Kitsune Race for 5th Edition (PEACH)

[Pyon]

So in a recent campaign I'm helping to make, we've decided on having a stupid amount of different races. It's a pain to incorporate them all and explain them, but hey that's my job not yours! I just need some help in balancing this one in specific! I wanted to go for something a bit more fun by making an incredibly mobile character. Is it too much? I also didn't want to give any shape shifting abilities because if you really want to be a shape shifter, you can just play changeling. So this is my own kitsune race, with a bit of a twist.


Ability Score Improvement: Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score by 1.
Age: Kitsune live for about 900 years. A kitsune's body stops maturing at 100, but tails will keep growing with experience not age.
Alignment: Because of their trickster nature, they tend to steer towards chaotic alignments.
Size: Same height as humans, but they tend to be a bit lighter in weight. Your size is medium.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Language: You speak Common, and an additional language of your choice.
Mystic Tails: At level 1, you have three fox tails. Any armor you wear has to be specially adapted to account for them. At 6th level, you grow an additional tail. You grow another one at, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th, and 20th for a max of nine tails.
Flame Dash: As a bonus action, you can use your kitsune magic to jump away from danger, leaving behind a trail of blue flames. You move 10 feet in any direction without provoking attacks of opportunity. Additionally, creatures you choose within 5 feet of your point of origin or arrival take 1d4 fire damage. You may also take this action as a reaction to taking damage. You can use this ability a number of times equal your number of tails, per long rest.

[Toothless]

Flame Dash: As a bonus action, you can use your kitsune magic to speed away from danger, leaving behind a trail of flames. The flames can be colored if you'd like. You move 15 feet in a single direction without provoking attacks of opportunity. Additionally, creatures you choose within 5 feet of your point of origin take 1d4 fire damage. You can also take this action as a reaction to taking damage. You can use this ability a number of times equal to the number of tails you have, per long rest.

This looks all pretty good! The only real thing I tweaked was Flame Dash, and it wasn't much. Changed the move to 15 feet to buff it, only the point of orgin deals damage, and some rewording to fix errata.

But like I said, everything else looks perfect. ^^

UPDATED TO INCLUDE RP ELEMENT.

[Pyon]

This looks all pretty good! The only real thing I tweaked was Flame Dash, and it wasn't much. Changed the move to 15 feet to buff it, only the point of orgin deals damage, and some rewording to fix errata.

But like I said, everything else looks perfect. ^^

Awesome! Mind giving me this wording so I can add it to the one I have? I'm not really great with the wording part of homebrew.

[RazDelacroix]

I like to tinker with the base races to emulate a particular 'currently-not-available' PC race. With that stated, I like what you did here with the kitsune, and will shamelessly lift it as a variant possibility for my own diabolical (gaming) purposes. All together, a nice take without being overpowering!

[Toothless]

Awesome! Mind giving me this wording so I can add it to the one I have? I'm not really great with the wording part of homebrew.

Sure, it's all yours! I tweaked it slightly in my previous post to give players the choice of color.

Wording's actually pretty easy! Ya just find a similar effect in the book and almost quite literally copy what they write.

[Mith]

I am correct in assuming that these are envisioned to be humans with fox tails, without any shifting between a fox form and human form?

[Pyon]

I am correct in assuming that these are envisioned to be humans with fox tails, without any shifting between a fox form and human form?

Yeah, I didn't intend for any shifting abilities. I gave them charisma to reference that side of the kitsune myths, but I feel like if someone wants to play a "shifter Kitsune" you can just refluff the already existing changelings.

[Mith]

Fair enough. Personally, it feels a bit odd in my head, but that's more because I am used to thinking of kitsune as either shifting between human and fox, or an in between like this (http://img09.deviantart.net/a019/i/2006/291/0/d/oden_fox__s_cub_by_matt_senshi.jpg):

Cool idea though.

[eleazzaar]

Flame Dash is extrmemely powerful, but since they get literally nothing else but the the ASIs, I think it is probably OK.

The only thing that bugs me is the damage is autohit no matter what.

[Toothless]

Flame Dash is extrmemely powerful, but since they get literally nothing else but the the ASIs, I think it is probably OK.

The only thing that bugs me is the damage is autohit no matter what.

Tossing in a DEX save w/ 8 + prof. + Dexterity doesn't sound too bad, a bit much for something that does 1d4 damage though. Does it scale?

[Pyon]

Tossing in a DEX save w/ 8 + prof. + Dexterity doesn't sound too bad, a bit much for something that does 1d4 damage though. Does it scale?

Nope! The idea was for it to only scale in how often you can use it, and the damage only being relevant early. Later the 1d4 is just a side effect of your movement. I don't really want a save because of how often this ability is supposed to be used, it will just force more rolling. I'll test out the class and if the 1d4 is too strong early, I'll add in a save.

[Gr7mm Bobb]

I like it, as someone else mentioned earlier, it feels a little plain. But that is what RP is good for. And with this I can totally play Kip from this board game. (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146409/kitsune-foxes-and-fools) Good job though, could we ask for racial feats to match?

[Pyon]

I like it, as someone else mentioned earlier, it feels a little plain. But that is what RP is good for. And with this I can totally play Kip from this board game. (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146409/kitsune-foxes-and-fools) Good job though, could we ask for racial feats to match?

Thanks! I didn't write up any lore or details to go with it, I'm thinking of making a big thread of all of the homebrew races I've been making recently. A stockpile of monsters humanoids. As far as feats I'm not sure... I have no idea how to balance feats but I can try!

I made this race to be an NPC in a campaign anyways. A group of sky pirates with a Gnome Captain, a Warforged Monk, a Kitsune Bard, and a Harpy Rogue. I'll probably homebrew a few more races and make a post about them all!

[Molemanking]

You could give Kitsune a racial feat that makes them natural illusionists. Call it something like, Innate Trickery and model it after the Deep Gnome racial feat where you get a few uses of some spells. You could also do a more focused version of the Mobile feat that grants increased movement speed and improves the Flame Dash ability alittle bit.

[Gr7mm Bobb]

Thanks! I didn't write up any lore or details to go with it, I'm thinking of making a big thread of all of the homebrew races I've been making recently. A stockpile of monsters humanoids. As far as feats I'm not sure... I have no idea how to balance feats but I can try!

I made this race to be an NPC in a campaign anyways. A group of sky pirates with a Gnome Captain, a Warforged Monk, a Kitsune Bard, and a Harpy Rogue. I'll probably homebrew a few more races and make a post about them all!

If anything I would add a feature that allows them to turn into a the fox-hybrid and a standard humanoid (race is chosen at character generation) that still retains the tails and some minor markings that are very tell-tale of their true form.

Also if you haven't already selected a homebrew for it, here's my homebrew Warforged (http://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Warforged-Gr7mm_(5e_Race)). If you mechanically use them, please let me know how it goes. I designed it to try and replicate what the warforged were when they were released while still tailoring to the style and flavor of 5e.

I would love to see your take on other those homebrew races as well.