I typically play gnomes as rogues or fighters. But they CAN be any class.
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Goblins make for good Rangers. Some of their features get redundant on Rogues because of cunning action. They also make great Barbarians as well, and pretty good fighters too. I’m partial to Battle Masters. They would probably also lend themselves well to Artificers.
They are a great class for anything that requires dex with the exception of rogue. Some of the rogue abilities are redundant as someone already mentioned. My thought is they make excellent Fighter archers. I typically like samurai archers but that isn't fitting with a goblin at all. I actually think an echo knight archer looks like it could be a lot of fun. Otherwise, Arcane Archer, Battlemaster, or Champion, make good archers. An Eldritch knight could work too.
I played a goblin bard in a previous campaign, and having the ability to disengage/hide as a bonus action was a huge change to the game. It gave me a ton of options in every combat... in safe conditions I could spend my bonus action distributing inspiration... if anyone got too close I could disengage and hide behind the fighter, and if I was able to maintain distance from the enemies I could pop out, cast a spell, then duck behind cover and stealth away. I'd recommend a combat-based bard, like swords or valor, since that Dex bonus is a bit of a waste in a pure-caster class. The CON boost proves really helpful with some casting ability, since it helps to keep concentration.
The class race redundancies are minor and only important if you're a min-max power player looking to maximize features. Goblins work well with most classes for a player that stresses roleplay.
If you really want to shake things up, play a goblin wild sorcerer, a "Boohyah Boohyah Boohyah." All their spells, including cantrips, trigger a wild surge. DMs with one of these in their party may want to use expanded surge effects tables because frequent surges invariably repeat. I turned to expanded surge effects after a goblin character grew almost 2 feet (permanent) from rolling the same surge effect twice in a row. The character became size (M) & I altered his race feature to "fury of the not so small." after a few surges almost killed the entire party he's now afraid to cast spells-he alted to ranger, then later to rogue.
Cleric/Paladin goblins would be an odd choice to play, though I suppose a vengeance paly or conquest might work. For a goblin cleric, you'd probably be best off with a background that let you be raised by non-goblins.
There is a precedent for goblinoid monks- take a look at the iron shadows. A goblin from the lasher caste could have been selected for training, or a lesser caste could have been a servant at an Iron shadows monastery & taught itself instead of being trained.
But again, pretty much anything works. If you want to play one though, don't just use the stat block from volo's, read the whole conquering host section on pages 40-52.
I played a goblin bard in a previous campaign, and having the ability to disengage/hide as a bonus action was a huge change to the game. It gave me a ton of options in every combat... in safe conditions I could spend my bonus action distributing inspiration... if anyone got too close I could disengage and hide behind the fighter, and if I was able to maintain distance from the enemies I could pop out, cast a spell, then duck behind cover and stealth away. I'd recommend a combat-based bard, like swords or valor, since that Dex bonus is a bit of a waste in a pure-caster class. The CON boost proves really helpful with some casting ability, since it helps to keep concentration.
I was going to do something similar with a gobbo Crossbow Battle Master (there are 2 other fighters in the party) but that campaign’s been on hold due to global pandemic. I was planning to Aberrant Dragonmark him too because why not?
If you really want to shake things up, play a goblin wild sorcerer, a "Boohyah Boohyah Boohyah." All their spells, including cantrips, trigger a wild surge. DMs with one of these in their party may want to use expanded surge effects tables because frequent surges invariably repeat. I turned to expanded surge effects after a goblin character grew almost 2 feet (permanent) from rolling the same surge effect twice in a row. The character became size (M) & I altered his race feature to "fury of the not so small." after a few surges almost killed the entire party he's now afraid to cast spells-he alted to ranger, then later to rogue.
And that’s why I ban Wild Magic Subclasses in my campaigns.
The main advantage to Goblin is Fury of the Small, not the disengage/hide. Disengage/Hide is mainly needed by rogues and they get it anyway.
Extra damage = to your level, specifically stated that it works on a spell, with the only restriction being they must be larger than you, once per round.
Which is IDEAL for Area effect spells.
Fireball doing 8d6+5 at 5th level, is basically an extra d6 of damage. To everyone. That can be key.
The main advantage to Goblin is Fury of the Small, not the disengage/hide. Disengage/Hide is mainly needed by rogues and they get it anyway.
Extra damage = to your level, specifically stated that it works on a spell, with the only restriction being they must be larger than you, once per round.
Which is IDEAL for Area effect spells.
Fireball doing 8d6+5 at 5th level, is basically an extra d6 of damage. To everyone. That can be key.
And Magic Missile since you only roll 1ce and every dart does the same damage.
Fury of the Small is not once per round, it's once per short/long rest. It also states "a creature"... it's still open to interpretation, but in my experience my DM took that to mean the extra damage could only apply to a single creature damaged by an attack/spell. There's likely some wiggle room on that second part, but there's no denying that it's not a per-round thing.
The thing is, it doesn't use the term "single roll". It just says, "When you damage a creature with an attack or spell". I think it's really open to DM interpretation... if a DM were to say that the additional damage only applies once to an instance of damage being dealt I think it would be a fair translation of the ability. Still... it's really vaguely worded. I think because goblins were included in the "Playable monsters" section of Volo's Guide instead of in the area dedicated to longer, more in-depth race descriptions there wasn't as much concern about all the details. The Playable Monsters aren't as tightly balanced or thoroughly playtested, and Fury of the Small doesn't 100% clarify its exact limitations is probably due to that.
That said, I still think the intent is to be a single-use boost to a single instance of damage dealt. I wouldn't say that you're wrong to say that it still applies to something like magic missile, but I think that's basically finding a technical loophole through RAW while ignoring RAI.
My Goblin Wild Magic Sorcerer was pretty damn hard to kill, and never was actually. He retired and took over Castle Naerytar in the Mere of Dead Men after we ran off the cult and cleared it of bullywugs. Snapjaw and his lizardfolk run the swamp, and my Goblin runs the castle with his tribe of goblins, and turned it into a refuge for any sort of creature that gets a bad rap. Goblins, kobolds, bugbears, etc. He's a appointed goblin king after turning blue after a wild magic surge. Goblins took it as a sign and now he's uniting all the goblins of the land.
Wanted to bring in a new char, and he brought enough chaos to the group for long enough, he also had a wand of wonder, and bag of tricks. Just brought all the chaos.
You are definitely right about the 1/rest, sorry I got in my own head.
I dislike that interpretation of Magic Missile, mainly because it basically only applies to that spell and if they wanted to make it that way it would have been clear. It is not, and relies on a suspect Sage advice twitter answer.
But I do not think the effect says it applies to a single creature. It is clearly once per attack or spell, and it is NOT clearly one creature.
For example, no one argues this: When you burn a flammable creature, it ignites and burns till the fire is put out. This clearly applies to all creatures ignited with fire. I do not see any grammatical differences between that sentence or the Goblin one.
If you really want to shake things up, play a goblin wild sorcerer, a "Boohyah Boohyah Boohyah." All their spells, including cantrips, trigger a wild surge. DMs with one of these in their party may want to use expanded surge effects tables because frequent surges invariably repeat. I turned to expanded surge effects after a goblin character grew almost 2 feet (permanent) from rolling the same surge effect twice in a row. The character became size (M) & I altered his race feature to "fury of the not so small." after a few surges almost killed the entire party he's now afraid to cast spells-he alted to ranger, then later to rogue.
And that’s why I ban Wild Magic Subclasses in my campaigns.
We modified it. It wouldn't auto trigger every spell, but I did have to roll a d20 every time. And if I used Tides of Chaos, I could still only use it once until a surge, but he could bank multiple surges and just call them at will. And ruled that multiple cast things like magic missile and scorching ray, would roll for each dart/ray. I triggered all 3 rays once and polymorphed myself into a sheep, cast mirror image, and gained resistance to all damage. I was useless in that fight.
I dislike that interpretation of Magic Missile, mainly because it basically only applies to that spell and if they wanted to make it that way it would have been clear. It is not, and relies on a suspect Sage advice twitter answer.
Actually, Magic Missile has always worked that way since at least AD&D2e.
The thing is, it doesn't use the term "single roll". It just says, "When you damage a creature with an attack or spell". I think it's really open to DM interpretation... if a DM were to say that the additional damage only applies once to an instance of damage being dealt I think it would be a fair translation of the ability. Still... it's really vaguely worded. I think because goblins were included in the "Playable monsters" section of Volo's Guide instead of in the area dedicated to longer, more in-depth race descriptions there wasn't as much concern about all the details. The Playable Monsters aren't as tightly balanced or thoroughly playtested, and Fury of the Small doesn't 100% clarify its exact limitations is probably due to that.
That said, I still think the intent is to be a single-use boost to a single instance of damage dealt. I wouldn't say that you're wrong to say that it still applies to something like magic missile, but I think that's basically finding a technical loophole through RAW while ignoring RAI.
Yes, I was mistaken. Maybe it was Jim’s Magic Missile that was supposed to work with, I don’t remember exactly and don’t have that spell unlocked to check it.
just as the title says
I typically play gnomes as rogues or fighters. But they CAN be any class.
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
Goblins make for good Rangers. Some of their features get redundant on Rogues because of cunning action. They also make great Barbarians as well, and pretty good fighters too. I’m partial to Battle Masters. They would probably also lend themselves well to Artificers.
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They are a great class for anything that requires dex with the exception of rogue. Some of the rogue abilities are redundant as someone already mentioned. My thought is they make excellent Fighter archers. I typically like samurai archers but that isn't fitting with a goblin at all. I actually think an echo knight archer looks like it could be a lot of fun. Otherwise, Arcane Archer, Battlemaster, or Champion, make good archers. An Eldritch knight could work too.
Monk would be cool...
It would...
Some of their feature overlap with goblin features too, making them less valuable than with other races.
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True, you wouldn’t have to spend a ki point to disengage though.
I played a goblin bard in a previous campaign, and having the ability to disengage/hide as a bonus action was a huge change to the game. It gave me a ton of options in every combat... in safe conditions I could spend my bonus action distributing inspiration... if anyone got too close I could disengage and hide behind the fighter, and if I was able to maintain distance from the enemies I could pop out, cast a spell, then duck behind cover and stealth away. I'd recommend a combat-based bard, like swords or valor, since that Dex bonus is a bit of a waste in a pure-caster class. The CON boost proves really helpful with some casting ability, since it helps to keep concentration.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
The class race redundancies are minor and only important if you're a min-max power player looking to maximize features. Goblins work well with most classes for a player that stresses roleplay.
If you really want to shake things up, play a goblin wild sorcerer, a "Boohyah Boohyah Boohyah." All their spells, including cantrips, trigger a wild surge. DMs with one of these in their party may want to use expanded surge effects tables because frequent surges invariably repeat. I turned to expanded surge effects after a goblin character grew almost 2 feet (permanent) from rolling the same surge effect twice in a row. The character became size (M) & I altered his race feature to "fury of the not so small." after a few surges almost killed the entire party he's now afraid to cast spells-he alted to ranger, then later to rogue.
Cleric/Paladin goblins would be an odd choice to play, though I suppose a vengeance paly or conquest might work. For a goblin cleric, you'd probably be best off with a background that let you be raised by non-goblins.
There is a precedent for goblinoid monks- take a look at the iron shadows. A goblin from the lasher caste could have been selected for training, or a lesser caste could have been a servant at an Iron shadows monastery & taught itself instead of being trained.
But again, pretty much anything works. If you want to play one though, don't just use the stat block from volo's, read the whole conquering host section on pages 40-52.
I was going to do something similar with a gobbo Crossbow Battle Master (there are 2 other fighters in the party) but that campaign’s been on hold due to global pandemic. I was planning to Aberrant Dragonmark him too because why not?
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And that’s why I ban Wild Magic Subclasses in my campaigns.
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The main advantage to Goblin is Fury of the Small, not the disengage/hide. Disengage/Hide is mainly needed by rogues and they get it anyway.
Extra damage = to your level, specifically stated that it works on a spell, with the only restriction being they must be larger than you, once per round.
Which is IDEAL for Area effect spells.
Fireball doing 8d6+5 at 5th level, is basically an extra d6 of damage. To everyone. That can be key.
And Magic Missile since you only roll 1ce and every dart does the same damage.
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Fury of the Small is not once per round, it's once per short/long rest. It also states "a creature"... it's still open to interpretation, but in my experience my DM took that to mean the extra damage could only apply to a single creature damaged by an attack/spell. There's likely some wiggle room on that second part, but there's no denying that it's not a per-round thing.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
The thing is, it doesn't use the term "single roll". It just says, "When you damage a creature with an attack or spell". I think it's really open to DM interpretation... if a DM were to say that the additional damage only applies once to an instance of damage being dealt I think it would be a fair translation of the ability. Still... it's really vaguely worded. I think because goblins were included in the "Playable monsters" section of Volo's Guide instead of in the area dedicated to longer, more in-depth race descriptions there wasn't as much concern about all the details. The Playable Monsters aren't as tightly balanced or thoroughly playtested, and Fury of the Small doesn't 100% clarify its exact limitations is probably due to that.
That said, I still think the intent is to be a single-use boost to a single instance of damage dealt. I wouldn't say that you're wrong to say that it still applies to something like magic missile, but I think that's basically finding a technical loophole through RAW while ignoring RAI.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
My Goblin Wild Magic Sorcerer was pretty damn hard to kill, and never was actually. He retired and took over Castle Naerytar in the Mere of Dead Men after we ran off the cult and cleared it of bullywugs. Snapjaw and his lizardfolk run the swamp, and my Goblin runs the castle with his tribe of goblins, and turned it into a refuge for any sort of creature that gets a bad rap. Goblins, kobolds, bugbears, etc. He's a appointed goblin king after turning blue after a wild magic surge. Goblins took it as a sign and now he's uniting all the goblins of the land.
Wanted to bring in a new char, and he brought enough chaos to the group for long enough, he also had a wand of wonder, and bag of tricks. Just brought all the chaos.
You are definitely right about the 1/rest, sorry I got in my own head.
I dislike that interpretation of Magic Missile, mainly because it basically only applies to that spell and if they wanted to make it that way it would have been clear. It is not, and relies on a suspect Sage advice twitter answer.
But I do not think the effect says it applies to a single creature. It is clearly once per attack or spell, and it is NOT clearly one creature.
For example, no one argues this: When you burn a flammable creature, it ignites and burns till the fire is put out. This clearly applies to all creatures ignited with fire. I do not see any grammatical differences between that sentence or the Goblin one.
We modified it. It wouldn't auto trigger every spell, but I did have to roll a d20 every time. And if I used Tides of Chaos, I could still only use it once until a surge, but he could bank multiple surges and just call them at will. And ruled that multiple cast things like magic missile and scorching ray, would roll for each dart/ray. I triggered all 3 rays once and polymorphed myself into a sheep, cast mirror image, and gained resistance to all damage. I was useless in that fight.
Actually, Magic Missile has always worked that way since at least AD&D2e.
Yes, I was mistaken. Maybe it was Jim’s Magic Missile that was supposed to work with, I don’t remember exactly and don’t have that spell unlocked to check it.
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