Small but tenacious, proud warriors and pioneers of invention
Almish Kobold Heritage Traits
Game rules for the Almish kobold are identical to the kobold race detailed in the D&D 4e official rulebooks, except as noted below.
Ability Scores: +2 Intelligence, +2 Constitution or Dexterity
Languages: Lakoa, plus either Common or Bestial
Beast Kin: Your ancestors were amongst the many beast-kin who once ruled Alm. You are considered a beast for the purpose of effects that relate to creature type.
Godslayer’s Defiance: You gain a +1 heritage bonus to Will, and a +2 heritage bonus to saving throws against domination and charm effects. This replaces the Trap Sense feature.
Kobold Heritage Power: You gain your choice of the Shifty power (found in the Monster Manual) or the Shifty Manoeuvre power (found in Into the Unknown).
One of many small beast-kin dominated by their larger and more aggressive neighbours, Almish kobolds fled the surface world in ancient times, long before the War of Empires raged. In Alm’s cavernous underworld they found a truly sinister salvation; one they now refuse to name, calling it only the tyrant god. This malevolent deity claimed them as its own, ensuring their survival as long as they satisfied its hunger, and saw to it that they flourished in number despite its vast appetite.
However, the kobolds discovered more than just religion in Alm’s hidden heart; they also found the incredible relics of the Precursors. With these they would finally take fate into their own hands, secretly studying and restoring the artefacts until they could do the unthinkable—assassinate their god.
Thus did the Almish kobolds change the course of history, revealing the tyrant’s divinity—perhaps all divinity—to be a ruse. This world-shaking event changed the way Alm perceived religion forever, and made the kobolds the pioneers of the what would later become known as “technology”.
Play a kobold if you want…
- to be a little bit lizard, a little bit weasel and a little bit dog.
- to be an inventor of machines and magecraft.
- to come from the people who murdered a god.
Physical Qualities
Unlike many beast-kin, Almish kobolds have no clear resemblance to a single animal, but rather a curious mix of mammalian and reptilian traits. They are small and thin creatures, long-bodied like a weasel, whose natural stance is sitting over their haunches. Though they stand flat-footed and walk upright slowly, they can drop effortlessly to all fours for a remarkable burst of speed. Their tails are long and surprisingly muscular, eventually tapering to a point from a thick base that aids their balance.
Their long, toothy snouts are distinctly reptilian; some are broad and rounded like that of a crocodile, while others are pointed like a skink or even beaked like a tortoise. Their long, floppy ears are distinctly more dog-like, as are their fur coats, ranging from long and shaggy to short and bristly. Beneath their fur, they have tough leathery skin and hard bony scales; some have barely any fur at all, and even sport reptilian crests or fins.
An Almish kobold has a slightly shorter lifespan than a human, though they also mature somewhat more quickly. They exhibit no reliable sexual dimorphism—indeed, their sexual characteristics are not normally visible under their fur, meaning they care little for clothing beyond useful or pretty accessories.
Playing an Almish Kobold
Almish kobolds have a history of both fear and pride; most are stubborn, slow to trust, and distinctly uncomfortable with authority. However, this contrary streak makes them fiercely protective of their kin, including those outsiders they consider family. As adventurers, they are tough, determined creatures whose courage belies their small size.
Possessed of a frenetic energy, Almish kobolds are difficult to control or keep up with. They are renowned for a sort of bizarre sideways-thinking that leads them to ideas other creatures might never reach. Their off-the-wall solutions often seem incomprehensible to others—even moreso the disquieting devices they create—but it’s difficult to argue that they aren’t effective. Not all kobolds are gadgeteers, of course, but most still tend toward creativity and unconventional cleverness.
Philosophy is not a traditional area of interest for kobolds, but since the death of their “god”, it has become a point of much curiosity. If one god is a lie, what of godhood as a whole? What of the promised afterlife? Much debate moves through kobold communities regarding this topic, though most of it seems a simple contest of exaggeration. It is broadly believed that they will eventually vote in the most outrageous theory.
Almish Kobolds are perceived as… Inventive, impulsive, inquisitive, energetic, irreverent, courageous, industrious, tough, sceptical, stubborn.
Names: Arytiss, Chicahua, Edar, Leirith, Manauia, Mejir, Nanixtl, Neitl, Skeltr, Talz, Tihuirl, Vaess.
Kobold children are only sometimes given names, and are more often called by nicknames. A kobold chooses their true name when they reach adulthood, a tradition meant to embody the importance of choosing one’s own fate.
Kobold Backgrounds
Gearsmith
“No no. Try this.”
Like the Seventh Seeker Vaess, you have an uncanny knack for engineering and craftsmanship. Always looking for a new development, you’re constantly furnishing your party with odd devices – and keeping their existing gear in working order. Why did you become an adventurer, when you could have had a successful career back home? Are you looking for new inspiration? Or stockpiling funds for a grand experiment?
Associated skills: Dungeoneering, arcana
Associated ritual: Enchant magic item (PHB)
Calamitous Tinkerer
“I wonder what would happen if…”
Even for a kobold, you have an insatiable desire for experimentation—and an under-developed voice of reason. Even working devices can be improved with a little adjustment. The occasional perilous misfire is simply part of the process! “Normal” people prefer to keep their distance from you—do you make your adventuring party nervous too? Or do you choose these companions because they have the vision to truly appreciate science?
Associated skills: Thievery, arcana
Associated ritual: Disenchant magic item (PHB)
Trapspringer
“Hand me that pole.”
While other kobolds tinker with Aethyr relics or devise bizarre machines, you follow one of your race’s older traditions. Dedicated to exploration, you seek out the secret places at the very heart of the world. Accustomed to deadly hazards and vicious beasts, you are used to being in constant peril; do you rely on steely resolve to keep your feet moving, or is your sense of consequences as stunted as that of your inventor kin?
Associated skills: Perception, dungeoneering
Associated ritual: Detect secret doors (PHB)
Kobold Feats
The following feats include this heritage as a prerequisite.
Artificial Instinct
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: At the end of your turn, if a creature you summoned with an arcane power has not been commanded this turn, it can make a basic attack as a free action.
Arytiss’ Ward
Prerequisite: Kobold, Paragon Tier, Defender
Benefit: When you roll initiative, you can designate one ally as your ward. Until the end of the encounter, you receive a +1 bonus per tier to attack rolls against the enemy closest to your ward. If two enemies are equally close when you make the attack, you choose one.
Attention Grab
Prerequisite: Kobold, Defender
Benefit: When you provoke an opportunity attack from an enemy you’ve marked, that enemy cannot move away from you until the end of its next turn.
Bounce Back
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: When you successfully save against a slow, immobilise or daze effect, you may use your racial power as a free action.
Break Free
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: When you successfully save against a slow, immobilise or daze effect, you may shift up to 3 squares.
Conflagration
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: Whenever you use a blast or burst power with the fire keyword, the area of that power is increased by 1.
Draconic Petulance
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: When you miss a target with a burst or blast power, you may choose to deal damage to that target equal to your Intelligence modifier. If you do, you take damage equal to the amount of extra damage dealt this way, which cannot be reduced or prevented in any way.
Duck and Cover
Prerequisite: Kobold or Wu-kan
Benefit: When you have cover against an enemy, they suffer a -3 penalty to hit you instead of -2. If you have superior cover, they suffer a -7 penalty instead of -5.
Edar’s Swiftness
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: Whenever you shift three or more squares as one action, you can move through enemy squares during that movement.
Gecko Toes
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: You gain a climb speed equal to half your speed.
At level 11, this increases to be equal to your speed.
Leirith’s Command
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: Whenever you and an ally are attacking an enemy from the same side, you are both considered to be flanking that enemy.
Lurking Light
Prerequisite: Rahbe, Kobold or Gremblin; Leader role
Benefit: When you grant an attack to an ally, enemies from whom you are hidden grant combat advantage to that ally until the end of your next turn.
Mejir’s Insight
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: Whenever you shift three or more squares in one action and end your movement adjacent to an enemy, you can make a melee basic attack against that enemy as an free action.
Neitl’s Gift
Prerequisite: Kobold, Shaman
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls with spirit powers. When you use your shifty racial power, you spirit companion also shifts one square.
Pride of Dragons
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: You can take dragonborn racial feats. You do not gain the dragonborn racial breath weapon power.
Shamanic Shiv
Prerequisite: Kobold, Sorceror
Benefit: When you wield an implement which is also a weapon, you can apply the weapon’s proficiency bonus to your shaman attack powers.
Skitter
Prerequisite: Kobold or Gremblin
Benefit: When you move through a creature’s square, the movement does not provoke opportunity attacks from that creature.
Tihuirl’s Sacrifice
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: When an enemy marked by you would damage an ally adjacent to you, you can choose to reduce the damage dealt by half. If you do, you take an equal amount of damage which cannot be reduced or prevented in any way.
Vaess’ Ingenuity
Prerequisite: Kobold
Benefit: Creatures you summon with arcane powers gain a +1 bonus per tier to attack.