Hobgoblin
Tougher than Goblins, smarter than Bugbears, they're the Lawful Evil to Goblin's Neutral and Bugbear's Chaotic. Usually considered militaristic and malevolent, but often overlooked as cannon fodder like their smaller Goblin cousins, Hobgoblins can prove to be interesting and formidable enemies to a group of player characters, and have the capacity to be pretty badass if you want them to be. Also have a love of slavery (though that’s not exactly unique). Physically, Hobgoblins are generally portrayed as being very large and strong, usually at least as tall as a human. They range from rust to amber in color and sometimes have blueish purple noses or ears. Their ears tend to be overlarge and they have either dog-like or extremely long noses. They also are the CEO of sex.
Hobgoblins vs Orcs[edit | edit source]
If you google something like "Dungeons and Dragons Hobgoblin", you'll get a lot of results where people are asking what the real difference is between Hobgoblins and Orcs. Aren't they just the same thing with a different name and drawn slightly differently and carrying different weapons? Well, not exactly.
The short but not especially helpful answer is, to quote the Daily Bestiary blog: "Orcs may have hordes, but Hobgoblins have armies."
The longer and more expositional answer is that way back at the dawn of Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax wanted to have a distinct monster with distinct stats at every early Challenge Rating (1-7). This distinction has been grandfathered in all the way down to Pathfinder and 5th Edition, though the exact differences in stats has changed over the years, and it's usually combined with the flavor portrayal - Orcs being the tribal savages, Hobgoblins being the well-organized and relentless force. Rule Zero, of course, means you can choose to use both creatures, only one, or neither, as you feel like. If your campaign is likely to travel long distances and visit vastly different regions, it can be useful to have two creatures that fill a similar niche and yet are distinct in certain ways from each other. In addition, publishers sometimes give Hobgoblins the more exotic weapons, armor, and tactics, with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons portraying hobgoblins with an almost "oriental" cast (samurai armor for the 1e version, Mongolian clothes for the 2e), which is something that Pathfinder preserved.
For those of you who follow Tolkien, the traits of the Lord of the Rings Orcs were actually split between Dungeons and Dragons' Orcs and Hobgoblins. D&D Orcs are reminiscent of the cave-dwelling ambushers Bilbo met in the Misty Mountains or the hordes that Sauron used to attack Gondor, while D&D Hobgoblins are more like Saruman's Uruk-hai.
Perhaps to try and reinforce the split, unlike orcs, hobgoblins are usually not suggested to be capable of interbreeding with other races... at least, not since thouls stopped being a thing. Then the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting for 3rd edition decided to just say "fuck it" to that noise, introducing the Sil-karg, or Half-Hobgoblin, to go alongside the Half-Orc.
PC Stats[edit | edit source]
As it turns out, that natural lawfulness means that when you get down to it, hobgoblins are a pretty decent option for monster adventurers. After all, if they're not as murderously self-interested as standard Chaotic Evil monsters, then logically they can find common cause to adventure with humanoids for whatever reasons.
In fact, Hobgoblins have actually been playable in literally every single edition of D&D, from Basic through to 5th.
BECMI[edit | edit source]
Basic D&D presented Hobgoblins as a PC race in the 10th of the Known World Gazetteers, which makes sense if you're aware that Gazetteer #10 was "The Orcs of Thar". Hobgoblins received the following traits:
AD&D[edit | edit source]
In AD&D, hobgoblins were naturally added in the Complete Book of Humanoids, along with most other savage humanoids like orcs, goblins, gnolls and ogres.
3rd Edition[edit | edit source]
Hobgoblin PC stats were actually all over the place in 3rd edition! First appearing in the Monster Manual as an NPC, they got their first full PC stat block in Forgotten Realms: Races of Faerun, and were reprinted a few times after that, remaining identical in every printing:
You may wonder just why it is that they get a +1 LA rating? Well, the truth is it's because WotC dramatically undervalued class levels and overvalued ability score bonuses.
In Eberron Hobgoblins were one of the great empires of the past and have a sovereign, recognized nation plus a history of mercenary work. While not exactly respected in most of Eberron, including one in an adventuring party is perfectly plausible.
Kingdoms of Kalamar[edit | edit source]
Hobgoblins got a major promotion as one of the core playable races in Kingdoms of Kalamar. Unfortunately, as KoK was written for 3.0 by a bunch of hacks who somehow thought that 3e would take all the "warriors dominate at low levels" elements of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and turn this into flat-out Fighter supremacy instead of doubling down on Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards, their stats are generally regarded as being really crap.
The Tellene Hobgoblin first appeared as PC option in the KoK Player's Guide, where they were largely identical to the 3.0 hobgoblin... save for the fact they got a new +2 racial bonus to Listen & Spot checks, and that they escaped the +1 Level Adjustment by suffering a -2 penalty to all three mental stats.
Tellene Hobgobs subsequently got their own racial splatbook which offered up five different subraces to play as... are they any better than the original? Well...
- Krangi
- Kargi
- Kors
- Dazlak
- Rankki
Tellene is also home to the Half-Hobgoblin, who is at least competing with the Half-Orc for "crappiest racial stats of 3e".
4th Edition[edit | edit source]
Hobgoblins appeared in 4e's 1st Monster Manual, alongside many other iconic monstrous races. They weren't particularly exciting when they did, but they were functional and certainly not as badly off as in some editions:
4th edition would later present them as a Winning Races article in Dragon Magazine #419. In this version, their ability modifiers were +2 Con and +2 to Cha or Int, they gained the Phalanx Soldier racial trait (+1 to AC if you are wielding a shield and standing adjacent to a shield-wielding ally), and Hobgoblin Resilience was replaced with Hobgoblin Discipline (1/encounter, as a free action, immediately end an ongoing save-ends effect at the start of your turn).
5th Edition[edit | edit source]
Nasty mid-level monsters. Low hitpoints, but good armor for monsters and have a faux-sneak attack that deals a shitload of extra damage when they focus-fire on a single target, which they will get off because your brain-dead party couldn't focus-fire on the squishy-but-deadly guys if their lives literally depended on it, right? Volo's Guide to Monsters added brutal monk/cops that can turn invisible and powerful blaster wizards that get faux-evoker powers and can apply that faux-sneak attack to all of their spells. Even the AoEs.
Added as a playable race in in Volo's Guide to Monsters, along with both the other goblinoids. Mockingly described on /tg/ as being all wizards, since Int bonuses are scarce and getting additional weapons and armor is a lot better for classes that don't already get them, but a Con bonus is welcome in any class.
Post-Tasha's[edit | edit source]
The Folk of the Feywild Unearthed Arcana article, which would later be published in Mordekainen's Monsters of the Multiverse, saw a drastic rewrite for the Hobgoblins, and this one was considerably...lighter compared to the original writeup, turning them more fey-like but also making them less of an auto-take. This also makes Hobgoblins add more uses to the oft-ignored Help action.
Part of this is that they represent the original lore about them being originally Fey who were subjugated into soldiers. This also makes more of an effort to tie in the magic of reciprocity, that is the spirit of giving and receiving.
Eberron[edit | edit source]
Keith Baker later introduced further hobgoblin subraces in Exploring Eberron, mostly for the Dhakaani culture of ancient goblinoids reemerging in secret after locking themselves away from the Age of Dust deep beneath the Earth, Fallout style. They are specifically known as the Dhakaani ghaal’dar (mighty folk), and are the leadership caste of their society. They also have different subraces for different specializations:
3rd Party Settings[edit | edit source]
- World of Farland
On the other hand, if you want a more expected sort of hobgoblin PC race, take a look at the World of Farland, which gives us this statblock: the biggest difference is that Farlandish hobgoblins are literally bred for either of two military castes, and have subraces reflecting this.
Pathfinder[edit | edit source]
On the world of Golarion, hobgoblins are the result of an ancient attempt at fleshcrafting ordinary goblins into bigger, stronger, and smarter forms that could then be used as expendable soldiers to defeat the elves. The elves managed to stop their creators before they could install controls, but not in time to keep them from hating elves instinctively or from seeking to conquer and destroy. Nice going, pointy-ears. Since they hate elves, they hate arcane magic as well, to the point even Sorcerers are unheard of among them. They make up for this with Alchemists, Ja Noi allies, the occasional devil-worshiping shaman/Cleric, and engineers (the kind that makes mundane siege engines and fortifications rather than steampunk).
Golarion hobgoblins are most notable because they're supposed to be completely hairless... but, as Paizo began using them more frequently, hobgoblins with hair became increasingly common in their artwork. Rather than admit that this was just a result of different artists ignoring that lore, Paizo retconned that Golarion hobgobs are hairless... but scalp humanoid foes they defeat and make wigs out of their hair, which they wear as symbols of prowess and honor.
Their stats are unchanged from 3E, except they lose level adjustment and, per Pathfinder's changes to the skill system, their move silently bonus is now a bonus to Stealth. They have options to trade away this bonus for a few things, and one thing to trade their darkvision for, but in the end the only reason to bother with playing one is the way that they coincidentally have the perfect ability scores for a Kineticist.
Warhammer Fantasy[edit | edit source]
The Hobgoblins of Warhammer Fantasy are backstabbing, selfish, and treasonous to the point even normal goblins seem chill compared to them. So much so that they evolved a bony plate in their back to ward off backstabbing. Their culture is vaguely Mongol Horde inspired: riding giant wolves and living in nomadic caravans along the Eastern Steppes where they regularly torment Grand Cathay. Their leader, Hobgobla Khan, was the reason the Cathayan Great Bastion was built. Hobgoblins are loathed by the other Greenskins for siding with their Chaos Dwarf Masters in the Greenskin Slave Rebellion of Zharr-Naggrund, which is why you never see the little buggers beyond the Dark Lands.
Now in Age of Sigmar, the Hobgoblins (renamed Hobgrots) follow the swamp-dwelling sub-faction of the Orruks Warclans called the Kruleboyz, Orcs that are more Mork than Gork in thinking. Hobgrots are bigger than the usual grots (goblins), and even though they do follow the Kruelboyz, they are more of a middle-man in a selfish tripartite symbiosis between the Kruleboyz, themselves and a mysterious clan of Chaos Duardin. They fight using crude sulphuric stick grenades that they pocketed from their stunty overlords. Tribes of Hobgrots are fiercely protective of each other, so most Kruleboyz don't bully them as much as other grots, and they may form small empires in wastelands. Also, they're one of the few species of Humanoid Greenskins (non-Squigs) who aren't actually Green. Their skin in official model paints is depicted as being sallow yellow. This is ironic, due to them no longer looking like racial stereotypes of asians.
Being made into a playable race in Age of Sigmar Roleplay has introduced a more opportunistic angle to the Hobgrots. While just as greedy as any normal goblin, the Hobgrots are more enterprising and especially capable bargainers. They seemingly have a better grasp of commerce, enough so that they have a compulsion to trade up their goods for more valuable treasures.
| Forces of the Chaos Dwarfs |
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World of Warcraft[edit | edit source]
In the strange, forgotten little corner of the Warcraft multiverse known as "World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game", hobgoblins debuted in the Dark Factions splatbook. Appearing as 7ft tall muscle-bound purple-skinned goblins, hobgoblins are the results of experiments in using alchemy to transform regular goblins into super-soldiers. The end-result is a 7ft tall muscle-bound hulk with razor-sharp claws, limited intelligence, and extremely unpredictable temperaments. Oh, and they can also trigger adrenaline surges, which can result in them gaining a turbo-boost in speed in strength, or super-sizing parts of their anatomy for increased potency. And for the icing on the cake, they sweat an extremely corrosive slime, because sure, when you're grappling with the 7ft tall mutant freak with claws the size of daggers, you want them to be covered in noxious goo that can melt the flesh from your bones! The one "upside" to this slime is that's incredibly flammable, so a sweaty hobgoblin will go up like a bonfire covered in kerosene.
Naturally, tinkering with goblin biochemistry leaves hobgoblins with an extremely short lifespan - about three years, max. But hey, if you can't think up a use for a short-lived expendable super-strong monster with the mind of a dim-witted but vicious child, you ain't thinkin' like a goblin!
Gallery[edit | edit source]
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1e -
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2e -
DiTerlizzi art from the 2e Monstrous Manual. -
3e -
A troop of hobgoblins from the Nentir Vale. -
The infamously lion-faced hobgoblin of 5th edition . -
hobs on stilts -
A Hobgoblin Firebrand from the Pathfinder RPG -
An Oriental style Hobgoblin commander, also from Pathfinder -
They're over here.... -
...And they're over there... -
...Those Darn Hobgoblins are everywhere! -
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If anything, Hobgoblins can make some pretty good beer.
Monstergirls?[edit | edit source]
Because hobgoblins are not readily distinguished from goblins in the eyes of most people, the idea of a hobgoblin monstergirl is an uncommon one at best. Perhaps the most believable depiction of a hobgoblin MG would be as a race of goblinoid amazons; curvy female goblinoids who use force to secure what they want, be it land, wealth, or a human boytoy.
For what it's worth, there is one D&D adventure where a sexy female hobgoblin appears; Red Hand of Doom features Wyrmlord Ulwai Stormcaller, a female hobgoblin stormsinger whose rare blue eyes and uncanny good looks have attracted much torment for her throughout her life, as other hobgoblins have accused her of being half-human, or even half-elven. The same description also calls her a masterful liar even though she has no ranks in bluff and her art is pretty far from sexy, so take the description with some skepticism.
In the Monster Girl Encyclopedia, hobgoblins are portrayed as ditzy, dim-witted, clumsy oppai loli variants of the common goblin; despite being even dumber than their flat-chested sisters, goblins adore and revere them, seeing their huge breasts as a sign of great power and potential. Perhaps because hobgoblin mamono are even more ridiculously super-strong than the goblins are themselves; they may not have much going for them, but if they hit you, then you stay hit. Or else it's because the common goblins are smart enough to realize that breasts are a huge advantage in terms of having fun whilst having sex.
Most art of sexy hobgoblin girls typically depicts them as mildly-muscled, sharp-faced elves with skin tones in varying shades of red, usually possessing protruding canine teeth and cat-like eyes or yellow sclera, and occasionally includes extra bits like bright blue patches on their pulse points, tiny horns, or strongly-hooked/otherwise oddly-shaped noses.
See Also[edit | edit source]
| Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition Races |
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| Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Races |
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| Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Races |
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| Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Races |
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| The Races of Pathfinder |
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| The Races of Starfinder |
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