Cats have the same challenge rating as humans (commoners anyway) and ability scores above 10. Cat gangs could kill people - might put that into my next campaign - ruled by werecats?

wait, tabaxi get this but normal cat don't? 

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.

I found a Wikipedia article all about cat senses:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_senses

One could argue they should have Keen Hearing and Smell instead of just the smell. However, their sense of smell is 9-16 times as strong as that of humans whereas the range of hearing simply goes off into the higher end of the spectrum and they can locate sounds better. That is certainly impressive as well but I'm not sure if it warrants permanent advantage. Cats already have a +3 to perception so I think it's still okay ...

However, they should have darkvision. After all, they are literally nocturnal hunters. Interestingly, they are nearsighted by I'd still go for 60 feet darkvision which I think is appropriate. Lastly, their unique signature ability is that they can land on their feet so I'd basically add an ability that simply says they don't fall prone after taking fall damage. Also, instead of taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet, the cat should take the damage for every 20 feet instead. Or simply halve the damage after the fall, even simpler. Sound fair?

I mean, I get it. Cats are pretty mundane animals and you don't want to overload a CR 0 creature with every cool ability in the book. Any druid could walk into a city, find a cat and gain all the cool perception abilities, just like that. I have sympathy for the creators of this statblock. The fact that they included the smelling tells me they did research and they decided consciously to leave all that rad stuff out. From a human perspective, nearly all animals have some advantage over them. Sometimes it feels like every animal out there has extremely honed perception skills compared to us. We only have thumbs and language.

You know what, just leave it like that. It's fine. Cats don't need cool abilities for me to love them.

I have a question, can you have a cat that is larger than their normal size (as in Large, Huge, Gargantuan) as a beast companion? Or are you only allowed to enlarge your tiny cat when you get the spell?? I really wanna know. Sorry I'm new "-v-

HOW THE HELL DO I ENCOUNTER THIS

20 cha because they are house rats that hiss and crap behind the tv. Got it.

Everyone here arguing about dark vision but missing the point that cats should have much, much higher charisma. 

Everyone here demanding dark vision is *right* but moreover, WHY +0 to Hit?!?

Regular little indigenous cats have one of the highest recorded success ratios per attack of any predator on Earth. All the other CR Zeros would miss twice as often as ordinary mass-murdering cats.

Why the hell does it have keen smell and not keen sight?!!

The claw attack is considered a strength based weapon, & the strength penalty would make it -2 to hit, standard rules would make it that a monster can’t have a natural penalty to hit

Ouch; that'd be even worse. They really *really* should have at least a modest bonus to hit.

I am making an entire campaign about anthropomorphic Cats. I changed the race names into cat breed names as well.

Cats should impose disadvantage to people using opportunity attacks against them when they are leaving a threatened area.

A cat's claws should be a finesse weapon. They do not damage by powering through they make lightning fast accurate attacks. Maybe not apply to damage but most assuredly to hit.

cat

Quote from Legacy_of_Lokk >>

 

Agree. And as an owner of three cats, they should get advantage on Perception checks related to hearing, not smell.

Quote from HarryDoshay >>

Cats. Need. Darkvision.

Quote from GregoryGrim >>

Definitely. And they should also get some advantage on falling damage rolls (and maybe not fall prone afterwards).

Quote from dungeonmasterisacooljob >>

Cats need a 20 in charisma 

Quote from Bell_of_Wishing >>

I found a Wikipedia article all about cat senses:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_senses

One could argue they should have Keen Hearing and Smell instead of just the smell. However, their sense of smell is 9-16 times as strong as that of humans whereas the range of hearing simply goes off into the higher end of the spectrum and they can locate sounds better. That is certainly impressive as well but I'm not sure if it warrants permanent advantage. Cats already have a +3 to perception so I think it's still okay ...

However, they should have darkvision. After all, they are literally nocturnal hunters. Interestingly, they are nearsighted by I'd still go for 60 feet darkvision which I think is appropriate. Lastly, their unique signature ability is that they can land on their feet so I'd basically add an ability that simply says they don't fall prone after taking fall damage. Also, instead of taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet, the cat should take the damage for every 20 feet instead. Or simply halve the damage after the fall, even simpler. Sound fair?

I mean, I get it. Cats are pretty mundane animals and you don't want to overload a CR 0 creature with every cool ability in the book. Any druid could walk into a city, find a cat and gain all the cool perception abilities, just like that. I have sympathy for the creators of this statblock. The fact that they included the smelling tells me they did research and they decided consciously to leave all that rad stuff out. From a human perspective, nearly all animals have some advantage over them. Sometimes it feels like every animal out there has extremely honed perception skills compared to us. We only have thumbs and language.

You know what, just leave it like that. It's fine. Cats don't need cool abilities for me to love them.

Quote from ProphetZarquon >>

Everyone here demanding dark vision is *right* but moreover, WHY +0 to Hit?!?

Regular little indigenous cats have one of the highest recorded success ratios per attack of any predator on Earth. All the other CR Zeros would miss twice as often as ordinary mass-murdering cats.

Quote from BadgerBait >>

Cats should impose disadvantage to people using opportunity attacks against them when they are leaving a threatened area.

A cat's claws should be a finesse weapon. They do not damage by powering through they make lightning fast accurate attacks. Maybe not apply to damage but most assuredly to hit.

 ALL OF THIS SHOULD HAPPEN
SOMEBODY MAKE A HOMEBREW CAT WITH THIS STUFF

Quote from HarryDoshay >>

Cats. Need. Darkvision.

 True idk why they don't

Quote from SWIIFT >>

20 cha because they are house rats that hiss and crap behind the tv. Got it.

 HOW DARE YOU!
cats are cute and funny.
they make wonderful purring noises.
*ANGRY CAT NOISES*

What is the rule about cats and falling damage? Also, there should be a rarer type of cat that has nine lives. Or just buff cats to have nine lives.

Quote from bearslord >>

Quote from Legacy_of_Lokk >>

 

Agree. And as an owner of three cats, they should get advantage on Perception checks related to hearing, not smell.

 

Quote from HarryDoshay >>

Cats. Need. Darkvision.

 

Quote from GregoryGrim >>

Definitely. And they should also get some advantage on falling damage rolls (and maybe not fall prone afterwards).

 

Quote from dungeonmasterisacooljob >>

Cats need a 20 in charisma 

 

Quote from Bell_of_Wishing >>

I found a Wikipedia article all about cat senses:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_senses

One could argue they should have Keen Hearing and Smell instead of just the smell. However, their sense of smell is 9-16 times as strong as that of humans whereas the range of hearing simply goes off into the higher end of the spectrum and they can locate sounds better. That is certainly impressive as well but I'm not sure if it warrants permanent advantage. Cats already have a +3 to perception so I think it's still okay ...

However, they should have darkvision. After all, they are literally nocturnal hunters. Interestingly, they are nearsighted by I'd still go for 60 feet darkvision which I think is appropriate. Lastly, their unique signature ability is that they can land on their feet so I'd basically add an ability that simply says they don't fall prone after taking fall damage. Also, instead of taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet, the cat should take the damage for every 20 feet instead. Or simply halve the damage after the fall, even simpler. Sound fair?

I mean, I get it. Cats are pretty mundane animals and you don't want to overload a CR 0 creature with every cool ability in the book. Any druid could walk into a city, find a cat and gain all the cool perception abilities, just like that. I have sympathy for the creators of this statblock. The fact that they included the smelling tells me they did research and they decided consciously to leave all that rad stuff out. From a human perspective, nearly all animals have some advantage over them. Sometimes it feels like every animal out there has extremely honed perception skills compared to us. We only have thumbs and language.

You know what, just leave it like that. It's fine. Cats don't need cool abilities for me to love them.

 

Quote from ProphetZarquon >>

Everyone here demanding dark vision is *right* but moreover, WHY +0 to Hit?!?

Regular little indigenous cats have one of the highest recorded success ratios per attack of any predator on Earth. All the other CR Zeros would miss twice as often as ordinary mass-murdering cats.

 

Quote from BadgerBait >>

Cats should impose disadvantage to people using opportunity attacks against them when they are leaving a threatened area.

A cat's claws should be a finesse weapon. They do not damage by powering through they make lightning fast accurate attacks. Maybe not apply to damage but most assuredly to hit.

 ALL OF THIS SHOULD HAPPEN
SOMEBODY MAKE A HOMEBREW CAT WITH THIS STUFF

 I'm onto it!

Quote from bearslord >>

Quote from Legacy_of_Lokk >>

 

Agree. And as an owner of three cats, they should get advantage on Perception checks related to hearing, not smell.

 

Quote from HarryDoshay >>

Cats. Need. Darkvision.

 

Quote from GregoryGrim >>

Definitely. And they should also get some advantage on falling damage rolls (and maybe not fall prone afterwards).

 

Quote from dungeonmasterisacooljob >>

Cats need a 20 in charisma 

 

Quote from Bell_of_Wishing >>

I found a Wikipedia article all about cat senses:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_senses

One could argue they should have Keen Hearing and Smell instead of just the smell. However, their sense of smell is 9-16 times as strong as that of humans whereas the range of hearing simply goes off into the higher end of the spectrum and they can locate sounds better. That is certainly impressive as well but I'm not sure if it warrants permanent advantage. Cats already have a +3 to perception so I think it's still okay ...

However, they should have darkvision. After all, they are literally nocturnal hunters. Interestingly, they are nearsighted by I'd still go for 60 feet darkvision which I think is appropriate. Lastly, their unique signature ability is that they can land on their feet so I'd basically add an ability that simply says they don't fall prone after taking fall damage. Also, instead of taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet, the cat should take the damage for every 20 feet instead. Or simply halve the damage after the fall, even simpler. Sound fair?

I mean, I get it. Cats are pretty mundane animals and you don't want to overload a CR 0 creature with every cool ability in the book. Any druid could walk into a city, find a cat and gain all the cool perception abilities, just like that. I have sympathy for the creators of this statblock. The fact that they included the smelling tells me they did research and they decided consciously to leave all that rad stuff out. From a human perspective, nearly all animals have some advantage over them. Sometimes it feels like every animal out there has extremely honed perception skills compared to us. We only have thumbs and language.

You know what, just leave it like that. It's fine. Cats don't need cool abilities for me to love them.

 

Quote from ProphetZarquon >>

Everyone here demanding dark vision is *right* but moreover, WHY +0 to Hit?!?

Regular little indigenous cats have one of the highest recorded success ratios per attack of any predator on Earth. All the other CR Zeros would miss twice as often as ordinary mass-murdering cats.

 

Quote from BadgerBait >>

Cats should impose disadvantage to people using opportunity attacks against them when they are leaving a threatened area.

A cat's claws should be a finesse weapon. They do not damage by powering through they make lightning fast accurate attacks. Maybe not apply to damage but most assuredly to hit.

 ALL OF THIS SHOULD HAPPEN
SOMEBODY MAKE A HOMEBREW CAT WITH THIS STUFF

 @bearslord here is the link to a CritterDB bestiary featuring the Cat v2! (I use CritterDB because it is easier to use than D&Dbeyond's homebrew monster system

https://critterdb.com/#/publishedbestiary/view/5fb3f821f9101e03eeb377cc