I was thinking of a character who is half goblin.  They look mostly human, but you can tell they arent quite human.  

Lets not say how a goblin would have a kid with a human, only that they did via not so nice means.  

Can goblins actually have kids with humans though and is a half goblin even a thing in any of the books?  If so can you point me to it so that I can buy the race.

Thanks

This is what the Custom Lineage option was for, introduced in Tashas.  

It would most likely depend on the DM and their world/story. You could also Homebrew this as a subhuman/goblin race in the homebrew zone. In the rule books I don't believe it's a race though.

Quote from Spideycloned >>

This is what the Custom Lineage option was for, introduced in Tashas.  

Or even just VHuman, depending on whether you want the goblin part to be an actual mechanical thing or just cosmetic

I have a variant human barb who's 1/8th fire genasi, but the only impact that has on him is that embers and ash drift out of his hair when he rages

There are 2 versions of goblins

Three books gives +2 Dex, +1 Con, Darkvision, Fury of small (1/rest bonus damage), Nimble Escape, small size, 30 ft walk.

Mordekin's has a more powerful version, +2/+1/+1 of your choice and adding Fey Ancestry.

---------------

If I were to do a Half Goblin, I would use standard human (no feat) and add in Nimble Escape.  Fury of the small should not apply to anyone slightly bigger and Fey ancestry should be diluted to nothing.

There are no "half goblins" in 5e official works.  Whether a human and a goblin can have offspring is a call or a discussion with your DM.  Custom lineage as mentioned is a good option for this, as are just going full human or goblin and just "skinning" the character as "half goblin."  Mog's suggestion is interesting as well, and there's always homebrew.

 EDIT: Yurei's post reminded me, yes, that artwork is wonderful.  Kinda says "child of Jareth" to me if your goblins look like David Bowie, or at least one of them does.

First of all: that art is adorable.  Did you do it yourself/have it commissioned?

Second of all: you may want to take a look at the Verdan species, from Acquisitions Incorporated.  it's not a 'half-goblin'; as others have said, there's no canonical version of that species, and most of the verdans' species traits come from their connection to That Which Endures in their specific setting.  But it's still a potential unexplored avenue for less-gobliny goblins, or more-gobliny Bigs, and could provide some inspiration.

There's also guidelines in Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn (sadly unavailable through DDB) for mingling two existing PC species blocks.  Humans are a little hard for this ironically, since humans have so few existing species traits to trade out, but you could also come at it from the goblin side.  Start with Goblin, switch the size to Medium, trade out Fury of the Small for a human skill proficiency, and see what your DM thinks of that as a start point.

Quote from Yurei1453 >>

First of all: that art is adorable.  Did you do it yourself/or have it commissioned?

Second of all: you may want to take a look at the Verdan species, from Acquisitions Incorporated.  it's not a 'half-goblin'; as others have said, there's no canonical version of that species, and most of the verdans' species traits come from their connection to That Which Endures in their specific setting.  But it's still a potential unexplored avenue for less-gobliny goblins, or more-gobliny Bigs, and could provide some inspiration.

There's also guidelines in Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn (sadly unavailable through DDB) for mingling two existing PC species blocks.  Humans are a little hard for this ironically, since humans have so few existing species traits to trade out, but you could also come at it from the goblin side.  Start with Goblin, switch the size to Medium, trade out Fury of the Small for a human skill proficiency, and see what your DM thinks of that as a start point.

 
Hi, thanks for your super nice worlds about the art. Yep it’s mine   

Can I ask, do you know where I can buy the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn book from?  That sounds interesting, having actual rules and guides for mixing different races/species.

I don’t have any of the books yet, just the basic rules available here.  I'm still super new and wasn’t sure what books to buy.  I looked but was confused about which were the best ones   

You might want to check out An Orc and an Elf Had a Little Baby at DM’s Guild. It has a lot of options for this kind of thing that you could use in homebrew or custom lineage. There’s a good video explaining it and giving an example by Ginny Di at that link. 

Quote from DragonKnightZ >>

Quote from Yurei1453 >>

First of all: that art is adorable.  Did you do it yourself/or have it commissioned?

Second of all: you may want to take a look at the Verdan species, from Acquisitions Incorporated.  it's not a 'half-goblin'; as others have said, there's no canonical version of that species, and most of the verdans' species traits come from their connection to That Which Endures in their specific setting.  But it's still a potential unexplored avenue for less-gobliny goblins, or more-gobliny Bigs, and could provide some inspiration.

There's also guidelines in Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn (sadly unavailable through DDB) for mingling two existing PC species blocks.  Humans are a little hard for this ironically, since humans have so few existing species traits to trade out, but you could also come at it from the goblin side.  Start with Goblin, switch the size to Medium, trade out Fury of the Small for a human skill proficiency, and see what your DM thinks of that as a start point.

 
Hi, thanks for your super nice worlds about the art. Yep it’s mine   

Can I ask, do you know where I can buy the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn book from?  That sounds interesting, having actual rules and guides for mixing different races/species.

I don’t have any of the books yet, just the basic rules available here.  I'm still super new and wasn’t sure what books to buy.  I looked but was confused about which were the best ones   

 

 
You do excellent work.  Well worth paying for.

Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn is a third-party Critical Role product by CR's in-house publishing company, Darrington Press.  It's not 'Official', and in full disclosure the section for mixing species is a page, page and a half of text tops that offers guidelines but no hard rules.  The idea is that you can create a mixed-species character by trading out a species feature or two from your 'main' species for a feature from the second heritage.  The book asks players to keep balance and mind and trade like for like - don't trade out a flavorful but mostly weak 'ribbon'-type ability for the strongest power from a second species.  The idea is to be a neat way to reflect mixed heritage rather than doing fantasy eugenics to create an Ubermensch.

For a human/goblin pairing, especially one that's predominantly human?  Hmm.  Much as I normally hate Custom Lineage, I think it might be the solution here.  Custom Lineage is mostly a rejiggered Variant Human anyways; you could do Custom Lineage (the rules for Custom Lineage can be found in the "Customizing Your Origin" section of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything), set your size to Medium, take whichever ability score suits your fancy, take the Darkvision option, and assign whichever feat also suits your fancy.  Easiest way I can think of off the top of my head to create a character in DDB with a "Faintly Goblin" background; the Darkvision can be a trait from her goblin heritage that isn't quite as super stronk as obtaining Nimble Escape, and the bonus feat from CL can be used to further tailor the character.  A few good options could potentially be:

-Alert: the character's spent her whole life being picked on, shunned, and being the butt of nasty-minded pranks due to her 'off' heritage.  She's learned to be wary and alert to danger; it leads to less bruises.
-Linguist: being raised in a mixed-heritage household (if that applies) leads to a natural knack for languages and the ability to pick them up much more easily.
-Mobile: Your art depicts her as possessing a very lithe runner's build, and goblins are known for their agility.  Perhaps this gal, driven by a need to not be where people can pick on her, has learned to be quite a bit more quick and agile than her peers.
-Prodigy: Normally I feel very strongly against allowing Custom Lineage to take species-derived feats, but in this case I'm not suggesting CL so the player can start with Elven Super Advantage and a +18 DX.  This will be DM-dependent regardless, butProdigy could represent the lady being exceptionally talented despite a rough upbringing, acquiring new skills more readily than her peers and thus proving her worth even to those who sneer at her mixed blood.  Skill Expert is a similar option, if not quite as flavorful as Prodigy.
-Tough: a girl who grows up a mixed-heritage person in a typical D&D town is gonna have to learn to have a thicker skin.  Physically and otherwise.  Tough is the 'thicker skin' feat.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Half-goblin

IIRC they were in fact a race in a previous edition, so yes, by the lore half-goblins are a thing.

Quote from Lycaon1765p >>

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Half-goblin

IIRC they were in fact a race in a previous edition, so yes, by the lore half-goblins are a thing.

 They showed up only in one short story and as a couple of NPCs in a video game.  There were never any actual rules for them.

Fiction authors have taken different approaches to the half- species reproduction business.

I'll summarise:

• Some pairings are not a fertile combination.
• The classic: Pairing produces a half-*, (Generally assumes that one half is human which depends on a  human dominant world, or other weird cultural angle).
• Species that can interbreed, but have "Powerful genes" - so, for example a half-goblin is indistinguishable form a goblin.
• Species that only have a single gender, can interbreed with others, producing more of their type (See the powerful genes).

These are the main ones I've come across, I'm sure there are others.

Goblins seem to feature heavily in the single gender and powerful genes themes.

The 1D&D UA introduced the simple concept that any pairing the DM okays is viable, but you just pick the race stats of one of the parents to use, average the lifespan of the parents, and what the character looks like is up to you. Mechanically this doesn't offer anything special, but it is accessible and prevents people from trying to game the system for min-max/powergame hybrids.

Quote from MayhemIsEverywhere >>

You might want to check out An Orc and an Elf Had a Little Baby at DM’s Guild. It has a lot of options for this kind of thing that you could use in homebrew or custom lineage. There’s a good video explaining it and giving an example by Ginny Di at that link. 

 This. All. Day. Long. A brilliant supplement.

Ok that art is amazing!

Also in official settings there are no goblin-human hybrids, and so there are no rules for them. However a homebrew setting can do what it wants, and the custom lineage could help with that. You could also work with your DM to make a custom playable species from scratch which represents this, though your DM would have to be comfortable with that.

In 5.5e there are (really bad) rules for hybrid species of any two parent species. Those rules being "Just pick which race you really are to use rules from, and flavour it differently".

Edit: It seems that lorewise there are half-goblins in official settings, just no rules have been brought out for them.

Quote from The_Ace_of_Rogues >>

The 1D&D UA introduced the simple concept that any pairing the DM okays is viable, but you just pick the race stats of one of the parents to use, average the lifespan of the parents, and what the character looks like is up to you. Mechanically this doesn't offer anything special, but it is accessible and prevents people from trying to game the system for min-max/powergame hybrids.

 Both this option and the custom lineage cover these cases just fine. Not every genotype needs a fascinating and unique blend of mechanical options. This seems to me much more of a roleplay choice than a mechanical one.

I agree, was just giving a breakdown of the option.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Quote from Lycaon1765p >>

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Half-goblin

IIRC they were in fact a race in a previous edition, so yes, by the lore half-goblins are a thing.

 They showed up only in one short story and as a couple of NPCs in a video game.  There were never any actual rules for them.

 It’s still technically canon.

Quote from AWierdPotato >>

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Quote from Lycaon1765p >>

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Half-goblin

IIRC they were in fact a race in a previous edition, so yes, by the lore half-goblins are a thing.

 They showed up only in one short story and as a couple of NPCs in a video game.  There were never any actual rules for them.

 It’s still technically canon.

The video games have never been canon.  And the general canon has generally ignored a lot of those short story anthologies.