What They Don't Tell You About Kobolds - D&D 

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"The kobold miners have unionized and are on strike." "What are their demands?" "To work more."

The thought of Kobolds yelling "Rock and Stone" as they outpace even dwarves at mining is... interesting and hilarious.

Human Cleric: Work smarter, not harder. Kobold Cleric: Work smarter, work harder.

Rhexx: "Kobolds are typically characterized as the MOST EVIL and DISGUSTING race alive!" My friends and I: "They are baby now. No questions."

"Kobolds when they mine and they are with their family they are just happy..." man I feel sad for every kobolds I killed now x.x

There's a running gag in my group where during any extended silence a single red kobold will run across the scene screaming in terror

Gnome: *exists* Kobolds: YOUR FREE TRIAL OF LIFE HAS ENDED.

I want to see that whole grunge thing implemented. Like a party of adventures insults a single kobold at lv 1 and leaves. Much later between lv15-20 that koblod comes back with 3 United tribes and an ancient dragon for revenge

I've got a small shop in one of the main cities In my campaign where the players buy their diamonds and gems, its run by a group of five Kobolds who use the gold to buy tools and building materials for their tribe, my players have not worked this out as the kobolds have a sorcerer with them to use *disguise self.* My players refuse to go anywhere else as *"This shop never runs out of the materials we need for our spells".* I've actually got the tribes mine layout finished, it's full of strange but deadly traps that can take out a lv9 character, due to the fact that this tribe is well funded from their city shop. If my players ever go there and try to attack the tribe, they could potentially die from traps and weapons that they in part helped fund.

Imagine a kobold becomes an adventurer. He's out in search of a new homeland for his tribe after their mines collapsed, and now their warriors battle against the local militia in an epic fight for the tribe's survival. However, he cannot make the journey alone. He knows he is small and fragile. If he hopes to return home alive and guide his tribe to their new home, he will need help. He travels from tavern to tavern, in search of a decent party, but finding himself feeling alienated and small in the sea of giants. He can feel his skin crawl from every interaction, his eyes constantly darting around in search of an exit, his heart pounding, and every fiber of his body screaming at him to return home to his tribe, but he can't. Not yet. Just when he thinks he'll have to brave the journey alone, he finds a suitable adventuring party who plan on traveling to a grand mountain inhabited by a great and noble dragon. This mountain is well-isolated - far from any village or kingdom - and has enough space for ten of his tribes. The dragon who rules it is constantly searching for new treasures to adorn his hoard and would welcome any kobolds who came to serve him. Finally, his people will have a home once more. The party makes plans to set out the following morning and meet at the town's front gate. He prepares his pack, sharpens his pickaxe, and readies himself for the journey ahead. It will be long and arduous, but just as he and his tribe cut through the heart of the earth, so too will he venture across the unknown. The sun rises on the following day, the early morning air chilling him to the bone, but he is not deterred. He spots his party by the gate, but there is a new face among them. It's a gnome. The fighter turns to him and says, "This is our newest member. She'll be traveling with us to the mountain." And the kobold just screams.

Are....are we sure these are bad guys? Their statblock says they're evil, but I really don't want to kill these precious children.

This video: *exists* Me who recently made a Kobold Sorcerer: Oh yeah, it's all coming together.

Kobolds actually sound really likeable. Not the pests they're usually described as

Fun fact. I once as DM I gave the party the option to either slay a dragon, locate and purge a vampire lair or cleanse a Kobold Lair. They chose the lair. I then did the famous DM warning quote. "Are you sure?" They all said yes because from their previous experiences from fighting Kobolds outside their lairs, They this was going to be easy. Mind you they had no rogue. I even brought a NPC rogue whom warned them that such a task was very dangerous and it was for their best to hire him for his services but they turned him down. Only 1 from a party of 6 survived to come back without the mission full filled. Since then the group never chose enter a Kobold Lair. Having wisened up how deadly it is to enter with all the traps and ambushes Kobolds love to deploy. Outside their lair they are easy. Inside very deadly.

I remember a character arc of my PC who promised a kobold “tour guide” he’d free her from the dragon that ruled her people. He’d grown attached because her relationship with the dragon reminded him of how his relationship with his estranged father used to be. That kobold died the first round of combat against the dragon. Dude when I say I cried, I mean OOC I CRIED. Went on a whole thing to bring her back and give her the second chance at a free life I promised for her. The scene when she was resurrected was beautiful.

Kobold: "Dragonborn are just imitation kobolds..."

Gnome: *Exist* Kobold: *Racks shotgun and starts screaming*

I love the idea that a Kobold couple won't care if either one mates with another Kobold, but would probably get very angry if they saw someone else WORKING with their partner! :D

I was nearly killed by a band of 40 Kobold as a mediocre level magic user, caught out in the open and all alone. I still remember it vividly. It was the year 1979 (43 years ago!) If anyone questions whether or not they should play D&D, will you remember a game of "Uno" that you played 43 years from now? Role playing stays with you LONG after the adventure ends...

I ran a game a few years back where the group played Kobold scouts tasked with finding a new mine for their recently expanded tribe. The players had an absolute blast, tended to play it LN for the most part and even managed to set up reasonably friendly relations with both a Human town and a Dwarven trading outpost near the spot they eventually chose to settle. This was done by spending time and effort stabilising the region (which was on the edge of 'civilised' lands), they dealt with Goblin raiders who had been harrassing the Humans, they helped the Dwarves recover from a cave-in saving several lives and even joined a Pelorite hunt for a skeletal dragon (which they saw as an afront to dragonkind). The one and only time they went 'evil' in any real way was the Gnome trading caravan they came across which was stalked and harried for 2 sessions straight before the group slaughtered the entire caravan in a midnight raid. I was so proud of my players in that campaign, they totally embraced the idea of Kobolds and stayed wonderfully within character throughout. Ever since that game my group have treated Kobolds differently, oftentimes looking for peaceful and non-confrontive means to deal with Kobold-related issues in their games. Without a doubt they would be my number one most misunderstood race in the game.

What They Don't Tell You About Kobolds: No matter how many times you shoo them away, they will keep jumping up on the table when they think you aren't looking.

Kurtulmak is a Turkish word, meaning escape / be saved. Ironicly he is imprisoned.

"They can live to be 120 years, but really make it past ten." That had me smiling!

I love that there's a fan-art picture of the kobold Spurt at 29:02 Spurt was a NPC played by Chris Perkins in the second Critical Role campaign. Chris Perkins was at the studio and Matt asked him during the break, in secret, if he wanted to play an NPC for a moment. Thus came to life Spurt. A little kobold with a scorpion tied to the stick, a bag of bees and a skunk.

When you trap someone in a maze for all eternity: "It was just a prank bro."

So from what I can tell it goes like this Kobolds around kobolds and / or dragons: The most precious baby lizard boys and girls that live to please and must be protected at all costs. Kobolds around literally any other sentient life: 3ft ofcondensed bastard

Kobold: life span of 120-400 years. 10 year old kobold: "wait, I might become a dragon if I die heroicly for the tribe? Well...CHARGE THE GNOMES!!!" I play a winged kobold that invicibly believes he is really a dragon that just forgot how to polymorph back. He heard a rumor once that eating a dragon's heart can cause a kobold to turn into a true dragon. So that is his goal. He has been ostracized by his tribe and become quite the little pirate criminal mastermind in The Shackles (Pathfinder 1e) and has his personal longship crewed by other kobolds.

I imagine Kobolds as being created for the express purpose of serving dragons. Tribes seek young Dragons to serve and build their lair around. They work to build up a dragons hoard, and the newborns will take on the coloring of the Dragon they serve. So red Kobolds may be raiders trying to steal your stuff, but gold Kobolds may be helpers and guides. Silver Kobolds may open up a brewery. They basically align their morals to their master. All Kobolds tribes seek wealth, not for themselves, but to grow the dragons hoard. That's just my personal lore for them

I love kobolds. The end to one of the campaigns I was in had my character change permanently into a dragon using 9th level magic. They looked and had the characteristics of a bronze dragon, but they were blue in color and settled a mountain on the coast. They used their shapechange ability to turn into a kobold, then rounded up some kobolds to mate with and started their own unique type of blue kobolds that eventually became self sustaining. By the time the next campaign in that setting started, they had built a big city dedicated to trade and tourism. The kobolds just facilitated free trade, attracting merchants from all over, including thieves and pirates, and the kobolds were only there to keep the peace and collect taxes. The dragon made a fortune by taxing merchants and selling fresh water and salt as there weren't any other sources of fresh water all that nearby, many ships would stop just to stock back up on food and water. The kobolds had their own district that extended underground into the mountain that had a shrine to the dragon, treasury, spa, magic academy, all sorts of facilities to make them better at their jobs. Excess kobolds are put into the Azure Legion which is basically a mercenary army. The general idea is rather than spending the resources to maintain a large army, they push that cost off onto whoever wants to pickup the burden to have a disposable fighting force of well trained little troopers. Dragon gets a cut of the wages, kobolds get food and purpose, countries get defended, works out for everyone.

Me who just made a kobold artificer yesterday: Oh yeah, It’s all coming together.

Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Underentide features deekin a kobold bard (later becomes a red dragon disciple). He is a fun character. If you recruit the elf cleric as well as deekin, he composes a poem for her.

I’m glad I found this one. I love Kobolds and really enjoy playing them. The lore you’ve made about Kobolds has made mine a favorite at any table, where I tap into their lore, habits, and history to create who my Kobold is and becomes.

I'm just imagining a bunch of kobolds singing We All Lift Together while mining

You just made the best advertisement for Grim Hollow ever. And I'm saying this because now I'm really considering buying it.

40:44 the art in that time melted my heart

In another time line when the kobolds were made the dragons would be like "they're perfect, I shall call them...mini me"

if the smithing master-race of Dwarves and the mining master-race of Kobolds were united under a mountain chain, the most spiteful jewel maker society would be born.

“What they don’t tell you about kobolds” Is that their cute :3

I think a Kobold Tribe led by a Good Dragonborn could lead to a very interesting kobold tribe that could end up befriending most of their neighbors.

My DM sent me this as a more in depth version of a book he described my kobold character finding as some long lost lore since kobolds are a rare race to stumble across in his world let alone a friendly one such as my character so this opened the floodgates for my little guys brain so thanks for this a lot!

Honestly, a lot of the most "basic" races have some of the most fantastic lore. It's why I want to see you cover the goblinoids and yuan-ti, my favorite monstrous races.

Kobolds. The race of Humanoids who in all my games end up being adopted by the party, and turned into the pets/allys of the bigger races.

Anyone else find it weird that at the dawn of life, a gold and red dragon cut off a limb to create a life, and the life that spawns comes with a loincloth?

Spurt's exclamation of "I WIN!" suddenly makes so much more sense now...

I for one support the Kobold's righteous quest to purge the world of the verminous gnomes.

Me: *gets ready to skip promotion* Me: *sees that it's a promotion for 5E content that fixes grimdark game mechanics* Me: Very well, you may proceed...

Literally the best Coffeelocks (warlock/sorcerer multiclass) in the entire game. As long as someone in your group plays an oversized meathead tank you're good. Fortunately, nearly every new player I've seen seems drawn to such a role.

I have a campaign where a character is a kobold, so it’s kind of a rule to never kill kobolds when we play dnd even in a different campaign

Party: Dragonborn, half-dragon, lizardman, and a gnome. Quest: Investigate rumors of an old dragon hoard. Cue three scalies yelling at kobolds to leave the gnome alone, kobolds settle down then realize there's a gnome nearby and try to kill it.

Uh the artwork at 40:24 was NOT created by MonkeyCarlo, that was created by me.

Hey @MrRhexx, I was honored to hear that you used an art of mine in your video! Thanks a lot. I drew the art at 12:14 (from Benjamin Huffman's Keep of the Kobold Queen).

This inspired my newest character: a cleric that only uses divination magic, that is of course a kobold, also watching this made my favorite race switch from grung to kobolds.

Kobold lives are surprisingly wholesome.

I'm surprised there was no talk of Kobold bards, a good bard should be able to add some serious motivation and benefits to mine productivity

DnD creators: kobolds are filthy reptiles barely better than goblins Kobold players: scaley lizard babies

I absolutely love playing Kobold PCs whenever I can. It can be difficult to find a way to fit them into campaigns sometimes, but when you find a way it's great.

"Kobolds are weak." Bro, the one in the handbook looks ripped af. Legit 6-pack.

“How long have you been here?” “Eleven days.” “And how long do kobolds usually live?” “Eleven days.” *_Later_* “You’re dead! I win!” -Spurt, before he went Splurt.

I think kobolds would be realy good team mates thinking of the group before themselves

I have been out of the D&D scene for several decades. In fact, the last game I played used 3.5 rules. My question is this: Given a Master Druid in a large forest, and a Master Ranger who's built his Tower in the area as well... would they have common trade with any Kobolds in the area, should the valley be hedged with Mountains? Would there be a peaceful co-existence between them? The Druid could direct bears to seek caves away from Kobold inhabited areas, and the Ranger could keep adventurers away from the Kobold claimed Mountain. Would the Kobolds aid them if the Druid and Ranger were threatened? I envision a well forested valley, with good farmlands at the mouth of a river flowing through it from the mountains on either side. One set of peaks inhabited by Kobolds, the other by Dwarves, with the local Druid and Ranger's areas of control acting as a buffer between them. Given the expected wealth generated by both neighbors, the Druid and Ranger could hire Magic Users to use Rock to Mud spells to create new Bear caves almost anywhere along the slopes of the mountains. Given the creating of enough such caves, bears would not need to 'invade' Kobold warrens or Dwarf cave complexes. If good enough relations can be generated, then the Druid and Ranger can count upon Dwarven and Kobold armies to ensure the Valley's defense, and defense of the farmers and their villages in the river delta's area. Given the above, should I also have the sea, or lake shore area of the river delta inhabited by Lizardmen as well? Questions, questions.

God I remember in the 1983 red box D&D kobolds were in the first adventure as dog-like creatures. I'm old.

One of the most accomplished bards in recent history of Forgotten Realms was a kobold... Deekin Scalesinger.

After 7 years as a DM i got myself a reputation of being the "kobold guy" cause these lil fuys are just so cool to plan and craft with, they are an endless source of creativity!

Kobolds rogues are one of my favorite character types to play, but I have found a lot of DMs have a hard time actually roleplaying opportunities to set traps . . . . really gotta figure out ways to lure or force enemies into prepared areas - but a couple bear traps around a blind corner usually easy enough to pull off.

"The f*ck are pants?" -Task of Ironoath

Kobolds are one of my favorite creatures in d&d simply because no one truly gets them and you throw your party into a kobold nest and they don’t expect to get demolished

i dare say the Kabolds are by far the race with the most character and personally, i actually find them kind of relatable. and Yes, this long video was very satisfactory.

Dude the lore you have been spouting has literally given me a story for my campaign world. I cannot thank you enough. The relationships between Kobolds to Dragons to Io (primordials) is the perfect setup for one side with the Giants/Titans/Dieties as the opposite. The hatred and battle lines are drawn so deep in the lore that players will take months to figure out what is happening.

I made a town of neutral-ish kobolds where they sold their gold to buy bricks and made a giant fortress

Mining dragon-rabbits that hate gnomes. Got it!

That little note, near the end, saying "whilst they can live up to 120 years, they rarely live past 10" gave me a chuckle.

Imagine a kobold betraying their clan to reincarnate into a giant stagbeetle to give their clan more armor

Forgotten Realms: The most popular and well known setting. How ironic

Ahhhh nothing is better than the sound, sights and smells of mid to high level Players crying, sobbing and pleading because they have been killed of by a relatively small band of kobolds and their traps due to them *just* being kobolds and as such underestimated (and the players greedy)

Also, can I just say that all that fan art of cute cobolds just snuggling one another was just precious and I love it

MrRhexx: "Filthy little reptiles barely better than goblins." Kobolds: "But we ARE better than goblins!" Also, going after a Kobold in their lair is a great way to never be seen again. They trap the FUCK out of those.

Here is hoping we get kobolds as a playable in Baldur's Gate 3, probably won't but hey I can dream.

There is a surprising amount of "extra" art of kobolds.

I had three as a little group of them that followed the party and helped us. We saved them and their tribe from a group of adventurers that went to kill them for no real reason other then loot. My bard convinced them to give us some prize so the dm rolled and gave us three that were cut down but healed by us. We love them and they are amazing.

I never had an interest in RPing a kobold..but now I have changed my mind. Thanks!

Kobolds: are miners and carved tunnels through solid stone Also kobolds: are too physically weak to draw a bowstring Me: X doubt

Today I learned: Kobolds are, essentially, the idea Soviet worker.

The picture you see before playing the video is adorable.

Almost all of my characters in 5E have been Kobolds. Kobold Cleric (x2) Kobold Paladin (x3) Kobold Sorc (x1) Kobold Fighter (x1) Kobold Ranger (x1) I love Kobolds. I consume Kobold lore. Thank you for more of it! :D

18:06 That is warm-bloodedness. The ability to keep the body moving in the cold by increasing the metabolism is the definition of warm bloodedness. If they were actually cold-blooded, they would go into torpor at low temperatures regardless of what they ate.

The Dwarfs and Kobolds of my setting are constantly engaged in wars over access to minerals

25:42 Imagine going into a cave and you see a bunch of small lizard people, and all you can hear is *Cold, the air and water flowing*

Oh man I have always loved Kobolds, and have had the opportunity to play as one a few times. This is hands down my favourite video from you.

I remember when I was planning a draconic sorcerer Kobold I gave him an unusually high strength for point buy. I felt this way because Azu wanted to be better for the tribe. He felt he needed to earn the praise he received. So along with his training of sorcery he would put in hours of mining till he could no more. Building himself up.

I love how this video and the Tiamat one are long enough to be a proper D&D documentary. I love this channel and this series. I feel like I’m watching a nature docu-series for a different world.

This whole thing has me thinking about the innate weakness of alignments. Seems like D&D needs two alignments to really que you in on the creature's mindset. One alignment is how they treat others, and another for how they treat each other. A Kobold might be "Lawful Evil" to others, meaning that it hates outsiders, is xenophobic and generally prejudice. But Kobolds have tight family units, so they are very "Lawful Good" to each other. If you could befriend them, you might even work up to a "Lawful Good" relationship with them, or at least "Lawful Neutral", since they would still see you as an inferior race. The "Lawful" part just means they are honest, in both their love and hate. They have honor and generally abide by the deals they make. From a gameplay standpoint, you are mostly interested in how a character/creature addresses the player, so a simple "They HATE YOU!" will do. But it doesn't help for more in-depth gameplay. They have love for all dragon kind and might give a Dragonborn ALOT more slack then a human. They are arrogant but also industrious, if somewhat dumb in general. This information has little meaning to players, but would be EXTREMELY helpful to DM's!

More reasons I wanna play a Kolbold And I can also just imagine a tribe of kolbalds singing a mining version of under the sea while mining away

I find Reptilian Kobolds are cute and as iconic as Dragons.

To be fair, most level one NPC humanoids can be killed by a good solid hit.

Also, thanks for convincing me to go with kobolds rather than dwarves. My current character is from a family who bought a noble title using the money they got from selling electrum. I had envisioned that they later hired miners to do the mining while they took on the mercantile function, but kobolds seems a lot more fun to work with.

All you have to tell me now is that Kobolds have amazing singing voices, and they will be better than dwarves in every way possible.

50 minutes? I would expect no less from the best dragon bois

YES I needed this to help round out my setting. I have a dragon-centric campaign setting where kobolds and dragonborn are the most numerous races, and kobolds are the narrative cornerstone to why the dragons and their lands are the way they are. This is gonna help me flesh out so much! ❤

I normally don't go back to watch these videos again but I just keep coming back. If you do a pt 2 for Kobolds I'm in 100%