Small Cat

Small cats of every color are everywhere, as pets and as wild animals, living in palaces and hovels alike. Some peoples worship them; others despise them as agents of evil. They are kept to control rodents, and some hunters use them to retrieve birds and small game.

Their stealth gives foes -3 on surprise rolls, and their keen senses mean a 1 or 2 is needed to surprise them; they also hunt well at night. They fight with claws and bite, raking with the hind feet after a front-claw hit; for a domestic cat, the front claws and the rake each count as a single attack. Claws retract for speed and extend for climbing, and cats climb or move through trees at half speed and can make long leaps over obstacles or onto prey.

Domestic breeds differ only in looks. Adults usually weigh eight to ten pounds, a spoiled one up to 25. They rarely attack larger creatures but defend themselves and readily kill mice, rats, and birds. A sprint raises movement to 18, held for 1d10 rounds. A well-kept cat lives 15 years or more; after about two months of pregnancy, 1d4+1 kittens arrive and are weaned near eight weeks, and mothers will die defending them. Wild cats, some of them former pets, are tougher, stronger, and better hunters.

Living among elves, and perhaps nudged by magic, these cats became magical, clever creatures with a language of their own; many speak simple Elvish, and those living among gnomes, brownies, or forest folk learn bits of their speech too. Most are gray-brown with dark stripes. Foes suffer -5 on surprise rolls, and only a 1 surprises them. They move silently 99.9% of the time, hide in the wild 90%, climb superbly, jump 20 feet easily, and love water. A limited ESP reveals intent. As 9th-level casters, they use enlarge and trip once a day each and reduce and tree twice a day each; enlarge doubles Hit Dice and damage, and tree turns the cat into a tree limb.