Goblins... Everywhere... ARGHHHHH!

Okay so I think i'm beginning to get a little obsessed with Goblins. I hate goblins. Much like fiends in FO-NV, they are a brilliant group designed for pleasure killing. I want to know any and all drops you guys have gotten from Goblins(at any level). Don't be shy even if you got a pewter knife, I want to know.

Buffy is quite intrigued by goblins. Since they have big pointed ears like she does, and have quite a complex society, she wonders if they are not some form of cave mer? She's tried to make friends with them, but that can be quite tricky and dangerous. She doesn't pay much attention to loot since she's too weak to pick up much anyway, but it seems that goblin magey types can often drop pretty powerful staves.

Since you said this thread is about goblins, here is a snip from Episode 10.1 of Buffy's Journal where she encountered three of them guarding the entrance to a mine on the road to Skingrad:

* * *
I coated three iron tipped broad head arrows with poison, laying two carefully at my feet and setting one to the nock.

Bow partially drawn, I studied the green targets beyond the tip of my arrow. Their pointed ears swept gracefully rearward, and were even larger than mine or Superian's. The farthest goblin produced a brown glass bottle from between two rocks, opened it against the crossguard of a sheathed blade and took a long pull. A second comrade extended both arms wide in a lazy stretch. Each hand ended with three fingers and a thumb, all capped with large black claws. Raising a yawning muzzle skyward displayed dagger-like teeth. The final member of the trio revealed himself to indeed be a he-goblin by lifting his crude loincloth and casting a yellow stream upon on the trunk of a tree.

If there was any doubt as to the danger posed by this motley crew, it was put to rest by the remains that marked the area. There was a variety of bones that appeared to be from men, mer and horse. A nearly complete skeleton of some hapless traveler wore the tattered shreds of a burgundy shirt.

The moment I loosed my arrow, I snuck two steps back down my rocky perch, breaking line of sight with the targets. I was rewarded by the sounds of a sharp screech and breaking glass. After a brief pause, I crept back up the rock to survey the results. One goblin was dead. The other two quickly gave up searching and returned to their posts.

Another poisoned arrow knocked the archer to the ground. The remaining guard's short sword sang from his scabbard as his beady eyes darted among the rocks, trees and brush that hid me. If he saw my third arrow coming, he did not have time to react before he joined his comrades in death.

* * *

Goblin warlords are mighty adversaries. I once fought with one hand-to-hand and it lasted forever.Good fun

I read up to Episode 13, but that segment about the 3 arrows she put into the floor and the great tactic of releasing her bow string and stepping back out of sight waiting and then returning to the same spot. Also the way she target the farthest Goblin first in order to put less attention if any in her direction. Great descriptive section.

Hmmm, the best ever drop was at the cave just outside of Bruma, on the shaman outside, 35 Strong Potions of Sorcery, on the collective inside, just over 900 Silver Arrows.

What level was you at this point?

My first Dwarven shield in Oblivion was from a Goblin in Derelict Mine. This was also where I discovered that fine iron weapons existed.

If you like the Fine Iron Weapons, you will LOVE the Fine Steel Weapons. Fine Steel Longsword has got to be the best looking sword in the game! You can obtain Fine Steel Weapons when adventuring with a certain faction. No Spoilers

I was about level 42 or 43.

My favorite drop is the Goblin Totem. My character collects them. Worth over 7,700 gold each and usually carrying a potent destruction enchantment. I say that my character collects them...he has but one so far. The Three Feathers Goblin Totem.

There are a couple of locations where you can get two Tribal Totems in a single cave/mine, because the Goblins in one tribe have stolen the Totem of another tribe. There' a quest associated with one of these, and the other is one you can't miss, being next to the road outside a town. There are seven Goblin tribes that have totems, and it's a fun "off-the-books" quest to collect the whole set. I did that with one character, and put them all in an open barrel in the basemant at Benirus Manor. It's quite tricky getting them all in there at the same time.

Since none of the merchants can give you the full price for a Totem, it just makes more sense to collect them instead of sell them at a loss. You can't start new wars with them, despite any dialog that says you can.

Goblins to me are the single most satisfying creatures in the game to slay, esp. with some of the overhaul mods like OOO & MMM. Even in vanilla, they are diverse: some are weaker, some are stronger. OOO & MMM enhances this by making some of them incredibly brave and tenacious, whereas others are cowardly, or just plain hapless (actually this is true of many of the overhauled NPCs, but it seems particularly satisfying with Goblins). Having said that, I did not like the way Goblins (and raiders, etc.) levelled up with the character in vanilla. A bit of leveling would be fine, but encountering a whole cave full of "Level 15 Goblins" to me was very immersion breaking. Goblin Warlords are, as has been said, challenging.

I thin the best thing about Goblins is that they are one of the most believable and convincing of "monsters" in the game. They are not just random supernatural beings but an animal, indeed some form of humanoid with a fairly complex society. A society tha tis clearly at odds with the civilized species and socities of Tamriel, and which must be driven from the land.

My only real regret about Goblins in the game is I wish they were more 'interactive.' Indeed this is a problem in the game in general me thinks. It should be possible (sometimes) to talk to bandits and goblins and such, and not ALWAYS automatically be in combat with them. It would be VERY cool if there were a whole Goblin quest-line that explored Goblin lore.

Actually, if your infamy, bounty and/ or personality are high enough, you can talk with bandits.

This was interesting to read, I never thought of it like that. I just hated them because they attack me whenever I show up. But if I were to face danger from other societies simply because I exist I would also attack anyone in my path who I consider is a member of the other society.
They are hostile for a reason, they want to survive.

Or maybe they are just creatures who love fighting and getting rich, even though they have no use for wealth :tongue:

Me likes to kill goblins >:]

they do drop some good staves if you find the shaman queen things... however another good monster to watch fall ragdoll style off high things :dance:

No kidding!?

Layers upon layers . . .

Or you could see it as a tortured existence. They were trained up by the Altmer originally for labour. I visualise them as having intelligence almost forced on them, so now they're stuck in a bad place halfway between that of a common monster and one of the civilised races of Tamriel. It means they can't integrate with either, so they kill everything instead. They're feral enough to attack indiscriminately, but intelligent enough to be dangerous. Means that they're viewed as pests to be purged.

I would like to find some of the totem things people have mentioned here though. I've never even seen one before.

I have a take on goblins that I developed for my fan fiction. The basic goblin social grouping is a tribe. Each is a magocracy, ruled by a shaman. They prefer caves, mines, or the lower reaches of forts for their lairs. They grow mushrooms for sustenance, and often keep herds of rats for a source of meat. They have a female-dominated society, with the females being larger, stronger, smarter, and the only six that can sometimes use magic. While smaller and unmagical, the males come in larger numbers. They compete with one another for breeding rights, for the females will only mate with the strongest warriors (and it also takes a strong male to survive intercourse!). Because of this goblin males are very aggressive, as they are always looking to prove themselves. The females commonly remain within the lair, and will only leave to lead important attacks. This leaves the males to do the grunt work of hunting and raiding, a task which they relish as it gives them opportunities to gain honor by both combat and gaining treasure. Because of this most goblins people encounter will be male. Also the mortality rate among males is drastically higher. This does not endanger the tribe as a whole however, as the females have a short gestation period and give birth to litters. The only real way to make a dent in goblin populations is to go into their lairs and kill all the females.

That's a grea back story for Goblins SubRosa. It would be neat to have them really developed with NPCs (some unkillable I suppose), "wars," quests, etc.

My character is quite curious about goblins, and her observations are completely consistent with your views. As she learns more about them, I expect she will find their culture to be almost exactly as you describe. I am supposing that the role of the warlord is basically the dominant male of the 'harem', or perhaps the current chosen one(s) of the shamen matriarch; in either case, driven by breeding rights.

There are a couple of mods out there that let you play as a Goblin. I keep meaning to give one a try.



I actually was inspired by the first Alien vs. Predator novel, which describes Predator society in much the same way. The males all run around hunting to prove themselves in order to gain the right to breed with the females, who are bigger, stronger, and much more dangerous.