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zeek0
2017-05-28, 06:01 AM
Hello! In response to some interest over on the 5e forums, I've made up a kitsune race. I think it turned out rather well, but I'm concerned about the balance - it ended up rather unorthodox.

Two days ago the most I knew about kitsune was a pokemon, Ninetails. As such, I put in a good bit of research through wikipedia, Shinto websites, and original folktales. I discovered much, and not all the concepts associated with traditional kitsune made it into this homebrew, but I think I was rather faithful.

First is the notion of shapeshifting. In Japanese folktale, a kitsune fox can take the form of any human. I decided to expand this to allow other D&D races, while making it so that the fox has a single humanoid form that it transforms to. The ability to cast disguise self allows for other humanoid forms on a limited basis.

I wanted the base form to be a fox, and to be a useful form for the character. I also didn't feel that offense should be a concept for the fox form, as foxes are rather small and a kitsune is, basically, a trickster. So, I disallow all class/other features, while gifting this form with Elusive, a kind of persistent blur effect. This makes the fox form great for sneaking, avoiding conflict, and tracking an enemy. It also means that they have almost no offensive capability (esp. since sneak attack, smites, and other bits are taken out of the picture). I'm most uncertain about this choice, as it could be powerful or useless.

Second is the notion of the star orb. In Japanese folktale, the orb is a marker of service to Inari, a rice/wealth god. I ported this idea into the flavor text, while making the race friendly to any pantheon. Here the orb allows the kitsune to cast dancing lights (imitating foxfire), minor illusion, and disguise self - all powers that kitsune have in various folktales.


KITSUNE
Long ago, there was a mountain priest, an ascetic named Kongô-in. He was travelling home to his village, full of good spirits, and he happened upon a fox near the road, sleeping. Kongô-in stealthily crept to the fox, and blew a conch shell in his ear. The fox leaped up in fright, and fell over himself as he ran away. This mortified the fox very much, and he plotted his revenge.

The following day, a crowd was meeting in a town to hear the wisdom of a mountain priest. On the way to the meeting, they saw a strange sight by the road. A fox, who seemed unaware of their passing, was transforming himself into the form of an ascetic man.

“That damnable fox!” they exclaimed. “He is doing that to come and fool us. When he comes, we will catch him and prove his trickery.”

Now Kongô-in, not dreaming of such a thing, arrived at the meeting place a little late. “Welcome!” said the people, and they promptly tied him up. Hands felt his buttocks for a tail, and pulled his hair to find ears. They struck his face to see if they could reveal his nose. Then they fired up a heap of pine needles, to smoke out the form of the fox. Kongô-in gave all sorts of proof that he wasn’t a fox, until the crowd untied him at last.

Kongô-in knew that this was all because he had frightened the blameless fox the day before. From that day, Kongô-in resolved that he would never blow a conch shell when he found a fox taking a nap.

-Japanese Folk Tale

A fox that is exceptionally cunning or serves the divine might gain a blessing which grants them long life and strange powers over perception. Such a fox is known as a kitsune, or fox spirit.

FOX SPIRITS
Kitsune are spirits, the essence of a fox that has continued living and learning past their normal span of years. With age comes the blessings of insight and magic. The fox’s cunning nature remains the same, but it gains the ability to take on humanoid appearance at will.
As a spirit of the natural world, most kitsune seek to maintain natural balance and punish injustice. Kitsune also have an appreciation for the truth, if not honesty. Even the most wicked kitsune feels bound by their word, and an oath sworn by a kitsune is considered to be ironclad.

CONSUMMATE TRICKSTERS
The essence of trickery is the subversion of the established order and expectation. Kitsune trickery is employed in response to a perceived slight, blatant wrongdoing, or simply at the pleasure of itself. To a kitsune, trickery is not just a form of deceit – it is a method of revelation and power.
The tricksome nature of kitsune is well known, and most people immediately distrust them. As such, a kitsune in civilized society is most comfortable in their humanoid appearance and might remain that way for years, hiding their true nature from all other creatures.

SERVANTS OF THE DIVINE
Kitsune are often messengers for the divine, and known to be in service to a specific deity of agriculture, wealth, or luck. Such kitsune have white coats and are commonly thought to ward off evil spirits or reward the devout. A star orb, their gift from the divine, is always depicted caught in the jaws, tail, or hand of a kitsune.
Some kitsune come to deny their place as divine servants and are known as nogitsune, or field foxes. Such kitsune don’t share human values, and their tricks are more likely to harm than confer revelation.
KITSUNE TRAITS
Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.
Age. Kitsune live for an extraordinarily long time, living up to 1200 years. They reach relative maturity at 100 years, when they become more than simple foxes. Every century thereafter, a kitsune gains an additional tail, gaining their final and ninth tail in their 1000th year.
Alignment. Kitsune tend to be chaotic, in line with their trickster natures. Both good and evil can be found in their race, often hinging on their service to the divine.
Size. Kitsune are slightly larger than a younger fox, reaching up to 2-1/2 feet in height at the shoulder. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 35 feet, in both fox and humanoid form.
Fox Form. You are naturally in the form of a fox, as detailed below.
● Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of a fox (kitsune), but you retain your personality, hit points, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores.
● You also retain all of your skill and saving throw proficiencies. If the fox’s bonus in its stat block is higher than yours, use the fox’s bonus instead.
● You do not retain the benefit of any features from your class or other source except this race. You can perform actions if a typical fox is physically capable of doing so.
● You can speak in this form, but you cannot cast spells.
Humanoid Appearance. As an action, you may take on the appearance of a specific single humanoid (although you still retain some semblance to a fox). Your game statistics and abilities behave as normal in this appearance. As an action, you may shed this appearance and return to your form as a fox. You also return to your fox form if you fall unconscious, drop to 0 hit points, or die. See the Wild Shape druid feature for more specific rules about dealing with equipment.
A creature can see through your humanoid appearance by succeeding on an Investigation check with a DC equal to 15 + your Charisma modifier. If they do, they can discern a fox-shaped shadow, a fox as your image in a reflective surface, a poorly hidden tail, or, in rare cases, your native fox form as if through a mirage.
Kitsune Star Orb. You possess a star orb, a small, dimly glowing ball or jewel wreathed in spirit fire that cannot be absorbed into your fox form. The spirit fire produces no heat, needs no oxygen, and cannot be extinguished except upon your death. The star orb levitates as you will it to, up to 1 foot away from your body. The orb can brighten as you will it to, shedding dim light for up to 15 feet.
As long as you possess the orb, you know the minor illusion and dancing lights cantrips and you can cast the disguise self spell once per day. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells. You can cast these spells in your fox form.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Sylvan.

FOX (KITSUNE)
Small fey(shapechanger), any alignmentArmor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points --
Speed 35 ft.

STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA


6 (-2)
16 (+3)
10 (+0)
--
--
--

Saving Throws Dex +5
Skills Perception +4, Stealth+6
Senses passive Perception 14
Languages --
Challenge --Keen Hearing and Smell. A fox has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.
Elusive. Creatures have disadvantage on atrack rolls against the fox as long as it is not incapacitated.

ACTIONSBite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d4) piercing damage.


An up to date and formatted file of this race lies in my homebrew signature (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20886261&postcount=285)!

Ninja_Prawn
2017-05-28, 07:26 AM
but I'm concerned about the balance - it ended up rather unorthodox.

At first glance, it looks alright. It's pretty similar to my own implementation, which makes me think we can't both be wrong.

The only thing I disagree with is the CR for the stat block - I think that's a solid 1/8, considering that all attacks against it have disadvantage. That's got to be worth a few points of effective AC. Plus CR 0s rarely have more than 3 HP or deal more than 2 damage per round.

JNAProductions
2017-05-28, 09:18 AM
I'd hesitate to grant you Elusive, not when this can be comboed with a Rogue or Monk for effectively full damage at no penalties.

zeek0
2017-05-28, 02:07 PM
At first glance, it looks alright. It's pretty similar to my own implementation, which makes me think we can't both be wrong.

The only thing I disagree with is the CR for the stat block - I think that's a solid 1/8, considering that all attacks against it have disadvantage. That's got to be worth a few points of effective AC. Plus CR 0s rarely have more than 3 HP or deal more than 2 damage per round.
Thanks for the comment! While both our Kitsune races have spells and shifting, my main concern was with my implementation of Elusive. Do you think it works well? (Also, I usually admire your succinct homebrew prose - do you have any recommendations here?)

You are right about the CR. Thanks, and fixed.


I'd hesitate to grant you Elusive, not when this can be comboed with a Rogue or Monk for effectively full damage at no penalties.
That's why class features don't work in fox form! Going around as a fox, as mentioned in the design notes, is meant to be for trickery/disguise/stealth/tracking/Fantastic Mr.Fox cosplaying, not combat.

Do you think Elusive works well, this taken into account?

---
Also, how do we feel about humanoid appearance as an action, but going back to fox form as a bonus action? It may fit slightly better with folktales (kitsune being discovered and fleeing as a fox), and gives it a possible use in combat (if only for running away).

Shadow_in_the_Mist
2017-05-28, 04:05 PM
Interesting take. I did my own take on a 5e kitsune over in my Oriental Races thread, and although there are definite differences, I like this one too.

Ninja_Prawn
2017-05-28, 04:42 PM
my main concern was with my implementation of Elusive. Do you think it works well? (Also, I usually admire your succinct homebrew prose - do you have any recommendations here?)

I'd have phrased it "attack rolls against the kitsune have disadvantage as long as it is not incapacitated" or something. The "any creature" bit sounds awkward. And "kitsune fox" reads like ATM machine from where I'm looking.

Mechanics-wise, you only have 5 HP, so I'd say blanket disadvantage is hardly game-breaking. Only takes one Burning Hands to turn you into a fox-shaped scorch mark. :smallamused:

Incidentally, did you happen to see my kuda-gitsune (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21871522&postcount=17)?

zeek0
2017-05-29, 05:44 AM
Thanks for the notes. I'll alter it a bit later this afternoon.

Thanks for pointing pointing toward your kuda-gitsune. It convinced me to up the stealth modifier, making it more competitive and useful at low-mid levels. I considered adding invisibility (it's in some of the folklore), but decided they probably had enough stuff already.

I intend for HP to be the same across forms. Because there has been multiple counts of wildshape/kitsune form confusion, I'll look into different formatting.


And "kitsune fox" reads like ATM machine from where I'm looking.
I understood this after a few too many minutes. I've fixed it, so it's just a fox (I think I was concerned about druids wildshaping into a fox and using Elusive, but it's not a big deal really).

And thanks, Mist, for pointing me in your direction. In folktales I also found that more tails=more power, but it seemed to me that it's because age entails tails, and age entails power. Grey hair likewise does not entail power. Your formatting (with bullet points!) looks good, so I'll mend mine like yours.

Gastronomie
2017-05-29, 07:52 PM
Overall looks cool, but just one thing: generally, Kitsune who have lived for centuries are depicted to be (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Hokusai_Sangoku_Yoko-den.jpg) larger than (http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/YoukaiGazou/image/U426_nichibunken_0298_0001_0000.jpg) 2 feet (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwQtZM0CIAIwNpw.jpg:small).
(And BTW, in modern sub-culture (manga, anime etc.) they're more or less the size of Godzilla (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cfhm08PVAAAaqzN.jpg:large).)
So perhaps make their size change depending on their age? Dunno.

Also, Kyubi in folklore tend to possess other mystical powers that are most similar in usage to a Charm spell. Random idea, but perhaps give them a 1/day Charm Person or something? And when they hit a certain level, it can go without the target noticing he's been charmed, or stuff like that (to show that the Kitsune's powers are growing).

zeek0
2017-05-30, 01:13 AM
Overall looks cool, but just one thing: generally, Kitsune who have lived for centuries are depicted to be (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Hokusai_Sangoku_Yoko-den.jpg) larger than (http://www.nichibun.ac.jp/YoukaiGazou/image/U426_nichibunken_0298_0001_0000.jpg) 2 feet (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwQtZM0CIAIwNpw.jpg:small).
(And BTW, in modern sub-culture (manga, anime etc.) they're more or less the size of Godzilla (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cfhm08PVAAAaqzN.jpg:large).)
So perhaps make their size change depending on their age? Dunno.

Also, Kyubi in folklore tend to possess other mystical powers that are most similar in usage to a Charm spell. Random idea, but perhaps give them a 1/day Charm Person or something? And when they hit a certain level, it can go without the target noticing he's been charmed, or stuff like that (to show that the Kitsune's powers are growing).

The point about size makes sense, but I don't want the fox form to become physically stronger. I'll make it so it's 2 feet is at the shoulder (this is 125% the size of the tallest red fox, the largest type of fox - comparable to a 7.5 ft. human). And after some research, the red fox is a bit larger than a jackal - billed as a small beast in the MM. But I think that, mostly, the form of an innocuous fox should be available. (Also, I don't know how much I trust the size of things in paintings before we used forced perspective).

In folklore, kitsune do have powers of possession or madness, but this seems largely to be a kind of medical diagnosis. The personality of the possessed is affected; it's not a direct control. And there's lots of stories involving trickery, but that's not quite the same as charm/enchantment.

But most of all, I think I want this race to remain a trickster, not an enchanter. The notion of trickery seems to hinge on your target being lucid or making their own decisions - thus when the trickery is revealed, the power is greater. Enchantment is the opposite of this - it distorts the mind and replaces the will of the target.

Thanks for the comments! I'd be willing to think on it further as warranted.