I'm working on developing a new homebrew setting where the traditional races will be replaced with bipedal anthropomorphic animal races (a.k.a. "anthros"). I have a few ideas, but I was wondering what kinds of animals would the rest of you want to or expect to be able to play in such a seeting?
Additionally, what classes do you think certain animals and subraces would gravitate towards? I know there would probably be certain stereotypes like feline or rat rogues, owl mages or clerics, etc. But, I also think there's plenty of room for going around those stereotypes with things like tiger barbarians.
Also, I'd welcome any other thoughts you might have.
P.S.: This is not a furry thing.
P.P.S.: No, seriously, this is not a furry thing.
I get asked this question frequently enough by my children that I have an answer ready for you: a dachshund.
Dachshunds were bred to hunt badgers in their dens ("dachshund" is German for "badger hound"). I'd probably gravitate towards playing a dachshund rogue, but I think I could just as easily see them being barbarians. Small and furry balls of fury!
How about a Wolvrine or Honey Badger= a Barbarian? 
Elephant springs to my mind. As a melee tough guy, most likely.
In such a setting, I think that feline and canine races are almost mandatory due to not only dogs and cats but also tiger, lions and wolves. Now, you do need to set criteria: will the races be more generic or more specific? Like, there are going to be a wolf race and a dog race, or it will be just a “canine” race? In addition, which system you’re using? Unfortunately, I don’t like 5e but perhaps I can help you in some way 
Outside what would be obvious, a bird race is a good concept, but the flying ability may be overpower for PCs. That’s another question: all races will be playable or there will be NPC-only races?
I’m sorry for making these questions, but some decisions are necessary. I think this idea is very good, indeed. It deserves invested work. I’m a little tired of the old Tolkinian races, and honestly I see no problem in breaking norms once in a while.
With that in mind, reptile races (snakes, crocodiles, lizards) seems to be an odd concept but I think that would be fun. Yeah, a lizard race would be what I would play, if not a lion/tiger race.
About class tendencies? Well, you can certainly look at the real world animals and see some answers. Big, predatory races such as tigers and lions would gravitate towards strength-based classes. I can see a wolf race being typically a Paladin (due to the organized society of wolves). Tigers would more likely be Barbarians due to feline behavior. I can see monkeys, snakes and many “immobile” (turtles, etc.) races being Clerics, Wizards and such. Rangers can be given to flying races like birds and such, or in their absence, perhaps rats. Rogues should be given to animals who are rather Rogues already XD Now this is all about tendencies, if there are any actual restrictions is up to you.
cassi_brazuca wrote:
Interesting you should bring this up, for years I have wanted to run a Wind in the Willows type campaign, but D&D style. I converted the 3rd Ed Anthropomorphic Template from 3rd Ed to 5th Ed (so easy to convert 3rd Ed material to 5th ed, love it), work perfectly.
As for animal types, wow, so many ways to go, you have the classics, as mentioned above, such as canines and felines of all sorts, bears, frogs/toads, turtles, mole, rabbits, lizards, ducks, rodents, boars/pigs, I, personally, want to be a Chicken Monk (Cluck Fu, baby).
Aw the memories! BITD we were playing Basic DnD and the DM got a splatbook called Night Howlers, that allowed you to play were-things.
so we had Tiger-fighter, Bear-cleric, Rat-thief, Wolf-mage, and Swine-dwarf (dwarf was a class)... I was tiger... Rawr!
I would like to play a rhino.
On the topic of rhinos. An Africa theme would be cool. Rhino, panther, water buffalo, antelope, elephant etc.
kalil wrote:
An underwater theme would be nifty, too. Spongebob.
MechaPilot wrote:
In an Egyptian themed game, we took the "animal headed" gods and made them into PC races.
draegn wrote:
draegn wrote:
The Guardinals spring to mind regarding this thread. You need not adopt their celestial nature, though their animal types could provide you with a foundation. If anyone can find their ability score modifiers from previous editions (such as 2E's Warriors of Heaven) you can use those to determine appropriate modifiers for 5E.
Avoral (Bird)
Cervidal (Satyr/Goat)
Equinal (Horse)
Leonal (Lion)
Lupinal (Wolf)
Musteval (Ferret)
Ursinal (Bear)
AerosRegarius wrote:
Another theme would be to use the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac (perhaps omitting Dragon as a lost/legendary NPC race).
(Dragon)
Snake
Horse
Goat
Monkey
Rooster
Dog
Pig
Rat
Ox
Tiger
Rabbit
Wait... Dragonborn (duh)
MechaPilot wrote:
Brock_Landers wrote:
Don't forget the Pantathian Serpent People.
I debated doing a Spellsinger campaign several years back. Lots of intelligent animals in that book. Mostly animals, really. Clothahump the turtle wizard. Mudge the otter rogue. A peg-legged parrot pirate.
I am a dingo.
cassi_brazuca wrote:
cassi_brazuca wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
Rastapopoulos wrote:
Brock_Landers wrote:
cassi_brazuca wrote:
Gamma World is going to be right up your alley. Older editions are better for your purpose, GWvol2 is a beta-test for D&D 3.0. You can use any animal you wish, just start as human-sized.
Also read Brian Jacque's Redwall for some ideas. Mice, badger, hare, rat, otter, weasel, sparrow, hawk.
Look up Zoo webpages and see if they have a list of all their animals, just to think about something different.
I like the idea of a Porcupine (so I can climb trees plus melee artists avoid me) Monk (so I can chase them down anyways).
I second hitting some of the big groups with races and getting specific species/breeds with subraces. I really like my categorization, so maybe look over orders/families in classification systems and pick your favorites? There's a lot, though, even just looking at mammals (cats, dogs, bears, seals, skunks, weasels, and raccoons are all in the Carnivora order, for instance).
Going back to redwall for these, but:
otters - rangers
squirrels - also rangers
and in all seriousness, if i was in this game i'd ask to play a platypus druid (becaus wildshape and secret society, and platypus)
I'm a Norwegian Blue! I'm not dead!
I'd love to play a monkey wizard. Or an owl ranger. Or a river otter monk! Master of the flowing water style, lol.
We did something like this in 4e, but made the animals humanoid, upright, and with opposable thumbs so weapons, armor, and gear could be used. It was easy to reflavor existing races, and invent new ones as the races in 4e are so transperent in how they are built. (ie: everyone, except human, is +2 to X, and +2 to either Y or Z ability scores, everyone gets some form of encounter (strong) or at-will (weak) extra power, etc.) Would a type of animal be a baseline, like 'human'? If so, I'd nominate the domestic dog.
What about classes? Some would work well with no changes at all. Monk, Sorcerer, Barbarian...Would you ignore material components for spells? Would a Druid's 'Wild Shape' allow for the taking of a humanoid form? What about tools and backgrounds? Ranged weapons? Or would anyone wanting ranged attacks have to be a caster?
A straight animal campaign would be pretty cool. But, I'd worry about bite/claw damage. I'd personally consider making it scale with level like a Monk's unarmed strike, or all the damaging cantrips. Items, weapons, and armor would be pretty much unusable, but also largely unnecessary if rules like scaling damage and maybe an inherent AC bonus or barbarian/monk AC rules were used. What about skills? Obviously things like cats and monkeys can climb, but a pig cannot.
One big thing to think about that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is size. How will you deal with animals ranging from tiny to huge? (Rat to Elephant?)
seti wrote:
Brock_Landers wrote:
seti wrote:
In my homebrew setting, I have quite a bit of humanoid animals, though not nearly all. What I have are:
Feline: Tiger, Lion, Cheetah, Leopard/Jaguar (I know they are different, but they are similar in looks, so I combined the two). At one point I also included Snow Leopards.
Canine: Wolf, Fox, African Wild Dog. I included Coyotes and Jackals at one point as well.
Ursine (bears): Polar, Grizzly, Black, Panda.
Lizardmen: These are a bit harder to describe, but they are basically those formed like Dinosaurs, those that look more like small lizards such as geckos and chameleons, and those formed like Crocodiles and alligators.
Dragonborn: I gave them subraces based on the various types of dragons (chromatic, metallic, etc).
Gnolls
Rats
Bird people (mostly just ravens, as it started out as 3rd edition, then Pathfinder, and am now trying to convert to 5th).
I also created "prehistoric" versions of some, based on the megafauna version of some of them (dire wolf, smilodon, etc).
I also included at one point hoofed animals, which included: Horse, Caribou, Buffalo, Moose, and Elk.
As for the classes they gravitated towards, most are different compared to what many people usually think. Gnolls aren't CE ravaging slavers, but are somewhat peaceful beekeepers with a penchant of being travelling merchants selling the honey. I did go a bit stereotypey with the pandas, being monks. Wolf is more shaman and warrior like (based them off US plains natives). Polar bears are the viking-types, and I did go with more barbarian-like. Fox is rogue-ish wizardly. Haven't thought much into the others.
As for other types, wider selection of birds (owls, eagles for example), perhaps primates (monkeys, gorillas, chimps), rhinos, hippos, elephants, zebras, giraffes. Perhaps even aquatic types like sharks, whales, dolphins, turtles, crabs, lobsters, etc. Then there's the farm animals (cow, pig, sheep, goat, chicken, goose, duck), domestic cats and dogs. There are a large number of animals you could use. Even insects and arachnids could possibly work. You would just have to reduce it to what you would like to try and include (as well as stat them up), and go from there.
5th edition's subrace mechanic is a great addition, and I had thought of using something similar when I first attempted to convert my setting to Pathfinder, but it wasn't as good.
seti wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
MechaPilot wrote:
seti wrote:
I'm often disappointed by the way hyaenas are treated in popular culture, including gnolls and the terrible attempts to represent actal hyaenas in the Monster Manual. Spotted hyaenas are incredibly interesting and dangerous animals, and were once widespread across Eurasia in addition to the African continent. A better representation of them (albeit in humanoid form) would be pretty cool.
EDIT: Hippopotamus fighters would be really fun, too, and cape buffalo. And then there are all the possibilities of bringing in megafauna from the Pleistocene and earlier. Sabre-toothed and 'scimitar-toothed' cats? Hell pigs? The Indrik? Yes please.
MurdochMan wrote: