Goblin
General Appearance
Living in the Inner Lands under Southern Sulawei, goblins are a diminutive race with yellowish or greenish skin, preferring to walk slightly hunched over, they appear much smaller than their 3ft would appear. Long ears and sharp teeth give them a savage appearance.
Goblins occupy an uneasy place in a dangerous world, and they react by lashing out at any creatures they believe they can bully. Cunning in battle and cruel in victory, goblins are fawning and servile in defeat.
Racial Attributes
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age. Goblins reach adulthood at age 8 and live up to 60 years.
Size. Goblins are between 3 and 4 feet tall and weigh between 40 and 80 pounds. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the charmed condition on yourself.
Fury of the Small. When you damage a creature with an attack or a spell and the creature’s size is larger than yours, you can cause the attack or spell to deal extra damage to the creature. The extra damage equals your proficiency bonus.
- You can use this trait a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest, and you can use it no more than once per turn.
Nimble Escape. You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Trade Basic as well as Goblin.
Goblin Ethnic Groups
Goblins consist of two ethnic groups, denoted by their skin colour. Goblion society is entirely driven by the skin colour at birth and a driving desire to prove themselves the better of larger races.
Yellowskins
Yellowskins are the undisputed rulers of Goblin society, generally taller and slightly stronger than Greenskins. This has allowed them to dominate by strong arming their way to power. The more yellow the skin, right up to a golden hue, the more valued it is.
Greenskins
While Greenskins might be generally smaller than Yellowskins, they make up for this by being the more cunning of the two groups. While Yellows might rule the Goblin world, greens scheme and plot and ensure that things generally work out in their favour.
Goblin Society
Broad Overview
Goblin society is a harsh place, the strong dominate the weak but through this a strong social cohesion has arisen and when something threatens one Goblin, it threatens all Goblins and they will drop all schemes in order to band together and eliminate that threat, so that they can go back to strong arming weaker Goblins and scheming to take out the stronger Goblins. Goblins tend to stick together in "Families", this isn't necessarily related by blood but rather by mutual needs and wants.
Cave Dwellers
In the aftermath of the Goblinoid Wars, Goblins realised that they weren't able to stand up directly to the other two races in sheer strength and so, abandoning most of their settlements outside of Gul, travelled down into the Inner Lands. The subterranean caves and holes took some adjustment but it wasn't long before new cities carved out of the rock and stone were built and a thriving civilisation began to spread. Realising that the other races were not as keen to set up shop underground the Goblins were free to spread all over Southern Sulawei. Keeping up the appearance of settlement and giving the other races a false target in Gul has allowed the Goblins to become a fearsome opponent in war against Orcs and Hobgoblins alike. Cautionary tales of Orcs, Hobgoblins and some elves involve not camping too near caves in case the small horrors with sharp knives may come at any time.
Schemes, Money and Power
Goblins are natural schemers, Greenskins more so than Yellowskins and as such they have long embraced coin as a way to generate power and control over their lives and others. Goblins that travel amongst the other races are almost always Merchants and their muscle, it's very rare to see lone Goblins anywhere but they do happen. Always be wary in trade with Goblins, they're quick of wit and know the value of everything, especially information.
The Effects of The Return
The Return did have an effect on the Goblins, though likely to less of a degree than other races. Largely living underground meant that Goblin structures weren't prone to collapse over time and other than the usual nasty monsters that live underground that Goblins have had to always deal with just had to be pushed back again.
Gul was a a giant ruin though, and all of their above ground settlements had long crumbled, not being of the greatest construction and mostly a distraction for others. Other than those Goblins in Orc or Hobgoblin cities it looked for the most part as if Goblins had mostly vanished entirely and if it wasn't for Hobgoblin attacks, Orcs likely would've taken over all of Gul.
With the arrival of other groups in the area, Humans, Mac'tirnen and Tabaxi traders, the Goblins have started to rebuild Gul (the city, rather than the region) as a trade hub looking to extend their power beyond just their underground realm, with the power of coin. Goblins were the first race to embrace the Adventurer's Guild. Though this may just be another scheme.
Goblins seen in other parts of the world are usually Traders but finding the odd one doing work for the Adventurer's Guild has become more common and being small and weak looking has meant that other races are less likely to make a fuss about just one Goblin.