U54 Preview 2: Tabaxi and Tabaxi Trailblazer

[Epicsoul]

One possibility for the Iconic is to add a T4 ability that causes trips to make enemies helpless, similar to the Legendary Dreadnaught ability.

[Nickodeamous]

ok, not sure if anybody else found this one, but if you use dire charge, the staff disappears and you look like you are snapping your fingers and it doesn't stop unless you either tumble or exit the game.

[GMtitan]

are tabaxi going to be animals for spells and the like or is that not planned?

[Tilomere]

[*]Escape Artist: When you tumble, you gain 25% Incorporeality and 25% Concealment for 20 seconds.

Can you type this and other sources of incorporeality and concealment in game so players actually know if they will actually stack to an amount that has any effect at all after a 30-35% reaper penalty?

[iswind1]

Tabaxi should have a Favored Enemy : mouse

[Sirea]

Heroic female tabaxi: Ear option #1 and #2 appear to be the same.

Also, tabaxi faces are a bit too large for focus icons.

[Artos_Fabril]

Tabaxi should have a Favored Enemy : mouse

"Vermin"

[jskinner937]

Sorry devs,

But this is the worst new race and iconic ever introduced. Most races have more versatility. This one is clearly focused on Qstaff. And the qstaff benefits do not buff henshin, which is the theme of the iconic. An acrobat rogue would fair better with this race than monk. Or even a barbarian.

Nobody wants a race that is themed around a type of weapon. Please reconsider handwraps and possibly other weapons (daggers, throwing maybe).

In its current form this is going to be the worst race in DDO for alll but flavor builds. Other races introduced were much more versatile and fun. I mean there are some nice features that look cool to play with, but nothing but flavor.

[Artos_Fabril]

Sorry devs,

But this is the worst new race and iconic ever introduced.

Worse than Morninglord? I'd say equally bad, at worst. That's still a pretty low bar to try to get under.

[jskinner937]

Worse than Morninglord? I'd say equally bad, at worst. That's still a pretty low bar to try to get under.

Morninglord is bad but at least you have sylvanus.

[SWCarter]

Is it by design that spending 16+ points into the Tabaxi racial tree to get Evasion and then 11+ points into Shadowdancer does not provide Improved Evasion? Because on Lamannia right now, spending these points leaves you with regular Evasion only. Shadowdancer completely ignores the fact that you already have the Evasion feat when you take Core 3.

If that is by design, then the racial tooltip should mention this (i.e. "This grants Evasion, and while it shows up as the actual, real Evasion feat on your character sheet, it certainly does not grant the Evasion feat for the purposes of prerequisites."). I'd like to build a capstone Paladin with Improved Evasion, but if this is by design, then I'll focus my attention elsewhere. Any feedback on what's expected here would be greatly appreciated.

[SpardaX]

I said it in the first preview spot but it seemed to be ignored so I'll just mention it again here

If you plan to have the iconic tabaxi keep the Ninja Spy stealthy, I think they should both at least stack with each other fully. Even if that means the racial tabaxi amounts be lowered. Though I think spending 6 points to get 100% speed should be fine since rogues can spend 3 for 75%. The sneak speed did not seem to stack on the first preview, just in case it was meant to stack and was a bug that it did not..

[RaptorSB]

I was going to mention that Tabaxi were Chaotic Neutral in PnP, and double checked my info. Guess 5e does away with alignment? But even in the 5e write up that I found, nowhere does it say anything that would suggest calm or peaceful. Does say things about minstrels, tinkers and berserkers though. I was hoping they'd be a Druid Iconic, since Shifter took Barbarian.

[SpardaX]

Is it by design that spending 16+ points into the Tabaxi racial tree to get Evasion and then 11+ points into Shadowdancer does not provide Improved Evasion? Because on Lamannia right now, spending these points leaves you with regular Evasion only. Shadowdancer completely ignores the fact that you already have the Evasion feat when you take Core 3.

If that is by design, then the racial tooltip should mention this (i.e. "This grants Evasion, and while it shows up as the actual, real Evasion feat on your character sheet, it certainly does not grant the Evasion feat for the purposes of prerequisites."). I'd like to build a capstone Paladin with Improved Evasion, but if this is by design, then I'll focus my attention elsewhere. Any feedback on what's expected here would be greatly appreciated.

I don't speak for the devs here, but considering that shadow dancer thing didn't take into account MANY sources of evasion when it first came into being...I'm inclined to assume that's an oversight.

[Caarb]

Narrow niche is only fine if the tree is strong (borderline OP) for that niche. I think the devs need to re-think what Iconics are supposed to be because the current design is a whole lot of meh.

[drewollice]

Overall great job. I like that this race has potential to open up rogue options beyond the SDK but it has a few things that could be tweaked to make a serious contender. Also shows promise for maybe making fighter a relevant class instead of just existing as a secondary class to milk for free feats to support a primary class.


All tested on Male tabaxi. Various classes: Wizard, Druid, Rogue, Barbarian, Fighter. Levels 1-20.

Bugs:

• Cannot climb atop boxes or ladders or tumble.
• Holding the block key does not maintain the block animation.
• Cat Scratch enhancement does not scale with attack speed; other cleaves in game do.
• Deflect Arrows feats granted via tabaxi tree and both wiz and sorc EK trees also grants Improved Sunder (Fighter vanguard tree and VKF tree do not have this issue since they dont grant the feat, just the effect).
• Tabaxi core1 and core3 and core5 are not granting the advertised +1 max dex bonus in light armor.
• Shield Deflection feat shows the wrong icon in buff bar while blocking (uses haste picture).
• Tabaxi is immune to animal type spells such as magic fang.
• Tabaxi has no racial traits aside from Feline Agility and +2 dex, are skills or other traits slated to be added?
• Racial feats icon for tabaxi shows tiefling.
• Racial enhancement tree icon shows tiefling.
• No racial icon for social window for tabaxis.
• Improved Sunder states DC is 10 + STR but the number looks like 14 + STR. Also Improved trip uses 14 + STR; so I think the 10 is wrong.
• Tabaxi animation broke when using cleave on 2 explosive barrels next to eachother. Tail comes out of back of head and toon spazzing out as if hit by explosion on loop until logout.
• Pet certificates for the 2 new pet dinos show wrong picture.
• Cosmetics are weird for tabaxi. Sometimes show, sometimes dont, sometimes only show partially.
• Lash Out enhancement in tabaxi tree has icons swapped around with Quick Paw.
• Tabaxi in druid wildshape have no animations for Cat Scratch.
• Tabaxi in druid wildshape dont try to go up ledges at all; I have to try to jump but even then the animation is broken for climbing when I grab the ledge.
• Marking Style 1 in tabaxi character creation neck flesh does not match head flesh and creates a very obvious line between them.

Suggestions:

• Catch Scratch's upgrades need some buffs. 3second hamstring is almost nothing as is 1d8+character level damage. Maybe add/change to a blind, or trip (with helpless like falconry tree), or just amplify the damage. Tough to compare Cat Scratch as it is right now to SDK chain. Particularly the greater chain!
• Align the Cat Scratch enhancements in tree.
• Add a visual indicator that Feline Agility is on-deck/prepped. I seem to be bad at counting to 6 and the only way to know its working is if you cancel the timer by trying to move too soon and end up making you stand still again for another 6 seconds (hopefully right this time!) or just give up and run normal speed.
• Replace High Places with some sort of pounce sneak/jump ability that will give first attack execute/assassinate/guaranteed crit/etc and procs Feline Agility. As it stands right now, this ability is borderline impossible to proc.
• Replace Fast Climbing/Stealthy with an upgrade to this pounce attack or share the iconic's displacement and incorporeality for a few seconds with normal tabaxi.
• Replace Sharp claws with Stealthy to make non-rogue and non-rangers and non-monks the ability to dabble in stealth without the insane movespeed penalty. I am thinking of a pure fighter who can also sneak and pounce on targets even without being an explicit stealth class, because cats.
• Add some racial perk to remove penalties to jump/tumble while sneaking for tabaxi.
• If the toon already has defensive roll or evasion, make nine lives and lucky cat give them an upgrade or alternative perk accordingly.
• Make the tier 4 vigor sla enhancement not cost mana. Rogue/Fighter/other martials who play tabaxi will have to equip a mana item to use it as it stands now. It would help make martials a little more self sufficient and relevant.
• Most of the tabaxi eyes have pupils look derpy and cross eyed. Some of the eyes are good though.
• Add a standard cat tail. Just long, clean, straight and with a curl at the end. Not fluffy and not rough looking. Both with and without the bracer thing ideally.
• The "Face" category of character creation for Tabaxi only gives options to add white around the face. Can we get black/brown/grey or just a color selector for this? Im thinking of siamese which are white almost everywhere BUT the locations that this "Face" option makes white.
• Better lion-mane hair option.
• Ear tufts like Lynx, bobcat, caracals, and main coons.

[Discpsycho]

Morninglord is bad but at least you have sylvanus.

Pretty sure Morninglord can only be Amaunator, but you occasionally see people using it for the emergency button in T1 (eg, Zappy's build)

[Fauxknight]

[*]Catch Scratch's upgrades need some buffs. 3second hamstring is almost nothing as is 1d8+character level damage. Maybe add/change to a blind, or trip (with helpless like falconry tree), or just amplify the damage. Tough to compare Cat Scratch as it is right now to SDK chain. Particularly the greater chain!

Deep Scratches should be a bleed dot dealing the listed damage repeatedly with a long enough duration you can stack it a few times.


Most of the Tabaxi tree is OKish, but nothing really stands out, they need something with some oomph.

[Carpone]

[Steelstar]

Oh hello, I was just on my way to post that list! Here it is in text form:

Here's a list of what we're planning to adjust for balance and feedback. Please note that this is still mega subject to change:

• Feline Agility drops to 20% speed, upgrade in tree drops to 30%. (I know people won't like this one - We've unfortunately concluded that the current 30%/50% is too high for constant use.)
• Wooden weapons adds damage immunity for all staves (not just wooden ones)
• Tabaxi Core 1 now has "You gain the Weapon Finesse Feat" in addition to its other bonuses.
• Trailblazer Core 1 now also has "You gain the Weapon Finesse Feat and it also applies to Quarterstaves" in addition to its other bonuses.
• Deep Scratches damage changes to 1d4 per Character Level.
• Trailblazers now have DEX/WIS as their options for core 2 and 4 in the tree. (Regular Tabaxi retains DEX/CHA).
• Trailblazer's Wide Sweep now uses the highest of DEX and WIS for its DC.
• Tabaxi base tree replaces Stealthy with Improved Weapon Finesse (a copy of the Deepwood Stalker version, granting DEX to damage)
• Traiblazer tree replaces Stealthy with Trailblazer's Weapon Finesse, which is the same as the tabaxi one above but also includes quarterstaves
• Trailblazer's Staff Deflection moves to T2 and replaces Surprise Claws
• New Trailblazer T4: Springing Pounce: You gain the Spring Attack feat. When you use it while holding a Quarterstaff, you gain Feline Agility and deal bludgeoning damage equal to your Jump score to all enemies Spring Attack hits. This damage scales with 200% Melee Power.