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Goblins - Part 3 (War Chanter)

In the centre of this clearing, you see a single table made out of marble. It’s overgrown with vines, but it’s definitely a table. Especially, since there’s a goblin sitting behind it, drinking and eating from a meal of ham and cheese and wine. You see them notice you and set down the book they are reading.

“Good evening,”

What do you want to do?

Goblin War Chanter

“Bubbling of boiling rain, Shimmering of a setting sun, Flickering of a new-born flame Listen to the devils run.” As you descend towards the amphitheatre’s stage, you finally start see this individual in detail. You notice a fancy looking waistcoat embroidered with snakes and the odd harp, over a fairly simple tunic and breeches. Although it is their face that you focus on. Over one of their eyes, this Goblin wears a diamond shaped patch, apparently made entirely of mosaic tiles. “Watch the candle as it dies Feel the chill of night’s embrace Pierce beyond the daylight’s lies, To see the wolf who lies in wait.”

The Goblin War Chanter exists in conversation with the previous entry on this blog. They are both spellcasters, but where the Pyro is a glass cannon, the War Chanter plays support. This is most exemplified by their spell selection, but their raw statistics also back this up.

The expected Armour Class and Hit Points for a level 1 creature are 15 and 20, respectively, and the War Chanter only slightly better than the Pyro. They have an AC of 17, which is pretty high, but they only have 16 Hit Points, so they can’t take too many strikes. For contrast, the Pyro had the same AC, but 1 fewer Hit Points. In the grand scheme of things, 1 extra hit point is not much, but it might save the War Chanter’s life in a pinch.

The difference comes in their abilities. Most significantly, the War Chanter has two actually viable martial options, their Shortbow, and their Dogslicer.

The Shortbow is the easiest to understand. It deals a d6 damage, with a +8 to hit, and the Deadly property.

I have gone over the general strategy for that in my first post, although I hadn’t yet developed my damage chart system, so that hasn’t been compared yet.

The plan here is to open the turn hiding to gain a bonus to the Goblin’s first attack, before loosing a second arrow with their second action, before returning to a hidden position to set up their next turn.

Hide Then Attack Twice (Standard Cover) 0.6 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.3 * 11.5) + 0.4 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.2 * 11.5) + 0.4 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 11.5 = 6.72 Hide Then Attack (Greater Cover) 0.7 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.3 * 11.5) + 0.3 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.2 * 11.5) + 0.4 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 11.5 = 6.83

Since this takes three actions to complete, we account for that in the chart. Assuming that the generic line will have taken all three actions to attack with the expected +7 to hit (plus Multi Attack penalty) for a total of 1d6 +2 damage, we get this:

You may note that the average for the generic strike is below its minimum damage, and there is a reason for that. The minimum assumes all that strikes hit, the average doesn’t.

You hear a faint whistling, and whirl around to see an arrow fly through the air towards you with a twenty-six against your Armour Class. You look for its source, and see the Goblin with his bow raised, loosing another arrow towards you before ducking out of view. I assume a ten misses you.

In any case, the Shortbow is pretty good considering the damage output is lower and the strategy uses one less action to actively attack, but it still doesn’t meet the benchmark. We will come back to this in a bit though, because the War Chanter has a few tricks up their sleeve.

However, sticking to the basics, the War Chanter also has a Dogslicer, which has the Agile and Backstabber properties, as well as dealing a bit more base damage than the Shortbow. Once again, I am repeating a strategy from before of move and then strike twice. Although, this time with the added variable of whether or not the target is being flanked applied to both this and the generic strike.

Attack Twice (Not Flanking): 0.5 * 5.5 + 0.2 * 11 + 0.45 * 5.5 + 0.05 * 11 = 7.96 Attack Twice (Flanking): 0.5 * 6.5 + 0.3 * 13 + 0.5 * 6.5 + 0.1 * 13 = 11.7

The Goblin steps back from you for a moment, leveling a short, straight sword at your head and allowing you to see the holes that have been drilled into its blade. Then they lunge, stabbing once at your neck, followed up immediately by a strike towards your abdomen. That’s a twenty-three and a twelve to hit?

So, we have one main option, get into a flanking position and start slashing. We have one more means of dealing damage on its way, but I want to briefly highlight a theme that will come up again with the War Chanter, and that is best exhibited in the Generic line on this graph.

Often, the biggest cause of a damage increase is a bonus to the attack roll, rather than to the damage roll. The generic attack above only changed this one variable, and the average damage increased by more than two points. It’s not much, but it adds up pretty quickly.

In any case, that final damaging ability is the War Caster’s only damaging spell, Telekinetic Projectile. This spell uses two actions and an attack roll, so it can interact with that hide action. It deals 2d6 damage, so the same as two Shortbow strikes, but crucially, it does so with only one attack roll, so the multi attack penalty has no effect.

You hear a whispered word from somewhere you can’t see. “Volare.” Then, you notice a piece of rouble lift into the air and begin spinning in place. You see it gain momentum, moving faster and faster, until it suddenly flies through the air towards you like a stone released from a sling. Does a sixteen beat your Armour Class?

With the War Caster’s +7 to hit with spells, the formula for casting this spell and then hiding is as follows:

Hide Then Cast Telekinetic Projectile (Standard Cover): 0.6 * (0.5 * 6 + 0.25 * 12) + 0.4 * (0.5 * 6 + 0.15 * 12) = 5.52 Hide Then Cast Telekinetic Projectile (Greater Cover): 0.7 * (0.5 * 6 + 0.25 * 12) + 0.3 * (0.5 * 6 + 0.15 * 12) = 5.64

So, not that, then. The War Chanter seems precision designed to be in melee, which is weird for a spellcaster.

Come to think of it, a lot of this creature’s kit is weird. The War Chanter’s defining ability is Goblin Song, which allows them to make a performance check against two creatures, applying a penalty to Perception and Will saves on a success.

The question I have, is why? The only one of the War Chanter’s abilities or spells that even interacts with Will is this one, so it only serves to perpetuate itself. Other than that, it counteracts perception, which isn’t used in combat except in two places. Stealth, and initiative.

Let’s circle back for a moment and look at this creature’s skills, because this is the only Goblin for whom Stealth doesn’t have the highest modifier. Instead, this Goblin specialises in Deception.

Suddenly, things are starting to click. I’ve talked about Goblins relying on ambush tactics in past posts, but here we flip the switch a bit. The War Chanter serves as bait that can keep the targets’ attention and make hiding easier for their comrades.

One of my favourite uses for this is as a signal. The War Chanter rocks up before the fight and offers to guide the characters to a location where, unbeknownst to the party, the Chanter’s friends lie in wait.

Maybe the War Chanter wants information, so they play things casually, asking leading questions and just waiting for the players to get comfortable. When they have got everything, and the trap is about to be triggered, they start singing, targeting the two characters whom it has seen notice things with Goblin Song to make sure that the ambush goes off without a hitch.

You watch the Goblin find a bench and lie down on it, placing their hat over their face and singing a jaunty little hymn to themself. You catch the names of a few of the deities they have mentioned up until this point in there and find yourself entranced by the music. You feel secure in the Goblins calmness.

When combat does break out, I think it would be the War Chanter who offers the chance of surrender to the targets, mostly because they are the most charismatic of the Goblins, but also because they are a mage. They know more than most others that a fight doesn’t have to end with one side dead.

Speaking of being a mage, this Goblin does have a slightly larger repertoire than just Telekinetic Projectile, so let’s talk about those.

“Wait.” The Goblin stops, extending one hand in front of themself and pointing at the hall ahead. It looks normal to you, but obviously your guide has noticed something. “Artis Manus.” They flex their hand, and you watch, emerging like a ghost, a second translucent hand made from what appears to be different mosaic tiles that begins to float ahead of you. You watch the hand move onwards, until it stops above a specific part of the floor, and presses down gently. Immediately, it is shattered by a bolt from a hidden crossbow, dissipating immediately. The Goblin looks back at you, their grin widening.

Telekinetic Hand is a role-playing spell. It picks things up and puts things down, but as you can see above, I would allow it to also trigger traps. In this case, our War Chanter friend is trying to earn the loyalty of the player characters, so that betraying them later will be easier. So, they’re protecting the party from a trap. It would probably have been seen it anyway, but now it seems like the Chanter is helping.

Message is similar, but with a different use. It conveys information, something the Chanter can use to take note of the targets’ abilities. Either for the sake of counteracting them later, or realising that this party is way out of the Goblins’ league, and that the ambush is a bad idea.

Perhaps to make best use of this, the War Chanter leads the party through the lair of another beast and fights alongside them to diffeat it. If they decimate the beast, the Goblin will take a hint and call off everything, but if the group makes it through in bad shape, now the War Chanter knows about their skillsets, strategies, and maybe even weaknesses, all of which it can relay to its comrades later on.

Your guide staggers to their feet, they don’t look too badly hurt, but they are limping slightly. “I’m impressed. You’re very good with that sword, my friend, I never would have expected… well… I didn’t expect it to light on fire at all.” They give you a wide, earnest smile, and you could almost swear that their eyepatch begins to glow a little. It must be the light though. The second you look to closely at it, it’s just a normal eyepatch, if a quirky looking one.

The key to this strategy is that the War Chanter doesn’t ever reveal their full hand. They have a pretty high deception score, but even that won’t save them if they spill the beans too early. They don’t even have to hide the fact they are a spellcaster, just the number of slots they have at their disposal, and especially what happens when they start singing.

It also allows for the War Chanter to grow attached to the party and maybe decide to go against their original crew.

Anyway, the next spell on our list is Figment, which allows the Goblin a bonus to making a diversion, offering an escape. With the War Chanter’s base +7 in Deception, and the expected +7 to perception for a level 1 creature, this has a 65% chance of success.

Naturally, there are two uses to this, one noticeably more viable than the other.

Since a creature is off-guard if distracted by this, the War Chanter could use their final action to make a strike against them. See if you can see the flaw with this idea.

Figment Then Strike 0.65 * (0.5 * 6.5 + 0.3 * 13) + 0.35 * (0.5 * 5.5 + 0.2 * 11) = 6.38

This strategy is not worth it, but what if we used the third action to hide instead. The cover would have to be within 10 ft. of the War Chanter, so this is a niche option, but its still a decent option for escaping the fight.

You watch the War Chanter wipe the trickle of blood from their mouth, as that patch of theirs begins to glow. Before you can react, they make a wild gesture like throwing something upwards, and you hear a growling from behind you. You look around, and watch the corpse of one of those already slain begin to rise to its feet and glare at you with lifeless eyes. As you glance back, however, the War Chanter has disappeared.

Which brings me to Bless and Courageous Anthem, two spells that do mostly the same thing, although it is the difference that key here. Bless offers a +1 to all attack rolls made by allies within a certain radius, while Courageous Anthem offers that and a damage boost to a larger radius at the cost of an action each turn. Bless has the benefit of not needing to be sustained, which frees up that action for something else.

The equation here assumes that the first ally is a Goblin Commando who is flanking the target (+8 to hit, 1d8 +3 damage), and any more are Goblin Warriors at range (+7 to hit, 1d6 damage), outside the radius of the Bless spell.

I feel the need to break this down step by step, so here goes:

Three Attacks – War Chanter (Bless In Effect): 0.5 * 6.5 + 0.35 * 13 + 0.5 * 6.5 + 0.2 * 13 + 0.4 * 6.5 + 0.05 * 13 = 16.9

This is the War Chanter just standing there and whaling on their opponent. They gain the bonus to attack rolls from bless and

Three Attacks – Commando (Bless In Effect): 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.35 * 15 + 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.1 * 15 + 0.25 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 = 16.88

This is the same for the Commando, with the caveat that his damage per strike is higher, and his Horsechopper doesn’t have the Agile property.

Hide Then Attack Twice – Warrior (Unaffected By Bless): 0.55 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.25 * 12.5) + 0.45 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.15 * 12.5) + 0.35 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 0.05 = 6.16

This part of the equation assumes that the Warrior is using the “hide then attack twice” strategy with standard cover, because I don’t want my brain to explode.

This is easier to understand visually.

Each of these represents the total damage of that many Goblins added on just the War Chanter. Once again, however, this doesn’t mean anything without a baseline.

The grey here stands in for the same strategy, just without the Bless spell. Obviously, Bless doesn’t have nearly as much of an impact as it should. It helps, but let’s try another situation.

What if we scrapped the Warriors and just made all the extra Goblins Commandos (“c”)? Forget flanking for the moment. In that case, the graph and equation both look like this:

Three Attacks - War Chanter (Bless In Effect, Not Flanking): 0.5 * 5.5 + 0.25 * 11 + 0.5 * 5.5 + 0.05 * 11 + 0.3 * 5.5 + 0.05 * 11 = 11 Three Attacks - Commando (Bless In Effect, Not Flanking 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.25 * 15 + 0.45 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 + 0.15 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 = 13.5

Noticeably, Bless starts to add on some serious damage when everyone is within its reach. Remember that this is over one round, so if there are five Commandos, this is doing 8.5 extra points of damage per round.

The Goblin raises both of their fists to touch their chin with their thumbs before pushing forwards with open hands. At the same time, their eyepatch begin to shimmer as the tiles that make it up shift around, now forming a different symbol. As you watch, their allies seem to stand up a bit straighter, as if filled with a sudden burst energy.

But that per round thing is important, because it means the War Chanter is sacrificing two of their actions to get this effect up, which begs the question: is it worth it?

For this, I need to contrast two scenarios. In the first, the War Chanter casts Bless, then spends the next few of their turns in melee. In the second, it spends that first turn attacking instead.

For the sake of realism, in each of these scenarios, the Goblins will get two attacks per turn, and spend the third action moving into position. They will also try flank when they can.

Commando Damage Per Turn (Bless) 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.35 * 15 + 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.1 * 15 = 14.25 War Chanter Damage Per Turn (Bless) 0.5 * 6.5 + 0.35 * 13 + 0.5 * 6.5 + 0.13 * 13 = 12.74 Commando Damage Per Turn (No Bless) 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.3 * 15 + 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 = 12.75 War Chanter Damage Per Turn (No Bless) 0.5 * 6.5 + 0.3 * 13 + 0.5 * 6.5 + 0.15 * 13 = 12.35

We’re catching up, but it’s still not worth it. Well, not with only one Commando. What if we added in another? This one can’t flank with anyone, but it will remain within the Bless radius.

Commando No. 2 Damage Per Turn (Bless) 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.25 * 15 + 0.45 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 = 11.63 Commando No. 2 Damage Per Turn (No Bless) 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.2 * 15 + 0.4 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 = 10.5

Here, Casting Bless catches up after about four turns, which is pretty decent. Naturally, this will increase with the number of Commandos in the radius, and if it is set up before the fight, this entire thing is irrelevant.

But what about the War Chanter’s other buffing option?

At first glance, Courageous Anthem is just Bless but better. It offers the same bonus to attack rolls, but it also grants that to damage rolls and saves against fear. It’s radius is also greater, so what’s the catch? Why is this spell a cantrip but Bless is a 1st rank spell?

The key here is baked into the game system itself, because Courageous Anthem only lasts for one round, so not only is it designed to be cast more often, but it also takes up an action each round to have any affect.

Let’s run that scenario with the Commando’s again. Each Commando will move and take two attacks, ignoring flanking for the moment. Meanwhile the Warrior will move and then make one attack of their own.

One Strike - War Chanter (Courageous Anthem) 0.5 * 6.5 + 0.25 * 13 = 4.95 Two Strikes – Commando (Courageous Anthem) 0.5 * 8.5 + 0.25 * 17 + 0.45 * 8.5 + 0.05 * 17 = 13.18

So, no. This tactic doesn’t work. The extra damage doesn’t make up for the missing action. This spell is designed for everyone to spend their full turn hacking and stabbing, but because of Goblins in general having lower than average hit points, they can’t afford to do this. They have to move, even if its just defensive, to limit the amount of attacks aimed at them.

The Goblin spits at you, their eyepatch shifting around once more to accompany a shout. “Ad victoriam!” Their voice echoes, louder and louder, until it seems like the wind itself is joining in the cry. It almost inspires you as well. Almost.

But we aren’t out of options yet. Let’s bring back the Warriors for a moment, and assume they are all at range, and the War Chanter is for the moment, the only one in melee.

The Chanter’s equation hasn’t changed, but the Warrior now look like this:

Hide Then Attack Twice – Warrior (Courageous Anthem) 0.55 * (0.5 * 4.5 + 0.3 * 14.5) + 0.45 * (0.5 * 4.5 + 0.2 * 14.5) + 0.4 * 4.5 + 0.05 * 14.5 = 8.47

Suddenly, we start making up for lost ground, and you might be able to see where I am going with this.

I mentioned earlier that Bless takes a few turns to catch up and become worth it. But there is a pretty glaring problem with this:

Fights in Pathfinder go quickly, and Goblins in general don’t have that many hit points. Bless takes a few rounds to be worth it, but our War Chanter friend might not have the time for that.

This is where Soothe comes in. It’s a spell that restores a ton of hit points and offers a bonus to saves against mental effects. It’s a also ranged spell, so it can be used for anyone within a certain radius.

You watch the War Chanter’s grin widen. “Aesculapii benedictionem” Their eye patch begins to glow once more, and you watch light pour from their wounds, which fade before your eyes. Then, you see Goblin straighten up and ready their sword as if this fight has just begun.

The maths for the efficacy of healing vs just running away makes my head hurt, so let’s just simplify and say that this spell adds an average of 9.5 hit points to the War Chanter’s team. If the opposing team does less damage than that per turn, this will give the Goblins at least one more round to balance out the Bless, if not, it isn’t worth it. That’s the math I’m going with here.

Here's a summary:

The War Chanter uses Message to coordinate an ambush and tries to set up the combat with Goblin Song. When combat starts, they will spend their first turn setting up Bless and maybe Courageous Anthem, before offering the chance to surrender.

If the fight continues, the War Chanter has two options, depending on how many allies are within the radius of their Bless Spell. If the majority of allies are outside, they it will cast Courageous Anthem and make a single strike.

If the majority are inside the radius, the Chanter will just slash twice with their Dogslicer and hope for the best.

The first time on of the Chanter’s allies in melee is brought down below half of their hit point maximum, they will try to remedy that with a casting of Soothe.

Finally, if the fight is going bad, either the Chanter is brought below a third of their hit point maximum and they have no more healing spells, or if they have only one ally left in melee, they will cast Figment and try to use it as a distraction to help them flee.

Alternate Spells:

I prefer the War Chanter to the Pyro, purely because of how their abilities and proficiencies are laid out. The Pyro is a generic spellcaster, which allows for customisation. But the War Chanter can have their entire repertoire swapped out and they will still feel pretty much the same.

However, here are a few changes that could be made in order to shake things up entirely.

Bane is the obvious option, switching the War Chanter from support to control by reducing enemy likelihood of hitting with attacks. It’s a pretty decent defensive option that can be used in conjunction with Courageous Anthem to really mess with the battlefield.

Similarly, Concordant Choir gives the War Chanter a nuclear option that might be useful for opening the fight with while their companions lie in wait.

Speaking of which, Goblin Song reduces Will Saves, so giving the War Chanter some options that trigger those is always a fun idea. I like the Ancient Roman philosopher/actor aesthetic that I have going, so Cycle Of Retribution works with that as a defensive option, but so does Command, which can set up some interesting scenarios.

I also like Daze, which can really mess up someone’s first turn leading in to that surrender option. Of course, it would mean the War Chanter would have to spend their next turn setting up their Bless aura, but the first round is for threats.

Summary

I do like the identity of this Goblin. Even without the abilities, the proficiency in Deception means it plays a completely different role in the adventure. Maybe it stands on the other side of a pit trap beckoning the players over, or maybe it engages with the players, asking for information and offering some in return.

This is a charisma-based monster, so missing out on the opportunity for roleplay is, in my opinion, missing the point of the monster.

In any case, if you have any suggestions for creatures you’d like me to cover, send me a message or put your suggestion in the replies or the ask box. I’d be happy to oblige.

All credit for this idea comes from the The Monsters Know What They’re Doing blog, I have simply ported the idea over to PF2e.

[the-xp-budget]

Goblins - Part 2 (Pyro)

Through the smell of old books and wisdom kept preserved for ages upon ages, you catch the scent of something else. Burning. Something is on fire.

Smoke erupts from a nearby shelf, and as you duck behind cover, someone steps through the fumes. Grey-green complexion, pointed ears, this is a Gobin.

His eyes are glued to a single mote of flame that dances around on his palm, but then you see him look around, registering an unfamiliar presence and searching for you. His mouth twists into a snarl, and that fire in his hand begins to grow and lash out. It’s hungry.

Roll initiative.

Goblin Pyro

The air in the temple suddenly grows hot, too hot to bear. You duck under a blast of flame and turn around to see what appears to be a Goblin emerging from behind a statue. You see a heavy woollen cloak over a suit complete with a bright orange cravat that matches a sash over his shoulder. The left sleeve of his jacket is missing, showing off an arm that doesn’t match the rest of his body, apparently made from polished obsidian refined into an appendage that terminates in three, clawlike fingers. You see the arm begin to glow as he prepares to hurl more fire towards you.

In my previous post, I talked about Goblins more generally, and a lot of that information still stands with this entry into the crew. Goblin Scuttle can still be used for defence and for repositioning, for example.

In that post, I focused on the martial Goblins, meaning that our spellcasting friends had their own post to themselves. I did plan on covering both in this post, but this post got long with the two of them, so here’s the Pyro. Here’s the general information.

Generally speaking, spellcasters are more vulnerable than martials, since they have a higher damage output on average. The Pyro fits this, although with an Armour Class of 16 in comparison to the expected 15, it doesn’t appear to yet.

The devil is in the Hit Points. The average for a creature of level 1 is 20, but the Pyro only has 15, so he’s not going to stick around and tempt fate. He’ll deal lots of damage then skiddadle when things look rough.

However, here is the important kicker for running spellcasters in PF2e: You don’t have to cast all of your spells. Fights in this system go quickly (a little too quickly for some people), and that means that certain abilities aren’t going to get used. This is fine, everything has a time and place, that’s why this blog exists.

You are playing to have fun, not to win. This blog exists to challenge players, not turn them off the game. The creatures aren’t the main characters, the PCs are.

For the sake of argument, lets quickly go over the Pyro’s melee option. It’s a torch, with a +7 to hit and a damage output of 1d4 +1. If we apply the strategy of “move to a target and hit it twice”, we end up with this:

Two Attacks: 0.5 * 3.5 + 0.15 * 7 + 0.35 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 7 = 4.38

A reminder that the Warrior, a creature two levels lower than our Pyro friend, had a damage output with this strategy of 5.08, and that doesn’t take into account flanking, which makes the Torch look even worse by comparison. This is a last resort item when the Goblin can’t escape or cast spells, and his enemies won’t accept surrender.

The Goblin grimaces and looks down at the almost burned-out torch still in his grasp. He gives a resigned sigh, and begins to flail wildly, leaving a trail of embers with every swing.

To better illustrate how rubbish of an option this is, I made a graphing system. Essentially, I need a graph with three points on it. The minimum damage, the maximum, and the average against a creature of the same level.

This is fairly simple, but it doesn’t mean anything on its own. To form a baseline, I look to the creature standardisation tables in the GM core.

The average attack bonus for a level 1 creature is +7, and the average strike damage is 1d6 +2. As such, the equation and graph for for that looks like this.

Generic Strike: 0.5 * 5.5 + 0.15 * 11 = 4.4

Now do you see what I mean? The Pyro’s physical weaponry isn’t a viable option, so let’s look at spells instead.

Our Pyro has a spell attack modifier of +6, and a save DC of 16, which means that, against a generic level 1 creature, he will hit with spell attacks 60% of the time, and the creature will fail against 50% of the saving throws he forces it to make. Bear this in mind, it will affect everything I say later.

Light isn’t a combat focused spell, and considering the Pyro has Darkvision, it’s not really useful at all, except as a distraction. Show me a TTRPG player of any system who won’t see a glowing golden chalice on a pedestal and immediately try to pick it up.

Ask the players if they touch the chalice halfway through. It means you can enjoy watching them suddenly contort their methods to avoid directly making contact with it, and it will take their attention off their surroundings, allowing the Puro an advantage when sneaking up on them.

The statuette glows with a flickering light that illuminates this entire space. Golden, warm light, almost hot to the touch.

There’s no mechanical benefit to this (although if a player tried this, I would allow them to take the Create A Diversion action using their spellcasting modifier in the place of deception), but it would distract the players from taking the search action, and that’s some decent risk assurance.

Telekinetic Hand, meanwhile, is best used like the force. That is a role-playing spell, allowing the Goblin to feel magical if the characters engage with it. Maybe he lifts a drink to his hand from across a table or holds a book in the air in front of him so he can read and gesticulate at the same time. Alternatively, it can grab something off a high shelf or put something up there so it can’t be stolen.

The Goblin leans back in his chair and flicks his wrist. “Manus Liquefacta” You see that arm of his begin to glow once more, as an ember trails off into the air and begins to expand into the shape of a hand that floats idly beside him.

Ok, now we have the useful spells. These are the ones he will use most often in combat, and the most obvious of those is Ignition, a two-action spell that targets AC and has a critical hit function that makes my math more complex.

Each round, after a creature takes persistent damage, they can make a flat check to recover from the condition. It’s a DC 15 flat check, so there’s a 30% chance of succeeding. So, for the sake of math that doesn’t make my nose bleed, we’ll say that it will probably deal about 70% of the damage it could.

The length of the condition is assumed to be one minute, which translates into the game as ten rounds. At 1d4 persistent fire damage per round, that’s 25 damage if the effect runs its course, and 70% of that is 17.5.

So, with all that and the chance of succeeding I mentioned before, our equation for the damage of one strike is this:

Ignition: 0.5 * 5 + 0.1 * (10 + 17.5) = 5.25

That’s not a lot of damage, I will admit, but we aren’t done yet. Remember that this spell requires an attack roll, so it works with conditions like Off-Guard. This Goblin has a +7 bonus to his Stealth checks, so we can mess with that if we want to.

The expected perception score of a level 1 creature is +7. With the +2 bonus from cover, our Pyro friend has 65% chance of succeeding on his roll. That increases to 75% with greater cover and look at what that does to the damage of this spell.

Hide Then Cast Ignition (Cover): 0.65 * (0.5 * 5 + 0.2 * 27.5) + 0.35 * (0.5 * 5 + 0.1 * 27.5) = 7.04 Hide Then Cast Ignition (Greater Cover): 0.75 * (0.5 * 5 + 0.2 * 27.5) + 0.25 * (0.5 * 5 + 0.1 * 27.5) = 7.31

Before we put that on the graph. We need to take into account that this spell takes two actions, so the single attack options need to be accounted for.

That is a massive spread, but it’s the averages that matter. Theoretically, if everything goes well, this spell can deal 56 points of damage, but that is very much theoretical.

“Fides Ad Ignis.” Even whispered, the voice echoes against each of the columns in turn, sourceless and indirect. You feel the hairs on the back of your neck raise and turn in time to see the Pyro stepping out of the shadows to hurl a ball of flame like a discuss towards you. You throw up your defences, and by the time the fire reaches you, you have lost track of its cause entirely. That’s a twenty-four to hit.

Worth noting, since this is only this blog’s second entry, I’m still working on the formatting and even this graph specifically. Bear with me, I’m experimenting.

The final cantrip in the Pyro’s arsenal is Tangle Vine, which takes a little more fenagling to work out the efficacy. First up, it doesn’t do damage, it’s a mobility hampering spell. Best used as a means of escape, so it needs to be judged on a different scale.

So, let’s assume that the Goblin is a sphere and apply some baselines. The GM core tells me to assume a speed of 25, which is the same as the Goblin Pyro, so let’s go with that.

The Pyro has two options, either use all three actions to sprint the full 75 ft. Or he can only move 25 ft. and cast Tangle Vine. Limiting his own speed in return for a single round of movement penalties applied to his target.

In the below graph, the lighter circles represent the starting point, and the lower of the two darker circles corresponds with stopping to cast the spell.

The opponent meanwhile has three options that they can take, each dependant on the spell. First, the spell misses and they cover thirty ft., catching up with the Goblin and rendering their defensive spell moot. Second, the spell hits, and the target’s speed is reduced by 10 ft. As such, they only cover 45 ft., but they do still catch up with the Pyro. The third option occurs on a critical hit, which immobilizes the creature, limiting their movement entirely for the round.

Here are those three options on the map.

I think you can see where I’m going with this, but just to be clear, let’s work out how likely each option is to happen.

The Pyro has 60% chance to hit with this, that means a 10% likelihood of immobilizing his target. As such, the formula looks like this:

Tangle Vine 0.5 * 45 + 0.4 * 75 = 52.5

Not even accounting for the fact that an immobilised creature can just use an action to try and escape, this spell is not worth it as an escape option.

You see the Goblin’s eyes light up for just a moment as he draws himself to his feet. You hear him say “Manete”, and then feel your limbs begin to resist your motions, like something very hot is trying to latch onto you. Does a nineteen beat your armour class?

Most likely, this is a last stand spell. This is a spell for when the rest of the Goblin’s crew is trying to get away, and our friend is making himself the easiest target. In that case, his companions can use their full movement to escape, while the Goblin will use his turn to slow down the threat, and hope he has enough time to get away on his own, most likely in the opposite direction to his friends.

This spell has a range of 30 ft., so it is best used at the limit of this distance.

Alternatively, if the goblin gets reduced to half HP and the battle is still ongoing, he might throw out this spell before making his escape.

But that’s enough of the cantrips. The Pyro has three spell slots that can be used for either Grease or Breathe Fire, and we’re going to start with my favourite of the two.

Grease is a control spell. It messes with people and sets up allies by knocking anyone in its space prone. Since it takes an action to take cover while prone, that means any character who failed their save is off guard against everyone until they move.

Let’s compare outcomes. Because this is the support spell, let’s assume we have another Goblin who can move into melee. The Pyro will most likely be accompanied by Warriors, so let’s bring back our friend from the previous post.

Once again assuming everything is a sphere, let’s say that there is one opponent (level 1), and the two Goblins, who are both within 30 ft. of it and, for the sake of argument, hidden.

Here’s our first scenario. On his turn, the Pyro will cast Ignition and then hide, while the Warrior will emerge from hiding and shoot the target twice before ducking back behind cover. This is a simple equation, modifying the warrior’s formula a bit to account for a higher target AC and adding all the totals together.

Both Goblins Attack: 8 + (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.25 * 12.5 + 0.35 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 12.5) = 14.73

Alternatively, the Pyro can cast Grease, while the Warrior’s strategy doesn’t change. In that case, the Warrior’s second attack would be against an off-guard creature. Applying what I said earlier about likelihood of success, the formula looks like this:

Grease: 0.5 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.25 * 12.5 + 0.45 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 12.5) + 0.5 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.25 * 12.5 + 0.35 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 12.5) = 6.9

Notably, this tactic doesn’t work with just one other Goblin. But let’s consider a few more options. For the sake of space, here’s another graph.

Here, each +1 means a single Goblin other than the Pyro.

Once again, this is a dead end. So, let’s consider another use case, setup.

What if we combine this with the Light spell from before? Lay Grease on the ground near an entrance and Light on something shiny, then wait for potential targets to rush in and slip. Like I said before, fights go really quickly in PF2e, so running out of spell slots isn’t really an option.

As you reach the bottom of the stairs, you feel your feet begin to lose purchase on the ground. Apparently, you’ve stepped on something slick, like ice or oil. Everybody make either an Acrobatics check, or a Reflex save as you find yourself struggling to keep balance.

Theoretically, a character actively seeking wouldn’t have to make a check to notice the spell’s effect. But again, if I put something glowing on a pedestal, the likelihood of someone searching is diminished.

On the other hand, if a player searches for traps and subverts the Goblin strategy, that’s not a bad thing. It means the player is engaged with your world enough to want to look around and to try and predict things, and it allows that player to feel powerful without the need for special magic items. You’re playing this game to have fun, remember?

If successful, the Grease gambit would mean that the fight starts with a few of the Pyro’s opponents on the floor, causing them to waste multiple actions getting up, drawing weapons, and then moving towards the Pyro, essentially destroying the entirety of their first turn and possibly setting up the Pyro for the last of their spells.

Speaking of which, Breathe Fire is an area of effect spell with varying degrees of success. Considering the predicted save likelihood of 50%, as mentioned above, it is incredibly likely that the target will take at least some damage. Here’s the formula and graph for that damage against one person:

Breathe Fire (One Target): 0.45 * 3.5 + 0.45 * 7 + 0.01 * 14 = 4.87

This has the benefit of scaling directly with the number of creatures in the area. At two creatures, it outpaces Ignition with an average of 9.74 damage, and this continues with three or four creatures.

For the fun of it, the maximum amount of creatures who can fit in this area is seven. Here’s what that looks like on the graph:

You watch the Goblin rear backwards, breathing in heavily as he speaks the incantation. “Aetnae Ira!” His words trail into a scream as he breathes out an enormous cone of fire so hot it's tinted blue. I need you, you, and you to please make Reflex saves to try and get out of the way of this blast.

So, we have our strategy for the fight. Start with a Grease trap with a glowing valuable item serving as bait. Preferably with more Goblin Warriors by the Pyro’s side than there are opponents. Then, open with a Fire Breath while the trap is still in effect and its subjects are prone and trying to work out what’s going on. Then duck back into cover for a third action.

Spend the next few turns peppering opponents with Ignitions from a hidden vantage point.

If the opponents clump up again, the Pyro will use his final spell slot on another Fire Breath and assess the situation. Generally, if a target hasn’t been killed by two spells, the Pyro will take the hint and back out of the fight.

He will also flee if reduced to half hit points or fewer, or if half of his fellow Goblins are slain or otherwise removed from the battle.

For the greatest effectiveness, the Pyro will want to fight in as little light as possible to take advantage of the fact that his opponents can’t see. Also, fire looks cool in darkness.

Alternate Spells

Since most of this Goblin’s vibe is summed up by his spell list, so theoretically you could swap out all of the spells and make a Goblin Necromancer with next to no trouble. But I wanted to pick spells that fit the theme.

I am partial to the Forge spell, which would replace Fire Breath for a ton of single target damage that is especially effective against construct opponents, although I’m honestly not sure how many there are of those with whom the Pyro will come into contact.

Forge: 0.45 * 7.75 + 0.45 * 15.5 + 0.05 * 18 = 11.36

Obviously, it doesn’t match Fire Breath for multi-target damage, but Fire Breath needs three targets to beat this, so this is better for small groups or those that like to spread out. Of course, the Pyro can't decide what size their target is before they pick their spells, but they are aware of their strengths, which affects when they do and don't pick fights.

If the enemy flees, that’s still a victory, and generally all the Pyro has to do to start that domino chain is get someone on the opposite to seriously doubt their safety. If one person flees, their allies will probably join them.

As for Cantrips, I genuinely think Ignition is the best for this theme, so maybe replacing Tangle Vine with Eat Fire would be helpful. It’s situational, but maybe the goblin pokes himself with his own torch. He would resist all the damage he can take from it, then release the smoke to conceal his retreat. It ain’t prefect because he can’t see either, but it could definitely shake up a battlefield.

Conclusion

I am of the opinion that a creature’s worth is in its inspirational value, rather than any numerical advantage. The creature that makes you want to tell a story about it is more valuable to me than the heavily balanced boss monster with two voice lines.

As such, I like the idea of a Goblin who is also a fire mage. Fire is fun, and it can look phenomenal in the right situation. So that’s a plus to me.

I also appreciate the versatility of this stat block. You can replace every spell and get a completely different creature, and while I would prefer if it had an ability that made it stand out for itself beyond this, you have to respect the baseline.

If you have any suggestions for creatures you’d like me to cover, send me a message or put your suggestion in the replies or the ask box. I’d be happy to oblige.

All credit for this idea comes from the The Monsters Know What They’re Doing blog, I have simply ported the idea over to PF2e.

[the-xp-budget]

Goblins - Part 1 (Warrior, Commando)

There’s a rustling in the bushes as the world around you goes silent. No bird song, no footsteps, nothing but the wind to comfort you.

You look around, seeking a target, a threat, something you can face down. But there remains nothing.

Suddenly, the air is filled with shouts and war cries, as an arrow emerges from the underbrush, followed by another, then another.

You take cover and look up, locking eyes with you assailants. Big eyes, green skin, pointed ears. Your party is being attacked by Goblins.

Roll initiative.

Goblins are perhaps the most iconic creature in all of fantasy, featuring in epic works of fiction such as Lord Of The Rings and Discworld, but also in mythology and folklore of all kinds.

In Pathfinder, Goblins come to us in four main forms, those being the Warrior, Commando, Pyro, and War Chanter, with the first of those sporting a level of -1, and the rest falling two levels higher. They are also a playable ancestry, but that’s not especially relevant to this post.

I’m going to focus on the martials here, with the next post going into detail on the latter two of that group. But first, let’s go over the basics.

Generally speaking, Goblins will want to roll stealth for their initiative, as it is mostly higher than their other skills. A War Chanter might be better served with Deception, and a Commando can probably get away with perception, but in general, a Goblin will want to start the fight hidden.

This gives them an advantage, allowing them to have their weapons drawn at the start of the fight while their opponents may struggle, and allows for greater numbers than the enemy is expecting.

Goblins are comparatively flimsy, which means that they will most likely strike in teams, perhaps laying an ambush to keep their targets busy, and striking them while their backs are turned.

They do, however, have a reaction called Goblin Scuttle, which has a ton of uses, mostly around mobility. Goblins aren’t heavy hitters; they’ll be mostly out for an easy fight.

As more and more Goblins join the fray, you find the battle shifting between blinks. While your gaze is locked on the one charging you, his companion has slipped behind you and is leveling their sword at your back. You've been outmaneuvered, and you're going to think quickly to defend yourself.

As such, Goblins are more likely to strike when their prey is outnumbered, issuing a first round of strikes, and if the enemy is still up, judge the situation.

I usually allow for my PCs to know when a creature they are facing is below half HP, and it would be unsportsmanlike to not offer any opponents the same dignity. Goblins aren’t eejits, they can strategize.

So, I would say this: if the Goblins have brought down one of their targets completely, or brought at least half of them down to half HP, they might shout an offer of surrender to them. Let them know that they are outnumbered and that their valuables are forfeit. If the ambushes decide not to surrender, take them down.

Worth noting here is that I am basing this on the trope of Goblin bandits, but it is completely reasonable to suspect a different reason of a fight. Goblins are thinking beings after all, and just like humans, dwarves, and other such folk, can be diverse in motivation. Maybe they want a prisoner that the party took returned to them, or maybe they are guarding something and just want the party to go away. Those are reasonable demands that can be substituted in for “valuables”.

However, if the fight goes poorly, say the targets manage to get a few strikes in of their own, or the initial volley did next to nothing, I reckon the Goblins would cut their losses and GTFO. I would say that if any member of the goblin group gets killed and the group hasn’t already taken down one of their targets, the entire group would bail.

This is the first place where Goblin Scuttle comes in, offering a quick means of escape if the goblins move together. Each time a goblin moves, it triggers this reaction from its friend, repeat en masse.

Goblin Warrior

Through the chaos of the market, you notice a solitary figure. Sturdy trousers are tucked into riding boots and a dirty tunic and apron that sit over simple leather armour. Yellow eyes, like those of a cat, watch you from underneath a wide brimmed hat, focusing on you as the she raises her bow to take aim at your neck.

The Goblin Warrior is the least powerful of all goblins, with 6 hit points at maximum and an AC of 16, compared to the average of 7 and 14 respectively for a creature of their level (I’m using the Building Creatures tables from the GM core for these statistics). These creatures can’t take more than one strike from almost any weapon if they are hit, which will happen.

They do have an above average attack modifiers and strike damage, with a Dogslicer and Shortbow that both have a +7 to hit and deal about 1d6 damage. So, they aren't defenseless.

Add all this together, and you end up with creatures that are primarily glass cannons that can deal a ton of damage then get mown down by the players.

The Dogslicer has two things going for it, the Agile and Backstabber properties. These lean into what I said earlier about outnumbering opponents. The dog slicer is designed to be used when an enemy is flanked.

Here’s what I mean:

With a +7 to hit against an armour class of 14 (once again using the tables in the GM core and pitting the goblin against a generic creature of the same level), a goblin will hit with this weapon 70% of the time, with a 20% likelihood of scoring a critical hit. The weapon uses a single d6 for a damage dice, so you get an average damage in one attack of 3.15 points of damage.

The multiple attack penalty for the second strike is diminished by the Agile property, so that has 50% chance to hit, and can only crit on a natural twenty. As such, its average damage is 1.93

First Attack: 0.5 * 3.5 + 0.2 * 7 = 3.15 Second Attack: 0.45 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 7 = 1.93 Total: 5.08

I’m not worrying about the third attack here, because I’m assuming that the Goblin has to move to get into position.

The Goblin ducks around your blade, drawing back her own and launching into an attack. The short blade lashes out at you twice with blinding speed, each strike from a different angle. You barely have time to register that her sword has holes drilled into it before you are forced to defend yourself from it. Do a twelve and an eighteen hit?

Now, let’s look at what happens when the Goblin has someone flanked. First up, the obvious flat footedness adds a 10% chance to hit and that affects the crit percentage as well, but if we add on the precision damage, we get the following:

First Attack (Flanking): 0.5 * 4.5 + 0.3 * 9 = 4.95 Second attack (Flanking): 0.5 * 4.5 + 0.1 * 9 = 3.25 Total: 8.2

You will notice that most of the benefit comes from the increased chance to crit. This is because any higher percentage to hit than 50 goes to this chance and increases the damage by twice as much as it would otherwise. Mostly.

One advantage of this strategy is that Goblin Scuttle allows for better positioning as a group to get into place for a flank, making this more likely to succeed.

But let’s rewind a bit, because our Goblin friend has another weapon in her arsenal, a Shortbow, and that has the Deadly property, which allows it to add an extra d10 of damage when it is used to score a critical hit. This is a rarer bonus, but it means that the Goblin doesn’t have to get too close to danger and doesn’t have to waste her first action moving.

Her chance to hit for the first shot with this weapon is the same as for a Dogslicer, but because this doesn’t have that oh so important agile property, her second and third attacks are much less likely to hit. (45% and 20%, respectively). So, our formula looks like this:

First Attack: 0.5 * 3.5 + 0.2 * 12.5 = 4.25 Second Attack: 0.4 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 12.5 = 2.03 Third Attack: 0.15 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 12.5 = 1.15 Total: 7.43

The bulk of this damage is coming from the Deadly trait, but even so, it doesn’t really compare to flanking, despite the extra attack. So, what if we used that action to do something else, instead.

Our Goblin friend has proficiency in Acrobatics (+5), Athletics (+2), Nature (+1), and Stealth (+5), which give her access to a few actions.

Acrobatics and Athletics actions are mostly about movement, with jumps and things helping with mobility around difficult spaces. Reposition and Shove might me useable to knock someone off a ledge if they sneak up on our Goblin. It will work in a pinch, but because of her low Athletics modifier, they aren’t likely enough to work for our friend for her to go out of her way to achieve them.

Nature is useful with two main actions. First up, commanding an animal to defend our friend on its next turn. Maybe the market has guard dogs and she can try out that skill. Alternatively, a nature check might recognise a high level of primal magic and let her know that it’s probably a good idea to flee.

It is Stealth that provides the Goblin with her greatest advantage, as it can hide her from opponents, preventing her from being targeted, and allowing an increased likelihood of striking a target. With a weapon that relies as heavily on crits as a Shortbow, I would advise this course of action.

The average perception score of a level -1 creature is +5, so if you add the +2-bonus gained from cover to our Goblin’s own +5 to stealth, she has 65% chance of succeeding, and that ain’t bad at all.

The first strike, from cover, has an average damage of 5.5, with the following formula.

First Attack (Hidden): 0.5 * 3.5 + 0.3 * 12.5 = 5.5

But is it worth it? The stealth roll isn’t guaranteed to succeed, does that make it less of a viable option? Let’s compare.

Hide Then Attack Twice: 0.65 * 5.5 + 0.35 * 4.25 + 2.03 = 7.09

Ok, this doesn’t look like it supports my point, since just attacking thrice offers an average damage of 7.43. But hear me out.

The difference is only 0.34 hit points, and I think that is worth sacrificing for the defensive properties of the hide action. I think not getting shot back at balances out that miniscule amount of damage. Especially considering how few hit points the Warrior has in the first place. She can't afford to be shot back at.

In addition, we need to take into account the fact that greater cover is a thing, and if you are setting up the ambush, you chose where the battle is. Again, Goblins ain’t dumb, so they might choose a place where cover is more abundant. That extra little bonus to hiding makes the formula above look like this.

Hide Then Attack Twice: 0.75 * 5.5 + 0.25 * 4.25 + 2.03 = 7.21

Now, the difference is even smaller, so we have a gameplan.

Set up fifty to sixty ft. from the ambush site to give a decent amount of space between our Goblin and the party’s Barbarian, who has to waste a ton of movement just to get to her.

For her first two actions, our Goblin raises her bow and takes two shots at the weakest looking party member, hoping to drop them quickly and hopefully take out any spellcasters. She’s seen spellcasters before, and she’s seen how much damage they can do if not counteracted quickly.

Then, she ducks behind cover and hides, setting up her next turn and waiting for the signal from her higher ups as to whether or not to stay and fight or to bail.

As the market erupts into chaos, you lose track of your assailants until an arrow thunks into your armour with a nineteen to hit. You whirl around and catch a glimpse of her as she looses another shot. That's a two on the dice for a total of four, so I'll say the arrow shatters a pot about five ft. from you, way off target. As you glance at the wreckage however, even for that split second, when you look back, she has disappeared once more.

If someone makes the decision to sprint at her, the Goblin will emerge from cover to take a pot shot at them before skedaddling. They most likely can’t cover sixty ft. in a turn, especially not while wasting an action to draw their axe, so it’s safe to take another shot and then bail to regroup. If chased, she will look for the smallest space to squeeze through and avoid pursuit. But at that point, this isn’t a fight anymore, it’s a chase. Even then, the party is now spread across the map, and they are easy pickings for her co-conspirators.

The same reaction goes for if she is hit by an attack such as from an enemy bow. She will quickly realise that another such arrow could end her, and she will back off.

Alternatively, the Goblin could just attack in darkness. She has Darkvision, which renders opponents who don’t have it blinded against her. In that case, she doesn’t have to hide and can just stand there and pick off the party while they stumble about.

For weaponry in that situation, since being flanked and being unable to see both cause a target to be off-guard, and we can assume the targets will try to move around and escape, use the above formula for an average damage of 8.2. Meanwhile, the Shortbow has the following equation.

Shortbow (Darkness): 5.5 + 0.4 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 12.5 + 0.25 * 3.5 + 0.05 * 12.5 = 9.03

Like I said, stand in darkness, pick off opponents that can’t fight back. Our goblin wants to win this fight, so naturally, she’s going to find the easiest way to do that.

Goblin Commando

You hear the scraping before you see it's source. Silhouetted against the setting sun and illuminated only by rays reflecting off the water, you make out long, pointed ears, and a jacket coat over a set of sturdy leather armour, as well as a lazy grin that looks almost demonic in the rippling light. Your eye, however, is drawn to a heavy looking hooked spear, the blade of which this figure is trailing along the dock to their side as if it weighs nothing.

The lore for the Goblin Commando states that they steal glory from their fellows, and I do like that idea. An opportunistic fighter who will make a beeline for the most injured opponent just to claim that kill for themself. I think that's a neat concept to work with when coming up with tactics.

After all, in my opinion, the skills and tactics of a creature should reflect that creature as an individual. If a Goblin has a vendetta against people with cats, for example, they might single out that opponent against all better judgement. Or, if they want to steal glory, they might switch up their tactics to target whoever is the weakest.

As for statistics, the Commando can take multiple hits, with a HP of 18 and an AC of 17. When compared to the averages of 20 and 16, respectively, we have another skirmish fighter, although we are much closer to the average here, meaning we could play around with someone more willing to go toe to toe with their opponents.

Add to this the perception modifier of +5, and this is someone who can play defensive and hold off attackers if the lair is invaded.

The Commando does have a bow, and an attack modifier of +8 on that, so if we run the above tactics (replacing the target AC with 15, and the target perception DC with 17), we end up with the exact same as before:

Hide Then Attack Twice: 0.6 * 6 + 0.4 * 4.25 + 2.03 = 7.33

This is all well and good, but it is slightly worse than for the Warrior, so let’s take a look at the Commando’s other options.

The Horsechopper has the same +8 to hit, but instead of just a d6 this weapon deals 1d8 +3 points of damage, for an average of 7.5. It also has the Reach and Trip properties, which change things a bit.

Reach just extends the range of the attacks, in this case to 10 ft., which means that the Commando can attack from a distance and force their enemies to waste an action to get close. It also protects them from reactive strikes, but they aren’t as common at this level, so I’d say they won’t be expecting retaliation from anyone they move past.

It also extends the range required for Commandos to flank, meaning that an opponent who closes in on one Goblin leaves their back open.

Trip, meanwhile, allows the Commando to attempt to knock their opponent prone with the weapon in their hands, and extends the range of this action to the range of the weapon. Since this is a reach weapon, that becomes 10 ft.

This provides two possible courses of action. Either make two attacks with the Horsechopper, or try to Trip the target and make them off-guard against the next attack.

With the same +8 to hit against an assumed AC of 15, we end up with the same 70% chance to hit the first strike, and a 45% chance for the follow up.

Two Attacks: 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.2 * 15 + 0.4 x 7.5 + 0.05 x 15 = 10.5

Meanwhile, since the Trip action still counts towards the Commando’s multiple attack penalty, we have to take that into account with our formula. For reasons that will become obvious, let’s assume that the Commando’s Trip succeeds, and factor the target being off-guard into the Commando’s singular attack and end up with a 55% chance to land the strike, and:

Trip Then Attack: 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 = 4.5

This strategy, at face value, doesn’t work. It would seem that trying to be fancy doesn’t pay off. But hold on a moment, let’s run some other situations. What if the Commando starts their turn with an opponent within reach? What then?

Three Attacks: 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.2 * 15 + 0.4 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 + 0.15 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 = 12.38

Trip Then Attack Twice: 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 + 0.25 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 = 7.13

It’s still not a viable strategy. I had the idea for what might happen if there were multiple Commandos in a fight. Maybe knocking an opponent prone would allow for everyone to jump on the fallen combatant to gain that juicy off-guard bonus.

But in that case, it would be easier to flank the combatant while they are standing up, and just whale on them while they can’t fight back.

The Commando lunges forwards, twisting their weapon in the air and extending it for an impressive distance, before deftly bringing it back around for a sweeping arc leveled at your head. That is a twenty-one to hit on both attacks.

The Commando is opportunistic, according to their lore, so they can choose whom to target. Let’s say they use their first action to get into a good place for a flank, and then their second and third to swing that Horsechopper twice at the outnumbered prey.

First Attack (Flanking): 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.3 * 15 = 8.25 Second Attack (Flanking): 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.05 * 15 = 4.5 Total: 12.75

Genuinely, this is better than the Goblin just making three strikes against whoever starts in their range, so, we have a strategy.

At the start of the Commando’s turn, they look around to see if there is an enemy they can flank, then spend an action to get there, and use their remaining momentum to strike twice. Because of the extended range of the Horsechopper, there might even be an easier opponent to hit already with range. Also, remember that this Commando has Goblin Scuttle, which they will be more than happy to use to manoeuvre around the battlefield in search of easy targets.

Once again, Darkvision makes this so much easier, and the Commando doesn’t have to flank their opponents to deal the most damage they can.

Finaly, if, at any point in the battle, the Commando is reduced to below about 6 hit points, or to 9 from a single hit, they will turn and run. Glory isn’t worth their life, and they won’t even bother with a last strike. Instead, they will use all three of their actions to sprint in the direction of the closest alleyway or hiding spot.

Alternate Weapons

One of the easiest ways to diversify a battlefield is by switching around weaponry. The proficiency system in PF2e makes this relatively easy to balance, so here are some options:

Our Goblin Warrior might pick up a shield on her travels, most likely a wooden one. It doesn’t change her Armour Class too much, and with her hit and run tactics, she would be better suited to just using that item to strike twice, but it provides options.

Alternatively, she could be equipped with a Horsechopper. You would have to swap around her dexterity and strength to make it work, but that would decrease her AC to 13. In this case, I would advise that she attacks only once per turn and uses the rest of her movement to duck in and out of combat as a skirmisher.

Meanwhile, a Commando would be incredibly well suited to a similar set up, either a Dogslicer, or a Dogslicer and shield. As before, the action is better used striking than raising the shield, but it never hurts to be there.

The Commando adds an extra +3 damage to their strikes with a Dogslicer, which means the formula for that turn looks like this.

Two Attacks: 0.5 * 6.5 + 0.2 * 13 + 0.45 * 6.5 + 0.05 * 13 = 9.43 Two Attacks (Flanking): 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.3 * 15 + 0.5 * 7.5 + 0.1 * 15 = 13.5

This is more damage than the Horsechopper, which averaged out at 12.75 damage per turn using this strategy. But it does lose out on the manoeuvrability and versatility that come from a reached weapon. So, I’d say it’s a fair trade.

Looking to the Goblin Ancestry for more inspiration, the Goblin Weapon Familiarity offers access to a plethora of uncommon weapons. These might not be applicable to every setting, but I'm sure someone will use them, so here they are.

The Explosive Dogslicer functions like a regular Dogslicer in melee, but doubles as a ranged weapon that deals 1d6 slashing damage, with a range increment of 20 ft, and the Backstabber, Fatal d10, Scatter 5 ft., traits. It also has a reload of 1, which limits it to being shot once or twice per turn.

The traits do mean that it is incredibly well suited to the hide and shoot strategy from before. Just substitute the second attack from that strategy with an interact to reload, and you get this:

Hide Then Attack (Warrior): 0.65 * (0.5 * 5.5 + 0.3 * 15.5) + 0.35 * (0.5 * 4.5 + 0.2 * 13.5) = 6.54 Hide Then Attack (Commando): 0.6 * (0.5 * 5.5 + 0.3 * 15.5) + 0.4 * (0.5 * 4.5 + 0.2 * 13.5) = 6.42

This doesn't really compete with the bow. But remember that the strategy deals an average of 0.77 splash damage for a Warrior and 0.76 for a Commando to any creature within 5 ft. of the target. Which means that if a party of four characters are clustered. This attack will generally deal about 8.85 damage in total. Naturally, this scales with the number of opponents.

The strategy does have one major drawback, that being the range of the weapon. So, I would advise this only as an opening Gambit. This would be the warning shot of a Goblin who favours melee fighting. She uses her first turn to shoot and then reload and hide. Then opens her second turn with another shot before engaging her target in melee.

Since the only difference between this and a Flingflencer is the range increment (the Flingflencer has an extra 10 ft. to play with) and the fact that the Flingflencer requires two hands, I would advise the same strategy. However, I think she would be better served using the second action to switch weapons rather than reload, meaning she can rush into melee immediately on her second turn.

A Big Boom Gun, meanwhile, has the same basic traits, although it doesn't have a melee option, and its traits are all replaced by a Fatal d12 ability. Still using the above strategy, its formula looks like this:

Hide Then Attack (Warrior): 0.65 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.3 * 13) + 0.35 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.2 * 13) = 5.2 Hide Then Attack (Commando): 0.6 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.3 * 13) + 0.4 * (0.5 * 3.5 + 0.2 * 13) = 5.13

Again, it's less useful than a Shortbow, and is best suited to an opening gambit. This weapon does also have a misfire option that, while incredibly detrimental to the Goblin, is rather funny when it does happen. So, as a GM, I would definitely advise this strategy.

I would advise this strategy as well for a Spoon Gun. It won't do as much damage against a single target due to not having the Deadly Property, but it does have the Scatter property, so focusing fire on clumped targets would naturally be the most optimal.

Conclusion

Goblins are an integral part of TTRPG lore, and I’m not talking about in game. Every party has fought Goblins. So, I couldn’t exactly start with anything else, could I.

Once again, I want to highlight that the idea for this blog comes from the The Monsters Know What They’re Doing blog, which is an excellent resource designed specifically for Dungeons and Dragons, but with ideas that can easily be brought over. I thought I might try my hand at this concept through the PF2e system, because it looked fun, but also because Pathfinder needs more love and attention.

In any case, if you have any suggestions for creatures you’d like me to cover, send me a message or put your suggestion in the replies or the ask box. I’d be happy to oblige.