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Player > Races > Hobgoblin
Starfinder Alien Archive 2 p.77
Hobgoblins are Medium humanoids with the goblinoid subtype.
Hobgoblins are trained for combat from an early age, and they quickly learn that a foe can do much more than just hurt you. Hobgoblins gain a +1 racial bonus to AC against combat maneuvers.
Hobgoblins have darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
Hobgoblins gain a +2 racial bonus to Intimidate checks.
Hobgoblins gain a +2 racial bonus to Stealth checks.
Many hobgoblins have settled on higher-gravity worlds, sometimes in an intentional effort to strengthen their offspring through hardship. A hardworlder hobgoblin’s ability score adjustment is +2 Strength.
Rather than claim a home world or settle in any one permanent location, some hobgoblins form permanent roving military bands, filling various battle roles from birth to old age and moving from one war to the next. In this harsh life, only the tough survive. Some hire out as mercenaries, while others are essentially pirate raiders, creating nothing of their own. A warhob hobgoblin’s ability score adjustment is +2 Constitution.
Hobgoblins have a close relationship with their kanabo kin and
learn from them whenever they can. When wearing armor,
hobgoblins gain a +1 racial bonus to AC.
This replaces battle hardened.
Hobgoblin engineers are valued for their skill in building the
engines of war. Hobgoblins with this racial trait gain a +2 racial
bonus to Engineering checks.
This replaces sneaky.
With the ban on magic lifted, some Hobgoblin clans have
attempted magical experimentation to augment themselves
to the extreme. Hobgoblins with this racial trait gain a small,
third eye on their forehead, gain low-light vision, and can use
supercharge weapon once per day as a spell-like ability.
This replaces darkvision.
Hobgoblins are a militant and merciless species that organizes
quickly, reproduces rapidly, and adapts well to changing
conditions. They are similar in appearance to goblins but
are significantly taller and more muscled. While goblins are
anarchic and gleefully destructive, though, hobgoblins are
highly ordered and do nothing without a purpose.
Most hobgoblin societies are paramilitary states, with
no distinction between the government and the chain of
command. They can be as small as a single starship crew or as
large as a conquered world. However, these governments grant
nothing unearned to any hobgoblin, and only those who show
an aptitude for more advanced knowledge are given access
to it. The young are considered fully trained junior soldiers as
young as 14 years old, while some receive secondary education
to become technicians, spies, or engineers at 16 years old.
Hobgoblins are believed to have originated on lost Golarion.
When the Gap ended, though, hobgoblins already dwelled in
numerous solar systems, which suggests that they might
have engaged in dangerous generation-ship or suspendedanimation
expeditions of expansion, or that they had access
to powerful interstellar transportation magic.
While many societies were confused and shaken by the Gap,
the disparate and widespread hobgoblin nations were almost
entirely unaffected by it, and in some cases grew even stronger
due to its amnesic effects. When the Gap ended, all hobgoblins
still knew their own names and those of their superiors, their
military rank and position, that they had earned those ranks
through merit, and that their superiors had similarly earned
their positions. This formed a strong common attitude that
allowed many hobgoblin groups to work together, taking
advantage of the confusion and consternation of their
neighbors to wage quick, brutal wars of expansion
against regions still coming to grips with the Gap.
Additionally, most hobgoblin societies and groups
immediately analyzed such things as their religions and
social codes, and discarded
anything that did not
immediately make sense.
For example, many hobgoblin
societies found they had
strict rules forbidding the pursuit of spellcasting knowledge
and the use of magic, but this prohibition seemed needlessly
limiting after the Gap. Similarly, many hobgoblin groups saw
no advantage in worshiping their old gods. For example, many
hobgoblin mercenary companies who work for the Veskarium
have adopted the worship of Damoritosh.
However, other ancient prohibitions remain to this day,
though their origins are lost to the Gap. Whenever hobgoblins
and elves first encountered one another in the years after
the Gap, violence invariably ensued. Individual hobgoblins
sometimes have no special hatred of elves, but for most of the
race, elves are reviled and mistrusted creatures not even fit
for use as slave labor.
A typical hobgoblin is 5 feet tall and weighs 160 pounds.
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