Homebrew Kobolds in a Coat Species Details
Through the miracle of Kobold ingenuity, three formerly diminutive creatures, oppressed by the world of the big, become big themselves, enabling them to go where they wish and do as they please.
So effective is this perfect form of disguise it is impossible to know how many in the world are actually just a trio of Kobolds in a Coat; indeed it is possible that everyone is!
While the less imaginative may wonder at the practicality of stacking three Kobolds in a Coat, thinking of the difficulty of moving in a straight line, performing even the most simple of tasks, or hiding the fact that you are clearly just three Kobolds in a Coat, in the mean time they have been robbed blind by a daring trio!
Only one question remains; are you really willing to go another day without being three Kobolds in a Coat?
Kobolds in a Coat Traits
Your kobolds in a coat character has the following racial traits.Ability Scores
You have +1 to Dexterity or Charisma, +1 to Intelligence or Wisdom, and -2 to Strength or Constitution.
Age
A Kobold in a coat has a combined age of its constituent Kobolds, and is capable of living indefinitely as individual Kobolds can always be replaced.
Alignment
Kobolds in a coat have almost no self-control (or any other kind of control), careening into easily avoided obstacles and sowing chaos wherever they go. Whether they are good, evil or neutral, they will always be the chaotic kind!
Size
Kobolds in a coat are between 5 and 6 feet tall when fully assembled. Your size is medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 20 feet. You may attempt to move an additional 10 feet by taking an Acrobatics check, however on failure you will instead fall Prone.
Small Hands
You have disadvantage when attacking with a Heavy weapon.
Darkvision
You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Cunning Manoeuvres
As an action during your turn you may perform the Sly Recon or Scatter! manoeuvre:
Sly Recon
One of your Kobolds emerges in an unoccupied space next to you, while the other two remain in place to maintain your cunning disguise. Your movement is reduced to 0, and if you are forced to move you will immediately fall Prone. Though you can act normally, any Dexterity or Strength based attacks, ability checks or saving throws have disadvantage. You may use your action to switch to Scatter! with only one new Kobold emerging.
Scatter!
Two of your Kobolds emerge each in their own unoccupied spaces next to you. Your size is now Small and your walking speed is 30 feet, and your disguise no longer fools anyone.
Kobolds
When one or more of your Kobolds emerge from your coat, they will do so with the following properties:
- Each Kobold has all the same attributes, conditions, immunities, proficiencies, abilities, spells etc. that you do.
- They are Small and can move normally up to 30 feet.
- The first Kobold to emerge takes one third of your HP, max HP, temporary HP and carrying capacity (rounded down).
- The second takes one half of your remaining HP, max HP, temporary HP and carrying capacity (rounded down).
- Each Kobold has one attack per turn, reducing your attacks per turn by one (to a minimum of one).
- Your Kobolds share your limitations such as spell-slots, uses per long rest etc.
- Between the three of you, only one may cast spells each combat round.
- Once per turn abilities can only be used once per round between the three of you.
- Your Kobolds have the same Initiative as you, and you may choose in which order you wish to act each round.
- Each Kobold may take any number of items from your inventory when it emerges. If a Kobold takes an attuned item then it immediately becomes attuned to that item and your attunement to it is lost.
- As an Action during their turn your Kobolds may return to your coat if within 5 feet of you. They are removed from play and their remaining HP, max HP, temporary HP, and carrying capacity are returned to you, as are any conditions or spell effects currently applied to them, as well as any equipment and attunements. If you are performing the Scatter! manoeuvre then you are switched to the Sly Recon manoeuvre with your Kobold already deployed.
Perfect Disguise
Despite consisting of a large coat, and maybe a wig and moustache, your disguise is sufficient to fool most creatures. With at least two Kobolds in your coat you are disguised as a humanoid and others will treat you as such.
If another creature becomes suspicious of you for any reason it may roll Insight while you roll Deception, if they equal or exceed your score they become aware that you are not what you appear to be. If they exceeds your score by 5 or more, they immediately realise you are three Kobolds in a Coat and respond accordingly. If they roll less than your score, they are completely fooled and may not check again until you give them a reason to become suspicious again. A creature will become suspicious if you act strangely or fall Prone.
If your disguise is compromised, you may restore it by spending one minute adding/changing items of your disguise while hidden from view. Your starting equipment will always include a coat (Clothes, Traveler's) or Robes.
Replaceable Parts
When separated into two or three creatures, you can only be killed if all of your Kobolds are killed first - so long as least one survives, so do you.
If your character is killed and you have one or more Kobolds in play, choose one of them to trade places with. You are immediately revived occupying its former space, with its HP, temporary HP, equipment (including attunements) and any conditions or other active effects, while the Kobold now lies dead in your previous space. If the Kobold you are replacing has already had its turn, then you must wait until the next round before taking a turn of your own.
With one or more of your Kobolds dead you will be unable to end the Sly Recon or Scatter feature until you are able to recruit a replacement. Once a replacement Kobold is recruited it counts as an emerged Kobold with the same max HP and carrying capacity as the Kobold it replaces, with full HP and no equipment. How you go about recruiting a replacement Kobold is up to your DM, but should attempt to be reasonable; not just any Kobold will be suitable (or be willing) and there are unlikely to be shops selling replacements!
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common, Draconic, and one additional language of your choice.
Comments
This has been in the wild for a little while now, and while I think it's reasonably well balanced for a jokey class, and the rules are fine overall, there are some frequent questions I'd like to address:
Frequently Asked Questions:
there is no way that just scatter alone will not break the game in all sort of ways, up to and including:
-using aid with the highest level spell slot you have available on all three kobolds at once, then merging them for a single mega-bold with so many hit points
-using one kobold to attack twice with the attack action and another to cast a damage cantrip to do about twice the damage you should be able to do
-two sepperate kobolds each using two-weapon fighting to make more bonus action attacks than they would be capable of as a single entity
-an high level wizard kobold trio using this to concentrate on multiple spells at once, that restriction is there for a reason my dude and with three of them you can break the game sooooo hard
-your wording for this race is as strange as your other homebrew and is bothering my perfectionist eyes, especially with how ambigous some of it is
like it is a very fun idea and if you play into the power of these little exploits the idea of the most powerful being in existance being three kobolds in a coat is just extra hillarious
I don't think this actually works; while the individual kobolds can definitely be cast on in this way, when they re-assemble they become a single creature again, and a single creature cannot be under the influence of the same spell more than once, so you'd only receive the benefit of a single casting (the other two would be wasted).
Deployed Kobolds only have one attack each, so at most you can normally only do one regular attack with two Kobolds, and one cantrip with the third. The trade off however is that you're more vulnerable in this form (it only takes one third of the damage to take out one of your Kobolds, which in higher level fights could happen very quickly), so it's risk vs. reward.
*If you have the equipment to equip them all for two weapon fighting then you could theoretically do three regular attacks plus three off hand attacks for six total. Sure, it's quite a lot of damage, but the quality of the attacks is limited by the gear you have, and the individual kobolds are easier to pick off in response as above.
At later levels for example you may have a magic weapon, but unless you have equivalent magic weapons for your deployed kobolds they'll probably be making weaker attacks anyway. Even if you do have magic weapons, if they require attunement then you need to be attuned to them all when combined, otherwise the deployed kobolds can't make use of it unless you short rest while scattered and go into a fight that way.
This isn't rules as intended, see the bullet point "Your Kobolds share your limitations such as spell-slots, uses per long rest etc."; it should really say other limitations since it's intended to cover anything that isn't otherwise specified. The limitation in this case is that you can only concentrate on one spell at a time, I could definitely clarify that.
I mean, this race was never intended to be perfectly balanced; I feel like it's reasonably balanced when used as intended, but it absolutely requires DM buy-in and will require rulings on a bunch of things that neither of us have foreseen.
Thanks for the feedback, I'll see about making some clarifications in the rules, but could you elaborate upon "your wording for this race is as strange as your other homebrew"?
Other than my brainfart on Hit Dice for the Brute Troll I'm not sure what's wrong with the wording on my other homebrew, or here either really? Yes there's some ambiguity, but having a character that can split into three at will is extremely complicated, and I've tried to avoid going into overwhelming detail.
yes
I just want the whole party to never catch on for the whole campaign