Me and my friends made a joke campaign with an all bard party and I made a ratfolk character. We kind of changed things up though and he ended up being able to fit into his friend's pocket and generally had the size and appearance of a normal rat ( with clothing)! He's a very polite fellow who was found and raised by two formerly evil friends, a necromancer and a blood hunter. He dabbled in necromancy but due to an unfortunate accident, dropped the entire wizard class and is on a journey to find himself lmao
That sounds pretty awsome, i made a ring of deminuative size for my friends minotaur, it lets him get though some tight spots but i made it obly work once a day so he has to use it wisely. Plus it can be scarry being sp small and weak. Nice work
Step 3: buy a large coat. Step 4: sit on each otheres shoulders and go into comat as a single entity with a disguise roll. When attacked therea a 50 50 chance on who gets hit... dont tell the party you're actually 2 people.
I have myself a Ratfolk alchemist that I kinda just threw together at first...but as i was finishing the backstory for him, I fell in love with him. Just a sweet little guy that escaped from drow slavery with the help of a human, a dwarf, a gnoll, a gnome, and a 'special' catfolk. I've never been so attached to a character in my life.
@@Rookzer0 I have not, i basically kept him the same as base, as it fit him perfectly how I imagined. Finding different ways to make some alchemical items, like alchemist's fire and ice, licking a liquid sphere in Myth Unnohyr to find out just what the liquid was made of (Mercury), and all the while still learning all he can, because he hasn't had much trust in anyone, minus Jarlaxle and this strange group of adventurers. And nearly the entire party adores him, which I found hilarious, personally, as it's just the personality of Silu'n that does it.
One of my favourite ideas I ever had when playing a fairly high-level necromancer (that I unfortunately never got to fully realize in-game) was to raise a bunch of ratfolk as skeletons, give them polearms and relatively heavy armour, and take the charnel soldiers feat along with precise strike to effectively give them all a free sneak attack die.
That was great. Love the thought of a squad approach for a group of ratfolk, it even just a pair. Interesting extra layer, as are the home brew additions.
I love the analysis of the race along with the art! It really pulls the whole experience together. I have a hard time making an aasimar PC very interesting, do you have any ideas?
I've had a few ideas with the halo trait that replaces darkvision but i think it would be more fun as a thing you couldnt turn off. So your charater is cursed with an brightly glowing head. Constantly trying ro keep your head covered when you need to be stealthy. As a GM id probbably give you a bonus feat or somethibg for it.
Its a bit different now. There's no increase to intelligence, they have 35 speed now, and there is no strength decrease. They keep their dex increase, though.
Is it wierd to have played an albino Ratfolk Engineer/mechanic? I called him Hek. An absolute sweetheart, made a lot of combat robots to help the group fight. His story was he was born and raised in a community burrow in a hive city, collecting junk and making machines and robots to anyone who would pay for them. Also made a large battlebot arena where the people in the hivecity would come and place bets over which bot would win. Hek meet the group after he stowaway on the party's ship and had fixed their broken engines making it go faster, that pretty much got Hek the love as the crew's main engineer. 😅
@@Rookzer0 Eh, it was Artificer, Hek really was the fantasy sweetheart version of Rocket Raccoon. Spare parts and scrap metals was his specialty in making shit that looked ready to fall apart yet somehow still stuck together. I think our DM's soul stones helped in that cause Magic! 😅😉
Loving all the other comments from people talking about their ratfolk characters! It feels special having something in common with the others playing this (imo) under-used race for player characters. I’m playing a ratfolk swashbuckler rogue and having an absolute blast with the pack tactics and being able to fit in small spaces. Also I noticed that my equipment or background (can’t remember which at the moment) gave me a rat companion which was too perfect
Three of the six of us in our party are ratfolk, me the plague bringer alchemist, a Rogue, and a Shaman, with a dwarf barbarian, half Elf Slayer, and a Gathlain hunter, we're having a really good time moving in and out of each other's squares and running back and forth through combat
Ratfolk are so underutilized in parties, despite how much they can bring to the table, including story hooks and potential resources. My Ratfolk Alchemist (Chirugeon) has allowed our DM to bring out story elements that have benefited the party: From having located two Ratfolk warrens where the party now has access to alternative markets and sources of information, to having fun breaking the stereotype of a plague rat by being the party's surgeon who has remarkably handled a lot of the party's detrimental effects. Sure she's at real risk almost every time she's targeted, but her reliance on alchemy and size makes a fun play style of Patch, Bomb, Scamper.
My DM homebrewed a ratfolk (or rather ratkin) race for his 5e campaign, so they work a bit differently than the Pathfinder version (for example, no swarming). He did give them +2 bonus to dexterity though, so I decided to make my first ranger PC a ratkin and I absolutely love playing her! We’re only about three sessions in, but I’ve been having a blast playing this bubbly, kind of foolhardy character who’s got twitchy fingers around shiny things and an iron stomach to eat some pretty funky/gnarly things :P .
Rookzer0 The iron stomach has kind of become her defining feature thus far. I came up with the idea during character creation that she likes particularly pungent foods, but was then inspired by a combination of racial traits (Sewer’s Stamina: resistance to poison and advantage on saves against disease), a scene from an actual play show (Dungeons of Drakkenheim), and a chaotic bit of RPing to take it a step further. From what I recall of the DM’s setting book, ratkin have a reputation of mostly being thieves/ruffians/criminals and are regarded about as well as tieflings (that is, not well at all). I remember specifically reading that ratkin adventurers tend to travel with tieflings for this very reason, but they otherwise mostly keep to themselves. As for our campaign, the fact that my PC is ratkin hasn’t really come up, but that’s likely because our main location is an arctic outpost on the very edge between civilization and uncharted, ancient wilderness where most of the people there are either mercenaries looking for riches or outlaws looking to run away from their problems. I actually gave my ratkin the criminal background and decided that she was part of a gang somewhere further south before becoming a ranger and mercenary, so I’m kind of hoping the DM will incorporate that aspect of her past somewhere in the narrative :D .
@@malogranatum4914 Sounds like a fun place to be a rat folk, Really cool backstory. I'm glad your DM is on board with the rat folk, definitely let me know how it turns out if it does come up as an issue!
Rookzer0 Will do! And before I forget again, just wanna say that the art you made for the video looks amazing!! Love that the roguish one looks like they have pointier ears. I can’t really tell if it was an intentional design choice or if they’re pointier because of perspective, but it gives them a more ragged look compared to the spellcaster that I’m really digging!
The Scurrying Swarmer feat applies the benefits of the Swarming racial feature to the ratfolk character when it occupies the same space as an ally who's the same size or one size larger, regardless of whether that ally is ratfolk or not. Also it confers the benefits of teamwork feats to the ratfolk character that it has when it and and ally occupy a space that way, but not to the ally who's in that same space. Good feat for a level 1 ratfolk rogue, especially if you take the Vanish spell as your Major Magic rogue talent at 4th level.
Never played a Ratfolk, but ever since the 3.x Oriental Adventures book, I have been a fan of Nezumi, to the point that I inserted them into Eberron as subservient to the Giants of Xen'drik after the Drow freed themselves. With the help of the Drow, the Nezumi, too, were freed just before the cataclysm that shattered Giant society on Xen'drik. Good times.
I play a Ratfolk Druid with the archetype Packlord. My first companion was a giant owl with the Draconic archetype (Ice) which gave her silver feathers, my second companion was a grizzly bear with the bodyguard archetype, this is also my mount and is equipped with a military saddle and my newest and last companion is a whip tail centipede. I also have a fur armor made of Tatzelworm (dragonskin) Skin. I fight myself from the back of the grizzly with a spear or with darts. Many people say you should not play a packlord because you have such disadvantages in the lategame but I do not care. We are currently playing the Kingsmaker adventure and are level 3. It would be so cool to have a picture of my rat standing with my companions and it would help my teammates to better understand the situation. It is also relatively difficult to imagine that a rat (small) rides on a grizzly (middle) next to an owl (medium) which is as big as the grizzly and there is a centipede around which is also medium.
@@Rookzer0 leveling up my Owl and my Bear combined with Boon Companion. Primary my Bear, secondary my Owl(Minimum Lvl 7 so it gets Big, after that i can Ride/Fly on it) and my Centipied will just get leveld throuh Boon Companion so it gets +2Int and can learn more tricks. for the moment i use the Centiepied to collect poison and use it on my Enemys. it coud be that i switch him out in the late game with an other Animal Companion with more Usefull actions in the Story
It's funny, this video came up through looking into ratfolk a little (I'm building a Ratfolk bow paladin for Carrion Crown). Now to convince one of the other players to build a Ratfolk
Don't forget to take Teamwork feats and run around all Voltron Style. Or just grab two rogues with Scurrying swarmer and Sneak attack your way to victory. Let me know how your builds go!
I'm playing as a Ratfolk Fighter. Took the squire Background to make up for the lack in Strength, gave him the duellist dedication so he can use quickdraw and a mark of Inarii to give him Fire resistance. Playing through the Abomination Vaults at the moment. Joined at Level 3 and am now Level 4. The party decided to give me SparkBlade as well as the necessary funds to buy Stormhammer. They have since not regretted it as I am decimating the frontlines with Double slice, reactive strikes and Electrify so the Stormhammer can hit harder. We also have a Catfolk Champion that's making great use of there Greataxe. Together, we cut down anything in our way while the wizard disintegrates everything with his spells and the Ranger/Cleric takes pot shots at enemies. If we get flanked, I'm great at closing the distance and protecting the wizard with Sudden Charge and with the new speed bracer we found, I'm able to close distances from 70 feet and attack using only two actions. What I am going to try and do is use sudden charge, and then for my 3rd action, use quick draw to attack with the sparkblade to set up double slice for my next turn.
The Scurrying Swarmer Combat feat give YOU the flanking bonuses and any other feat you would benefit from it, but it doesn't grant those bonuses to your teammates. So it's a bit of a selfish move but It's still thematically fun in my book. The real trick is convincing your teammates to become rat folk :)
one of my player's is the mayor of a town in the setting i created but in his own words people are allowed to vote him out if he was going from his path as mayor from the town.
That sounds like a really fun way to add some politics into the game. Have you talked about some rival coming in and trying to run a campaign against him?
I had to fight a rat folk king as a beg, The Tabaxi was legit insane and teamed up with him and started swarming me because the Tabaxi lucked it on himself and it was a 3 v 1 because my party died to this wack team but it ended in a draw.
I had a ratfolk named Dris, but the game only last two sessions before it kinda fell off since we decided to start a different session :') Still, they are one of my most beloved characters, and it would have been really interesting to see them fight more if they ever came in contact with some of the ratfolk NPCs that are in the different sessions my GM has
@@Rookzer0 That's actually something we've discussed, since all of our fantasy based games our gm has are in the same world, just different continents, and apparently all our games that fell off might be referenced and we might even be seeing past NPCs and PCs :3c im excited for when we get around to it!
I'm gonna be playing dnd for the first time and I picked ratfolk blindly because rats are pog your art work proves that tenfold but as none of the other players will be ratfolk am I going to have a hard time as a starter player being a ratfolk rogue?
I think your dm is going to be the define answer for that. You could ask them tgings like are there other rat folk around in the city? Have I been here before? What do people think of rat folk around here. It could be really fun to play your character a bit on the scared, cautious side. Thats how ratfolk have been in the books. But alternativly you could play as though you dont know you're a rat amd see what happens.
i had a party with 6 ratfolks all of then chaotic evil and one lawful good human paladin so there was 1 dude with a tower shield and 5 bards buffing the hell out of the guy with the tower shield and the paladin
First question: What the hell did the rats have on the pally to make him stay with the party. :P Second question: have you though about Anti Paladin :D
Easiest way is to just reskin something like the goblins or halflings. You could always just make a homebrew race and base it off the pathfinder model.
Any tips for drawing ratfolk? One of my characters in a story I write is a rat folk but I'm about as amateur artist as I am writer and try as I might I'm struggling to get the balance between rat and humanoid or without him looking like a mouse instead of a rat.
Yeah I've struggled with this a lot. I think the biggest tip would be to find really good references. Try to draw both a mouse and a rat a few times first before attempting to add any human elements. Really dig into what elements you like from the rat and start adapting that way. Rats will generally have smaller eyes, and are more emotive with their ears. and generally have larger Snoots (Muzzle/Noses), So those are the elements I would focus on for your character. Another Trick I like to use is to find cartoon characters of animals I'd like to use because cartoons are generally exaggerated and really make those elements pop. Then adapt them to your own work. Look at the difference between Rattagan and Basil from the great mouse detective. I hope those help! I'd love to see what you come up with!
@@Rookzer0 Thanks! I've taken a few passes at drawing the character in the past but I'm never quite satisfied with the outcome. He always ends up either to human looking with a tail and big ears or kinda field mouse-esque. Really appreciate the advice though. Thanks for getting back to me. I'd happily show you my previous attempts but not sure how...
@@shocking_squirrel you can always share it on Instagram instagram.com/rookzer0/ or ping us on Twitter @rookzer0 Just make sure the last O is a zer0 Good luck with your Art! Keep at it!
Started a new pathfinder game, 3/4 of us are ratfolk, so swarming is easy, my character a bard while being lvl 1 and equipped with masterwork chainmail and a masterwork rapier, prefers to play his lute in fights, which so far has been pretty awful for both sides
@@Rookzer0 we use roll20 for our games so I've been restricted to texting whatever tune I'm strumming and adding lyrics at the moment, but I want to bring it to a table game as well
@@Rookzer0 it can lead to some really interesting roleplaying, I originally played rogues rangers etc, but with the bard I'm much more focused on the quirks of my character not the abilities
I’m working on playing as a Swarmkeeper ranger build, as the rat king, and some of my party members were interested in helping my goal there. I can’t seem to find a source that seems to be the one you referred to, would you mind giving me a link to a page for it?
Ok but the idea of revealing that your character has actually been two ratfolk in a trenchcoat this whole time is hilarious and could be a great twist as long as your DM knows about it and your companions don't. Substitute other short races so you can have them try to impersonate a human or elf.
@@Rookzer0 literally had our first session the other day, so yet to sell anything unfortunately =( probably alchemy based tho. Have decided that most items will be cheap fake knock offs however XD Btw just found your channel and really liking it!
@@harris9922 that's awesome! keep me updated on how it goes, Sunrods are pretty useful for those who don't have darkvision, and fun if you get thrown into a rave.
I would, I've done it before. The way I deal with it is that you can only move half your speed because you're "carrying another player" If someone hits your "ac" flip a coin and see which one takes the damage. It's hella fun. You get to attack with two characters but it balances out. (Note this is for the trench coat idea, so I say they "share an ac")
I did the artwork, If you'd like to use it for your character sheet you can find a copy of it on my patreon. It's 3.5 compatible for dnd if you want to go 5e, basically just use the goblin as a template and fiddle with the traits a bit.
Step one: Choose Rat Folk Step two: Choose Artificer and multi-class into warlock if possible Step three: Make a back story about adventuring to learn more magic and steal technology to bring back to your clan *Yes-yes Ikit Claw has the biggest brain of all rats!!!!*
It started off as a means to continue 3.5, as many people were upset with the transition to D&D 4th ed. It improved on 3.5 vastly an is often considered 3.75. It has released a lot of content since then and suffers from bloat meaning lots of feats and abilities to work with, but still worth a look. It also has many really fun races like the ratfolk talked about in this video.
Ratfolk is one of my favorite races, and have gotten into too many shinanigans thanks to swarming, and squeezing. They have also made the ratfolk a little more horrifying as there is a feat now that lets a ratfolk swarm with other players if you are the only ratfolk in the group.
@@Rookzer0 It is part of the Dirty Tactics Toolbox pg. 23. You also treat the ally you swarm with as having the same teamwork feats as you do for determinine bonuses, but the ally themselves do not gain the benifit unless of course they have the feat as well.
I like the idea of a Ratfolk character, who states that their family is super into religion. When the rest of the party finally gets to visit their warren and meet the family face to face, the big reveal is that they worship Zon-Kuthon, but they do so in a very Adams Family type of way!
The only reason needed to play ratfolk, playing as Skaven.
That's one of many
Yes-yes, manthing.
NEED MORE WARPSTONE!!! YES-YES!!! tbh thats exactly why i clicked here
Me and my friends made a joke campaign with an all bard party and I made a ratfolk character. We kind of changed things up though and he ended up being able to fit into his friend's pocket and generally had the size and appearance of a normal rat ( with clothing)! He's a very polite fellow who was found and raised by two formerly evil friends, a necromancer and a blood hunter. He dabbled in necromancy but due to an unfortunate accident, dropped the entire wizard class and is on a journey to find himself lmao
That sounds pretty awsome, i made a ring of deminuative size for my friends minotaur, it lets him get though some tight spots but i made it obly work once a day so he has to use it wisely. Plus it can be scarry being sp small and weak. Nice work
Step 1: Ratfolk Unchained Summoner
Step 2: Choose Ancestor Eidolon subtype, which has all default Ratfolk traits (including SWARMING)
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit
Step 3: buy a large coat.
Step 4: sit on each otheres shoulders and go into comat as a single entity with a disguise roll. When attacked therea a 50 50 chance on who gets hit... dont tell the party you're actually 2 people.
Yes-yes! I have new-fresh character idea for campaign-game of dnd!
Ratfolk mercenary duo will now be featured in my next campaign. Thanks for the tip!
Let me know hownit goes
I have myself a Ratfolk alchemist that I kinda just threw together at first...but as i was finishing the backstory for him, I fell in love with him. Just a sweet little guy that escaped from drow slavery with the help of a human, a dwarf, a gnoll, a gnome, and a 'special' catfolk. I've never been so attached to a character in my life.
That sounds awesome. Did you tale any of the ratfolk alternative traits?
@@Rookzer0 I have not, i basically kept him the same as base, as it fit him perfectly how I imagined. Finding different ways to make some alchemical items, like alchemist's fire and ice, licking a liquid sphere in Myth Unnohyr to find out just what the liquid was made of (Mercury), and all the while still learning all he can, because he hasn't had much trust in anyone, minus Jarlaxle and this strange group of adventurers. And nearly the entire party adores him, which I found hilarious, personally, as it's just the personality of Silu'n that does it.
This gives me an idea...anyone here know the skaven Warplock jezail?
Warplock you say? Go on
Clan Skryre approves. Councell of 13 spoke it's demand for conquest of man-things!
Rookzer0 it's a long sniper musket that fires a bullet made of crystallized chaotic magic .
Yes
Artificer with a chaos Canon
Took you advice, got to play two ratfolk, to balance it the DM halved each rats stats and we level up 2/3rd of the speed of normal player
Very cool way to do it. I honestly don't mind people playing two players but you effectively take inactive at disadvantage.
One of my favourite ideas I ever had when playing a fairly high-level necromancer (that I unfortunately never got to fully realize in-game) was to raise a bunch of ratfolk as skeletons, give them polearms and relatively heavy armour, and take the charnel soldiers feat along with precise strike to effectively give them all a free sneak attack die.
....jeeebus...
That's fuckin' awesome
I’m currently making a three headed rat king Bloodhunter so this video helps a ton for relaxing new utility.
I’m building a ratfolk rogue/wizard (can’t decide yet). I really love that these exist
Magus is pretty neat if you're playing pathfinder but alternatively you could play a rogue and a wizard and make them hang out together :D
Skaven confirmed
Yes yes skaven
But the skaven don't exist
Yes yes Clan Mors best clan
That was great. Love the thought of a squad approach for a group of ratfolk, it even just a pair. Interesting extra layer, as are the home brew additions.
Thanks! let me know if you ever get a chance to try it out!
I love the analysis of the race along with the art! It really pulls the whole experience together. I have a hard time making an aasimar PC very interesting, do you have any ideas?
I've had a few ideas with the halo trait that replaces darkvision but i think it would be more fun as a thing you couldnt turn off. So your charater is cursed with an brightly glowing head. Constantly trying ro keep your head covered when you need to be stealthy. As a GM id probbably give you a bonus feat or somethibg for it.
Its a bit different now. There's no increase to intelligence, they have 35 speed now, and there is no strength decrease. They keep their dex increase, though.
Nice! I might have to do an update
Is it wierd to have played an albino Ratfolk Engineer/mechanic? I called him Hek. An absolute sweetheart, made a lot of combat robots to help the group fight. His story was he was born and raised in a community burrow in a hive city, collecting junk and making machines and robots to anyone who would pay for them. Also made a large battlebot arena where the people in the hivecity would come and place bets over which bot would win. Hek meet the group after he stowaway on the party's ship and had fixed their broken engines making it go faster, that pretty much got Hek the love as the crew's main engineer. 😅
Did you build it out as artificer? or was it more non mechanical
@@Rookzer0 Eh, it was Artificer, Hek really was the fantasy sweetheart version of Rocket Raccoon. Spare parts and scrap metals was his specialty in making shit that looked ready to fall apart yet somehow still stuck together. I think our DM's soul stones helped in that cause Magic! 😅😉
For the Vermintide!!
Your art is just wow
Thank you!
Loving all the other comments from people talking about their ratfolk characters! It feels special having something in common with the others playing this (imo) under-used race for player characters. I’m playing a ratfolk swashbuckler rogue and having an absolute blast with the pack tactics and being able to fit in small spaces. Also I noticed that my equipment or background (can’t remember which at the moment) gave me a rat companion which was too perfect
Three of the six of us in our party are ratfolk, me the plague bringer alchemist, a Rogue, and a Shaman, with a dwarf barbarian, half Elf Slayer, and a Gathlain hunter, we're having a really good time moving in and out of each other's squares and running back and forth through combat
Rat pack!
These videos are so cool! It’s always a great story to hear and you provide wonderful artwork to enjoy!
Thank you!
Ratfolk are so underutilized in parties, despite how much they can bring to the table, including story hooks and potential resources. My Ratfolk Alchemist (Chirugeon) has allowed our DM to bring out story elements that have benefited the party: From having located two Ratfolk warrens where the party now has access to alternative markets and sources of information, to having fun breaking the stereotype of a plague rat by being the party's surgeon who has remarkably handled a lot of the party's detrimental effects. Sure she's at real risk almost every time she's targeted, but her reliance on alchemy and size makes a fun play style of Patch, Bomb, Scamper.
My DM homebrewed a ratfolk (or rather ratkin) race for his 5e campaign, so they work a bit differently than the Pathfinder version (for example, no swarming). He did give them +2 bonus to dexterity though, so I decided to make my first ranger PC a ratkin and I absolutely love playing her!
We’re only about three sessions in, but I’ve been having a blast playing this bubbly, kind of foolhardy character who’s got twitchy fingers around shiny things and an iron stomach to eat some pretty funky/gnarly things :P .
The iron stomach is a great addition. How are you dealing with being a ratfolk. Are they pretty common or are people spooked by it.
Rookzer0 The iron stomach has kind of become her defining feature thus far. I came up with the idea during character creation that she likes particularly pungent foods, but was then inspired by a combination of racial traits (Sewer’s Stamina: resistance to poison and advantage on saves against disease), a scene from an actual play show (Dungeons of Drakkenheim), and a chaotic bit of RPing to take it a step further.
From what I recall of the DM’s setting book, ratkin have a reputation of mostly being thieves/ruffians/criminals and are regarded about as well as tieflings (that is, not well at all). I remember specifically reading that ratkin adventurers tend to travel with tieflings for this very reason, but they otherwise mostly keep to themselves.
As for our campaign, the fact that my PC is ratkin hasn’t really come up, but that’s likely because our main location is an arctic outpost on the very edge between civilization and uncharted, ancient wilderness where most of the people there are either mercenaries looking for riches or outlaws looking to run away from their problems. I actually gave my ratkin the criminal background and decided that she was part of a gang somewhere further south before becoming a ranger and mercenary, so I’m kind of hoping the DM will incorporate that aspect of her past somewhere in the narrative :D .
@@malogranatum4914 Sounds like a fun place to be a rat folk, Really cool backstory. I'm glad your DM is on board with the rat folk, definitely let me know how it turns out if it does come up as an issue!
Rookzer0 Will do!
And before I forget again, just wanna say that the art you made for the video looks amazing!! Love that the roguish one looks like they have pointier ears. I can’t really tell if it was an intentional design choice or if they’re pointier because of perspective, but it gives them a more ragged look compared to the spellcaster that I’m really digging!
What about a ratfolk cleric, the people may call them “the reverent of rats”.
Reviered reverent rat.
The Scurrying Swarmer feat applies the benefits of the Swarming racial feature to the ratfolk character when it occupies the same space as an ally who's the same size or one size larger, regardless of whether that ally is ratfolk or not. Also it confers the benefits of teamwork feats to the ratfolk character that it has when it and and ally occupy a space that way, but not to the ally who's in that same space. Good feat for a level 1 ratfolk rogue, especially if you take the Vanish spell as your Major Magic rogue talent at 4th level.
Thank you for the clarification
I have a rat folk named Thorn Plague blood who’s a sorcerer that uses swarms of rats and poison, toxin, acid and disease type spells
ha ha I first read that as Swarms of rats AS poison. and started thinking about flavoring all your spells as Rat damage... id allow it.
If you have a rat folk totem barbarian with the wolf feature you can theoretically add that to swarm to mess people up more.
That sounds like a pretty awesome idea. Just mosh your way into combat!
@@Rookzer0 exactly! I just remembered the noble background might help, with the retainer.
The witch hunters want to know your location
The skaven use rattling gun!
Never played a Ratfolk, but ever since the 3.x Oriental Adventures book, I have been a fan of Nezumi, to the point that I inserted them into Eberron as subservient to the Giants of Xen'drik after the Drow freed themselves. With the help of the Drow, the Nezumi, too, were freed just before the cataclysm that shattered Giant society on Xen'drik.
Good times.
I play a Ratfolk Druid with the archetype Packlord. My first companion was a giant owl with the Draconic archetype (Ice) which gave her silver feathers, my second companion was a grizzly bear with the bodyguard archetype, this is also my mount and is equipped with a military saddle and my newest and last companion is a whip tail centipede. I also have a fur armor made of Tatzelworm (dragonskin) Skin.
I fight myself from the back of the grizzly with a spear or with darts.
Many people say you should not play a packlord because you have such disadvantages in the lategame but I do not care.
We are currently playing the Kingsmaker adventure and are level 3.
It would be so cool to have a picture of my rat standing with my companions and it would help my teammates to better understand the situation. It is also relatively difficult to imagine that a rat (small) rides on a grizzly (middle) next to an owl (medium) which is as big as the grizzly and there is a centipede around which is also medium.
Are you going to increase the number of companions you have each level or do you plan on level up a few?
@@Rookzer0 leveling up my Owl and my Bear combined with Boon Companion. Primary my Bear, secondary my Owl(Minimum Lvl 7 so it gets Big, after that i can Ride/Fly on it) and my Centipied will just get leveld throuh Boon Companion so it gets +2Int and can learn more tricks. for the moment i use the Centiepied to collect poison and use it on my Enemys. it coud be that i switch him out in the late game with an other Animal Companion with more Usefull actions in the Story
It's funny, this video came up through looking into ratfolk a little (I'm building a Ratfolk bow paladin for Carrion Crown). Now to convince one of the other players to build a Ratfolk
Don't forget to take Teamwork feats and run around all Voltron Style. Or just grab two rogues with Scurrying swarmer and Sneak attack your way to victory. Let me know how your builds go!
I'm playing as a Ratfolk Fighter. Took the squire Background to make up for the lack in Strength, gave him the duellist dedication so he can use quickdraw and a mark of Inarii to give him Fire resistance. Playing through the Abomination Vaults at the moment. Joined at Level 3 and am now Level 4. The party decided to give me SparkBlade as well as the necessary funds to buy Stormhammer. They have since not regretted it as I am decimating the frontlines with Double slice, reactive strikes and Electrify so the Stormhammer can hit harder. We also have a Catfolk Champion that's making great use of there Greataxe. Together, we cut down anything in our way while the wizard disintegrates everything with his spells and the Ranger/Cleric takes pot shots at enemies. If we get flanked, I'm great at closing the distance and protecting the wizard with Sudden Charge and with the new speed bracer we found, I'm able to close distances from 70 feet and attack using only two actions. What I am going to try and do is use sudden charge, and then for my 3rd action, use quick draw to attack with the sparkblade to set up double slice for my next turn.
You can't have the swarm flank bonus if only one rat attacks, it specifies both attacking the target
The Scurrying Swarmer Combat feat give YOU the flanking bonuses and any other feat you would benefit from it, but it doesn't grant those bonuses to your teammates. So it's a bit of a selfish move but It's still thematically fun in my book.
The real trick is convincing your teammates to become rat folk :)
I'm creating a "Whodunit" mystery bottle episode featuring the culprit as a Wererat in humanoid form.
Because ratling guns
one of my player's is the mayor of a town in the setting i created but in his own words people are allowed to vote him out if he was going from his path as mayor from the town.
That sounds like a really fun way to add some politics into the game. Have you talked about some rival coming in and trying to run a campaign against him?
I had to fight a rat folk king as a beg, The Tabaxi was legit insane and teamed up with him and started swarming me because the Tabaxi lucked it on himself and it was a 3 v 1 because my party died to this wack team but it ended in a draw.
Rough stuff
I had a ratfolk named Dris, but the game only last two sessions before it kinda fell off since we decided to start a different session :')
Still, they are one of my most beloved characters, and it would have been really interesting to see them fight more if they ever came in contact with some of the ratfolk NPCs that are in the different sessions my GM has
I love having past PCs come back as NPCs in future campaigns. WORLDBUILDING at its finest.
@@Rookzer0 That's actually something we've discussed, since all of our fantasy based games our gm has are in the same world, just different continents, and apparently all our games that fell off might be referenced and we might even be seeing past NPCs and PCs :3c im excited for when we get around to it!
So idea while watching, 2 Dex based ratfolk echo knight fighters, with rogue multiclass
I'm gonna be playing dnd for the first time and I picked ratfolk blindly because rats are pog your art work proves that tenfold but as none of the other players will be ratfolk am I going to have a hard time as a starter player being a ratfolk rogue?
I think your dm is going to be the define answer for that. You could ask them tgings like are there other rat folk around in the city? Have I been here before? What do people think of rat folk around here.
It could be really fun to play your character a bit on the scared, cautious side. Thats how ratfolk have been in the books. But alternativly you could play as though you dont know you're a rat amd see what happens.
Also feel free to use the ratfolk for your character art :)
I would like, but the videos is at a perfect 420
Oh Gawd
not just rat-kin, Razuka baby.. BooM!
that's what I'm talking about.
i had a party with 6 ratfolks all of then chaotic evil
and one lawful good human paladin
so there was 1 dude with a tower shield and 5 bards buffing the hell out of the guy with the tower shield and the paladin
First question: What the hell did the rats have on the pally to make him stay with the party. :P
Second question: have you though about Anti Paladin :D
@@Rookzer0 it was a hoard of the dragon queen campaing so the rats were just for the money and the palladin was just because he was meant to
How do I use rat folk in dndbyond
Easiest way is to just reskin something like the goblins or halflings. You could always just make a homebrew race and base it off the pathfinder model.
Any tips for drawing ratfolk?
One of my characters in a story I write is a rat folk but I'm about as amateur artist as I am writer and try as I might I'm struggling to get the balance between rat and humanoid or without him looking like a mouse instead of a rat.
Yeah I've struggled with this a lot. I think the biggest tip would be to find really good references. Try to draw both a mouse and a rat a few times first before attempting to add any human elements.
Really dig into what elements you like from the rat and start adapting that way.
Rats will generally have smaller eyes, and are more emotive with their ears. and generally have larger Snoots (Muzzle/Noses), So those are the elements I would focus on for your character.
Another Trick I like to use is to find cartoon characters of animals I'd like to use because cartoons are generally exaggerated and really make those elements pop. Then adapt them to your own work. Look at the difference between Rattagan and Basil from the great mouse detective.
I hope those help! I'd love to see what you come up with!
@@Rookzer0 Thanks! I've taken a few passes at drawing the character in the past but I'm never quite satisfied with the outcome. He always ends up either to human looking with a tail and big ears or kinda field mouse-esque.
Really appreciate the advice though. Thanks for getting back to me. I'd happily show you my previous attempts but not sure how...
@@shocking_squirrel you can always share it on Instagram instagram.com/rookzer0/
or ping us on Twitter @rookzer0
Just make sure the last O is a zer0
Good luck with your Art! Keep at it!
Started a new pathfinder game, 3/4 of us are ratfolk, so swarming is easy, my character a bard while being lvl 1 and equipped with masterwork chainmail and a masterwork rapier, prefers to play his lute in fights, which so far has been pretty awful for both sides
Do you do anything fun for your performances? Do you bring a ukulele to the table with you?
@@Rookzer0 we use roll20 for our games so I've been restricted to texting whatever tune I'm strumming and adding lyrics at the moment, but I want to bring it to a table game as well
That would be awesome. When we play online our bard will post links to youtube videos in the cat of songs she's "playing"
@@Rookzer0 it can lead to some really interesting roleplaying, I originally played rogues rangers etc, but with the bard I'm much more focused on the quirks of my character not the abilities
Swarm keeper Ranger Ratfolk.
I’m working on playing as a Swarmkeeper ranger build, as the rat king, and some of my party members were interested in helping my goal there. I can’t seem to find a source that seems to be the one you referred to, would you mind giving me a link to a page for it?
A lot of the info comes from the pathfinder side www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-ratfolk/
*party makes a rat king* DM *quits*
That sounds like am awesome campaign idea
Ok but the idea of revealing that your character has actually been two ratfolk in a trenchcoat this whole time is hilarious and could be a great twist as long as your DM knows about it and your companions don't. Substitute other short races so you can have them try to impersonate a human or elf.
Currently playing a Magus Ratfolk gypsy merchant.
Awesome! What is your most sold item?
@@Rookzer0 literally had our first session the other day, so yet to sell anything unfortunately =( probably alchemy based tho.
Have decided that most items will be cheap fake knock offs however XD
Btw just found your channel and really liking it!
@@harris9922 that's awesome! keep me updated on how it goes, Sunrods are pretty useful for those who don't have darkvision, and fun if you get thrown into a rave.
Side note once you get level 4spells you can grab dimensional door and teleport you and your ratfolk buddy around the map
wait wait... would a DM actually allow you to play two ratfolk at once? the whole large trenchcoat idea, how would that work then?
I would, I've done it before. The way I deal with it is that you can only move half your speed because you're "carrying another player"
If someone hits your "ac" flip a coin and see which one takes the damage. It's hella fun. You get to attack with two characters but it balances out.
(Note this is for the trench coat idea, so I say they "share an ac")
Nice art work... great job. So the rules for rat folk is only for Pathfinder? It shouldn't be to hard to translate to D&D I guess...
I did the artwork, If you'd like to use it for your character sheet you can find a copy of it on my patreon.
It's 3.5 compatible for dnd if you want to go 5e, basically just use the goblin as a template and fiddle with the traits a bit.
Ratonga!
Please tell me they will be available for pathfinder 2!
Not being in the book has never stopped me in the past
I've got a Ysoki mechanic in Starfinder. Does that count?
Id say so!
@@Rookzer0 You've probably seen him on FB
Step one: Choose Rat Folk
Step two: Choose Artificer and multi-class into warlock if possible
Step three: Make a back story about adventuring to learn more magic and steal technology to bring back to your clan
*Yes-yes Ikit Claw has the biggest brain of all rats!!!!*
Is 'pathfinder' related to D&D?
It's a game system based off DND 3.5 using the open game licence.
It started off as a means to continue 3.5, as many people were upset with the transition to D&D 4th ed. It improved on 3.5 vastly an is often considered 3.75. It has released a lot of content since then and suffers from bloat meaning lots of feats and abilities to work with, but still worth a look. It also has many really fun races like the ratfolk talked about in this video.
Ratfolk is one of my favorite races, and have gotten into too many shinanigans thanks to swarming, and squeezing. They have also made the ratfolk a little more horrifying as there is a feat now that lets a ratfolk swarm with other players if you are the only ratfolk in the group.
Nice Good find do you know what book/system that is in?
@@Rookzer0 It is part of the Dirty Tactics Toolbox pg. 23. You also treat the ally you swarm with as having the same teamwork feats as you do for determinine bonuses, but the ally themselves do not gain the benifit unless of course they have the feat as well.
@@AnachronicRodent Oh the possibilities....
I like the idea of a Ratfolk character, who states that their family is super into religion. When the rest of the party finally gets to visit their warren and meet the family face to face, the big reveal is that they worship Zon-Kuthon, but they do so in a very Adams Family type of way!
That could be really funny. I like it.
My Dm allowed me to roll a ratfolk rouge an we might get another ratfolk.
Let me knoe if you end up doing some swarming shinanigans. I still want to see two rat folk in a coat disguised as a kitsune
H