1) Have 'em buried in the ground and camorflaged. When the PCs wander past, have their screaming horns sound and they then leap from the ground.

2) They are painted to accentuate their skeletons. White paint outlines all of their bones. Their skulls are pure white. Their mounts are decked in funeral bells, which toll dolerously when they charge.

3) Goblin shamans twirl globes of burning herbs above their heads. These fumes are hallucigenic and they throw them into the PCs ranks. Fort save vs DC 16 or suffer violent hallucinations. These are so vivid that they mimic the spell Phantasmal Killer as the victims fears become manifest. The Goblins have a tolerance to the fumes.

4) The Goblins mounts have been starved before the hunt. They have the power attack feat and can use frenzy for the subsequent combat.

5) The Goblins have been infected with Mummy Rot and attack with razor sharp claws. PCs hit must save vs Mummy Rot as thought they had been assaulted by a mummy.

........

attack in hordes:  like a plague of rats, they swarm over opponents, biting, clawing, and chopping.  they also carry their own disease, goblin-madness.  causes those infected to lose touch with reality, usually in a violent manner.

Perhaps goblins could be like reavers?  Half-whispered barroom tales of cities that have disappeared overnight, packs of savage things cutting their faces while they chew through your throat, and occasionally (only occasionally) someone claims they used to be men.

edit: zombies?  Did I really put that?  I blame being in two threads at the same time.

Quote from: One Horse Town2) They are painted to accentuate their skeletons. White paint outlines all of their bones. Their skulls are pure white. Their mounts are decked in funeral bells, which toll dolerously when they charge.

I really like this one.  It's so melodramatic that it totally works.

voodoun zombie goblin hordes!  with bells!

6) Goblin flaggelants charge the PCs, strips of their own flesh torn from their bodies as they come. They refuse to lie down and die until they reach -10 hit points and act normally until they do.

7) Giant bats are trained as mounts by the Goblins and they swoop down on the unsuspecting party on silent wings before dissapearing into the night. Only to attack again and again. Victims are borne aloft and their torn remains showered on their fellows below.

Fanatics that are so high on drugs that they feel no pain, set themselves alight and grapple party members, passing on the pain.

9) Goblin archers fire arrows with lines attached, preferably at one target. The lines are hauled in, dragging the screaming victim with it. Best used when the Goblins occupy higher ground.

10) A Goblin Adept is draped in poisonous snakes which attack anyone in hand to hand with him. The victim is subject to 1d6 snake bite attacks each round as well as the Adepts spell or weapon attack.

don't warhammer goblins (night goblins?) have that drug-induced madness thing?  squigs and hallucinogenic fungus, all that fun?  always thought that was a nice touch.  much scarier than the vanilla d&d version (which we seem to be fixing nicely. . . .)

Quote from: beeberdon't warhammer goblins (night goblins?) have that drug-induced madness thing?  squigs and hallucinogenic fungus, all that fun?  always thought that was a nice touch.  much scarier than the vanilla d&d version (which we seem to be fixing nicely. . . .)

Yeah, you caught me.

it's a good one!  i've been meaning to use it myself!

Well is it known among the sons of men that the elves do dwell in a half realm between dream and waking, a place of eternal autumn twilight where faerie lights flicker in peaceful glades by laughing streams.  So to, though it be less often told, do the goblins dwell beyond the borders of the waking world.  There is a place of bitter spring dawning, a realm of mud and groaning ice, hardy weeds and barren trees.  And in that place there stands a city, market of the goblin kings, tall and lean as a winter famine, they wait in great halls of stone still chill with the breath of winter.  And just as the lost and innocent find their way to hope and safety in the warm autumn realms of the elves, so too do the truant and the selfish find their way to the markets of the goblin city, where meat is scarce and hunger universal.

It is said that mad cap city is known as Caith Despire.  Though what is a name to the end of all hope?

They can pass through the shadows to that place, the skulking little fiends with their sickly, pallid flesh.  Their cat like eyes see into the other realms, even the realm of death.  Their teeth like needles tear at flesh and carry disease and even poison.  So do not laugh at them as they gather in their caves and burrows.  Nor disdain them as their merchant wagons slowly groan their way down the road.  For you too may one day have children.  And if you have wronged them you may be certain that the goblins have not forgotten it.

A few goblins knocking one of the characters down, and attempting to pull them to a private snacking location.

Quote from: ReimdallA few goblins knocking one of the characters down, and attempting to pull them to a private snacking location.

Hee. I was just about to post...

11) Goblins who have had their gloves coated in a strong adhesive attack the PCs. Once hit, the PCs cannot dislodge them and are eventually dragged down by the weight to suffer an ignoble end.

Make them tough, rabid in their behaviour--frothing and foaming and snapping at all things that get in their way as prey. (men or beasts..). Chop off a limb and they keep coming, chop off two, and they drag themselves along still.


That's Myrk from my FRPG--the closest we get to goblins, tar skinned creatures with red glowing eyes that bark and growl, and talk in guttural forsaken tongues.

Quote from: One Horse TownHee. I was just about to post...

11) Goblins who have had their gloves coated in a strong adhesive attack the PCs. Once hit, the PCs cannot dislodge them and are eventually dragged down by the weight to suffer an ignoble end.

I've done this with meathooks and barbed wire instead. That did a pretty good job of freaking the players out.

Or the way that herds of antelope get past lions (and I don't even watch nature documentaries ... who has time?) ... they just flat out charge, with the expectation that the lion can only get so many of them.

Just flat out charge, with no intent beyond piling up grasping, clinging fodder around the legs (and then the waist, and then the chest ...) of attacking fighters.

Makes ya really wish you bought some nifty Cleave feats for wiping out mass quantities.  And if you did, makes you really glad that you did.