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We've all seen the blog post announcing it, and likely read one of the many threads discussing it: goblins will be a core race/ancestry for players in the PF2E playtest and core rulebook.
If you are a fan of goblins or goblin-curious or even goblin-curious-with-some-reservations, what will a goblin PC look like to you? Are there some new character ideas you'd like to explore as a goblin PC or some favorite standbys and tropes you'd like to re-explore now but with a goblin character? How would such a character retain & express his or her innate goblin-ness without disrupting or undermining a typical adventuring party?
And I ask politely but emphatically: if you cannot accept a non-evil, non-disruptive goblin PC as a core character option, please take non-constructive and argumentative comments to one of the other threads above or elsewhere. Thank you.
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For goblin wizards and other literate goblins, how will you explain your goblin's willingness to risk their mind/soul by reading (and writing!) words on the page? Here are just a few I came up with:
My current two off-the-top-of-my-head theories are:
1) A new goblin leader/folk hero/deity (Mi'kaz?) demonstrates that goblins no longer have to fear written words. After all, goblins use words to speak, they gesticulate & point; why fear words on the page?
b) Goblins will still fear written words, but they'll invent (many) new (bizarre/ridiculous/outlandish) superstitions to ward off the danger, similar to real-world humans throwing a pinch of salt over their shoulder or not walking under ladders.
Or option π: Goblins can read written text normally, but they protect themselves by mentally converting it into a language game. Goblin spellcasters may also scribe scrolls and speak the vocal components of spells backwards, Zatanna-style.
Goblin spellcasters who ward away the danger (by translate-converting spells on the fly or adding an extra somatic component) may be better at obscuring what spell they are casting. It may also increase the chance they'll accidentally create a wild magic effect.
Edit: Goblin spellcasters may also use a variant of the Cypher Script feat to scribe their spells, which alters the words enough to protect them from the danger.
Option 4) Goblins will doodle fearsome beasts to defend their goblin souls in the margins of their (spell)books, notebooks, and scrolls. While some may depict goblin heroes fighting flailsnails, many literate goblins will prefer deadly wolpertingers, savage butt monsters, and other vulgarities as equally effective (and more entertaining) wards.
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I want to play a goblin bard who is one of those "troubled but talented artists"- A poet who reads and writes so voraciously because they believe this is the only way to get all those words out of their head, so they can finally enjoy some quiet and clarity.
Bonus points if the character in question has too much soul to begin with, and would be happy with a smaller portion.
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My goblin paladin (the PC associated with this alias) was a criminal. But he was caught and his punishment was hard labor on a farm for twenty years.
While working the farm, he discovered a secret chamber beneath the earth that held long forgotten knowledge of a time when goblins weren't vilified and hated across the lands. A time when they were considered one of the heroes of all people.
He studied the anciet texts he found, and slowly tried to adopt the teaching of his racial ancestors.
One day, he received a letter informing him that his son was desperately ill. So, with the help of a gaurd he had befriended (a hobgoblin PC), he made his escape to try and find the cure (his motivation for going on the campaign the DM set up).
So here we have a goblin paladin with a criminal past, who is not LG because he still struggles with the teachings and ideals of what it means to be a paladin, even as he strives to become a better person.
Because he has escaped from his punishment before the completion of his sentence, he has chosen to go by a pseudonym, that of the ancient race of goblins: the !Ko Bei Lin.
(And as a player and a character, I have no idea of the texts he read was true or not, but the PC has chosen to believe they are).
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An origin I will be more than happy to recycle:
Goblin ranger, cast out from his tribe for eating the chief's favorite pig.
Skulked around near a human village, evading dogs (since killing the dogs would let the humans know he was there!). Heroically rescues a kitten from the dog that has it treed as much to spite the dog as anything else. Seeing a kindred spirit in the fishhook-toed little murder machine, keeps it as a pet, sharing kills, and comparing fangs. Mister Fluffyclaws would be his friend!
When the kitten gets sick, Ranger Gob is worried. His only friend, deathly ill... so he steals some laundry off of a line, claims to be a "halfling, those are a thing, right?" with leprosy, and approaches the village temple to see if they can help his little buddy.
The village priest, a bit puzzled about what this freaky goblin in what is clearly the rearranged remnants of the Widow Osgood's floral nightie is up to, plays it dumb and agrees to help with the kitten... IF the "poor leper" will stick around during treatment.
With the enforced caution of his solo existence impressed upon him, Ranger Gob behaves himself, convinced that the stupid longshanks are totally buying it, and Mister Fluffyclaws will soon be back in fighting trim. But it seems to take... well, forever! And the stupid human children keep dropping by to pester him at the temple day after day. WHY ARE THEY DOING THAT?!
...
But their games seem fun. Not as much fire and stabbing as he was used to, of course, but plenty of jumping, punching, hopping...
So he was playing leapfrog with the human children in the temple courtyard when the slavers came. They came to ruin his game of leapfrog. To ransack the temple where he'd been sleeping. To take away the man who was helping Mister Fluffyclaws get better.
Ranger Gob got angry. And when they grabbed the kid who'd given him a pickle the day before, well... things got kind of hazy.
The slavers hadn't really been prepared for that much trouble from what they had initially thought was one of the kids with some kind of deformity. They certainly weren't prepared for Ranger Gob's sheer frenzied fury, all of the pent-up rage at his exile boiling over as he put his training in how best to maim humans to use. They were almost surprised by the assault as Ranger Gob was to be fighting on the same side as one of the village's dogs!
Ranger Gob didn't win the fight- one of the slavers smacked him with a shovel- but he bought time for the villagers to organize their defense... and when he awoke with a throbbing headache and bandages over his head, he was tucked into a straw bed with Mister Fluffyclaws curled next to him- and a big jar of pickles.
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PossibleCabbage's garbage collecting goblins is a pretty nifty idea. I could even see a certain goblin organizing them into unions for better pay and better treatment. Twitchy Boom Boom's garbage song idea evocatively conjures scenes of singing garbage goblins making an early morning ruckus as they make their rounds. And if that ruckus provokes many cranky former-sleepers into throwing things at the gobs, the gobs might see that as a salvageable gratuity.
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An extremely sheltered goblin from, lets say a relatively isolated Kingdom of Low Repute of the River Kingdoms, where goblins living among the populace is completely normalized and they are every day citizens. This goblin goes on an adventure and is absolutely baffled and caught off guard by the continual reactions that people have to him.
Someone reincarnated as a goblin might be fun too. I'm thinking something similar to the gnome character in one AP who was reincarnated as a Kobold, but without the crazy self-hating vengeance angle.
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Or you can take !Ko Bie Len or Ranger Gob, and turn them into heroic ancestral figures...
"No, seriously, they just GIVE me pickles! All I have to do is kill stuff that threatens them and not set the town on fire!"
This thread is good food for thought. I cant picture a goblin PC in any way but Joxer from Xena.
You should picture your gobo PC like me.
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This thread is good food for thought. I cant picture a goblin PC in any way but Joxer from Xena.
You should picture your gobo PC like me.
goblin babies think this could be a fun take on a goblin master chymist's dueling personalities.
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So here's an idea I've been kicking around->
Torag's Paladin code is a problem- Specifically the "Against my people's enemies, I will show no mercy" clause applied to the classic "goblin babies" dilemma. So suppose a Dwarven Paladin of Torag gets done slaughtering a bunch of goblins and discovers one helpless infant. Deciding "this creature is no one's enemy, and slaughtering it would bring no honor to Torag or his chosen people" the paladin takes the goblin child home and adopts him or her and the Paladin is proven right in their judgement as they do not fall. So what we get is a Goblin child, raised in a Dwarven culture, who goes on to be a Paladin of Torag (or maybe just one of his family members?) like their adopted parent.
No one believes them when they admit who they are or what they do, but no one can argue that the young goblin speaks oddly perfect dwarfish and is as honorable a gobbo as anyone has ever seen.
Ranger. Favored Enemy Goblins. You can actually take this idea a few different ways.
Last survivor of another goblin raid that wants to avenge their clan? Raised by X and had goblins kill their foster family? Maybe they got bullied by other goblins and became really good at fighting back against them?
Mind you, this is just my mental block here, I can't see them using bows. But I also can't see Halflings and Dwarves using them either, so....
Goblins given their fondness with Goblin Dogs, also are probably grade A material for any Animal Companion Class.
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Naturally this isn't really capable as of right now, but I would want to play as a Goblin Arcanist who has the Elemental (Fire) bloodline - she was gonna be a pyromaniac sorcerer but a wizard came along and taught her how to be a wizard, and now she can cast fireballs and aspire to open a bookstore!
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So here's an idea I've been kicking around->
Torag's Paladin code is a problem- Specifically the "Against my people's enemies, I will show no mercy" clause applied to the classic "goblin babies" dilemma. So suppose a Dwarven Paladin of Torag gets done slaughtering a bunch of goblins and discovers one helpless infant. Deciding "this creature is no one's enemy, and slaughtering it would bring no honor to Torag or his chosen people" the paladin takes the goblin child home and adopts him or her and the Paladin is proven right in their judgement as they do not fall. So what we get is a Goblin child, raised in a Dwarven culture, who goes on to be a Paladin of Torag (or maybe just one of his family members?) like their adopted parent.
No one believes them when they admit who they are or what they do, but no one can argue that the young goblin speaks oddly perfect dwarfish and is as honorable a gobbo as anyone has ever seen.
So, does the dwarven-raised goblin go the nobler route (Worf son of Mogh), or do they follow a darker path (Theon Greyjoy)?
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Keedra the goblin paladin. A devotee of Sarenrae had her dead to rights when his companions sacked a goblin village, and she endeared herself to him by pledging her undying servitude to the knight in exchange for her life. She played the fool out of necessity, but gradually learned more of Sarenrae's faith and discovered how the knight's worship was primarily self-serving lip-service. Eventually realizing that her service should be to the goddess instead of the hypocritical knight, she challenged him to a duel for her freedom. She won, rode off into the sunset, and has followed the calling of Sarenrae ever since.
(I see this is like the third goblin paladin concept already on this thread. Whatever, though - it's a fun thought exercise, and that racial bonus to Charisma is good for something...)
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I had an idea for a goblin wizard several years ago, and even got to play as him for a convention one-shot. I posted the basis up here somewhere. Though he was still LE, it was because he was spared by the Norgorberites who killed the rest of his raiding group because he stopped and begged to learn about their longshanks god of scaring and stealing from other longshanks. He learned that everyone was wrong, that writing magic could rule the world, and to suck up to people he shouldn't scare.
Now Norgorber's might is his power, and he used the golden ring they gave him as his arcane bond: he's a wizard who specializes in scary illusions. Though there's a reason I'd only bring him out at a convention one-shot...
In Brightest Night/
Beware Your Fears Made Into Light/
Let Those Who Try To Stop What's Right/
Burn Like My Power:
NORGORBER'S MIGHT!
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Snapgab, the goblin monk. After getting captured and imprisoned in a jail following an unsuccesful raid, he spent his dues with his cellmate, who was a monk. Snabgab was slowly converted into a more lawful way of thinking in the prison, learning from him the way of the fist. Sadly, his cellmate died before his release, but now Snapgab carries out his teachings, trying to figure out what he meant with "path to personal enlightment."
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Bumping once
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My Goblin Bard: Saved from slaughter by a cleric of Sarenrae and placed in an orphanage. The Headmaster realizes that this goblin child is not going to survive amongst the other children, convinces a friend to foster him.
With a loving touch, a firm hand, and an exceptional child, Prof. Ikkins raises the goblin to adulthood. The results are far better than any had hoped. "Rugglesby" is an intelligent, erudite, well spoken goblin. His true talent is oratory, and his intellectual passion is learning about, and educating people about, Goblins.
When we meet him, he is in town to give a lecture on Goblins, and how to deal with them.
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Torki, a young Goblin living at the Sandpoint Turandarok Academy. During the event of Rise of the Runelords, a dwarven Barbarian took him from the cages of Thistletop and brought him to the orphanage. Headmaster Gandethus agreed to help the female dwarf in teaching the baby, to see if goblins were truly evil in their blood and nonredeemable. Ten years later, after some incidents where he scratched some of his friends when they tried to steal his pickles, Torki is now working at the Academy as a janitor, cleaning up behind the kids and throwing it in the junkyard, licking cleaning the plates after dinner, and reading some books in his free time. After Brodert Quink's death and his "mother's" group strange disappearance, he is now the most knowledgeable citizen of Sandpoint on Tassilonian lore, knowledges he got during researches he made trying to understand what his "mother" was fighting against.
[EDIT] Evidently, this is straight from the RotR game I was the DM in, with the dwarf one of my player's character. :3 It can easily be tweaked, and it can be the background of both a NPC and a PC. :P
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A goblin Paladin raised by my current Pathfinder Society Paladin after said Paladin destroyed his village but refused to kill the babies. He is Thoroughly lawful good, and reacts to criticism of his Goblinish tendencies, such as his affinity for fire, with apologism similar to the kind I've been arguing against on here.
"I'll have you know fire is the holiest of the four elements. Have you ever heard of holy air? Holy Earth? Sure, there's holy water, but it's objectively less powerful. How many evil creatures have been smited by holy fire?"
"What, you have to ride a horse to be a holy Warrior? Creatures no less vile then the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride those creatures."
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A goblin martial who was saved when a spellcasting PC used a fire spell to protect me. Now I am fanatically devoted to being the spellcasting PC's bodyguard and giving them opportunities to burn evil (or anything, really) from the land.
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Perhaps a goblin moocursed barbarian (or wolf shifter) that rages into a "barghest" wolf form and hybrid form?
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Perhaps a goblin moocursed barbarian (or wolf shifter) that rages into a "barghest" wolf form and hybrid form?
Moocursed? A goblin that turns into a dairy cow?!
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Goblin Wizard who absolutely loathes magic and so writes it in a despicable spellbook to force it out of his mind, yet keeps getting better despite his best effort.
Goblin Alchemist/Fighter who coats his body in a protective gel, lights himself on fire, and punches his enemies to death. Probably evil NPC goblin.
Goblin rogue with a huge disguise, dresses like a Human with stilts and a trenchcoat so he can buy pickled whisky.
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For goblin wizards and other literate goblins, how will you explain your goblin's willingness to risk their mind/soul by reading (and writing!) words on the page? Here are just a few I came up with...
There’s also the idea of the Goblins having something like real-world Quipu, or talking knots. Imagine a goblin wizard having a junk-bag containing what to any sane wizard looks like a shredded cloth, but actually contains scores of cantrips and 1st through 5th level spells...
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As an advocate of goblins in core, I have been thinking about this a lot, and I think a great Goblin NPC, is a reformed goblin obsessed with dwarves who really fancies herself (or himself) a barber and wants to shape dwarf beards into something beautiful, but can't get any customers because no dwarves are willing to trust a goblin with a blade near their neck.
As an advocate of goblins in core, I have been thinking about this a lot, and I think a great Goblin NPC, is a reformed goblin obsessed with dwarves who really fancies herself (or himself) a barber and wants to shape dwarf beards into something beautiful, but can't get any customers because no dwarves are willing to trust a goblin with a blade near their neck.
Given goblin hairlessness, I LOVE this idea.
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I had an idea once, for when I was repeatedly pestered into a sort of crossover adventure, for a goblin paladin of Sarenrae. Converted by Kyra, she swore a sacred oath to promote honest respect & camaraderie, uncovering false faiths & evil charms/compulsions, and bringing fire and the sword to both undead and the horrifying symbol of corruption and dishonesty: the horse, and their less-big kin.
The GM and the other players never got back to me about that, but it was probably for the best.
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For goblin wizards and other literate goblins, how will you explain your goblin's willingness to risk their mind/soul by reading (and writing!) words on the page? Here are just a few I came up with...There’s also the idea of the Goblins having something like real-world Quipu, or talking knots. Imagine a goblin wizard having a junk-bag containing what to any sane wizard looks like a shredded cloth, but actually contains scores of cantrips and 1st through 5th level spells...
That, actually sounds cool. Though you'd probably have to hand wave away the weight of so much cloth or rope. Alternate idea, smaller cords of rope kept in a book or maybe pictures.
I can see Alchemist goblins doing something like it.
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As an advocate of goblins in core, I have been thinking about this a lot, and I think a great Goblin NPC, is a reformed goblin obsessed with dwarves who really fancies herself (or himself) a barber and wants to shape dwarf beards into something beautiful, but can't get any customers because no dwarves are willing to trust a goblin with a blade near their neck.Given goblin hairlessness, I LOVE this idea.
They're great... until they start to feel... naughty...
They're great... until they start to feel... naughty...
That's our secret, Captain: We're always angry naughty.