Tabaxi (/tɑːˈbæksi/ ta-BÆK-see)
Basic Information
Biological Traits
Tabaxi are slender and covered in spotted or striped fur. Like most felines, Tabaxi have long tails and retractable claws. Tabaxi fur color ranges from light yellow to brownish red. Tabaxi eyes are slit-pupilled and usually green or yellow. Tabaxi are competent climbers as well as speedy runners. They have a good sense of balance and an acute sense of smell.
Basic Traits
Ability Score Increase: Dexterity score increases by 2 and Charisma score increases by 1.Speed: Base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision See in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light.
Feline Agility: When moving on your turn in combat, your speed is doubled until the end of the turn. Once this trait is used, it cannot be used again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns.
Cat’s Claws: Have a climbing speed of 30 feet. Tabaxi's claws are natural weapons, which can be used to make unarmed strikes. If an attack using the claws hit, slashing damage equals to 1d4 + Strength modifier is dealt, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Cat’s Talent: Proficient in Perception and Stealth skills.
Language: Speak, read, and write Common and one other language of choice.
Source: Volo's Guide to Monsters
Additional Information
Social Structure
Tabaxi society is built around clans. Clans are split evenly between males and females with 3 to 12 young. Each clan has several Hunts and each makes up of two to eight individuals. The Hunts patrol the area around the clan's lair. Although tabaxi lairs are sometimes just temporary, they are more often small villages of ramadas. Each ramada is built from wooden poles with grass roofs.
Clans are led by elders. About half of the time, leaders are aided by shamans. Clans tend to avoid each other and do not engage in trade. Tabaxi considers trade to be demeaning but in rare instances would use third-party agents to trade for them.
Most tabaxi remain in their distant homeland, content to dwell in small, tight clans. These tabaxi hunt for food, craft goods, and largely keep to themselves.
Curiosity drives most of the tabaxi found outside their homeland, but not all of them become adventurers. Tabaxi who seek a safer path to satisfy their obsessions become wandering tinkers and minstrels.
These tabaxi work in small troupes, usually consisting of an elder, more experienced tabaxi who guides up to four young ones learning their way in the world. They travel in small, colorful wagons, moving from settlement to settlement. When they arrive, they set up a small stage in a public square where they sing, play instruments, tell stories, and offer exotic goods in trade for items that spark their interest. Tabaxi reluctantly accept gold, but they much prefer interesting objects or pieces of lore as payment.
These wanderers keep to civilized realms, preferring to bargain instead of pursuing more dangerous methods of sating their curiosity. However, they aren’t above a little discreet theft to get their claws on a particularly interesting item when an owner refuses to sell or trade it.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Each tabaxi has a single name, determined by clan and based on a complex formula that involves astrology, prophecy, clan history, and other esoteric factors. Tabaxi names can apply to both males and females, and most use nicknames derived from or inspired by their full names. Clan names are usually based on a geographical feature located in or near the clan’s territory.
Tabaxi Names: Cloud on the Mountaintop (Cloud), Five Timber (Timber), Jade Shoe (Jade), Left-Handed Hummingbird (Bird), Seven Thundercloud (Thunder), Skirt of Snakes (Snake), Smoking Mirror (Smoke)
Tabaxi Clans: Bright Cliffs, Distant Rain, Mountain Tree, Rumbling River, Snoring Mountain
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Tabaxi treasure knowledge rather than material things. A chest filled with gold coins might be useful to buy food or a coil of rope, but it’s not intrinsically interesting. In the tabaxi’s eyes, gathering wealth is like packing rations for a long trip. It’s important to survive in the world, but not worth fussing over.
Instead, tabaxi value knowledge and new experiences. Their ears perk up in a busy tavern, and they tease out stories with offers of food, drink, and coin. Tabaxi might walk away with empty purses, but they mull over the stories and rumors they collected like a miser counting coins.
Although material wealth holds little attraction for the tabaxi, they have an insatiable desire to find and inspect ancient relics, magical items, and other rare objects. Aside from the power such items might confer, a tabaxi takes great joy in unraveling the stories behind their creation and the history of their use.
Wandering tabaxi are mercurial creatures, trading one obsession or passion for the next as the whim strikes. A tabaxi’s desire burns bright, but once met it disappears to be replaced with a new obsession. Objects remain intriguing only as long as they still hold secrets.
Most clans worship Tezca, Nula, or (rarely) Azul. A minority of clans owe their allegiance to a jaguar lord. In this instance, Zaltec is the dominant deity of the tribe. The creator figure in the tabaxi pantheon is the Cat Lord, a fickle and tricky entity who bestows each tabaxi with a specific feline trait and is believed to wander the world, watching over them.
Why go on an adventure?
- Maybe you would like to complete your collection?
- Or do you have a habit of wandering to different settlements to experience different cultures?
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