Stronger than humans

>Why haven't hobgoblins conquered your world yet?
they can't reproduce

It's cause their gods suck ass and they have no idea how to into civ/agriculture. They need to raid for all their food. If you think they'll try to set up some kind of feudalism, they'll probably lose to human armies with heroes and supply lines. Even if they did secure a position as ruling class, their dickass goblinoid underlings would fuckup any country they ruled to the point of mass starvation and rebellion against these manlets.
Even Rome had farmers, man.

Isn’t the whole point of Hobgoblins that they’re dangerous because they’re intelligent enough to be organized and use effective tactics
Pretty sure they would at least understand farming or use slaves to do it at least

They're doing pretty well in my world, have their own nation instead of living on the fringes of human ones like in most settings. They've previously been kept from conquering other major nations because of such nations' magical superiority, but now that the mages and most other humans have wiped each other out in an apocalyptic war they might make a grab at it.

Because they take shit seriously. Even a totalitarian human empire will overlook some of their top brass indulging in fantasy opium habits, museum thefts and the occasional rape dungeon.

Hobgoblins are serious serious war war war. Sure, they'll let you stay as a lord as long as you kill all the non-Maglubiyet worshippers and give them what they want, but they're still going to crack down on you for wasting food or wasting resources that can be going to the legion's war effort. They're uptight all the way up from the bottom to the top, and you're never going to reach the top of a hobgoblin horde unless you're just as uptight as they are.

So the upright people in high places will already be fighting against hobgoblins, and the corrupt will either flee or work to defeat the hobgoblins, because they know they're not going to have their orgies and rape dungeons with a hobgoblin in charge.

tl;dr they're too draconic for most good people and too uptight for most bad people.

In my setting, hobgoblin is a blanket term for creatures contracted by the goblin princes, so it's like asking why people who owe banks money haven't conquered the world.

Because humans are eternally set as the youngest, most up and coming, and most populous race that control most of the world, and only a race similar to humans like elves are allowed to dominate be cause they are pretty and relatable..

They're not as populous as humans, and they're intrinsically tied to goblinkind, so they're very shitty with bad ideas.

Some are still bound to the elvish houses they were made for.

Orginization is a pain. Hobs are actually good leadership... but they aren't as strong as bugbears. Goblins have a higher reproduction rate, and selection preassures mean they usually have clever leaders. While all three races are bound together, ment to work in harmony, getting them together under a hobgoblin is a raging pain. Honestly that is why the general stratagy is to get a dragon or demon to be "leader." The hobs still have general command, but have a power to call back to for athority.

>Pretty sure they would at least understand farming or use slaves to do it at least
I like the idea of hobgoblins not giving a fuck about anything that's not fighting, using goblins as a borderline subhuman slave cast to do everything that's not fighting but still needed to keep a society running. Imagine a hobgoblin officer owning an estate with hobgoblins running the land, doing the accounting et cetera.

This is true. Hobgoblins may be efficient and effective, but their subordinates (Goblins and bugbears) are not. They may make fine rulers on the top, but their subordinates will always fuck things up at the bottom. And while they may be great tacticians, Hobgoblins just aren't made for public relations. Their solution will always be violent crackdown, which is always bound to make people even angrier at them.

I don't think they're stronger than humans but they are tougher.

Because they pretty much come across as Humans+ I think is one of the more reasonable pitches if you want to have them on the same level of development but not be very powerful. I don't really buy the less magic thing if you're going by D&D as-written. 3e made goblins, bugbears and all sorts of weird subtypes the product of hobgoblins' magical experimentation on themselves and 4e gave them a martial tradition of force magic-using mages who were zero subtlety but still effective. In every edition they've had strong clerical traditions and thus lots of divine magic.

I don't really buy this either because again, as-written bugbears and goblins don't tend to have any Int penalty. If you want to use hobgoblin antagonists you probably don't use lolsorandom PF-type goblins.

Eberron IIRC did have hobgoblins conquer its world and be one of the lost ancient civilizations.

youtube.com/watch?v=pymmUeTvxnM
obligatory

They are too busy knobgobblin' with the other goblinoids.

>as-written bugbears and goblins don't tend to have any Int penalty
Yes, but every competent DM knows goblins are dumb as shit. even with their average intelligence, they'd probably still be terrible for every part of society due to their tendency toward stupid chaotic evil.

hobgoblins have been LE since AD&D mate

Believe me, they're trying. But the yuan-ti are waking up, and they're freaking the fuck out about that. They ceased their invasions and started pulling back to easily defensible positions while pissing themselves. The humans think this means they've won and are super smug. They have no idea they've fallout out of the frying pan, into the fire, and then triggered a gas leak.

Hobbos are but hobgoblins like warfare. They bring glory to themselves and their god(s) through subjugation and conquest. No hobgobbo would rather farm than fight and their society falls because it since its now relying on bugbears and goblins to do most other work.

because they are bros with humans. also a lot of stories, forgotten realms, pathfinder, tolken, all have dwarves depicted as a slowly dying or under threat race.

This is actually my setting, word for word. Weird.

I said goblins, not hobgoblins. reading comprehension. Hobgoblins may be at the top, but it's goblins all the way down.
Here, have the only as-written example of goblinoid civilization. notice the lack of farms, crops, or general supply aside from some wagons they probably stole.

infighting. one of 3.5's hundreds of books detailed their problems with infighting.

Because my Hobgoblins aren't as big as humans.. Goblins don't need to be big. That's what Orcs are for.

That map is the equivalent of a Roman legion temporary base set up by an army during a conquest.

Because humans and elves have been using their many tribal conflicts to stage a puppet war for generations.

I don't think goblins are dumb just, as you say, really fucked up societally.

>war camp
>civilization

They have, several times, it's a natural cycle.
>Some group of hobgoblins gets their shit together
>forms the kernel of an empire
>expands until it conquers most of the known world
>collapses due to infighting as soon as the imperial faction weakens too much to hold it all together

But orcs are also weaker and smaller than humans.

I can't tell if this is a parody or not.

>war camp
>doesn't have farms

You don't fucking say?

>goblinoids apparently require at least one pit per 8 tents for their camps to run well

I hate those retards so much

They have shitty allies

Too backstabby.

No one wants to share power.

Is this guy retarded? Maybe he could think it through properly if he took that goblinoid cock out of his mouth.
The reason Hobgoblins haven't conquered shit is because like any other monstrous race the second they start congregating and becoming a threat every neighboring power comes down and shits on their chest.

>"Hobgoblins have never once died in any of my campaigns"
What were the players just not allowed to attack them?

>humans are expansionist, inventive, adaptive and comparatively short-lived compared to other races
>hobgoblins are expansionist, inventive, rugged and comparatively short-lived compared to other races
The true world-conquering empire is the joint human and hobgoblin one.

Goblins are small orcs. Orcs are big Goblins. Hobgoblins are Goblins that don't shit themselves in a fight. Bugbears are also small but strong and stealthy.

>"You try to attack the hobgoblin, but his mastery of CQC battle tactics means he evades your blow and - in a flash! - is suddenly behind you in a threatening flanking position. Your character has two options: he may exclaim "N-nani?!" or he may surrender."

One of their Kings foolishly signed off on a demonic pact, dooming them and their lands to a slow linger death by treason, war and strife

But yeah, ignoring that, they would be a dominant player

I mean, in your setting or in D&D?

>"H-he's fast!"

>Stronger than humans
>Smart as humans

Dragons
Aboleths
Mind Flayers
Ogre Magi / Oni
Demons
Liches, any thinking undead really.
Yakmen
Free Djnni kind
Thri Kreen
etc
etc
etc
etc.

In order, what's the reason none of these have conquered your world yet?
>The "etc"s are fill-in-the blanks-and must also be answered.

I love this interpretation and will steal it.
Do you have any more to add to this?

Because they aren't either of these things.

Paizo plz go.

>Dragons
Breed slow, need to eat a lot, are super paranoid and are few in number.
>Aboleths
Breed slow, are super paranoid and are few in number.
>Mind Flayers
Come from the future to try and fix the past, probably can't all come here at once. A race of brain-eating Akus who are in Samurai Jack's sandals.
>Ogre Magi / Oni
Basically like boogeyman giants, not a real civ.
>Demons
Engaged in eternal war with both devils and heaven but in most settings they are trying to.
>Liches, any thinking undead really.
Liches are not a real civ. Singular undead spellcasters who must study for years or even centuries spending thousands and thousands of gold coins and hours on mastery before an expensive ritual is done to make them undead.
>Yakmen
Shit dude I don't know anything about Yakmen.
>Free Djnni kind
Live on a different elemental plane and at war with each other a lot.
>Thri Kreen
Live in Dark Sun, are hunted by godlike sorcerer kings and are pretty primitive and weird as regards things like having a society.

Like OPs question is because hobs basically fit the same template as humans do but are marginally better than humans are. So it's sort of: if you have humans X, why is it humans and not hobgoblins? Or that's how I read it. Most of your things don't fit the same criteria.

...

ILU user.

Tiny Penises.

They have an empire but they're smack-dab in the middle of multiple forces.

To the north is an ancient red dragon, his lands and his draconian and dragonborn clans. To the west is Not!Arizona full of hill dwarves and blue draconians/dragonborn plus all the massive monsters/dinos who make it their home. To the south is the human kingdom. To the east? A massive forest inhabited by the wood elves and high elves. Northeast? A giant mountain dwarf city built on top of a massive chasm that also boasts an alliance with a bronze dragon and his draconian and dragonborn, not to mention the svirfneblin exiles who make the city their home.

They like to imagine conquering everyone but everytime they try, someone decides to fuck with them. So, despite having a massive air force of domesticated perytons and wyverns, well-trained light infantry and the most diverse cavalry forces on the continent....they can't do shit with them.

I hate the idea that the goblinoids have segregated communities. There is no hobgoblin or bugbear communities, it's goblinoids, also known as just goblins.

Jereth, disagrees

They believe agriculture is for pussies, so they leave it to lesser goblinoids. The problem is that lesser goblinoids are bumbling fuck ups who probably can't even figure out crop rotation.

Yak Folk can possess other creatures, their bodies disappearing into the victim's. If they did rule the world, would anyone know?