Per special request by a reader, this week we’ll be examining how to roleplay goblins. Goblins are one of my favorite races, and one of my favorite words. Both smarmy and evil, comical and cruel, goblins make fantastic enemies and many have met their end at the point of some adventurer’s blade.
But what if you wanted to play as a goblin? Let’s explore how you can roleplay a goblin in all their gobby-gobbiness.
Assuming your DM approves the choice of playing a goblin, it’s up to you to decide how your goblin got mixed up with a bunch of adventurers instead of sticking with their tribe. While you could play the opposite of a traditional goblin, and be a goblin with a heart of gold, it may be more interesting to play into the goblin-ness.
How Would You Build The Green Goblin?
One way you can rationalize why your character would choose to save a town from a red dragon, or rescue an imperiled child, or do anything remotely self-sacrificing and heroic is to reframe that decision. Instead of seeing it as heroic, selfless, or whatever other positive attributes, play with a reason why they are on this adventure that is self-centered.
Perhaps your goblin, or any evil character, is with this group and helping achieve the mission because doing so would be to their ultimate advantage. By defeating the red dragon, you open the path to dominate the townsfolk, by rescuing the child you gain fame and fortune and so on.
You can be evil without necessarily twirling your mustache and killing randos in each town, just by playing with non-good motivations. You can do things like demand cash upfront, or cheat people. You could try to control people by demanding service in exchange for your heroic efforts.
Goblin (dungeons And Dragons)
Sure, cheat them out of some money by playing with a stacked deck while at the inn, maybe ask them for money in exchange for helping them up a cliff.
Use your backstory hooks and your reason to adventure to give your character a reason to be with the party, to care about them. Even evil characters need to fulfill basic social needs. The party could be the thing you cheat the world for.
And if you do want to betray the party, clue in your DM so it can be a memorable and exciting moment.
Goblin, 2nd Variant (5e Race Variant)
A goblin’s behavior is centered around who they can dominate and who dominates them. Their lives are constantly in a state of flux where they lie in the power structures of their tribe.
Whenever they can, they dominate whomever they can and delight in treating their slaves with the worst treatment they can. This need to dominate can manifest for your character as a need to always get the best reward possible.
They could even think that they dominate their party and the different members are their slaves. The other members might humor the goblin that travels with them, but this could also be a good place for interesting roleplay conflict.
Goblin (5e Race Variant)
As a side note, the fact that rats and wolves are the goblin equivalents of dogs and horses is my favorite goblin fact. A goblin breeder of prized hunting rats is a character I want to see in a game.
Goblins are easily dominated by those who are “bigger, smarter, more organized, more ferocious, or more magical”. Maybe this informs your goblin’s reason for adventuring.
Having a solid reason for your goblin to adventure can help give a spine to your character throughout the game. It is the thing that can help link each decision they make along the journey.
Dungeons & Dragons: Why I Keep Going Goblin — Meeple Mountain
Goblin society is highly stratified with the most powerful at the top and the weakest at the bottom. Consider where in the tribe your goblin lived and what role they played?
Where they a deposed boss of a tribe, bent on gaining back their position of dominance? Maybe they were a scout or hunter with designs on growing their powerbase. Or, maybe they were a lowly gatherer or pariah who wants to prove that they are better than their place in the tribe.
Magic using goblins are rare and are often elevated to the upper class of goblin society. This could inform your character by giving them the mindset that they are superior to every creature they meet, even an ancient dragon. This bravery from pride is an interesting way to play a goblin and be the root characteristic of a lot of interesting roleplay.
Half Goblin: The Crafty Counterpart To The Half Orc
Status is everything to goblins. A fun aspect of role-playing your goblin is how do they display that status. Assuming your goblin doesn’t fully disguise themselves everywhere they go, most goblins will carry or wear some sort of status symbol.
Maybe your goblin wears a chain of ears from the creatures they’ve slaughtered, and insists the rest of the party does too.
These status symbols aren’t just flashy ways to show off, but they represent and display the goblin’s value to the world. It encompasses the goblin’s whole world view in a way. They are defined by their place in the world and their constant jockeying to the top.
Play Your Next 5e D&d Game As A Goblin Bomber
Kevin Victor Rae has been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 15 years. His very first character was an elf ranger named Aust who was driven insane by a bad die roll. In addition to DM'ing, Kevin is a queer writer and artist with a particular love for creating and consuming queer science fiction and fantasy. Catch him on Instagram and Twitter @kv_rae. This includes Goblins which always held a special place in my heart. I’ve played Goblin PCs in almost every edition of D&D and I look forward to playing my first 5e Goblin in just a few days. So what kind of Goblin should I build?
Character is to come up with a personality or story and then find a class and background that fits. We’re going to be doing a little more “mechanics tweaking” here to explore the synergies of Goblins in 5e, but don’t let that limit you to make characters in this “min-maxy” fashion. For this character, I’m starting at 6th level and using only
Our Goblin PC-to-be starts with +2 dexterity and +1 constitution, which is a good base for a survivable character. Goblins are small-sized creatures, so that’ll have some effect on our build. They also have two defining traits: “Nimble Escape, ” which allows a hide or disengage bonus action every round, and “Fury of the Small, ” which adds extra damage against larger creatures.
Oc] Here's A Goblin Barbarian I Made For Fun
Rogue is a good class option, but “Nimble Escape” makes the Rogue’s “Cunning Action” redundant, as both abilities do the same thing. Monks have a similar problem. These aren’t terrible flaws, but it’s best to get the most out of our new Goblin, so let’s find a class where “Nimble Escape” can shine.
Fighters and Barbarians could use “Nimble Escape” well, but often have better to do with their bonus actions. Also both classes couldn’t use heavy weapons due to the Goblin’s small size. That doesn’t mean Fighters and Barbarians aren’t good choices for smaller races, I know a lot of well made Gnome Barbarians, for example. That said, we should pass on these classes to maximize our potential.
Paladins and Rangers round out the martial class options and there’s more synergy here. Paladins favor a more tanky build which doesn’t really fit a Goblin’s nimble play style. Rangers, however… now we have something. Rangers are mobile and probably wouldn’t mind disengaging to reposition. The “Beast Master” subclass also plays into Goblin lore if you add a wolf or rat companion. Let’s put a pin in this one and check in with the magic using classes.
Playable Goblins! A Mighty Need For Mighty Development Booyagh!
Bards and Clerics both make fine choices for a Goblin PC, but feel a little on the nose for the story I’m trying to tell of a rare good-aligned Goblin who’s righting the wrongs of his people. Something about that combo seems too “done.” A Goblin Bard could be in my future, but not today. Moving on.
In a Wizard class, we could build a spell-slinger while leaning on “Nimble Escape” and a Wizard’s high dexterity to keep you out of danger. However, the Wizard’s studied and scholarly persona doesn’t really mix with Goblin culture. For now lets move past this, but I’d like to explore combining the Goblin with more innate magic users.
Sorcerers and Warlocks are both good options since the Goblin’s mobility to get in and out of combat really helps these sorts of classes. According to
Character Portrait Of A Wild
, the Goblin word for a wild magic sorcerer is “Booyahg Booyahg Booyahg.” I don’t think I can stomach that for a whole game, so Warlock is where I’ll turn my attention. Considering the built-in combat skills, I could easily turn my Goblin into a Bladelock, a close combat Warlock with “Pact of the Blade.” Sorry, Wizard class, I’m sold on Warlock.
The cool thing is that either Ranger or Warlock builds can benefit from the same basic stats. Using a point buy system; I can lean into dexterity, constitution, and charisma. Charisma will be a useful attribute for my Warlock and his spells, but it gives Rangers
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