Can a standard Kobold Warrior make a Sneak Attack with a spear?

Question

The standard Kobold Warrior has the Sneak Attack ability, which specifies:

The kobold warrior deals an extra 1d4 precision damage to flat-footed creatures.

But the general description of the Sneak Attack ability in the glossary says:

When the monster Strikes a creature that has the flat-footed condition with an agile or finesse melee weapon, an agile or finesse unarmed attack, or a ranged weapon attack, it also deals the listed precision damage. For a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, that weapon must also be an agile or finesse weapon.

The preface to Creature Abilities also says:

The statistics for individual creatures might alter the traits, the number of actions, or other rules of these abilities. Anything noted in a specific creature’s stat block overrides the general rules for the ability below.

The only weapons the kobold warrior has are a spear and a sling. Does this mean that he can only use his sneak attack with the sling (since a spear doesn't have the agile or finesse traits)? Or is its own description of the Sneak Attack ability overriding the general one, and removing all the prerequisites?

Some additional information: while researching this question I found the Menace Under Otari adventure, from the Beginner Box. During its 7th encounter there are 4 kobold warriors (only equipped with spears, no slings), and the encounter description says that they try to flank the heroes and use their sneak attack ability, which suggests that they're able to do it with their spears, is this correct?

Answer 1

It cannot Sneak Attack with a spear

The language for Sneak Attack presented in its statblock is standardized for all instances of Sneak Attack on monsters. Its lack of the full details is not an exception. The feature may be included to keep consistency among Kobold statblocks or to make its sling weapon viable/better, or something else entirely, but it's still the same Sneak Attack as outlined in the book.

If it was intended to gain bonus precision damage on its spear attack, its Sneak Attack feature would either have a specific exception for doing so or they would gain a damage ability against flat-footed targets not labeled Sneak Attack.