Kobolds are small reptilian creatures about the size of gnomes. They have a naked rat-like tail and a canine head with small horns. Their scaly hide ranges from rusty brown to rusy black in colour.

Kobolds are cowardly sadists, who enjoy setting traps to protect their lairs but flee combat when the odds aren’t in their favour. They usually eat whatever prisoners they catch, but occasionally sell them as slaves. Kobolds generally live underground or in deep forests. They’re skilled miners, though their hate and distrust of all other races – especially gnomes – keeps them from having any real business with other communities. Kobolds speak Draconic, but they sound more like dogs than dragons when doing so.

Kobolds are often considered a minor pest to be killed on sight, but other races are known to hire or enslave kobolds to act as the blade-fodder of their armies’ frontlines. In such cases, a force of panicing kobolds, more afraid of their masters than the enemy, is something to be reckoned. Some of the so-called adventuring kobolds are leftovers of such armies, their tribes scattered and homes lost. Kobolds are usually lawful evil.