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.

 

[Minigiant]

If you believe ASI, and Alignment are filler, this makes sense.

They could have done exactly as you say with the rabbit, added these nice, thematic features AND left the definition provided by ASI and alignment, and then I would believe Wizards isn't moving intentionally away from the system provided in the PHB.

Size? Humanish. Small or Medium.
Age? Humanish.
Language? Pick one.
Alignment? Whatever.
Appearance? Whatever, but roughly what Humans are in terms of Physical dimensions.
ASI? Whatever.

Watered down.

It's again this false narrative of a binary choice.

We could have interesting race mechanics and everything else, but no.

I think the issue is perception vs reality.

Really a +2 bonus is weak. Unless it is to your class' primary ability score(s), +2 or +1 doesn't do much an a d20.

But people feel it does.

So you know what happens if you lock in +2 Dex and CG to haregon/rabbitfolk? 80% will be Dex based rogues, rangers, and fighters who are quirky hyperactive rapscallions.

But everyone doesn't want to be rapier rabbits.
However they can't get over the +2. We see it as SO BIG.
We don't want to use it but want to use it.

So WOTC eventually gave up and quit fighting our communities conflicting desires.

 

[Weiley31]

But seriously, I think it's time they filled out the rest of the menagerie. D&D designers! We need: Dog/wolf folk, Rodent folk, Racoon folk, and possibly some sort of Arthropod folk (insects, spiders, etc) to join with:
Lizard folk
Elephant folk
Rabbit folk
Bird folk (2 types!)
Cat folk
Cow folk (minotaurs - is that a stretch?)
Snake folk

And then we can have a jolly old "funny animal" time!

My FB feeds are pushing a Kickstarter for “Beast World” which apparently features 24 furry species (Bovine, Canine, Vulpine, Feline etc) across 5 culture variations

Animal Farm, the RPG.

There's also the Animal Adventures and Humblewood 3PP for 5E as well.

 

[Scribe]

I think the issue is perception vs reality.

Really a +2 bonus is weak. Unless it is to your class' primary ability score(s), +2 or +1 doesn't do much an a d20.

But people feel it does.

So you know what happens if you lock in +2 Dex and CG to haregon/rabbitfolk? 80% will be Dex based rogues, rangers, and fighters who are quirky hyperactive rapscallions.

But everyone doesn't want to be rapier rabbits.
However they can't get over the +2. We see it as SO BIG.
We don't want to use it but want to use it.

So WOTC eventually gave up and quit fighting our communities conflicting desires.

I mean yes and no. Not once am I saying "Only CG, Only +2 Dex, you have no choice."

Its simply not a binary. They factually, literally, CAN solve for both. They simply refuse to.

 

[J.Quondam]

They saw the market and changed the game accordingly, over the years.

Well, yeah.* What else should they have done? The target audience is vastly more diverse and cosmopolitan than the original audience.



* Ignoring for the moment whether the specifics of the argument (eg, "videogamey." Really?) are actually valid.

 

[bedir than]

Y'all keep talking about sexy anime rabbits being added to D&D and I'm left wondering where those are, because absolutely nothing about the harengon is that.
"who were kind of like these little rabbit dickheads." Perkins to Polygon
The art shown has them as typical D&D pseudo medieval.
The encounter featuring them is as brigands.
Their features are as fleet footed, skirmishers.

 

[abirdcall]

I think the issue is perception vs reality.

Really a +2 bonus is weak. Unless it is to your class' primary ability score(s), +2 or +1 doesn't do much an a d20.

But people feel it does.

So you know what happens if you lock in +2 Dex and CG to haregon/rabbitfolk? 80% will be Dex based rogues, rangers, and fighters who are quirky hyperactive rapscallions.

But everyone doesn't want to be rapier rabbits.
However they can't get over the +2. We see it as SO BIG.
We don't want to use it but want to use it.

So WOTC eventually gave up and quit fighting our communities conflicting desires.

This is why racial ASIs work.

They encourage people to play to type. Most characters of races with +2 dex will have high dex b/c people will make that choice based on the little push they get. While at the same time it's not actually a big deal so if someone wants to play a +2 dex race with low dex it isn't a big deal in the scheme of things.

 

[Minigiant]

I mean yes and no. Not once am I saying "Only CG, Only +2 Dex, you have no choice."

Its simply not a binary. They factually, literally, CAN solve for both. They simply refuse to.

Oh a "Suggested Racial Abliity Adjustment" would be great.

However 5e has been on a "if it's really easy and optionial, let DMs do themselves" mindset 30 days after the DMG was published.

 

[Bird Of Play]

Well, yeah.* What else should they have done? The target audience is vastly more diverse and cosmopolitan than the original audience.



* Ignoring for the moment whether the specifics of the argument (eg, "videogamey." Really?) are actually valid.

The exact opposite happened. They've removed anything that would make the game diverse, including racial differences between a ORC and a GNOME..... and then they added animalpeople and how is that cosmopolitan?

I ain't even mad, I'm still using the 2nd edition books to play so whatever. I'm just disappointed because that stuff is what the kids starting D&D will probably learn to use.

 

[J.Quondam]

The exact opposite happened. They've removed anything that would make the game diverse, including racial differences between a ORC and a GNOME..... and then they added animalpeople and how is that cosmopolitan?

The audience is diverse and cosmopolitan, not the game.
They're not selling to the game; they're selling to the audience.

 

[bedir than]

including racial differences between a ORC and a GNOME

Entirely untrue. There are thousands of words of difference to include different racial features and appearances.