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.
But the removal of unique ASIs does, inherently, make less creative characters. No longer is there anything challenging or interesting about playing a hobgoblin sorcerer, or an orc wizard, because it’s always optimal.
If you choose to make a goblin warrior who is the exception to the norm, or a bugbear cleric who is an exception it is something special and outside what people expect when they see it. It may not be a +1/+5% edge in the primary stat's roll. That character becomes a story. Now, the bugbear cleric with a +2 Wis and a +1 Con is not special, it's just a cleric in a different shell.
The stat bonus is minimal, but it adds to the uniqueness of the creature.
Opinion argued enough. I'm out.
That's the interesting part. You would have a half-orc rogue or wizard DESPITE the ASI not fitting. Your dump stat could be strength, but you would still be fairly strong because you're a half-orc. It's a choice your character would have made to go against what their species is naturally good at. It's a good thing that you would also need to make that decision, albeit to a lesser extent. They are rare for a reason. Now that reason doesn't exist.
Your point about preferring the get actual feats also makes no sense. They don't get extra feats in "exchange" for losing the less powerful static ASI. The static ASI was buffed. It's a more powerful racial feature than it was.
I'm with the rest of the people in this thread, but I don't see the point of listing the ASI of your choice in the stat block. It's already an optional rule in Tasha's. Both of them are part of the "new big three." Why do they conflict? We got them to give us back the suggested creature alignments. Hopefully they errata this.
Oh, last thing. DnDBeyond is allowing the original versions with the original ASIs. They'll be listed as "Legacy Content" and people who own those books on the site will still be able to use the original races. I think this is a great compromise on DnDBeyond's part. I disagree with the changes WotC made to the races, but I like that I can still use them on this site. Thanks DnDBeyond!
Be nice, man. People have just as much right to be upset as they do to be happy. People are voicing opinions in both directions. It's all good. You're commenting on them whining, but here you are whining about them whining. And before you say, "I'm not whining, I'm just pointing something out!" remember that that's all the other "whiners" are doing too.
D&D isn't made of one type of player. It takes all kinds, so there can be all kinds of groups to accommodate all sorts. It's one of the beauties of TT RPGs.
Peace.
See to me this feature is how it should have been from the beginning, because everything should be based on the backstory of the character. Example i love Orcs and Minotaurs but because of their asi I couldn’t make them certain classes.
Example I always liked the Orc shamans and wizards from Warcraft and had a really cool idea and for a backstory but with how the orcs were written and their asi I felt it was impossible or wouldn’t make sense. At least now i will be able to make my backstory ideas for these races a reality.
Interesting. The changes to linage ASIs ie choosing was obvious given that they're in ever race/linage now. I'm not surprised about WotC betting rid of Grovel, Cower, and Beg for kobald, given that it's a fairly racist ability and always felt weird to me. The changes to hobgoblin and goblin were a bit more surprising and interesting to me.
The change to fury of the small makes perfect sense. WotC has been moving towards abilities that are less potent per use but have more uses, just because having something you use once and then have to wait an entire session can be annoying. I personally like this change, but not something major. The addition of the fey ancestry trait though seems kinda weird to me. I though the UA fey races would stay as variants not replace the original. I was never aware of any lore stating that all goblins came from fey ancestry, and it really doesn't fit the vibe to me. It's not a bad change necessarily, just not expected.
The change for hobgoblin from proficiancies to help action is nice mechanically, and fits their lore somewhat in my opinion. It's nice having an ability that isn't overridden by a good majority of classes mechanically speaking, and fey gist seems pretty nice even if it's not super powerful. They still having saving face anyway which is their signature feature. The idea of hobgoblins being battlefield leaders makes sense lore wise to me, but it removes every aspect of the race that makes them a "war-like culture". I guess this makes sense given the change WotC is making for races not to be stereotyped (which is in the most part good in my opinion), but the culture of hobgoblins has always been the reason I play them and why they are my favorite race. They make for an interesting backstory and character, because they can struggle with their cultural ideas. But I still overall like the change. The ability seems fun to play and it doesn't override the culture of hobgolbins, merely just removing it from the mechanics.
Overall I think the changes are good. I'd give the changes a 7/10 overall.
I definitely agree with this. I'm personally not a huge fan of lineage stat rules, but I respect other's opinions on the matter. One of the best parts of role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons is that everyone can do their own thing that make the game most enjoyable for them. Those who don't like the custom origins can use the original ASIs, and those who do can choose.
There's no need to argue. This is one of the few situations where everyone can be happy with their own opinion. Each person can just use the rules that suit them and it'll all be good. The bigger problem I guess would be if your specific dungeon master won't let you customize origin, but in that case it's something you should work out with your DM, not just try to convince other people online.
Pack tactics was already to strong because Sunlight Sensitivity could easily be worked around. Just adventure at night, or in a dungeon. Bam. No more sunlight sensitivity.
Trying to balance something overpowered with something weakening will always fail because players will find a way around a weakness.
Only to those who already owned the books before they go live tomorrow. After that no one else will have access to those digitally. You prefer the original books but only started online play after today? Too bad! You can't even buy the original books digitally to access the legacy versions. The only reason some get to keep them as legacy versions at all is because Wizards or DDB is probably afraid of a class action lawsuit if they just Thanos snapped 60+ bucks of content from a good chunk of their members libraries. If they actually cared about letting us have a choice in what we used they would leave Volos and Mordens up on the site for future players/DMs.
I always did pick based off of cool abilities and not because of what bonuses went into which Ability scores. If you only ever picked based on ASIs then this limitations you disliked were only ever self imposed.
Exactly
I hope that they release a supplement later with all of the Tiefling variant that were in Tome of Foes.
If you don't like stat flexibility and want to continue denying your players the enjoyment of playing a Goblin Barbarian or a Kobold Bard, be my guest. It's your table. The great thing about D&D is that we can all do what we like with the rules and have a good time doing it.
That said, lol, Racial Feats btw. If you want your races to be snazzy and unique beyond the unique things they all get by simply picking them, just give your players the option to take a Level 1 Racial Feat. Simple as pie, not even that big of a deal, move on?
Who’s denying anything to anyone?!? You can already play a Goblin Barbarian or a Kobold Bard. If you felt you couldn’t because of those ASIs then you were imposing unnecessary restrictions on yourself.
You obviously don't play on a table with Standard Array rules.
Besides, what's more hilarious about this whole argument is the fact that DMs can just impose the options they want. Crying and whinging like "oh no, my players can now play *stronger than normal* Goblins" doesn't mean you HAVE to have *stronger than normal* goblins in your world. Just assign the scores how you, the kriffing DUNGEON MASTER, would like them to be in your world.
Because, ultimately, this is a two-sided option for both players and DMs: it gives players the option to make an optimal character if they desire, and it gives DMs more flexibility to flavour races how they want.
What a silly argument.
Yes you could have. Yes people have. You chose not to, just as most orcs and minotaurs chose not to be those classes. And for much the same reason most orcs and minotaurs chose not to be those classes. Because you didn't want to be challenged. You didn't want to be a wizard enough to overcome the challenge. You could still start off with 18 Int (rolled), but that wasn't good enough for you.
Have you seen the orc shamans in warcraft? They're still jacked. You could still get your wisdom maxed out without issue. Even with standard array or point buy, you would be able to get 20 wisdom by the time most campaigns conclude if it was that important to you. You chose not to because of your own preconceived notions about the race. You didn't want to overcome adversity beyond saying "my character already did before becoming level 1." Now you "can" make your "interesting character" now that it wouldn't make them special in any way. How nice.
To everyone who is using this article as an excuse to complain about Tasha ASIs:
1. You can just choose the original score. Half-orcs can still have +1 str/+2 con, they just don't have to.
2. The reason that WotC is getting rid of racial ASIs is because they contribute to racism, so stop whining
3. Races are still unique (except for human but that was just boring anyway). They have other features (Fey Ancestry, proficiencies, poison resistance)
4. If you don't like this just decide on what arbitrary ability score hobgoblins get an increase to in your campaign and move on
5. please find some other place to complain it would be nice to see interesting and insightful comments for a change.
Really bad argument there. If your character is an exception to the norm, that should be cause for homebrew. If you want your character to have the characteristics of its race in the published setting, you should not need to homebrew that. You also won't be able to publish the legacy races because it will be "too similar" to the legacy races. So... In order to find out what the legacy race's traits are, you will either need to find a physical copy (which I'd imagine are being discontinued), or pirate it if you didn't get the books being replaced before they were replaced. They're just making it so you can be "special" without you needing to face even the slightest amount of hardship by taking away the thing that would have made your decision unique and impactful. Get a hat of disguise if you want to be an elf that looks like an orc. Or "learn to homebrew." Why is your orc physically different than every other orc? If you have a good explanation, that's worth homebrewing a feat to make that adjustment.
Edit: I feel like I should add that I'm not someone saying "if you want to have it easy, too bad." I'm a forever DM who wants to play a "non-traditional" character. I want to overcome that challenge to make an interesting and unique character. This is spitting in the face of that. "But you can still play an orc wizard with +2 strength." Yes, I could. And if I did, I would just be a less intelligent orc wizard than the rest of the countless orc wizards.
"I overcame adversity and devoted my life to the study of the arcane despite being an orc"
Other orc rogues being intelligent yet still appearing to be mountains of muscle with 8 strength for some reason: "yeah, right. Orcs are literally exactly the same as every other race in terms of abilities (as in the scores). In fact, we make better wizards because it's easier for us to stay out of range and we are much harder to knock down."
I'm not going to handicap myself just to make a character that is no longer anything unique or interesting.
Who’s crying and whining?
And no, I use the standard rules of rolling for Ability scores, not either of the two optional alternatives like standard array. And even if I did it wouldn’t stop me from making a goblin Barbarian under the old rules because who cares if I start with a 15 or a 16 in Str? It’s not a big difference and either way I’ll hit 20 eventually.
And it wasn’t a big deal for any DM who didn’t like the old way before to just say “pick whatever racial ASIs you want.” Why did the whole game have to change to address a non-issue?!?
What a silly argument.