Goblinoids are a group of humanoid races that includes four different subraces in Faerûn: goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears and the relatively new Dekanter goblins. These creatures are close enough in outlook and society to discuss as a group. They are closely related by ties of language and culture.
Goblins are the smallest of the group. They stand only about four feet tall and weigh roughly 60 pounds. Like all goblinoids, they have flat faces, broad noses, pointed ears, wide mouths and sharp fangs. Their arms hang down almost to their knees. Goblin hides range in colour from yellow through orange to red, and members of the same tribe usually share similar colouring. Goblins wear dark leather clothing, which is usually heavily soiled due to their lack of concern with hygiene.
Hobgoblins are much larger, usually reaching 6½ feet in height and weighing up to 275 pounds. Their hairy hides come in dark shades ranging from reddish-brown to grey. Their eyes are yellowish or dark brown, and their teeth are yellow and strong. They like to wear bright clothing, usually red with black leather. They keep their weapons clean, even if they don’t take so much care with themselves.
The largest of the goblinoids, bugbears stand about 7 feet tall and often top 300 pounds. Their hides are usually yellowish, ranging from brownish to mustard yellow. Their coarse hair runs from brown to brick red. Their eyes are green-white with crimson pupils, and their ears are more wedge-shaped than those of their smaller kin.
Dekanter goblins were created from regular goblins by the alhoon (illithid lich) known as the Beast Lord in the mines of Dekanter. They are larger than the race from which they sprang, ranging in height from 4 to 5 feet. Their tough hides are orange-red, and they have manes of wiry black hair that tumble down past their shoulders. Their heads squat atop thick, powerful necks, and they have a sharp, rhino-like horn at the tip of their elongated snouts.
Whatever the subrace, goblinoids are universally bullies. They pick on smaller creatures whenever they can, and when faced with a superior force they turn tail and run. Because of their smaller size, goblins prefer to strike from ambush, using every fighting trick they know to gain an edge. While tactically canny, the larger hobgoblins and bugbears usually prefer a more direct approach, often driving weaker troops before them into any perceived danger.
Dekanter goblins, in contrast, are aggressive and fearless. They never met a foe they didn’t want to impale on their horns. They are cunning enough to not charge directly into battle against a clearly superior foe, but they rarely run away from a fight.
Goblinoids are all short-lived. Most meet a violent end long before they reach old age. They are pressed into service as adults at just 10 years of age. They rarely live to be older than 40, although some few lucky or wily individuals have been known to make it to 60 years of age.
Goblinoids have the same life expectancy and age categories as half-orcs.
Outlook: Life in a goblinoid community is cheap. There are always a dozen people behind you, trying to trip you up, ready to take over your place as soon as you fall. Goblinoid leaders rule through aggressive ruthlessness, bullying any who get in their way and killing those who are foolhardy enough to challenge them. Goblinoids are constantly trying to get ahead of each other, mostly by backstabbing those in front of them.
Of course, goblins lack the strength and ferocity to lord it over hobgoblins. Similarly, hobgoblins are usually at the mercy of bugbears. The differences in size between the races are too great to overcome. A group of smaller goblinoids can sometimes band together to overpower a larger cousin, but they often end up betraying each other to the bigger creature. Even should they succeed in their efforts, the smaller creatures regularly fall to squabbling among each other as to who is now in charge, and another of the larger goblinoids often arrives on the scene to put an end to the argument by killing off any who might lay claim to such leadership.
Dekanter goblins, on the other hand, live only to serve their creator, the Beast Lord. They are the terror of the Dekanter mines, mostly because of the alhoon’s cunning in his command of them. Originally, these creatures only guarded the Beast Lord’s domain. Today, however, they have begun ranging far and wide, perhaps signaling that the alhoon has larger schemes to execute.
Most goblinoids take up lives as adventurers simply to get away from their clans. Some do this solely for reasons of survival, sure that they would be killed if they were to remain. Others believe that if they can find real power in the wider world, they can then return to their homeland and take over.
Characters: Living by their wits rather than their muscles, goblins favour the rogue class. The more combat-oriented individuals sometimes multiclass as fighter/rogues. Goblin tribes also feature the occasional cleric, who stands aside from the standard pecking order.
Hobgoblins depend on their physical impressiveness to cow both friend and foe, so they favour the fighter class. The more cunning ones multiclass as fighter/rogues.
Bugbears favour the rogue class, because treachery figures at least as much into their success as does their power in battle. Many bugbears multiclass as fighter/rogues, and a rare few serve their clan as clerics.
Dekanter goblins are basically killing machines, so they favour the barbarian class. They value strength and ferocity in battle too much to take up less militant pursuits.
Society: Goblinoid society is a difficult one in which to grow up. Simply surviving to adulthood takes a combination of luck, careful planning and ruthless aggression. The golden rule among goblins is to do unto others before they do unto you.
Goblinoid children establish a pecking order much like that of their parents. The older and larger ones pick on the smaller ones, honing the bullying skills which will serve them well later as adults. In goblinoid communities, there are as many children around as there are adults. The reasons for this are many, but they boil down to two unavoidable facts. First, most goblinoids don’t survive their harsh childhoods. Second, many adults die violent deaths before they advance too far in goblinoid society.
Males have almost all the power in goblinoid society. They support their clan by constantly raiding other communities and stealing their treasure, food and drink. When supplies are short, goblinoids have been known to slaughter and eat members of other races, even including smaller goblinoids.
Females are expected to stay home and raise as many young goblins as possible. They are not permitted to join the clan’s warriors in their hunts or in battle. For this reason, many goblinoid adventurers are females who left their clans looking for better opportunities from life.
There is no sense of privacy in most goblinoid clans. Most clans live in a large, communal area, often a cave. Only the leaders of the clan have the privilege of keeping their own quarters. These leaders like to limit such privacy, as they fear that those they cannot see might use the opportunity to plot betrayal. This goes on all the time anyhow, but it’s more difficult to accomplish in the common chambers, since many goblinoids are only too happy to sell out any mutineers in exchange for winning their leader’s favour.
It’s rare for a goblinoid to reach a ripe old age. At the first sign of weakness, older goblinoids are constantly challenged by their younger kin, one right after another. Eventually youth and persistence wins out over age and treachery.
Outside their home territories, most goblinoids try to replicate the conditions under which they were raised. They look for weaker people and bully them into joining up with a nascent clan. Even goblinoids who have renounced their native clans and become adventurers often fall back into old habits, given the chance.
Language: Most goblins speak only Goblin. Smarter ones often speak Common as well, as do those who become adventurers. Hobgoblins and bugbears speak both Goblin and Common — they have more need to, as they are often in charge of bossing around other creatures and need to be able to speak to the creatures they enslave. Dekanter goblins speak Goblin and Undercommon, since they spend most of their lives in the depths of the Dekanter mines.
Goblinoids of all sorts are illiterate, except for those who have player character classes other than barbarian.
Religion: Goblinoids worship a number of evil deities. These gods often exhort their followers to overbreed as much as possible and then attempt to overrun their foes with superior numbers. This is one reason why life is considered so cheap in goblinoid clans. Goblins, hobgoblins and even Dekanter goblins worship Maglubiyet, god of goblinkind. They are inspired by the legendary tales of his strength and treachery winning out over all. The god of bugbears, Hruggek, coaches his followers in the art of the ambush and furious fighting.
Relations: Goblinoids do not get along well with each other, much less any other races. They don’t even particularly like members of other goblinoid subraces. Of the standard character races, goblinoids favour half-orcs best, mostly because goblinoids are used to working with orcs upon occasion, usually under the command of some bugbear warlord.
Goblinoids all harbour a special hatred of elves and dwarves, and many attack them on sight. The rare good- or neutral-aligned goblinoid character struggles to control this urge and usually wins out over it.
Equipment: Bugbears and hobgoblins often use a special weapon called a goblin stick.
Animals and Pets: Goblinoids don’t keep pets. To them, such creatures are for slaughtering and eating. They often steal livestock from their neighbours and may keep goats, sheep or cattle for a short time, but they are in the habit of eating their loot at the first opportunity.
Goblins have a special relationship with worgs, and often ride worgs into battle. The evil wolves are the goblins’ allies, not their servants.
Regions: The Earthfast Mountains
Source: Races of Faerûn (Page 134), Player’s Guide to Faerûn (Page 30), Monster Manual (Page 29, 133, 153)
Your character can be either male or female.
Every player character starts as an adult. You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table: Starting Ages). Your character’s minimum starting age is the adulthood age of his or her race plus the number of dice indicated in the entry corresponding to the character’s race and class on Table: Starting Ages.
Alternatively, refer to Table: Starting Ages and roll dice to determine how old your character is.
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 years | +1d4 (15—18) years | +1d6 (15—20) years | +2d6 (16—26) years |
1 This category includes barbarians, rogues and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, fighters, paladins and rangers.
3 This category includes clerics, druids, monks and wizards.
With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
| Middle Age1 | Old Age2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 years | 45 years | 60 years | +2d10 years |
1 -1 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
2 -2 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
3 -3 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
When a character reaches venerable age, the DM secretly rolls his or her maximum age, which is the number from the Venerable column on Table: Aging Effects plus the result of the dice roll indicated on the Maximum Age column on that table, and records the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his or her maximum age dies of old age at some time during the following year, as determined by the DM.
The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections or violence before getting to venerable age.
Choose your character’s height and weight from the ranges mentioned in the appropriate race description or from the ranges found on Table: Height and Weight. Think about what your character’s abilities might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character may be thin. A strong and tough character may be tall or just heavy.
Alternatively, roll randomly for your character’s height and weight on Table: Height and Weight. The dice roll given in the Height Modifier column determines the character’s extra height beyond the base height. That same number multiplied by the dice roll or quantity given in the Weight Modifier column determines the character’s extra weight beyond the base weight.
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 4’ 10" | +2d12 (5’ 0"—6’ 10") | 150 lbs. | ×2d6 (154—438 lbs.) |
| Female | 4’ 5" | +2d12 (4’ 7"—6’ 5") | 110 lbs. | ×2d6 (114—398 lbs.) |
Source: Player’s Handbook (Page 109)