Conquerers of Every Horizon
Habitat: Desert, Forest, Grassland, Hill, Mountain, Planar (Acheron), Underdark; Treasure: Armaments, Individual
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 embody the primal urge to grow and spread, expressing such drives by bending the world to their whims. Lone hobgoblins claim woodland territories and plunder the wilds. In groups, they form hierarchical, martial societies bent on conquering lands and stripping them of resources to serve their expansionist zeal.
Hobgoblins often subjugate animals, monsters, and destructive Fey—particularly goblins and bugbears—to serve their plans. Hobgoblins might ally with dragons, warlords, the servants of warlike gods, or other powerful creatures that promise them control of new territories. Should hobgoblins bring an entire land to heel, they seek new conquests, venturing across seas, into the Underdark, or to stars and planes of existence beyond.
Many hobgoblins serve the violent god Maglubiyet, whose hunger for conquest matches their own. Hobgoblin followers of Maglubiyet flourish in the Infinite Battlefield of Acheron, where they endlessly indulge their drive for domination. These war-obsessed hobgoblins employ elaborate tactics and strange weapons, which they sometimes unleash on worlds of the Material Plane.
The drive to subjugate and pillage is part of hobgoblins’ supernatural nature, though a few might repress their warlike tendencies or turn them to more useful ends. Roll on or choose a result from the Hobgoblin Strategies table to inspire how a hobgoblin carries out its conquest.
| 1d6 | The Hobgoblin Works To … |
|---|---|
| 1 | Build a vessel to carry hobgoblin armies to new conquests. |
| 2 | Capture monsters and train them to fight. |
| 3 | Collapse a region into the Underdark so riches can be sifted from the ruins. |
| 4 | Construct a giant machine to strip resources. |
| 5 | Convince devils, dragons, or hobgoblins from Acheron to invade an enemy land. |
| 6 | Help shortsighted merchants undermine a government or despoil the environment. |
Aura of Authority. While in a 10-foot Emanation originating from the hobgoblin, the hobgoblin and its allies have Advantage on attack rolls and saving throws, provided the hobgoblin doesn’t have the Incapacitated condition.
Multiattack. The hobgoblin makes two attacks, using Greatsword or Longbow in any combination.
Greatsword. Melee Attack Roll:+4, reach 5 ft. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) Slashing damage plus 3 (1d6) Poison damage.
Longbow. Ranged Attack Roll:+4, range 150/600 ft. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) Piercing damage plus 5 (2d4) Poison damage.
