Homebrew Tanuki Species Details

The Tanuki, sometimes referred to as Raccoonfolk or Araiguma, are a raccoon-like people who are known to be playful, yet oafish tricksters found commonly in eastern folklore, alongside other known Yokai. There are countless tales of Tanuki wandering deep forests, using their unique shape changing magic to play tricks on travelers or other unsuspecting passersby. Despite this, they have never wished or brought death upon anyone unless they were manipulated or betrayed.

It’s unknown who or what originally created the Tanuki, but many believe it to be the work of a trickster god or malevolent spirit, in order to bring about chaos to the world. Others believe in a so-called “Great Tanuki,” who tricked gods into giving them magical powers, which they spread to their followers. They are also believed to have originated from the Feywild. Whatever the case may be, there’s no doubt that the Tanuki are very mischievous critters, and you can never predict what will happen when you cross paths with one of them.

Usually, Tanuki, while in their humanoid form, appear similar to halflings, but with raccoon ears and tail. However, constant or extended usage of their raccoon form have caused many Tanuki to more resemble raccoons, from growing fur on their bodies to having extended snouts. The most extreme cases are often found in nomadic villages and tribes of Raccoonfolk, where they use their raccoon form so much their "humanoid" form ends up blatantly looking like a dire raccoon standing on its hind legs.

Tanuki Traits

Your whimsical Tanuki nature grants you a number of traits inherent to your kind. You gain access to the following:

Ability Score Increase

Choose either Dexterity or Charisma to be increased by 2; the other is improved by 1.

Age

Tanuki live much, much longer than regular raccoons, or even humans. They can live about as long as Elves, or around 1,000 years.

Alignment

Tanuki tend to be chaotic and wild. Whether or not they use this for good or evil is dependent on the Tanuki in question.

Size

Tanuki are, in their true forms, much larger than a typical raccoon, yet are still very short. Your size is Small.

Speed

Your base movement speed is 30 feet.

Shapeshifter

You can use your action to polymorph into a regular raccoon as per the polymorph spell, using the Badger stat block. While transformed, you are able to speak any languages you know. You may use another action to return to your true form. You must wait at least 1 minute before you can transform again.

Trickster

You gain proficiency in Survival and Deception checks.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write in Common and Sylvan.