HQ25 monster stats and abilities #1 the Kobold

[cynthialee]

In my not so humble opinion, Kobolds are for Beginning Dungeons and near End Game Dungeons.
A few kobolds and you are in the crud, but it is survivable. When you have an entire Kobold Nation after your skin...then stuff just got real serious.
There was a dungeon a friend used to run that I have adopted and made my own that involves a war on Kobolds. The heroes need to be end game in power levels to survive.
It is called "Against the Kobold King".
His hide is wanted by the emperor. He is forted up in a cave at the end of a rift canyon. While the heroes are approaching the rift valley entrance, archers on all sides rain in the flame arrows. Don't try and fight them, the best action is to press on fast. Once past the archers one finds themselves facing a wall of fire. The fire is pitch soaked tumble weeds being pushed forward with metal rakes held by kobolds using Fire Immunity Potions. Now lucky for the heroes, this potion is alcohol based, so the Kobolds on fire duty are a bit sauced up. Once you get past the fire wall, there are a pair of trolls chained up in front of the cave...In the caves are the royal guard, a few shaman healers, the royal Kobold family and the Kobold King.
No one has made it past the fire wall. Usually the players decide to try and sue for peace, or they run away.
This storyline could easily be converted to a HQ scenario if one were to divulge from the official board and used some of the maps or dungeon tiles from the various game resource companies.

[knightkrawler]

Skaven exist and already embody the archetype of "fast-moving sling-user".

...but with 2 attack dice. The staggering step of 1 ranged attack die isn't occupied.
i'd like to have that for the Kobolds because I frankly don't wanna use Skinks in the near or far future.

[Goblin-King]

I would be perfectly happy with "o" and would gladly move my "l" vote there if I could.

It's not really mentioned in "o" but what about diagonal attacks to maximize how dangerous they are in numbers?

[knightkrawler]

As far as I'm concerned, "adjacent" includes both orthogonal and diagonal. I used that terminology for my own rules.
It would have to be clarified here, however.

[Daedalus]

...The above qualities of the Kobold appear to be roughly in consensus across the active members of the HQ25 author community. Ergo, unless someone raises an OBJECTION!, all we need to do is decide what form the Kobold's gang-up attack should take and whether or not the Kobold should have ranged attack options in its base form. I'm personally ambivalent on whether they need slings or whatever to do their job effectively, bu lean towards "no" because, if I recall correctly, Skaven exist and already embody the archetype of "fast-moving sling-user".

I'd be happy to add some poll choices to refine these points individually. That would mean enabling multiple votes. Will this get it done?

p. Ability choice: gang-up from 4 adjacent squares
q. Ability choice: gang-up from 4 adjacent squares and 4 diagonal squares (spears)
r. Ability choice: gang-up and ranged attack
s. Ability choice: gang-up only

I would be perfectly happy with "o" and would gladly move my "l" vote there if I could....

You can--I have and swung to "l" since I want the Goblin advantage of fast movement to stand out. I enabled the ability to change your vote for those who wish to add weight to leading choices. "O" would be my next choice.

[Daedalus]

I went ahead and added ability options--and lost the prior poll results! No matter, choice "o" was the clear winner with 6 votes. First runner up was choice "a" with 3 votes. There was a three-way tie for second runner up with 1 vote each for choices "e", "h", and "l."

Assuming Sjeng and Goblin-King see no need for further modification (as per the design document), the Kobold stats will be Mv:9 At:1 De:2 BP:1 MP:1.

You may now vote for [up to 2 choices 1 choice -edit] for the Kobold ability/abilities (choices P,Q,and R.) Then we'll have the Kobold ready for ability wording and ratification. When the Kobold is near completion, I plan to start a new monster poll topic and we can go at it again.

[Daedalus]

Going through the threads, I came across a Kobold ability suggested long ago that I had missed. It offers lowered damage for gang-up with a damage cap added in. I swapped it in for the sling option, as that can be included in Quest Notes. Feel free to cast or change a vote should this matter to you.

[Big Bene]

I would like the kobold true to original folklore, not the D&D monster.

If we agree on the reptilean appeareance (D&D) rather than the hunched, pointy nosed humanoid (original), that's OK for me. It's the image that most anglophone players will have in mind when hearing the term "kobold", and after all, who knows what a "real" kobold really lookes like?

But for his game statistics / abilities / special rules, I would still vote for the original concept.
Just because it will provide a really new type of monster rather than a modified goblin.

In folklore, kobolds are tricksters, allways mischievous, often truly malevolent, very seldom helpful if someone has done them a favor bevore. They use magic tricks all the time. They are normally solitary, in stories I never heard of bands, families, let alone whole people of kobolds.

All the abilieties in the poll are combat related, making them fighters. Some depend on more than one kobold coopreating.
I would rather limit their fighting abilites, and give them some magic. Not very harmful, but annoying, and include some that make him also hard to kill.

Somewhat like:
Mv:9 At:1(1) De:2 BP:1 MP:5
Has a deck of special kobold spells
Normally only one kobold is encountered at a time.

Spells could include:
Invisibility (lasts one turn, but kobold has several of these)
Increased defense
Illusional monster
Illusional treasure/gold
steal gold/weapon
open/close door
tricks on heroes that affect their stats for sone turns. These should have funny ingame descriptions - Something like "Two left hands": the hero gets two left hands, in game mechanics this translates to reduced hit and defence dice; or "Crybaby": the hero becomes a "chubby" figure with tiny body and oversized head, translating in less body points. Such effects could last for 1D3 turns.

But these are only raw ideas. Basically my are: make him not a fighter, but a trickster.

[Big Bene]

OK, I couldn't resist.


Some texts for the kobold spell deck:

Invisibility:
The kobold (the spellcaster and only him) becomes invisible, including all clothing and carried items. The effect will last until the end of the kobold's next turn.
The figure is taken from the gameboard. The kobold doesn't move normally in this time, it is just assumed he could be everywhere in the same room he became invisible and, after he had the opportunity to move in his turn, also in one adjactant room, but not further. He may not go to places wich are "blocked" from his original square. He can attack and use spells normally. He cannot be shot or affected by magic that uses line of sight. If the heroes know in which room he is (i.e. before he had the opportunity to move or after he took an action), they may hit him by just wildly swinging their weapons. In this case, they hit the right place at a 6 on the red die, they can then make their normal attack (this also applies if another hero has already hit the kobold).
The kokbold becomes visible and the EWP returns the figure on any square in the room(s) he can be. If he took an action (attack, defend, magic) in his second turn, and has no movement left after this action, he must reappear in the room he took the action in. As he becomes visible at the and of his turn by definition, he cannot cast another spell directly after that, but remains visible at least until his next turn.

Three times in the deck.

Lousy:
The affected figure has a terrible itching, constantly scratching him or herself whenever possible. This is extremely distracting and reduces attack and defense by one die, movement by four squares (not less than one) and makes spellcasting difficult (1 red die +3 must not exceed the mind points of the caster or the spell will fumble. fumbled spells are not lost). The effects lasts 1D3 rounds.

Feary Gold:
The kobold may turn any non magical item or gold in the dungeon into "feary gold". It will appear and work normal until the heroes leave the dungeon or otherwise end the quest, when it will turn into rotten leaves. This may affect any treasure in the quest notes or such items and gold that the heroe players found in the treasure deck. E. g. if in two searches a hero has found 50 gold and 20 gold, the kobold may turn either 20 or 50 coins into feary gold, not all of it, and also not the gold the hero carried before.

Two left hands:
The affectec figure gets a second left hand in place of his right hand (left-handed figures get two right hands). This reduces his dexterity in an extreme way. He has two less of each attack and defense dice, three dice when using ranged weapons. Movement and spellcasting are not affected. The effect lasts for 1D3 turns, but don't tell the player.

Stumble:
The affected figure's movement is halved for one turn (in the case of heroes, this means 1 red die).

Balloon:
The affected figure hoovers about five feet over the ground and has no means to move other than pushing himself forward with his hands on the walls. He may move by only one die (halved movement if a monster is affected), and not move at all if not in contact with a wall. An allied figure may pull him, in which case he will always be on the square behind his friend (in direction of movement). Lasts 1D3 turns.

Unsheathe:
The belt of the affected figure, or whatever means he uses to hold up his trousers or skirt, suddenly opens and the garment slips down to his ankles, effectively entangling his feet. Movement is reduced to zero and attack is reduced by one dice. It takes an action to refit the clothing.

Titch:
The affected character's figure changes to a tiny, skinny body of about 18 inches from foot to neck, with an oversized head as big as a pumpkin. All clothes and armor change to fit the new size, weapons and other carreid items retain their size. The BP are halved from the current number (not the maximum), always rounded up. The character gets back the lost BP when the effect ends, but all BP he lost in the meanwhile are "real" and still lost.
Lasts 1D3 rounds.

Look behind you, a three headed fimir!:
The kobold creates an illusional monster anywhere in the room he is (he can make it seem entering therough an open door). It must be an individuum of the standard races (the ones in the basic game, including the chaos sorcerer) or of a race that is present in the same dungeon. The monster has the same statistics as his real counterpart. When "killed", it will disappear into nothing, and all wounds it made are "healed" (they were illusions, too), heroes that were "killed" by such wounds were merely uncouscious and awake one round later.

Furry:
The hair (including facial and body hair) of the affected figure grows in an extreme manner. This results in a mild distraction, reducing defense by one die until the character uses two actions to cut his hair. To do so, he needs a dagger or short sword. All actions that involve looks or charme have reduced chances of succes. To completely remove the effect, the character has to visit the barber between quests, paying 10 Gold (it's not a standard job).

'Nocking on dungeon's door:
The kobold can open or close a door in the room he is in.

Kobold magic card backside (draft):

kobkart.png

"The magic of kobolds is an inborn ability, it can not be learned by other races. It is treated like normal spells in the game rules (i. e. the evil wizard player has a deck of cards for the kobold, representing the spells, and can use every one of these once in a quest), for the sake of simplicity, but it is a very differnt thing in the game world.

The combat statistics given above represent a kobold carrying a dagger, which is their starting weapon. A kobold is too weak to carry any other weapon than a dagger or a sling or wear any armor."

[Daedalus]

Though I'm not familiar with the stories, a tricky, folklore-based Kobold sounds very cool. The spells and descriptions probably need trimming, but there's something worth considering, in my opinion. I'd also say a mob, D&D Kobold is also great, and I wouldn't want to undo the consensus. Couldn't we have both?

My suggestion is to treat Big Bene's idea as a recurring, named monster/monsters in the Quest notes. The developed story arc has some space in Quest 3 and 4 if a unique Kobold was swapped in for the Goblin shaman. Alternatively or additionally, the unique Kobold could be substituted for the Kobold shaman by Quest 8 of the Fimir-Kobold arc. Actually, Quests and their story lines are still open to development, so anything is workable within a submitted Quest/Quest arc.

Introduction and Greenskin Arc ...

Q3: The heroes tracks the orcs back to their lair and slay them and free the prisoners, but find evidence that this is just a vanguard. Back in the village Mentor proclaims them heroes: They are destined for great deeds! And that is the new beginning of HEROQUEST!

Q3: Continuing to chase the trail of the orcs, the heroes confront a goblin shaman who pleads for his life as they are about to kill him. He tells them that the orcs are fleeing some more powerful force in the mountains, and just assaulting defenseless villages to boost their broken egos. The heroes learn where the orc leader is located just before the shaman unleashes a spell to escape (this will take some clever quest notes for this exposition dump and ensuring the goblins plot armor works)

Q4: The heroes find the main orc stronghold. The goblin shaman is found chained to a rack and branded traitor. The heroes can choose to free him and he will pretend to help but turn on the heroes as soon as the warlord is found. Or they can leave him to his fate. Either way the heroes eventually succeed in killing the warlord and ending the raids. The remaining orcs scatter and the heroes are left pondering what could have forced them out of their territory. The only clue they have is a strange artifact which seems to (insert ability here) those who wear it. Definitely not orc in origin

(ok a got a little carried away with the shaman sub plot, take it or leave it)

Kobold/Fimir Arc

Q5: Some Marshland farmers are reporting raids by strange looking goblins. A local noble's daughter has been kidnapped. The heroes go rescue her and in the process find Kobolds and surprisingly, a Fimir raiding party. The girl is being held prisoner for some unknown reason. The heroes rescue her from their clutches. She recounts how they have been oddly respectful and reverent in their treatment of her

Q7: The kobold and fimir alliance doesn't bode well! Mentor suspects they might be looking for the an ancient dragon relic known as the Scale of Teshnirax. It was last known to be in in the estate of Burgomaster Raulf (or whatever, names subject to change). The mansions is already being ransacked when the heroes arrive. A handful of guards and the Noble are holed up on the east wing, the heroes must fight to get to them before they are killed. As it turns out the dragon relic is already gone. The Noble clues them into the legend surrounding it. Apparently it was the only remaining piece of a heretical dragon destroyed by his own kind for trying to mix dragon and human bloodlines. The kobolds (wrongly) believe it to be their origin and it is holy to them. The fimir, already practicing vile breeding rituals see it as another way to prolong their races existence. The scale is the reagent for this dark ritual, along with the human host.

Q: In order to complete the ritual the ritual must be made upon the tomb of the Hero who helped the dragons defeat Teshnirax, with his own blood (the girl turns out to be his descendent). It is buried deep in the swamps. The tomb is crawling with undead which the Kobolds and Fimir have awakened and are in the process of fighting. (simple monster vs. monster rules I know how to make it work, will elaborate more in the quest I write). The girl is already rescued, so the heroes must kill the Fimir leader so the scheme is abandoned.

Q8: Tying up lose ends. The plots have been foiled, but the Kobold shaman remains. Track him back to his cavern and finish him so the knowledge of the scale remains buried in the past. Here the heroes discover that Zargon is secretly manipulating them both to create a human dragon hybrid body to manifest his greatest servant into (this character to be elaborated on in the final quests of this pack). The Kobold has chaos warrior body guards and letters with Zargon's seal. ( I dislike any plot which even hints at the heroes coming into direct conflict with the main villain, hence the change from Zargon himself to his greatest minion)

...

If others are also interested, the next step would be to work on the spells. Does anyone else feel it is worth adding an extra six cards (WoM spell set size)?