Love them or hate them most D&D games tend to have humanoids as the primary antagonists. They come in all shapes and sizes, from kobolds and goblins to orcs, gnolls, ogres, and even giants. Whether they’re under the thumb of some other mightier monster, or just trying to scrape out an existence, they’re all over the place.
It probably helps that over the years the options for humanoids have covered just about every possible permutation. From 1/4HD on up, there’s a humanoid for you. Furry humanoids, pig faced humanoids, green humanoids, grey humanoids, horned humanoids, transdimensional humanoids, smart humanoids, dumb humanoids, peaceful humanoids, devious humanoids… If you can think of it, somewhere, someone has written one up.
And then there’s humans. There’s very little you can’t do with humans, and if you really wanted to, it wouldn’t be all that hard to replace every single humanoid creature (maybe with the exception of Giants and the like) with humans. The potential for depravity and evil is apparently boundless.
Skipping humans, my favorite humanoid monster is the lowly kobold. It doesn’t even take Tucker level strategy to make them interesting. I prefer the version of kobolds that has them as little dragon people, tricky and smart with natural sorcerous ability. They may not breed quite as quickly as goblins, but they’re sneakier. It’s almost never worth making them an enemy. I also like using them as caretakers/janitors of the dungeon.
Random Kobold Tribe
Predominant Body Type
Canine
Draconic
Special
Special
Larger
Winged
Armored
Elemental - Earth
Draconic - breath weapon
Fae-touched
Skin Color
White
Black
Ruddy brown
Rust
Orange
Red
Dark green
Yellow
Blue
Purple
Social Position
Toady*
Ignored
Oppressed**
Machiavellian Masters
*Toady - The tribe serves….
Willingly
Self Preservation
**Oppressed - The tribe is…
Newly enslaved, and...
Long enslaved, and...
Resigned to their situation
Actively working against their oppressors
Passively resisting
Some collaboration is going on
They Worship
Tiamat
Local Dragon
Local Dragon (dead)
Local Hydra
Themselves
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