Give 'em a fighting chance!
I am and always have been of two minds about humanoid races in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. On the one hand, what Evil
Wizard (tm) could get by on a day-to-day basis without a seemingly endless supply of low-hit-dice kobolds tunneling busily away at a
labyrinthine edifice, just waiting to get smacked into the beyond by a low-level party looking for some easy gold and an onramp to 2nd Level?
On the other hand, while I don't subscribe to a certain game publisher's idea of a "20 point bump" for monsters, I
do think that far too often, Kobolds, Orcs, Goblins and the like are used poorly by many a Dungeon Master as mere treasure carrying experience point snacks for a well-equipped party out to hack and slay.
So what, then, does one do with the ugly little critters?
The answers are simple: tactics and home field advantage.
In reverse order, how often does a Dungeon Master open a typical tavern scene with "...and in the corner sits a group of thirty-two kobolds, all wearing leather armor and armed with short-swords." Never. Almost universally, humanoids are encountered in or near (in the case of wandering monsters) their "home turf" - much as you or I are rarely spelunking or trekking through deep forests (having done both I do sing the praises of both activities, though).
So, the question arises: does the at least Low intelligence monster sit there and wait,
slack jawed, to be driven out of house and home by the next group of money-hungry adventurers to come along? Certainly not! Remember, all of the various humanoid races are at least smart enough to mine and use tools - what's to say they can't lay a myriad of traps? A tarry web hanging from the entranceway ceiling, waiting to be dropped on unsuspecting interlopers and then lit afire is just the kind of dirty trick otherwise outgunned creatures might use.
Furthermore, multiple (hidden) exits to fall back through, murder holes, tripwires and the like must be played up by the Dungeon Master eager to make an adventuring party earn their gold!
Additionally, to readdress the issue of "home field advantage", consider the lengths modern man has gone through to defend his own home. From the first
Neanderthals, wielding clubs to drive away vicious predators, to entire nations armed with nuclear stockpiles, humankind has exhibited the trait that it is ready and willing to defend itself to the death if need be to defend whatever territory it calls it's own.
Why deny this trait to the Humanoid species? While enslaved and demoralized low hit-dice humanoids in the thrall of more powerful creatures might be reticent to fight, those who've created a niche in some forsaken hills or barrows (no matter what ill will they might bear to humans and demihumans) will fight to defend what they call their own - fiercely.
This is where close attention must be paid to the Morale rules, and the observant Dungeon Master might indeed weigh the issue more carefully in terms of deductions for deaths of comrades.
If, for example, a group of marauding adventurers corners a tribe of Orcs in the ruins of a long-forgotten watchtower and fights their way to the "common" chambers and finds themselves in the midst of orc matrons and younglings, it is then that a wise Dungeon Master will consider the following:
An armed group has assaulted their home. They have given no quarter, and now they stand within the "family" areas. This might give a ten or even fifteen percent
boost to the morale of the Orcs, and fill said humanoids with a berserk rage!
As to creatures too weak to fight, what's to say they have to fight? Clever monsters may even attempt to bribe interlopers - or ally themselves with stronger bands or stronger monsters overall (ogres, minotaurs - see B2: Keep on the Borderlands for an example of this very phenomenon in action).
Also, these humanoids will tend to know their lairs as well as you or I know our own homes or neighborhoods. Thus, a shrewd Dungeon Master might consider doubling the speed at which a hopelessly outmatched tribe of Hobgoblins finds it's way through
labyrinthine corridors seeking retreat - or a fortified position for one last stand against the intruders. Further this path too can be strewn with delaying obstacles, murder holes, sudden "gooseneck" drop-downs and the like for the unwary and incautious to find themselves mired in.
None of this is to say that the Dungeon Master should go to undue steps to make sure each and every kobold is a tactical
genius capable of overcoming a phalanx of warriors of the highest rank. No, indeed. But careful consideration should be given to ensure that early on player-characters learn that to underestimate one's opponent is to court swift (and ignoble) death!