Larger cousins of goblins, about the same size as humans with dark orange or red-orange skin

Hobgoblins are larger cousins of goblins, being about the same size as humans. Their hair color ranges from dark reddish-brown to dark gray. They have dark orange or red-orange skin. Large males have blue or red noses. Hobgoblins' eyes are yellowish or dark brown, while their teeth are yellow. Their garments tend to be brightly colored, often blood red with black-tinted leather. Their weaponry is kept polished and in good repair. They wear toughened hides and carry wooden shields for armor. As with most goblinoids, they have Darkvision with a 30' range. Hobgoblins are cruel and calculating warriors, always looking to exploit those weaker than themselves. They have a strong grasp of strategy and tactics and are capable of carrying out sophisticated battle plans. Under the leadership of a skilled strategist or tactician, their discipline can prove a deciding factor. Hobgoblins hate elves and attack them first in preference over other opponents.

Elite soldiers serve as the personal guard for high-ranking officers.

The wealthy (and morally flexible) members of the civilized world often search far and wide for hobgoblin bodyguards, rumored to be the best in the world.

War horns sound, stones fly from catapults, and the thunder of a thousand booted feet echoes across the land as hobgoblins march to battle. Across the borderlands of civilization, settlements and settlers must contend with these aggressive humanoids, whose thirst for conquest is never satisfied.

Hobgoblins have dark orange or red-orange skin, and hair ranging from dark red-brown to dark gray. Yellow or dark brown eyes peer out beneath their beetling brows, and their wide mouths sport sharp and yellowed teeth. A male hobgoblin might have a large blue or red nose, which symbolizes virility and power among goblinkin. Hobgoblins can live as long as humans, though their love of warfare and battle means that few do.

Goblinoids

Hobgoblins belong to a family of creatures called goblinoids. They are often found lording over their cousins, the smaller goblins and the ferocious bugbears.

Martial Might

A hobgoblin measures virtue by physical strength and martial prowess, caring about nothing except the opportunity to demonstrate skill and cunning in battle. Hobgoblins of high military rank attain their positions by force, then hold those positions by imposing their authority through draconian measures.

Hobgoblins train to fight with a variety of weapons, and have great skill at crafting arms, armor, siege engines, and other military devices. Organized and disciplined, they take exceptional care of their weapons, armor, and personal possessions. They favor the bold colors associated with their tribes, and trim their often-elaborate uniforms with blood-red piping and leather dyed black.

Military Legions

Hobgoblins organize themselves into tribal bands known as legions. In their martial society, every hobgoblin has a rank, from the powerful leaders and champions, to the rank-and-file foot soldiers, to the goblins that find themselves driven into the front lines at spear point. A legion is headed by a warlord with several captains serving under its command. A hobgoblin warlord is a ruthless tyrant more interested in strategy, victory, glory, reputation, and dominion than leading troops into battle.

As loyal and disciplined as hobgoblins are in their own legion, rival legions compete constantly for reputation and status. Meetings between legions erupt in violence if troops aren't restrained, and only exceptionally powerful leaders can force legions to cooperate on the battlefield.

Strategic Thinkers

Hobgoblins have a strong grasp of tactics and discipline, and can carry out sophisticated battle plans under the direction of a strategically minded leader. However, they hate elves and attack them first in battle over any other opponents, even if doing so would be a tactical error.

Legions often supplement their ranks with less reliable and more expendable troops, including goblins, bugbears, orcs, evil humans, ogres, and giants.

Beast Trainers

Hobgoblins have a long history of training animals to service. Like the more civilized races, they use oxen and horses to transport goods and weaponry over long distances. They communicate with each other using trained ravens, and keep vicious wolves to guard prisoners and protect hobgoblin camps. Hobgoblin cavalry use trained worgs as steeds, in the same way that goblins ride wolves. Some tribes even keep carnivorous apes as fighting beasts.

Conquer and Control

Hobgoblins claim lands with abundant resources, and they can be found in forests and mountains, near mines and humanoid settlements, and anywhere else that wood, metal, and potential slaves can be found. They build and conquer strongholds in strategically advantageous locations, which they then use as staging areas to expand their territory.

Hobgoblin warlords never tire of combat, but they don't take up arms lightly. Before they attack, hobgoblins conduct thorough reconnaissance to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of their foes. When assaulting a stronghold, they surround it first to cut off escape routes and supply lines, then slowly starve their enemies out.

Hobgoblins fortify their own holdings, bolstering existing defenses with innovations of their own. Whether they lair in cavern complexes, dungeons, ruins, or forests, they protect their strongholds with ditches, fences, gates, guard towers, pit traps, and crude catapults or ballistas.

Legion of Maglubiyet

Hobgoblins worship Maglubiyet the Mighty One, the greater god of goblinoids. As terrifying as this figure is, hobgoblins don't fear death, believing that when they die in battle, their spirits join the honored ranks of Maglubiyet's army on the plane of Acheron.

They break before our shields,

They fall beneath our blades;

Their home is ours to conquer,

Their children our slaves.

Acheron! Acheron!

Victory is ours!

Hobgoblin captains are battlefield tacticians. They lead their allies to victory by employing martial skill and rallying others with orders and threats. Hobgoblin captains usually oversee hobgoblin battle groups or gangs of weaker monsters.

Hobgoblins with a prodigious talent for magic sometimes undergo grueling training to become hobgoblin devastators. Devastators are spellcasters who call down fireballs and other destructive magic in the defense of the court they serve, whether that court is in the Feywild or the Material Plane. A hobgoblin devastator on the battlefield is a boon to their allies and a threat to every foe around them.

Far from being cloistered academics, hobgoblin devastators are masters of the battlefield. In addition to tactical applications of the magical arts, they learn the basics of weapon use, and they measure their deeds by the enemies defeated though their magic. They have the respect of other members of the host and receive obedience and deference from many quarters.

In the Feywild, many archfey seek to bolster their armies' might with the services of hobgoblin devastators.

Goblinoids of the Feywild

The goblinoid peoples—goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears—first appeared in the Feywild millennia ago, and they resided there until the god Maglubiyet conquered them. They then spread throughout the multiverse, with many of them ending up on the worlds of the Material Plane. Most goblinoids encountered on those worlds are members of families that have been away from the Feywild for centuries, and over time, those lineages have become Humanoid. Fey goblinoids, who still bear the magic of the Feywild, are rare on the Material Plane but not unheard of. Hobgoblin devastators are examples of such Fey folk, as are hobgoblin iron shadows and nilbogs (also in this book).

In hobgoblin society, the Academy of Devastation identifies hobgoblins with a talent for magic and puts them through a grueling training regimen that endows them with the ability to call down fireballs and other destructive magic on the host's behalf. A hobgoblin devastator on the battlefield is simultaneously a boon to all its allies and a threat to every foe around it.

Into the Fray

While other cultures treat their wizards as cloistered academics, hobgoblins expect their spellcasters to fight. Devastators learn the basics of weapon use, and they measure their deeds by the enemies defeated though their magic.

Devastators have the respect of other members of the host, and they receive obedience and deference from many quarters. Their ability to lay waste to entire formations with a single use of magic allows them to gain far more glory in battle than a single warrior.

Other cultures might view the use of such abilities as a short cut to glory, but to hobgoblins a gift for magic is as valued and useful as a strong sword arm or brilliance in tactics. They are all boons from Maglubiyet that must be cultivated and unleashed upon the enemy.

The Academy of Devastation believes that an academic approach to magic is a sign of weakness and inefficiency. A warrior doesn't need to know about metallurgy to wield a blade, so why should a wizard care about where magic comes from? Devastators love to prove their superiority in battle by seeking out enemy spellcasters and destroying them.

Only Results Matter

Devastators study a simplified form of evocation magic. Their training lacks the theory and context that other folk study, making them skilled in battle but relatively illiterate on the finer points of how and why their magic works.

Iron shadows are hobgoblin martial artists who serve fey and mortal courts as secret police, scouts, and assassins. They spy to ferret out treachery, rebellion, and betrayal and deal with it ruthlessly. Iron shadows possess agility and stamina matched only by their ironclad commitment to the will of their masters. They wield a deadly combination of unarmed fighting techniques and shadow magic to deceive and defeat their foes. While on secret missions, they wear masks crafted to resemble monsters, both to conceal their identities and to strike fear into their foes.

An iron shadow is usually recruited from the ranks of the Feywild's hobgoblin armies or from among the hobgoblins who have resided in the Material Plane for centuries. A candidate for admission undergoes a series of tests designed to reveal any potential for treachery. Those who fail are slain, while those who pass receive secret training in the arts of magic and stealth. This indoctrination is a slow and arduous process; many aspirants don't finish it, and years might go by during which the iron shadows welcome no new members into their ranks. When a recruit's training is complete, they are tasked with conducting assassinations and spy missions.

The Iron Shadows are hobgoblin monks that serve as secret police, scouts, and assassins. Among other hobgoblins, they spy to ferret out treachery, rebellion, and betrayal.

Trained in Secret

Iron Shadows are recruited from across the hobgoblin ranks. Each member keeps her eyes open for potential recruits, those whose agility and stamina are matched only by an ironclad commitment to Maglubiyet's will.

A candidate for admission undergoes a series of tests designed to reveal any potential for treachery. Those who fail are slain, while those who pass receive secret training in the magical and martial arts. This indoctrination is a slow and arduous process; many aspirants don't finish it, and years might go by during which the Iron Shadows welcome no new members into their ranks. While a recruit is in training, it serves the Iron Shadows by looking for and reporting suspicious behavior.

Their masks also signify the supposed origin of their fighting techniques. The priests of Maglubiyet teach that the Great One stole the secrets of shadows from an archdevil, allowing his followers to conceal their identities, walk between shadows, and craft illusions to confuse and confound their enemies.

Masters of Shadow and Fist

When a recruit's training is complete, she is ready to wield a deadly combination of unarmed fighting techniques and shadow magic to deceive and defeat her foes. She continues to spy on other hobgoblins, but is now also empowered to conduct assassinations and spy missions, both against enemies and among goblinoids. These missions are ordained by the clerics of Maglubiyet, who keep a careful eye on the goblinoid community to ensure that it functions according to Maglubiyet's will.

Masked Devils

Iron Shadows on a secret mission wear masks crafted to resemble devils, both to conceal their identities and to strike fear into their foes.

Hobgoblin warlords lead armies of hobgoblins and their allies, using their experience and strategic minds to command amid the ebb and flow of battle.

Hobgoblin warriors might hunt and raid alone or with trained mastiffs, worgs, goblin gangs, or other allies. They employ simple tactics and exploit every advantage their allies provide. They willingly sacrifice companions in their pursuit of victory.

Larger cousins of goblins, about the same size as humans with dark orange or red-orange skin

Hobgoblins live in tribal bands, and can be found in nearly any clime. They are bigger cousins of goblins and are not affected by sunlight. They have infravision (60-ft). They are competitive with other tribes and will sometimes make war on each other, unless controlled by a powerful leader. Hobgoblins will typically lair underground and when they do they will sometimes keep carnivorous apes as guards. Hobgoblins are larger, hairier goblins with brown to grey fur. They have bright red or orange faces and yellow or brown coloured eyes. They have an average lifespan of 60 years.