Asian Mythology Themed DnD 5th Edition

Reposting something from a .pdf thread I found awhile back that might be useful for you guys in this thread.

>What do you guys think?
I think you should read Journey to the West.
>Also, does this sound like something you'd play?
Absolutely.

That would be a kumiho, not a kitsune.

Kitsune, when turned into proper wives, were astoundingly good advisors and effective teachers besides their skills as a home-maker.

What you are describing is the Kumiho, and a particularly evil one at that, as even the Kumiho were known to take husbands and love them (they would eat the livers of *other* men in this case, and in fact there's a drama on Korean TV that deals with a man discovering his girlfriend is a murderous Kumiho.)

What if there isn't a difference between kitsune and kumiho, it's just that Korean livers are fucking delicious to hundred-plus-year-old foxes?

Given Japan's history with Korea, I honestly wouldn't be too surprised by this.

>it's all been manipulations by foxes to get tasty, tasty Korean takeout

>sometimes fox wives get suspicious, and are convinced that their husbands are Korean.

>Sadly by the time that it is determined, the question is kinda moot.

The smart fox wives will realize they can just give their husbands a blowjob and determine if they've got the "Korean spice" that way.

It's kind of interesting and a little creepy that liver-eating witches who can change shape are common across cultures who had no contact with each other.

Like en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spearfinger

I don't know.

The delicious liver could be Korean, and everything else not.

Better safe than sorry.

OP here to bump, following up with some content, just emergency.

Just remember that kappa's are tricksters, assholes, and will steal your soul from your butt.

If you make it a playable race, there needs to be a skill where you steal souls from somethings butt, here-to referred to as a "shirikodama"

This is really good source material! It's like I could just pick a random mythos and start working on questlines and such.

Was definitely thinking of Tengu as a race, was thinking of giving them the benefits of Martial adept. Seems about right for the Tengu that were martial masters hidden in mountains.

As for other races, the lineup would be Kitsune, human, oni(or half-oni as a not-halforc). Any yokai-centric character would probably have some kind of basic humanoid disguise...
Magic would also potentially be feared and revered by peasants and definitely require some disguise work as some kind of "licensed" imperial wizard.

Also, that armor idea is ripe as hell! I'm totally taking that up!

It's kind of funny how a Kitsune's cousin might just have a taste for human livers. Some gals just can't get enough of their man.

>Kitsune, when turned into proper wives, were astoundingly good advisors and effective teachers besides their skills as a home-maker.
I had a Pathfinder game once where the Lady of a noble clan was a Kitsune. She was actually ostracized from her family due to marrying a human, and a descendant of merchants no less! If his family hadn't been blessed by the Emperor, there'd have been even more of a stir. Thankfully, she was a mighty matron of her family, and the party realized very quickly any dealings they had with the clan went through her first.

If the only Kitsune in the party wasn't a complete That Guy she probably would have offered them more important missions as opposed to the pity-work they tended to get from her.

Need some opinions on this campaign idea. The dwarf king's hold has come under siege by a dragon. Due to their defenses thwy can hold out for sometime, but it's still a dragon. A call for aid and conscription has been put out his kingdom, and the players being citizens have chosen to answer the call. The bulk of the campaign will be travelling to the king's beseiged hold, as well as dispensing justice along the way as member's of the king's army. A lot of nobles have either left with their forces to help the king, or used the chance to rebel or settle old grudges. Trying to think of things to keep it interesting beyond random encounter/town needs help/people crying for aid on the side of the road.

>King
>Not Shogun/Emperor

Konnichiwa friend. I do believe you've wandered into a strange land.
Perhaps you'll suffer a terrible fate?

OP, what "tier" of fantasy were you thinking of doing with this setting? High fantasy will have a very different (read: more animesque) feel than low-fantasy, even with the Asiatic trappings.

Something you should consider; Asiatic cosmologies work very different to Western ones. Traditional Western fantasy relies on more of a contrasting/opposing mindset; Good and Evil fight ceaselessly. Asiatic Fantasy, on the other hand, is more harmonious; Positive and Negative work together to bring about universal balance.

There's a sidebar along these lines in the Slayers D20 sourcebook addressing this. In essence, in a conventional Western type setting, Lina Inverse would be a *villain* since she's calling upon the powers of destruction and darkness. But, under Eastern philosophical principles, the powers she's calling upon have their right and proper place in the cycle of things - they're not very *pleasant*, but they're not *evil* in the sense a Westerner would consider them, so she can use them and not be a villain for that reason alone.

Why aren't you including huli jing in your game?

thesupernaturalfoxsisters.com/2016/08/09/monster-of-the-week-huli-jing/

>The most common type of malicious trick used by huli jing is to take human form for the purposes of seduction. Sexual congress is one of the ways foxes can take human essence or vitality. Stealing another’s life force can also be accomplished while remaining in fox form, as huli jing are known to take their victim’s breath as they sleep. Foxes also like to deceive humans and play the role of a trickster.

Touching upon the "tier of fantasy", that also affects the kinds of races you can offer, assuming you want to offer non-human races.

For starters, Japan does have a classification of monster - Yosei - that does roughly equate to Western faeries. So, with the right flavoring, elves and dwarves can work out; that's why the official Oriental D&D settings have long included things like Spirit Folk (which are really more "elemental faerie" themed elves), Koroburoko (or however it's spelt, which are Japanese themed dwarves) and elf variants.

Hengeyokai, animal spirits that can assume partially or wholly human forms, are also very solidly established in both actual myth and D&D. It can just work as a generic term used for Kitsunes, Tanuki and any of the other shifting beast-yokai you may want to include; Mujinas (badgers), Itachi (weasels), Kawauso (otters), Bakeneko (cats), etc.

Yokai and half-yokai are a little on the "animesque" side for some peoples' tastes, but as I said in my last post, yokai are very much NOT "Always Chaotic Evil" in Asian mythology, and humans marrying/being seduced by yokai are very much things that happen. So, you could easily justify things like Oni or Tiefling as a playable race.

I'm rather aware of the difference in philosophies from western to eastern. I actually dabble in the study of Tao which seems like a pretty direct way of relating the world-view.

Of course questing and such from good or even neutral PCs would lend towards stabilizing the balance by getting rid of evil spirits or properly trapping them/punishing/exorcising them, assisting a notable villager by tracking down a family heirloom that may be more than meets the eye, or even seguing away from the struggle and fighting for a shogun or something.

Still working it out, but I'm loving the ideas.

All in all, I was thinking High fantasy adventure sort of stuff. Like, it's easy to find low-ranked yokai just kind of floating around minding their own, karasu tengu taking issue with the baubles in your possession that are NOT already theirs, a cat that one of the players kicked and now they keep running into...

Def. A good way to refluff elves, I have a couple stat-sources for kitsune and some others that are an easy convert to tanuki and other hardier yokai. Thinking however that those kind of Yokai will be pressed to hide their true forms or else discovery could put them on the other end of a lynch mob.

Maybe they're into the liver cirrhosis flavor? Just wait till they discover that Russia's so close by.

You guys seem very fixated on the Japanese. There's lots of cool shit elsewhere in Asia too. My bailiwick is Indochina, with the shapeshifting tigers and the river nak and the hilltribe shamans trying to keep the hungry ghosts and the phim kooj koi from overrunning the village. I want to play a good SE Asian setting someday, but I don't think that's really out there as a thing.

>Nobunaga Oda's infamous self-description as the "Sixth Heaven Demon King" (a title properly belonging to Mara, the Buddhist Satan) spawned a figure of speech that persists to this day and means "powerful or prosperous man significantly lacking in spiritual development"
To be fair, when Oda said that he probably meant "I'm LITERALLY Satan". I think he said it in reply to some Buddhist monk (running a Buddhist monestary that ran a Buddhist castle that told Oda to fuck himself) claiming he was the guardian of the sacred this or a servant of the sacred that. "Lol, I'm Satan" is a terrifying response that shows exactly how little of a fuck he gave.

I think its a bit easier to use mostly japanese (or chinese) settings because the amount of information that you can find on them is more plentiful and readily available in easy to use formats.

While i agree that other settings in the vein of them would be cool, its a matter of how far the DM wants to look into a culture that isn't so readily usable for the game.

"Looks like a pretty woman but is actually a monster in disguise that wants to eat you" is a pretty common arhetype across multiple unrelated cultures. They don't all specifically eat livers, but liver is a pretty good organ to eat so it's not all that surprising more than one version has a particular taste for it.

I think for a pan-Asian setting using different kingdoms and provinces is a must. If it's just Japan, say so.

I'm not the OP. I was just making a statement that its generally easier to use japanese and chinese stuff because info regarding them is easier to obtain and digest

"dont kill the orc baby. instead, bring it to some monks which will teach him to resist his evil nature or some shit.

now fry me some tofu you dindu."

I thought that character was a wolf, not a fox.

Rolled 7 (1d20)

I roll to consult my NPC wolfgirl waifu for economic advice.

kon from tokyo raven
it is a kitsune

>Kitsune, when turned into proper wives, were astoundingly good advisors and effective teachers

Explain this, then.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamamo-no-Mae

In the story told by Hokusai, formed in the Edo period, the nine-tail fox first appeared in China and possessed Daji, concubine of Shang dynasty's last ruler King Zhou. She enchanted the king and brought upon a reign of terror that led to a rebellion that ended the Shang dynasty. The fox spirit fled to Magadha of Tianzhu (ancient India) and became Lady Kayō (華陽夫人), concubine of the crown prince Banzoku (班足太子; based on Indian tales of Kalmashapada the man-eater[1]), causing him to cut off the heads of 1000 men. It was then defeated again, and fled the country. Around 780 BC, the same fox returned to China was said to have possessed Bao Si, concubine of the Zhou dynasty King You. It was again chased away by human military forces.

The fox stayed quiet for some period. Then she appeared in Japan as Tamamo-no-Mae, the most favoured courtesan of Emperor Toba. She was said to be a most beautiful and intelligent woman, being able to answer any question asked. She caused the Emperor to be extremely ill and was eventually exposed as a fox spirit by Abe no Yasuchika, who had been called to diagnose the cause of the Emperor's poor health. A few years later, the emperor sent Kazusa-no-suke (上総介) and Miura-no-suke (三浦介) to kill the fox in the plains of Nasu.[2]
Sessho-seki(Killing Stone) and Thousand Jizo Statues

In the 1653 Tamamo no sōshi (玉藻の草紙), an addendum was added to the story describing that the spirit of Tamamo-no-mae embedded itself into a stone called the Sessho-seki. The stone continually released poisonous gas, killing everything that touched it.[3] The stone was said to have been destroyed in the Nanboku-chō period by the Buddhist monk Gennō Shinshō (源翁心昭), who exorcised the now-repentant fox spirit.

NEUTRAL EVIL.

JUST BECAUSE ONE FOX SPIRIT WENT ON A GENOCIDAL RAMPAGE DOES NOT MEAN ALL FOX SPIRITS ARE FLUFFY HITLERS.

And conversely, just because there are stories of some of them being nice doesn't mean all of them are nice.

Of course, there are plenty of stories featuring foolish Kitsune or actively malicious ones, never implied otherwise.

Tamamo is too fluffy and cute though, she's soft from the front *and* behind!

Caster did nothing wrong to her husabandos

And Neutral Evil

How would you stat the Jorogumo?

Shapeshifting spider lady, charms people with music and song into her web or asks them to hold her baby Which is actually an egg sac that explodes with her spider children when you take it.

Pic related. Could be a great random encounter with a bunch of giant demon spiders.

This could be a pretty good boss monster for a graveyard or something.

Giant nigh-indestructible skeleton that bites off people's heads. Can also turn invisible, and only telltale sign of being hunted is a "Ringing" in the ears.

Gasha Dokuro
Huge Undead (Yokai), Neutral Evil
Hit Points: 175 (13d12+91)
Speed: 30 feet, burrowing 50 feet
AC: 18
Str 27 (+8) Dex 9 (-1) Con 25 (+7)
Int 8 (-1) Wis 4 (-3) Cha 18 (+4)
Saving Throws: Strength +12, Constitution +11, Charisma +8
Skills: Stealth +3
Damage Resistances: fire, cold, necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities: blinded, charmed, deafened, poisoned, sleeping
Senses: Passive Perception 15, magical darkvision 120 feet
Languages: Understands Common but can only bellow
Challenge Rating: 12 (8400 XP)
Magic Resistance. The Gasha Dokuro has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Innate Spellcasting. The Gasha Dokuro's spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 16). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: darkness, dispel magic, freedom of movement
1/day each: destructive wave (necrotic only), eyebite, greater invisibility
Aura of Darkness. The Gasha Dokuro can see through magical darkness normally. Also, the Gasha Dokuro can concentrate on up to 3 “Darkness” spells at the same time, if not concentrating on other spells. When concentrating on over 2 “Darkness” spells at the same time, the Gasha Dokuro has disadvantage on all Concentration saving throws. The Gasha Dokuro makes a separate saving throw for each spell’s maintaining of Concentration.
Sunlight Hypersensitivity. The Gasha Dokuro takes 20 radiant damage when it starts its turn in sunlight. While in sun light, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

Actions
Multiattack. The Gasha Dokuro casts 1 spell, if able. It then makes two Grab attacks. It may substitute a Grab attack for its Bite attack.
Grab. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 15ft, one target
Hit: 26 (4d8+8) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 18). The Gasha Dokuro has two arms, each of which can grapple 1 creature.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 15ft, one target that is grappled by the Gasha Dokuro
Hit: 26 (4d8+8) piercing damage and 9 (2d8) necrotic damage.

Found this with a search, seems pretty alright for the purposes. Would be a crazy encounter.

...

Depends; do you mean as a monster or as a PC racial option?

If the latter, I got stats for the Aranea (a race of sorcerous spiderweres from AD&D's Red Steel setting) in 5e that might work as a base.

Thinking more in line with a monster. That's encounter worthy and i don't trust my PCs to be proper spider monsters unless it's a decidedly "evil"campaign.

It should be noted that the 5e Paladin's central theme is their oath, and in that regard, they fit Samurai well. I'm running something like this and the party Samurai is a Oath of the Crown Paladin.

That's a good point. The dmg points more towards samurai being like paladins.

I could definitely see barbarians either being oni restricted or outright mountain tribes.

Casters would definetly require a certain flair.

Right, that is true. I still have the whole classic "paragon of Justice as the only type of Paladin" thing stuck in my head. The other archetypes of Paladin just don't feel like Paladins to me; just like magic cavaliers.

Everything but devotion paladin differs from that lawful good archetype.

It's kind of nice that you can carry malleable tennets that can suit a character vs making them nigh-one dimensional.

Even if they're all under a strict uniform oath, they're only one-dimensional if you make them that way. Different characters might act differently within the confines of their oath. Maybe they resent it for giving them so many restrictions on meting out justice to evildoers. Maybe they rely on it to give their life structure and meaning, and without it they would be lost and confused. Maybe they're a powder keg of justice.

I think the 2e-style highly strict oath can actually encourage depth of character rather than inhibit it... at least if you're a moderately good roleplayer already.

Fun resource for mining for monsters/encounters, even in regular games.
yokai.com/

Also
>The party's half-oni (orc) who nobody could tell the class of rages for the first time

Bumping for continued honor.

bump with some fluffy tail at least

Hope this would suffice.

i like to make my kitsune NPCs more like fluffy little fox-gnomes hidden under lots of robes and cosmetics/masks.
only older and stronger ones can assume full human appearance, which you sometimes see in villages during festivals, when they are followed by a pack of masked and clothed tiny foxes.
basicly most are high power druids, and use their power to sustain their hideouts, and to steal from humans.

how do you guys make them in your campaigns?

Yo, anyone figure out the alignments of the Hindu pantheon?

since yokais are often seen as individual ghosts with unique characteristics, a monster-of-the-week kind of encounters could be applied.
use a few archetypes and alter them depending on the kind of creature you want to use.

seventhsanctum.com/index-bein.php

the monster generator often helped me with those things

...

Starting to think of running this kind of campaign with the pcs being a bunch of Hengeyokai (shapeshifting animal spirits) that seek out the source of a taint or a rot and quash it.

Perhaps the first few encounters involve their little village getting attacked by Rot-infested humans that are hunting them for their skins?

Humans can't see the rot, but it's apparent to spirits and it sppreads to them.

Monstrous Yokai are creatures that spread this vile corruption and sickness of the soul.

The big-bad is the shogun and an evil sorcerer that seek to take over the land from the emperor.

The Shogun uses that idea proposed earlier. He was rotted so far through that he lost his life and now his vile soul is bound to his armor. Humans normally can't see through the glamour.

Highly Concerned Woodland citizens save the country of not!Japan on a mythic adventure that takes them through towns, crypts, pocket worlds, and finally up against a sinister warlord that's the source of all this taint.

'Highly Concerned Woodland Citizens' sounds like the name of a toohoo game or some shit