Harengon Playable Race: D&D 5e Guide

Hop around the battlefield with this rabbit playable race

What are the Harengon?

The Harengon are bipedal humanoids with the appearance of rabbits. They tend to be quicker than most other races and tend to live a nomadic life. Because of their nomadic nature the Harengon do not have a city or home to call their own, though they do originate from the Feywilds.

As inhabitants of the Feywild, Harengon have adopted much of the whimsical nature of their fey cousins. This often means they lack a reverence for the laws and traditions of other creatures. As such, it’s not uncommon to find Harengon operating in criminal activities.

Is a Harengon the right character for me?

Dungeons and Dragons lets you take a flexible approach to building a character, but if you’re going to stick to typical culture and the best-optimised build for a Harengon you might consider the following:

Choose a Harengon if you like…

Taking your turn first
Being a scout
Want to use hit and run tactics

A Harengon might not be for you if…

You want to play a tank
You’re not a fan of rabbits

If you think a Harengon isn’t for you, not to worry, there are dozens of playable races for you to pick from, just check out our races guide to find out about all of them. For an alternative dextrous race, you could consider a Lightfoot Halfling or a Tabaxi.

Racial traits

Ability Scores	+2 to one ability score and +1 to another or +1 to 3 different ability scores
Creature Type	Humanoid
Size	Medium or Small
Lifespan	About 100 years
Speed	30ft
Languages	Common and 1 other language
Traits	Hare Trigger, Leporine Senses, Lucky Footwork, Rabbit Hop
Resistances	None
Innate Spellcasting	None
Book found in	Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, Wild Beyond the Witchlight

Tactics

Harengon are built for speed and to be slippery little fellows. They’re a generally great option for any class as their racial features can work well for most classes. Below are some ways to best use a Harengon:

Fighting first: Adding your proficiency bonus to your initiative roll means you’re more likely to take your turn early in combat. For this reason, it’s worth considering classes and subclasses that benefit from taking a turn before others (like the assassin rogue).

Difficult to surprise: Proficiency in perception makes you hard to surprise. It also makes you great as a scout, looking out for traps and ambushes (these are roles that rogues and rangers tend to excel at).

Great at dodging: An extra d4 on dexterity saving throws can be the difference between the full blast of a fireball in your face and half damage (or even none if you’re a rogue with evasion).

Hopping around the battlefield: Rabbit Hop has some great potential either for characters that need some extra distance or that needs to hop out of combat. It’s a bit like using both dash and disengage at the same time as a bonus action making it superior to a rogue’s cunning action (though the distance will often be less than dash). This is great for characters that want to slip in and out of combat (like rogues), characters that want to escape combat (like sorcerers and wizards) and characters that need some extra distance or manoeuvrability in combat (like barbarians and fighters).

Which classes are good for Harengon?

Below I’ve put together a score for how well each class works with a Harengon based on how well the racial traits work with each class:

Artificer⭐⭐⭐⭐

Barbarian ⭐⭐

Bard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cleric ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Druid ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fighter ⭐⭐⭐

Monk ⭐⭐

Paladin ⭐⭐⭐

Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rogue ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wizard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

*Star ratings scored out of 5

Best classes for Harengon

In short, any! All classes work well for a Harengon and you can’t really go wrong with them. Every class benefits from taking their turn first, having perception proficiency, being better at dexterity saving throws and being able to jump in and out of combat.

Having said this, some classes do get more from a Harengon’s abilities than others. I’d suggest considering the following classes as optimal options for a Harengon:

Top of my picks here would be an assassin rogue. Being able to more reliably use your assassinate feature is a huge boon. Rogues need to be manoeuvrable so rabbit hop is also very handy. Rogues also need all the protection they can get so a boost to dexterity saving throws means lots of opportunities to completely evade damage.

For the rest, they’re all spellcasters and get a lot from being able to easily get out of danger without wasting their action on disengage. On top of this, being able to lay some spellcasting carnage before the martials run in and get in the way of your AOE spells also works well.

Worst classes for Harengon

As mentioned, there’s not really a bad class for Harengon but a couple of classes do stand to gain less from their abilities. First of those is the barbarian who gains less from having the first turn as typically you have to actually get into melee range of your enemies, you might often want to just let them come to you anyway. Danger Sense works as an alternative to Lucky Footwork and you don’t tend to have to get away from enemies all that often so Rabbit Hop will be used less.

Monks also benefit little from Harengon abilities as you rarely want to be the first into combat. You also can disengage as a bonus action anyway so Rabbit Hop is less useful too (though can save you some ki points and give you more distance). This doesn’t make monks a poor choice, but you’ll gain less from them than other classes.

About the Harengon

Harengon appearance

Like most rabbits, the harengon usually have grey, white or beige fur. They have boundless energy, keen senses and powerful legs allowing them to jump higher than most. A gift they can use to their advantage when adventuring.

Harengon personality

Like most fey creatures, Harengon enjoy mischief and playing tricks on unsuspecting mortals. They are curious and whimsical which makes them great explorers and tinkerers. Harengon often operate in moral grey areas. They are often comfortable breaking the law and are happy to justify doing so but they are not necessarily evil by nature either.

Roleplaying as a Harengon

There are many ways you could play your Harengon character but here’s a few ideas if you’re looking for inspiration:

Explorer – You want to see the world and learn all about it. You travel about meeting people, making discoveries and finding what hasn’t been found before. You might be a cartographer, a merchant or a bodyguard for merchant carriages or ships.
Vagabond – Life has not been easy for you and to survive, you have to take. You rob people on the roads between major settlements, far enough away from law enforcement that you don’t get caught. The people you rob had more than enough money and that knowledge helps you sleep at night.
Sword for hire – Your natural agility and vague sense of morality make you ideal as a sword for hire. Perhaps it’s as a bodyguard or an assassin, but perhaps it’s just to “acquire” expensive goods.

Other playable races

Not sure a Harengon is the right race for you? Not a problem, there are loads of other playable races in D&D 5e. Check out our guides for them all below: