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.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe now D&D is more kid-friendly but it may be a necessary strategy if we want a new generation of players. And Hasbro's plans are their IPs to produce money as multimedia franchises, with different types of products.

D&D had got a lot of antropomorphic animal races. Nezumi (ratfolk) were a canon PC race in 3rd Oriental Adventures. In Savage Species there was a picture of an "onagre", a donkeyfolk, as one example of antropomorphic animals.

There was a demiplane, Dungeonland, based in "Alice in Wonderland".

Rabbits are very popular in China. And harengongs as PCs doesn't mean always used for stories with a comedic tone.

Of course they are "exotic" to say now "there were in Oerth(Greyhawk) but they didn't appear here in our towns until now. Maybe they were halflings who survived a werehare curse but with some secondary effects. They can be interesting PCs in a horror game because they are labeled as potential preys since the first moment.

I would rather "usagi musume" (bunny girl) but with a realistic canal ear. The ears should be in the sides, not in the top, at least because of hats and helms aren't designed for heads with ears on the top.

 

[MGibster]

When I first saw the Harengon I was mildly repulsed. "This just isn't for me!" I thought to myself. And, really, I'm still not sure it's for me. But I can't help but admire WotC for expanding their repertoire of fantasy options and maybe it'd be fun playing Sir Cottontail in his quest for the 32 carrot diamond. Oh, well, as long as we don't start adding cat girls into the mix I think I'm fine with this. No, what is the Tabaxi you speak of?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

At level 20, if you can get a luckstone, by that time with a +20 to Athletics, whenever you use Rabbit Hop, you can jump from between 55 and 70 feet (which may or may not count as Movement, it's still not clear)

5e is not a keyword driven rules system. The use of the word "jump" in the description of the Rabbit Hop ability is fluff. It is not intended to indicate any interaction with the rules for jumping as part of your movement. Rabbit Hop is more akin to refluffed Misty Step. You could jump as part of your movement, then make a rabbit hop, but they are two separate things (implicitly, you need to touch down in between). If you want to try and make a single really long jump you are better taking the dash action (+bonus action dash if you are a rogue).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If you cross a harengon with a dwarf do you get a guinea pig?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Nothing says 'mature' like sloppily dropping in a reference to sex slavery and human trafficking to make your magic dwarves seem more evil.

Or getting angry that a fantasy game incorporates an element with literally thousands of years of mythology behind it.

Basically, anytime something feels the need to tell you it's mature... it isn't.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

5e is not a keyword driven rules system. The use of the word "jump" in the description of the Rabbit Hop ability is fluff. It is not intended to indicate any interaction with the rules for jumping as part of your movement. Rabbit Hop is more akin to refluffed Misty Step. You could jump as part of your movement, then make a rabbit hop, but they are two separate things (implicitly, you need to touch down in between). If you want to try and make a single really long jump you are better taking the dash action (+bonus action dash if you are a rogue).

Bestial Soul (Jumping) just says "When you jump, you can make a Strength (Athletics) check and extend your jump by a number of feet equal to the check’s total" and then restricts the ability to once a turn. It doesn't say Long Jumps or High Jumps, makes no mention of Running Starts, and so on. It just says that you have to jump, you roll the dice, and then add the total to the distance you jump.

Rabbit Hop just says " 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."

It mentions jumping as a part of the mechanical description. It's not fluff text. It's just an alternate and more limited version of jumping. They're both jumping, and they stack, because the only requirement to use Bestial Soul (Jumping) is that you have to jump.

RAW, these stack. It doesn't matter if 5e isn't primarily a keyword driven rules system. One ability calls for jumping, the other is jumping, and so they work together. That's the only thing necessary to make this combo work.

(And it's not like it'd be broken, either. It's a very niche ability, and more funny than anything else. What kind of DM wouldn't let a level 17 Bunny-Barbarian jump between 55-70 feet 6 times a day as a bonus action? The player worked for it, and at that point it's not going to break your games. Rules as Fun overrules twisted interpretations of Rules as Written.)

 

[Mind of tempest]

any one want to see a do love of adding stats to the pc so we can put things that matter in the races construction instead?

 

[Bird Of Play]

HeroForge is ready.

View attachment 144033

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JUST LOOK AT THESE THINGS AND DARE TO TELL ME THEY DON'T LOOK HILARIOUS.
I think that's it. That's all. I don't need to add more. The screenshots speak for themselves. grumble grumble

Why not? There's more rabbit people in medieval art then there are elves, dwarfs, or halflings.


Because all the different animal types aren't needed for the adventure. Also, they've already done a bunch of other animal people at this point.

And anyway, there's plenty of 5e games that have included tons of other anthro races--and in a non-sexy way at that. Humblewood and Historia, for instance.


MMORPGs also have elves, dwarfs, and orcs as well.


Removing sex slaves may make D&D feel childish (to you). That's because this is a game that some people play with actual children. It's easy to add in horrible things to an adventure, but removing it is a bit harder, because the horribleness taints how the entire thing is written.

And quite frankly, there's a lot of players out there who take the "mature" content (which really is just dark and edgy, not mature) as permission to be pretty horrible to other people in their game. We don't need that.


You do realize that player demographics have changed, right? And that a lot of the people who play today simply aren't happy to see a room full of women (I doubt any of them were men) existing for no purpose in the adventure other than to be sexually abused and victimized. How is it not good to remove this sort of victimization? Especially when there are plenty of ways to show a type of evil that real people--some of whom might be at your table--haven't actually experienced.


You clearly haven't read Watership Down. Or Usagi Yojimbo.


I listed all their traits before. You still haven't said how they're the same. Other than darkvision, their traits are completely different from each other's.

As someone who loves edgydark elements, let me tell you this: if someone uses them to play out creepy fantasies, it's not the darkedgy elements.... it's the person who is the problem.
And, heck, I bet that same person would be able to make a creepy fantasy out of the bunnypeople too. I'm a strong defender of not censoring content. Dark and edgy elements are like a knife: technically you can use them to stab someone, yes, and they're inherently dangerous..... but most people actually use knifes to cut slices of cake and bread and cheese. You don't stop maniacs by not allowing cooks to use knives.

Are you really asking "Why is an adventure set on the modern equivilent of the Plane of Faerie including rabbit people as a thing?"

Aside from pointing out centuries of mythology of anthropomorphised rabbits as plucky hero characters (and pointing out how there's more justsification for the rabbit people over Halflings and especially 'just the ramblings of a madman which is also a way to insult someone in Australia' the Derro) its the Feywild. The modern equivilent of the Plane of Faerie, that place from back in 1E that was also not used. A land where 'There's a gingerbread house' is a thing that could certainly happen. It naturally suits itself to these sort of Wonderland-esque situations

Regardless though? This isn't even the first time D&D's had rabbit people. It had Pooka back in Basic and their general image in the public conciousness tends to be rabbit-related. Heck, Dragon Magazine 60 has its Pooka NPC as just, a rabbit person in a suit


I'm not saying "Did you know that the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV has a free trial, and includes the entirety of A Realm Reborn AND the award-winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 with no restrictions on playtime?" has a bunny race. They're basically mythological amazons who are also the closest thing to elves in that universe and engage in the art of 'Murdering anyone who goes into their forests' and 'Protecting the forests by murdering anyone who goes into them'

But what I am saying is "Critically acclaimed MMO Final Fantasy 14 does worldbuilding a million bloody times better than D&D does and boy do I ever dunk on Kara Tur even harder after Stormblood expansion"

You think FFXIV does worldbuilding right? Of all games?? I meeeean, that explains why you'd like the bunnypeople. Again this proves my point, a mmorpg fan who likes a game with catboys/catgirls and stuff will of course like the bunnypeople.

Nothing says 'mature' like sloppily dropping in a reference to sex slavery and human trafficking to make your magic dwarves seem more evil.

Or getting angry that a fantasy game incorporates an element with literally thousands of years of mythology behind it.

Basically, anytime something feels the need to tell you it's mature... it isn't.

I've mentioned myself that this so-called "mature" content is favored by edgy teens rather than actual adults. Read my previous comment. I know it's darkedgy stuff.

It's still PG-rated content however, which is my point.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You think FFXIV does worldbuilding right? Of all games?? I meeeean, that explains why you'd like the bunnypeople. Again this proves my point, a mmorpg fan who likes a game with catboys/catgirls and stuff will of course like the bunnypeople.

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