3.5 How Can I Play a Housecat?

[StoryKeeper]

So I have this wacky idea that could really work with any campaign. Basically, all the players would be cats alla a weird animated cartoon show. My question is, how do you do this mechanically? Is there a cat template? Housecats as player characters? If not, how would you do the stats in a quick and dirty way?

[ridly]

create druids and use wild shape, a lot.

[Lycanthromancer]

Tibbits. Cat-people that can turn into cats.

[Scoot]

I'd probably just use the one in Savage Species.

[Tinydwarfman]

Just be a normal housecat who's been awakened.

[AbyssKnight]

Cat hengeyokai?

[Raiki]

Tibbits. Cat-people that can turn into cats.

Slight correction, they're people-cats that can turn into halflings. :smallbiggrin: Also, never trust them. That cute exterior is hiding an inside FULL OF DAGGERS!
~R~

[arguskos]

Tibbits. Cat-people that can turn into cats.
No no no, they're cats that can turn into halflings, or the other way around, if you prefer.

But seriously, tibbits ARE the housecat race of choice.

[Jack_Simth]

So I have this wacky idea that could really work with any campaign. Basically, all the players would be cats alla a weird animated cartoon show. My question is, how do you do this mechanically? Is there a cat template? Housecats as player characters? If not, how would you do the stats in a quick and dirty way?
A couple of things...

1) As long as it's even, it's balanced.
If everyone in the campaign is a housecat, it doesn't much matter, as balance is relative to the other players (although any mechanical differences between standard races will make some builds more viable than others). In D&D 3.5, for instance, if we take the stock cat, work out the racial modifiers to the physical stats, set the modifiers to the mental stats at +0, the DM can then adjust the opponents up or down based on how well the party is built, and what is and is not accessible.
2) Flavor only affects game balance when it has a reasonably mechanical impact.
A D&D 3.5 halfling could make a good stand-in for a cat; in a standard D&D game; just refluff the description, and you're set. Granted, you've got a "cat" with a Hat of Disguise, boots of the Winterlands, a Vest of Resistence, et cetera... but hey, cat.
3) Obscure sources are your friend.
Generally, someone will already have thought of it to some degree. From Savage Species Anthropomorphic animals, to Dragon Magazine Tibbits, chances are if the game system is highly popular, someone's already thought of a mod - finding it can be a pain, though.

[Ravens_cry]

Be an awakened cat.
Done.

[Dragero]

WereCats!!

Dwarf by day
Fuzzy Cuddly Soft Freind by night!!
Mwahahaha!

[Lord Vukodlak]

Hmm a cat campaign
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/5051/furryscale.jpg (http://img651.imageshack.us/i/furryscale.jpg/)

[Bibliomancer]

WereCats!!

Dwarf by day
Fuzzy Cuddly Soft Freind by night!!
Mwahahaha!

This is, unfortunately, mechanically impossible, since one's animal and humanoid forms must be within one size category of eachother for that lycanthropic template to exist (dwarves are medium while cats are tiny).

Additionally, that would confer quite a few additional qualities that might affect party power level (specifically, DR 5 or 10/silver).

I would recommend using an awakened cat with a few modifications to bring it up to humanoid +0 LA standard and account for their interactions with traditional roles like wizard or fighter (players will be OK playing an unusual race if their can all be their normal roles, probably). Think about whether this group of cats will be talking to humanoids or playing a parllel campaign where the cats struggle in the shadows as their tall, stupid, but ultimately endearing masters fight for something or other.*

*If this method was used, it could account for why humans tend to triumph over orcs (namely, the cats are on the humans' side secretly, since orcs have a habit of eating fluffy).

[druid91]

I would like to suggest this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76770) it has some, extremely funny, cat related adventure material.

[Devils_Advocate]

Play Toon (http://www.sjgames.com/toon/).

[Lycanthromancer]

[edit] ...Nevermind

[Serpentine]

Basically, all the players would be cats alla a weird animated cartoon show.I recommend a book called Tailchaser's Song. But mostly, it depends. Do you mean the players play normal housecats as characters? Or the players' characters are turned into cats? Or the characters have cat-like abilities/traits/whatevers? What degree of felinity are we talking here?

[Fhaolan]

Try this third party suppliment:

http://skirmisher.cerizmo.com/items/93-the-noble-wild-pdf-download

It has all sorts of stuff on playing intelligent animals, including magic variants, and general game advice.

[Inhuman Bot]

Hmm a cat campaign
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/5051/furryscale.jpg (http://img651.imageshack.us/i/furryscale.jpg/)

[Internet]

Be a Psion and swap minds with a housecat?

[ericgrau]

Awakened Cat
Racial HD: Replace with class levels
Size: Tiny
Abilities: +4 Dex, +2 wis, -8 str. Regardless of your rolls, your starting strength cannot be below 1.
Skills: "Cats have a +4 racial bonus on Climb, Hide, and Move Silently checks and a +8 racial bonus on Jump checks. Cats have a +8 racial bonus on Balance checks. They use their Dexterity modifier instead of their Strength modifier for Climb and Jump checks. *In areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth, the Hide bonus rises to +8."
Bonus Feats: Weapon Finesse
LA: +0
Favored Class: Any if it's an all cat campaign. Otherwise Rogue.

For weapons I'd stick your cats on hind legs, let them have opposable thumbs and be done with it. For armor get it custom made and charge double.

Have fun.

[Person_Man]

There are cat specific racial feats and Skills (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c) that WotC wrote up on April Fool's Day a while back. They're actually quite useful.

[Kobold-Bard]

My first thought when reading the title of this thread was "they want to find a way to kill Wizards" :smallbiggrin:

+1 For Tibbits.

[Bhu]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4042973&postcount=4

were kittens

[Keshay]

Awakened Cat
Racial HD: Replace with class levels
Size: Tiny
Abilities: +4 Dex, +2 wis, -8 str. Regardless of your rolls, your starting strength cannot be below 1.
Skills: "Cats have a +4 racial bonus on Climb, Hide, and Move Silently checks and a +8 racial bonus on Jump checks. Cats have a +8 racial bonus on Balance checks. They use their Dexterity modifier instead of their Strength modifier for Climb and Jump checks. *In areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth, the Hide bonus rises to +8."
Bonus Feats: Weapon Finesse
LA: +0
Favored Class: Any if it's an all cat campaign. Otherwise Rogue.

For weapons I'd stick your cats on hind legs, let them have opposable thumbs and be done with it. For armor get it custom made and charge double.

Have fun.

As presented, shoud that not be a +2-3 LA race?
Its a tiny creature with a base speed of 30, so that's a +1 LA
-2 on stats will be -1LA
Whole boatload of +Skills: +1-2
Free Feat: +1 (technically they should also get Stealthy, but that's a crap feat so I can see that being free).

It'll even out fine if you tack on the -4 Charisma cats "should" have (though I've never been certain why cats were supposed to have low Cha).

[dota600]

Cats do not have negative charisma.

They make people, even BBEG's go "daaaawww....":smallbiggrin:

Look at Kelthuzad.

[ericgrau]

As presented, shoud that not be a +2-3 LA race?
Its a tiny creature with a base speed of 30, so that's a +1 LA
-2 on stats will be -1LA
Whole boatload of +Skills: +1-2
Free Feat: +1 (technically they should also get Stealthy, but that's a crap feat so I can see that being free).

It'll even out fine if you tack on the -4 Charisma cats "should" have (though I've never been certain why cats were supposed to have low Cha).

I don't think any of those things actually make it more powerful; tiny provokes attacks of opportunity, etc. Technically they should be -2 charisma because awaken only adds +1d3, though the cat fanbase seems opposed. The wisdom actually makes them a bit too strong as druids, but you could balance that out by saying they only get skill bonuses while in their natural cat form unless the new form grants similar bonuses... making druid cats +2 wis yeah but nothing else and they have difficulty even carrying wild armor or a handy haversack unless you pump their strength a bit. Stealthy is not a bonus feat, it's only their default level 1 feat. Players may pick something else if they want.


There are cat specific racial feats and Skills (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fools/20030401c) that WotC wrote up on April Fool's Day a while back. They're actually quite useful.
This was my favorite use of handle human: "Open! (DC 15): The humanoid opens a door, window, portcullis, or other sealable aperture at your command. You need not pass through it thereafter."

[Keshay]

I'm a little disturbed at how many of those tricks my cat has apparently taught me...

[AbyssKnight]

As presented, shoud that not be a +2-3 LA race?
Its a tiny creature with a base speed of 30, so that's a +1 LA
-2 on stats will be -1LA
Whole boatload of +Skills: +1-2
Free Feat: +1 (technically they should also get Stealthy, but that's a crap feat so I can see that being free).

It'll even out fine if you tack on the -4 Charisma cats "should" have (though I've never been certain why cats were supposed to have low Cha).

Well, you are forgetting that Tiny size itself is worth a LA penalty (according to SS). If Small is -1, then Tiny has to be at least -2 (No Natural Reach!!).

So we have:
Size -2
Speed +1
Neg unbalanced stats -1
Skills +1-2
Feats +1

Comes out LA 0 to +1. They biggest problem I see is that Rogue, Scout (and maybe Ninja), and any Caster would be about the only classes it could use very well, as they can enjoy the benfits while disregarding many of the downsides (size and dex bonuses to stealth and attacks, but SA dice and spells don't change with size)

[TheMadLinguist]

The beguiler race from shining south is very housecat-like and LA+0(cohort). Removing that last word isn't that much of a houserule, plus you can then have a party member who's a beguiler beguiler.

[Lord Vukodlak]

As presented, shoud that not be a +2-3 LA race?
Its a tiny creature with a base speed of 30, so that's a +1 LA
-2 on stats will be -1LA
Whole boatload of +Skills: +1-2
Free Feat: +1 (technically they should also get Stealthy, but that's a crap feat so I can see that being free).

It'll even out fine if you tack on the -4 Charisma cats "should" have (though I've never been certain why cats were supposed to have low Cha).

By your logic all races have a LA.

[Greenish]

The beguiler race from shining south is very housecat-like and LA+0(cohort). Removing that last word isn't that much of a houserule, plus you can then have a party member who's a beguiler beguiler.Don't they have rather strong racials, such as permament True Sight or something?

And opposable thumbs, I seem to recall, but that may be wrong.

[DragoonWraith]

you can then have a party member who's a beguiler beguiler.
And, as always, bonus points goes to whoever gets the most electric spells onto the Beguiler spell list and goes around saying his own race/class name over and over, despite which being understood by everyone. Beguiler are more like pikachus than cats, really.

[StoryKeeper]

My first thought when reading the title of this thread was "they want to find a way to kill Wizards" :smallbiggrin:

+1 For Tibbits.

Actually, the demotivational picture of a cat with a wizard hat on is largely responsible for this idea. I intend to have the recurring villain (if the game goes past a one-shot) be a wizard. :D

Thank you so much everyone for this mountain of useful stuff. I'm looking forward to reading through those links. Now I just hope I can convince everyone to play the campaign. ^^;

[Inhuman Bot]

Cats do not have negative charisma.

They make people, even BBEG's go "daaaawww....":smallbiggrin:

Look at Kelthuzad.

Yeah, but everyone has an unresistable to kill said kitty.

[Keshay]

By your logic all races have a LA.

No "logic" to it, I was applying the rules for assigning LA to non-standard creatures as PCs as presented in Savage Species. Turns out I forgot about the LA adjustment for size. Sue me.