Building Better Monsters | Kobolds

...I was not expecting a Tom Waits gag in my Kobold video. Then again, in another life Tom Waits was probably a weird little guy that lived in dark caves and caused mischief.

My brother, during his games, separated Kobolds from other minion-types through a single, critical detail that made them scarier than goblins- they could build things. Crude things, yes, but better than your average group of bandits could make. Towers, fort walls, even bombs occasionally. One group had even managed to capture a gelatinous cube in a makeshift holding cell, which they would sic on people too large to travel on the ridges the kobolds would use. They were industrious little things. They had low wisdom, yes, but together they could make quite the threat, even when we were at a level where they normally couldn't touch us.

I love the idea of Kobolds making weird little side tunnels off of main shafts which humans dig, and the miners don't know where the tunnels are coming from but figure it's not a problem. Until, that is, the few kobolds that could be seen skittering about out of the corner of the oldest and wariest miners' eyes finally hit the giant veins of cobalt they've been hunting for, and all of a sudden the main mine is filled with arsenic-breathing kobolds wreaking havoc and destroying entire economies

From my readings, kobolds are basically to Germany what hobs are to England. You got the house variant, the ones who do chores for milk and cookies (or some such). There's the seagoing variant, which lived in the hulls of healthy ships. And then, there were the mine kobolds, which were very much like what's depicted here...

Oh I absolutely love this idea! Issue is, I already have a place for kobolds in my world. But I’m going probably going to use this for gargoyles, just because I think it suits them very well and it’s pretty different from the norm for them. Speaking of, I’d love to see YOUR take on gargoyles. If you don’t want to do that I have other suggestions: scarecrows, hell hounds, and heck, even orcs are all staple monsters but I don’t think are as interesting as they should be!

I’ve used the route “klabautermann” as my version of kobolds. Without getting too deep into my world lore, all trees were once from the Fey world, so they hold fey essence. And when shipwrights care for their ships, or someone cares deeply for a house, that draws from the remaining dead wood a new life, a life which manifests as a sprite, they have Draconic features for other lore reasons but I’ve basically made Kobolds magical-woodlouse-rat-termite-dragon-spirits and they’re fun! Lol (and the irony of them only manifesting in cared for areas makes them spot on for Fey imo)

I like this idea of Kobolds being the D&D version of folklore's tommyknockers <3

In our “Out of the Abyss” campaign I played a Lizardfolk Ranger who eventually hired a Kobold servant (called “Awe F••k” in Draconic) to collect “meat” for him after battles. In a later campaign I guested on Awe F••k had become a highly level warlock after running a successful abattoir for a few years. Lol

Your lighting is so good, I’m always impressed by how few strokes you need to give an object form!

I love the color choice in the illustration, and those kobolds are so interesting, burrowing long and complex tunnels in order to hide their source of new kobolds.

I absolutely LOVE this idea for Kobolds, it makes them stand out so much more and it's just so unique! I personally like to think that their bodies aren't just a stone-like texture, but almost ruby-like to give them that red coloration, (can also be cobalt for obvious reasons.) giving them this sort of jaggedness to their shape and red sheen to them. I think I will definitely use this for any future campaign I might have planned.

I said it in a reply chain in an earlier one of his videos but i gotta say it again. I love how there are so many passionate and creative ideas for kobolds in the comments, it's clear how much people love these guys.

You may make them creepy and evil, but the party will still adopt one

This depiction of kobolds would work really well in a gothic horror type campaign. An idea that would be there would be a city with some kind of mass grave that keeps getting looted for bones etc. The people hire a group of adventures to try and find the cause of the issue as the newly buried corpses attract disease and death the longer they're exposed to the sun. Nothing seems out of the ordinary in the city....expect. they have a bizarre amount of small Gargoyle statues

I absolutely love this idea. Maybe it could be expanded upon as kobolds originally sprouting up wherever an evil dragon with knowledge of magic dies - created by the remnants of the dragon's malevolence, given will and a desire to gather the power needed for the dragon to jumpstart their own resurrection. Dragons are, after all, an inherently super-magical race, so having the ability to linger after death and order around minions wouldn't surprise me. As for fighting kobolds, I think this could add another layer to kobolds being infamously cowardly - they run away so as to preserve the bones and nails used to animate them, and they can just set up another base elsewhere. And speaking of their bases, those will become even deadlier, as having a bunch of creatures that all breath poison packed into a small underground cave will obviously result in the area being toxic to any intruders.

Damn, amazing video. Loved the in character part

Oh man, my favorite dragon-worshipping lizard goblins! Can't wait to see what you have in store for us.

these are some real cool Kobolds the Kobolds in my D&D would are made from a dragons blood so you get green,black,white,blue and red each one get theamed on the dragon the are made black Kobolds spit poison, blue Kobolds spark and shock you and soo on

this spark some great ideas for me, like kobolds being afraid of tiny birds which would link the canary in mines to them.

Ever since I did a run through the old 2E boxed set "Dragon Mountain", I've had a healthy respect for kobolds, even when playing a higher-level character. I really like your constructed take on them, though; I think it makes them very distinct and interesting.