D&D 5E Preview Witchlight's New Rabbit People

You can take a look at the harengons, a rabbit-themed race in the upcoming Wild Beyond the Witchlight, over at D&D Beyond.

Harengons are medium or small humanoids with a bonus to initiative, Dexterity saving throws, and a 'rabbit hop' which lets them jump up to five times their proficiency bonus without provoking opportunity attacks.

Creature Type. You are a Humanoid.

Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.

Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.

Hare-Trigger. You can add your proficiency bonus to your initiative rolls.

Leporine Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

Lucky Footwork. When you fail a Dexterity saving throw, you can use your reaction to roll a d4 and add it to the save, potentially turning the failure into a success. You can’t use this reaction if you’re prone or your speed is 0.

Rabbit Hop. As a bonus action, you can jump a number of feet equal to five times your proficiency bonus, without provoking opportunity attacks. You can use this trait only if your speed is greater than 0. You can use it a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

When you create a harengon or fairy using the rules from The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, you can choose to increase one ability score by 2 and another by 1, or choose to increase three different scores by 1. Further, you know Common and will choose one other language to learn.

 

[Bolares]

I don't get why people think rabbitfolk are not in DnD's wheelhouse. If you don't like, fine. Play what you want. But DnD is pretty big for everyone play what they want, and has always been VERY silly (flail snails exist for example)

 

[Mind of tempest]

Were-lagomorph were canon in AD&D if my memory doesn't fail. At least they appeared in Dragon Magazine 156 (April 1990). I guess somebody may say it was an April's fool, like the unicow.

My wish is to can enjoy harengon version monster girl, a waif, but not only a cute girl with rabbit ears. Maybe in some game-live show podcast somebody with a very fun harengon bard could these to become very popular.

okay, so rabbit woman is something I am going to have to deal with in dnd going forward.

I don't get why people think rabbitfolk are not in DnD's wheelhouse. If you don't like, fine. Play what you want. But DnD is pretty big for everyone play what they want, and has always been VERY silly (flail snails exist for example)

standards are often arbitrary in my experience thus this was inevitable I wonder what the next big one will be?

 

[Bird Of Play]

I don't see any point getting into an argument over rabbitpeople.
I think they look really silly and kind of childish. They would look extremely out of place in my D&D setting. I also think they show how the newest editions of D&D are getting less and less interesting to me, which is why I keep using the older editions.

You like them and think they don't look goofy? Lucky you. Use them.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I don't see any point getting into an argument over rabbitpeople.
I think they look really silly and kind of childish. They would look extremely out of place in my D&D setting. I also think they show how the newest editions of D&D are getting less and less interesting to me, which is why I keep using the older editions.

You like them and think they don't look goofy? Lucky you. Use them.

so the argument ends then yes? agree to disagree yes?

 

[Marandahir]

can you explain that in words people outside the game might know as I old know sufficient amounts to be confused and jocat has not made the DPS video yet?

Viera are a tribe of all-female rabbit-eared people from the nation/world of Ivalice, and appear in Ivalice Alliance-themed Final Fantasy titles (and an Ivalice-themed expansion to FFXIV Online). They make excellent rangers, druids, clerics, summoner wizards, bards, and swashbuckler rogues (in FF terms, Archer, Hunter, Green Mage, White Mage, Evoker, Red Mage, and Fencer).

The original two Ivalice Alliance games, Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, both for the original Sony PlayStation, ONLY had humans. The third title in the setting, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, for the Game Boy Advance, brought back the series-mascot Moogles as a playable tribe (they show up in most other FF titles), and introduced the afformentioned Viera, as well as a handful of other non-human tribes: the warrior-like lizard-folk (but don't call them that to their face!) known as Bangaa and the dog-like wizardly Nu Mou. In that game, there were some jobs like White Mage or Black Mage that might be shared between tribes (Humans & Nu Mou can be both, Moogles can be black mages, Viera can be White Mages). But other jobs are very specific to tribes (Only Viera can be Red Mages, only Bangaa can be Dragoons, only Moogles can be Gunners, only Nu Mou can be Sages (aka Mystic Theurges)).

Later Ivalice games expanded on this setting with new tribes like the Gria (Tieflings), Seeq (Orcs), and Aegyl (Aarakocra/Aasimar). They also changed up some of the way the job system worked, in part because while FF Tactics, FF Tactics Advance , FFTA2: Grimoire of the Rift, FF Tactics: War of the Lion, and FF Tactics S are Tactical combat games similar to Fire Emblem or Shining Force, while Final Fantasy XII uses a more traditional Final Fantasy battle system (ADB - an evolution of earlier titles' ATB), and Vagrant Story features a singular protagonist in a dungeon crawl, more akin to something like "The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard." And FF XIV Online is an MMORPG, so Viera characters there are not restricted in the same way they are in FFTA, either.

So each game genre warrants its own take on the job system, and thus while my cheeky comment was due to my love of FFTA and TA2, it's not particularly as restrictive a lore as I originally made it out to be.

FF14 Viera can be!

Also they're technically the future of the Ivalice ones but then there's also the FF12 crossover and. The mess that is 'okay so FF12 and Tactics are somehow canon to 14' is a thing.

Fair enough!

I'm mostly played FFTA and TA2: Grimoires of the Rift, where some jobs are tribe-exclusive.

Yeah honestly while I know Freya from FF9 isn’t a rabbit lady (and also maybe not technically a Dragoon? I don’t remember), she is the character inspiration I’d go for.

It tends to suck on Internet forums unless there is a strong enough sense of community that people genuinely feel bad when their peers get mad at them, though.

In D&D terms, Freya's a Nezumi, actually (Burmecian). She IS a Dragoon by all definitions of the term, though. The game does call her a Dragon Knight sometimes, but that's because of inconsistent translation. In Japan, Dragoons are called Dragon Knights. Dragon Knight didn't fit the character limit for early FF games in the west, hence the creation of the Dragoon class name.

That's horrible?!?!

I always set up Fran as a Dragoon/Ulhan in my games back in the day (heavy armors and lance/poles, offset by Fran natural speed)!

The main Command of the class is Jump, how is that not a rabbit-themed class!?

/jk

PS: I've been campaigning for years now to have Ivalice as a campaign setting. Or a more general D&D: Legends of the Crystals, with stats for races/magic items across the different FF settings. Now's the time!

In official artwork and guest appearances, Fran is an Archer. For example, in FFXII: Revenant Wings, she only uses bows.

But yeah, FFXII's job system is different and doesn't follow the Ivalice lore previously established. It IS worth noting that while FFT and its remake War of the Lions lack the Dragoon job, they do imply that FFTA and TA2's tribe-restricted jobs are not as tightly locked away in other nations of Ivalice…

I do agree that Jump seems perfect for a rabbit person. They don't mesh as well with the OTHER Dragoon abilities - i.e., flying on the back of a wyvern, breathing fire/ice/lightning, etc. There's a reason that Bangaa got the job: Lizardfolk make better stand-ins for Dragonborn than Haregons do.

 

[bedir than]

okay, so rabbit woman is something I am going to have to deal with in dnd going forward

Again, nothing about the official presentation of rabbitfolk has anything to do with the sexy girl rabbits presented by several users here.

While those tropes are completely valid for players to choose, they are as related to Harengon as any sexy girl character is to a human.

There's real art, real lore, in a real book that is pretty clear about what Harengon are.

 

[Dire Bare]

Again, nothing about the official presentation of rabbitfolk has anything to do with the sexy girl rabbits presented by several users here.

While those tropes are completely valid for players to choose, they are as related to Harengon as any sexy girl character is to a human.

There's real art, real lore, in a real book that is pretty clear about what Harengon are.

Indeed. If you're not careful, you'll find "sexy girl" versions of every D&D race out on the internet somewhere, with a passionate fan base. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Dire Bare]

We don't have Bear people yet.

Not officially, but Kobold Press has a pretty good bear-folk race in their Midgard line of books. And WotC has used werefolk to stand-in somewhat for animal-people, with a werebear druid in Rime of the Frostmaiden that spends most of their time in bear-person form.

If you CAN shift into human or bear form, but spend most of your time in bear-person form . . . . you're a bear-person!

 

[Dire Bare]

The only thing that annoys me about the Haregon is that they aren't Fey. Despite the fact they were first introduced to 5E via a UA that was called Folks of the Feywild.

Other than that, I'm cool with them.

D&D has a long tradition of not classifying all feywild/faerie natives as "fey". Part of the problem is overlapping monster categories . . . . if you're humanoid-shaped, native to the feywild, and undead . . . what is your "type" in the game rules (you can only pick one)? It's best not to equate a monsters type in the game rules with it's provenance in the game world, it doesn't always match up.

 

[Richards]

have you tried apathy toward the rabbit folk like I am towards the halflings?

I was going to try apathy once...but I didn't really care enough to give it a try.

Johnathan