```metadata
title: Ratkin
description: We needed another ratperson race, right?
tags:
  - ''
systems:
  - 5e
renderer: legacy
theme: 5ePHB

```

# Ratkin

Ratkin are small, ratlike humanoids who form insular enclaves in most major cities.  They are clever and inquisitive, with a love of mischief and exploration, but are often mistrusted (and mistreated) by folk of other races, for they have a reputation both for criminal activity and for spreading disease.  Thus, most Ratkin tend to keep to themselves and are initially very suspicious of outsiders, but will form strong bonds of friendship and family with anyone who has proven worthy of trust.


### Urban Dwellers
Ratkin are most at home in large cities, where there is always some new thing happening, some new person to observe, some new mischief to be involved in.  Due to their poor reputation, they don't often rise to positions of authority within the city structure, and can usually be found in the poorer and more rundown parts of town.


### Family Ties

Family bonds are the most important thing in a Ratkin's life, though that family need not be formed merely by blood or marriage.  Any given Ratkin will have an ever-widening web of relatives and chosen family that intersect with each other in ways too complex for an outsider to truly understand.  Anyone threatening a single Ratkin is soon going to have to deal with all of their friends and relations as well.


### Pack Rats

Ratkin are collectors, though usually not of particularly expensive items.  Their homes are a chaotic explosion of small trinkets that they find especially pleasing and family members enjoy frequently exchanging small gifts.  A Ratkin will have their own particular reasons behind the items in their various collections:  whether they are all pretty colors, pleasing shapes, tokens of places they've been or people they've known, or significant in some other way.

Most Ratkin also enjoy building things or "improving" items they already own.  Components for these improvements often form the basis of many Ratkin collections.

### Ratkin Names

Ratkin also enjoy collecting names.  A Ratkin is given a name at birth - usually a short name that is easily pronounceable by the larger population of their city - after which, each Ratkin will develop a large collection of nicknames throughout their life.  Which name the Ratkin uses in any given situation depends on that situation and the people they're currently with.




### Ratkin Traits
Your Ratkin character has the following racial traits:

**Ability Score Increase**.  Your Dexterity score increases by 2 

**Age**.  Ratkin have shorter lifespans than humans, reaching adulthood at about 12 and rarely living past 50 or 60.

**Alignment**.  Ratkin believe in exploration and experimentation and generally rely more on personal and family ties than societal laws and structures. They tend towards chaotic alignments.  

**Size**.  Ratkin are between 2 and 4 feet tall and weigh between 30 and 50 pounds.  Your size is Small. 

**Speed.**  Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

**Darkvision**.  You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light.  You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.

**Naturally Sneaky.**  You are proficient in Stealth.

**Rat Claws:**  Your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes.  If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

**Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Common and Rattish.

**Subrace.**  Two subraces of Ratkin exist:  Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus. Choose one of these subraces.


#### Rattus norvegicus  (Brown Rat)

Brown Rats are larger and hardier than other Ratkin. 


**Ability Score Increase.** Your Strength score increases by 1.  


**Everywhere Except Alberta.**  Ratkin are found all over the globe and Brown Rats have found ways to thrive in all conditions.  You are proficient in Survival.  


**Strength of the Colony.**  You are accustomed relying on your friends and family.  You have advantage on an attack roll on a creature if one of your allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated.


**"As Big as a Cat!"**  Brown Rats tend to be on the larger side of the Ratkin scale and as such are able to deal more damage.  When you hit with a claw attack, you deal 1d6 + your Strength modifier, rather than 1d4.  You are also able to use your claws to climb, gaining a climb speed of 20 feet.

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#### Rattus rattus (Black Rat)

Black Rats are intelligent and curious, often to a fault.  

**Ability Score Increase.** Your Intelligence score increases by 1.


**Bright Beady Little Eyes.**  You are proficient in Investigation and Perception.  


**A Tight Squeeze**  You can fit into openings that would normally only admit a Tiny creature.  Also, you can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.


**Plague Bearer:**  It’s a scurrilous myth that your people carry disease.  *However...*  When you hit with a claw attack, you can also deal 2d6 poison damage, and the targeted creature must make a Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for the next round.  The DC for this saving throw equals 8 plus your Constitution modified plus your proficiency bonus.  The damage increases to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 16th level.  After you use this trait, you can't use it again until you have completed a long rest.