Goblin (Commando, Pyro, War chanter & Warrior)

At this point, Goblins are essentially the tell-tale sign you're playing in Golarion. Paizo's rebranding of the creatures from "ork, but small" into the lovable sociopaths we've grown to love and appreciate was a historic move. It's no surprise that with the advent of Pathfinder 2nd Edition, they now come as a playable ancestry as well.

The bestiary gives us four variants to play with: the commando, pyro, war chanter and warrior. Each of the four showcase the goblins signature mix of bravado and oddly-misplaced self preservation instincts, mixed with their peculiar relationship with violence.

In combat, goblins are the master of swarming and hit and run tactics; with a plethora of distraction and mobility focused abilities, they make for extremely dynamic low-level combat. This makes them, among other things, a great way to teach new players about positioning, reactions, and creative use of scenery and terrain.

Hook 1 (Max) - The Gourmet Garbage Gang

The old sergeant looks tired and a touch bored, as if he's had this conversation a hundred times before.

"It's more of a nuisance than a real problem, honestly. Or rather, it was 'til the little buggers kidnapped someone's kid. The thing is, they apparently find people's garbage a premier delicacy and wreak a whole lotta havoc stealing it. Tried sending some of my boys after them, but lemme tell you, they ain't made for diving in trash. I reckon you lot might fare a little better. Still, I advise you get something to cover the smell, lest you have guts o' steel."

Hook 2 (TJ) - The Smokebelchers

The goblins of Uthen have made a name for themselves. Whether the name is positive or negative depends on who you ask, but it's a name nonetheless. Given the opportunity, the goblins have proven very skilled with machinery. While the dwarven clockwork and the gnomish magitech have both elegance and usefulness, the goblin smokebelchers have thrown out elegance in exchange for efficiency and speed.

Because of the rapid industrialization of the Midquarter of Dren, there have been fantastic leaps and bounds in availability of transportation, quality of life, and accessibility to gadgets and gizmos. The air quality and the blackened streaks along taller buildings as the smokebelchers live up to their name, however, has drawn the ire of those in the Lowquarter. Tharrum Platefury is looking for solutions, especially considering the reports of monsters in the smoke, stalking the streets in the darkness.

Hook 3 (Nemanja) - Plot of The Hidden King

Among sappers, there's a saying "Never trust a goblin, but always believe him". This is just a summary of how the little greenskins are seen amongst the Eveventh Kingdom's best engineers; pioneers of their craft that are too fickle and unreliable to work unsupervised, as for every genius idea one of them gets, another one gets blown up.

Indeed, at least seven wars and five covert campaigns have been fought between the Kingdoms of Mankind over the goblins' service. The goblins, for their part, don't seem to mind, working for whoever picks them up as long as they are given food to pickle and gunpowder to experiment with.

They didn't seem to mind, at least until a figure calling himself the Hidden King (in truth, a very cunning and powerful Barghest) comes forth with a list of demands. He claims there are hidden mines beneath every palace in the land, all ready to blow up as soon as he utters a magic word...