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Breadcrumb

Kobold Broodguard

Challenge
str
14
dex
14
con
14
int
10
wis
10
cha
12

AC 16 (hide armor, spiked buckler shield)

HP 44 (8d6 + 16; bloodied 22)

Speed 25 ft.


Proficiency +2; Maneuver DC 12

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages Common, Draconic


Pack Tactics. The kobold has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the kobold’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and not incapacitated .

Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the kobold has disadvantage on attack rolls , as well as on Perception checks that rely on sight.


ACTIONS

Multiattack. The kobold makes a bill hook attack and a spiked shield attack.

Bill Hook. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage, and if the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it makes a DC 12 Strength saving throw , falling prone on a failure.

Spiked Shield. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.

Sling. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) bludgeoning damage.


REACTIONS

Rally! (1/Day, While Bloodied). When the kobold takes damage, it shouts a rallying cry. All kobolds within 30 feet that can hear it gain immunity to the frightened condition for 1 minute, and their next attack roll made before this effect ends deals an extra 1d4 damage.

Kobold Names

Blimbik, Flaw, Lublub, Luckluck, Pip Nip, Queek, Skirn, Vis, Zabblescrubble, Zorna


Legends and Lore

With an Arcana or History check, characters can learn the following:

DC 10 Kobolds are distant relatives of dragons and often serve them in their lairs.

DC 15 Kobolds go to great lengths to avoid sunlight.

DC 20 While individually weak, kobolds can be dangerous when encountered in large numbers. They fashion clever traps to protect their underground warrens.

Description

Kobolds are small, reptilian humanoids that blend the features of large dogs and tiny, wingless dragons. While many live in the lairs of the dragons they revere, others dwell in trap-ridden warrens far underground.

Draconic Servitors. Kobolds feel both an awe of and kinship with dragons. Many dragons extend protection to their distant kobold cousins, accepting in return the flattery, adulation, and service they believe all creatures owe them. Kobold servitors resent a dragon’s other minions, fearful of the day the dragon no longer values their devotion.

Kobolds share many characteristics with dragons. They hatch from eggs with an instinct to hoard treasures and trinkets. Like dragons, kobolds enjoy long lifespans. With all the dangers that assail them, though, few kobolds see the natural end of their 100- to 150-year lifespans.

Proud and Territorial. Smaller and weaker than most sentient species, individual kobolds make easy prey for predators. A kobold community without a dragon patron must rely on stealth, traps, and sheer numbers to survive.

Most kobolds live in underground warrens far from the sunlight. Often, these warrens are extensions of  existing structures such as dungeons, sewers, and natural caverns. As skilled miners with a dragon-like fondness for shiny things, kobolds often move into abandoned mines (or chase the miners out of working ones). Kobolds modify their lairs to their advantage, using low ceilings, cunning traps, and narrow passages to hinder the movement of invaders. Kobolds prefer to fight from a distance and with overwhelming numbers.

Bigger and stronger creatures often find kobolds contemptible at best, and raid and slaughter them at worst. When the tables are turned, kobolds rarely forgive those who have bullied them, though sometimes flattering words or glittering offerings appease them. Any slight to their dignity enrages them. Kobolds believe that even the smallest relative of a dragon has royal blood coursing through its veins.

Behavior

1 Attack on sight; armed with vials of acid or alchemist’s fire

2 Attack on sight; armed with a jar of scorpions, snakes, or green slime

3 Suspicious of strangers; may have set ball bearings, caltrops, or hunting traps

4 Running with sacks of stolen food

5 Peeking from behind cover, such as high in a tree, behind a wall, or inside an abandoned building

6 Arguing over the proper way to roll a boulder onto intruders

7 Digging a pit trap

8 Hiding in ambush, disguised as bushes or rocks that occasionally move around

9 Bearing a message from their overlord

10 Guarding a high position such as a ledge or balcony

11 Terrified and hiding in a hole or inside burlap sacks, or just lying down covering their eyes

12 Fleeing from a battle in which their companions were killed

Signs

1–3 DC 12 Perception check: small footprints

4 Abandoned campfire with dirt kicked over it

5 Several fresh kobold corpses, savaged by some beast

6 A dragon scale, pierced as if once part of a necklace

7 DC 12 Perception check: A concealed entrance to a narrow tunnel

8 Caltrops, tripwire that tips a torch into a puddle of oil, or other trap

9 Small footprints pass over a concealed pit trap that collapses beneath 80 or more pounds of weight

10 Hidden kobold sentry

Encounters

Kobolds skulk in underground tunnels and in dragon lairs.

CR 0–2 1d8 kobolds ; 1d4 kobolds with giant spider , kobold sorcerer , or 2 giant rats

Treasure 30 gp, 200 sp, 300 cp, 2 quartz gemstones and 1 turquoise gemstone (10 gp each), copper necklace (25 gp), 2 potions of climbing

CR 3–4 kobold sorcerer or kobold broodguard with 1d4 + 4 kobolds

Treasure 80 gp, 300 sp, 2 jasper gemstones (50 gp), silver headdress (75 gp), 8 colored-glass bottles filled with water, 2 potions of healing , potion of water breathing

CR 5–10 kobold sorcerer and kobold broodguard with 1d10 + 5 kobolds and one of the following: any dragon wyrmling , ochre jelly , or swarm of poisonous snakes

Treasure 600 gp, 1,000 sp, 2 amethyst and 3 garnet gemstones (100 gp each), obsidian dragon statuette (75 gp), 2 flasks of oil of slipperiness , bag of tricks (gray)

Monster Type Description

Humanoids include a number of different intelligent, language-using bipeds of Small or Medium size. Humans and elves are humanoids, and so are orcs and goblins. Humanoids may employ magic but are not fundamentally magical—a characteristic that distinguishes them from bipedal, language-using fey, fiends, and other monsters. Humanoids have no inherent alignment, meaning that no humanoid ancestry is naturally good or evil, lawful or chaotic.