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Kobold

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Revision as of 04:25, 28 November 2017 by Jecowa (talk | contribs) (are they mammals?)
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xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼
Kobold
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Urist likes kobolds for their mischief.
Portrait

No portrait

Biome

Any location

Attributes

· Trapavoid · Learns · Egglaying · Humanoid

Cannot be tamed 
Size
Birth: 1,000 cm3
Mid: 5,000 cm3
Max: 20,000 cm3

Age
Child at: 1
Adult at: 18
Max age: 150-170
Cannot be butchered

Wikipedia article

v50.14 · v0.47.05
This article is about the current version of DF.
Note that some content may still need to be updated.
A small, squat humanoid with large pointy ears and yellow glowing eyes.
A kobold drawn by Toady One, from Kobold Quest, which also serves as their DF look.

Kobolds are small creatures adept at thieving that try to infiltrate your fortress and steal valuable items. They will run away once discovered. Toady described them as small mammaloreptilian humanoids with pointy ears and yellow eyes with a penchant for trickery and mischief, context-based sublanguage, poisonous critter collection, traps and kleptomaniacal hoarding. Though they are not defined as mammals in raw files.

Kobolds arrive at your fortress in sneak mode, preventing you from seeing them. Spotting a sneaking creature is based on how high a dwarf's observer skill is; the higher it is, the farther away it will be spotted. But if a kobold is passing next to a dwarf or animal it will be revealed, too. They can swim in from rivers, go boldly through sprint straight through locked doors and they are not affected by traps. If the kobolds are successful in multiple thieving attempts, they will grow kobolder and send squads of armed kobolds to raid and pillage your apparently defenseless fort.

Kobolds are very weak in battle, however, as they are much smaller than dwarves and most hits will likely cause severe injuries to them; even basic punches will often cave in their heads. They tend to wield knives and daggers as they are often too small to wield larger weapons, so they have a hard time piercing even rudimentary armor. The abovementioned attack squads also arrive in sneak mode and will ambush any dwarves and traders on the map. Kobolds are observed to have access to all metals, including steel (seemingly, a fallback triggered due to them not being given access to any metals at all). This doesn't seem to manifest itself in fortress mode, however, and they are almost always seen with only copper equipment.

Kobolds are egg-layers, giving birth by laying 1 to 2 eggs at a time. Toady One has explained the game's kobolds were primarily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, which portrays kobolds as reptiles, though DF's own kobolds are more akin to tiny brown-skinned goblins who can lay eggs.

Kobolds speak in unintelligible utterances, being completely unable to communicate with anyone but each other.

Some dwarves like kobolds for their mischief.

Ethics

The ethics of kobolds can be considered the most primitive, besides those of goblins (which are basically non-existent). Generally, kobold morals are based on a tribal system of loyalty, with some exceptions such as an opposition to the devouring, butchering or consuming of intelligent beings, slavery, possession of trophies and to most forms of torture (except torture for sport). The moral focus on loyalty makes treason unthinkable among kobolds. Kobolds do not offer much in the form of punishment for crimes: assault is considered a personal matter, while a kobold found to have killed one of their own is forced into exile.

Kobolds consider cunning to be incredibly important, and also value nature, cooperation and perseverance. They however do not understand the concept of music, have very little empathy and are forgetful. Probably due to death being commonplace in kobold society so it is unwise to remember or care about loved ones for too long.

Kobolds are also widely regarded to be the best race in all of Dwarf Fortress.

Behavior

Kobolds are commonly known to congregate in small- to medium-sized groups, primarily inside caves. Studies [1] have shown, though, that they may also camp outdoors, living exactly as they do in caves, in a large group with piles of random jewelry and gems all around them. Assuming you can get past the kobolds, their wealth is all for the taking. It has been reported that it is possible to embark within these encampments, resulting in remarkably quick fun. Amusingly, they can and will attack kobold thieves that wander onto the map, which instantly triggers a loyalty cascade amongst every member of the camp, sparking a brutal and bloody civil war in which both sides try their level best to kill the other, often with their bare hands. Interestingly enough, one of the sides on the loyalty cascade will appear as hostile to your dwarves, while the other will appear as friendly. If the friendly kobolds win the civil war of sorts, you will be able to wander into their camp and take all their stuff or, if you are feeling particularly generous, build a little something for them. Sadly, this above ground camps will almost certainly be exterminated by the first goblin siege.

If you start the adventure mode on a world where human, dwarf, or elf civilizations do not exist, you will have the opportunity to play as a human outcast (as usual) or a kobold civilization. If you have a goblin settlement you will also have the possibility of choosing them for an adventure, too. Kobolds start off with less than standard equipment (backpack, loincloth, weapon).

The fact kobolds are unable to communicate with other races makes them hostile to anyone in either mode, including a kobold adventurer.

Kobolds can also be a playable race in dwarf fortress mode if [SITE_CONTROLLABLE] is added to them in entity_default.txt, however, they cannot start with picks or axes, nor many of the skills needed to found a fortress besides mining. While they can start with the materials to start a small metal mining industry to build those, they are considered foreign weapons and so cannot be built. Your kobold citizens are also considered pets and/or livestock by the game, and their labor preferences cannot be changed, likely due to that they lack any kind of language to tell each other what they want to do. They can start with spears, short swords, bows, and large knives, but can not form military squads, likely for the same reasons as labors cannot be assigned to them. Making this race playable likely requires a large amount of game file editing.

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