Introduction
Kitsune are tricky, shapeshifting, fox-like humanoids. With a Charisma Boost and access to divine innate spells, the Kitsune thrives as a Charisma-based divine spellcaster like the Oracle or the Sorcerer (with a divine bloodline, of course). Other feat options make the Kitsune great for infiltration and social situations. The Kitsune has few options for martial builds, but their unarmed strike options are decent.
Table of Contents
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Kitsune Racial Traits
- : 8 is standard.
- : Medium. Medium and small size have few functional differences in Pathfinder 2e.
- : Standard.
- : Charisma and a Free Boost. Without a third boost, you’ll be behind in MAD builds, but you’ll do just fine as a spellcaster.
- : Only Common and bonus languages for high Intelligence. Common is all that you really need, but most ancestries get two languages.
- : Low-Light Vision.
- : Very cool thematically, and you can also use it as a disguise. Heritages which get a humanoid form can more easily blend in with crowds, while heritages which get a fox form can use it for sneaking and tracking.
Kitsune Heritages
- LO:AG: The reaction is too situational to be just a +1 bonus that never scales, especially since it consumes your Reaction.
- LO:AG: The improvement to Demoralize is essentially the same as the Intimidating Glare Skill Feat, which is great for building around Intimidate, but Invigorating Fear is the real draw here. Easy temporary hit points when you Demoralize once per hour can add quite a bit of durability without significantly cutting into your action economy. If your build won’t already provide a source of temporary hp, this is great both for front-line characters who will draw a lot of attention. It’s good for fragile back-line characters, too, but those characters typically take less damage by avoiding being targeted, so the temporary hp may be less impactful.
- LO:AG: Decent for an unarmed combat build, but it clearly wants you to be built around Dexterity. Without the damage bonus from Strength, you really want Agile so that your second/third attacks can make up for the relatively low damage. This is fine, but if you want to fight unarmed you may want other unarmed strike options like Retractable Claws.
- LO:AG: A free ancestry feat, but it’s not a very good one. Still, if you really want to lean into the innate spells it’s a good start.
- LO:AG: Resistance to a common damage type.
Kitsune Feats
Level 1
- LO:AG: On its face, this is a weak attack. 1d4 damage, no traits, and the damage doesn’t scale. It’s easy to look at this and think of it like a bad cantrip, but it’s more helpful to think of it like a ranged unarmed strike. If you’re building to fight unarmed (monks, etc.), this gives you a ready option for attacking at range without resorting to javelins or something and without needing to invest in magic weapons for the rare case that you can’t reach your enemies. Unfortunately, the 20-foot maximum range is tiny, so this isn’t a perfect solution.
- LO:AG: Trained in two Face skills. For a high-Charisma, low-Intelligence character this may be very helpful. Kitsune Lore is also there.
- LO:AG: The spell options aren’t very good.
- LO:AG: Helpful if you plan to fight exclusively with unarmed strikes, but otherwise skip it.
- LO:AG: Only situationally useful.
- LO:AG: Familiars are great, though this one does have some frustrating limitations. Without a built-in movement speed, it’s essentially a pet rock with Familiar Abilities. You’re also locked into the Innate Surge ability, which is frustrating since you can’t get any innate Kitsune spells at this level except cantrips. If you just want the benefits of a familiar without feeling the need to actually command your familiar, this might be exactly what you want.
Level 5
- LO:AG: Conceptually interesting, but hardly worth the feat. It takes one Action to change forms, and the situations where you might want to talk as a fox or use kitsune stuff while in tailless form are not frequent enough to justify the cost of a feat.
- LO:AG: The spell options aren’t great, but illusory object is fun.
- LO:AG: Decent for a kitsune that’s going to do a lot of sneaking and trickery, but it competes for space with Shifting Faces. For kitsune with a tailless form, this enables you to scout and track as a fox. For kitsune with a fox form, this enables you to blend in with other humanoids.
- LO:AG: This effectively makes Illusory Disguise free. In a campaign where disguises and intrigue are useful, this will be helpful frequently.
Level 9
- LO:AG: For classes that benefit from enemies being Flat-Footed (rogues, some gunslingers, etc.) this is basically a free Action in many encounters. You’ll use this repeatedly.
Level 13
- LO:AG: Decent area damage, but the fact that the spell area moves can make it hard to deal the damage more than once.
- LO:AG: The spell options are decent, but not amazing.
Level 17
- LO:AG: Once per day, turn into a flying, flaming, fox-like canine. You get all
the melee capabilities of Animal Form, but, if you’re built as a caster you
can use the Fiery Body benefits to turn yourself into a
Produce Flame
machine gun. Basically, this defines your tactics for the entirety of an
encounter, removing the need to spend whatever other limited resources you
might have like spell slots or Focus Points.
Rampaging Form does not specify what tradition your casting of Produce Flame uses. I assume that it’s Divine based on the Kitsune’s other feats, but check with your GM.
