Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Goblin Bomber

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel when Nerdarchists Dave and Ted pay back the explosives enthusiast who’s faithfully served as our company mascot for nearly seven years with their own bona fide fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character build. The Goblin Bomber 5E D&D Character Build Guide takes their craft all the way and becomes a volatile presence in any battle. There’s also a really fun connection with another very popular project of ours. Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — Mad Bomber

Every Character Build Guide we create considers the journey as much as the final outcome. We aim to present a guide suitable for any level of 5E D&D play whether you’re pursuing an epic campaign from start to finish, starting beyond 1st level or choosing a character for a one shot. Then we take those concepts and develop an NPC or creature version of the character build for DMs to incorporate into their games. All of this gets packaged up and laid out in a PDF you can find over at Dungeon Master’s Guild. We’ve got dozens of pay what you want products at DMG, many of them best sellers so if you want to check those out start with the Mad Bomber here.

All about the character story

Each CBG starts with a character concept sticking to a particular schtick, from the Mind Breaker’s psyche crushing smites to the Goblin Bomber’s wide array of magical and mundane means to hurt and hinder opponents with their bombs and other projectiles. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too. Early in the development of this one we decided to create a connection with our Aces High encounter, which is a direction we’re exploring even more deeply going forward. At every step of the way we considered how this character can acquire new means to create explosions.

For us it’s important to consider who these characters are as individuals and why they follow these particular paths. One special thing to note with this CBG is while we always aim to make the journey to 20th level as practical as possible — none of these characters “come online” after an awkward slog through many levels — the Goblin Bomber really gels at 8th level. Every step of the journey from there to 20th level expands the scope of the explosive scenarios they love so much.

We really had tremendous fun coming up with this one. The Goblin Bomber possesses a wide array of magical and mundane means to hurt and hinder opponents with their bombs and other projectiles. Their eclectic collection of features allows them to manipulate these effects further in sometimes unpredictable ways. The concept itself is something Nerdarchist Dave in particular really digs and since it’s our company mascot it has an extra layer of personal enjoyment for us. This one also represents another cool new approach to the CBG line, which we’ve expanded upon over the last few months through taking a step beyond the NPC creature version.

Goblin Bomber NPC for 5E D&D

Full disclosure — the NPCs and creatures we make in CBGs are some of my favorite bits of 5E D&D content to create. We step back and look at the character build to find the standout features that feel like signature abilities. The juice! From there we consider what sort of person or people would possess or gain these abilities and build a stat block around them. More often than not the section of a CBG For Dungeon Masters presents a generic creature.

A few months ago we expanded upon the CBG line by taking another big step and integrating them with our monthly Patreon rewards. Now we take these NPCs and craft an encounter around them in the style of our super popular Out of the Box series. In fact since starting down this path with the Party Animal CBG and Dark Paths: Little Shop of Dark Delights we’ve already taken it even further. Starting with this Goblin Bomber we’re finding ways to connect these encounters together. In our Aces High encounter a gang of goblin sky raiders assaults an airship astride giant bats, lobbing grenados to cause havoc. One scenario presumes the raiders won and the airship they hijacked becomes a mobile explosives facility with the goblin bomber in charge of operations — including experiments on unwitting test subjects far below!

Reflecting this escalation the sky raiders add to their arsenal of grenados with a new and more powerful explosive — bombardos! The Goblin Bomber’s mobile explosives factory functions as a lair too, which provided the perfect solution for a particular issue: goblins by and large aren’t very high in the challenge rating department across the board. We felt like it would be unusual for a 5E goblin to break the mold too much. Giving them a lair means we can keep the CR relatively low but still create a challenging situation for more adventurers.

Volatile Situation. A goblin bomber who sets up shop near a population center puts everyone in the area at risk. Experimenting with unstable substances, attempting to create more and more dangerous explosives, selling these weapons to nefarious entities and more only scratch the surface of how much trouble a single bomb maker can make.

“Bombardo Launch (3/Day). Ranged Spell Attack: +4 to hit, ranged 90 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage. In addition the bombardo causes one of the following effects (goblin bomber’s choice): (Alchemist’s Fire, Caustic Brew or Stench Kow Extract).”

If your next 5E D&D game needs an explosives enthusiast — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out the Mad Bomber Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — In Aces High goblins strapped into their bat mounts attack from all directions with dogfighting tactics and evasive flying skills. The Goblin Bomber dovetails with this encounter when the sky raider bandits use the spoils of their plunder as a mobile explosives factory! Learn more about the original encounter along with 54 other dynamic scenarios to drop right into your 5E games here.

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