The situation: Playing A Fat Goblin on a Solo Campaign of the Shadow Rune. We've got Reynhart as Knight, Augur as Prophet, Vyrah as Stalker and Lyssa as Runemaster.

As the Overlord my decision is this: Do I play Shadow Dragons, Ettins, maybe Bane Spiders? or wait... Kobolds. And they exactly match the types for the quest. Sold... I'll try them.

"Ha ha" says the heroes, "even though we failed to prevent the Goblins from stealing the crops and gave Splig a bonus of 16 health, you don't get reinforcements. We've got this in the bag. "

"Not so!," roars an evil voice laughing upon the wind," For my master Kobolds spawn a minion next to them at the beginning of each turn. And while you deal with the cave spiders, who will take every chance to try and poison you, my Kobold group will get larger and larger!"

Thus when the heroes opened the door, Reynhart had but one goal and that was to take down a master Kobold. An Oath of Honor took a minion out and an advance allowed him to move next to the master. But with two attacks he ultimately failed to dispatch it. What came next for him was a great surrounding of bodies, as Kobolds upon Kobolds swarmed. He was easily Koed. As luck would have it, Splig also flipped Frederick on the first test as well.

These guys are rough. Really, one Blue die is all they need. Unfortunately the heroes are in dire need of some Blast effects.

Kobolds are downright broken.

With a little blast, they go down quick.

it's just my humble opinion, but I think perhaps they should limit Swarm to Kobolds only and not just adjacent monsters.

i don't think kobolds needs nerfs

I mean, let's look at it this way:

Rat swarms in act 1 can do potentially 1+4 or 1+5 with a surge, and cannot miss. The green has a 2/3 chance of providing said surge, and if the target is bleeding, it is automatic.

Kobolds rolling a blue have a 1/3 chance of a surge, potential for a miss, and that surge can do a max of +7. They also have a larger group size, but take mulitple turns to grow to that size.

I think they fit in nicely.

It's not the damage on the kobolds that is a problem.

This was my first experience with them, so I can't really give an opinion on it. I will say that I did move a minion cave spider into range and Swarm counted him as well when it did damage. With 6 Kobold attacks, all with one single Blue die, only two surged, but that was enough to KO Reyn.

Perhaps a more sound strategy for the heroes then. One is to stand next to each other so as to not to be surrounded. Secondly, target all masters if possible first. Third, used Ranged Blast attacks if possible. Of course Blast effects can suck if they are next to allies so movement is key.

Whitewing, mind going into detail?

Whitewing, mind going into detail?

It's how many they are. Winning a quest as the heroes in Descent relies on how many actions are required to get to your objectives - versus the same for the Overlord. Movement is key in this game, and if you don't get to the place you need to be in fast enough, then you lose. It's kind of an oversimplified statement, but that's really how I perceive it all factors involved.

With Kobolds and no AoE damage at disposal, heroes have to waste tons of actions having to hack through this living wall that is Kobolds. That's a big deal in many quests.

Now it is true that the OL cannot use Kobolds in every quest, because of monster traits, and heroes can always get these AoE abilities. If they don't then they´re weak in essence against that type of strategy. But you could say the same about any type of strategy, really.

I don't think they need nerfing at all. They just force the heroes to consider getting a proper defense against them. It's about pressuring the heroes, which I think is good for a change (I´ve mostly been adapting myself to the heroes rather than the opposite)

Funny enough, but I just finished this quest and the heroes won. They basically demolished the whole room of monsters and then finished off Splig. Vyrah was the unsung hero, Immobilizing Splig for two turns while the rest of the trash was mopped up. A Weakened Splig by himself was then taken down.

I think once you are able to cut off their source ( Masters), Kobolds can be kept in check. Only problem is if you have a quest with open Reinforcements, they won't go away. In this instance, the heroes were able to finally kill of the masters, which got things under control again.

The issue with kobolds is how many there are, and how many actions are required to clear them. Even with AoE, unless you have it in considerable amounts, they slow you down dramatically.

The mere threat of kobolds forces the heroes to include substantial AoE options, and if they invest in that route, you simply don't deploy them. This is pretty much the only monster group that exists that forces options out of the heroes merely by existing.

There are some other monsters that force hero adaptations too, such as using Golems or Ironbound for Pierce Immunity, or Stealthy/Shadow monsters to hurt melee-heavy teams.

But yeah, Kobolds do this at a level unparalleled by other monsters.. which is why I love 'em! And for once the H&M didn't screw them over. They're still pretty solid even in their new incarnation.

Is it possible that the Kobold has errated?

When I read the actions on descent2e.wikia.com, how can a master kobold summon minions? He is to be defeated first... ??

P

http://descent2e.wikia.com/wiki/Kobold

The page on the Wiki is outdated, those are the old Kobolds from the conversion kit. I'm an admin there but unfortunately I don't have Kobolds so I can't update the info.

A kind soul who has the time and the cards might edit the wiki, or PM me the stats and I'll edit it in myself.

http://descent2e.wikia.com/wiki/Kobold

The page on the Wiki is outdated, those are the old Kobolds from the conversion kit. I'm an admin there but unfortunately I don't have Kobolds so I can't update the info.

A kind soul who has the time and the cards might edit the wiki, or PM me the stats and I'll edit it in myself.

The ability text and Act 2 stats are here . Only differences for Act 1 are health for (minion/master) of (2/5) as opposed to (4/7), and the fact that in Act 1 their speed is 3, not 4.

Alright, updated. But does the Master in Act 1 have Blue+Yellow attack? The old stats listed the Master as having only a Blue, so that's a pretty powerful buff.

Alright, updated. But does the Master in Act 1 have Blue+Yellow attack? The old stats listed the Master as having only a Blue, so that's a pretty powerful buff.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/185370-bonds-of-the-wild-pictures-image-heavy-thread/

Confirmed.

Let me get this straight. Kobolds spawn right when you start your turn, one for each master (even in rtl they are able to spawn and move minions on their first activation?) and their surge give 1 extra damage for each adjacent kobold (including the one that attacks)?

Imo the H&M change of the Kobolds made them balanced, because now the heroes have ways of dealing with them. Before you were deploying all at once and they were ideal for blocking, dealing damage and wasting actions from the get go. Now it's not so smart anymore to deploy them into the first room of the quest, heroes can try to reach and kill them before they become a critical mass (even without costing them a huge amount of actions which wasn't possible before). Those 3 master monsters go down rather quickly and even in the second turn they aren't that strong yet. Of course if the heroes aren't able to deal with them fast, they are confronted with the same problems as before, but in the majority of the quests, the heroes are at fault now, if they have to deal with a hord of kobolds.

Since they require some planning/strategy and clever usage to even get to their full strength, I think they are ok. Yet they may be one of the monsters, were luck of dice (or reroll abilities) has the biggest impact on their strength. Dealing 6 damage even 4 times in act I with one monster group is still extremely strong imo.