Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse is arriving on May 16 and with it comes over 30 playable races! These races have been collected from across the multiverse—from the Feywild's harengon to Theros' satyr—and have been tweaked to make them setting-agnostic.
In this article, we're going to examine a few of the all-time greats when it comes to monstrous races: the goblin, hobgoblin, and kobold. We'll discuss what's changed for these races since their original appearance in Volo's Guide to Monsters and show how to build characters around them.
Ability score Increases and Languages
Newer Dungeons & Dragons races don't come with set ability score increases. Instead, players will get to choose one of the following options at character creation:
- Increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1
- Increase three different scores by 1
Instead of preset language proficiencies, you'll learn Common and one other language of your choice (with your DM's approval).
Goblin
To enable more diversified goblin characters, the updates in Monsters of the Multiverse present goblins in a more positive light than previous sources. As made apparent by adding the Fey Ancestry trait, Monsters of the Multiverse focuses on how goblins originated in the Feywild and were later conquered by the god Maglubiyet when they crossed into the Material Plane.
Goblin Traits
In Monsters of the Multiverse, goblins retain all of the traits from their previous version, with slight tweaks. They are still Small creatures that are exceptionally good at hiding, escaping danger, and taking down foes that are larger than them. Their trademark ability, Fury of the Small, is slightly changed to deal damage equal to your proficiency modifier and can be used a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier per long rest. They are also granted the Fey Ancestry trait, which provides them advantage on saving throws made to avoid and end the charmed condition.
The most significant change comes from the ability to choose your ability score array, rather than having to work with a set +2 Dexterity, +1 Constitution. While this previous array was incredible for stealthy rogues, Charisma-focused bards or Intelligence-focused wizards would overlook the goblin as a viable race. Now, you could easily make a Strength-focused goblin Battle Master who wears heavy armor for defense and can use their Nimble Escape to move around the battlefield while using Fury of the Small to pump up damage.
Hobgoblin
Hobgoblins receive quite the glow-up from their grim depiction in Volo's Guide to Monsters. In Monsters of the Multiverse, hobgoblins are described as charismatic leaders who form deep bonds with their comrades. Like the treatment goblins received, Monsters of the Multiverse focuses on the hobgoblin's origins in the Feywild and ties that into their new racial features.
Hobgoblin Traits
In exchange for their martial weapon and light armor proficiencies, hobgoblins now receive an interesting racial feature called Fey Gift in Monsters of the Multiverse. It allows them to take the Help action as a bonus action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. Starting at 3rd level, when you take the Help action in this way, you also benefit in other ways:
- You and the creature you help gain temporary hit points.
- You and the creature you help temporarily increase your walking speeds.
- When the creature you help hits a target with an attack roll, that target gets disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes within the next minute.
Being able to take the Help action as a bonus action is already a strong ability because it grants a party member advantage on their next attack or ability check. Getting to also debuff an enemy or gain some temporary hit points make this an even more stellar resource in combat.
Previously, hobgoblins came with a set +2 Constitution, +1 Intelligence array, which provided a solid base for a tank wizard when combined with the race's light armor proficiency. The addition of the Fey Gift feature from Monsters of the Multiverse opens up the door for new builds. Combine Fey Gift with the Fortune from the Many trait—a reskinned Saving Face feature from the hobgoblin's previous appearance—and you have a solid support-focused martial class that works excellently with other martial party members. But while Fey Gift makes good use of an empty bonus action slot, builds that already have a use for their bonus action, like bards, rogues, and two-weapon fighters, might want to look elsewhere in order to maximize their action economy.
Kobold
The kobolds of Volo's Guide to Monsters is the only race to receive two ability score increases instead of the typical three. They also have Sunlight Sensitivity, which can be a challenging setback in campaigns that tend to spend more time above ground than not. In Monsters of the Multiverse, the kobold's racial traits offer a more level playing field plus abilities from their draconic ancestors.
Kobold Traits
The new version of the kobold introduces the Draconic Cry feature, which replaces the previous version's Pact Tactics. This new feature functions fairly similar in that it is a reliable source of advantage on attacks. However, it is an expendable resource, costing a bonus action and only being usable a number of times equal to your proficiency modifier per long rest. In exchange, Draconic Cry also offers allies advantage on their attacks and doesn't require an ally to be within 5 feet of you to activate it.
In place of the Grovel, Cower, and Beg racial trait, kobolds are given a new feature called Kobold Legacy. This new trait allows you to choose between a skill proficiency in Arcana, Investigation, Medicine, Sleight of Hand, or Survival, getting advantage on saving throws against the frightened condition, or a sorcerer cantrip.
Like Pack Tactics, the Draconic Cry racial trait lends itself to a martial build as it can give you advantage on attacks against enemies within melee range. This can be an excellent way to ensure you can reliably sneak attack as a rogue or when you just need to land that smite as a paladin. These martial builds will be able to make good use of either the advantage against being frightened or the sorcerer cantrip granted through Kobold Legacy. The frightened condition can be a tough one to overcome for builds lacking proficiency in Wisdom saves, and the sorcerer cantrip could be a great way to snag green-flame blade or booming blade.
A Multiverse Worth of Options Awaits
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse allows players to choose from over 30 races, each of which can be viable in any number of new and exciting builds. Players will have to be careful, however. The book also contains over 250 monster stat blocks that Dungeon Masters will undoubtedly use to put your new characters to the test!
Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his girlfriend, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.
I'm pretty sure that very few people are hating on people that agree with the book, we're just debating and expressing our displeasure with the direction it's going.
Agreed, we obviously have different ideological points of view. I wrote my opinion in an overly provocative way and I regret it has stirred up so much upset. I think I get frustrated when confronting the real world problems in this forum which I also see as an escape from the stresses of reality, just like you do, but maybe we see those problems manifesting in different ways.
I happen to find your statements along the lines of “wokeness ruins everything” a bit offensive and indicative of a willful effort to avoid or ignore a pretty major cultural critique that’s going on these days, pointing out things that might make us uncomfortable but are nonetheless important to really grapple with and understand. We can do this without falling into “they’re calling me a bad person” mentality and getting all defensive about it, but unfortunately our polarized political and media world doesn’t really support that. I fell into that with my generalization about the angry grognards, and I shouldn’t have.
I also love the Lord of the Rings and D&D, and while I don’t intend to get into as long a rant as yours about the details of the text, the words “Black Men” are literally used to describe the scary people who showed up in the shire. Obviously they are wraiths, but the book exists in a discourse in which black is scary and bad and white is good and pure. That discourse underpins much of our history and reading stories like this is a very different experience after you’ve taken the time to understand how so many things are influenced by it. I still love the story and its messages about courage, corruption, and power, but it is a product of its time in many ways.
I happen to think both “black” and “white” are constructs of culture (does anyone really know where one begins and the other ends?) and that they were constructed in service of empire-building, but for now maybe we’re stuck with these identities to some extent. D&D offers a great way to play with identity, so I find it troublesome when it repeats the same kind of discourse even if it does so in an abstracted way.
In D&D it’s just this basic way of thinking that race equals culture and some are better than others that gets kind of problematic. Obviously you don’t have to map everything in a fantasy world to a real world parallel. They don’t have to equate to specific real world races or cultures for the general issue of identifying a group of intelligent humanoids as a “bad other” to be problematic. Having “monstrous” races become playable has shifted that a bit, but some of the lore is stuck in that way of thinking
Anyway, we can agree to disagree about these things without getting all irate and attacking. I will formally apologize to the Grognards and no, I don’t hold it against anyone if they happen to be in a homogenous setting, but there is this tendency when you’re in a place like that to forget that there are other valid points of view.
I don’t think I tried to censor anyone, but was piled upon by you and others who seemed to be trying to censor my point of view. Maybe that wasn’t your intent, but I kinda felt all the reports and personal attacks had that effect.
Anyway, after this little exchange I don’t think I’ll be visiting these forums again, so I guess your effort to stamp out the crime of “wokeness” has been somewhat effective?
But ask yourself, is it really such a bad thing to wake up from this fever dream we’ve all been living through for so many generations? What are you defending when you encourage us to remain “un-woke,” to stay asleep and just let the status quo roll on?
(emphasis mine)
The crux of your argument is that you don't like "woke" things, but that label is a meaningless buzzword/dogwhistle for when someone wants to complain about something diverse without sounding racist, sexist, or anti-LGBTQ+. See all of the idiotic youtube videos complaining about Shang-Chi being "woke" because the main character is Asian. "Woke" is just a bigoted dogwhistle, and always has been. If someone's using it unironically, that person needs to re-evaluate themselves and why they think that word is appropriate to use.
Additionally, you keep saying that D&D is not and never has been racist, especially when it comes to the different races like Orcs. Here's just a few examples of why you're wrong:
There's even more examples that I could give you. D&D has been undeniably racist, sexist, and ableist in the (sometimes fairly recent) past. There's nothing you can do to refute that.
Sounds like homebrew.....we couldn't just get a book of new creative monsters? we get a bunch of "optional rules" that completely strip Dungeons and Dragons of its uniqueness and flare. The Goblins in DND (aka forgotten realms) are not the Goblins from WOW. If you want Wow goblins than make a Homebrew and run that. its your table do what you want. I'm just not sure why I want to spend $30 to get monsters I can spend a couple of hours homebrewing? Never mind, I have spent thousands of dollars over the years on materials for a game I love, for the established lore and the decades of memories....to just watch all the things that make dungeons and dragons....Forgotten Realms.....what it is....be completely stripped away? if I wanted a generic setting a neutral monster manual....I can get tons free online or go buy a $10 pdf on Drive thru RPg..... Its not lost on me that Wizards is trying to expand into other settings and attempting to merge the various settings into one mega verse, they are trying to sell books to a wider audience. blah blah blah......this just seems like a money grab and just an insult to quality standards that should be coming out of wizards as branded materials and if they keep doing this, there is going to be burn out again, and we will loose players to other systems.
I completely agree.
I'm sorry if you felt targeted by the comments section. People tend to do awful things when they are not directly responsible/held accountable for the things they say. I also hate my when argument gets co-opted by people I fundamentally disagree with. For instance, I put my weight 100% behind the changes made to Curse of Strahd with the Vistani, which were based on some pretty unflattering stereotypes (unflattering is selling it short, but I don't want to use weighted terms). However, my real issue with these changes actually has nothing to do with the changes themselves. If WoTC decides they want to take THEIR game in a new direction, I'm all for it. I am more than okay with the idea of them changing ASIs and the history of various species in the game.
My issue, however, comes with the way they are going about it. This is messy, to say the least. They are implementing massive retcons into 5th Edition when we know 5.5E is just around the corner. I would have much preferred to see them start working on 5.5E and instituting these changes then. Why? Because, to put it simply, I don't like when companies start to minimize the purchases I've made previously, whether or not it directly affects me. For instance, WoTC made large errata changes to the PHB and Volo's Guide to Monsters shortly before they discontinued those books. Why did they do this? All this did was give a massive gut punch to the people who had already bought Volo's, because the only people who were buying those books (after knowing it would go legacy) were the people who just wanted to play the original version of 5E without hurting anyone else. That's the crux of my argument, that WoTC made a panic response and it ended up hurting the people who are on their side, but might now feel betrayed because good ideas/progress actually damaged the way they wanted to play. I'm not saying progress = bad, I'm saying it was poorly thought-out and implemented.
First of all, thanks, second, I think it is only on D&D beyond that these books are no longer sold. You can still get them on amazon and at local gaming shops, unless you are just talking about D&D beyond. Third, I totally agree with you on this. They're retconning everything that made the different speacies (I feel like race isn't the best word for D&D races, just cuase they're so different from eachother) awesome and unique just cause of internet backlash.
The hardbacks of those books are now out of print and will soon be no longer available for purchase anywhere.
Still gonna use the original hobgoblin for my peace domain cleric. I like the idea of a proud warrior who, all of a sudden, becomes an avatar of peace.
Edit: also, I had literally bought Volo's maybe two weeks before finding out it was gonna be passed out. I'm using it.
Edit: phased out, I meant. Stupid autocorrect almost got me again just trying to type this out.
Volo's is the best 5th edition book. Nothing else even comes close to the options for game play that come from the racial/ species descriptions. The rest of the game is very generic with no heart.
I know I'm late to the party on this but making goblinoids fey ancestry is beyond ridiculous. Would it really take that much effort to come out with a new "goblinoid ancestry" that would be fairly applicable across the DnD settings and give these races/ species some flavor?
Yeah, fey ancestry seemed a little out of left field to me...