Warriors of the Cold Lands (Character Kit)

Class Information 	Class Information
Racial Requirements 	Human
Ability Requirements 	Constitution 14,Strength 10
Prime Requisite 	Strength
Hit Die Type 	d10
Attack as 	Fighter
Save as 	Fighter
Advance as 	Ranger
Spell Ability? 	No
Exceptional Strength? 	Yes
Exceptional Constitution?	Yes
Starting Cash (x10 gp) 	4d4
Proficiencies 	Proficiencies
Weapon Slots 	4
Additional Slot 	3
Nonproficiency Penalty 	-2
Nonweapon Slots 	3
Additional Slot 	3
Available Categories 	General, Warrior
Bonus Proficiencies 	Survival
Recommended Proficiencies	Endurance
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==Overview==
The Cold Lands lie north of the Moonsea and east of Anauroch, and they cover a vast expanse of land. The frigid setting's best known feature is, of course, the Great Glacier.
===Damara===
Damara is a ruined nation east of the Moonsea, which was destroyed by the attack of an evil army from Vaasa. All that remains now is a fragmented nation of petty domains and rural communities. Damara's warriors are all that keeps the country from completely disintegrating at the hands of either internal enemies or another invading army.
===The Great Glacier===
This massive glacier is home to the Ulutiuns, a short, primitive race of humans. Their warriors are not as wellequipped as their counterparts elsewhere in the Realms, but their ferocity in battle and tenacity to survive are cold hard facts.
===Sossal===
This fantastic kingdom of pale, blonde humans is the northernmost nation in the Realms. Their ability to flourish in such frigid conditions is a source of amazement to others. Their warriors are unparalleled in arctic survival and cold-weather combat.
===Thar===
This vast land is home, to a great number of giants, white dragons, orcs, and ogres (beast-men). Despite this, there is a sizeable human population here, mainly congregated around the trade-town of Glister. Warriors are plentiful, as they are needed primarily to beat back the constant humanoid presence.
==Description==
===Damara===
Damaran warriors are clad in very warm furs, cloaks, fur helmets, warm leggings, and heavy gloves and boots. Such measures are needed, for the Damaran warriors need protection not only against the blades and claws of the enemy, but against the harsh elements as well.
===The Great Glacier===
The Ulutiun warriors are a short, squat, dark-skinned, and dark-eyed race. They wear thick suits of fur and hides, and favor spears in battle.
===Sossal===
Warriors of Sossal have very pale skin, ice-blue eyes, and pale blonde hair. They are of a hearty, muscular build, and they are fond of wearing white furs. In fact, any armor they can get is also painted white.
===Thar===
The warriors of Thar dress similarly to those warriors of more southerly lands, though there is still a good amount of cold-weather clothing worn with their armor. The warriors of Thar look world-weary, experienced, and battle-scarred beyond their years. Even beginning first-level warriors seem older and more mature than most people the same age. The eyes of a warrior of Thar have a battle-weary hardness to them that more genteel folk find disturbing.
==Role-Playing==
===Damara===
The warriors of Damara are a grim, burdened lot. Their fathers, uncles, and brothers fought in the war against Vaasa twenty years ago. Some of them fought as well, in the later skirmishes. Each warrior is keenly aware of the responsibility upon his or her shoulders to defend the people. Suffice to say, they are not the most fun-minded or light-hearted of adventurers.
Many warriors of Damara seem to have the same social makeup of Dalesmen. They believe in minding their own business, and are satisfied if outsiders return that favor. These warriors have a stubborn streak, an obstinate hard-headedness to survive and hide all signs of weakness. This trait, considering their hostile environment, has probably saved many Damaran lives on more than one occasion.
The Damaran warriors seem to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. In a way, they do just that. Whatever the case may be, they never whine or complain about their lot in life. They accept their fates quite stoically.
===The Great Glacier===
Despite their cold clime, the Ulutiuns are a very warm and friendly people after you get to know them. In their language, they have two dozen different words for "snow", and not a single one for "sand". When they fight, they battle to the death with no quarter given or asked. They know that in their climate, battle is a fact of life and death is rarely far off.
===Sossal===
"As cold as the snow that hides them" is how one sage described the warriors of Sossal. They are slow to laugh, and even slower to trust anyone who is not of their blood. Even when that trust is earned, it must be constantly renewed and re-earned, given their "What have you done for me lately?" attitude.
Sossal warriors are cold-hearted pragmatists who have no qualms about taking actions that others may find uncivilized. A wounded comrade who will die slowly is slain quickly. After all, why make him suffer needlessly? Old people who have outlived their usefulness can either wander out into the icy waste and die in the cold, or take a quick-acting poison brewed from a scraggly arctic plant.
If Sossal warriors possess the capacity to fear, one cannot tell from their deeds. The expression "ice water in their veins," meaning that someone shows no fear or any emotion whatsoever, is a very appropriate description of Sossal warriors.
Sossal warriors all bear a fanatical hatred of white dragons, a hatred that spills over to all dragons types. To a Sossal warrior, there is no such thing as a good dragon, period.
===Thar===
Living in a land overrun by giants, dragons, and humanoids makes a warrior tough and harsh. The warriors of Thar are a rough, hardy lot, always ready for a fight.
Due to the civilizing effect of Glister, the warriors of Thar come the closest in the Cold Lands to what warriors in other parts of the Realms are like. They can be very sociable, humorous, and good-natured, and they make friends with ease.
However, when battle is upon them, they launch into it with single-minded determination. There are too many enemies around them to ever fully let down their guard, or dim their enthusiasm for battle.
==Special Advantages==
===Damara===
Warriors of Damara live in a war-ravaged society, where their skills are constantly called into service. Damaran warriors learn to fight with nearly many types of weapons, since they never know what they will have at hand if drawn into combat. As a result, their weapon nonproficiency penalty is -1 on attack rolls, as opposed to the normal -2 for warriors.
The warriors of Damara have also cultivated an instinctive readiness for battle. They are surprised only on a roll of 1 or 2 on a d10.
===The Great Glacier===
The Ulutiun are masters at survival in arctic climates. Their survival nonweapon proficiency rolls get a +1 bonus to their adjusted ability score in cold environments.
Due to their acclimation to the cold, Ulutiun warriors gain a +1 on their saving throws against cold-based attacks. Also, such attacks are reduced by -1 hit point per hit die of cold damage inflicted upon an Ulutiun warrior.
Each Ulutiun warrior starts off with an exquisitely-carved spear that tells the story of his clan in the form of pictograms. This spear allegedly contains a portion of the collective soul of the warrior's family. It is jealously protected at all costs. The Ulutiun warrior wields this spear with +1 bonuses to attack and damage rolls in addition to other bonuses.
===Sossal===
The warriors of Sossal are a breed apart. Their long-term exposure to cold gives them a +2 on their saving throws against all cold-based attacks.
In addition, warriors of Sossal gain a +1 on their saving throws versus dragon breath, and a +2 bonus on saving throws against any type of dragonfear.
In a setting with snow on the ground, Sossal warriors can naturally pass without trace. Sossal warriors also are able to hide against snowy terrain, until it seems that they are nearly invisible. This works similarly to a hide in shadows ability, but it operates at 20% effectiveness in areas of heavy snow coverage, and 10% in areas of light snow coverage; this ability increases by 7% each level. These percentages increase by 10% in darkness and decrease by 20% when hiding from someone with infravision.
===Thar===
Warriors of Thar are exposed to the constant threat of humanoids, giant-kind, and dragons from early childhood on. As a result, a warrior of Thar can learn up to two of the following languages, though each language does still cost a slot: orc, gnoll, ogre, or goblin. If two slots are spent, the warrior could learn the frost giant or white dragon tongues.
Each warrior of Thar must select one of the above races as a mortal enemy. When battling this enemy, the warrior gets +4 on his attack rolls. Once selected, the enemy cannot be changed.
Warriors of Thar gain the survival nonweapon proficiency for arctic climates as a free bonus.
==Special Disadvantages==
All of the peoples of the Cold Lands have one hinderance in common. Some people may think it is not a hinderance at all, but it depends on individual tastes.
Life in the Cold Lands can be harsh and brief. As a result, most dwellers in these lands marry and produce offspring at an early age. Most Cold Lands folk are married at age sixteen, and have one child soon after that.
Each starting warrior has a 50% chance of being married, with his or her mate "back home." Fifty percent of those warriors without a mate "back home" are widowed.
If the warrior's starting age is eighteen, there is a 70% chance that he or she has a child. Roll again for every year beyond eighteen. A twenty year old warrior could start out a game campaign as the parent of three children!
Even if a warrior is childless and widowed, he must set aside 20% of his earnings for his family's welfare. Once every season (three months), warriors who are married or parents must return to their land to visit their families, and bring them the money.
===Damara===
Damara has little left that can be considered an organized nation. Among other things, the economy is devastated. To show this, initial equipment costs 20% more than listed prices in the DMG to account for black market prices.
===The Great Glacier===
Metal is, of course, scarce on the Great Glacier. There are no shields, helms, or suits of armor made of metal available for a starting warrior of this area. Allowable starting weapons are the following: staff, sling, short bow, long bow, spear, dagger, short sword, hand axe, harpoon, and club.
Ulutiun warriors cannot begin with any reading/writing proficiencies at all. Moreover, the form of pidgin Common spoken by the Ulutiuns lacks many words that are spoken throughout the majority of Faerûn and contains other unfamiliar words known only to Ulutiuns. Consequently, when someone speaks with an Ulutiun, an ability check against Intelligence must be made for both parties whenever an important fact or new subject is being discussed. Consult the effects below under the appropriate conditions.
* Both NPCs make their Intelligence checks: The spoken concept is understood clearly by both parties. "There is a wereboar near you!"
* One check succeeds and the other fails: The meaning of the spoken phrase is hopelessly garbled. "Where are the boring knees to!"
* Both NPCs fail their Intelligence checks: The Ulutiun speaker either says the opposite of what he meant, or has said something inflammatory. "Here, I wish to bore a hole into you!"
Note that the Ulutiun warrior may use a future nonweapon proficiency slot to acquire the standard Realms Common tongue (or any other dialect) as a separate language, thus removing the need for the aforementioned checks.
The spear that each Ulutiun warrior starts out with is considered a sacred tool. If it is ever lost or destroyed, the Ulutiun warrior is affected as if fear and feeblemind spells have been cast on him. These effects last for 20 rounds minus the warrior's level. Once the immediate shock is over, the warrior's immediate priority is to return to the Great Glacier and have a new spear carved in a special tribal ceremony.
===Sossal===
While the physiology of the Sossal warrior is splendid for survival in the cold, heat becomes their worst enemy. Sossal warriors make saving throws against fire attacks at a -1 penalty, and suffer an extra hit point per die of fire damage.
In places where the temperature tops 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the Sossal warrior becomes agitated and uncomfortable from the heat. All of his attributes are reduced by 2 until he can get to a cooler site.
The fanatical hatred that Sossal warriors have for dragons is taught from birth and has become an ingrained part of their culture as a rite of passage. When a Sossal warrior reaches seventh level, he or she must slay a white dragon within a year; the PC cannot rise above 7th level until he or she has killed a white dragon (50% or more of total damage).
This extreme enmity has not gone unnoticed by the white dragons around Sossal. The DM should create an NPC white dragon specifically as the PC's enemy and begin working the warrior slowly towards the life-or-death confrontation with the dragon.
Finally, the range of creatures encountered by the Sossal is limited indeed. There are many monsters whose natures and abilities baffle and surprise the Sossal warriors. Thus, a Sossal warrior is surprised on a 1-4 on a d10 when encountering monsters that are not on the Arctic table of wandering monsters in the MONSTROUS MANUAL tome. 
===Thar===
Though Thar is not as frigid as the other areas in the Cold Lands, it is in many ways wilder and less civilized, especially considering the sheer number of evil races running about. Therefore, the warrior of Thar suffers a -3 penalty when dealing with civilized NPCs from beyond the Cold Lands.
Also, warriors of Thar tend to strike first and talk later. If a situation develops where a party is having a talk with humanoids, giants, or dragons, the warrior of Thar must make an ability check against his Wisdom each turn. If the warrior fails the check, the time of talk has passed (for him, anyway), and he launches himself at the monsters.
Warriors of Thar, due to their coarse nature, cannot take the etiquette nonweapon proficiency until they reach at least ninth level, and its cost is doubled.
Furthermore, a warrior of Thar can certainly build a keep in the land of Thar and try to attract followers. Unfortunately, it has a 25% likelihood per month of attracting a band of raiding frost giants, ogres, or orcs who want to sack it.