Kobolds: Starter Enemies 101

Time for everyone’s favorite starter enemy! Aside from goblins. Or zombies. Or… you know what, never mind.

Lore: The Dragon Sworn

Servants and worshippers of dragons, kobolds can usually be found in a dragon’s lair, gathering treasure for their own tiny hordes. They mature quickly, mate quickly, and die quickly. In order to make up for this, they’ll group together in large packs, using superior numbers to win a battle.

Furthermore, they build great tunnels and fill them with traps. Some of the smarter ones even use natural resources as weapons. Even creatures like slimes or giant centipedes are used in these traps. Anything to help them survive.

Along with dragons, kobolds worship a god named Kurtulmak. Legends say the god served as Tiamat’s vassal in the Nine Hells until Garl Glittergold, the god of gnomes, stole something from the dragon queen. Tiamat sent him to get it back, but the gnomish god played a trick, caving the earth in on top of him and trapping the dragon god for eternity. Thus, kobolds hate gnomes and pranks of any kind, and many of the most devoted dig to find and free Kurtulmak.

Among the kobolds are the urds. These are kobolds born with wings and gifted flight. Though those wings are considered gifts from Tiamat, kobolds without them live in envy and don’t get along with the urds.

There is a lot you can play with there. From building a kobold lair to making a kobold NPC, the potential is endless. Hell, you could even do something with Kurtulmak! So many plots, all of them fun!

At least, if you turn kobolds into comic relief. Like everyone does.

Design: Tiny Dragon

Look at this baby man!

Fun fact: my first exposure to kobolds came from World of Warcraft. So, growing up, I always thought they were disgusting little rat-men. When my friends in middle school showed me D&D kobolds, they all laughed at me and called me stupid.

I guess that was less a ‘fun’ fact and more a ‘sad’ fact.

Anyways, this design is fine. It’s a tiny little dragon man. It’s cute, it’s funny, and it isn’t especially inspired. Still, it is iconic for Dungeons and Dragons. So I’ll give it a pass.

Stats: Together We Strong!!

Unsurprisingly, these guys are all pathetic. They’re tiny and weak, with HP in the single digits and ACs near enough to that. Their weapons are the lowest dice rolls you could get for a monster. If you fought one, you’d basically just be bullying it.

But together? They’re not so easy to kill. With Pact Tactics, they have advantage on attack rolls, so long as they’re within five feet of an ally.

Then again, they have Sunlight Sensitivity. Which gives them disadvantage on perception checks in daylight. So… keep them in a cave or something.

Oh yeah, and the winged kobolds can fly. That’s it.

The novelty in fighting these comes from fighting adorable little dragon dudes. In terms of an actual fight, they’re just not that interesting. They do the same thing that so many other monsters in this book do. Only that they do it better.

Placement

Kobolds are pretty decent. They have some really great lore and a classic design. Unfortunately, their stats just don’t make for a very interesting fight.

With all that in mind, let’s put the Kobolds on the Best of the Bestiary!

1. Beholder
2. Death Tyrant
3. Dragon Turtle
4. Green Dragons
5. Red Dragons
6. Blue Dragons
7. Black Dragons
8. White Dragons
9. Silver Dragons
10. Couatl
11. Behir
12. Aboleth
13. Sea Hag
14. Bronze Dragons
15. Brass Dragons
16. Copper Dragons
17. Gold Dragons
18. Chuul
19. Gibbering Mouther
20. Intellect Devourer
21. Chimera
22. Death Knight
23. Fomorian
24. Bone Devil
25. Dracolich
26. Faerie Dragon
27. Kobold <—————–
28. Kenku
29. Hobgoblins
30. Night Hag
31. Green Hag
32. Ankheg
33. Hook Horror
34. Storm Giant
35. Hill Giant
36. Empyrean
37. Efreeti
38. Grimlock
39. Dao
40. Cloud Giant
41. Drow (all four of ’em)
42. Shadow Demon
43. Marilith
44. Drider
45. Aarackockra
46. Azer
47. Demilich
48. Spectator
49. Hydra
50. Marid
51. Harpy
52. Werejackal
53. Half-Dragon
54. Cambion
55. Fire Giant
56. Animated Armor
57. Banshee
58. Basilisk
59. Yochlol
60. Bulette
61. Cloaker
62. Darkmantle
63. Doppelganger
64. Ghoul and Ghast
65. Ettin
66. Pit Fiend
67. Erinyes
68. Chain Devil
69. Bearded Devil
70. Barbed Devil
71. Spined Devil
72. Ice Devil
73. Djinni
74. Nalfeshnee
75. Glabrezu
76. Chasme
77. Grell
78. Barlgura
79. Horned Devil
80. Balor
81. Shadow Dragon
82. Vrock
83. Dretch
84. Gnolls (all three)
85. Goristro
86. Hezrou
87. Manes
88. Frost Giant
89. Duergar
90. Quasit
91. Dryad
92. Flumph
93. Goblin
94. Githyanki
95. Planetar
96. Imp
97. Clay Golem
98. Flameskull
99. Displacer Beast
100. Carrion Crawler
101. Githzerai
102. Grick
103. Invisible Stalker
104. Rug of Smothering
105. Bugbear Chief
106. Bugbear
107. Flesh Golem
108. Vine Blight
109. Twig Blight
110. Needle Blight
111. Bullywug
112. Hellhound
113. Ettercap
114. Gas Spore
115. Cockatrice
116. Lemure
117. Homonculus
118. Solar
119. Deva
120. Gorgon
121. Hippogriff
122. Griffon
123. Cyclops
124. Centaur
125. Ghost
126. Fire Elemental
127. Water Elemental
128. Air Elemental
129. Stone Giant
130. Deep Gnome
131. Dinosaurs (All six of them)
132. Iron Golem
133. Stone Golem
134. Earth Elemental
135. Galeb Duhr
136. Helmed Horror
137. Flying Sword
138. Crawling Claw
139. Violet Fungus
140. Shrieker
141. Gargoyle