Beastfolk Races for D&D

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>>54000171
The Ooze mutates people into whatever animal they have been closest to/share a connection with.

>>54000171
Eh. I've completely ditched the usual demihumans and goblins and orcs, and replaced them with reclusive animal people. Works okay.

>>54000171
For example, some ideas I've had in more detail... of course, 2 will get you 1 that someanon is going to say at least one of these is magical realmy.

Hutaakans: Cool, aloof jackal-folk who worship what is essentially Trag'Oul from Diablo. An entire culture of necromancers and witch-priests, hutaakans are regarded with leery eyes by most races, but aren't hostile unless provoked.

Gnolls: Formerly savannah-dwelling savages, the hyena-like gnolls were "uplifted" after being conquered and enslaved by the hutaakans. Although this has unified the one-warring tribes and risen them above their Stone Age roots, many gnolls still chafe under the leash and could eventually revolt against their oft-distracted and sometimes cruel "liberators".

Diomedians: A race of carnivorous mare-amazons, a failed experiment by some arrogant and delusional mage to engineer a race of warrior-slaves by magically crossing horses, with ogres, and perhaps a dash of wolf in the process. He lost control over them, and they have since spread over the world. Aggressive, belligerent and with a hunger for flesh, diomedians exist in tribal communities that gravitate to a life of banditry and mercenary work, but their surprising capacity for loyalty means that, particularly in the frontier regions, they are also respectable bodyguards and even neighbors - if somewhat disreputable.

>>54000171
Using ratfolk in place of gnomes/'the inventor race' works fantastically thematically imo, if you're really pushing to swap out something you CAN replace Dwarves with them, but that doesn't work as well I don't think.

In my setting Ratfolk were originally all humans but I think they still count for the purposes of this thread?

I often do kobolds as wandering bands of tinkers, thinkers, inventors and merchants, with an unfortunately greedy nature that they usually are able to overcome. I played a Lizardfolk once that was basically a classy Cajun inquisitor. They live in swamps in many settings so I like to base them off those sort of regions.

I also had a never-implemented country for a setting where the entire country was cursed for the king's misdeed (eventually settling on lycanthropy) but the guy and his son were so damned competent the people didn't want to risk the economy by overthrowing him, which is the only way to break the curse. It didn't effect relations *too much* as foreigners just have to lock the doors at night, and make sure they never actually move there.

>>54000171
>breastfolk
Those are called women.

>>54000171
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APrBdP0bBJM

Honest question; what kind of role could one find for civilized skunk-folk? Kobolds and ratfolk can both do the tinker or sneaky guy thing, beaver-folk make a sort of river-based dwarf, even horse-folk can make "the strong guy", but still, skunks?

The world needs more Owlfolk culturally and physically inspired by Wind Waker's Rito

>>54003845
Fantasy french bards, judging by Looney tumes

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>>54000171
I ran a couple of adventures centered around two city-states that had become enemies over trade disputes. One was a mining town renown for its mineral wealth. The other was a garden metropolis and agricultural powerhouse. In the end, the two city-states cursed each other with mystic voodoo. The garden city was cursed to a desiccated and lifeless desert, its royal line transformed into gorgons. The mining city was cursed with uncontrollable jungle growth (as in, a large tree might take a week to go from sprout to full-grown), it's people doomed to slowly transform into feral beastmen as they aged.

The forms they took varied from individual to individual (and not by heritage, for example), but were almost always mammalian. Those few that transformed into some form of bird- or reptile-man were destined to ultimately become mindless beasts, rather than savage wild-men. Usually starting around puberty, a person would start showing signs of the animal they would become -- cat's eyes, ears becoming pointed, maybe a little fur on the cheeks, etc. By the time they were thirty, most were far enough along in their transformation to be driven out of the various factions of civilized society, and forced to live as "wilders", groups of savages that roam the jungle, red in tooth and claw.

So as you get older, you become stronger and more dangerous as your animal nature asserts itself, but you also find it harder to focus and resist your savage impulses.

>>54004233
Hm. Well, give some of the stupid niches we've gotten out of canon D&D races, a species built on French allusions/stereotypes makes sense. Could even work as crafters focused on more "ephemeral" beauty - painting, music, perfumes, etc - like elves, instead of the solid and eternal craftsmanship of the dwarves.

>>54004233
>Fantasy french bards, judging by Looney tumes
I fucking hated that shit. That was the very bottom of the Looney Tunes barrel, considerably worse than even Tweety Bird. I mean, you're shooting for a Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck or -- if you're really lucky -- Wile E. Coyote, but you'll settle for a Porky Pig or Foghorn Leghorn. Pepe Le Pew was an unmitigated disaster and I suffered through every minute of it as a kid, because I was too retarded to just turn it off.

>>54003845
All skunks are known for is the who smell thing. Aside from that and what they look like, what the fuck else is there about them that people are commonly aware of?

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>>54000171

>>54006765
True. On the other hand, there's more than just "what do people know" for a basis. Hell, in one Amerindian tribe's mythologies, skunks are all that remain of a man-eating giant called Aniwye. Though admittedly he killed people with his stink... so, yeah, you're not exactly wrong.