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Pathfinder 1E Race of snake cats for D&D. is true?

manche

First Post
I was tolf by a local DM that there's a Rcae of naga-likes that instead of having a human top half, they have a feline humanoid top half.

Is there such race or the DM was pulling stuff out of the ***?
 

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WayneLigon

Adventurer
There might well be some 3rd party thing or a unique thing from an Adventure Path that looks like that. Nothing I'm aware of in Pathfinder. Closest thing I can think of is the pipefox.
 


gamerprinter

Mapper/Publisher
Strangely the pipefox is a real world animal (kanko) - its a fox with very short legs and and long body, resembling something like a Dachsund. In Japan, folklore states that witches (mahou tsukai) could have a pipefox hiding in the sleeves of her kimono. So I find it odd, that a Bestiary would include a real world animal's name and apply to some quite odd snake-fox. As a designer, I could see adapting a completely fokloric being or concept and giving it a fantastical twist merging a snake and a fox. Obviously a pipefox is mostly unheard of outside of Japan, but that doesn't excuse taking a realworld beast and keeping the name, but replacing it with a fanciful being that never actually existed in Japan (or anywhere). Its like taking an animal like a dog, but now applying a different animal (say a cat) and calling it a dog.

The fictional pipefox, has a long serpentine like body (and often depicted so in anime movies), while the animal its based on the kanko is lythe fox that can easily fit inside a pipe - where its name comes from.
 

Robert Ranting

First Post
I was tolf by a local DM that there's a Rcae of naga-likes that instead of having a human top half, they have a feline humanoid top half. Is there such race or the DM was pulling stuff out of the ***?
It is called a tatzylwurm, and while not a playable character race, it is a monster from previous editions of D&D. Your DM probably saw the version of it in the Tome of Horrors by Necromancer games, which does have more of an anthropomorphic look to it. Incidentally, this is a creature from real-world germanic folklore, the name meaning "claw worm" in german, and it is pretty well established as a local legend/cryptid in the Alps region, if Google is to be believed.
 

Nellisir

Hero
It is called a tatzylwurm, and while not a playable character race, it is a monster from previous editions of D&D. Your DM probably saw the version of it in the Tome of Horrors by Necromancer games, which does have more of an anthropomorphic look to it. Incidentally, this is a creature from real-world germanic folklore, the name meaning "claw worm" in german, and it is pretty well established as a local legend/cryptid in the Alps region, if Google is to be believed.

I literally remembered this 60 seconds ago, and came here to post about it. Scooped! :)
 


So I find it odd, that a Bestiary would include a real world animal's name and apply to some quite odd snake-fox. As a designer, I could see adapting a completely fokloric being or concept and giving it a fantastical twist merging a snake and a fox. Obviously a pipefox is mostly unheard of outside of Japan, but that doesn't excuse taking a realworld beast and keeping the name, but replacing it with a fanciful being that never actually existed in Japan (or anywhere).
It seems like fair treatment, to me. I mean, salamanders are also real, but not quite like their D&D representation.
 

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