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Goblin

Goblins have a reputation as simple creatures who love songs, fire, and eating disgusting things and who hate reading, dogs, and horses—and there are a great many for whom this description fits perfectly. However, great changes have come to goblinkind, and more and more goblins resist conformity to these stereotypes. Even among goblins that are more worldly, many still exemplify their old ways in some small manner, just to a more sensible degree. Some goblins remain deeply fascinated with fire or fearlessly devour a meal that might turn others’ stomachs. Others are endless tinkerers and view their companions’ trash as the components of gadgets yet to be made.

Though goblins’ culture has splintered radically, their reputation has changed little. As such, goblins who travel to larger cities are frequently subjected to derision, and many work twice as hard at proving their worth.

If you want a character who is eccentric, enthusiastic, and fun-loving, you should play a goblin.

Hit Points 6

Size Small

Speed 25 feet

Ability Boosts Dexterity, Charisma, Free

Ability Flaw Wisdom

Languages Common, Goblin, and additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it’s positive). Choose from Draconic, Dwarven, Gnoll, Gnomish, Halfling, Orcish, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).

Traits Goblin Humanoid

Darkvision You can see in darkness and dim light just as well as you can see in bright light, though your vision in darkness is in black and white.

You might…

  • Strive to prove that you have a place among other civilized peoples, perhaps even to yourself.
  • Fight tooth and nail—sometimes literally—to protect yourself and your friends from danger.
  • Lighten the heavy emotional burdens others carry (and amuse yourself) with antics and pranks.

Others probably…

  • Work to ensure you don’t accidentally (or intentionally) set too many things on fire.
  • Assume you can’t—or won’t—read.
  • Wonder how you survive given your ancestry’s typical gastronomic choices, reckless behavior, and love of fire.

Physical Description

Goblins are stumpy humanoids with large bodies, scrawny limbs, and massively oversized heads with large ears and beady red eyes. Their skin ranges from green to gray to blue, and they often bear scars, boils, and rashes.

Goblins average 3 feet tall. Most are bald, with little or no body hair. Their jagged teeth fall out and regrow constantly, and their fast metabolism means they eat constantly and nap frequently. Mutations are also more common among goblins than other peoples, and goblins usually view particularly salient mutations as a sign of power or fortune.

Goblins reach adolescence by the age of 3 and adulthood 4 or 5 years later. Goblins can live 50 years or more, but without anyone to protect them from each other or themselves, few live past 20 years of age.

Society

Goblins tend to flock to strong leaders, forming small tribes. These tribes rarely number more than a hundred, though the larger a tribe is, the more diligent the leader must be to keep order—a notoriously difficult task. As new threats arise, many tribal elders have put aside their reckless ways in the hope of forging alliances that offer their people a greater chance at survival. Play and creativity matter more to goblins than productivity or study, and their encampments erupt with songs and laughter.

The convoluted histories other people cling to don’t interest goblins. These small folk live in the moment, and they prefer tall tales over factual records. The wars of a few decades ago might as well be from the ancient past. Misunderstood by other people, goblins are happy how they are. Goblin virtues are about being present, creative, and honest. They strive to lead fulfilled lives, rather than worrying about how their journeys will end. To tell stories, not nitpick the facts. To be small, but dream big.

Goblins bond closely with their allies, fiercely protecting those companions who have protected them or offered a sympathetic ear. Goblins tend to assume for their own protection that members of taller ancestries, which goblins often refer to colloquially as “longshanks,” won’t treat them kindly. Learning to trust longshanks is difficult for a goblin, and it’s been only in recent years that such a partnership has even been an option. However, their attitude as a people is changing rapidly, and their short lifespans and poor memories help them adapt quickly.

Alignment and Religion

Even well-intentioned goblins have trouble following the rules, meaning they’re rarely lawful. Most goblin adventurers are chaotic neutral or chaotic good.

Organized worship confounds goblins, and most of them would rather pick their own deities, choosing powerful monsters, natural wonders, or anything else they find fascinating. To a goblin, anything can be a god if you want it to. Goblins who spend time around people of other ancestries might adopt some of their beliefs, though.

Names

Goblins keep their names simple. A good name should be easy to pronounce, short enough to shout without getting winded, and taste good to say. The namer often picks a word that rhymes with something they like so that writing songs is easier.

Since there aren’t any real traditions regarding naming in goblin culture, children often name themselves once they’re old enough to do something resembling talking.

Sample Names

Ak, Bokker, Frum, Guzmuk, Krobby, Loohi, Mazmord, Neeka, Omgot, Ranzak, Rickle, Tup, Wakla, Yonk, Zibini

Heritages

Goblins, especially those of different tribes, have all sorts of physiological differences, which they often discover only through hazardous “experiments.” Choose one of the following goblin heritages at 1st level.

Charhide Goblin

Your ancestors have always had a connection to fire and a thicker skin, which allows you to resist burning. You gain fire resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1).

You can also recover from being on fire more easily. Your flat check to remove persistent fire damage is DC 10 instead of DC 15, which is reduced to DC 5 if another creature uses a particularly appropriate action to help.

Forest Goblins

Hailing from coniferous woodlands, forest goblins tend to be shorter and slimmer than their kin, not quite reaching 3 feet in height and rarely weighing more than 35 pounds. Forest goblins typically have skin ranging in hue from dark green to a sickly green-tinged brown reminiscent of a spoiled avocado. While all goblins have a natural tendency toward pyromania, forest goblins are often far more knowledgeable on the subject than almost any other species. Since forest goblins traditionally produce far fewer primal or divine spellcasters than other goblin ethnicities, they have developed a deep tradition of fire-management practices, taught through song and practical application. There is even evidence to suggest that woodlands inhabited by forest goblins are less prone to disastrous wildfires thanks to the goblins regularly burning away dead wood and dry brush that might otherwise act as fuel for hungry flames.

Forest goblins are often reclusive and avoid contact with members of other ancestries except when pilfering or scavenging from camps and caravans that pass near their territory, but some exceptions do exist.

Most forest goblins have the treedweller goblin heritage, though their frequent exposure to flame means some forest goblins favor the charhide goblin heritage. Due to their extensive practice of teaching songs, forest goblins also frequently take the Goblin Song ancestry feat.

Frost Goblins

The Frost goblins have taken many casualties since initial contact, but the resilient creatures seem to replenish their ranks as quickly as they are diminished. Frost goblins sent on scouting and reconnaissance missions frequently return with more goblins than left on the original missions, despite consistently reporting losses due to monsters, traps, environmental hazards, and accidental wand or alchemical item discharges. Whether that means the new goblin recruits are scattered members of the tribe discovered on the expedition or unrelated frost goblins who simply followed their kin back to the lodge is currently unclear.

Frost goblins are well adapted to surviving in frigid environments. Frost goblins’ skin is adapted to help them blend in and survive in arctic environments, ranging in color from a light ice-blue to the dark blue-gray of stormy northern oceans. While most goblins are almost universally hairless, frost goblins occasionally sport blue fur similar in texture and density to that of their bugbear cousins.

Frost goblins almost always have the snow goblin heritage, and they frequently take the Goblin Scuttle ancestry feat due to their frenzied energy and surprisingly coordinated teamwork.

Irongut Goblin

You can subsist on food that most folks would consider spoiled. You can keep yourself fed with poor meals in a settlement as long as garbage is readily available, without using the Subsist downtime activity. You can eat and drink things when you are sickened.

You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to saving throws against afflictions, against gaining the sickened condition, and to remove the sickened condition. When you roll a success on a Fortitude save affected by this bonus, you get a critical success instead. All these benefits apply only when the affliction or condition resulted from something you ingested.

Monkey Goblins

These goblins are taller and heavier than other goblins, standing a bit over 3-1/2 feet tall and weighing between 50 and 60 pounds. Their skin spans the range from tawny bronze to dark blue, and gold eyes are more common than the red eyes of their kin. Their distinctive tails give them a significant advantage in the dense jungles they hail from.

While monkey goblins have some of the most obvious physical differences compared to their tailless cousins, their love of fire is just as strong and just as likely to end in conflagration or disaster. As monkey goblins have historically made their dwellings in treetop abodes, ferocious canopy fires and high mortality rates have kept the curious and capable beings from spreading into the wider world in any significant numbers. Despite the challenges monkey goblins face in just surviving their own antics, there are some monkey goblins who pursue lives of adventure, whether as valued members of a ship’s crew (some of whom actively seek out monkey goblins to crew the rigging and crow’s nest on their ship, so long as they can keep the goblins from accidentally setting the sails on fire) or as members of small teams of adventurers or treasure-seekers.

Monkey goblins almost always have the tailed goblin heritage.

Monkey goblins who travel on pirate or merchant ships often take the Goblin Scuttle ancestry feat, since they’re accustomed to the frantic scrambling of shipboard combat.

Rasp Goblins

Rasp goblins are exceptionally populous and can quickly spread to any area that is vaguely capable of sustaining life. Rasp goblins stand just over 3 feet tall and weigh roughly 35 pounds. While many Rasp goblins are some shade of green (typically lighter and sicklier shades than their forest goblin cousins), some Rasp goblins have rarer skin colors, such as gray or purple.

Encounters with particularly aggressive and malevolent goblin communities mean that pioneer towns often view goblins as little more than dangerous pests, and hire guards and adventurers to drive off any nearby goblins out of a sense of public safety. As a result, though their population numbers remain somewhat stable. Their aversion to literacy and lack of elders has lead to many Rasp goblins living and dying in a state of perpetual childhood, which— perhaps due to the frequent conflicts between Rasp goblin tribes and other peoples—has led to the spread of a number of unfortunate stereotypes not only about Rasp goblins, but about all goblins, such as the assertion that all goblins are bloodthirsty raiders, murderers, and demon worshipers. By contrast, however, those Rasp goblins who’ve had the opportunity to integrate with other cultures have begun to paint a very different and improved picture of their people. Rasp goblins can have almost any heritage, though they tend to most commonly exhibit the charhide goblin and razortooth goblin heritages.

Razortooth Goblin

Your family’s teeth are formidable weapons. You gain a jaws unarmed attack that deals 1d6 piercing damage.

Your jaws are in the brawling group and have the finesse and unarmed traits.

Snow Goblin

You are acclimated to living in frigid lands and have skin ranging from sky blue to navy in color, as well as blue fur. You gain cold resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1). You treat environmental cold effects as if they were one step less extreme (incredible cold becomes extreme, extreme cold becomes severe, and so on).

Tailed Goblin

Source PLOCG

You have a powerful tail, likely because you descend from a community of monkey goblins. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Athletics checks to Climb, you gain Combat Climber as a bonus feat, and you reduce the number of free hands required to Climb or Trip by one.

Treedweller Goblin

Source PLOCG

You have adapted particularly well to living in forested environments. As long as you are in a forest or jungle, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to Stealth checks to Hide and Sneak, Survival checks to Subsist, and your Survival DC to Cover Tracks.

Unbreakable Goblin

You’re able to bounce back from injuries easily due to an exceptionally thick skull, cartilaginous bones, or some other mixed blessing. You gain 10 Hit Points from your ancestry instead of 6. When you fall, reduce the falling damage you take as though you had fallen half the distance.

Ancestry Feats

At 1st level, you gain one ancestry feat, and you gain an additional ancestry feat every 4 levels thereafter (at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level). As a goblin, you can select from the following ancestry feats.

1st Level

5th Level

9th Level

13th Level

17th Level

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Core Rulebook (Second Edition) © 2019, Paizo Inc.; Designers: Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, and Mark Seifter.

Pathfinder Lost Omens Character Guide (Second Edition) © 2019, Paizo Inc.; Authors: John Compton, Sasha Lindley Hall, Amanda Hamon, Mike Kimmel, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Matt Morris, Patchen Mortimer, Andrew Mullen, Mikhail Rekun, Micheal Sayre, Owen K.C. Stephens, Isabelle Thorne, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.

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