FA+
Shop
Kobolds... do you even? EDITED
4 years ago
General
What do you know about these critters? *points bright lamp at your face*
Where do they come from, what do they do?
What do you like most about them and what makes a neat kobold character in your opinion, like colors, shapes, whatever?
~~~
Didn't expect this to blow up to this extent; thanks so much for all the detailed and well crafted comments; I have read them all!
Where do they come from, what do they do?
What do you like most about them and what makes a neat kobold character in your opinion, like colors, shapes, whatever?
~~~
Didn't expect this to blow up to this extent; thanks so much for all the detailed and well crafted comments; I have read them all!
That and it seems that the majority of adventuring parties will fall in love with their Kobold, if they have one. Alternatively, they are likely to, sometimes forcefully, adopt one.
However you want to look at it. They seem to enjoy it either way.......hmm...maybe a little to much now that I think of it.
I like that they can be variants of their much larger dragon
mastersfriends. I think a Kobold of any color, but with a pearl like shine to them, would be cool toownknow. You can also stack them up in sets of threes, so I've heard. Never interacted with a Kobold myself, these are just the whispers I hear from other dragons.If anything though the thing I like about kobolds is, since they're normally in the games I play thought of as weak and insignificant, one being able to stand out and make a name for themselves, if not become a hero figure. I 'almost' had one I played in a tabletop game called Pathfinder (D&D style game) become a hero, but he and the rest of our group died near the end of the adventure we were in. x.x
Just cute lowercase dragons. I got a gaggle of odd shapes. Bearded dragon based with crystals. A leopard gecko kobold. A wyvernbold. Sharkobold and a mole kobold. Very fun little smol dergs
And they live underground in carved labyrinth like tunnels, similar to dwarven kingdoms, but no where near as inviting. The tunnels are just transport routes between carved out living hollows.
Don't know where the lizard ones started springing up from, myself :P
Sources an everything
Males are scrawny little chihuahuas with a breath weapon, females are somehow fertility goddesses.
Well, that depends on what kobolds you have in mind.
In old German folklore, they were spirits or creatures that delved in mines and were generally a nuisance. I am not sure what they (the Germans) thought they (the kobolds) look like.
In old D&D (before 3rd edition in 2000) they were "a cowardly, sadistic race of short humanoids that vigorously contest the human and demi-human races for living space and food", typically depicted as small, skulky humanoids that have scales, small horns and have a smell similar to that of a wet dog, with some sources suggesting they do look vaguely dog-like (albeit with scaly hides), with "non-prehensile rat-like tails" and "language, which sounds like small dogs yapping".
Nowadays in D&D they more resemble a mini-me dragons, but more human-like (walking on two feet and wearing clothes, but that's generally it, now they are supposed to look almost exactly like bipedal dragons) and instead of being cowardly and sadistic, they now are a race of noble and misguided barbaria... no, that's what they've done to orcs, sorry. Kobolds are still kinda-cowardly and kinda-aggressive (but much more territorial-like-aggressive, not I'm-evil-therefore-aggressive).
In other fantasy games kobolds are generally portrayed as D&D kobolds expys, but that's not always the case. For example in HackMaster (RPG by Kenzer and Company) they are "The smallest of the humanoid races, this hairless canid stands a mere 3 feet tall and weighs in at about 40 to 50 pounds. A kobold has a short, canine snout, largish ears and two small, impish bone protrusions or rounded horns adorn the top of his head. Its mouth contains a full set of sharp, lupine teeth used to eat raw meat, but are not large enough to be used effectively in combat", so very much more dog-like than dragon-like.
What do they do?
Live underground, mining, mostly.
The D&D kobolds also worship evil dragon gods (and sometimes the not-evil too, depends on whether local dragon has shiny scales or just colored) or the dragons themselves and follow orders of local dragon as minions. Both in the old times and nowadays they still hate gnomes (who also mine a lot, and there is a whole lot of a lore regarding that rivalry, long story short gnomes were prettier, more likeable by others and better at fighting, so they drove away kobolds and that started long-lasting feud).
For modern D&D kobolds lore you can watch Mr. Rhex's "What they don't tell you about kobolds" video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSUBtv9iS-E) which pretty much sums it up in 50 minutes. There is also (shorter) pretty good AJ Pickett's video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T7kD1FglGc).
What makes a neat kobold character?
That "who, me?" big-eyed look when they try to look innocent, often right after stealing something small and shiny ;)
In eastern fantasy, they're more akin to canine-like creatures and have no affiliation to Dragons, and run the gambit from being anthropomorphic dogs to monstrous wolves.
Make great short stacks but anything would work.
They can be dog-like, they can be wee dragon-folk. They can be ugly skinny yappy little piles of scales. Or they can be scales-as-skin Piko-assed curvaceous fatties. They can have smoothchest or boobs and nipples.
Other than that I enjoy the creativity that comes with kobolds. You can do most anything with your own standard template brand. Make them any color, make them have any features, make companion homebrew dragon species with any reptilian, dinosaur, serpent or saurion characteristics you want or can imagine! Hermaphroditism is a pretty common characteristic for them in those places where smut art intersects with D&D.
Im on that Kenku Meta
On the other hand, who doesn't love Polt? The early D&D days were very much into the whole "evil is ugly and humans are the good guys" mentality. Canine kobolds are much more attractive when they're not spiky humanoid chihuahuas with severe cataracts and rabies.
I think that a good kobold character should be informed by stereotypes, but not chained to them. Kobolds are typically seen as being sneaky and cunning, but can those tendencies be redirected into something less obvious? What about a kobold detective who uses underestimation of their intelligence and abilities to their advantage? A wealthy merchant who uses a hired human/demihuman actor to play their part in negotiations? A paladin with a soul-wracking streak of kleptomania?
...But thiccer than a bowl of oatmeal that was put in the refrigerator yesterday morning. Yeah. That's the most important bit.
What do they do? Probably balance a checkbook better than I can?
What I like about them is how simple you can make their designs. Because it all come down to clothing. You can give a kobold spikes, horns, maybe none at all. BUT! Their outfits are usually what speaks VOLUMES about they're personally and they can be extravagant or you can just rags or skirts. As long as the outfit isn't too busy you can make ANYTHING work with a kobold than design the rest around the clothing. At least that's how I see it in my eyes.
As for shapes. They tend to be extremely short. So really they just usually end being adorable shortstacks.
This I'll from a design perspective from other Kobold OCs I've seen on this sight. Everyone else above this comment has already explained the myths and origns so I don't really know what else to add
I wasn't much of a fan of the look of the WoW kobolds, I prefer the D&D one's :D
As to what they do I actually diverge from the 'worship all dragons' mindset and think of them as little mechanics and laborers of the like that can easily scurry about and use their draconian strength to their advantage.