Are there races close to khajiits?

[Trandir]

Well just as the title asks.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Have you considered Catfolk?

[NigelWalmsley]

Races of the Wild has Catfolk.

[Trandir]

And noted. Anything that doesn't involve and ECL +1?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Anything that you can reasonably refluff that has either low-light vision or darkvision.

They're Small sized, but kobolds (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) might do well for this, given that they have claws, a bite, and a tail. Just say there's some dragon(born) in the bloodline, leading to the [reptilian] subtype. Dragonwrought would push this even harder.

[Thurbane]

Catfolk are probably the most playable feline race in 3.5, even at LA +1. Others have racial HD etc.

I mean, Tibbits are +0, but Halflings that turn into house cats aren't really all that Khajiit-like.

[Malphegor]

Worth noting that elder scrolls khajit are much more varied than the Suthay and Suthay-Raht variants you mostly deal with in those games.

I’d say a Tibbit in Elder Scrolls terms is basically a short Ohmes that can periodically transform themselves into a Alfiq. Perhaps it was born on the edge between those two phases of the moons

Khajit are wild. In more ways than one.

[Troacctid]

Shifters, perhaps?

[Doctor Despair]

You could take a Changeling and have them Disguise Self to look like catfolk.

For LA+1, there's a more thematically appropriate option, the quasilycanthrope (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a) template.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

PHBII, shapeshifting druid, and stay in your bestial form?

[Gavinfoxx]

Worth noting that elder scrolls khajit are much more varied than the Suthay and Suthay-Raht variants you mostly deal with in those games.

I’d say a Tibbit in Elder Scrolls terms is basically a short Ohmes that can periodically transform themselves into a Alfiq. Perhaps it was born on the edge between those two phases of the moons

Khajit are wild. In more ways than one.

^^ This guy Khajiit's! Go with this.

[Doctor Despair]

Changing gears a little -- are there any LA0 cat-like races with 1 racial hitdie they could train out of via the Savage Species rules?

Anthropomorphic cats have 1 hitdie, but they are also LA+1.

Anthropomorphic weasels are LA0, 1HD, but weasels are a bit of a stretch...

I suppose you could play a cat that had Awaken cast on it. It could train out of the cat racial hitdie.

[Trandir]

Changing gears a little -- are there any LA0 cat-like races with 1 racial hitdie they could train out of via the Savage Species rules?

Anthropomorphic cats have 1 hitdie, but they are also LA+1.

Anthropomorphic weasels are LA0, 1HD, but weasels are a bit of a stretch...

I suppose you could play a cat that had Awaken cast on it. It could train out of the cat racial hitdie.

Well I am the DM here and one of my players wanted to play a "cat person" so I adviced tibbit but turns out that wasn't exactly what he had in mind. So now I am looking at options to do that before breaking the "reskin emergency box".

[Doctor Despair]

Can anyone vouch if the Savage Progressions for Weretiger work the same way as the ones for, say, Ghost? It'd still eat 1 level even if it does, but it'd offer something (which is more than a level adjustment can say).

You could let them use the level-buy-off system (to buy off their level at level 3 and catch up in xp shortly thereafter).

[lylsyly]

since your the DM let them do the catfolk and screw the LA.

[Doctor Despair]

since your the DM let them do the catfolk and screw the LA.

That's true. Write it into their backstory that they got to level 3 and paid it off, but then got level drained back down to level 1, haha

[H_H_F_F]

since your the DM let them do the catfolk and screw the LA.

This. If you're worried about group balance for one reason or another, you can always just change the modifiers around.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I'd go with Razorclaw (or possibly Longtooth) Shifter, personally, but that's just me.

[The Random NPC]

Changing gears a little -- are there any LA0 cat-like races with 1 racial hitdie they could train out of via the Savage Species rules?

Anthropomorphic cats have 1 hitdie, but they are also LA+1.

Anthropomorphic weasels are LA0, 1HD, but weasels are a bit of a stretch...

I suppose you could play a cat that had Awaken cast on it. It could train out of the cat racial hitdie.

FYI, while it doesn't explicitly say it, the DMG does imply that anything with only 1 HD trades it in for a class.

[Rynjin]

Catfolk are probably the most playable feline race in 3.5, even at LA +1. Others have racial HD etc.

I mean, Tibbits are +0, but Halflings that turn into house cats aren't really all that Khajiit-like.

There is both a "Small sized" Khajiit variant (the Dagi, which resemble lynxes more than the larger jungle and plains cats the "standard" Cathay variants are closer to) and several which are quadripeds, including a hyper intelligent spellcasting variant known as the Alfiq, which resemble housecats. (https://images.uesp.net/thumb/4/41/ON-npc-Clan_Mother_Tadali.jpg/600px-ON-npc-Clan_Mother_Tadali.jpg)

It ain't much of a stretch, although they do consider shapeshifting specifically to be an abomination, at least via default lore.

[Trandir]

since your the DM let them do the catfolk and screw the LA.


That's true. Write it into their backstory that they got to level 3 and paid it off, but then got level drained back down to level 1, haha

Eh, nobody else went for things with LA and he begins at 4th level so it doesn't feel right to give him the buyoff for free.

I also was tinkering with some sort of milestone system: you get 10% of the exp needed to get to that level every time you level up to do whatever you want and then I keep track of the exp they get from enxounters myself. Not sure if it's a good idea now that I write about it tho.


This. If you're worried about group balance for one reason or another, you can always just change the modifiers around.

And I would really like to not do any kind of homebrew save for some harmeless trinkets/magic items for them to find around and have some fun. I know this is a rther easy job but I don't want to risk breaking anything.


FYI, while it doesn't explicitly say it, the DMG does imply that anything with only 1 HD trades it in for a class.

Indeed. And our friend knows that, but the humanoid cat of ultimate wilderness has 1 racial HD and LA+1 which put the race at ECL+1 since the first hit die is swapped for a class level. The humanoid weasel instead gets ECL+1 since it has a racial HD but no LA

[Rynjin]

You could just use the Pathfinder Catfolk. (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-catfolk/)

They're a fairly weak race in that game, but definitely playable.

[Doctor Despair]

Oh, if you're starting level 4 and you're doing milestone xp, then just have him start at level 3 and give him 2 levels when you feel like it. Technically xp is caught up entirely by level 13, but the character would leapfrog back and forth between being on-level and being a level behind up until then, so you could probably give it to them earlier... especially if their LA1 is for something like Catfolk. That's not exactly among the strongest races. Maybe give it to him at level 9 as a decent breakpoint? So when he is level 8 and the party is level 9, they reach level 10 at the same time?

Alternatively, start him at level 4 with everyone else, but give everyone else some sort of XP boon -- either something that costs 3,000 xp or something similar, or an extra 15,000 gp to spend as they will, or an item worth 15k that they would have a hard time offloading that gives a decent benefit. Off the top of my head, a Greater Bloodline costs 3k xp if you take all three pseudo-levels at level 1, but that is definitely stronger than the benefits of being a catfolk. You could give everyone a free minor bloodline to reduce that discrepancy. If you go for the gold or magical items, you could also start the Catfolk player off with no money (pauper style) to reduce the amount needed to give the other players to 10k.

Edit: Oh, another option (that your players presumably won't want) would be to make all of them Necropolitan, haha.

Actually, now that I think about it, I bet there's a minimally invasive LA+1 template you could slap on the other party members if they're willing to take it. You could give them all the Draconic template, for example, or Half-Satyr; those are pretty medium in strength. Quasilycanthrope is pretty flavorful, although the DR 10 can be pretty strong early on; then again, as long as the party members aren't going down, I suppose it doesn't matter so much whether you stayed up with 1hp or 30, providing you aren't burning through too many cure spells.

[Duff]

weasels are a bit of a stretch...

Pun intended?

[rel]

You could refluff something like a kenku or t'kel. Or convert tabaxi over from 5e

[KillianHawkeye]

I suppose you could play a cat that had Awaken cast on it. It could train out of the cat racial hitdie.

Note that the Awaken spell adds hit dice to the affected animal.......

[Doctor Despair]

Note that the Awaken spell adds hit dice to the affected animal.......

You can level-drain those off; there's no level adjustment, which is the important thing.

[Psyren]

Pathfinder has two, both with 0 LA:

1) Catfolk (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-catfolk), mentioned upthread
2) Skinwalker (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/RACES/other-races/more-races/standard-races-1-10-rp/skinwalkers-10-rp/#Weretiger-Kin_Fanglord) (Fanglord), aka weretiger-kin

Both are quite playable, the main difference is how much cat and how much humanoid you want in your mix.

[Yogibear41]

Call me boring, but Bretons and Nords forever.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Call me boringYou're boring. :smalltongue:

[Ruethgar]

I suppose you could play a cat that had Awaken cast on it. It could train out of the cat racial hitdie.

Awakened Cats have an ECL of 0 despite their RHD.

[ShurikVch]

Dragon #317 have Gruwaar - Small CE Fey which looks like cat-goblin-monkey hybrid (have claws); LA +0

For another low-ECL option - how about the Lycanthrope (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm#lycanthrope) bloodline?

[CharonsHelper]

Catfolk are one of the better +1 LA races in 3.5.

Are you using point-buy? One trick I've used before is to let people play +1 LA races without being down a level, but they have to use a lower point-buy.

Ex: If the rest of the group has a 32 point-buy, then he'd get a 25 point-buy.

[Ken Murikumo]

You're the DM, just make it up.

medium
+2 dex; -2 wis
darkvision
2 claws (primary, d4) and a bite (secondary, d4)
+2 racial bonus on move silently

[Troacctid]

Catfolk are one of the better +1 LA races in 3.5.
Disagree. They're not even in the top 10.

[Palanan]

Pathfinder's catfolk have been mentioned twice already, and this option seems like the easiest way to accommodate your player.

[CharonsHelper]

Disagree. They're not even in the top 10.

There are definitely better +1 LA races, but that doesn't keep them from being one of the top ones. By late 3.5 there were a LOT of races.

Catfolk are definitely better than many of the early +1 LA races such as hobgoblins, aasimars, and tieflings. The catfolk gets more attribute points (including a +4 DEX), additional AC, and a 40ft movement.

Are there some better ones, especially in the oddball splatbooks? Sure. But I'd say that catfolk are in the top quintile, or at least right on the edge of it.

[ShurikVch]

Also:

Cat Hengeyokai in hybrid form (Oriental Adventures + Dragon #318)

Rakasta (https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Rakasta):
Vaults of Pandius (1 (http://www.pandius.com/rakasta3.html), 2 (http://www.pandius.com/rakas_3e.html))
Frilond Campaign (https://web.archive.org/web/20081202150639/http://home.gwi.net/~rdorman/frilond/rul/dm/rakasta.htm)
Creature Catalogue (https://web.archive.org/web/20041213203407/http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/view_c.php?CreatureID=776)
Twilight of the Dawn (https://web.archive.org/web/20091027134544/http://www.geocities.com/isledawn/ecology/rakasta.html)

Tabaxi (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Tabaxi):
Tome of Horrors, Revised
Creature Catalogue (https://web.archive.org/web/20041217201346/http://www.enworld.org/cc/converted/monstrous_humanoid/tabaxi.htm)