It’s Time to Bring Back the Tibbit in Dungeons & Dragons

The modern-day Dungeons & Dragons landscape is uniquely suited for bringing back one of the game’s most unique playable races. Not including subraces, there are currently 41 playable races available for Dungeons & Dragons across its various official sourcebooks and supplements. These playable races include “classic” fantasy races like the elf and dwarf, monstrous races like the kobold or grung, and more obscure races like the Locathah or the Kalashtar. There are countless more races from older versions of D&D that are just waiting to be adapted for the game’s current Fifth Edition ruleset, but we believe there is one obscure race should be on the top of Wizards of the Coast’s list of races to add to the game – the tibbit.

Scott Bennie first introduced the tibbit, a race of small humanoids with the power to shift into the form of a house cat, in the pages of Dragon magazine back in 1988. The tibbit is descended from the cat familiars of wizards and other magic users, gaining both intelligence and magical abilities over the course of generation. Tibbits are considered rare creatures, but it’s hard to tell exactly how many there are because they tend to stay in their housecat form around humans and other humanoids. Much like their cat ancestors, tibbits are naturally curious creatures, and their ability to pose as a non-magical cat means that they seem to know a lot about their neighbors and the communities in which they reside.

Tibbits can change from their cat form to their humanoid form at will, but they have to wait 1 hour when they’ve changed from a cat to a humanoid form to change back again. When in humanoid form, tibbits tend to have pointed ears, catlike eyes, and hair that matches the patterns and colors of their housecat form. And although many find the tibbit’s detached sense of bemusement and arrogance annoying, the tibbit’s abilities make them invaluable to any adventuring party they deign to travel with.

While not as well known as many other D&D races, the tibbit is the perfect race for modern day players. Not only is the tibbit ripe for roleplaying, the race also has the potential for some interesting mechanics. Shifting between two forms offers a lot of different tools, even if being a housecat means sacrificing the ability to use any tool that requires opposable thumbs. A clever party could even disguise their tibbit ally as a familiar to provide them with a hidden “ace in the hole” to use during sensitive missions that require some extra skullduggery and subterfuge. And with streaming such a big part of the D&D community, it seems like tibbit videos could be the D&D equivalent to viral cat videos in the near future.

Paizo already converted the tibbit into a playable Fourth Edition race back in 2007, so it seems that there’s some level of demand already there. Be sure to send Wizards of the Coast your requests for an updated playable tibbit race the next time they post their annual survey.

Would you want to play as a tibbit? Let us know in the comment section or find me on Twitter at @CHofferCBus to chat all things D&D!