Foxes for druids and rangers

Question

I’m starting a new D&D5 campaign. One of my players loves foxes, so I would like to provide them as an option for wild shape and animal companions, along with a giant variant.

Unfortunately, the game doesn’t have an official monster entry for foxes, and none of the similar animals (badger, cat, hyena, jackal, mastiff) are quite similar enough to just file off the name and keep the stats. They aren’t great burrowers like badgers or climbers like cats, and they aren’t pack hunters like dogs. Jackals are the closest match; red foxes are about the same size, and they have the same keen hearing, smell, and intelligence. However, foxes are much lighter than other canids, and they rely on stealth and ambush rather than pack hunting. Notably, they can leap from hiding high into the air and far away, taking prey by surprise up to 15 feet away.

Therefore, I’ll need to make a custom fox write-up. However, D&D5 is new enough that I don’t have a good feel yet for writing my own monsters, plus creating a monster for druids and rangers is a different from creating new monsters that you fight, as they spend a lot more time in the spotlight, so I want to do it right.

How should I approach this problem of creating new critters for my players? Is there already a fox writeup out there I can use? If not, what should I watch out for when doing it myself?

Answer 1

There are now foxes in dnd from Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden page 288.

Their Relevant features include: a 5 ft burrow speed, darkvision up to 60ft, proficiency in stealth and perception and the keen hearing feature.

Full stats available on D&D Beyond.

Answer 2

Preliminary research indicates that no one has statted up a fox for 5e yet. In lieu of actual monster creation rules which should be present in the DMG, here's the best I can offer, a reasonable conversion from the cat and panther.

Without doing a ton of research into foxes, and simply thinking about the iconic images of foxes, we think about them being nimble and dexterous like a cat, but more clever.

I think I would take the cat's stat block, give it slightly more int (maybe just a 4), a d6 for a hit die, perhaps another +2 to wisdom, and then switch it's power to give it advantage in a different situation (perhaps to blend into nature or hide in a burrow).

With the basic fox, I'd be hesitant to do anything that would pull it out of CR0 territory because I think a fox probably fits best there.

As for the giant fox. The big change for giant creatures is the increase in strength. I would make sure that this was the increase I made on the giant fox as well. If you use the Cat's stats, use the Panther as the giant version. The wisdom increases slightly for a panther as well, which I would also keep for a fox as this improves perception.

As you point out It seems that Foxes pounce from ambush when they attack, so it seems the Panther's pounce ability would be quite fitting for a giant fox. Though again I'd look at similar "racial" features that match with the fox's hiding/cunning than than necessarily keen senses.

This monster should still be a CR 1/4 and I think the Panther's 3d8 seems about right for this.

Answer 3

As for a fox animal companion, I’d use the jackal stats. Foxes and jackals are extremely similar, in size and in niche, a result of convergent evolution. For the wild shape and giant fox, the panther seems like a good match, although the giant fox would be more reliant on hearing and scent than a cat of equal size. Also, you might want to consider using the kitsune, a fox-race based on the creatures of Japanese legends. Here’s a link to a page detailing the Kitsune race:

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Kitsune_(Monstrous_Humanoid)(3.5e_Race)

A kitsune druid or ranger would be pretty cool. A fun little quirk is that, according to legend, kitsune that take the form of a human or other shape often have trouble hiding their tails. They may transform back into a fox or fox-human if their tails are spotted or attacked. Also, as they become more powerful, kitsune grow more tails, the strongest being nine-tailed foxes.

Alternatively, you could use a cat's stats for a fennec fox (Vulpes zerda), as they are very small, or a gray fox, as they are cat-like climbers. An Island fox (native to the Channel Islands off California) is another very small species. Hey, for fun, you could even say the fox companion is an Eevee, and later the player can have it transform later on into a chosen elemental fox (eeveelution)