My first brush with hengeyokai was in 3rd Edition’s Oriental Adventures, and I am happy to see them make a healthy comeback in this whopping ten page article. Aside from paragraph upon paragraph devoted to their appearance, personality, culture, and place within Forgotten Realms (and a side bar for the Nentir Vale and Eberron), there is also a section on example monster stat blocks, advice for making your own hengeyokai monsters, and a full racial write up on par with what you got out of Heroes of the Fallen Lands/Forgotten Kingdoms.
For previous fans, they still get to choose a Tiny animal form, can turn into it whenever they want, and gain a benefit in your animal form, such as a burrow, climb or even fly speed. If you though the pixie having an altitude limit of 1 and being able to fly at-will was overpowered, crane and sparrow hengeyokai have a fly speed of 6 and no altitude cap. Granted you cannot do anything in your animal form, but I am sure that fact won’t stop people from complaining about how it already ruined their game.
This is the kind of stuff that I like to see. While intended by default for Forgotten Realms (specifically Kara-tur), it is actually great for any campaign with Feywild elements (certainly better than, say, the wilden). My only gripe is that there is zilch feat support, which I won’t hold my breath on.
Awful Good Games 