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<blockquote data-quote="Shroomy" data-source="post: 5711650" data-attributes="member: 32739">While I was working on the article, two themes emerged:&nbsp; hengeyokai were extremely mobile and agile creatures (in fact, the majority of the subraces had a Dexterity bonus in earlier editions), and they were tricksters.&nbsp; That naturally led me to choose Dexterity as their fixed stat (and I hope I backed up that in the flavor text) and to choose a roster of favored classes that focused on movement (thus the assassin, rogue, and monk; the choice of sorcerer reflects their inherently magical nature and the fact that the wu jen was their favored class in 3e).&nbsp; I originally had a wider spread of stats associated with the hengeyokai, but during development it was felt that the race was becoming too complicated, so I modified the race so it had a more traditional stat set-up.&nbsp; Charisma was an easy choice because it was the primary stat for sorcerers and a secondary stat for rogues and assassins (it was also the secondary stat associated with the most subraces); I also chose Wisdom for the other flex stat because it was the monk's secondary stat, it had an association with Primal power, and because it was already assigned to the second largest group of subraces.&nbsp; The three stats also have associations with skills that I personally associated with hengeyokai:&nbsp; Acrobatics, Bluff, Intimidate, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Thievery.As for their size, originally several hengeyokai subraces changed into Small forms, but most of them were Tiny.&nbsp; Since their animal form did not have much direct combat applications, when concerns were raised about the race's complexity, I decided to consolidate all of them into one size.&nbsp; Luckily, making them all Tiny increases their mobility (since they can move easier through smaller spaces or even through enemy squares) and ability to hide more effectively.&nbsp; In my mind, some of the forms like the crane, dog, and raccoon dog (which if I remember correctly were the Small ones) are simply on the larger end of the Tiny scale.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shroomy, post: 5711650, member: 32739"] While I was working on the article, two themes emerged: hengeyokai were extremely mobile and agile creatures (in fact, the majority of the subraces had a Dexterity bonus in earlier editions), and they were tricksters. That naturally led me to choose Dexterity as their fixed stat (and I hope I backed up that in the flavor text) and to choose a roster of favored classes that focused on movement (thus the assassin, rogue, and monk; the choice of sorcerer reflects their inherently magical nature and the fact that the wu jen was their favored class in 3e). I originally had a wider spread of stats associated with the hengeyokai, but during development it was felt that the race was becoming too complicated, so I modified the race so it had a more traditional stat set-up. Charisma was an easy choice because it was the primary stat for sorcerers and a secondary stat for rogues and assassins (it was also the secondary stat associated with the most subraces); I also chose Wisdom for the other flex stat because it was the monk's secondary stat, it had an association with Primal power, and because it was already assigned to the second largest group of subraces. The three stats also have associations with skills that I personally associated with hengeyokai: Acrobatics, Bluff, Intimidate, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Thievery. As for their size, originally several hengeyokai subraces changed into Small forms, but most of them were Tiny. Since their animal form did not have much direct combat applications, when concerns were raised about the race's complexity, I decided to consolidate all of them into one size. Luckily, making them all Tiny increases their mobility (since they can move easier through smaller spaces or even through enemy squares) and ability to hide more effectively. In my mind, some of the forms like the crane, dog, and raccoon dog (which if I remember correctly were the Small ones) are simply on the larger end of the Tiny scale. [/QUOTE]

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