D&D - hell, any RPG - of any level is only as cool, exciting and awesome as the GM + players make it. The GM has to come up with a creative yet flexible story, and the players have to offer a certain amount of investment and suspension of disbelief. Cool low-level, lame high-level...whatever.
Koumei, you seems to be saying that kobolds with class levels "don't count," which is baloney. Kobolds are
designed to have class levels. If you refuse to allow yourself any creativity with a critter, of course it's going to get old. Whenever I GM, I try to throw something new at the players, whether it be a monster, spell, setting, tactics, or whatever.
The concept of "kobolds are losers" is metagaming, unless the GM establishes that kobolds actually
are losers. If the GM decides the kobolds in his world are renowned as badass trapmeisters, you might hear "Don't mess with him - they call him Bjorn Koboldslayer!" Like orcs, hobgoblins, worgs, mind flayers, and undead, kobolds are
exactly as cool as you make them.Want some awesome kobolds? Consider these concepts:
- A half-fiend kobold, the chosen of Kurtulmak, wages a holy war against the gnomes and their allies. His minions are fiendish kobold anti-paladins, kobold clerics, and dragonblooded kobold sorcerers, backed up by dragons.
- A kobold rogue becomes a master assassin and begins systematically assassinating heroes. A master of disguise, he throws the heroes off his trail with red herrings and frames.
- A mighty kobold arcanist becomes a golem-crafter. After crafting several hollow iron golems, his tribe goes to war. The leader rides atop an iron golem in the shape of a wingless dragon; around him mark the hollow golems, their rib cages riddles with holes and each containing a half-dozen crack kobold archers.
- A quintet of kobold siblings follow the path of martial mastery, each becoming a swordmaster of a different school (longsword, dual-wielding, archery, etc). They then hire out as mercenaries.
- A kobold lich vows to avenge generations of gnomish insults. His fanatical followers rise as wights a round after their demise.
- Due to some apocalyptic happenings, the Orb of Midnight must be recovered, but it was cast into the Doom Rift an eon ago. The only way down leads through the home warrens of the Redscales, the largest, fiercest kobold tribe in the land. You must either fight or sneak your way through endless death traps, labyrinthine tunnels, and thousands of warriors all willing to die for their race. Or you could try diplomacy.
