 Howdy, how's it going? My name's Davy Chappy, and today it's time to look at another side of a story once told in a previous Chappy video from the gnomish world of the Nelfs and the Newman's to the knack-knack-knacking of the little dragon fanboys themselves, The Cobolds! I'm gonna talk all about the lifestyle of the Cobolds, how they interact with the rest of the world, and give stats so that you can play your little knack-a-dial however you'd like. As always, keep in mind that a lot of this is just my opinion, so if you decide that making incidental homestuck references every time you want to talk about a Cobold isn't your style, feel free to run you little half-baked lizardfolk however you want. But with that out of the way, let's begin. So, Cobolds are teeny-tiny little level one fodder enemies who bear a vague resemblance to dragons, and that vague resemblance to dragons gives them the mightiest charge of unearned confidence in the world. These little critters are really good at digging holes and hide from every other race for fear of being enslaved for their extremely good skill of digging holes, and yet each Cobold has a small connection with dragons that makes every individual one think that despite all of their various shortcomings, they are still destined for greatness from the moment that they're born. And the beginning of a Cobold's life is pretty basic, all things considered. From the moment that they're hatched into their communal agnes, they have no idea who their paternal relatives are, they just recognize that they are a part of the tribe, and that all other Cobolds in that tribe are their extended family. This connection leads Cobolds to work in a very communal way, always doing what's best for the tribe, and working together to ensure that it both thrives and stays out of nose from the other races who might want to do it hard. From the hunters, to the tunnelers, to the tiniest scavenger, every Cobold works in a symbiotic relationship to ensure the survival of the pack. As the Cobold grows older, it will find mates to make eggs with, and since Cobolds don't exactly have a concept for monogamy or any particular notion of romance, these pairings are usually just out of convenience, up until the Cobold lives a long, natural life of over a century, or, if much more likely, until the Cobold dies a horrible death by around 20 years or so. But death isn't all bad, since Cobolds believe that when they die, their soul will just find its way into the body of the next laid egg in the nest, ready to pop out and dig a little hole once again. It's for that reason when a particularly valiant and powerful Cobold dies, all of the people in the tribe suddenly go right to the nest, and they're all like, hey, you give us that egg, and they nurture the Cobold that comes out and coddle it, and make sure that it's pampered because that Cobold was important, God damn it, and now it will be important again. And I may not be painting the best picture of it, but the tunneling skills of Cobolds are actually really, really good, to the point where they've developed an innate, instinctual understanding of where to dig, and how deep to dig without the caves collapsing on them, or which way will lead to water and cavern systems, and this spectacular skill of theirs doesn't always go unnoticed by the rest of the world. Oftentimes, cities that have discovered that there are Cobolds living underneath it will actually barter with the tribe, offering food and safety if they build irrigation sewer systems for the city, or alternatively, if they're met with antagonistic races, mean-spirited humans, or even dragons, which they actually literally revere as demigods, the Cobolds will still do the same work only with a bit more malintent headed their way, meaning that every time you go to a town, there could be hundreds of Cobolds living under you, and you would never know. And Cobolds prefer it that way. Their other incredibly useful, if not off-times irritating skill is scavenging items from the areas surrounding their homes. Oftentimes, this means going into a nearby town and digging a secret passageway into someone's house, then slipping in every once in a while and taking things that would potentially go unnoticed, like an extra pair of knives or a few cups, or perhaps a delicious raspberry pie that's been left out on the table. But they never take anything that would be missed, because they don't want to instigate the people that they're stealing from to actually want to do something about them, so they stick to just being a little annoying at worst and completely unnoticed at best. There are only two things that break this trend, and they are magic items and gnomes! Both for the same reason. Now, if you've watched my gnome guide, then you already know the story of the honorable and innocent Kirtlemark and the conniving and trixty Garl Glittergold. But, spoken from the Kobold point of view, Kirtlemark was just being a good vassal to his lord, the mighty dragon goddess Tiamat. When Garl Glittergold, jealous of Kirtlemark's good fortune, stole some of Tiamat's hoard and prompted Kirtlemark to chase after him, where, as we know, he was led into a never-ending maze, Glittergold turned around and said, You got nomed, and he was trapped there for all eternity. It's due to this reason that if Kobolds ever find their way into either the hovel or the presence of a gnome, they will do their absolute best to make that gnome's life a living hell until they either die or get the hell out of their territory. And getting magic items means that they are potentially one step closer to freeing Kirtlemark from his never-ending prison, just as soon as they can figure out how to get the things to work. Regardless of the outward intelligence to normal folk, Kobolds, for all their insecurities and their penchant for being manipulated by people wiser than them, actually happened to be one of the cleverest little creatures in the entire multiverse, even more clever, I dare say, than the gnomes. These little guys are always prepared for the worst situations, having already studied every room they go into for possible escape routes and distractions, and their tunnels are filled to the brim with traps and endless passages to nowhere to ward off any intruders. Honestly, I can fight a dragon or a giant all day long, if it means that I never have to go through the unbridled horror that is navigating a kobold den. The things just turn every staircase, every walkway, every entrance of every room into a trap that ranges from the basic, like a box lifted up by some rope, to the clever, like a poison needle that'll drug you, to the downright insane, like a literal bag of bees. Hell, even their biology is intuitive. On one hand, certain rare kobolds are hatched with wings, and on the other hand, when a kobold tribe is partially wiped out and the survivors are left with either too few males or too few females, kobolds can, over time, change their own sex to balance out what's left of the tribe, making actually getting rid of kobolds an absolute chore and a half. But, we have spent a nice long time talking about the wonder that is the kobold, so let's get into the nitty-gritty of their own steps, so that you can start knackin' at your own problems. The modest kobold gets a plus two to dexterity and a minus two to strength. They also get dark vision, sunlight sensitivity, advantage on attacks when there's an ally nearby, and a kobold unique ability known as grovel, cower, and beg, which lets you distract nearby enemies to give your allies advantage on attacks against them. Now, unlike most guides, I actually have a bit to say about this stat block, which is that while the kobold has always been one of the more slapstick comedy type races, meant to be basic fodder enemies that bushy-tailed adventurers can handle without too much of a problem, this stat block makes playing them feel the same way, particularly with the fact that kobolds only get a bonus to one stat, and then also get a negative to another stat, which is something that's shared with literally only one other race, the orc. I'd personally recommend home-brewing it to maybe giving them a plus one intelligence to give some credibility to the idea that they are actually clever enough to fill their entire caves with millions of traps, and getting rid of the negative to strength, because even if you're one of those people that preferred the olden days when D&D would give negatives to almost every race, Fifth Edition has never made a thing until now, and it doesn't look to be doing it again in the future if Mordenkanans, or the Guildmasters guide, is anything to go off of, so giving two races a negative on the grounds of, oh, well, it fits with the lore, but then shrugging at the elf not having a negative to Constitution, or the dwarf not having a negative to Charisma, is just trying to hand-wave the problem away. The whole idea of not giving things negatives is to reward the player for choosing the race's archetypical class options if they match up with their ability score increases, but not analyze the player for wanting to try something off the wall or different, like a half-orc wizard. So even if the kobold is a monster race, and wizard says that they wanted to stay true to the monster, that shouldn't be into the detriment of the player. Okay, rant over. But that'll about do it. I hope you liked the video, blah, blah, blah. Subscribe to PewDiePie, but yeah, dev.io.