The Lapine - An Ancestry of Rabbit People

[MaxAstro]

One of my players wanted to play a rabbit-person, so I homebrewed some up! I haven't designed higher level ancestry feats yet, since the character is for a level 1 one-shot, but I thought I'd share what I have done.

Lapine Google Doc

[HumbleGamer]

You should remove the edit possibility ( just set view only + comments ).

I was highlighting stuff as I was reading ,and moved a line ( should be ok again now ).

[MaxAstro]

It is set to comments only. Any "edits" you make will show up to me as comments. (Comments welcome, on that note!)

[HumbleGamer]

MaxAstro wrote:

It is set to comments only. Any "edits" you make will show up to me as comments. (Comments welcome, on that note!)

Oh great!

I thought I did something wrong back then!

As for Rabbit Kick, maybe finesse would be too much.

I am currently looking at the lizardfolk which has 3 feats

Sharp fangs: Fangs which deal 1d8 dmg P
Razor Claws: Claws deal 1d6 S/P
Tail whip: 1d6 B + Sweep

Maybe the "non lethal" trait could fit.

[MaxAstro]

I went back and forth on Rabbit Kick. The current version is based on the Razortooth Goblin heritage - exact same stats except bludgeoning - but I'm not sure if a heritage is meant to be stronger than an ancestry feat or not.

[HumbleGamer]

Yeah, as heritage it could definitely work.

Maybe just use the luck as general lvl 1 feat ( like for halflings ), and instead give the kick to the lucky Lapine, whose name could become... I don't really know.

[MaxAstro]

I'm not sure an ancestry feat is actually supposed to be weaker than a heritage, though. The power scaling is hard to nail down.

For example, look at Harmlessly Cute - it's a 1st level ancestry feat that gives a 7th level master skill feat as a bonus feat and has other benefits on top of that... and then compare to the human versatile heritage, which gives a 1st level general feat and nothing else.

My estimation has been that roughly speaking, heritages and 1st level ancestry feats are about equal in power. This is also supported by eg. Orc Sight and Cavern Elf having the exact same effect. That's why I felt comfortable taking Lucky Halfling and making it into a heritage.

I also suspect that the lizardfolk unarmed attacks not having finesse is as much thematic as anything else - lizardfolk are a high Strength ancestry and "finesse" is not typically a word you would associate with their fighting style.

Meanwhile, for a high Dex ancestry like goblin or lapine, a non-finesse unarmed attack would be less useful in the majority of situations.

[HumbleGamer]

MaxAstro wrote:

I'm not sure an ancestry feat is actually supposed to be weaker than a heritage, though. The power scaling is hard to nail down.

Well, the goblin heritage and the lizardfolk feats ( 3 different melee attacks ) seems to say so. Also half orc tusks ( 1d6 and nothing else ).

What we know for sure is

1) the feat you want to give as ancestry feat already exists, but as heritage.

2) The hafling luck already exists, but as ancestry feat.

However, since it's a homebrew race, you can do what you prefer ( I was just pointing out stuff meant for balance ).

Apart from that, I have no clue if this could really move the needle that much ( eventually, you will find out if the player will take that specific hericage ).

[MaxAstro]

No, you make good points, I definitely see where you are coming from. I've been mulling it over in my head.

I don't think I'm going to change it, because I don't think it's very far out of balance if it is, but it's definitely near the line. If lapine didn't have a Strength penalty I might swap finesse for a weaker trait, but... I don't think a non-finesse unarmed attack is ever going to be useful to an ancestry with a Strength penalty. I'd rather a feat that is slightly strong than a feat that no one wants.

[Phillip Gastone]

Make sure there are variations so people can go from Babs Bunny to Final Fantasy Vieras. :) Like how Catfolk have the Loony Toons/Anime/Thundercats options.

[Cellion]

Love the name, the flavor, and both the heritages and feats are very thematic and appropriate. I particularly like the reference to lucky rabbit's feet, and the feat for being really good at jumping. Everything feels really appropriate for rabbit people.

[Seisho]

I was considering creating something similar so I'll share my thoughts to hopefully help you a little

Basic stats look very good and are on point

For Senses I would add something similar to the Halflings 'Keen Eyes' but hearing related

As possible additional heritage there could be woodland Lapine (treating undergrowth not as difficult terrain, possibly the wood elves ability to take cover everywhere in the woods)

There are also several feats from other races that would fit thematically like Shameless request from the Leshy ancestry (Prereq - harmless) or Elf Step (hopping Step)

I also would consider an feat for upgrading the Rabbit kick (maybe level 9?) which enables the critical specialisation effect and either adds new traits or increases the die size by 1
Maybe another one for kicking random objects as enemy dealing your (reduced) bunny kick damage

Additional higher level feats for increasing the jumping power would be also thematically fitting (possibly reducing the high/long jump dcs and and increasing the leap actions distance)

If they get magic related feats primal magic would be ptobably the way to go - and if they have advanced magic feats (like gnomes and elves do) I think Jump would make an excellent innate spell

[MaxAstro]

I definitely meant to throw in a hearing-related feat, that's an oversight. I don't want to add it as a base sense because they are already fast and have low-light vision; more senses on top of that would be overkill.

Good ideas for higher level feats, I haven't really thought about that yet.

[Omni713]

I think that it looks pretty good.