Tabaxi

Tabaxi, also known as jaguar people or cat-men, were a race of feline humanoids native to the Prasejarah Jungle, although most now live in the Qahila Desert.

Description

Tabaxi were taller than most humans at six to seven feet. Their bodies were slender and covered in spotted or striped fur. Like most felines, Tabaxi had long tails and retractable claws. Tabaxi fur color ranged from light yellow to brownish red. Tabaxi eyes were slit-pupilled and usually green or yellow.
Tabaxi were competent swimmers and climbers as well as speedy runners. They had a good sense of balance and an acute sense of smell.
The way the tabaxi pronounced their own name also varied; those from the Prasejarah Jungle pronounced it tah-BAHSH-ee, and the those from Ramaal Dhahabia pronounced their race ta-BAHK-see.
Tabaxi were a reclusive people who often avoided interaction with other intelligent races. However, as each tabaxi possessed a specific feline trait, some had an innate curiosity that compelled them to travel and seek out stories, artifacts, new experiences and knowledge, never remaining in the same place or obsessing over the same piece of lore for too long.
In general, tabaxi had an almost obsessive interest in ancient artifacts, relics and magic items, but not for the items themselves, as much as the stories and secrets they held. Once an item had been thoroughly examined and studied, and its secrets revealed, it would lose its allure and the tabaxi would quickly lose interest and pass it on.
Not all tabaxi were motivated by curiosity to leave their homeland, however. Some found safer ways to satisfy their fleeting obsessions by becoming traveling minstrels and tinkers, often accepting interesting objects and stories as payment for their services.

A wealthy dhahabian tabaxi

Society

Traditional tabaxi society was built around clans. Clans were split evenly between males and females with 3 to 12 young. Each clan had several Hunts each made up of two to eight individuals. The Hunts patrolled the area around the clan's lair.
Although tabaxi lairs were sometimes just temporary, they were more often small villages of ramadas. Each ramada was built from wooden poles with grass roofs.
Clans were led by elders. About half of the time, leaders were aided by shamans. Clans tended to avoid each other and did not engage in trade. Tabaxi considered trade to be demeaning but in rare instances would use third party agents to trade for them.
Tabaxi living in Ramaal Dhahabia had largely assimilated into human life there, living comfortably in towns and cities. These tabaxi tended to have a greater degree of wanderlust then those remaining in the Prasejarah Jungle. In the desert, they were often employed on caravan trails and as scouts.

Combat

Tabaxi were exceptional hunters and utilized these skills in combat. Speed and stealth combined with their natural camouflage meant that tabaxi were particularity skilled at surprise attacks. Tabaxi were even known to disguise their scent with aromatic herbs. Their hunting skills and intelligence made them formidable tacticians. Groups would often drive prey into ambushes, sometime playing with their doomed foe before killing them. Tabaxi clans did have berserker warriors within them, these were known as blood-stalkers.
For weapons, tabaxi favored bolas, slings, macas, and javelins with atlatl. These weapons would often be made from wood in their native jungle, or bone or stone in the desert. Tabaxi were just as likely to use weapons as they were to use their claws and teeth. Their preference of simple weapons was not due to a lack of capability. Tabaxi were quite capable of adapting to new technology or salvaged weapons.
Due to their knowledge of hunting, intelligence and sense of smell, it was practically impossible to trap a tabaxi.

Religion

Tabaxi had two gods who they worshipped, reflecting the major aspects of tabaxi personality. Dagang was the god of trade, intelligence, and wealth and represented the tabaxi fascination with artifacts and shrewdness. In constrast to this, was the goddess of survival, curiosity, and hunting Mburu.

Interracial Relations

Tabaxi had few enemies and only the most degenerate clans would attack members of other intelligent species without good reason.
Tabaxi have a long standing feud with Yuan-Ti dating back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. This came to a head relatively recently when yuan-ti increasingly encroached on tabaxi territory and committed terrible attrocities against them. As land was taken, most remaining tabaxi were killed, sold into slavery, or sacrificed to the yuan-ti god Jahat. This resulted in the majority of tabaxi tribes fleeing from the jungle and into the Qahila Desert where they sought safety there.
Tabaxi were on excellent terms with the Human nation of Ramaal Dhahabia, in particular. When tribes of tabaxi fled from yuan-ti persecution, they found themselves wandering the desert to the south, where they stumbled across the nation of humans in the desert. Ramaal Dhahabia opened its doors to the tabaxi where they largely assimilated, although some tabaxi live nomadically in the desert to the west.
Somewhat similarly, tabaxi have an excellent relationship with Kender due to some tabaxi emigrating to the Kender hills. This generally extended to any Halfling that a tabaxi encountered, due to their similarity with kender.

Player Race Features

• Ability Scores. Choose any +2; choose any other +1.
• Size. Medium.
• Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed.
• Cat's Claws. You can use your claws to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with them, the strike deals 1d6 + your Strength modifier slashing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
• Cat's Talent. You have proficiency in the Perception and Stealth skills.
• Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
• Feline Agility. Your reflexes and agility allow you to move with a burst of speed. When you move on your turn in combat, you can double your speed until the end of the turn. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you move 0 feet on one of your turns.
• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character. Tabaxi living in Ramaal Dhahabia tend to speak Euraba'a, whereas those still living in the Prasejarah Jungle speak Bahsa.