Playable Cats

[werescythe]

So I am thinking of trying to create a game (first as a one-shot, maybe later as a full on campaign if the players like it) where the players play cats which secretly protect humanity from the monsters under the bed and the creatures in the closet. Just a fun little DnD game.

Now I was originally thinking of using the Dreamland Cats race from a Cthulhu DnD book I got over kickstarter, however I'm not too sure. I was also thinking of augmenting the human race (that way the players have more ability to customize their character) with a few abilties that would make sense for cats.

Any suggestions on what traits I should have? Or if you know of any actual stats for a playable cat that are already out there, feel free to let me know.

[Millstone85]

VGtM has playable cat people called the tabaxi.

[nickl_2000]

I wrote up a few awakened animals as payable races awhile ago. Feel free to use any of these or modify them as you like.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yEFIw2jlo35h9aEdKerlsuj4rOLwAzIIsKIn_1miUto

[Nagog]

You could sorta reskin Tabaxi for it, or perhaps a cat stat block with levels in Sidekick classes.

[werescythe]

VGtM has playable cat people called the tabaxi.


I'm talking more along the line of house cats. Not humanoid cat people. :smallbiggrin:

[Millstone85]

I'm talking more along the line of house cats. Not humanoid cat people. :smallbiggrin:Well, you said:
I was also thinking of augmenting the human race (that way the players have more ability to customize their character) with a few abilties that would make sense for cats.
So I thought that a humanoid race with cat abilities would work. Perhaps with the restriction that you only have one "hand", your mouth, for the purpose of holding items.

A lot depends on how you are going to stat the human NPCs. As you would in a regular D&D game, or maybe as giants?

[loki_ragnarock]

Rename the various races into cat breeds.

Half Orc - Maine Coone
Elf - Tabby (colors = subrace)
Dwarf - Himalayan
Halfling - Munchkin Cat
… so on and so forth.

Everyone gets to be a gato without being synced into one specific mechanical race.

Reduce base size to Tiny or increase human size to Huge/Colossal/Gargantuan.

[False God]

Cats as written aren't really playable. And if you're playing on a scale of "cats vs cats(or other animals)" then you can play with existing stats, and just reflavor each race as a certain breed of cat. Just use the stats for Giants when you want to use a human.

[werescythe]

Here is kind of what I have so far.

Cat
- Your size is small.
- +1 to Dex.
- +1 to an ability of choice.
- Keen Smell: You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) involving smell.
- You gain proficiency in 1 skill of your choice, once per long rest you may give yourself advantage on that skill.
- No Thumbs: You can't use normal weapons like what humanoids use, due to your lack of actual hands. You can however hold one item in your mouth. You can also use special weapons created by kind that attach to your claws, mouth or tail.
- Small Frame: You can't wear normal armor unless it is made for your specifically.
- Speed: 40ft walking and 30ft climbing.
- Natural weapons: Claws: 1D4 + Str/Dex Slash (finesse). Bite: 1D4 + Str Pierce.
- Languages: You understand Common, Felinar (Cat) and 1 language of your choice (including other animal languages). While you can understand the languages of other humanoid races (the ones you know) you can't speak them, unless by magic. You can speak Felinar and other animal languages you know.

---

Any thoughts/suggestions?

[Bohandas]

Skirmisher Publishing's The Noble Wild covers almost exactly this. Evil Hat Productions' The Secrets of Cats is even more exactly this, but is for Fate Core rather than D&D

[Dork_Forge]

Here is kind of what I have so far.

Cat
- Your size is small.
- +1 to Dex.
- +1 to an ability of choice.
- Keen Smell: You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) involving smell.
- You gain proficiency in 1 skill of your choice, once per long rest you may give yourself advantage on that skill.
- No Thumbs: You can't use normal weapons like what humanoids use, due to your lack of actual hands. You can however hold one item in your mouth. You can also use special weapons created by kind that attach to your claws, mouth or tail.
- Small Frame: You can't wear normal armor unless it is made for your specifically.
- Speed: 40ft walking and 30ft climbing.
- Natural weapons: Claws: 1D4 + Str/Dex Slash (finesse). Bite: 1D4 + Str Pierce.
- Languages: You understand Common, Felinar (Cat) and 1 language of your choice (including other animal languages). While you can understand the languages of other humanoid races (the ones you know) you can't speak them, unless by magic. You can speak Felinar and other animal languages you know.

---

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Why not give them darkvision? Cats have far superior night eyes than humans in real life (it's also bugged me that the stat block for them in 5e doesn't give them DV). Otherwise they seem to be lacking as above, they only get a total of +2 to stats and don't have a special ability. They have a lot of restrictions but no real benefit to compensate for them.

Is there a reason to not just give them a +2 to Dex and a floating +1?

[werescythe]

Why not give them darkvision? Cats have far superior night eyes than humans in real life (it's also bugged me that the stat block for them in 5e doesn't give them DV). Otherwise they seem to be lacking as above, they only get a total of +2 to stats and don't have a special ability. They have a lot of restrictions but no real benefit to compensate for them.

Is there a reason to not just give them a +2 to Dex and a floating +1?

Admittedly, I wasn't sure if I should give them dark vision or not. As for the +2 to Dex, I was worried about someone making it be a +3 Dex with the floating. Though I suppose I could make it so that the floating could go to any except Dex to counter that.

[JakOfAllTirades]

I've seen a number of homebrewed cat races for 5E and this one is my favorite so far:

https://66.media.tumblr.com/3b4ab1642d60d2bd0d3f1248f8b36d8b/tumblr_p2kevuLJwX1wsk7jeo1_1280.jpg

[werescythe]

I've seen a number of homebrewed cat races for 5E and this one is my favorite so far:

I will say in the setting I am making, cats are all aware (or "awake"), however I do like the image you presented. Is that from a book?

[Greywander]

I made something like this once. It got kind of messy with all kinds of extraneous features, so it's in need of a revisit. Still, you might be able to find some use for it.

Half Cat Sith Race (https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ul1AnJPlOa16gprurnZuEN2Ei7bhr3JWsbG3Gqucso/edit#)

[werescythe]

So after taking into some consideration to the feedback I recieved as well as consulting with one of my DnD buddies (who plays a DM from time to time), I adjusted the stats I made to be like this:

---

Cat
- Your size is small.
- +2 to Dex.
- +1 to an ability of choice, except for Dex.
- Keen Smell: You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) involving smell.
- You gain proficiency in 1 skill of your choice, once per long rest you may give yourself advantage on that skill.
- No Thumbs: You can't use normal weapons like what humanoids use, due to your lack of actual hands. You can however hold one item in your mouth. You can also use special weapons created by kind that attach to your claws, mouth or tail.
- Small Frame: You can't wear normal armor unless it is made for your specifically.
- Speed: 40ft walking and 30ft climbing.
- Darkvision: 60ft.
- Natural weapons: Claws: 1D4 + Str/Dex Slash (finesse). Bite: 1D4 + Str Pierce.
- Landing on All Fours: You have advantage on Dex saves when falling.
- Languages: You understand Common, Felinar (Cat) and 1 language of your choice (including other animal languages). While you can understand the languages of other humanoid races (the ones you know) you can't speak them, unless by magic. You can speak Felinar and other animal languages you know.

---

Now that doesn't mean we have to stop there. We can also come up with racial feats as well as weapons for the cats to use with their tails, claws and teeth.

Racial Feat:
Hidden Arsenal
Requirement: Must be a Cat.
- Add 1 to either: Dex, CHR or Wis.
- While you have a cat specific weapon equipped it is considered to be concealed.

A Worse Sign than Ladders
Requirement: Must be a Cat and lvl 5 or higher.
- Add 1 to either: CHR, Wis or Int.
- Upon picking the ability score improvement you gain from this feat, you gain access to the Bestow Curse Spell, with a range of 10ft. The modifier for the spell, is the ability you chose.

---

Comments and feedback are appreciated.

[Magicspook]

A Worse Sign than Ladders
Requirement: Must be a Cat and lvl 5 or higher.
- Add 1 to either: CHR, Wis or Int.
- Upon picking the ability score improvement you gain from this feat, you gain access to the Bestow Curse Spell, with a range of 10ft. The modifier for the spell, is the ability you chose.

---

Comments and feedback are appreciated.

Oh I really like this one.

[Bjarkmundur]

I think this would better work as pregenerated characters.

Use any of the following classes:
Fighter
Rogue
Barbarian
Monk
Druid
Grod's Psion



They have no race and no background, but you provide a picture of a cat for each character sheet. Use the following arrays to determine the ability scores

16,14,14,10,10,10
16,14,14,12,10,8
16, 14, 14, 14, 8, 8
16, 12, 12, 12, 12,10

The reason your are pregenning is because you have to give them the equipment their class is made for, but rewrite it as Natural Weapons and Natural Armor on their character sheets. Give them a standard weapon loadout, but no ranged weapons. The Sorcerer and the Psion are the ranged classes. Don't use battle mats, keep everything in the mind. This makes Gameplay more flexible and helps the players remember THAT THEY ARE CATS.

Other tweaks and prep:
All have Darkvision 60feet
All have Acrobatics expertise
They can talk to animals, but only meow at humans. This creates a point of conflict, where the group can't derail the entire campaign by talking to a human.
Watch Cats and Dogs from 2001.
Create a custom skill list with skills only relevant to your campaign. Keep it small, maybe 10 skills, to compensate for the lack of a Background.
All jump distances are a number of feet equal to their Strength ability score.
Remind them cats have good senses of smells, but don't create a mechanic for it.

Because the cats can't do the same things a as humans can the skill bit is very important. A player might feel lost when he is suddenly piloting a cat PC. "What can I actually DO?". A carefully crafted skill list is your way to present the group with a list of tools they can use to overcome the obstacles they encounter. To convey this to your players create some custom backgrounds and tie their skill proficiencies to those backgrounds.

You are the tech cat, you can disarm security systems and hack security cameras. Skills: Tech, Perception

You are the ninja cat, you can climb walls and mission-impossible from vents: Skills: Stealth, Acrobatics

You are the cat with contacts, you can send messages via the Pet-Network, and have allied contacts that can help you in most situations. Skills: Social, Insight

You are the clever cat. You specialise in humans and science. Skills: Knowledge (Humans), Knowledge (Science)

You are the scary cat. Skills: Intimidation, Athletics

You are the hippy cat:. Skills: Medical Care, Herbalism

etc.

Remember, what you are doing isn't strictly DnD. You are simply building on your groups existing knowledge of the system to avoid having to teach a new system from scratch. There are some hoops to jump through to maintain the immersion while respecting the mechanics, like having the Rogue and Barbarian both have Natural Weapons, but with different damage dice, or having a fighter with high AC even though he isn't wielding a shield.

Remember to give everything cat-themed names, and have the first encounter use Catnip to cast Hold Person on one of the cats. Catnip is their kryptonite, tons of laughs, much fun.

[Millstone85]

Your size is small.Cats are size Tiny.

Though I see that the awakened cat PDF also made them Small, for some reason.

[werescythe]

Cats are size Tiny.

Though I see that the awakened cat PDF also made them Small, for some reason.

Yeah, I was under the impression that they were small creatures, however after seeing that even the Dreamland Cat in the book I had, had them as tiny, I will probably change it.

Most likely I will make them tiny but they still have a range of 5ft. Seeing as they can't use normal weapons anyways, I'm not sure it will make to much of a difference.

[zinycor]

You should give it some very broken abilities in order to counteract that No-hands feature.

[werescythe]

You should give it some very broken abilities in order to counteract that No-hands feature.

Well, I think it is pretty balanced the way it is. However I am thinking of making some racial feats for them to help out.

Like this one.

Cat's Eye
Requirements: Must be a Cat as well as the ability to cast spells.
- When casting a spell that deals damage other than Psychic damage, you may use you bonus action to change the damage to Psychic.
- When dealing Psychic damage to an enemy they must make an Intelligence Saving throw. If they fail, they suffer the confused status effect. If they succeed the save they are immune to this effect.

[zinycor]

I don't think so, for martial characters you are at a serious disadvantage since you can't use most weapons or armor.

As for caster classes, having No-hands would mean that you can't use a spellcasting focus or components.

[werescythe]

I don't think so, for martial characters you are at a serious disadvantage since you can't use most weapons or armor.

As for caster classes, having No-hands would mean that you can't use a spellcasting focus or components.

Well, the plan is to have special Weapons/Armor that cats can use as well as a potentially a feat that allows a cat to use non cat weapons without ill effect (while requiring a certain amount of strength).

As for spell casters, they can use earrings, collars and even custom bracelets to serve as magical focuses. Can speak Felinar for verbal components.

[werescythe]

I'm thinking of creating some racial quirks as well. Any thoughts?