Please don't give us cat race.... we already have shifters.

[tankhealer]

Title says it all... are there really people excited by this?!? We already have shifters that are basically fitting those that want a cat/girl/race fetish. Can think of many other things that would be more fun. Also, fans have been begging for kobolds forever, can we get that? Or another race that is based on strength perhaps? Half-ogre? How about a race with +4 to a stat and -4 to another etc.

[Deslen]

I, for one, am excited about tabaxi. I looked forward to shifter, but was vastly dissapointed when I found that their shifting ability was being treated as a rage, and I couldn't use it as a stalwart defender.

I really don't understand why knowing some subset of the population likes something means certain people can't stand it. It's not as though furries of all types are being put into the game with no rational or fitting lore. Tabaxi is a unique and interesting race straight out of pnp.

[Dandonk]

I understand your point, and to some degree agree with it. I'm not particularly excited about Tabaxi, myself. But any new race or class is good with me, so I'll be fine.

I'm still waiting for Thri-kreen. Gimme.

Never gonna happen, but I still want them

[sleeksilver]

Iam eexcited about Tabaxi as well and can't wait to play one.

[Rexthor007]

When I was a dungeon master made up a Hill Giant Thief for my friend to play. I Vote for a new race to be Hill Giant. Very strong not too smart ha ha .

[Fauxknight]

Kinda late to ask for their removal at this point, the cats already out of the bag.

While I think there are other races that had more rights to be first I am perfectly happy with the choice of Tabaxi.

The decision making probably went something like this:
"So now that I've put extensive work into designing these new cat people models for the Isle of Dread NPCs we're also about due to introduce a new race. Any ideas on what race we should include with this expansion?"

[Hara]

I don't have a problem with them adding Tabaxi other than it is yet another DEX race, can we please get a second STR race - Goliath would be cool, honestly I think Dragonborn should have been STR and not CHA. I'm still waiting for Deurgar, plus variant Dwarf and Halfling as well.

[Aelonwy]

I'm not exactly excited for Tabaxi, I'm neutral. I've seen many comments of people wanting to play a Tabaxi bard Puss in Boots style but I would much rather try some variant of druid if only druid allowed a full large cat form like panther or tiger.

[ianflaer]

I think I will like Tabaxi and am happy to see it come to us but I would LOVE Kobold. Give me shinies!

[Aselrik]

Title says it all... are there really people excited by this?!? We already have shifters that are basically fitting those that want a cat/girl/race fetish. Can think of many other things that would be more fun. Also, fans have been begging for kobolds forever, can we get that? Or another race that is based on strength perhaps? Half-ogre? How about a race with +4 to a stat and -4 to another etc.

I was just thinking we needed Half-ogre! We only have 1 race giving +str PL, yet 3 giving dex! Are Str characters OP or something? Because they don't really feel like it to me, atm. There also isn't a +2 Str Festive augment unlike all the other stats...

I will say, I don't think cat/girl/fetish race is fair. While this might matter to *some* people, I think it's the tiny minority for a number of reasons. First of all, lots of games (most with better/sexier graphics) than DDO fill this fetish niche. Secondly, people just like cats! And not in the house cat kind. When I used to play a lot more PNP D&D, one of my more favorite characters was some kind of Panther race (or template? I forget). Creatures like Lions, Panthers, Cheetahs, have an "aura" of power to them, similar to a dragon (not to mention dragons are quite cat-like in a lot of fictions like D&D and "How to Train your Dragon".) So this kind of real-world incorporation is a draw to people.

On the other hand, I don't actually like shifters. I *want* to like them. I wanted to like them the first time I picked up the brand new source books to Eberron when they were fresh on the shelves. I just find their overall mechanics/fluff to be boring (I also tend to not like Barbarians much either, in tabletop or DDO).

Anyways, not saying you should like Tabaxi, but I think how much you dislike them and *why,* is a bit unfair.


As someone with experience in the game industry, I can tell you why SSG has not added Kobolds (yet). Kobolds are *not* humanoid, and I don't mean in the D&D sense. I mean, their skeletal structure is so dramatically different that it would require unique art assets for every item that needs to be displayed on them, kind of like warforged and docents, but even worse. For example, look at a kobold's leg and a human's leg, and realize that you can't just slap boots on that critter and call it a day. In addition, that also means they need new animations for everything that a player needs to be able to do.

Also, I suspect that players and monsters have different hitboxes. That probably wouldn't translate, either.

They could compromise and basically make most/all equipment not really appear on Kobolds, and simplify a lot of animations down to look similar (so like every kind of attack/cleave with a kobold may look identical), but most players would just call them "lazy" and complain endlessly.

So in other words, Kobolds represent a massive amount of manhours compared to any humanoid race (in terms of animation retargeting and mesh deformation of graphically displayed items). When put in this context, it makes sense why SSG is going to choose to spend more of their efforts on things like new quests/areas/shiny loot. Hypothetically, if it came down to something like Sharn, a large number of bug fixes/performance, or Kobolds, where would you choose to divert your resources, if you were the design lead? I think most would select one of the first two, before Kobolds.

[Ulfo]

I'm still waiting for Thri-kreen. Gimme.

^^^^
This!!!

Never gonna happen, but I still want them

[Annex]

Great. As if Stormreach did not smell bad enough. Now the whole place will reek of wet cats and litter boxes. *sigh* At least they have breasts. Or maybe they won't and we can look forward to such threads as, "How come my female Tabaxi does not have breasts?", and, "Breasts are lore appropriate for Female Tabaxi", and, "Fix my Tabaxi Breasts NOW!!!!!!!!".

I guess I better change my signature. Sophie the Cat Burglar. Yes, I have breasts. No, I am not a Tabaxi. No, I am not into furrys. Yes, I took your stuff.

Don't mind me. I'm not even playing. I'm just here to check the weekly sales. Someone send me a memo when they manage to release a good dungeon.

[Fauxknight]

...At least they have breasts. Or maybe they won't and we can look forward to such threads as, "How come my female Tabaxi does not have breasts?", and, "Breasts are lore appropriate for Female Tabaxi", and, "Fix my Tabaxi Breasts NOW!!!!!!!!".

I have inside information. It may not be 100% reliable, but it comes from a pretty trustworthy source that probably doesn't work for them....They wanted to implement a boob slider for Tabaxi, but their character creation system doesn't use sliders so instead they opted to just include a boob size option 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth like any other character option, they figured it was close enough to a slider.

Of course in a world where just picking the wrong nose shape makes it clip through your armor I'm not sure how this is going to work out...

[droid327]

Great. As if Stormreach did not smell bad enough. Now the whole place will reek of wet cats and litter boxes. *sigh* At least they have breasts. Or maybe they won't and we can look forward to such threads as, "How come my female Tabaxi does not have breasts?", and, "Breasts are lore appropriate for Female Tabaxi", and, "Fix my Tabaxi Breasts NOW!!!!!!!!".

I guess I better change my signature. Sophie the Cat Burglar. Yes, I have breasts. No, I am not a Tabaxi. No, I am not into furrys. Yes, I took your stuff.

Don't mind me. I'm not even playing. I'm just here to check the weekly sales. Someone send me a memo when they manage to release a good dungeon.

"Have breasts" and "looking for a good dungeon" sounds like my Tinder search settings

[Memnir]

Yes, we have Shifters. But Shifters suck. Like... a lot.

If Tabaxi is in any way better than Shifter, I will consider it a win. The jury is still out till we play one, however.
Then again, same could be said about any race they add at this point. Except Kobold. Please, please, please - never Kobold.

[Carpone]

Please don't give us cat race

The cat is already out of the bag.

[boredGamer]

I, for one, am excited about tabaxi. I looked forward to shifter, but was vastly dissapointed when I found that their shifting ability was being treated as a rage, and I couldn't use it as a stalwart defender.

I really don't understand why knowing some subset of the population likes something means certain people can't stand it. It's not as though furries of all types are being put into the game with no rational or fitting lore. Tabaxi is a unique and interesting race straight out of pnp.

Yeah would be nice if they simply re worked shifter at some point.

And man this thread , there is a lot of nerd undertone stuff I had no idea existed .

[gravisrs]

Well Tabaxi is a deep inside D&D lore from the first D&D edition!

It's absolutely justified lore-wise to introduce Tabaxi as playable race in DDO and was first in the queue for a long time.

Kobolds were introduced as playable race very recently, in 5e Volo's Guide to Monsters (2016) and I'd like to mention that DDO is still based on D&D 3.5 edition (Eberron was introduced in 3.5) - so maybe let's introduce 3.5 and previous races/classes first?

[Fauxknight]

Well Tabaxi is a deep inside D&D lore from the first D&D edition!

It's absolutely justified lore-wise to introduce Tabaxi as playable race in DDO and was first in the queue for a long time.

Kobolds were introduced as playable race very recently, in 5e Volo's Guide to Monsters (2016) and I'd like to mention that DDO is still based on D&D 3.5 edition (Eberron was introduced in 3.5) - so maybe let's introduce 3.5 and previous races/classes first?

I have to disagree with some of the listed facts here. Yes, Rakasta have been around since 1e and Tabaxi since 2e, but Kobolds have been around since 1e as well. I don't have the resources (I've dumped nearly everything that wasn't at least 3.5) to check exactly when each one was given an official playable stat-block, but if I had to guess Kobolds got one first.

Just going back to 3.5 Kobolds were a playable race out of the gate in the 3.5 MM 2003. Technically Rakshasa were also playable from that MM, but as a LA+7 race. The closest thing to Tabaxi that I can find in 3.5 are the Catfolk in Races of the Wild 2005.


Don't get me wrong, I want the Tabaxi race, just saying don't dis the kobolds quite soo much, their place is equally earned.

[Sunnie]

The playable race I want to see is kobolds, especially if it's possible to look exactly like the NPC kobolds already in the game. Thri-Kreen would also be good.
I'm neutral on tabaxi.