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.

 

[CleverNickName]

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

(They aren't just screenshots, they are 2D image files generated from custom 3D models. You can have them printed in 3D and use them in your games! In color!)

But I digress.

Of course they look hilarious. They look every bit as hilarious as dragon-people, and robot-people, and lizard-people, and eagle-people, and cat-people. To name a few.

Hybrid creatures can be found everywhere in real-world mythology, and I borrowed heavily from them when I was creating my first adventures in middle school. So they really aren't that weird to me; I grew up with them in my games. If you're grumbling over rabbit-people in a fairy-tale setting, I feel like you'd really grumble over an ancient Egyptian-inspired or Hindu-inspired game setting.

 

[MarkB]

JUST LOOK AT THESE THINGS AND DARE TO TELL ME THEY DON'T LOOK HILARIOUS.

Oh, they do. They also look awesome, and make me want to find an excuse to play such a character.

 

[Mind of tempest]

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




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.





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.







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.

you act as if comic relief races have not been a thing before these guys seem better than kender so I'm just flat apathetic to rabbit dudes existence.

your technically correct on it being the player's problem but does the material need to be the default is more relevant? also, your darkness is what is the word pedestrian, mundane the sadly normal where is the melting people down as a resourse.

people are allowed to like things for superficial reasons or does the concept of favourite colour not exist?

it is simply better to agree to disagree and worry more about what it is you want and how to get it?

 

[Bird Of Play]

Mod Note:

ENWorld welcomes opinions of all kinds and like discussion of a variety of (mostly gaming) topics. But this kind of language is problematic. Insulting others for their taste in games is NOT acceptable. Please, don’t do so again.

Wait, I did not mean to insult.
Is he a mmorpg fan?
Does FFXIV have anime catboys and anime catgirls?
Isn't the answer to both "yes"? Where's the insult?

Is the insult the fact that -I- don't like mmorpg with catboys or catgirls? Or is the insult the fact that I think FFXIV's worldbuilding is bad?

Just asking to make sure I don't make the same mistake again. All I was saying is that if you like a mmorpg with anime catpeople, you're probably more likely to enjoy bunnypeople as well. Again, where's the insult besides "I really don't like that just as I don't like bunnypeople"? That wasn't an attempt at insulting, but at having a discussion. My bad if it came out wrong.

Feel free to tell me you hate the darkedgy stuff I enjoy; I wouldn't find it offensive, so I didn't think it'd be offensive for me to state I hate catbunnypeople. Heck, and you can also playfully mock the fact I like that stuff! I'm pretty confident in what I like, someone telling me what I like is wrong isn't going to offend me or change my mind.
(Also, I love it when people tell me what I like is bad. It makes me see things from another perspective, which is awesome.)

 

[Nikosandros]

More races = more options; that's good in my book (BTW, why we still don't have dog and bear folk??). I like to have a wide palette from which I can pick and choose. As I wrote in some other thread, my Greyhawk campaign has only the "traditional" AD&D races available, meanwhile my FR game in Waterdeep has a huge selection.

If I'll run Witchlight, rabbits will definitely be in, while I probably wouldn't use them in Eberron.

 

[NaturalZero]

When I was a child, I liked cartoonish things, like anthropomorphic animals.

When I became a teenager, I felt that those things were childish and thought that "edgy" stuff like sex-slaving darrow were cool and "mature."

Now that I'm older, I think the edgy stuff is childish and am less afraid to just appreciate cartoonish things for what they are. I'm reminded of a C.S. Lewis quote:

Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

 

[Bird Of Play]

When I was a child, I liked cartoonish things, like anthropomorphic animals.

When I became a teenager, I felt that those things were childish and thought that "edgy" stuff like sex-slaving darrow were cool and "mature."

Now that I'm older, I think the edgy stuff is childish and am less afraid to just appreciate cartoonish things for what they are. I'm reminded of a C.S. Lewis quote:

And then there's me, who liked darkedgy stuff since I was a little kid, kept liking that as a teenager, and goes on with it as an adult.
I played Mortal Kombat and Doom, and read Lobo comics and watched Nightmare On Elm Street, when I was around 8-9 years old.

In fact, perhaps I like that stuff so much because it reminds me of my childhood days?

 

[Remathilis]

Rant zone below!

First of all, MY books of the 2nd edition don't have any of that rabbitfolks, catfolks, all-races-are-equal-even-if-one-is-2-meters-height-and-the-other-is-half-a-meter, crap.
Yes, everyone is humanoid somehow, but making other animals into humanoid too isn't solving the fact that everything from giants to feys to demons is human-shaped. How does adding rabbit-people make the game more fantasy or original?

Hi.

I don't know what second edition books YOU own, but it must be a very small library. Because I can point to MY library and find

Aarakroca, lizadfolk, gnoll, minotaur, bullywug, satyr, centaur, wemic, swammay, and mongrelfolk PCs in The Complete Book of Humanoids

Tiefling, aasimar, genasi, bariaur and frickin Mordton in Planeswalker's Handbook

Aarakroca and thri-kreen in the Dark Sun Campaign Settings

Half-dragons in Council of Worms.

Lupin, rakasta, tortles, variant lizardfolk, and aranea in Red Steel

And that's not discussing Basic D&D, which at this time has whole supplements for aquatic and fey PCs.

Sorry, weird PC races and animal folk have been around since the 90s.

 

[Remathilis]

Serious question: do they explain why some haregons are small and others medium? Are they distinct different types of the same species like a subrace, is the race prone to dwarfism, or did they go "it's magic, I don't gotta explain ####!" ?

 

[Scott Christian]

I'm not sure if that is the standard anymore. It might have been back in OD&D or even Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, but it sure isn't anymore. Eberron, Exanrdia, Ravenloft, Dark Sun, and Planescape are all very popular and well-known D&D settings that have nothing to do with the stereotypical "Knights, Wizards, and Clerics venturing into a dungeon to kill a Dragon and take its stuff". Furthermore, the adventure that these Rabbitfolk appear in is a Fey adventure that takes place in a world that is practically made out of Fairy Tales like Alice in Wonderland and Jack and the Beanstalk.

If you don't like Rabbitfolk in your Knights and Dragons D&D campaign, that's perfectly fine. However, I'm not sure that this old, outdated, and largely irrelevant style of play should have a monopoly on deciding what should be in the game anymore. (Well, it hasn't for decades, so that's more than enough for me.)

I don't think it is the standard anymore... for a segment of players.
I feel it has been the standard all the way close to the end of 3rd. (Yes, I know 3rd had lots of stuff, but in public play, I saw very little of it. It was more outlandish back then to have a male play a female or vice-a-versa. 4th is where I saw the shift. And personally, I'm not sure if D&D had anything to do with it. They just followed the trend.