I agree 100%. If you are in a boring fight against Goblins, the fault is absolutely on the shoulders of the GM.

They’re level 5 at this point and might be all the way to level 6 by the time they get to the place I’m thinking of, so the goblinoids will be punching above their weight. The players are pretty resourceful in their own rights, so I’m not worried!

LOVE IT! I miss the days of true squish. That scenario you describe would be rare today, both the theif’s death and the sneaking around fearfully in a goblin warren. Everyone would go in guns blazing because the game is now designed such that low level heroes can kick the crap out of low level enemies. But I’ll stop…

You’ve been hurt, haven’t you? Not by a goblin, but by years of shitty DMs who didn’t know how to make a campaign interesting. Any fight in D&D can be a boring exchange of rolls and damage numbers, it’s up to the DM to make the combat interesting.

My friend has been playing a morally ambiguous hero who ‘rescued’ a goblin only to force the goblin to wear humiliating costumes and be degraded at every opportunity. TBH, I’m a little worried about him.

I think that’s usually the case, but not always. I’ve been a player in groups that just wouldn’t bite on a hook or weren’t in the mood for some reason. Where the DM did a good enough job, but the players just wouldn’t contribute. I was unable to carry it as a player by myself. I felt badly for the DM. It’s more common…

Think it was Elder Scroll Oblivion that turned this on its head. You were told to visit a lady with giant rats in her cellar, but it turned out she didn’t want you to kill them. At the contrary, she liked the rats and wanted you to find out what was killing them.

Rodents of unusual size?

strap explosives to Goblins and have them go on suicide runs against the PCs. Sometimes, I use Goblins as social commentary about murder hobos.

Anyone running Goblins this way should get their DM card revoked. Goblins are not meant to be a level specific challenge, such that over time, the party may or may not win. Goblins are a narrative tool, as are many monsters in D&D. Goblins can be better used to:

And lo, the intrepid heroes saved the great basement from a handful of rodents.

No I think she’s pretty on point.

My very first time playing D&D started with us entering a ruined village where there were (surprise!) goblins. The first ones we encountered were running around in pumpkin patch with pumpkins over their heads. I was immediately charmed by this, so I jumped in and grabbed a pumpkin too and started running around while…

Thats great thing in fact my DM for one of my pathfinder did a similar thing he likes to shake up the games often. In our encounter a store had been broken into. We did not do our due diligence and ask “What kind of store?” “What went missing?” “Did anyone see what happened or who did it?” we just used our rangers…

Good news! Thanks to Tucker’s Kobolds, you can continue to fight them on in to high levels, and never feel any real confidence in your ability to handle trash mobs again!