I think the one thing that would trip this encounter up is if the party starts looking for traps, instead of blindly stumbling into all of them. For instance, a rouge or any character w/ high investigation can usually bypass almost all of these passive traps, so the only real threats would be the collapsing caverns. I think you made an incredibly balanced encounter that will punish a stupid party and will reward smart, careful play
I have a very small issue with how easy it is to find most traps. Anyone proficient with perception can pretty much passively spot all but masterwork traps. I guess, the way I'd see it, traps should be immune to passive perceptions.
@@Runesmith Have to agree with you, just because your passive perception says youd see it, im more of the mind that if you're not at least keeping an eye out for it ( ie, telling me that you're looking for anything weird ) you don't notice them. Id also not find it out of the realm of possibility that the kobolds make their traps look like part of their home.
"Kobolds will never take the fight to you, unless you're exactly 3 gnomes around a fire"No more... No less... 3 shalt be the number of the gnomes, and the number of the gnomes shall be 3
@@TrueLimeyhoney once 3(being the 3rd number be reached) then, lobbest though the holy kobold of death, at the gnome, who, being evil in their sight, shall snuff it
Ah... Kobolds. The first spellcaster I ever played was a Kobold Wizard named Briik. He got kicked out of his clan for being on a totally different page than everyne else, so he learned conjuration so he could have his own friends! RIP buddy...
@@defensivekobra3873 Sorcerers. Sorcerer kobolds are revered as having dragon's blood, but they're actually kinda common. A kobold wizard is an odd choice, especially if that particular kobold isn't summoning water and food for other kobolds as an adept.
just imagine chasing some kobold runt through a mine shaft and suddenly getting caught head first into a snare, your body maintaining momentum and flooring you.
Additional notes: via squeezing rules, kobolds can fit into and move through spaces fit for Tiny creatures. They can also travel comfortably through tunnels designed for _Small_ creatures. They will use this.
Imagine a tribe of Kobolds who's magic users all have the Mold Earth, Shape Water and Control Flames cantrips? Attacking them in their own lair would be near suicidal!
That party had it coming, they didn't constantly check for traps, they didn't communicate well and they split the party immediately. Sounds accurate to me.
Aka most of the parties I DM for, amazingly it turns out there’s a direct correlation between splitting the party and the more likely you are to end up in a coffin
I feel like Glittergold totally calls himself an "Epic Prankster™" (he spells out the trademark) and says "Get pranked bro" whenever he does literally anything, accompanied with unironical dabbing.
Bro they’re just trying to live their lives and some group of adventurers just waltz into their home. I like how their first priority was to get the eggs out of there it really shows character
Or if said Kobold is drunk and rolls a Nat 20 to stab you for 16 out of your 22 health when you tried to grab him because he was going the wrong way because a voice in your head told you to.
@@cgkase6210 I'll grant you that! How about a setup where scavengers come to excavate after recent failed adventures? Perhaps the scavengers tipped the party off in the first place knowing they would fail so they can swoop in and take the spoils.
@@SteveNeubauer Hmm... a setup of a band of scavengers excavating a warren as the kobolds try to reset and reexcavate... seems a lot like defending someone as they excavate, but it would provide some decent challenge to both sides... Especially since the kobolds can maybe dig faster than someone with a pickaxe and shovel. Also, any unused traps can ruin someone's day.
Really, the traps themselves count as "enemies" in this scenario, in terms of determining the difficulty. The traps usually only go off the one time, which makes them totally on par with a weak creature that can die in one hit.
The traps we use arent great but definitely are inconveniences such as starting fights and forceing u to go thru a crowd or slowing you by standing in the way of a door thats the only way to get to a part of the school
@@raymanx187 you are most welcome. I suggest a DC of 10-13 to smell the kerosene with over a 15 to tell it's coming from the support beams. Of course this trap only reallly works with torches or if someone is throwing fire magic around.
The first computer game "Pool of Radiance" had a kobold lair that killed entire party (6 maxed characters levels 6-9) 9 times out of 10. Glad to see they still got it.
Yeah, i had my first tpk after watching that video. My players enjoyed it nevertheless Also it was a one session thing due to new players and not enough old players
I don't understand why people hate goblins (the usual ones I don't feel safe around the hobgoblins and the bugbears seem like assholes tho some might be nice) and kobolts because they might smell but they are adorable and clever
Ive played a game called ddo and for what ive seen there, they would indeed be a very good asset as a friend. Also, they have a lot of potential to be a great danger and good warriors.
4:03 Here's a quick Kobold thought process: _"All the wealth I have is jewlery I wear_ _an intruder would assume I kept it in a footlocker like some kind of _*_idiot._* _I'm gonna make a footlocker, and then fill it with_ _uhhh-_ *_centipedes!"_*
@@secretname2670 I typed it out, which took a not insignifigant time investment, especially since I did it on mobile. Besides, I prefer for people to click on a timestamp knowing what it's for, rather than blindly fumbling about through the comments for that one specific one they want to chuckle about.
Guess it only takes as low as 8 INT to forget that living things die if stuck in one place without living necessities. Same for the crates at 6:04 filled with a bunch of now dead spiders and centipedes that were placed a year before adventurers finally stumbled upon the cave!
Hrrng, dungeon master. I'm trying to get back my +1 short sword from the kobolds, but I'm dummy thicc, and the clap of my ass cheeks keeps setting off spider traps
One time my DM had this NPC follow us around trying to lure us into a trap. When we caught up to him, it turned out to be 3 kobolds stacked on top of each other while wearing a large cloak.
I've never been a fan of "Rocks fall, everyone dies" so I alqays make the ground cave in before a boulder rolls over the hole, so they are trapped until someone finds a way to either get them out or they die of starvation (or if im feeling especially gigaxian, a hungry rat swarm)
Kobolds That reminds me of Dwarven Fortress. Where if 90% is "generic" races and 10% or less races is stuff like kobolds, goblins and such, the age is called "Age of Fairy Tales" Now the developer of it tested it and his first age of fairy tales was elves, dwarves and like one kobold cave somewhere. He then said "Well I suppose it's gonna be a lot of fairy tails about stolen shit"
Now I want to have a Kobold lair with a room flooded ankle-deep in olive oil, with a single Kobold wearing a leather jacket and aviator shades, smoking a cigarette.
Never throw those little shits at an inexperienced party unless they have a Paladin with Cure Disease at the ready. Their low CR is a bold faced lie and I’ve seen almost a total party wipe triggered by a singe Kobold launching a pot full of the things at the packed together party.
Aww crap, now that someone said it, I definitely have to make a WW2 era D&D game with communist kobolds holding out Kurtgrad with a ton of traps and wave tactics.
Okay real talk If you dont want to write an entire one shot from scratch and want source material literally no one will get I HIGHLY suggest a 1977 animated film called "wizards". Magical critters stage a war after finding lost ww2 tech and propoganda
PLEASE DO ALL OF YOUR VIDEOS LIKE THIS!!! Great visual representation of what can be done. I love it and need more. Anyone who knows of any 3.5e videos like this id GREATLY APPRECIATE IT!!!!!
Even better: Encounter were it starts with a bunch of goblins using the help action to distract the party, to help the bugbears in the trees when making their suprise javelin attacks
This has to be my fav vid of yours I have seen so far. You mix lore with practical dungeon design and actually make it a real habitat that is being defended and not just a fun house of arbitrary traps. This is lovely. Moar! Thanks, comrade. XD
I have been running D&D since I was in middle school, so around sixteen years. I have learned so much about dungeon design just from this kobold dungeon you made. Granted, I've never had a 'mentor' to learn from, but this feels like one of those big moments that is going to step my game up a lot. Thanks man! Love your videos.
Fun fact adventurers are the bad guys when going to exterminate the local kobolds, even when your gnomes just leave the area then problem solved. No save the yet born yappy scale bois!
I used your goblin strategy and took out a level 6 party of 6 with complete ease, the barbarian fell into every trap in the ambush and so did the monk. It was wonderful. I am excited to use your kobold strategy in the future, i did something similar in the past. I had a wounded kobold on a lighting bolt trap and if the party couldn't understand him or tried to move him without disarming the hidden trap, kaboom! they avoided it but it was still fun. Also had a room they put barrels of oil in and sealed the doors and blew everything in there up, luckily thanks to a very high perception check they found a hidden door and got out.
United forever in friendship and labor our mighty republic will ever endure. The Kobold people will live through the ages to all generations our tribes secure. Long, live our Kolbold motherland. Built, by the tribemen;s mighty hand. Long live our people united and free. Strong, in a labyrinth tried by fire. Long, may our crimson flag inspire. Shinning in glory for all to see.
For me I replace the falling rock traps that instantly kill a partymember to trapping them inside and they gotta take a very long time trying to dig themselves out, usually not a fan of just "Oh I pull the rope" "Now you dead"
This reminds me of a great chapter in Dave Hargrave's "Arduin Grimoire". Where there is a description of an encounter by an experienced party with "Tucker's Kobolds"! Which sent the party on a mad dash to "escape" to a DEEPER part of the dungeon to escape them! Great stuff. Love the channel!
Something I do with my kobolds is that they take on the traits and color of the dragon they serve such as white kobold will act like a barbarian running into battle with the biggest weapon he can find or green kobold being a wizard using spells and poison same for metallic dragons with bronze kobolds acting like soldiers marching in unison so on and so on this gives kobolds more variety and clues what dragons are in the area.
At the end I would just like to mention in the Forgotten Realms solar system there is a planet where the Communist Lizards are constantly fighting with the Democratic Aarakrocas while the dragons just chill and watch.
I love how simply being an inspired DM can make even the weakest of creatures a horrible threat its great! I feel like in general just being aware of lore makes everything i as a dm can throw at you more deadly ...
I'm working on a composite character I'm calling "Kobold-tron". Its a small kobold hive mind that shares resources and a single class (but different subclasses)
Mate when i saw "Kobolds" i immediately was thinking of Kobolds ate my baby, the greatest, funniest Pen and paper RPG to be played (as a GM, the players always die)
would be neat to have a whole campaign where all of your players are kobolds and they have to help out their cave network. so they go on tiny adventures to find loot and come back to build up their nest.
Kobolds are my favorite race. My favorite way to play Dwarf Fortress is Masterwork Kobolds filling a labyrinth or abandoned fortress with traps. When they added raiding, I could send them out to collect shinies and books to put in my hoard.
For one of my campaigns, I had a Kobold Lair with tunnels leading up into an abandoned Arcane Guildhall. Therefore, the Kobolds wound up experimenting with alchemy and incorporated it into a lot of their traps. This included, having massive clay pots with oozes trapped inside that they would shatter with a slung rock when the players neared them, hidden compartments in walls and pillars that had a ramp inside with a vial containing liquid smoke or some kind of glue that would roll out and shatter when a player character neared causing them to choke or get stuck failing a constitution or dexterity save respectively, and also good old fashioned explosives that a winged Kobold would drop on them from within a larger cavern. My favorite though, was the piñata room. Upon entering, the players found a small cavern with 7 ceramic balls the size of cantalopes hanging from the ceiling by ropes. The floor was littered with tiny shards of broken pottery, and there were 3 wooden clubs set up along the wall near the entrance. With the light from their torches and a DC 12 perception check, the players noticed a glint of gold shining from two of the suspended pots from small holes made to seem like imperfections in their creation. The players quickly assumed that this was meant to be some kind of game as I had intended them to, as I went out of my way to explain that, in other chambers, this wasn't just some kind of holdout lair, but a home for their whole tribe. Upon shattering the two pots with gold glinting from within, the players were rewarded with 2d12 gold pieces and a smattering of other coins. Upon breaking the next one, it released a cloud of gas that spread to a 10 ft radius area forcing anyone inside it to pass a DC 14 Con save vs unconsciousness. Essentially, a chloroform trap, the Kobolds would then be able to easily steal from the party and possibly kill them. This could be implemented to have more oozes in one or more of those pots, a swarm of bees, or some other nasty surprises, but I quite liked it, even if it didn't go as planned.
I feel like this *kinda* falls apart when the party doesn't immediately stop, huddle up, and throw out perception rolls every 5 steps the moment they run into the first trap. That and the splitting of the party. I have played in *no* games where the party would willingly split up for any reason. It is a very good showcase of what a Kobold colony would do to their home base, though!
And that's where the tunnels made for small creatures, full of murderholes come in. If you stop and huddle up, you become an easy target for the poison darts, poisoned crossbow bolts, and possibly even simple bombs the kobolds have made.
You'd be surprised how easy it is for a good DM to get a party to split up. Once you've been at it long enough, you don't even need to try at it all that hard, you play the personalities of the characters. A lot of parties are... very, very easy to split. Like, the problem for the DM is how to keep them from doing that. It's rare to run into a group that *adamantly* refuses to ever split the party in my experience, and I've been a Forever DM for over 30 years.
Me: chaotic good rogue Hey there kobold lets make a deal you do what i say and you get these shiny gems say no ill kill you - and that kids was how i got myself a little minion
You forgot that all of the hallways are 3 feet tall, forcing the adventurers to crawl as kobolts are stabbing them with long spears as they crawl down the tunnel.
This is a good setup for a oneshot, or if you're legit trying to kill your party, I prefer painful joke traps. Ex: I had my party hear a loud SMACK ( as a kobold banged two pieces of wood together) just before they rounded a corner in a dark cave, peering around it they see a ladder leading up to a trap door. Hoping to chase the kobold down, or up in this case, my rogue climbs up the ladder and opens the door.... Whereupon a very disgruntled skunk fell on his face. Jar full of bees over an ajar door. Etc etc.
Im currently playing a kobold barbarian who was adopted into a gnome samurai clan when he was a baby and thinks he is a gnome however he can't read Very well So when he decided to become a self tought samurai by reading in the library he skipped all the complicated Bushido books and only read the manga thinking they are just as good so now I have an anime kobold barbarian who thinks he is a gnome samurai and it is just the greatest.
I don't think the party would appreciate a TPK to Kobolds. At least, my party would probably accuse me of TRYING to kill them and vote me out of the DM seat. That's where I disagree with my party. They all think that the DM should challenge the players without a real threat of death. Sure, death can happen, but they think that encounters should be designed with the party's nigh absolute success in mind. I think that the world should be built as difficult as the world would be, and if the party is foolish enough to go into a place under-levelled, they are simply asking to die. Encounters are as difficult as the enemies would actually be. I don't like nerfing an entire encounter because the party went somewhere too early. They ALSO think that the difficulty of encounters should be changed based on how much they have prepared; say they come up with a great plan, then the encounter should be left as is. If they decide to walk ass-backwards into a dragons lair at level 4, then I should nerf the dragon so they still succeed, despite their terrible planning and sheer stupidity in going into the Northreach Mountains at level 4, rather than level 20.
...this is a kobold den.this is quite literally the lowest of lows of places you could go in a adventuring party.dont try to pull the "too low level" shit
Ah Kobolds my favorite monster and second favorite player race. These little guys hold a special place in my heart. In my first campaign that I ran my players managed to convince the chieftain Kobold through magical persuasion (suggestion) that he was the big boss and not some upstart dragon wyrmling. I rolled an INT saving throw to see if the Kobold thought it was a good idea to fight the dragon. One Nat 1 later the dragon was dead, the Kobolds were dead, and the party walked away with the small horde of gold without doing much but mopping up the few kobolds that survived.
Dude. All of my characters always want to play rogue. Some for different reasons but still. Edit: Also; rogues aren't always edgy. Two words my friend. Swashbuckler subclass. YOU CAN BE JACK SPARROW!!!
That moment i had JUST finished GMing a session in a Kobold lair, and you upload the advice i actually needed, a day too late.. :( it's a good thing they've only seen half the lair up till now, so still thanks!)
Any group of adventurers who are lazy enough to keep stumbling into traps THIS MANY TIMES to where their fighter is downed without starting to check carefully at some point, deserves to be crushed by a cave in XD
I think the one thing that would trip this encounter up is if the party starts looking for traps, instead of blindly stumbling into all of them. For instance, a rouge or any character w/ high investigation can usually bypass almost all of these passive traps, so the only real threats would be the collapsing caverns. I think you made an incredibly balanced encounter that will punish a stupid party and will reward smart, careful play
I have a very small issue with how easy it is to find most traps. Anyone proficient with perception can pretty much passively spot all but masterwork traps. I guess, the way I'd see it, traps should be immune to passive perceptions.
@@Runesmith passive perception might see the trap, but it doesn't disarm or disable the trap, the party still has to get past it.
@@Runesmith Have to agree with you, just because your passive perception says youd see it, im more of the mind that if you're not at least keeping an eye out for it ( ie, telling me that you're looking for anything weird ) you don't notice them. Id also not find it out of the realm of possibility that the kobolds make their traps look like part of their home.
@@minelegend6557 but the whole point of a trap is to not be visible till you spring it
@@CodeeXD That's why traps have a perception or investigation DC to find them.
"Kobolds will never take the fight to you, unless you're exactly 3 gnomes around a fire"No more... No less... 3 shalt be the number of the gnomes, and the number of the gnomes shall be 3
3 shalt be the number of the gnomes, and the number of the gnomes alive shall be 0.
@@TrueLimeyhoney once 3(being the 3rd number be reached) then, lobbest though the holy kobold of death, at the gnome, who, being evil in their sight, shall snuff it
Anything less is not enough gnome blood to worry about, anything more is too much trouble to deal with.
If there are 4 gnomes you better not go pee
Five is right out
Ah... Kobolds. The first spellcaster I ever played was a Kobold Wizard named Briik. He got kicked out of his clan for being on a totally different page than everyne else, so he learned conjuration so he could have his own friends! RIP buddy...
...arent arcane casters kinda worshiped in kobold culture?
@@defensivekobra3873
Sorcerers. Sorcerer kobolds are revered as having dragon's blood, but they're actually kinda common. A kobold wizard is an odd choice, especially if that particular kobold isn't summoning water and food for other kobolds as an adept.
Rest in Peperonis
@@AGrayPhantom are you saying they still exist sometimes? (Other than the outcasts)
I also made a kobold as a beast tamer and he wants to genetically modify his clan to be more dangerous.
"triggered by being too tall"
i just imagined the clear tape in door prank and will 100% use this when my players encounter kobolds
just imagine chasing some kobold runt through a mine shaft and suddenly getting caught head first into a snare, your body maintaining momentum and flooring you.
@@alecchristiaen4856 a classic kobold trap
Additional notes: via squeezing rules, kobolds can fit into and move through spaces fit for Tiny creatures. They can also travel comfortably through tunnels designed for _Small_ creatures. They will use this.
“What’s a kobold”
“They’re just dragon goblins. And 10 more come running from the other room. Have fun, level 3s!”
And their leader is named Tucker.
Imagine a tribe of Kobolds who's magic users all have the Mold Earth, Shape Water and Control Flames cantrips? Attacking them in their own lair would be near suicidal!
@@Nyrufa ... my party has been saying that my encounters have been to easy
That party had it coming, they didn't constantly check for traps, they didn't communicate well and they split the party immediately.
Sounds accurate to me.
Aka most of the parties I DM for, amazingly it turns out there’s a direct correlation between splitting the party and the more likely you are to end up in a coffin
Ah kobolds my scaly boys, my favorite race.
Also Carl that kills people! 1:47
My fucking god you didint
Also are they really yours?
Unless you are a dragon nobody owns a kobold
My friend claims I'm a furry for playing as one.
@@hank1302 technically it would be Scaley and unless you're dressing up as one or sexualizing them you're not
@@Jackb290Gaijin why would you assume I wasn't, I mean I wasn't, but you can't trust anyone on the internet these days.
@@hank1302 what the fuck?
And sometimes, just sometimes, that creepy-ass shopkeep is actually three kobolds in a trenchcoat.
I feel like Glittergold totally calls himself an "Epic Prankster™" (he spells out the trademark) and says "Get pranked bro" whenever he does literally anything, accompanied with unironical dabbing.
its cannon now
Nah, it's probably more along the lines of this:
*You've been G N O M E D*
@@tyleremery7088 holy shit I can't believe I didn't think of that, you're brilliant
I wonder if he's aware of just how many gnomes died due to his actions...
@@ethanotoroculus1060 Glittergold's response: *"IT WAS JUST A PRANK BRO LOL!"*
Bro they’re just trying to live their lives and some group of adventurers just waltz into their home. I like how their first priority was to get the eggs out of there it really shows character
You do know the reason the adventurers are there is because the kobolds just stole all of their stuff, right?
xD 2:30 "As a little side note: Kobolds will never take the fight to you unless you are exactly 3 gnomes around a campfire."
Or if said Kobold is drunk and rolls a Nat 20 to stab you for 16 out of your 22 health when you tried to grab him because he was going the wrong way because a voice in your head told you to.
I ran a game with three gnomes, so I ran a Kobold raid on their cosy camp.
That means there ought to be abandoned kobold warrens with their traps triggered and treasure under piles of rubble!
Not likely. If they get out, they know where the rooms are. When the party is deemed dead or gone, they can just re-excavate and reset.
@@cgkase6210 I'll grant you that! How about a setup where scavengers come to excavate after recent failed adventures? Perhaps the scavengers tipped the party off in the first place knowing they would fail so they can swoop in and take the spoils.
@@SteveNeubauer Hmm... a setup of a band of scavengers excavating a warren as the kobolds try to reset and reexcavate... seems a lot like defending someone as they excavate, but it would provide some decent challenge to both sides... Especially since the kobolds can maybe dig faster than someone with a pickaxe and shovel. Also, any unused traps can ruin someone's day.
R.I.P. Spurt, the bravest Kobold to ever live.
He had a full life.
Dave is the bravest
You dead! I WIIIIIIN! *splat*
F
I’m crying
And thats how you make a challenging encounter with weak enemies.
Really, the traps themselves count as "enemies" in this scenario, in terms of determining the difficulty. The traps usually only go off the one time, which makes them totally on par with a weak creature that can die in one hit.
We highschoolers have traps and tactics too, just not very effective ones.
The traps we use arent great but definitely are inconveniences such as starting fights and forceing u to go thru a crowd or slowing you by standing in the way of a door thats the only way to get to a part of the school
My school didn't have enough traps so now I'm homeschooled
We weebs have plenty of traps, they’re *very* effective
@@Natibe_ I was tempted to make a joke
Do you Wrath of the God casuals into rivines?
Given the fact that kobolds prefer darkness another good idea for a trap is a low ceilinged passageway with support beams soaked in kerosene.
My kobold rogue in another campaign trapped his room to hell.
Make em steel beams. Oh no wait kerosene can't melt those...
You have the thanks of one very devious dungeon master.
@@raymanx187 you are most welcome. I suggest a DC of 10-13 to smell the kerosene with over a 15 to tell it's coming from the support beams.
Of course this trap only reallly works with torches or if someone is throwing fire magic around.
Kerosene???
The first computer game "Pool of Radiance" had a kobold lair that killed entire party (6 maxed characters levels 6-9) 9 times out of 10. Glad to see they still got it.
I am a newbie to the channel but I have never jumped on a notification so fast, the goblin was one stupidly inspiring.
Yeah, i had my first tpk after watching that video. My players enjoyed it nevertheless
Also it was a one session thing due to new players and not enough old players
Right? I love these encounter inspirations
Goblin Slayer approves of this message
I feel like Kobolds would be amazing friends to be with.
I don't understand why people hate goblins (the usual ones I don't feel safe around the hobgoblins and the bugbears seem like assholes tho some might be nice) and kobolts because they might smell but they are adorable and clever
@@SharowbladyeGaymerPorate I think they hate them because they think that they're basically Fodder and that they are nothing but minion material.
Ive played a game called ddo and for what ive seen there, they would indeed be a very good asset as a friend.
Also, they have a lot of potential to be a great danger and good warriors.
One name: Deekin.
They would probaly try to have sex with you if you look at them wierd.
4:03
Here's a quick Kobold thought process:
_"All the wealth I have is jewlery I wear_
_an intruder would assume I kept it in a footlocker like some kind of _*_idiot._*
_I'm gonna make a footlocker, and then fill it with_
_uhhh-_
*_centipedes!"_*
That was my favorite part. So good!
Wow so smart you just Copied the entire thing. You must be the best in whole nursery
@@secretname2670
I typed it out, which took a not insignifigant time investment, especially since I did it on mobile.
Besides, I prefer for people to click on a timestamp knowing what it's for, rather than blindly fumbling about through the comments for that one specific one they want to chuckle about.
Guess it only takes as low as 8 INT to forget that living things die if stuck in one place without living necessities.
Same for the crates at 6:04 filled with a bunch of now dead spiders and centipedes that were placed a year before adventurers finally stumbled upon the cave!
Another idea is to use multiple exploding glyphs inside the box that trigger when the box is opened.
So the half orc survives because he's too big?
Hrrng, dungeon master. I'm trying to get back my +1 short sword from the kobolds, but I'm dummy thicc, and the clap of my ass cheeks keeps setting off spider traps
More like TOO THICC
Yes. He survived because he is THICC!
to be fair none of them should have died. not one bit of that encounter added up
Guess it is easy being green, and over 6 feet tall with arms like tree trunks.
11:07 imagine saying “I pull the rope.” And the DM just drops a rock on the map.
One time my DM had this NPC follow us around trying to lure us into a trap. When we caught up to him, it turned out to be 3 kobolds stacked on top of each other while wearing a large cloak.
Would love to see more videos like this, specificly Yuan-ti and lizard folk
I've never been a fan of "Rocks fall, everyone dies" so I alqays make the ground cave in before a boulder rolls over the hole, so they are trapped until someone finds a way to either get them out or they die of starvation (or if im feeling especially gigaxian, a hungry rat swarm)
Hey man, you're some kinda mystic, cause I just wanted to write a one-shot based on kobolds, thanks a lot!
Kobolds
That reminds me of Dwarven Fortress.
Where if 90% is "generic" races and 10% or less races is stuff like kobolds, goblins and such, the age is called "Age of Fairy Tales"
Now the developer of it tested it and his first age of fairy tales was elves, dwarves and like one kobold cave somewhere.
He then said "Well I suppose it's gonna be a lot of fairy tails about stolen shit"
This is basically just updating and visualing tuckers kobolds for us all. Thanks logan, for giving out that knowledge to even more pepole.
Dude, now I wanna play a quest to go into a kobold lair to recover my left socks
Now I want to have a Kobold lair with a room flooded ankle-deep in olive oil, with a single Kobold wearing a leather jacket and aviator shades, smoking a cigarette.
Your Kobold and goblin tactics videos are my favorites. I’ve watched this particular one many times.
Not gonna lie, was hoping you'd throw in some Rot Grub traps. It's such a middle finger.
The Kobold Inventor has a thing of rot grubs as one of his attacks
Rot Grub - guaranteed TPK
I love rot grubs almost as much as corrupted wishes
@@jakemoonwolf1079 shame they got nerfed
Never throw those little shits at an inexperienced party unless they have a Paladin with Cure Disease at the ready. Their low CR is a bold faced lie and I’ve seen almost a total party wipe triggered by a singe Kobold launching a pot full of the things at the packed together party.
Nice video :) Would you do more "lair breakdowns"?
Aww crap, now that someone said it, I definitely have to make a WW2 era D&D game with communist kobolds holding out Kurtgrad with a ton of traps and wave tactics.
the wish bombing of hiroshima
@@Tuned_Rockets Meteor Swarm!
Okay real talk
If you dont want to write an entire one shot from scratch and want source material literally no one will get I HIGHLY suggest a 1977 animated film called "wizards". Magical critters stage a war after finding lost ww2 tech and propoganda
@@kawbmxful I think I saw that on TV once, if it's the movie I'm thinking of then it was a crazy trip for sure.
@@sha2143 really weird oddly funny animation and voice acting with ww2 propaganda and black and white war footage in the background?
PLEASE DO ALL OF YOUR VIDEOS LIKE THIS!!! Great visual representation of what can be done. I love it and need more. Anyone who knows of any 3.5e videos like this id GREATLY APPRECIATE IT!!!!!
My first encounter with a Kobold ended with me having a wife.
No regrets.
more details please
more details please
I assume they married the kobold.
A mans gotta lizard girl when a mans gotta lizard girl
Nice
truly its super fun to TPK or just really beat a high-level party with smart goblins or Kobolds
Even better:
Encounter were it starts with a bunch of goblins using the help action to distract the party, to help the bugbears in the trees when making their suprise javelin attacks
@@defensivekobra3873 *PTSD intensifies*
@@xekon14 oh shit that's right
@@xekon14 #whenTheTreesStartSpeakingGoblin
Tucker, is that you?
This has to be my fav vid of yours I have seen so far. You mix lore with practical dungeon design and actually make it a real habitat that is being defended and not just a fun house of arbitrary traps. This is lovely. Moar! Thanks, comrade. XD
Rest in peace Dave
I really enjoy you trying to make the notorious weaklings more of a threat, and I feel like you're succeeding!
I was just binging runesmith, this must be a reward
Basically if you plan on dealing with goblins or kobolds, have one person have the feat Observant or shit will go down FAST.
Or one person with a lot of hut points
I have been running D&D since I was in middle school, so around sixteen years. I have learned so much about dungeon design just from this kobold dungeon you made. Granted, I've never had a 'mentor' to learn from, but this feels like one of those big moments that is going to step my game up a lot.
Thanks man! Love your videos.
Fun fact adventurers are the bad guys when going to exterminate the local kobolds, even when your gnomes just leave the area then problem solved. No save the yet born yappy scale bois!
They just want to live in their warrens and be happy, they're good Bois and girls
I used your goblin strategy and took out a level 6 party of 6 with complete ease, the barbarian fell into every trap in the ambush and so did the monk. It was wonderful. I am excited to use your kobold strategy in the future, i did something similar in the past. I had a wounded kobold on a lighting bolt trap and if the party couldn't understand him or tried to move him without disarming the hidden trap, kaboom! they avoided it but it was still fun. Also had a room they put barrels of oil in and sealed the doors and blew everything in there up, luckily thanks to a very high perception check they found a hidden door and got out.
I know I'm kinda late to the party, but I really like this video and the goblin tactics one and really hope you make more. Thank you this was great.
"Kobolds are Great supporter of Communist Ideals." - 2019
Not really. Communism aka Mutual Aid makes them stronger.
United forever in friendship and labor our mighty republic will ever endure. The Kobold people will live through the ages to all generations our tribes secure. Long, live our Kolbold motherland. Built, by the tribemen;s mighty hand. Long live our people united and free. Strong, in a labyrinth tried by fire. Long, may our crimson flag inspire. Shinning in glory for all to see.
I'm dming hoard of the dragon queen soon, so this knowledge on Kobalds really helps
I love these encounter videos. Great to get insight on how to make engaging combat for underestimated foes.
For me I replace the falling rock traps that instantly kill a partymember to trapping them inside and they gotta take a very long time trying to dig themselves out, usually not a fan of just "Oh I pull the rope" "Now you dead"
This reminds me of a great chapter in Dave Hargrave's "Arduin Grimoire". Where there is a description of an encounter by an experienced party with "Tucker's Kobolds"! Which sent the party on a mad dash to "escape" to a DEEPER part of the dungeon to escape them! Great stuff. Love the channel!
Something I do with my kobolds is that they take on the traits and color of the dragon they serve such as white kobold will act like a barbarian running into battle with the biggest weapon he can find or green kobold being a wizard using spells and poison same for metallic dragons with bronze kobolds acting like soldiers marching in unison so on and so on this gives kobolds more variety and clues what dragons are in the area.
You have the thanks of a devious dungeon master.
... Wait. What if kobold scales change tint depending on the nearby dragon environment?
CGKase when the dragon they serve dies the kobolds set out to find a new dragon when they do the new kobolds that are born are color of that dragon.
At the end I would just like to mention in the Forgotten Realms solar system there is a planet where the Communist Lizards are constantly fighting with the Democratic Aarakrocas while the dragons just chill and watch.
I love how simply being an inspired DM can make even the weakest of creatures a horrible threat its great! I feel like in general just being aware of lore makes everything i as a dm can throw at you more deadly ...
legitimately one of my favorite videos on this website 10/10
I'm working on a composite character I'm calling "Kobold-tron". Its a small kobold hive mind that shares resources and a single class (but different subclasses)
I really like these strategy videos. As a GM, this is very helpful.
Nice, literally just watched the goblin one yesterday
damn these videos are really helping me recover from DM fatigue
Recently made a Kobold beast master ranger and I am totally going to steal every single one of these traps if I play him again.
This helps so much for DMs who don't know all the tidbits of Faerun lore. Please do more!!!!
Mate
when i saw "Kobolds" i immediately was thinking of Kobolds ate my baby, the greatest, funniest Pen and paper RPG to be played (as a GM, the players always die)
Nice trap-work there! Tucker would be proud! **salute**
Anime told me Kobolds were weird dog-people that work at the gym.
AJ3000 in osd&d they were dog faced
Japanese kobolds are different than our kobolds.
dont even get me started on what anime told me about giant spiders
@@MinecraftLovesSteve please don't then. I would like to sleep tonight, thank youuuuuuu
@@cgkase6210
Whichever thought you had, it was actually the other one.
We need more videos like this
would be neat to have a whole campaign where all of your players are kobolds and they have to help out their cave network. so they go on tiny adventures to find loot and come back to build up their nest.
Kobolds are my favorite race. My favorite way to play Dwarf Fortress is Masterwork Kobolds filling a labyrinth or abandoned fortress with traps. When they added raiding, I could send them out to collect shinies and books to put in my hoard.
Now i have visualized a world where there is a great United Soviet Kobold Republic.
This is a great video, thanks! I’ve always loved kobolds ever since I read about Tucker’s kobolds.
12:44 I didn't expect that. Nice.
I've just found your YT channel but you definitely know your stuff.
This video was co-narrated by Oney
Thanks for all the gamechanging tips, Logan. Great content, as usual
your faintly disguised "rocks fall,everyone dies" does not impress me runesmith
For one of my campaigns, I had a Kobold Lair with tunnels leading up into an abandoned Arcane Guildhall. Therefore, the Kobolds wound up experimenting with alchemy and incorporated it into a lot of their traps. This included, having massive clay pots with oozes trapped inside that they would shatter with a slung rock when the players neared them, hidden compartments in walls and pillars that had a ramp inside with a vial containing liquid smoke or some kind of glue that would roll out and shatter when a player character neared causing them to choke or get stuck failing a constitution or dexterity save respectively, and also good old fashioned explosives that a winged Kobold would drop on them from within a larger cavern.
My favorite though, was the piñata room. Upon entering, the players found a small cavern with 7 ceramic balls the size of cantalopes hanging from the ceiling by ropes. The floor was littered with tiny shards of broken pottery, and there were 3 wooden clubs set up along the wall near the entrance. With the light from their torches and a DC 12 perception check, the players noticed a glint of gold shining from two of the suspended pots from small holes made to seem like imperfections in their creation. The players quickly assumed that this was meant to be some kind of game as I had intended them to, as I went out of my way to explain that, in other chambers, this wasn't just some kind of holdout lair, but a home for their whole tribe. Upon shattering the two pots with gold glinting from within, the players were rewarded with 2d12 gold pieces and a smattering of other coins. Upon breaking the next one, it released a cloud of gas that spread to a 10 ft radius area forcing anyone inside it to pass a DC 14 Con save vs unconsciousness. Essentially, a chloroform trap, the Kobolds would then be able to easily steal from the party and possibly kill them. This could be implemented to have more oozes in one or more of those pots, a swarm of bees, or some other nasty surprises, but I quite liked it, even if it didn't go as planned.
I feel like this *kinda* falls apart when the party doesn't immediately stop, huddle up, and throw out perception rolls every 5 steps the moment they run into the first trap. That and the splitting of the party. I have played in *no* games where the party would willingly split up for any reason. It is a very good showcase of what a Kobold colony would do to their home base, though!
And that's where the tunnels made for small creatures, full of murderholes come in. If you stop and huddle up, you become an easy target for the poison darts, poisoned crossbow bolts, and possibly even simple bombs the kobolds have made.
You'd be surprised how easy it is for a good DM to get a party to split up. Once you've been at it long enough, you don't even need to try at it all that hard, you play the personalities of the characters. A lot of parties are... very, very easy to split. Like, the problem for the DM is how to keep them from doing that.
It's rare to run into a group that *adamantly* refuses to ever split the party in my experience, and I've been a Forever DM for over 30 years.
From a Logan to a Logan plz make more of these videos. This is an untapped goldmine.
I know someone was stealing my left socks
So what are you, a great wizard like yourself, gonna do?
I'm going to raise an army of undead and get my left socks back
Oh yeah I will threatened the life of your left sock. Feel my power of my arms of reanimated left socks puppet.
Will I'll have to raise another army of undead to destroy the reanimated socks
This is honestly the best thing ever
Me: *watches literally nothing related to tabletop or roleplay*
TH-cam: How do you feel about dice?
Said Stone Dragon
One of us! One of us! One of us! One of us!
@@zackz1245 You saw nothing
@@raymanx187 Lol
I would actually like to play, but where I live it's a little hard to find people to play
@@ScurvyBoi my friend, have you heard of role 20?
Thanks for the great Kobold ideas!
Me: chaotic good rogue
Hey there kobold lets make a deal you do what i say and you get these shiny gems say no ill kill you
- and that kids was how i got myself a little minion
I pretty much for that with goblins, but we didn't have a shared language so I used hand signs.
You forgot that all of the hallways are 3 feet tall, forcing the adventurers to crawl as kobolts are stabbing them with long spears as they crawl down the tunnel.
So basically Cobalts are like early Humanity, we're numerous but weak and we know it so we work together and set traps
I love Kobols! Your vid just made them so much better!!
Glory to The (Ko) *bold*
I have a special soft spot for Kobalds after playing DDO when I was young. I love these dudes.
This is a good setup for a oneshot, or if you're legit trying to kill your party, I prefer painful joke traps. Ex: I had my party hear a loud SMACK ( as a kobold banged two pieces of wood together) just before they rounded a corner in a dark cave, peering around it they see a ladder leading up to a trap door. Hoping to chase the kobold down, or up in this case, my rogue climbs up the ladder and opens the door.... Whereupon a very disgruntled skunk fell on his face. Jar full of bees over an ajar door. Etc etc.
These battle tactics videos are really helpful for a new GM. You got my subscription, like, yadda yadda. I hope there’s more to come.
Im currently playing a kobold barbarian who was adopted into a gnome samurai clan when he was a baby and thinks he is a gnome however he can't read Very well So when he decided to become a self tought samurai by reading in the library he skipped all the complicated Bushido books and only read the manga thinking they are just as good so now I have an anime kobold barbarian who thinks he is a gnome samurai and it is just the greatest.
That's gonna be chaotic
2:21 thank you for the campaign inspiration
I don't think the party would appreciate a TPK to Kobolds. At least, my party would probably accuse me of TRYING to kill them and vote me out of the DM seat. That's where I disagree with my party. They all think that the DM should challenge the players without a real threat of death. Sure, death can happen, but they think that encounters should be designed with the party's nigh absolute success in mind. I think that the world should be built as difficult as the world would be, and if the party is foolish enough to go into a place under-levelled, they are simply asking to die. Encounters are as difficult as the enemies would actually be. I don't like nerfing an entire encounter because the party went somewhere too early. They ALSO think that the difficulty of encounters should be changed based on how much they have prepared; say they come up with a great plan, then the encounter should be left as is. If they decide to walk ass-backwards into a dragons lair at level 4, then I should nerf the dragon so they still succeed, despite their terrible planning and sheer stupidity in going into the Northreach Mountains at level 4, rather than level 20.
...this is a kobold den.this is quite literally the lowest of lows of places you could go in a adventuring party.dont try to pull the "too low level" shit
Ah Kobolds my favorite monster and second favorite player race. These little guys hold a special place in my heart. In my first campaign that I ran my players managed to convince the chieftain Kobold through magical persuasion (suggestion) that he was the big boss and not some upstart dragon wyrmling. I rolled an INT saving throw to see if the Kobold thought it was a good idea to fight the dragon. One Nat 1 later the dragon was dead, the Kobolds were dead, and the party walked away with the small horde of gold without doing much but mopping up the few kobolds that survived.
That is unrealistic, where is the edgy Rouge? Almost every group has one.
Dude. All of my characters always want to play rogue. Some for different reasons but still.
Edit: Also; rogues aren't always edgy. Two words my friend. Swashbuckler subclass.
YOU CAN BE JACK SPARROW!!!
and no bard trying to fuck the kobolds?
In the crayon box, with all the other colors.
That moment i had JUST finished GMing a session in a Kobold lair, and you upload the advice i actually needed, a day too late.. :( it's a good thing they've only seen half the lair up till now, so still thanks!)
Any group of adventurers who are lazy enough to keep stumbling into traps THIS MANY TIMES to where their fighter is downed without starting to check carefully at some point, deserves to be crushed by a cave in XD
Little did he know he would one day become the Kobold
BOSS BOSS BOSS
I'm relatively new to DND my wife introduced me during one of the campaigns I was a rogue and I seduced kobold Queen or something like that
Then you're off to a good start. ;)
I really like this video you should do more of these, where you make dungeons and explanations, good job and keep up the good work!