Kobold

Version 0.28: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

This page is about the player species. For the monster, see Kobold (monster).

Kobolds are small, mysterious creatures of unknown origin. They are well suited to lurking in the darkness of the Dungeon, and have a reduced range of vision which also reduces the range at which they can be seen by enemies. They are competent in combat, especially with short blades, maces or crossbows, and are comfortable with all forms of magic. They are also very adept at using magical devices. Their small size makes them unable to wield large weapons, but they are agile and stealthy, and advance in levels as quickly as Humans.

Innate Abilities

• Nightstalker 3: Kobolds' line of sight is reduced by 3, to a range of 4 squares. Their stealth is also increased by +150.
• Kobolds are small creatures, so have trouble with many items.
  • They are unable to wield bardiches, battleaxes, dire flails, executioner's axes, glaives, great maces, great swords, halberds, longbows, scythes, triple swords, giant clubs, giant spiked clubs, and javelins.
  • Normally one-handed weapons like magical staves, broad axes, tridents, demon tridents and double swords are two-handed to them.
  • They are also incapable of wearing tower shields, and more encumbered by bucklers and kite shields.

Kobolds have a base Strength of 5, Intelligence of 9 and Dexterity of 10 (before Background modifiers).

Preferred Backgrounds

• Warriors: Hunter
• Zealots: Berserker
• Warrior-mages: Arcane Marksman, Enchanter
• Mages: Conjurer, Summoner

Level Bonuses

• +1 to a random stat every 5th level.
• 20% less HP than average.
• Average MP.
• +3 willpower per level.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Kobolds receive the skills and equipment listed for their background, with the following exceptions:

• Javelins are replaced with boomerangs.

Difficulty of Play

Kobolds are a straightforward race to play because of their excellent aptitudes in many skills and their size bonus to EV. They have good magic aptitudes overall and advance quickly in experience. Their small LOS makes it easier to sneak up and stab foes, while limiting the effective range of your enemies. Of course, this limits your ranged options as well. Their excellent aptitude for Evocations makes them good Artificers.

Necromancy builds synergize well with Kobolds' limited line of sight, as it is easy to fill all visible tiles with undead allies, and severely limit the number of enemies that can appear simultaneously on the screen.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	1	Armour	-2	Spellcasting	0
		Dodging	2
Maces & Flails	-1	Shields	-2	Conjurations	0
Axes	-2	Stealth	4	Hexes	0
Polearms	-2			Summonings	0
Staves	-1	Invocations	1	Necromancy	0
Unarmed Combat	0	Evocations	2	Translocations	0
Throwing	1	Shapeshifting	-1	Alchemy	0
				Fire Magic	0
Short Blades	3			Ice Magic	0
Long Blades	-2			Air Magic	0
Ranged Weapons	3	Experience	1	Earth Magic	0

Trivia

Kobolds were originally creatures from Germanic mythology, but they are well known to gamers due to appearing as low-level monsters in Dungeons & Dragons and as creatures in Nethack.

History

• In 0.27, Kobold backgrounds with kite shields were replaced with bucklers. However, the following version removed kite shields from background starts.
• Prior to the removal of the food system in 0.26, kobolds were carnivorous, but did not have the Nightstalker mutation.
• Prior to 0.21 and the merging of rations, the carnivorous mutation had three levels.
• Kobolds' aptitudes were rebalanced in 0.19. Prior to this change: Axes was -1, Maces & Flails was 0, Throwing was +3, Slings was +2, Bows was -1, Spellcasting was -1, Conjurations was -1, and Transmutations was -1, and Evocations was +3. Kobold base stats were also changed.
• Prior to 0.15, kobolds had 2 ranks of Saprovore and would recover from sickness faster than normal.