I'm playing a tabaxi for the first time and having a ton of fun. We're doing Strahd and my tabaxi ranger's name is Bouncy the Wolf Hunter - and on top of all the curious as a cat jokes, using this as my inspiration: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cats_actually_kill 

Also worked out a fun tabaxi ranger backstory causing my favored enemies to be wolves and werewolves. And I'm doing the Monster Slayer subclass fyi - which I feel also fits for the character (nomad ranger who hunts down werewolves, interested in learning - not about money).

So needless to say I'm having a ton of fun with this, but curious (as a cat...) about anyone else's suggestions and experiences for playing a tabaxi. Thanks!

Yes - I love my Tabaxi monk (way of the open palm) who now has dipped in to rogue for a level.  My DM has agreed that tabaxi claws are considered finesse weapons (for the sake of sneak attack) and he now also has gloves of thievery and a cloak of elvenkind and his curiosity gets the better of him sometimes (having a +18 sleight of hand causes all kinds of problems) he doesn't 'steal' per se he just borrows things from people and generally gives them back once he's checked them out.

"Oh here I think you dropped this...." 

He's also fairly carefree and fearless though and very childlike (think the inquisitiveness and questioning of like a 5-6 year old) so he annoys people all the time with questions about anything and everything (he even asks the bad guys all kinds of questions)

Curiosity may have killed the cat....but it hasn't killed Kat yet :)

I convinced my DM to let me swap the +Cha for +Wis, and then made a Way of the Shadows Monk out of Sarah.  Ninja cat.  I can't tell you how much fun I've had pouncing out of shadows.

I have a Tabaxi Sorcerer. So far haven't done much, but i have modeled him after the kjit in marrowind (except for the drug parts).

I'm kind of using the Katta from Quest for Glory as inspiration too. 

We have a Tabaxi Bard in our party.  He's been quite amusing.

I'm playing a Tabaxi Rouge.  Our GM let everyone take a free feat at level 1 (letting everyone have variants) since we all rolled for our stats.  I took Mobility and I'm aiming for Scout.  Right now my Rougue sprints in and out of combat whenever the space is open, or sits back firing pot shots.  My level 4 feat is going to be ritual caster (wizard) for Find Familiar and other helpful utility spells.  I know Magic Initiate and BB/Hex is strictly better, but it makes way more sense for my kitty to find a book and keep reading and rereading until they figure out how to make it work.  I will summon a tiny fluffy owl.  It will distract (help in combat) my enemies so that I may sneak attack them relentlessly!  I'm glad we got the free feat at level 1, because I would have been doing mobility first and have had to wait a long time for my little fluffy friend.  When I hit level 9, a rouge with a built in distraction and a base move of 50 will be fantastic.

With the scout bonus, I will have expertise in Stealth, Perception, Acrobatics (I am already doing stupid fun stuff like wall running in dungeons with this), Thief Tools, Survival, and Nature.  My target for Wis is 16, but that will take awhile with ASIs.

My Tabaxi is fastidious and a bit vain.  And prone to over-blown speeches and over complicated attack plans.  3 members of the party have prestidigitation.  They use it to change my fur color, try and distract me while I'm checking for traps/sneaking ahead, make mud stick to my paws at an alarming rate... etc.  It's kind of hilarious.  My tabaxi likes the Half Orc barbarian in our group the best, because he always helps retrieve my ball of yarn when I drop it places on accident.  (I have a ball of yarn I bring to the table to fidget with every session.)

DM decided to run a weekend series of adventures where we have to restore an inherited family inn about to go into default but whose former owner had a penchant for magical oddities. Played Flicker (Flickering Fire) of the Cloaked Peaks clan, a 5th-level Tabaxi CoL Bard, modeled after Nyanta-sensei, a werecat swashbuckler-chef from Log Horizon. Standard ability score rolls and 2-for-1 traded to increase Dex and Cha and dump Str for a tall and gaunt Tabaxi with a jaguar-like spotted coat and Jack Skellington physique.

Came prepared with a folio of recipes from Shokugeki no Soma (Food Wars) and an extensive list of cat puns. Between Cat's Talent, Expertise, and Observant, easily the team lead on Perception and Investigation. Took Guild Artisan background as a member of EATS, the Epicurean Artisans and Trade Society, and a free choice low-tier magic item in Heward's Handy Haversack to carry cooking supplies and ingredients for making Shou (Chinese) and elven cuisines.

Easily one of my favorite flavor characters.

I love playing a personality that is so flippant with gold, seeing the true value in the song of a music box, the murals on a dungeon wall and if there is something to be seen felt heard or experienced he vanishes without a word. at the hearth of an inn he delights telling stories to gathered children with the dancing light of a shadow puppet show,  they can be Lawful good themselves but value the diversity of views in the party making them great peacekeepers they are there for the joy of the adventure and never greedy making them easy going about issues like paying the gold somebody needs for that healing potion or a small loan so the paladin can get that new armor enchantment and giving advice to people can be fun too or maybe in the form of a parable you once heard or a song that relates to their situation.  my motto for playing my Tabaxi is "happiness is a warm fire circled by good friends sharing the fruits of life" 

Jarel of the Fallen Emerald, "Emerald".  Tabaxi, Monk historian.....  Also has a little OCD.  He is turning every page in every place of learning trying to find clues to a long lost civilization.  When asked he will tell you he doesn't understand his unusual obsession.  It is just that there is an answer he needs to a question he doesn't know yet.......

"Those stones are stacked next to the hole in the cliff in such a way that it could be a very old Outpost....Hmmm will go look..........ohhhhh look at those pretty Dancing Lights!". (Darn Bard)

Only two sessions in to this character and already a lot of fun to play.

The Night Is Dark and Full Of Terrors is my latest Tabaxi - he resembles more of your sterotypical black alley cat who's had a hard life on the streets.  The secret to Night is, he's a warlock, and his Great Old One is better known as The Flying Spaghetti Monster.  Night wears a colander on his head, and when he speaks he always refers to himself as 'We' because he believes that FSM lives within himself.  He is just starting out in a Ghosts of Saltmarsh pbp on here so the rest of the quirks and traits are still being worked out but I can see this being an interesting character to explore as long as the game doesn't fold.

My daughter's playing a Tabaxi Lore bard named Sings-Loudly-From-Shadow in our Tomb of Annihilation campaign. She was kidnapped from Port Nyanzaru by a group of dwarves and raised in the circus, but returned to Chult as a young adult to try to find her family -- only to have that quest sidelined a bit by the main plot and associated curse. She's wound up the party face and de facto leader, and her native climb speed has saved their bacon a handful of times.

Late to the party, but fun thread! I am playing a black fox arcane trickster archer named Rue. He was a rogue who was brought in by a group of mercenaries to scout and infiltrate camps, armories and other places undetected. He eventually learned combat and how to use a bow by the captain. He left the group and became a bounty hunter in water deep while mid-nighting as a spell thief. His natural curious nature pushes him to stealing artifacts, spell books, anything that would help him become a learn more arcane abilities he can infuse with his bow and to combine with his passion of "finding" people and rare items. 

I too love my Tabaxi!

     His name is Fish Of The Stonewinds Tribe.  He currently has 1 level in bard  and 1 level in rouge and a Pirate background.  My DM allowed my bardic "musical instrument" proficiency to be in "storytelling" because he was inspired to set out from his home island on a merchant ship by all the tall tales of far away places the sailors in the local tavern would spin when they came in to port (and because he has a -1 intelligence, he believed all of them!). 

     He's a lovable, gullable, enthusiastic, goofball (with some well hidden emotional baggage from being captured and forced into servitude on a pirate ship) who finds joy and wonder in exploring the world and wants nothing more than to witness heros in action and then tell their stories in tavers across the world for free drinks.  He trusts people too quickly and would do anything for a new friend but look out, because he will smile and laugh with you as he plots and scemes for as long as it takes to exact sudden, swift, and viciously brutal retribution on anyone who betrays said trust. 

His quirks so far:  Calling everyone "Dude Bro" because he can't remember names. Lovingly showering his traveling party with tacky useless gifts that are obviously from the gift shop of the city they live in.  Spending every copper he earns on random gear (net, perfume, block&tackle, fishing lure, crowbar, etc).  Jumping into action mid planning phase.  Misreading the cause of the clerics mood swings.  Not getting the hint when people say "no" to his requests.

With a +3 Charisma, mostly social manipulation focused spells, and a general demeanor that frequently gets a chuckle from the DM he's incredibly effective as the face of the party.  Also, with a +3 Dexterity, Feline Agility, Cats Claws, and darkvision he's an all-star stealth machine.  Finally, between having a level in rouge and in bard he has way more ability score boosts than many characters several levels higher than him could hope for!

The question now is should I level him more as a bard or as a rouge?  The rest of the party consists of a fighter/sorcerer,  a sharp shooting ranger,  a cleric NPC,  and a wizard NPC.  Input welcome!

One of my favorite characters I've played is a Tabaxi Drunken Master Monk named Sinks-In-Water. I like to do voices for my characters, and for him I do basically the kajhiit voice from Elder Scrolls. He's a former circus performer/bouncer, and his name is based off a quote from my favourite kung fu movie (Legend of the Drunken Master, obvs): "A ship can float in water, but it can also sink in it."

I've found the personality traits from the Far Traveler background to be great fodder for playing a tabaxi. In particular:

• I have different assumptions from those around me concerning personal space, blithely invading others’ space in innocence, or reacting to ignorant invasion of my own.
• I express affection or contempt in ways that are unfamiliar to others.

Those two elements can lead to a very cat-like character that can be both evocative and fun to play. 

I'm playing a Tabaxi Cleric (Cat Lord's Domain) in the drop-in, drop-out oneshots the Tabletop/RPG Club hosts. Caliban is Not the Sharpest Claw in the Paw but he's trying his best. He doesn't know much about human interaction, and keeps a little journal with him at all times to catalog what is acceptable and what isn't. Unfortunately, he's under the impression that punching someone in the face is an appropriate greeting, having seen it happen a couple times in public places (it was a bar brawl. Poor Cal). Please picture, for your amusement, a six-foot-tall orange Tabaxi enthusiastically reeling back a punch and yelling "Greetings!" to the son of the lord who has employed the party. (Luckily, I missed on the attack role)

Anyway, there's so much you can do with a Tabaxi character, especially when it comes to humor. 

I just rolled a Tabaxi Wizard, for our Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign.  I'm still working on his background details, but so far this is what I have

He is seeking arcane objects, one particular object he seeks is an artifact sacred to his clan (currently letting the DM decide what this is, from what is available in the campaign, otherwise I will make up an object before the first play session)

He has the sage background, and for this campaign has a preset recent backstory that he has been working for a while for the local wizard, helping organize and identify objects and verify authenticity.  This gives him a story hook of another person who occasionally hires him to help with identifying objects that his traders bring in.

In terms of speaking, he refers to himself in the Third person "Lurrstan is interested in acquiring a certain statue..." and says "this one" instead of "you" (a play on the Khajit from Elder Scrolls).  he of course purrs his r's and hisses his s sounds. his overall voice is low and on an exhale.  I feel like that's enough to give flavor without getting obnoxious.

Personality-wise, he lies somewhere between Jack Harkness from Dr. Who and Inarra from Firefly.  He is very much the refined sensual tomcat.  Omnisexual, he will sleep with just about anyone who has information of value. And he is more than willing to use magic to help enhance his bedroom skills.  I am still trying to work out the "why" of this.  I've toyed with the idea of his mother being a courtesan, and him being raised in some kind of brothel, but I don't know if that's the right backstory to go with.

I'm still debating his relationship to water.  I sort of want to make him loathe to get wet, and flat out refuse to swim.  But I'm a little concerned that because of the campaign setting, this will end up being a major issue to work around rather than an interesting character quirk.  

That's about where I am at the moment.  I'm still working things out.  This is only my second character, and my first I did very little roleplay, and was mostly an optimized walking crossbow gatling gun.  I'm trying to deliberately be focused on the roleplay aspect this campaign.  I had orignially intended for him to be the face of the party, but we have two bards, one of whom is planning to play as a sort of Oscar Wilde/Gore Vidal Raconteur character.  I suspect he will end up being more the face, and I'll more be the covert operative.

My Tabaxi is Last Tree Standing, who talks in something of a cheezburger cat dialect, mostly involving using 'z' for 's's that make the z sound ("We haz got a little low on arrowz if we iz going to fight all theze Ogrez.") Her original obsession was with cooking and collecting recipes, but our PBP campaign turned out to be based on Acquisitions Incorporated, a concept totally new to her (and me) and she is Hoardsmaster, so now she is obsessed with loot, profit and attempting to find excuses to deny expense accounts.  Very fun. ^^

I love my Tabaxi!

In our Tyranny of Dragons campaign, I have a Tabaxi Rogue called Moon Sugar. She's basically a Skyrim Khajiit masquerading as a Tabaxi so she has a Khajiit accent, uses Skyrim phrases ("If anyone sneaks up on us, I'll smell them coming"), barters and trades, goes on about skooma (much to the NPCs confusion) and drinks a lot. She even has a homebrew sub-class called 'Boozehound'!

Lots of fun as a D&D/Skyrim crossover... :D