glaive-glaive-glaive-guisarme-glaive- that long list of martial reach weapons that came about due to large scale production for weapons of war and advancements in metallurgy in the medieval period. Those were born from centuries of experimentation with a rather large amount of resources. So unless you spend time getting up close look at human weapons (and for kobolds, that is a euphemism for 'death'), then it might be hard to justify the breadth of unique and sometimes specialized reach weapons.
But that certainly doesn't exclude long spears or glaives, which are fairly simple and and carry obvious advantages.
Polearms were invented by peasants who needed a way to kill cavaliers. I don't think they're that advanced a premise. :P
Aelryinth and KC - agreed, except for the dragon part. While konbolds are sometimes enslvaed by dragons, theyre not obsessed with serving them, and a dragon if anything would know to equip them with longspears, not because thry care about their lives but because they arefar more efficient at killing adventurers that way.
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Polearms were invented by peasants who needed a way to kill cavaliers. I don't think they're that advanced a premise. :PUhm... Kobolds live in huge colonies, are great miners andcommunaly-minded. They are mechanically skilledand of average intelligence. As generally lawful creatures with well-organized communities theres really no reason for them to have worse weapon imdustry than say, goblins or lizardfolk. Now, theres been good arguments here for why their resources are limited and equipment mediocre, some i a gree with and some not, but "humans dont allow them in their shops" is a really crappy one.
It works for ogres or bugbears, not for kobolds.
I will say that might limit some of the weapon options.
I mostly mean the lucerne hammer, the Bardiche, the Glaive-glaive-glaive-guisarme-glaive- that long list of martial reach weapons that came about due to large scale production for weapons of war and advancements in metallurgy in the medieval period. Those were born from centuries of experimentation with a rather large amount of resources. So unless you spend time getting up close look at human weapons (and for kobolds, that is a euphemism for 'death'), then it might be hard to justify the breadth of unique and sometimes specialized reach weapons.
But that certainly doesn't exclude long spears or glaives, which are fairly simple and and carry obvious advantages.
Not meaning to sound as snarky as this will come across but..
They encounter a lot of momentum based mounted enemies in those tunnels?
Theres more than one hravily armored quadroped underground monster. That said, the main argument for polearms would be crowsbeaks and similar having evolved from putting longer shafts on picks.
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Aelryinth and KC - agreed, except for the dragon part. While konbolds are sometimes enslvaed by dragons, theyre not obsessed with serving them, and a dragon if anything would know to equip them with longspears, not because thry care about their lives but because they arefar more efficient at killing adventurers that way.
Kobolds actually are obsessed with serving dragons—at least in Golarion lore. They willingly seek out dragons or dragonlike entities to pledge their loyalty. This is pretty much just how kobolds work.
Also, the really stupid thing about polearms is that in a cave you can easily end up with your back against a wall. Without the easy ability to five-foot step, a polearm can be madness.
Still not too bad for meatshield kobolds, though. Once you lose the ability to flee, you're dead anyways. But let's not pretend that polearms are anything other than a slightly more optimal means of suicide for a kobold.
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Polearms were invented by peasants who needed a way to kill cavaliers. I don't think they're that advanced a premise. :PNot meaning to sound as snarky as this will come across but..
They encounter a lot of momentum based mounted enemies in those tunnels?
Yeah... the main defense against mounted opponents for kobold warrens would be to make the tunnels kobold sized.
Of course, that would also be a defense against adventurers as well, at least ones that aren't plucky halflings or wacky gnomes.
While it is logical, it does make a huge problem as part of low level adventures. So I suppose you have to go with the contrivance that they need at least medium tunnels to efficiently move removed rock and soil, perhaps with small underground pack animals (the example of a kobold cavalier has a cave salamander)
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Aelryinth and KC - agreed, except for the dragon part. While konbolds are sometimes enslvaed by dragons, theyre not obsessed with serving them, and a dragon if anything would know to equip them with longspears, not because thry care about their lives but because they arefar more efficient at killing adventurers that way.Kobolds actually are obsessed with serving dragons—at least in Golarion lore. They willingly seek out dragons or dragonlike entities to pledge their loyalty. This is pretty much just how kobolds work.
Also, the really stupid thing about polearms is that in a cave you can easily end up with your back against a wall. Without the easy ability to five-foot step, a polearm can be madness.
Well, that is a good reason why one should have backup weapons, like short swords. Or at least daggers (even if they are terrible flint daggers)
Still, yeah, using a reach weapon in the tunnels is problematic. I think they should only be used in wider rooms, such as living areas or food storage, and they should only be encountered in the tunnels when you have a kobold moving to defend such an area.
Also, there could just be murder rooms. Rooms set up purely as defensive locations- preferably with archer emplacements that can only be accessed by kobold sized tunnels. And the long spear users would mostly just be disposable fodder used to distract adventurers so they can't find a way up to the archers.
Sorry KC, didnt know that, dont play in Golarion and the bestiary didnt imply it. Regardless, i stand by that dragons would make sure theyre more efficient.
But in real life, a long spear in a tight tunnel would be perfect. In the rules, longspear is still better, as dropping it and drawing a club if the enemy gets in your face is as efficient as just attacking, and a longspear gives you an opportunity even before they reach you (unlesd they too have reach, in which case you -really- dont want ashortspear.