Wizards of the Cold Lands (Character Kit)

Class Information 	Class Information
Racial Requirements 	Human
Ability Requirements 	Intelligence 9,Constitution 12
Prime Requisite 	Intelligence
Hit Die Type 	d4
Attack as 	Wizard
Save as 	Wizard
Advance as 	Wizard
Spell Ability? 	Wizard
Exceptional Strength? 	No
Exceptional Constitution?	No
Starting Cash (x10 gp) 	3d6
Proficiencies 	Proficiencies
Weapon Slots 	2
Additional Slot 	5
Nonproficiency Penalty 	-4
Nonweapon Slots 	4
Additional Slot 	3
Available Categories 	General, Wizard
Bonus Proficiencies 	None
Recommended Proficiencies	Survival
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==Overview==
===Damara===
Once a powerful nation, Damara was recently attacked by the armies of Vassa. This war left both countries shattered and trying to regain some fraction of their former glory. The strife of recent times shows clearly on those who come from the region.
===The Great Glacier===
When most people think of the Iulutiuns who inhabit the Great Glacier, they don't envision spellcasters. However, those who know more of these rugged folk will nod knowingly and mention the Anagakok shamans (described in the Complete Wizard's Handbook or [FR14] The Great Glacier). Those who are even more familiar with the Iulutiuns and the Anagakok know that those unusual wizards represent the most potent spellcasters found on the Great Glacier. Actually, there are other wizards, perhaps not so powerful, but certainly more numerous. It is these generally ignored folk who, if they fully master the mystic arts, can one day graduate to the prestigious rank of Anagakok.
===Sossal===
The Sossrim, who inhabit the fabled Kingdom of Sossal, are a strange and wondrous people. Many folk who live in more hospitable climates wonder at their ability to survive in a land as hostile as the frozen North. Like the Iulutiuns, the Sossrim have adapted to life in a place where no other native of Toril would likely survive for even a few days.
==Description==
Life in this harsh climate breeds a particularly sturdy lot. The fragile of body and the easily sickened die young, and those who remained hardened against the elements most often survive and bear young. Hence, all people born in the Cold Lands have a minimum Constitution of 12.
===Damara===
The wizards of Damara generally wear heavy robes of white, beige, or gray wool. Runes traditionally decorate their cuffs and hems, and they don a dark red or blue hooded cloak when the weather is particularly brisk. Often they wear animal skins as accents to give them a more macabre look, but the true mark of a Damaran wizard is the elaborately carved bloodstone torc that encircles his shaved head.
===The Great Glacier===
Life amid the frozen expanses of the Great Glacier is not easy. The people there have spent centuries adapting to the frigid environment and learning to make do with the meager resources they have available. This spartan existence is apparent in the dress of the Iulutiuns, who clothe themselves in animal hides with hoods, fur mittens, and thick-soled boots.
The magicians of the glacier carry staves fashioned from the vertebrae of polar bears. From a distance these appear blackened and dirty, but a closer look reveals that they are covered with intricate designs carved into the bone and inked. The Iulutiun believe these scrimshaw runes enhance the magical power of those who understand them.
===Sossal===
Even the Iulutiun people have not adapted to the brutal environment of the north as well as the Sossrim. These folk have skin that is as pallid as snow and hair with the fine, silver tint of an icicle. So perfectly camouflaged are the Sossrim that they can throw themselves flat upon snow and virtually vanish from sight. Even so, the Iulutiun do have pigment in their eyes and traces of color at the roots of their hair.
The Sossrim, whether wizards or not, dress in the white furs of polar bears. They often remove the hides of these
creatures in such a way that the head remains intact and attached to the rest of the skin. When such a robe is fashioned correctly, the bear's head is placed over that of the wearer. Seen from a distance, it is easy to mistake a hooded Sossrim hunter as an upright polar bear or some manner of lycanthrope.
==Role-playing==
===Damara===
The war with Vassa and its resulting chaos has left the wizards of Damara suspicious and careful. They never go about unarmed and seldom trust strangers. Even close friends are constantly watched for signs of betrayal. No one is so well-known as to be above suspicion in the eyes of a Damaran wizard.
===The Great Glacier===
Members of the Iulutiun tribes are not comfortable when out of their natural environment. Some of this is physical, for they have adapted to the colder climate of the North so well that warmer regions are almost painful to them. On the other hand, much of it is mental. Even the wisest Anagakok does not understand or trust the strange devices and magic of outsiders. While a wizard from atop the Great Glacier might find these things interesting at first, he will soon come to loathe them and long to return to his home. Only the most pressing of emergencies will keep such a character away from his family and tribe for more than a month or so. This is not to say that he cannot be a member of a far-ranging adventuring party; rather he will have a specific and good reason for not going home.
===Sossal===
The Sossrim feel exposed and vulnerable when not in the arctic environment of their homes. At first, this merely makes them a bit edgy. Within a fortnight, however, a Sossrim traveler begins to become almost paranoid. The evolutionary traits that allow him to survive in the frigid north often work against him in warmer regions of the world.
This is not to say these folk are cowardly. The dangers they face in their daily lives would leave most citizens of Waterdeep or Dales merchants cowering and broken. The
Sossrim will certainly press on if he feels his reason for traveling is important enough. However, he'll take a direct approach to his business in the outside world and get it over with promptly so that he may return to his homeland.
==Special Abilities==
===Damara===
While some might expect that the war with Vassa would have caused the wizards of Damara to hone their fighting magic, the reverse has proven true. Through long hours of research, these mages have gained a bonus proficiency in healing and the ability to channel a single spell into a living creature.
The process of channeling their own spell energy serves to heal the affected creature one point per spell level channeled. Such a channeling can be performed but once per day.
===The Great Glacier===
To survive atop the Great Glacier, the Iulutiun have become strong and hardy souls. There is no place for the weak or lazy in a culture where every member of the clan is expected to pull his own weight. Even wizards are expected to put in a full day's work. Of course, their duties are generally magical in nature.
Iulutiun wizards must work with what is available to them, just as the rest of the tribe must. Hunters make do with bone-tipped spears because metal is very scarce in the frozen North. For the mages of the Great Glacier, this means enduring the bitter cold and surviving in the frozen wastes. Iulutiun wizards gain a bonus proficiency in endurance and survival in arctic conditions.
===Sossal===
The magic of the Sossrim is based partly on a natural understanding of the sparse life that manages to survive in the frozen North. In both the majestic polar bear and the stubble of lichen clinging to an outcropping of rock, there is a magical power. When a Sossrim wizard works his spells, he taps into this energy and channels it to do his will.
As he becomes more familiar with the frozen world's creatures, he gains more power. In addition, he acquires
the ability to assume the shape of the many animals that live around him. This power may be employed once in any 24-hour period, with a duration in turns equal to the level of the wizard. The transformation takes one round and functions much like the wizard's shape change spell. Unless the Dungeon Master rules against a specific animal, the wizard may become any creature whose natural climate (defined in the "Climate/Terrain" listing of its MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM entry) is arctic. The principle limiting factor of the wizard's ability is that the creature cannot have more than half his own Hit Dice, rounded up. For example, a 16th-level wizard can become an arctic creature of as many as 8 Hit Dice, like a polar bear, for as long as 16 turns.
==Special Disadvantages==
===Damara===
In mastering the healing arts, the wizards of Damara have attained an affinity for all living things. In game terms this means they suffer a -2 penalty to their saving throws against necromantic spells.
===The Great Glacier===
The nature of life atop the Great Glacier makes it difficult or even impossible for wizards to interact in society outside of their own. This manifests itself in game terms with a -2 reaction penalty whenever the wizard is dealing with cultures outside his own.
===Sossal===
The Sossrim are a magnificent people by any standard. The mere fact they are able to survive in the frozen land they call home proves their quality. Unfortunately, the physiological differences that enable them to survive leave them more vulnerable to certain types of magic than the other races of Toril.
Whenever a Sossrim wizard is attacked with a spell that employs fire or heat to inflict damage, he suffers an extra point of damage per die rolled. For example, a 5-HD fireball would cause an additional 5 points of damage to a Sossrim wizard. Any saving throw the wizard makes to resist the effects of such spells has a -4 penalty.