I've been working on this for a few months; the hengeyokai race for 5E! For anyone who doesn't know, hengeyokai are a race of natural shapechangers that were present in all previous editions of D&D (albeit playtest in 4E). They're (obviously) based on the yokai of Japanese mythology, specifically obake/bakemono, spirits that have the ability to shapeshift. (Some of the animal subraces I've remade don't actually have a bakemono equivalent, but it's fine.)
Hengeyokai are native to Kara-Tur, a continent located east of Faerun in the Forgotten Realms. Their abilities are pretty similar to a lycanthrope's, having a human, hybrid, and animal form. However, they're different in that their abilities come from being descended form nature spirits, rather than being cursed. (This means their true form is their hybrid form, not their human form.) Also they're a lot more varied and waaaaay less vicious and evil and, y'know, being a bummer to hang around.
Anyways, I've done my best to recreate the hengeyokai for 5E. The subraces presented in 3E and 4E are all here, with the exception of Crane. Feedback would be appreciated!
Hengeyokai Traits
Each hengeyokai shares the following traits.
Ability Score Increase
Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
Age
During childhood, hengeyokai appear to be regular, albeit intelligent and long-lived animals. They reach adolescence around the age of 100, when they can start taking on their hybrid and human forms, and adulthood a few years afterwards. Hengeyokai commonly live past 200.
Alignment
Hengeyokai love freedom and nature. Due to their animalistic natures, they have an inherent tendency towards chaotic alignments.
Size
In their humanoid forms, hengeyokai are built similarly to humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
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 can’t discern colour in darkness, only shades of gray.
Language of the Beasts
Through a bestial language, you can verbally communicate with and understand beasts of the same animal or a closely related species to your subrace (for example, a dog hengeyokai can communicate to wolves). You can also communicate with other hengeyokai using this trait, regardless of subrace.
Nature's Mask
As an action, you can transform into a human or an animal determined by your subrace, or back into your true form, which appears to be a humanoid hybrid of your human and animal forms. Your physical features in each of these forms are always the same. You revert to your true form if you die. Each form has its own set of rules:
Animal Form. In animal form, your game statistics are replaced by those of your new form, but you retain your alignment, personality, hit points, Hit Dice, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. You also retain all of your skill and saving throw proficiencies, as well as your Language of the Beasts trait. This form’s stat block is listed in your subrace, which may use your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places. You can't speak, cast spells, or take any other action that requires hands or speech, except for communication using your Language of the Beasts trait. When you transform, you choose whether your equipment falls to the ground or merges into the new form.
Human Form. You lose your darkvision and can’t communicate with beasts using your Language of the Beasts trait (but you can still understand them). Many subraces have traits that can only be used in hybrid form, which you also lose in human form. Your statistics are otherwise unchanged.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common.
Subraces
Many different types of hengeyokai exist, each personifying a different type of animal. Choose one of these subraces.
Badger Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Strength score increases by 1.
Dig
While in your hybrid form, you have a burrowing speed of 5 ft.
Feral Resolve
You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
Anaguma
Your animal form uses the Badger Form stat block below.
Hardy Resilience. The carp has advantage on saving throws against disease and poison.
Water Breathing. The carp can breathe only underwater.
Cat Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Claws
While in your hybrid form, you have claws, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB bludgeoning damage.
Dog Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Bite
While in your hybrid form, you have a fanged maw, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Sharp Intuition
You have proficiency in the Insight skill.
Inu
Your animal form uses the Dog Form stat block below.
Keen Hearing and Smell. The dog has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.
Pack Tactics. The dog has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the dog’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 + PB piercing damage.
Keen Hearing. The fox has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB piercing damage.
Hare Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Nimble
Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.
Springing Step
While in your hybrid form, you can add 10 feet to your long jump distance and 5 feet to your high jump distance, even when making a standing jump. The extra distance costs movement as normal.
Usagi
Your animal form uses the Hare Form stat block below.
Escape. The hare can take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.
Monkey Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Climb
While in hybrid form, you have a climbing speed of 20 feet.
Dextrous
In animal form, you retain the ability to use your hands, but you still can’t cast spells, and you have disadvantage on attack rolls made using a weapon.
Saru
Your animal form uses the Monkey Form stat block below.
Pack Tactics. The monkey has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the monkey’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB piercing damage.
Sparrow Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Wings
While in hybrid form, you have a flying speed of 30 feet. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor, and both of your hands must be free.
Suzume
Your animal form uses the Sparrow Form stat block below.
Flyby. The sparrow doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.
Actions
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB piercing damage.
Racoon Dog Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Stone Form
As an action, you can transform into a Tiny object or a Medium statue of your hybrid form. You gain 5 temporary hit points and are petrified, but you remain aware of your surroundings and can see and hear as normal. You revert to your true form once the temporary hit points have been used up or 10 minutes have passed. You can also end the effect at any time (no action required).
Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Keen Smell. The rat has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.
Pack Tactics. The rat has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the rat’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Actions
Enlarge (Recharges After a Short or Long Rest).For 1 minute, the rat magically increases in size. While enlarged, the rat is Small, adds 10 ft. to its movement speed, deals an additional 2 (1d4) damage with its bite attack (included in the attack), and makes Strength checks and Strength saving throws with advantage. If the rat lacks the room to become Small, it attains the maximum size possible in the space available.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB piercing damage, plus an additional 1d4 damage while enlarged.
By far, the hardest parts of making this were figuring out how to make the shapeshifting work and making each subrace unique. After a lot of thinking, I finally decided to take the idea of built-in stat blocks from the new summoning spells and reworked them into shapechanger forms.
Additionally, it took a lot of time to figure out the racial traits for each subrace. A lot of the stat blocks for these beasts aren't equal in power and their abilities overlap a lot. I did my best to balance them all with their subrace-specific traits, but more than anything I emphasized uniqueness between each subrace. I want each one to fill its own niche, so there's no reason to pick one over the other. It took a lot of time figuring out what traits would best represent each beast.
Also, because someone will probably ask, I gave each subrace traits that reflect their beast, not the magical abilities of their corresponding yokai. People might especially expect foxes to have innate spellcasting because kitsunes, but really that only reflects the kitsunes that become notably old, like kukos and tenkos. You could easily represent them with druids or Divine Soul Sorcerers. The two exceptions to this are racoon dog and rats, because a) I really couldn't think of anything else unique for racoon dogs, suggestions would be helpful, and b) the rat stat block is BAD.
Also, list of what each form stat block is based off of and the changes to that stat block:
Changes to All:
Removed skill proficiencies because it'd be weird if you were suddenly trained in Perception in your animal form but not your other forms (Keen Senses shows you're inherently better at the skill in that form)
Removed mental ability scores because they carry over
All stat blocks have 60 ft. darkvision
You still understand language in your animal form
All attack rolls are based on DEX, and instead of dealing 1 damage (because Tiny size) they deal PB damage. For dog, PB replaces +2 to damage.
Badger: Badger from MM
Carp: Fish from GoS/Quipper from MM without bite attack Changes: Hardy Resilience - Carp are actually very hardy and long-lived, and are quite resilient to disease and such. This trait reflects that.
Cat: Cat from MM
Crab: Crab from MM
Dog: Jackal from MM/Wild Dog from ToA
Fox: Fox from IDRotF
Hare: Hare from IDRotF
Monkey: Baboon from MM Changes: Size - Changed from Small to Tiny. Japanese macaques (which are presumably the monkey form these hengeyokai take, since they're the ones depicted in Asian mythology) average at about just under 2 feet tall. Seems tiny to me. (Damage scaled accordingly)
Sparrow: Crow from MM Changes: Flyby - Has Flyby instead of Mimicry.
Racoon Dog: Not gonna lie, made this one up
Rat: Rat/Giant Rat from MM Changes: Enlarge - Okay, hold up, why is this rat part duergar? My reasoning: THE RAT STAT BLOCK FRICKIN' SUCKS! It offers NOTHING compared to all the other ones. So, I took a look at the yokai associated with rats. Kyuuso (旧鼠, meaning "old rat" and a homonym for "cornered rat") are rats the size of cats, or even medium-sized dogs. A rat becomes a kyuuso once it reaches 1000 years of age, upon which it grows larger, stronger, and hunts cats instead of the other way around. So that's what I'm going with. After all, "kyuuso neko wo kamu." (A cornered rat will bite a cat.)
This is sick and I love the work you've put into this. My favorite character I ever played was a Fox Hengeyokai in 4e. my group and I are planning a christmas special game, "avengers" theme. IE, We each get to remake and play our all time favorite character for a massive one shot. This game will obviously be in 5e, so I will need to fully rebuild my fox.
I stumbled upon your post and I love it. One question though - how do I go about implementing your system into my own custom build? I usually DM, so I actually have the least experience character building in 5e lol.
I will be building a level 15 Fox Hengeyokai, and can't wait to see how similar/different he is from his original 4e version.
this is like VERY late, I haven't engaged in D&DBeyond's forums probably since 2020, but I hope you got to make that Fox Hengeyokai character! I'm so glad that my work could help you revive an old favorite in 5e.
I just started getting back into D&D after a long break, and I've been revisiting my old concepts, so maybe I'll post an update to this soon! I've been thinking of somewhat changing this into a general "Yokai" species option for settings outside of just the Forgotten Realms (they're still called "hengeyokai" in Faerun!). The core shapeshifting mechanics are the same, but I was thinking about changing each subrace's individual traits in ways that make them feel more inspired by their folkloric & spiritual roots! Some of them definitely were more like just giving bestial traits you can use in hybrid form.
Let me know if you preferred this old version, though!
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I've been working on this for a few months; the hengeyokai race for 5E! For anyone who doesn't know, hengeyokai are a race of natural shapechangers that were present in all previous editions of D&D (albeit playtest in 4E). They're (obviously) based on the yokai of Japanese mythology, specifically obake/bakemono, spirits that have the ability to shapeshift. (Some of the animal subraces I've remade don't actually have a bakemono equivalent, but it's fine.)
Hengeyokai are native to Kara-Tur, a continent located east of Faerun in the Forgotten Realms. Their abilities are pretty similar to a lycanthrope's, having a human, hybrid, and animal form. However, they're different in that their abilities come from being descended form nature spirits, rather than being cursed. (This means their true form is their hybrid form, not their human form.) Also they're a lot more varied and waaaaay less vicious and evil and, y'know, being a bummer to hang around.
Anyways, I've done my best to recreate the hengeyokai for 5E. The subraces presented in 3E and 4E are all here, with the exception of Crane. Feedback would be appreciated!
Hengeyokai Traits
Each hengeyokai shares the following traits.
Ability Score Increase
Your Dexterity score increases by 2.
Age
During childhood, hengeyokai appear to be regular, albeit intelligent and long-lived animals. They reach adolescence around the age of 100, when they can start taking on their hybrid and human forms, and adulthood a few years afterwards. Hengeyokai commonly live past 200.
Alignment
Hengeyokai love freedom and nature. Due to their animalistic natures, they have an inherent tendency towards chaotic alignments.
Size
In their humanoid forms, hengeyokai are built similarly to humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
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 can’t discern colour in darkness, only shades of gray.
Language of the Beasts
Through a bestial language, you can verbally communicate with and understand beasts of the same animal or a closely related species to your subrace (for example, a dog hengeyokai can communicate to wolves). You can also communicate with other hengeyokai using this trait, regardless of subrace.
Nature's Mask
As an action, you can transform into a human or an animal determined by your subrace, or back into your true form, which appears to be a humanoid hybrid of your human and animal forms. Your physical features in each of these forms are always the same. You revert to your true form if you die. Each form has its own set of rules:
Animal Form. In animal form, your game statistics are replaced by those of your new form, but you retain your alignment, personality, hit points, Hit Dice, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. You also retain all of your skill and saving throw proficiencies, as well as your Language of the Beasts trait. This form’s stat block is listed in your subrace, which may use your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places. You can't speak, cast spells, or take any other action that requires hands or speech, except for communication using your Language of the Beasts trait. When you transform, you choose whether your equipment falls to the ground or merges into the new form.
Human Form. You lose your darkvision and can’t communicate with beasts using your Language of the Beasts trait (but you can still understand them). Many subraces have traits that can only be used in hybrid form, which you also lose in human form. Your statistics are otherwise unchanged.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common.
Subraces
Many different types of hengeyokai exist, each personifying a different type of animal. Choose one of these subraces.
Badger Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Strength score increases by 1.
Dig
While in your hybrid form, you have a burrowing speed of 5 ft.
Feral Resolve
You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
Anaguma
Your animal form uses the Badger Form stat block below.
Badger Form
Tiny beast
Armor Class 10
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 20 ft., burrow 5 ft.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Keen Smell. The badger has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB piercing damage.
Carp Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Sea Born
While in your hybrid form, you have a swimming speed of 20 feet, and you can breathe air and water.
Hardy Resilience
You have advantage on saving throws against disease and poison.
Koi
Your animal form uses the Carp Form stat block below.
Carp Form
Tiny beast
Armor Class 13
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 0 ft., swim 40 ft.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Hardy Resilience. The carp has advantage on saving throws against disease and poison.
Water Breathing. The carp can breathe only underwater.
Cat Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Claws
While in your hybrid form, you have claws, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Graceful
You have proficiency in the Acrobatics skill.
Neko
Your animal form uses the Cat Form stat block below.
Cat Form
Tiny beast
Armor Class 12
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Keen Smell. The cat has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Actions
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB slashing damage.
Crab Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Natural Armor
Thanks to your hard shell, you have a +1 bonus to AC while in hybrid form.
Amphibious
While in your hybrid form, you can breathe air and water.
Kani
Your animal form uses the Crab Form stat block below.
Crab Form
Tiny beast
Armor Class 11 (natural armor)
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Amphibious. The crab can breathe air and water.
Actions
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB bludgeoning damage.
Dog Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Bite
While in your hybrid form, you have a fanged maw, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
Sharp Intuition
You have proficiency in the Insight skill.
Inu
Your animal form uses the Dog Form stat block below.
Dog Form
Small beast
Armor Class 12
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 40 ft.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Keen Hearing and Smell. The dog has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.
Pack Tactics. The dog has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the dog’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d4 + PB piercing damage.
Fox Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Fox Cunning
You have proficiency in two of the following skills of your choice: Insight, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Persuasion, Stealth, and Survival.
Kitsune
Your animal form uses the Fox Form stat block below.
Fox Form
Tiny beast
Armor Class 13
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 30 ft., burrow 5 ft.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Keen Hearing. The fox has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB piercing damage.
Hare Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Nimble
Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet.
Springing Step
While in your hybrid form, you can add 10 feet to your long jump distance and 5 feet to your high jump distance, even when making a standing jump. The extra distance costs movement as normal.
Usagi
Your animal form uses the Hare Form stat block below.
Hare Form
Tiny beast
Armor Class 13
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 20 ft., burrow 5 ft.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Escape. The hare can take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.
Monkey Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Climb
While in hybrid form, you have a climbing speed of 20 feet.
Dextrous
In animal form, you retain the ability to use your hands, but you still can’t cast spells, and you have disadvantage on attack rolls made using a weapon.
Saru
Your animal form uses the Monkey Form stat block below.
Monkey Form
Tiny beast
Armor Class 12
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Pack Tactics. The monkey has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the monkey’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB piercing damage.
Sparrow Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Wings
While in hybrid form, you have a flying speed of 30 feet. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor, and both of your hands must be free.
Suzume
Your animal form uses the Sparrow Form stat block below.
Sparrow Form
Tiny beast
Armor Class 12
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 10 ft., fly 50 ft.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Flyby. The sparrow doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach.
Actions
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB piercing damage.
Racoon Dog Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Stone Form
As an action, you can transform into a Tiny object or a Medium statue of your hybrid form. You gain 5 temporary hit points and are petrified, but you remain aware of your surroundings and can see and hear as normal. You revert to your true form once the temporary hit points have been used up or 10 minutes have passed. You can also end the effect at any time (no action required).
Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Deceitful
You have proficiency in the Deception skill.
Tanuki
Your animal form uses the Racoon Dog Form stat block below.
Racoon Dog Form
Tiny beast
Armor Class 11
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 30 ft.
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Keen Smell. The racoon dog has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB piercing damage.
Rat Hengeyokai
Ability Score Increase
Your Intelligence score increases by 1.
Scurry
When you take the Disengage action, your walking speed increases by 10 feet until the end of the turn.
Deft Fingers
You have proficiency in the Sleight of Hand skill.
Nezumi
Your animal form uses the Rat Form stat block below.
Rat Form
Tiny beast
Armor Class 10
Hit Points equal to your Hit Points and Hit Dice
Speed 20 ft. (30 ft. while enlarged)
Senses darkvision 60 ft.
Languages understands the languages you speak
Challenge —
Proficiency Bonus equals your bonus
Keen Smell. The rat has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.
Pack Tactics. The rat has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the rat’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
Actions
Enlarge (Recharges After a Short or Long Rest). For 1 minute, the rat magically increases in size. While enlarged, the rat is Small, adds 10 ft. to its movement speed, deals an additional 2 (1d4) damage with its bite attack (included in the attack), and makes Strength checks and Strength saving throws with advantage. If the rat lacks the room to become Small, it attains the maximum size possible in the space available.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 plus PB to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: PB piercing damage, plus an additional 1d4 damage while enlarged.
By far, the hardest parts of making this were figuring out how to make the shapeshifting work and making each subrace unique. After a lot of thinking, I finally decided to take the idea of built-in stat blocks from the new summoning spells and reworked them into shapechanger forms.
Additionally, it took a lot of time to figure out the racial traits for each subrace. A lot of the stat blocks for these beasts aren't equal in power and their abilities overlap a lot. I did my best to balance them all with their subrace-specific traits, but more than anything I emphasized uniqueness between each subrace. I want each one to fill its own niche, so there's no reason to pick one over the other. It took a lot of time figuring out what traits would best represent each beast.
Also, because someone will probably ask, I gave each subrace traits that reflect their beast, not the magical abilities of their corresponding yokai. People might especially expect foxes to have innate spellcasting because kitsunes, but really that only reflects the kitsunes that become notably old, like kukos and tenkos. You could easily represent them with druids or Divine Soul Sorcerers. The two exceptions to this are racoon dog and rats, because a) I really couldn't think of anything else unique for racoon dogs, suggestions would be helpful, and b) the rat stat block is BAD.
thank for read
sources that helped:
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Hengeyokai
https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1447897464999.pdf
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Hengeyokai
https://********/bestiary.html
Also, list of what each form stat block is based off of and the changes to that stat block:
Changes to All:
Badger: Badger from MM
Carp: Fish from GoS/Quipper from MM without bite attack
Changes: Hardy Resilience - Carp are actually very hardy and long-lived, and are quite resilient to disease and such. This trait reflects that.
Cat: Cat from MM
Crab: Crab from MM
Dog: Jackal from MM/Wild Dog from ToA
Fox: Fox from IDRotF
Hare: Hare from IDRotF
Monkey: Baboon from MM
Changes: Size - Changed from Small to Tiny. Japanese macaques (which are presumably the monkey form these hengeyokai take, since they're the ones depicted in Asian mythology) average at about just under 2 feet tall. Seems tiny to me. (Damage scaled accordingly)
Sparrow: Crow from MM
Changes: Flyby - Has Flyby instead of Mimicry.
Racoon Dog: Not gonna lie, made this one up
Rat: Rat/Giant Rat from MM
Changes: Enlarge - Okay, hold up, why is this rat part duergar? My reasoning: THE RAT STAT BLOCK FRICKIN' SUCKS! It offers NOTHING compared to all the other ones. So, I took a look at the yokai associated with rats. Kyuuso (旧鼠, meaning "old rat" and a homonym for "cornered rat") are rats the size of cats, or even medium-sized dogs. A rat becomes a kyuuso once it reaches 1000 years of age, upon which it grows larger, stronger, and hunts cats instead of the other way around. So that's what I'm going with. After all, "kyuuso neko wo kamu." (A cornered rat will bite a cat.)
This is sick and I love the work you've put into this. My favorite character I ever played was a Fox Hengeyokai in 4e. my group and I are planning a christmas special game, "avengers" theme. IE, We each get to remake and play our all time favorite character for a massive one shot. This game will obviously be in 5e, so I will need to fully rebuild my fox.
I stumbled upon your post and I love it. One question though - how do I go about implementing your system into my own custom build? I usually DM, so I actually have the least experience character building in 5e lol.
I will be building a level 15 Fox Hengeyokai, and can't wait to see how similar/different he is from his original 4e version.
This looks awesome!! Do you have any plans to publish this for use any time soon?
this is like VERY late, I haven't engaged in D&DBeyond's forums probably since 2020, but I hope you got to make that Fox Hengeyokai character! I'm so glad that my work could help you revive an old favorite in 5e.
I just started getting back into D&D after a long break, and I've been revisiting my old concepts, so maybe I'll post an update to this soon! I've been thinking of somewhat changing this into a general "Yokai" species option for settings outside of just the Forgotten Realms (they're still called "hengeyokai" in Faerun!). The core shapeshifting mechanics are the same, but I was thinking about changing each subrace's individual traits in ways that make them feel more inspired by their folkloric & spiritual roots! Some of them definitely were more like just giving bestial traits you can use in hybrid form.
Let me know if you preferred this old version, though!