"We had a tabaxi come through once, a few winters back. She kept the taproom packed each night with her stories and spent most days napping in a chair in front of the fireplace. We thought she was lazy, but when Linene came around looking for a missing broach, she was out the door before I could blink an eye." —Toblen Stonehill, innkeeper

Hailing from a strange and distant land, wandering tabaxi are catlike humanoids driven by curiosity to collect interesting artifacts, gather tales and stories, and lay eyes on all the world’s wonders. Ultimate travelers, the inquisitive tabaxi rarely stay in one place for long. Their innate nature pushes them to leave no secrets uncovered, no treasures or legends lost.

Tabaxi tend to blend the qualities of humanoids and cats, and are a varied people in both attitude and appearance. In some lands, tabaxi live like the cats they resemble, naturally curious and at home in playful environments. In other places, they live as other folk do, not exhibiting the feline behavior at all.

Tabaxi’s appearance is as varied as their attitudes. Some have features or patterning in their fur like tigers, jaguars, or other big cats, while others have appearances more like a house cat. Still others have unique patterns or might style their fur to their preferences—or might even be hairless!

Wandering Outcasts

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.

However, not all tabaxi are satisfied with such a life. The Cat Lord, the divine figure responsible for the creation of the tabaxi, gifts each of his children with one specific feline trait. Those tabaxi gifted with curiosity are compelled to wander far and wide. They seek out stories, artifacts, and lore. Those who survive this period of wanderlust return home in their elder years to share news of the outside world. In this manner, the tabaxi remain isolated but never ignorant of the world beyond their home.

The Cat Lord

The deity of the tabaxi is a fickle entity, as befits the patron of cats. The tabaxi believe that the Cat Lord wanders the world, watching over them and intervening in their affairs as needed. Clerics of the Cat Lord are rare and typically access the Trickery domain.

Barterers of Lore

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.

Tinkers and Minstrels

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.

Tabaxi Personality

A tabaxi might have motivations and quirks. The Tabaxi Obsession table can help hone your character’s goals.

Tabaxi Obsessions

Tabaxi Quirks

Tabaxi in the Forgotten Realms

In the Forgotten Realms, tabaxi hail from Maztica, a realm located far across the ocean west of the Sword Coast. The tabaxi of Maztica are known for their isolation, and until recently they never ventured from their Homeland. The tabaxi say little of why that has changed, though rumors persist of strange happenings in that distant land.

Tabaxi Names

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.

The following list of sample Tabaxi Names includes nicknames in parenthesis.

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

Leonin tabaxi tend to have a personal name followed by the name of their pride, and usually includes the preposition "of the". For example, a member of the Ironmane pride named Doxia would introduce herself as "Doxia of the Ironmane".

Female Names: Aletha, Atagone, Demne, Doxia, Ecate, Eriz, Gragonde, Iadma, Koila, Oramne, Seza, Ziore

Male Names: Apto, Athoz, Baragon, Bryguz, Eremoz, Gorioz, Grexes, Oriz, Pyxathor, Teoz, Xemnon, Xior

Tabaxi Traits

Your Tabaxi character has the following racial Traits.

Age. Tabaxi have lifespans equivalent to humans.

Size. Tabaxi are taller on average than humans and relatively slender, though it may also depend on the style of cat they take after. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision. You have a cat’s keen senses, especially in the dark. 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 can’t discern color in darkness, only 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.

Cat’s Claws. You can use your claws to make Unarmed strikes. When you hit with them, the strike deals 1d6 + your Strength (Leonin) or Dexterity (Common) modifier slashing damage.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other Standard language of your choice.

Random Height and Weight

You may roll for your character’s height and weight. The roll in the Height Modifier column adds a number (in inches) to the character’s base height. To get a weight, multiply the number you rolled for height by the roll in the Weight Modifier column and add the result (in pounds) to the base weight.

Common 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.

A tabaxi rogue could happily spend months plotting to steal a strange gem from a noble, only to trade it for passage on a ship or a week’s lodging after stealing it. The tabaxi might take extensive notes or memorize every facet of the gem before passing it on, but the gem holds no more allure once its secrets and nature have been laid bare.

Natural Climber. You gain a climb speed equal to your movement speed, plus 10 feet.

Leonin prides are close-knit communities. Unlike many across the Sword Coast, leonin have rejected the gods. They don’t deny their existence, but rather they denounce them as unworthy of worship. While there is an odd devout leonin, most regard them at best as a nuisance and at worst as the cause for all mortal woes. Leonin are prideful and self-reliant, and most have no need of gods to coddle them.

Leonin have a matriarchal society, and each pride is led by an elder female called a “speaker”. Most female leonin will stay within the pride they were born into, while the males will wander and marry into other prides. They tend to live among rural plains, or areas of great golden fields and savannas nestled between mountains. Most prides live in either tent villages or dens dug into the foothills. While this may sound primitive, the leonin are no savages and their homes are often decorated with woven textiles, bone sculpture, and intricate pottery.

Most leonin are prideful, confident, and competitive. Leonins tend to love fighting in all its forms, from traditional sparring to arguments and debate. They love any opportunity to prove themselves, and usually come out on top.

Leonin are very definitively lions. They are muscular, covered in fur, stand 6 to 7 feet tall, have feline tails, and their heads and structure is very lion-like. They have mostly the classic look of tawny or golden fur, though rarely have dark brown, black, or even white fur. Male leonin have large furry manes. They often also show off scars, pride markings, braids, tassels, and anything else that may set them apart from the pride.

Daunting Roar. As a bonus action, you can let out an especially menacing roar. Creatures of your choice within 15 feet of you that can hear you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you until the end of your next turn. The DC of the save equals 8 + your Proficiency Bonus + your Constitution modifier. This can be done a number of times per long rest equal to half your Proficiency Bonus.