Race Name: Hengeyokai

Ability Scores: see subrace

Size: medium
Speed: 30ft
Languages: common, hengeyokai

Age: up to 500 years

Alignment: any chaotic alignment
Size: dependant on form

Traits:
 Darkvision
 Your creature type is Beast rather than humanoid. You also count as Fey for the purposes of spells and magical
effects.
 Anthropomorphic: you can communicate with and understand creatures of the same type as you.
 Nature’s Mask: as an action you can shift between three forms. You can shift from one form to another a
number of times a day equal to your proficiency bonus. Equipment and clothes do not change with you. For the
purposes of truesight and similar effects, your animal form is your true form.
o Animal:
 You are indistinguishable from the normal animal in this form and are considered Small.
 While in this form you retain your mental stats and HP but take on the abilities and physical
traits of the animal.
 You cannot speak any sentient languages in this form but can communicate with animals.
o Hybrid:
 You retain some abilities from your animal form and lose others. In this form you do have hands
and are able to manipulate and use objects and weapons.
o Human:
 You cannot use any features of your animal form and cannot communicate with animals. You do
however retain the ability to understand them.

Subrace: the most common are as follows:

 Carp:
o Ability Scores: -2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 Wis
o Natural Swimmers: In your animal form you have a swim speed equal to twice your walking speed and
can only breathe underwater. In your hybrid form you have a swim speed equal to your walking speed
and breathe both air and water. In human form your walking speed is 25ft and can only breathe air.
 Fox:
o Ability Scores: -2 Wis, +2 Dex, +1 Int
o Fleet of Foot: your walking speed in your hybrid and humanoid forms is now 35ft.
o Naturally Quiet: you are proficient in Stealth.
 Hare:
o Ability Scores: -2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 Wis
o Jittery: you are proficient in one of Athletics or Acrobatics
o In your animal form you have a walking speed of 45ft. In your hybrid and human forms you have a
walking speed of 40ft.
o Jumpers: you can perform a running jump or leap with only running 5ft of movement.
 Badger:
o Ability Scores: -2 Dex, +2 Str, +1 Con
o Ferocious: you are proficient in Intimidation and have advantage on checks made to frighten/scare
creatures.
o Claws: in your hybrid form you have wicked nails that count as unarmed/natural weapons you are
proficient with. They deal 1d4 slashing damage.
 Cat:
o Ability Scores: -2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 Int
 o Cat-Like Reflexes: you are proficient in Stealth. In addition, while in your animal or hybrid form, you have
advantage on Dex saves against effects that you can see. In all three forms you don’t take fall damage if
the fall is 30ft or less and you aren’t restrained, grappled or incapacitated.
o Your are proficient in Acrobatics.
 Crab:
o Ability Scores: -2 Int, +2 Con, +1 Str
o In your animal and hybrid forms you have a burrow speed of 30ft and 20ft respectively. You can only
burrow through sand and loose soil.
o Pincers: your hybrid form also has crab-like claws that you can use to attack. They count as unarmed
strikes you are proficient with and do 1d4 piercing damage. In addition, you have advantage on checks
made to grapple or maintain grapples.
 Crane:
o Ability Scores: -2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 Wis
o In your animal form you have a fly speed equal to 40ft and 30ft in your hybrid form.
o Eyes in the Sky: you are proficient in Perception checks relying on sight.
 Dog:
o Ability Scores: -2 Dex, +2 Str, +1 Con
o In your animal and hybrid forms you have advantage on Investigation and Perception checks relying on
smell.
o Good Judge of Character: you are proficient in Insight.
 Monkey:
o Ability Scores: -2 Cha, +2 Dex, +1 Str
o In your animal form you have a climbing speed equal to twice your movement speed. In your hybrid
form you have a climb speed equal to 40ft.
 Tanuki:
o Ability Scores: -2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 Cha
o Sacred: you are proficient in Persuasion.
 Rat:
o Ability Scores: -2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 Int
o In your animal form you can squeeze through spaces as small as 2 inches. In your hybrid and humanoid
forms you have advantage on Dex saving throws to avoid damage.
o Naturally Sneaky: you are proficient in Sleight of Hand.
 Sparrow:
o Ability Scores: -2 Str, +2 Wis, +1 Dex
o In your animal form you have a fly speed equal to 40ft. In your hybrid form you have a fly speed equal to
30ft.
o Naturally Perceptive: you are proficient in Perception.

History:
The hengeyokai (also known as katanga in Malatra) were a race of intelligent natural shapechanging animals, able to
adopt animal, human, and hybrid forms. They were incredibly varied, with many subraces based on different kinds of
animals, and were found throughout Kara-Tur, living on the fringes of human lands.

In animal form, a hengeyokai was indiscernible from an ordinary animal of its kind, and only magic or careful
observation of its intelligent behavior could tell that there was more than met the eye. The animal form could be no
larger than 2–3 feet (0.6–0.9 meters) in length.

In "hybrid" or "bipedal" form, they stood upright on their hind legs or rear limbs; their front paws, fins, or wings
transformed into fully functional hands; and their torso and head took a humanoid posture. They remained very
animal-like, retaining fur or feathers, wings or a tail if they'd had one, and other distinctive features They were as tall
and as heavy as a regular local human, usually standing 5–6 feet (1.5–1.8 meters) or 4.8–5.5 feet (1.5–1.7 meters)
tall and weighing 100–140 pounds (45.4–63.5 kilograms).

Finally, in human form, a hengeyokai entirely resembled a typical human, of the same height as their hybrid form.
However, they usually had features reminiscent of their animal form, such as beady eyes and a long moustache for a
rat or a long and pointy nose for a sparrow. The human form was similar to humans of the land in which they'd been
born but was on average smaller and slighter.

In animal form, the hengeyokai was completely indistinguishable from a natural, average animal of its kind and
possessed all the same abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. They could fight with natural armaments like teeth or
claws if they had them, be protected by a thick hide or shell, and could fly or swim if their animal form was capable
of it. Of course, they could not use weapons, wear clothes or armor, or manipulate items, and they could not cast
any spells they knew. The smaller animal form was much less durable than the human and hybrid forms; injuries
taken in those forms were twice as severe in this form. After the Spellplague, the animal form was as robust as the
other forms and kept and gained the benefits of items worn, but could not necessarily use them without hands.

In hybrid or bipedal form, the hengeyokai was an animalistic humanoid, and this was very obvious. With their new
hands and body, they could use weapons and manipulate items, wear clothes and armor, cast spells, and were fully
durable. However, they could no longer move as they once did or use any feature of their animal form: a carp
hengeyokai could no longer swim like a fish and a sparrow hengeyokai could no longer fly like a bird, and they lost
any natural armaments or defenses. They walked or ran as fast as a human. A hengeyokai's bipedal form gained
some of the abilities and/or attributes of its animal form, such as a thicker hide or the ability to fly.They could wear
light or medium armors, but not heavy armors. They often also gained some physical enhncement according to their
type if they didn't possess it in all three forms.

They were descended from humans and shapeshifting animal spirits originating from the Feywild. It was reported in
Shou Lung, by no less an authority than the Dragon Lord Mei Lung, that hengeyokai were the product of rare unions
of love between nature spirits and mortal humans, as were spirit folk. It was believed they combined elements of
the material world and the spirit world.

Hengeyokai usually mated once or twice in their long lifetimes. Their romances were passionate but short-lived,
usually only lasting long enough for the young to be able to look after themselves, which was just a few months. The
couples generally separately amiably and stayed friendly throughout their lives. Parents sometimes stayed near the
young for a few years to aid them, particularly if local hunters threatened them.

Infrequently, hengeyokai might mate with animals while in animal form, in which case the offspring were always
hengeyokai; or with humans or spirit folk while in human form, in which case the offspring were of the mother's
race. Human children of hengeyokai were known for their agility, beauty, and longevity, possessing a strong affinity
for animals and regularly becoming druids or rangers or the like.

Hengeyokai had a peculiar lifecycle. For their first 100 years of life, they lived only in animal form, especially
intelligent and long-lived, but little different from any other animal of their kind and unable to change forms. After
this, they entered adolescence and could take their hybrid and human forms, but their memories of their animal life
became vague. They were quite long-lived—frequently living past the age of two hundred. Previously, it was
reported they had a more ordinary lifecycle, achieving adulthood at around 40 years of age and reaching middle age
at 100 years, before being considered elderly at 150 and venerable at 200, and living up to 500 years.

A hengeyokai's diet was broadly the same as that of a human, but with a preference for foods their animal forms
consumed. For example, a sparrow hengeyokai favored grains and seeds, while a cat hengeyokai was a heavy meat-
eater.

Wild at heart, hengeyokai broadly tended toward chaotic and unpredictable behavior and were firmly independently
minded. They valued both their own freedom and the freedom of others. They were always on the move to avoid
being pinned down, even if staying within the same region. They avoided making attachments, for these could bind
them as surely as any bonds. The greatest insult one could give a hengeyokai was trapping them in a cage. Seeing a
slave or a trapped animal was abhorrent to them. In Wa, they associated freely with the lowly eta caste and in T'u
Lung they freed slaves.