D&D 5E Thoughts leveling up goblin NPC

[auburn2]

I am DM for a party who has a Goblin they rescued traveling with them. She was intended to be short lived (release the prisoners and they help us get out of here) but through a combination of luck and role play she has survived with the party, one of them is pretty attached to her and she has essentially turned into a henchmen of sorts. The problem is she has 7 hit points and the party is approaching 8th level. It is only a matter of time before an area effect spell or unseen trap disintegrates her.

I did not intend for her to be a regular party member it just kind of worked out that way. What are your thoughts on this and how or if I should do it? I don't need someone more powerful offensively, her 1 attack at +2 is fine and she doesn't really do much in battle, usually just hides and occasionally fires a crossbow. But she is pretty active in helping, augmenting the watch (never alone) and scouting. She is also by chance the only person in the party that speaks goblin and there are a lot of hobgoblins and bugbears in the adventure. I put some of the history and roleplay info below if any are interested, but it is not that relevant.

So how did she get attached, well they saved her from captivity to start with? One of the PCs is a huge dragonborn Fighter 5/wizard 2. Since she has never seen or heard of a dragonborn before, she thought he was a giant Kobold and I played that up for comedic effect. The other players got a kick out of this and I thought the PC might get offended but he actually went with it in role play. He then risked his life to save her a couple times, to include running from people he was fighting, taking opportunity attacks to move over and chop down two people threatening her. Then he later picked her up to carry her across a trapped room where she would have certainly died, taking the damage himself. After that she started to grow attached to him and it is not a bad gig for a goblin, they don't share loot with her, but she gets food, equipment and protection from the party. She still has a goblin's outlook on life though. When they eventually get back to civilization there will be even more role play opportunities (both from townspeople that don't want goblins walking around and from her reenforcing why townspeople don't want goblins walking around).

 

[iserith]

I think I would leave the goblin's stats as is and, if she dies, she dies. I would perhaps just add that she gets death saving throws as with a PC instead of dying outright at 0 hp, if you haven't done that already. This will basically keep her alive a great deal more often than not except in instances of death from massive damage.

If the players want to take steps to keep the goblin alive, they can do so, perhaps with spells that augment hit points or defenses. Or they can just make sure to keep the goblin at bay when they're getting into big trouble.

 

[commandercrud]

Use the sidekick rules and make them level 1 of something. Sounds like a rogue.

 

[auburn2]

Thanks, I looked at the sidekick rules, found some specifically for a Goblin that will work well.

 

[jasper]

Just level up the hit dice (2d6 or 7 hp per level) is HP 49 at level 7. Proficiency bonus is +3 at level 7 so to hit is now +5.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

We are having a similar thing with my character's mount. It has become more involved in the story and the DM and I have agreed that the dog needs more hit points.

To make this justifiable though, the dog has been participating more and more in the combats. This allows us to justify the fact that the dog is becoming more adept at combat and better able to dodge attacks(ie: take hits with more hit points).

If the goblin is a 'torch bearer' and never participates in fights, I'd agree with Isereth and say it shouldn't get Hit points. But if the PCs are teaching the goblin more advanced self defense and the goblin is seeing a lot of fighting, it only makes sense that it'd learn to survive.

My DM and I talked about giving the dog class levels but we decided that it made more sense to just give it Hit Dice that is reasonable. It will always be 1 or 2 levels behind the party (or whataver makes sense - that may be too powerful or too weak. Since it levels up on its own schedule, the DM can choose to level it up more quickly or slower)

Based on its HD, it gets an ASI at 4, 8,12, 16 HD, like a character and can choose to take feats instead (that make sense). It's proficiency bonus goes up based on its HD. We are giving it proficiency in STR and Dex saves.


So, your goblin could add a couple HD and an ASI and be a bit less squishy. A fireball will still kill it, though.

Edit: ninja'd by @jasper

 

[jgsugden]

Sidekick rules work, but historically I have applied a simple 3/4 rounded down rule. I use milestone advancement (and have used a version of it since the 80s before we had the term). NPCs that travel with the party end up advancing to be 3/4 of the party level, rounded down. If the party is 10, the NPC is 7. If the Party is 14, the NPC is 10. That keeps them from being a star, makes them more vulnerable, but is not instant death. They also do not generally have efficient class builds.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Sidekick rules work, but historically I have applied a simple 3/4 rounded down rule. I use milestone advancement (and have used a version of it since the 80s before we had the term). NPCs that travel with the party end up advancing to be 3/4 of the party level, rounded down. If the party is 10, the NPC is 7. If the Party is 14, the NPC is 10. That keeps them from being a star, makes them more vulnerable, but is not instant death. They also do not generally have efficient class builds.

Do you use class levels?

 

[Flamestrike]

Add a few HD to suit. Grant +1 to proficiency and up the CR.

If the Gobbo has taken a shine to a PC maybe even restat it out as a 1st level PC of that same class (emulating its hero!). Roleplay that transition in game.

 

[aco175]

I might add 1 cool thing that the goblin can now do like an encounter power. Maybe grant a PC advantage to attack once/rest by distracting the enemy or it has a wand and can shoot one cantrip like fire bolt. I would boost the level to 3rd as well with d6s and perhaps +1 BAB. You could even give it evasion or something to help survive a fireball.