Slinky Malinky was Blacker than Black...

[KyleG]

I am interested in creating a Tabaxi character and want to see what others thought with this initial idea her class would be.
She has morphed from a tiefling that was over the top friendly into this Tabaxi after i saw critical role and discovered the wonder that was Jester who was exactly how i had imagined her. lol

So now she is a Tabaxi but i still want that over the top friendly manner (it means i play out of my own comfort zone).

Silent Skies of the Whispering River (Sky) like all Tabaxi is curious. Sky though has wandered further than most from her clans borders. Once she came across a very small human settlement beginning to take shape and she watched from the trees as they settled into to daily life out on this new frontier. From time to time she would be distracted by other things...a glint in the forest she just had to pursue, a far off noise that must be discovered, but always she returned each day for many moons to watch this settlement

(unsure about this next bit -
In particular she watched as one human in particular stood watch? trained others? practiced? with his sword fascinated by him and in the shadows of the forest copied these maneuvers.???????)

One day she returned to find the settlement in smoke and ruin.

These is where i get stuck leading her to meetup with an adventuring party and her class.
Did her clan send her out to learn more? Emissary? Did she go off of her own accord?

I dont envisage her as the sort to take items but certainly can become distracted by them so not so much a thief but maybe a spy? I also have this image of her being mindful of her appearance? Almost Ninja like coverings at times although im not committed to that.

Welcome your thoughts on backgrounds, snippets for me to flesh out, class to begin her journey as but no more than level 3.

Cheers

[Stygofthedump]

A stalking and lurking adventurous cat?

[8wGremlin]

I much prefer Scarface Claw, the toughest tom in town!

[Mr.Spastic]

Maybe a monk, Way of the Shadows. Sneaky, but also graceful. You also get short swords. You could also go Kensei to follow the learned weapons theme.

You would only need to be level three and tabaxi fit so well. Plus your unarmed strikes can also do slashing now.

[Speely]

Since wandering Tabaxis are not like the others in their clan (in that they are infinitely curious,) I could see her wandering off on her own to find out what happened. Perhaps she wants to chronicle the dramatic goings-on of other races and one day return to her clan with those stories.

I played a Tabaxi similar to this. She was over-the-top friendly and curious about people. She was a painter, and constantly tried to get people of interest to let her paint them. She would then commit to memory the words that she would take back to describe them, then give the subject the actual painting.

Was fun to awkwardly proposition inappropriate people as painting subjects, because lots of interesting results happened, including befriending a surly barbarian who ended up being amazed at seeing their portrait.

Edit: was a Kensei monk, too. She treated swordplay like painting. Called combat "brushing with death."

[KyleG]

Monk seems like a possibility but given tabaxi is from VOLO and Kensai is from Xanathar's you are not supposed to mix these. Also how would she have become a monk? background? Its the transition from background to adventurer (class) that i always find the hardest to explain in my back stories.

I had considered bard but my last two characters have ended up as spell focused characters and wanted someone who could enter the thick of it. Barbarian i dont think fits with what im picking and neither would paladin. Maybe Ranger?Even a Ranged Ranger? Fighter probably not quite right.

[Mr.Spastic]

Monk seems like a possibility but given tabaxi is from VOLO and Kensai is from Xanathar's you are not supposed to mix these. Also how would she have become a monk? background? Its the transition from background to adventurer (class) that i always find the hardest to explain in my back stories.

I had considered bard but my last two characters have ended up as spell focused characters and wanted someone who could enter the thick of it. Barbarian i dont think fits with what im picking and neither would paladin. Maybe Ranger?Even a Ranged Ranger? Fighter probably not quite right.

You CAN mix Volo's with Xanathar's. Whoever told you that your "not supposed to" was a liar.
All official books work with all other books. You can mix and match however you want. They are not supplements to specific adventures, but expansion to the whole canon. You could always say you monk abilities come from your natural predatory instincts.

[lunaticfringe]

If you are using the Player's Handbook+1 Rule it means you can use the phb and one other book to make your character. This is in effect in Adventurer's League but is less common in Home/Private Games. I would double check with your group just to be sure.

If you are I think Arcane Trickster is a good fit for a slightly mystical Ninja-style character. If not Scout Rogue & Gloom Stalker Ranger would work too.

[Speely]

I will say that in play, a Tabaxi Kensei can be crazy capable and super fun. It's a really good fit. I could off-tank, be a backline slaughterer, a very mobile archer, and a great scout. I flavored my monk training as having found a remote Maztican monastery in my travels to find ingredients for my inks. It got destroyed, and in my flight I hit the coast of Maztica, where I found a beached ship in need of help. I helped and became a Sailor (background.) Worked on it until we hit the Sword Coast. I felt ok cramming all that in since we started at level 3 for Princes of the Apocalypse.

I get that in 5e Maztica has been through some stuff that might make that story implausible, but my DM was fine with it since the campaign had nothing to do with all that.

[Boci]

You CAN mix Volo's with Xanathar's. Whoever told you that your "not supposed to" was a liar.
All official books work with all other books. You can mix and match however you want. They are not supplements to specific adventures, but expansion to the whole canon. You could always say you monk abilities come from your natural predatory instincts.

Or confusing the Adventure's League policy of Core + 1 splat book as something more universal.

[KyleG]

Or confusing the Adventure's League policy of Core + 1 splat book as something more universal.

Exactly. So now i am very keen to expand my character choices.
I like the monk idea here but im just struggling to find the hook from backstory to monk, which is a familiar problem i am facing connecting these two worlds.

[Mr.Spastic]

Or confusing the Adventure's League policy of Core + 1 splat book as something more universal.

I didn't even know that it existed. :p

[MaxWilson]

I much prefer Scarface Claw, the toughest tom in town!

Just watch out for the Persians and the Siamese.

[KyleG]

Just watch out for the Persians and the Siamese.

and the Poppadum kittens.

I found these cool weapons/musical instruments i could picture her using as a monk
a Wood whistle that doubles as a YAWARA,
a pair of SHAKUHACHIthat are used like batons or a
TENOUCHI (as the whistle or flute)

I like this idea that her people play music/sing as a normal form of communication. I had this thought that she says to one of her companions she will sing their song only for her to finish (so they thought) because she got distracted. They tell her it was beautiful but she says she only got to play the characters name not their whole story, implying that there whole story could take a long time.

Maybe bard would be a better fit?

[tieren]

Exactly. So now i am very keen to expand my character choices.
I like the monk idea here but im just struggling to find the hook from backstory to monk, which is a familiar problem i am facing connecting these two worlds.

Monk doesn't have to be about spending time in a monastery, just about finding a spiritual type connection to your own body and the world around you (mastering your ki), and if you are starting at level one you don't even have ki points to use so you aren't particularly good at it yet.

You could easily say all that time she spent on her own in the woods she was getting in touch with herself, learning to control her nerves and heartrate when facing or evading danger, pushing herself to run further and faster, centering herself spiritiually while spending hours sitting in a sun dappled tree, etc...

[KyleG]

That would lend herself to a ranger build instead perhaps.

[MilkmanDanimal]

One character I really want to play at some point is a Tabaxi Drunken Master Monk, largely because I want to try to copy the Khajit accent from The Elder Scrolls series, and figure I'm bad enough at it that I'd need to play a sillier subclass.

Background-wise, physically gifted, but lazy and with a love of the bottle, so didn't fit in. Became an itinerant adventurer in order to get both fun stories and enough money for booze. With the CHA bonus and Performance proficiency, you can even play the doofus wandering minstrel.