D&D Race Guide: How to Play a Harengon
Keep a hop away from danger at all times by making your next character a quick, lucky, and very cute Harengon.
Native to the Feywild and oh-so cute, Harengons look a lot like our world’s rabbits. Only larger, bipedal, in possession of opposable thumbs and ready for adventure. Plus, between their fey ancestry and their two lucky rabbit feet, Harengons are almost always hopping their way out of trouble.
“Harengons originated in the Feywild, where they spoke Sylvan and embodied the spirit of freedom and travel. In time, these rabbitfolk hopped into other worlds, bringing the fey realm’s exuberance with them and learning new languages as they went.
Harengons are bipedal, with the characteristic long feet of the rabbits they resemble and fur in a variety of colors. They share the keen senses and powerful legs of leporine creatures and are full of energy, like a wound-up spring. Harengons are blessed with a little fey luck, and they often find themselves a few fortunate feet away from dangers during adventures.”
Harengon Traits
Picking Harengon as your player race may give you a little more freedom in distributing ability score points than you’re used to. For starters, you can either increase one ability of your choice by two points and then another–also of your choice–by one. Or, if you’d prefer you can increase three different abilities of your choice by one point each.
They are also either small or medium in size, which is up to the player. Humans are generally medium while halflings are small, so your Harengon likely wouldn’t be the size of a typical bunny. And with this size comes a few other rabbit-like boosts. For example, Harengons have the proficiency to perception skills, always have their proficiency bonus added to initiative rolls, have a built-in failsafe against failing dexterity saving throws, and can jump five times their proficiency bonus without provoking opportunity attacks.
Best Classes
You have a lot of options with the Harengon and can put your ability score points wherever you want them… so there are many, many good ways to go with your rabbit person.
My first choice would probably be Rogue, though. The race guide makes it hard for them to fail dexterity saving throws by design, and the ability to jump away with no provocation makes them perfect for getting into and back out of tight spots. Plus they’re hard to sneak up on, and always have a leg up on initiative rolls. This is a character build for silent snatches and expeditious exits.
Monk or Ranger could also be a lot of fun, though. Usually, you wouldn’t think of rabbit-folk as hands-on fighter types. Especially since rabbits in our world have a defense mechanism where they just keel over when presented with too much stress. But Harengon are made of heartier stuff and with a bonus ability score point to wisdom, they could be very good Monks or Rangers. Neither would require terribly high strength between monk’s abilities and ranger’s ranged attacks. But both would benefit greatly from the dexterity buffer and, constant general awareness.
Tips & Tricks
Honestly, I don’t know if there’s a bad way to play a Harengon. I obviously have favorite classes for this race pick, but with so much freedom and a pretty universally useful set of skills (perception, initiative, jumping), you could really thrive with any choice. Would I play a Barbarian Harengon? Maybe not- but also maybe… that could be a lot of fun. My biggest suggestion for this one would be to work backward. Think hard about what class and what eventual subclass you’ll want to play, and start building your Harangon from level one from there.
And don’t forget to use your quiet abilities! It’s too easy to forget that you can add your proficiency bonus to your initiative just like it’s easy to forget that you have the inspiration to use. So jot it down in a big red marker if you have to. A lot of small things make Harengon a great race to play, don’t let any of them fall through the cracks.
Have you played Harengon in a game? Has anybody in your party? What class would you pick for your rabbit-folk? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
