Tabaxi

Tall, lean and graceful, tabaxi are cat-people with retractable claws, green or yellow eyes, and spotted fur anywhere from pale yellow to reddish brown. In some regions the spots are solid; these leopard men pronounce their name ta-BAX-ee. Elsewhere the markings are rosettes, and these jaguar men say tah-BAHSH-ee.

Silent movement and natural camouflage let tabaxi impose -2 on enemies' surprise rolls. They herd quarry into ambushes (some toy with it first), climb and swim even mid-fight, and are nearly impossible to trap thanks to cunning and keen noses.

Weapons are made of wood, bone and stone: slings, bolas, javelins hurled with atlatls, and clubs studded with obsidian that work like battle axes. Tooth and claw serve just as often; landing both front claws earns an extra rake with the back feet. Wild bands are led by a Hunt Leader at full hit points and have even odds (50%) of including a 3rd-level priest with matching Hit Dice and spells.

Clans are split evenly by sex. A full clan fields 1d6+1 Hunts, each of 2d4 adults, who range over the country around home. A few camps are short-lived, but most are hamlets of ramadas, open huts of grass thatch held up on tall poles, where 3d4 young of 1 HD apiece can be found. A 4 HD elder rules, with a 5th-level shaman at his side half the time. Shamans usually honor powers of sunlight, rain or animals. One clan in ten owes loyalty to a tabaxi lord; these are warlike and evil, and their shamans serve dark powers.

Tabaxi avoid other thinking peoples, even rival clans, and find trade undignified, though a few use go-betweens. They keep an ancient tongue of their own, and old stories recall a mighty tabaxi realm that later peoples displaced.

Few creatures prey on tabaxi. They eat mainly peccaries and the giant rodents called capybaras, and only a truly debased clan hunts other intelligent folk. Their pelts can fetch up to 250 gp, and skins and claws both serve certain kinds of natural magic.

A lord looks like an enormous jaguar or leopard, matching the local tabaxi. Smart, cruel and scheming, it speaks tabaxi and neighboring tongues, and it and the couatls hate each other, attacking on sight.

A lord weakens enemies with deceit, ambush, allies and magic before it closes to fight. Over half (55%) are wizards of 7th level and 40% are 7th-level priests serving a bloodthirsty war god; the remaining 5% are both. Wizard lords draw on necromancy, illusion and enchantment/charm and never touch alteration or invocation/evocation. Beyond spells with only verbal components, any lord can use hypnotism, bind, detect invisibility and detect good/evil at will, and the boldest and most vicious may also dimension door three times daily.

Lords may be a cursed offshoot of the tabaxi. Every one is male and needs a tabaxi female to breed, and the cub is always another lord. Normally loners, lords sometimes take over a clan to win a mate and heir, and a few stay on after the cub is sent off into the jungle.