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This is something I've been molding and rebuilding fairly often for a while now, but I've been looking at how to make a decent kobold paladin of Apsu. For a while, I thought perhaps going with a quarterstaff (Apsu's favored weapon) and two weapon fighting with it might work best. But it occurred to be me that I might have been going at this the wrong way. Rather than try to keep up with bigger races in melee... why not fight smarter, not harder, as kobolds are apt to do.
So I'm working on a kobold paladin with the Divine Hunter archetype to grab Precise Shot and play up my Dex bonus as much as possible, using a crossbow to ignore the strength penalty. But I figured why stop there and just go all the way with the kobold traditions of setting up traps and repelling foes with superior tactics? So I thought it might be a benefit to shoot for Eldritch Heritage (play up the charisma I'd be using anyways), take the Kobold bloodline for the Trap Rune ability, as well as grab Draconic Aspect, Draconic Magic, and Draconic Paragon to play up the dragon themes. Problem is, I also don't want to ignore my crossbow either. I'd like to at least grab rapid reload for the light crossbow so I can fire multiple times per round at higher levels...
But, this also leads into a quandary I've had with a few folks over paladin codes: would trapmaking be considered too "evil" for a paladin to engage in? I personally would argue no, especially for a kobold, since Apsu is a god of creating, and traps are technically creations, so... I'd think kobolds would see it as a holy art (especially given one of the Artifice subdomains is the kobold exclusive Trap subdomain... and Artifice is an area of concern for Apsu).
Suggestions?
This is probably a question for the dm. Personally I vote yes, right on, go for it. The question is whether fighting with traps is dishonorable like using poison. To me it seems to be a form of using the battlefield to your advantage which definitely not against a paladins code. Another thing is that paladins might follow different codes of honor based upon region, beliefs, etc. While it might be dishonorable for a classical white knight to do so is it really dishonorable for kobolds who literally decide arguments by seeing who can make the worst hallway of traps. At the very least it can be considered lawful due to it being a huge part of the LE Kobold culture. As for being evil it is only a method to harm people/things. If hurting stuff was inherently evil we wouldn't have smite evil. I mean so long as you make sure they never hurt good people(disarming them when your done, using nonleathal arrows, etc.) it should be fine. The dm might require you not use damaging traps but rather use disabling traps like blindness, tripping, pits, etc. Another option is to have you let them know you've booby trapped the area and give a chance to surrender. Using either of those options I don't really see how using traps could be a problem
Oh and happy Kobolding
In older editions, poison was considered 'evil.' That's silly. It's tactics. You're fighting, and if you're fighting for what you believe in, there's nothing wrong with hitting them where it hurts. As long as you're not indulging in more pain or suffering than needs be, pretty much anything in terms of tactics is fair play.
Additionally, though you give up a lot, you might want to look at the new archetype from legacy of dragons. The Drake companion sucks REALLY bad for a mount at most game levels, but a small character can get a mount at 9, instead of 13.
Fred 'Freddy' Jones is both the epitome of lawful good (in my humble opinion) and uses traps to capture all the monsters.
Trapmaking is definitely not evil, but only as long as you wear a stylish ascot.
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Poison and traps isn't evil, it is dishonorable to some. The kobolds would admire the tactics that risked the lives of as few soldiers as possible. Kobold honor definitely has traps.
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I see Lawful as honoring the laws and customs of their culture first and foremost.
Traps are quite ok, even honorable, for a Kobold culture.
The main issue IMO is whether innocent sentient creatures could be hurt/killed by your traps. Not caring = Evil at my table.
Non-lethal traps are great for a LG kobold. Or lethal traps you can 100% guarantee will be triggered by not-innocent creatures.
I see Lawful as honoring the laws and customs of their culture first and foremost.
Traps are quite ok, even honorable, for a Kobold culture.
The main issue IMO is whether innocent sentient creatures could be hurt/killed by your traps. Not caring = Evil at my table.
Non-lethal traps are great for a LG kobold. Or lethal traps you can 100% guarantee will be triggered by not-innocent creatures.
Custom made alignment based magical traps? Paladins are nothing if not hardworking.
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Custom made alignment based magical traps? Paladins are nothing if not hardworking.I see Lawful as honoring the laws and customs of their culture first and foremost.
Traps are quite ok, even honorable, for a Kobold culture.
The main issue IMO is whether innocent sentient creatures could be hurt/killed by your traps. Not caring = Evil at my table.
Non-lethal traps are great for a LG kobold. Or lethal traps you can 100% guarantee will be triggered by not-innocent creatures.
Be careful that
1) Alignment Detection can be fooled
2) Evil creatures can still be innocent if they have done nothing wrong (yet)
3) Even if they have done something wrong, they should have a right to a fair trial by whatever means are accepted in Kobold culture, unless of course we're talking absolute self-defense here. Doing otherwise is not really Lawful ;-)
I think you could make arguments either way. Using non lethal traps would absolutely be acceptable to me, avoiding needless loss of life on both sides, and allowing enemies the chance to change their ways would be something a paladin would condone. using a trap designed to kill unsuspecting victims would right out regardless of circumstance, except for maybe demons and the like. Everything else would be somewhere in between.
Something to consider with all traps would be how likely it is to cause collateral damage. If you are setting up a trap that has any reasonable chance of catching an innocent the paladin should not use it.
Thanks for the input, all! It's good to see I wasn't the only one thinking this.
For my kobold, one of the tenets of his self-proclaimed code of conduct is that he doesn't fight fair. Not because he's dishonorable, but because he simply can't fight fair. Not in a straight up knock-down drag-out fight. Doing so would give evil the advantage, as he sees it, so... he doesn't.
My chief concern at this point would be what traps and tricks to include. My initital thought is to grab Skill Focus (Disable Device) out the gate so he can qualify for Eldritch Heritage and get Trap Rune by level 3. But I'd also like to give him the Firebug trait to use Spark (lamp oil + Spark = easy fire traps) and Draconic Magic just to give him some more "arcane power". I know fire isn't the most reliable damage type, but... it'd be thematic.