Goblins
Goblins are small humanoids, growing to a height of about four feet tall. They have flat faces, broad noses, pointed ears, wide mouths, and small, sharp fangs. Though they walk upright, their arms hang down to their knees. Their dull, glazed eyes range in color from bright red to gleaming yellow. Their skin colors range from yellow through any shade of orange to a deep red. Usually a single tribe has members all of about the same color skin. They wear clothing of dark leather, tending toward dull soiled-looking colors. These humanoids are generally evil in nature, and often they are great cowards as well. They avoid direct confrontations whenever possible, preferring the safety of ambushes. They use simple, even crude, strategies and tactics. They do not believe in fair fights, for many-on-one works much better than one-on-one to the goblin mindset.
Goblins hate most other demi humans, gnomes and dwarves in particular, and work to exterminate them whenever possible.
Goblin speech is harsh, and pitched higher than that of humans. In addition to their own language, some goblins can speak in the kobold, orc, and hobgoblin tongues.
Ecology: Goblins live only 50 years or so. They do not need to eat much, but will kill just for the pleasure of it. They eat any creature from rats and snakes to humans. In lean times they will eat carrion. Goblins usually spoil their habitat, driving game from it and depleting the area of all resources. They are decent miners, able to note new or unusual construction in an underground area 25% of the time, and any habitat will soon be expanded by a maze-like network of tunnels.
Combat: Goblins hate bright sunlight, and fight with a -1 on their attack rolls when in it. This unusual sensitivity to light, however, serves the goblins well underground, giving them ultravision out to 60 feet. They can use any sort of weapon, preferring those that take little training, like spears and maces. They are known to carry short swords as a second weapon. They are usually armored in leather, although the leaders may have chain or even plate mail. Goblin strategies and tactics are simple and crude. They are cowardly and will usually avoid a face to face fight. More often than not, they will attempt to arrange an ambush of their foes.
Habitat/Society: These small, evil humanoids would be merely pests, if not for their great numbers. Humans would consider the caves and underground dwellings of goblins to be dank and dismal. Those few tribes that live above ground are found in ruins, and are only active at night or on very dark, cloudy days. They use no form of sanitation, and their lairs have a foul stench. Goblins seem to be somewhat resistant to the diseases that breed in such filth. They live a communal life, sharing large common areas for eating and sleeping. Only leaders have separate living spaces. All their possessions are carried with them. Property of the tribe is kept with the chief and sub-chiefs. Most of their goods are stolen, although they do manufacture their own garments and leather goods. The concept of privacy is largely foreign to goblins. Each tribe has an exact pecking order, and every goblin knows his exact place in it. The way to move up the social ladder is through battle, and goblins constantly fight among themselves to improve their station in life.
A typical goblin tribe has 40-400 (4d10 x 10) adult male warriors. For every 40 goblins there will be a leader and his 4 assistants, each having 1 Hit Die (7 hit points). For every 200 goblins there will be a subchief and 2-8 (2d4) bodyguards, each of which has 1+1 Hit Dice (8 hit points), is Armor Class 5, and armed with a battle axe. The tribe has a single goblin chief and 2-8 (2d4) bodyguards each of 2 Hit Dice, Armor Class 4, and armed with two weapons. There is a 25% chance that 10% of their force will be mounted upon huge worgs, and have another 10-40 (1d4x10) unmounted worgs with them. There is a 60% chance that the lair is guarded by 5-30 (5d6) such wolves, and a 20% chance of 2-12 (2d6) bugbears.
Goblin shamans are rare, but have been known to reach 7th level. Their spheres include: Divination, Healing (reversed), Protection, and Sun (reversed).
In addition to the males, there will be adult females equal to 60% of their number and children equal to the total number of adults in the lair. Females are not afforded the same rights as males in goblin society, and females never learn to fight. Their role is to service the males and care for the young.
A goblin tribe has an exact pecking order; each member knows who is above him and who is below him. They fight amongst themselves constantly to move up this social ladder. They often take slaves for both food and labor. The tribe will have slaves of several races numbering 10-40% of the size of the tribe. Slaves are always kept shackled, and are staked to a common chain when sleeping.
Role-Playing Suggestions.
Like most evil creatures, few goblins ever become adventurers. Those that do are unusually rare, for the individualistic life of an adventurer is completely foreign to goblin society. Those few members of the race who display such tendencies are often killed by their brethren, for they are believed to be insane. If they can survive the prejudices and fears of their own people, goblin adventurers generally reject their own societies. They leave their lairs and strike out to find fame (of a sort) and fortune (whatever they can get their hands on). They often fight against such goblin practices as slave keeping and marauding, working to make up for the atrocities of their people.
Still, you can't take all of the monster out of goblins. They do their best to control their fear and overcome their natural cowardice, but few goblin adventurers will earn awards for bravery. Even the cleanest goblin adventurers have trouble eliminating the stench they have grown up with. It hangs about them like a shroud. Because of their communal back-grounds, goblins have no concept of privacy. This can lead to amusing — and not so amusing — situations for goblin adventurers and their companions.
Goblin tribes are classified as Strong or Weak based on how powerful their leadership is and as Large {300+}, Medium {75-300}, or Small {<75} based on their numbers. Often a 'small tribe' has splintered off of a 'large weak tribe' in search of their own territory.
- Krigjon tribe
- lives under Skull Church, raided caravans, had a deal with Black Cloak
- new deal with the Dragonslayers
