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.

 

[Weiley31]

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.

 

[Mind of tempest]

But Viera can't become Dragoons! That class is exclusive to the Bangaa Tribe in Ivalice.

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?

 

[Bill Zebub]

And when used as a tool by the majority to dodge moderation, yet still put people 'in their place'.

Snark begets snark, and then we are flaming.

Yup, fair point.

And, really, pointing out that people are too quick to ascribe preferences they don't share to those other people being "kids" who got those preferences from video games...probably isn't going to change that behavior. So maybe I shouldn't have brought it up.

 

[Mind of tempest]

The harengon come from the Feywild, and this is right, perfect for their background. This is the proof to make us remember the Feywild is not only a forest with a lot of fae creatures but strange and mysterious, and you can't know what you are going to find, and always there is something to be discovered and to cause a great surprise.

They aren't the type of humanoids you would see in a "classic" setting but they aren't stranger than the shardminds, for example, or the grippli, tabaxi and tortles.

But I miss the racial feats for no-core PC races.

I wish for a setting without the core races so he finally gets to see some other races hit their full potential, feats and all.

 

[Weiley31]

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?

The Rabbit Girls can't be Knights, that jump up in the air and stab fools with Spears on the way back down, because the Lizardman Tribe have the Jumping Dragoon class as an exclusive Job that's unique to them.

 

[Mind of tempest]

The Rabbit Girls can't be Knights that jump up in the air and stab fools with Spears on the way back down because the Lizardman Tribe have the Jumping Dragoon class as an exclusive class that's unique to them.

that is some terrible lore binding system but thank you for your explination.

 

[Rikka66]

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.

She is a Dragoon. Both in the lore and mechanically.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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.)

In 5e, specific beets general. Rabbit Hop has a specific range "five times your proficiency bonus". This is not modifiable by anything because it is specific. It's not affected by Haste, Slow, difficult terrain etc. It doesn't say "plus", "extra" or anything else to indicate it is additive.

At the time Bestial Soul was written, there was no other jumping it could apply to. Ergo the intent of the writer (RAI) was it modified jumping-as-part-of-movement (like the Jump spell). It has no affect on the range of any special movement abilities like Instinctive Pounce, Swiftstride Shifting Feature or Skirmisher.

It's not a matter of balance - clearly when characters can fly at first level the ability to jump really far is trivial - that's just how the 5e rules work.

 

[Mecheon]

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?

So in the game Final Fantasy Tactics and its various spinoffs, there's various races you make an army out of to defeat other armies. Viera (Amazonian bunny girls who you never seen the males of until FF14 dropped a trailer for them to be playable which some have claimed will result in the death of all catboys) are one of the races you can recruit. They're the agility based race and tend to get agility based classes as a result, with a smattering of magic ones. Basically? In D&D terms, they're elves. Rabbit elves.

Dragoon's are strength-based fighters who jump around and are one of the most iconic Final Fantasy classes. Viera can't get those, so the... I guess Dragonborn equivilent, the Bangaa, are the ones who get those.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In 5e, specific beets general. Rabbit Hop has a specific range "five times your proficiency bonus". This is not modifiable by anything because it is specific. It's not affected by Haste, Slow, difficult terrain etc. It doesn't say "plus", "extra" or anything else to indicate it is additive.

At the time Bestial Soul was written, there was no other jumping it could apply to. Ergo the intent of the writer (RAI) was it modified jumping-as-part-of-movement (like the Jump spell). It has no affect on the range of any special movement abilities like Instinctive Pounce, Swiftstride Shifting Feature or Skirmisher.

It's not a matter of balance - clearly when characters can fly at first level the ability to jump really far is trivial - that's just how the 5e rules work.

Not sure that follows. You’re jumping, it has a distance, the other feature adds to the distance you jump. There is no rule that specific rules don’t stack or modify eachother.