Campaign of the Month:January 2013

DANgerous Kalamar 4

Hobgoblins lived in close-knit clans, and held no desire for conquest beyond their domain, warring only with each other over matters of pride or territory. Due to their impressive strength and skills in stone-craft, the hobgoblin tribes were offered friendship and trade by the duards, in exchange for physical labour in the construction of the. Hobgoblins are large goblinoids with dark orange or red-orange skin. A hobgoblin measures virtue by physical strength and martial prowess, caring about nothing except skill and cunning in battle. Monster Tags: Goblinoid.

The Hobgoblin is a mob from the Witchery mod. They spawn in forested areas and are known to attack villagers.It is assumed that hobgoblins originated from some horrible magical experiment long ago but nowadays they tend to reside in Hobgoblin Huts and are open to trading with players items they have scrounged up. 1 Profile 2 Appearances 3 Characteristics 4 Abilities 5 Conception 6 List of Known Hobgoblins 7 Subspecies 8 Gallery 9 Navigation Alternative Names: 中鬼 (Chuu Oni) ホブ・ゴブリン (Hobgoblin) Hobgoblin is the first evolution that all goblins partake when given the opportunity to evolve into a higher ranked species.They are larger, stronger, smarter and more menacing than goblins. Traits Martial Advantage: Once per turn, the hobgoblin can deal an extra 7 (2d6) damage to a creature it hits with a weapon attack if that creature is within 5 ft. Of an ally of the hobgoblin that isn't incapacitated.

Hobgoblin

While the peaceful nations of Tellene strain under the threat of humanoid attack directed at their heart – the food-producing villages and farms – one race among the humanoids is now a dominant force in trade, politics and war. Hobgoblins are very competitive and see a great deal of honor to be gained from winning a contest, whether an arm-wrestling contest, a foot race or a huge battle. During contests, friendships, religion and other factors lose importance – only winning matters. Competitors need not fear deceit, however. Hobgoblins consider cheating worse than losing.

Their subraces include the Krangi and Kargi, along with the lesser Dazlak, Kors, and Rankki.

The mechanics of the hobgoblin language are fairly simple. There are no articles and most verbs follow a basic pattern of conjugation which shows plurality. There is only one gender in Hobgoblin, as everything is considered masculine. The hobgoblin language does have a very large vocabulary, though. There are over 50,000 documented hobgoblin words; with 23 words alone meaning “honor”.

Hobgoblins live in a very definitive caste system, and the language operates in much the same way. Societal stature is evidenced by the words a hobgoblin uses to communicate. Royalty will often have to be translated for commoners—and vice versa. A slave is allowed only to speak to other slaves. When in the presence of a social superior, one is expected to wait until spoken to before speaking. The penalty for “speaking out of caste” is the removal of the offender’s tongue.

There is a language that most hobgoblins are raised from birth to speak: the Battle Tongue of the military. Battle Tongue is mostly standardized across Tellene, and the hobgoblins of Ul-Karg speak the same Battle Tongue as the hobgoblins of Norga-Krangrel. (The Kors speak Battle Tongue only during battles or during military training.)

Unlike Krangi or Kargi, Battle Tongue does not rely on context for understanding. It has standardized names for most common items, including gods, locations, weapons, and tactics. It can convey complex military orders, and can describe basic religious ideas. However, philosophy, magic, complex theology, and commerce are all impossible to discuss in Battle Tongue.

The hobgoblin language uses the following letters: A, B, D, E, F, G, GG, H, I, J, K, KK, L, M, N, O, P, R, RR, S, T, TT, U, V, W and Z. Double consonants and hard consonant sounds are characteristic of the hobgoblin language. Written Hobgoblin is not difficult to learn, and most hobgoblins are taught to read and write a simplified Hobgoblin during their mandatory service in the military. Hobgoblin is written right to left and their text bears similarities to Dwarven. Most non-hobgoblin scholars agree that hobgoblins adopted Dwarven at some point in the distant past.

Hobgoblin names are all their own. The only sign of it anywhere is in the Young Kingdoms, where certain place names are obvious Kalamaran derivatives of Kargi names. Korak (Kurghak), Ek’Kasel (Ekhazel), and the Lido (Lidou) Bog were all originally part of the extensive kingdom of Kruk-Ma-Kali. All dialects of Hobgoblin are obviously closely related and use the same character set, but have diverged greatly in spoken word from whatever past origin they shared. Consequently, Kargi, Krangi, Kors, and Rankki are distinct languages and speakers of each cannot communicate with the other without translation. Dazlak is a dialect of Krangi.

Hobgoblin
(Creature)
Type	Humanoid (goblinoid)
CR	By character class
Environment	Temperate hills
Alignment	LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE
Images of hobgoblins
Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 175

Hobgoblins are a goblinoid race of raiders and pillagers, taking what they need with steel and fire from more advanced cultures before vanishing back into the wilds, slaves and plunder in tow.^[1]

• 3Habitat and society

Appearance

A hobgoblin is nearly the same height as a human. Their round, hairless heads sit atop wide, thick necks, and their long, tattered ears flank a pair of savage orange eyes. Their dull, gray-green skin is coarse and largely devoid of hair. Their short, powerful legs coupled with their long, muscular arms grants the hobgoblin vague similarities with that of a brutish ape.^[1]

Ecology

Unlike their capricious goblin cousins, hobgoblins are strong, cunning, and organized, with a natural inclination toward hierarchies and social order. Though their strongholds are often sloppily constructed, they are extremely tenacious in their defense. Hobgoblins mate freely, but only with willing members of their own rank—matings between hobgoblins of different rank is seen as scornful. Hobgoblins are highly promiscuous and do not practice monogamy. Hobgoblins gestate much faster than humans (though not as fast as goblins). Infants are weaned after only three weeks and can walk and talk by six months, at which point he or she begins combat training. A hobgoblin is considered ready to fight by the age of four.^[2]

Habitat and society

How To Trade With Hobgoblins Witchery

Hobgoblins favor temperate hills for their territory.^[3] Hobgoblin settlements, referred to in military terms like 'companies', 'regiments', 'divisions', 'armies', or 'hordes', are ruled by a single general, who commands numerous ranking officers with their own subordinates, so on down to the grunts and laborers who make up the majority of the tribe. A hobgoblin general can control vast swaths of territory under this system, but the hobgoblins' own ambitious and disloyal nature usually prevents them from forming such empires^[4] with certain exceptions such as Kaoling.

More so than any other goblinoid race, hobgoblins combine a keen intellect with a warlike spirit. Though strictly militant, hobgoblins can be remarkably clever in matters of engineering and alchemy, though these skills are always directed towards the battlefield. ^[3] Paradoxically, though organized and confident during war, an individual hobgoblin tends to be paranoid and deceitful in nature. This aggression is honed through years of training in childhood (lasting up to four years) and is used to determine who is fit for military service. Due to the hierarchical nature of hobgoblin society, soldiers are inevitably higher on the social ladder than those rejected. Those regarded unfit are given mundane professions, a fairly humiliating fate for a young hobgoblin.^[4]

All members of a hobgoblin tribe are effectively members of the tribe's army. After reaching maturity, all hobgoblins are subjected to the 'year of hell', a year of constant raiding intended to test each hobgoblin's strength and courage. Roughly one in three hobgoblins is then deemed fit for active combat duty; the remainder are relegated to the position of general labor. Laborers are technically part of the army, but are scorned and never raise above their station until they display skill in battle. For this reason, hobgoblin laborers actively wish for attacks on the tribe's lair so they can prove their worth.^[4]

Hobgoblins are obsessed with their social status. Once an active combatant, a hobgoblin constantly jockeys for position with its peers and plots to overcome their superiors, typically through a duel for honor called a kalech-mar. Refusal to answer a challenge is seen as a sign of weakness, but more highly-ranked hobgoblins keep their positions by winning dozens of duels, dissuading younger hobgoblins from challenging them.^[4]

Hair is important in hobgoblin culture, especially among warriors. Hair emulates the barghests and hero-gods that hobgoblins honor, and long, flowing hair is a resource that must be taken in battle—a hobgoblin can neither grow a mane of hair, nor skin hair—real hair—from animals in the hunt. Instead warriors strip a lock of hair from each human and elf they kill, and weave them into their hats or helms or else glue them to their own scalps. A proud soldier may show off his five or six locks—braided tightly to protect them—at social events or formal drills, while the most vicious warriors let their stolen hair flow free in battle, confidant they can replace anything lost with the coifs of their victims. Not every hobgoblin follows this tradition, however. It is fundamentally bragging about one's skill as a warrior, inviting lesser subordinate to challenge the warrior to a kalech-mar honor duel for her position. Those hobgoblins who are especially lawfully-minded view the practice as a foolish excess and needless bravado, something that drives a wedge through unit cohesion with petty one-upmanship. Other simply seize too much hair in battle to wear it publicly.^[5]

Hobgoblins are natural backstabbers who don't hesitate to use underhanded means to get their way, but if caught, they punish their own kind ruthlessly. Each tribe's general is responsible for dictating punishment, which takes one of four forms: demotion, exile, slavery, and death. Enslavement is by far the most common.^[4] Hobgoblins subjected to exile, as well as deserters, sometimes gravitate toward human societies as scavengers, bandits, gangsters, or pirates.^[6]

Relations with other races

Hobgoblins universally despise elves and (by extension) magic, but dwarf slaves are well sought after for their engineering and mining skills. Other goblinoids are seen as either an embarrassment or useful tools, depending on the situation. Regardless of the neighboring race however, relations will inevitably be shaky, if not outright hostile. War is often declared upon other races for no other reason than to gain slaves, as slavery is a vital part of hobgoblin society. Hobgoblins rarely trade with outsiders and tend to be resistant to suggestions of alliances^[6] though they have been known to buy slaves from orcs.^[7]

Hobgoblins sometimes fall under the leadership of ja noi, evil spirits that take hobgoblin-like forms. These oni are seen as awe-inspiring leaders by common hobgoblins, though hobgoblins that realize the ja noi are playing them like pawns often turn against their leader.^[8]

Science, magic, and religion

Most hobgoblins hate arcane magic due to its association with their deadly enemies, the elves.^[3] In its place, hobgoblins commonly employ science and alchemy, especially that which produces smoke and fire, which they love (a throwback to their goblin forebears). Burning oil, rigged mineshafts, and explosives are among the tricks of hobgoblin alchemy and engineering.^[2]

Some hobgoblins practice divine magic as shamans, typically of cruel powers like Asmodeus and the other archdevils^[9]General Susumu, and Yaezhing.^[10] Such shamans are both feared and respected, and often forced to live alone on the tribe's outskirts.^[3]

History

The origin of the hobgoblins lies in the Age of Legend. An unknown party, possibly the long-lost cult of the devilCanzoriant, created the hobgoblins by enhancing the pathetic goblins, giving them greater size, stamina, and mental faculties through the use of a powerful artifact called the Cantorian Spring for one purpose only: war against their hated enemies, the elves. The newly-created hobgoblins were imbued with an inherent hatred of elves and were built up into vast armies by their creators. Before the hobgoblins could be unleashed, a band of elven adventurers stole the Cantorian Spring, freeing the hobgoblins from their masters' control, but still possessed of their consuming hatred of elvenkind. After a series of devastating wars in which the young, inexperienced race of hobgoblins was decimated by the ancient elven empires, the hobgoblins were forced into a state of squalor from which they have still yet to rise.^[11][12]

Hobgoblins have taken part in numerous destructive military campaigns throughout the world, the most successful being the conquest of Kaoling in 4610 AR^[13] and the Goblinblood Wars of Isger in 4697. Hobgoblins formed the vanguard of the army of the Machine Mage Karamoss during his failed attempt at conquering Absalom in 3637 AR, and many resided in his Red Redoubt.^[14] Hobgoblins also allied with the werewolves of Darkmoon Vale in the Night of Silver Blood in 4707 AR.^[15]

On Golarion

In Avistan, hobgoblins are most common in and around the nation of Isger; their numbers have declined due to catastrophic conflicts in recent decades, but it is only a matter of time before these fruitful creatures can field their massive armies once again.^[16] Hobgoblins also exist in sizable numbers in the Candlestone Caverns^[17] and Arthfell Forest of Andoran.^[18] The nation of Molthune, in its quest to build up its military, has begun recruiting hobgoblins into the Imperial Army alongside humans and other 'civilized' races.^[19]

In Tian Xia, hobgoblins have successfully conquered the entire nation of Kaoling, and this cruel people's star is on the rise.^[20] A second hobgoblin nation is rumored to lie in the Darklands of Nar-Voth beneath Kaoling and Shaguang, ruled from the underground city of Rakh Lo.^[21] A few outcast hobgoblin tribes eke out a living in the Savage Peaks of Zi Ha^[22] and some twisted oni-worshiping hobgoblins inhabit the Forest of Spirits.^[23]

Ftb Witchery How To Trade With Hobgoblins

Hobgoblins are not as common in Garund as they are in Avistan or Tian Xia, though a small population exists in the Bandu Hills of Sargava.^[24]

References

Paizo published a major section about hobgoblins in Monster Codex.

For additional resources, see the Meta page.

1. ↑ ^1.01.1Jeremy Walker. (2008). Hobgoblin. Classic Monsters Revisited, p. 22. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-079-7
2. ↑ ^2.02.1Jeremy Walker. (2008). Hobgoblin. Classic Monsters Revisited, p. 23. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-079-7
3. ↑ ^3.03.13.23.3Jason Bulmahn. (2009). Pathfinder RPG Bestiary (First Edition), p. 175. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-183-1
4. ↑ ^{4.04.14.24.34.4}Jeremy Walker. (2008). Hobgoblin. Classic Monsters Revisited, p. 24. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-079-7
5. ↑Crystal Frasier. (March 29, 2017). On Hobgoblins and Hairpieces, Paizo Blog.
6. ↑ ^6.06.1Jeremy Walker. (2008). Hobgoblin. Classic Monsters Revisited, p. 25. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-079-7
7. ↑Steve Kenson, Rob McCreary, Richard Pett, et al. (2010). Orcs of Golarion, p. 9. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-256-2
8. ↑Patrick Renie, Steve Russell, and Mike Welham. (2011). Bestiary. Forest of Spirits, p. 90-1. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-380-4
9. ↑James Jacobs. (Oct 21, 2012). '>>Ask *James Jacobs* ALL your Questions Here!<<', Paizo Messageboard.
10. ↑James Jacobs, Dave Gross, Rob McCreary. (2011). Dragon Empires Gazetteer, p. 28. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-379-8
11. ↑Jeremy Walker. (2008). Hobgoblin. Classic Monsters Revisited, p. 26. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-079-7
12. ↑Sean K Reynolds. (2008). Gods and Magic, p. 62. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-139-8
13. ↑James Jacobs, Dave Gross, Rob McCreary. (2011). Dragon Empires Gazetteer, p. 17. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-379-8
14. ↑Anthony Pryor. (2011). Red Redoubt of Karamoss. Dungeons of Golarion, p. 45. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-304-0
15. ↑Mike McArtor. (2008). Guide to Darkmoon Vale, p. 43. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-100-8
16. ↑James Jacobset al. (2011). The Inner Sea World Guide, p. 11. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-269-2
17. ↑James Jacobset al. (2011). The Inner Sea World Guide, p. 45. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-269-2
18. ↑Mike McArtor. (2008). Guide to Darkmoon Vale, p. 23. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-100-8
19. ↑James Jacobset al. (2011). The Inner Sea World Guide, p. 123. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-269-2
20. ↑James Jacobs, Dave Gross, Rob McCreary. (2011). Dragon Empires Gazetteer, p. 8. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-379-8
21. ↑James Jacobs, Dave Gross, Rob McCreary. (2011). Dragon Empires Gazetteer, p. 21. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-379-8
22. ↑James Jacobs, Dave Gross, Rob McCreary. (2011). Dragon Empires Gazetteer, p. 45. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-379-8
23. ↑Richard Pett. (2011). Forest of Spirits. Forest of Spirits, p. 7. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-380-4
24. ↑JD Wiker. (2010). Sargava, The Lost Colony, p. 33. Paizo Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-60125-255-5

Races of Golarion Core races Uncommon races Caligni (dark folk) Hobgoblin Planar scions Monstrous races See also: Category:Races