Half-Hobgoblin

This page is needs images. Help plz.

The hobgoblin and the orc have a rather conflicted relationship, with many asking "just what the fuck is the difference supposed to be, anyway?" Since at least 3rd edition, the general focus has been on hobgoblins being Lawful Evil and orcs being Chaotic Evil: both are conquerors, but whereas orcs will raze everything and just muck around in the resultant squalor, the hobgoblins are out to build empires. They'll crush you on the battlefield and demand you submit to them, but then, so long as you pay your taxes and don't rebel, they'll let you live a pretty normal life. Heck, they might even end up making things run better, since a good empire-builder understands the importance of things like decent roads, crackdowns on corruption, shit getting done when it needs to get done, etc...

So, with this in mind, you might wonder why half-hobgoblins aren't a thing. Mostly, it's because orcs get all the limelight. But, not always... in some settings, hobgoblins do get to strut their stuff more freely. Dragonlance did it first, although hobgob/human crossbreeding there just results in a cosmetically different Half-Goblin. But the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting... that's another story.

In fact, Tellene is home to two different species of half-hobgoblin. Sil-kargs are the obligatory human hybrid, whilst Uk-Kargs, introduced in the splatbook Strength & Honor: The Mighty Hobgoblins of Tellene, are hybrids of hobgoblin and orc. Further complicating the matter is that there are five distinct subspecies of hobgoblin to be found on Tellene, and this influences their hybrid spawn as well.

Sil-kargs

Sil-kargs are found alongside all five hobgoblin subraces, but are most prominent amonst the Krangi of Norga-Krangrel and the Kors, who have assimilated into the Kalamaran Empire.

Sil-kargs can result from the crossing of a human and a hobgoblin, the mating of two sil-kargs, or the crossbreeding of a sil-karg with either of its parent races. When sil-kargs of different hobgoblin stock interbreed, their children have a 50-50 chance of taking after either one of their parents (so a Krangi sil-karg and a Kargi sil-karg would produce offspring that are functionally "pure" of either strain). As a result, sil-karg appearances can vary widely, from those which could pass as either a pure hobogoblin or even a pure human to more obviously hybridized stock. Unlike true hobgoblins, regardless of the species of their mother, sil-kargs are born either singularly or as twins, rather than in the traditional hobgob litters.

As a general rule of thumb, sil-kargs are born of violence, conceived when a male hobgoblin violates a human woman, although the circumstances do vary depending on the precise tribe. Like half-orcs, they don't really fit in as a general rule; hobgoblins believe them to be too inherently chaotic and dishonorable to trust, whilst humans tend to see them as products of evil or as conquer-craving monsters. This makes the typical sil-karg desperate to fit in, often struggling to find some way of figuring out who they are. Those who try to dwell amongst hobgoblins tend to become social martyrs, driven to any lengths to prove they can be as honor-bound as their progenitors. Those who dwell in human lands, conversely, tend to embrace their chaotic individuality, constantly trying new things and experimenting in order to discover themselves.

Amongst the Krangi, whilst sil-kargs are rarely conceived voluntarily, there are no official or unofficial prejudces against them in the society as a whole. A sil-karg can rise quite high if they are strong, cunning and honorable enough, and in fact they tend to be fairly comfortably off; even those sil-kargs who never leave the lower classes still tend to become wealthy merchants. This is partially because sil-kargs have no qualms about abandoning hobgoblin society to go looking for something better, however.

Kargi hobgoblins, having the most brutally utilitarian view of sex and a society that regards females as only fit for breeding, naturally tend to conceive sil-kargs through violence. That said, a minority of Kargi-born sil-kargs are born to female hobgoblins choosing to mate with human men, although the circumstances that lead to such conceptions are undetailed. The Kargi are more racist than their Krangi rivals, so sil-kargs face official prejudice and more limited opportunities to gain power in Kargi society, which leads to many fleeing for human civilization instead.

Kors hobgoblins, due to their relative friendliness with the Kalamaran human race, have the largest population of hobgoblin-mothered and/or voluntarily conceived sil-kargs in the world. That said, there is small majority of cases where a Kors half-hob is conceived to a male hobgob, either voluntarily or by rape. Sil-kargs of this subrace are known for being naturally quite hairy, regardless of how human they may look. The Kors as a whole welcome their halfbreed children into the family, and in fact often place them in prominent positions.

The desert-dwelling Dazlaks are extremely racist about their sil-karg offspring; conceived only because the Dazlak cultural drive for males to have as many children as possible trumps their religion-fueled disgust for all other races (including the other hobgoblin species!), any Dazlak sil-karg who is deemed to have features that are "too human" is killed at birth. The survivors are then placed into the same brutal education system as their pureblooded siblings, but with the added caveat that if they are ever discovered to be of mixed heritage, they'll be executed on the spot. The few Dazlak sil-kargs who survive to adulthood are exceptionally skilled and sharp-witted, and invariably rise to prominence in the ranks of the military.

As the militarily weakest and culturally most primitive of the hobgoblin races, Rankki produce very few sil-karg offspring. Furthermore, because Rankki cultural values emphasize the importance of paternal lineage, the Rankki tend to kill any sil-kargs born of hobgoblin mothers. But, despite this, sil-kargs are actually regarded relatively highly by this xenophobic race due to their natural resourcefulness and intelligence compared to both pureblooded hobgoblins and to uk-karg. As a result, Rankki sil-kargs are the only non-hobgoblins who can hope to attain positions of importance in the tribe.

A sil-karg's ability score modifiers depend on its precise hobgoblin ancestry: those of Krangi descent gain +2 Dexterity whilst suffering -2 Wisdom and -2 Charisma, whilst those of Kargi, Kors, Dazlak or Rankki heritage gain +2 Constitution and suffer -2 Intelligence.

Medium size

Base speed 30 feet

Darkvision 60 feet

Hobgoblin Blood: Treat as Hobgoblin for purposes of feats, spells, magic items, etc that check ancestry

+1 racial bonus to Fortitude saves

Favored Class: Fighter

Uk-Kargs

The orc-blooded uk-karg is much less common than its human-blooded counterpart, being primarily associated with the Krangi hobgoblins. They inherit both the strength of their orcish forebears and the grace of their hobgoblin ancestors, but are inherently dull-witted, simple-minded and unambitious, which makes them excellent servants and workers, but not very suited for much beyond that.

Amongst the Krangi, uk-kargs suffer considerably less prejudice than sil-kargs. A significant portion of uk-kargs are conceived voluntarily, as a result of hobgoblins taking orc females as their wives, and they are as entitled to climb the meritocratic caste system as any pureblooded hobgoblin... it's just that being so dumb means that they largely serve as laborers, farmers or helots, and the exceptionally bright ones tend to stagnate as modestly successful military or clergy figures.

In contrast, uk-kargs are very rare amongs the Kargi and Kors subraces, as these hobgoblin strains have relatively litle interactions with orcs. It is unknown how these two subraces regard uk-kargs.

There are no known Dazlak uk-karg, as the Dazlak's pride in racial purity refuses to stomach the presence of orc blood in their ranks and the brutal childrearing education quickly weeds out the dull-witted and unambitious.

Only amongst the Rankki are uk-kargs found with any prominence, and in fact they are actually more common than Rankki sil-kargs, due to the greater overlap between Rankki territory and orc territory. Uk-kargs born to hobgoblin females raped by orc raiders are usually killed at birth, but are sometimes spared. Those born to female orc slaves are either acknowledged by their father as one of his children and thus raised in the household (where their pureblood siblings abuse them so badly that most die at a young age), or are disavowed and so live their lives as one of the Helot (slave) caste.

+2 Strength, +2 Dexteritry, -2 Intelligence, -4 Wisdom, -2 Charisma

Medium Size

Base speed 30 feet

Darkvision 60 feet

+1 racial bonus to Listen and Spot checks.

Hobgoblin Blood: An uk-karg counts as a Hobgoblin for special abilities, magic item usage, and other effects that key off of ancestry.

Orc Blood: An uk-karg counts as an Orc for special abilities, magic item usage, and other effects that key off of ancestry.

Favored Class: Fighter