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I've always had a thing for Kobolds (get yer mind outta the gutter!). they're these adorable little lizard-men who are "primitive" and highly skittish. In my systems, I have a similar species called Cobalts, but that's something for another post.
Kobolds in d20 are now geniuses at creating traps and tend to be sorcerors. Really bizarre for the species, but then d20 has a habit of doing things backwards. This is an account of what happens when an inept cat burglar rescues a level 15 kobold sorceror...
The thief, Vikuka, had just rescued a Kobold and returned its little snake familiar when he discovered a sack in the corner containing the Kobold's posessions. He dumps it out, takes a few items, and walks away, leaving the poor NPC alone with the corpses of his tormenters.
Next door, Vikuka discovers a room containing ten augmented greater basilisks. He realises he's in trouble when they start doing damage, so after slicing into one of them, he activates his cloak of etherialness and disappears. The creatures stand like lumps wondering what happened to him (intelligence of 3 is fun ^_^). He then reappears, attacks, and disappears again.
At one point, he feels something cold going through his etherial body and turns to see the brave little kobold. He reappears, barks a greeting which probably sounded something like "bra paste" to the Kobold, attacks, and goes etherial again, leaving the poor Kobold the only visible target. They nearly kill him after the first few attacks, so he falls over backwards and plays dead (his has a +9 on bluff, they have no bonus for sense motive... they buy it).
The thief continues his habit of appearing and disappearing, casting confusion (via scroll) on the basilisks. Now, five are able to fight, and five have a habit of babbling incoherently, hiding in the corner (they only know hte caster was last near the doorway, so they're afraid to leave the room), and attacking each other. The kobold sits up, casts a spell, and promptly plays dead again. Oddly enough, only one basilisk doesn't buy it (natural 20), but he's busy doing nothing.
This actually continues for some time. The basilisks are doubtlessly thinking "Look! The big one! OW! He's gona again. Waitwait! The corpse came back to li...OW! Oh... He's dead again. The Big.. OW! He's gone. The corpse... OWOW! He's dead again..." At one point, the Kobold cast etherial jaunt and vanished as well, only to come back healthier. It was even worse when the corpse started getting up, running over to a basilisk, draining its life, and dying healthier looking than it was last time it was dead. ^_^
The final point of interest in the battle was when Vikuka attempted to cast a sonic attack. HE appeared, told the Kobold to cover its ears, and then totally failed to cast the spell. Thus, the corpse had covered its ears, yet remained dead. Oddly enough, the basilisks (for the most part) never suspected he wasn't really dead.
Not only was this one of the most enjoyable (but lengthy) battles I've been in for a long time, but it's gotten me obsessed with the idea of starting a monster-only campaign so I can play a kobold and a goblin (and hopefully others will play similar neglected races, such as the bugbear or half-orc). Meantime, however, all you people who need a good race to play, now you know a secret to effectively playing one of the coolest neglected races out there! ^_-
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