Tanuki

Small Beast, Neutral

Armor Class 13 (natural armor)

Hit Points 27 (6d6 + 6)

Speed 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10 (+0)	14 (+2)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	12 (+1)	16 (+3)

Skills Deception +5, Sleight of Hand +4

Senses Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages Common, Sylvan

Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Keen Senses. The tanuki has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

Shapechanger. The tanuki can use its action to magically polymorph into a Small-sized humanoid or beast, or back into its true form. Its statistics, other than its size, are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.

Mischievous Trickster. The tanuki is a master of deception and trickery. It has advantage on all Deception checks and can cast minor illusion at will, without requiring components.

Multiattack. The tanuki makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) piercing damage.

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 2) slashing damage.

Innate Spellcasting. The tanuki’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

• At will: dancing lights, prestidigitation
• 3/day each: charm person, disguise self

Actions

Shapechange Trick. The tanuki uses its Shapechanger ability to assume the appearance of a Small-sized humanoid or beast. It often uses this ability to trick and confuse its foes.

Sake Bottle. The tanuki magically produces a bottle of sake and offers it to a creature within 10 feet. The creature must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by the tanuki for 1 minute. While charmed, the creature sees the tanuki as a friendly and trustworthy companion.

Illusionary Distractor. The tanuki uses its minor illusion cantrip to create a distracting visual or auditory illusion within 30 feet of itself. This can be used to disorient and mislead its enemies.

Vanish into Shadows. The tanuki uses its innate spellcasting to cast disguise self and attempts to blend into its surroundings, gaining advantage on Stealth checks to hide.

Reactions

Trickster’s Evasion. When the tanuki is targeted by an attack that requires a Dexterity saving throw to take half damage, it can use its reaction to instead take no damage on a successful save, and half damage on a failed save.

Lair Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the tanuki can take a lair action to cause one of the following magical effects:

• The tanuki creates an illusory duplicate of itself that appears 30 feet away from its current location. This duplicate mimics the tanuki’s actions, causing confusion among its foes.
• The tanuki changes the appearance of the area within 30 feet of it, creating difficult terrain or a convincing illusion that hides its true location.
• The tanuki conjures a burst of colorful fireworks that momentarily blinds and deafens creatures within 30 feet of it.

The tanuki can’t use the same lair action two rounds in a row.

Short and pudgy, this raccoon like humanoid wields a stout quarterstaff and weaves a little as if intoxicated.

Tanuki CR 4

XP 1,200
CN Medium monstrous humanoid (shapechanger)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect poison, low-light vision; Perception +8

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +3 natural, +1 shield)
hp 47 (5d10+20)
Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +6

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft.
Melee mwk quarterstaff +7 (1d6+2), mwk quarterstaff +7 (1d6+1), slam +2 (1d6+1)
Ranged sling +8 (1d4+2)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 7th; concentration +11)

Constant—detect poison
At will—purify food and drink
3/day—magic stone, major creation (up to 1 cubic foot)
1/day—create food and water, shrink item, veil (self only)

STATISTICS

Str 14, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 19
Base Atk +5; CMB +7; CMD 20
Feats Two-Weapon Defense, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (quarterstaff)
Skills Bluff +7, Diplomacy +6, Knowledge (nature) +5, Perception +8, Perform (percussion) +8, Sense Motive +4, Spellcraft +4, Stealth +10
Languages Common, Tanuki
SQ change shape (raccoon; beast shape II), sake affinity

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Sake Affinity (Su)

As a swift action, a tanuki can take a swig of sake from the gourd it always carries at its side. When it does so, it gains the effect of one of the following spells at caster level 7th: divine favor, false life, haste, or rage. Unusual tanukis might have additional spell effect choices at the GM’s discretion. Each time a tanuki takes a swig of sake, it becomes progressively drunker and takes a -1 penalty to its AC and on Reflex saves for 1 minute. These penalties stack.

ECOLOGY

Environment temperate forests or urban
Organization solitary, pair, or gathering (3-8)
Treasure standard (masterwork quarterstaff, 4 gulps of sake in a gourd, other treasure)