Varg

Sometimes mistakenly referred to as ‘Werewolves,’ the vargs are lean and powerful wolfmen, a mixture of human and bestial characteristics. Though they walk upright, long tails, lupine heads, and elegant fur leave little doubt as to their origins. In comparison to humes, vargs enjoy enhanced seeing, smell, and hearing; they can clearly recognize objects and movement at far greater distances, though their ability to sense color is significantly weaker.

Like humes, vargs are at home in a wide range of habitats. While most commonly encountered in temperate climates, subspecies of this race can be found roaming sweltering tropical savannas, scraping out a minimal existence on misty moors, or braving arctic conditions. Fur colors and thicknesses vary accordingly, simultaneously serving as insulation and camouflage appropriate to a varg’s adopted surroundings

## **Standard Racial Traits**

* **Ability Score Racial Traits:** Vargs are powerful physical specimens geared toward hunting and scavenging, though they tend to be distrustful. They gain +2 Strength, +2 Wisdom, and –2 Charisma.
* **Size:** Vargs are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
* **Type:** Vargs are Humanoid creatures with the varg subtype.
* **Base Speed:** Vargs have a base speed of 30 feet.
* **Languages:** Vargs begin play speaking Common and Lupin. Vargs with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Draconic, Dwarven, Elvaan, Galkan, Giant, Goblin, and Orc. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.

### Defense Racial Traits

* **Fearless:** Vargs gain a +2 racial bonus on all saving throws against fear effects.
* **Natural Armor:** Vargs have a +1 natural armor bonus.
* **Lycanthropy Resistance:** Vargs are immune to the curse of lycanthropy. Varg’s natural attacks count as silver for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction, and a varg may spend a standard action and touch a lycanthrope to give that lycanthrope an insight bonus equal to the half the varg’s level plus his Wisdom modifier (minimum +1) to the target’s check to change back to human form.

### Feat and Skill Racial Traits

* **Keen Senses:** Vargs receive a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.
* **Wolf Empathy:** Vargs receive a +4 racial bonus on Handle Animal and Diplomacy checks when dealing with wolves, dire wolves, or any other wolf subtype.

### Offense Racial Traits

* **Bite:** Vargs gain a natural bite attack, dealing 1d4 points of damage. The bite is a primary attack, or a secondary attack if the varg is wielding manufactured weapons.

### Senses Racial Traits

* **Darkvision:** Vargs can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
* **Scent:** Vargs gain the scent ability.

### Weakness Racial Traits

* **Emotionless:** Vargs are distrustful and aloof. They do not like dealing with other races other than their own. They receive a –2 penalty on Diplomacy checks when dealing with other races.

## **Alternate Racial Traits**

The following alternate racial traits may be selected in place of one or more of the standard racial traits above. Consult your GM before selecting any of these new options.

### Replaces Ability Scores

* **Feral:** Vargs with this trait give in to their animal natures at the expense of their intellects. A varg with this racial trait always has Perception and Stealth as class skills. In return for this racial trait, the varg starts with a –2 penalty to Intelligence.
* **Light Build:** Some vargs are light and proportionately weaker but more agile. These vargs start with a +2 bonus to Dexterity. This racial trait replaces the +2 Strength bonus.
* **Savant:** One out of every thousand varg births results in a hairless varg, which the varg tribe deems as a great portent for the tribe’s success. Vargs with this racial trait start with +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma, and –2 Constitution, and they have a +1 racial bonus on all saving throws. This racial trait replaces the starting attribute bonuses.

### Replaces Darkvision, Scent

* **Midnight Eyes:** Vargs are sometimes born with an extraordinary ability to see at night that far exceeds that of the average member of their race. Vargs gain darkvision that allows them to see in the dark up to 120 feet. This racial trait replaces darkvision and scent.

### Replaces Emotionless, Keen Senses

* **Civilized:** Outcast vargs have learned to better integrate with society in an attempt to find a new pack. Vargs with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks. This racial trait replaces keen senses and emotionless.

### Replaces Fearless

* **Midnight Child:** Vargs are acclimated to the night so much that they are adept at dodging blows whilst hiding within it. Whenever a varg has concealment or total concealment, the miss chance of attacks against them increases by 5%. This racial trait replaces fearless.

### Replaces Keen Senses

* **Information Hunter:** Outcast vargs who live in large settlements have learned to apply their hunting and scavenging instincts to more esoteric pursuits. Vargs with this racial trait gain a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy checks to gather information, and Knowledge (local) is always a class skill for them. This racial trait replaces keen senses.
* **Influential:** Exceptionally clever vargs take up the mantle of shaman for their tribes and use their gifts to more readily enslave varg captives. Vargs with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks and add +1 to the saving throw DCs for their spells of the enfeebling school that they cast. This racial trait replaces keen senses.

### Replaces Natural Armor

* **Cold Acclimated:** Vargs are accustomed to the extreme temperatures of snowy and polar regions to the far north. Vargs with this racial trait have white fur and are immune to environmental damage from cold weather (below 40 degrees). In conditions of extreme cold (below 0 degrees), vargs suffer the normal conditions for cold weather, not the harsher conditions for extreme cold. In addition, vargs with this racial trait also gain Ice Resistance 5. This racial trait replaces the natural armor trait.
* **Heat Acclimated:** Vargs are accustomed to the extreme temperatures of the plains and deserts they inhabit. Vargs with this racial trait automatically succeed on Fortitude saves to avoid heat dangers for conditions up to and including severe heat. This racial trait replaces the natural armor racial trait.
* **Loper:** Vargs find success by moving faster than their kin, sometimes at the expense of the thick fur protecting them. Vargs with this racial trait gain a +10 bonus to their base speed, and they gain an additional +10 foot racial bonus when using the charge, run, or withdraw actions. This racial trait replaces the natural armor racial trait.

### Variant Varg Heritages

Although many vargs follow the general model of the varg, many more do not. Those of different lineages may evince dramatically different manifestations of their heritage, both in appearance and in ability. Here are 3 different potential heritages for varg PCs. If you choose to use a specific bloodline instead of the general rules for creating a varg, you should work with your GM to ensure that your character’s appearance reflects that bloodline.

* **Alternate Empathy:** While most varg gain a +4 racial bonus on Handle Animal and Diplomacy checks when dealing with wolves, those of the variant heritages listed below gain a different empathy. These variant heritages replace ability scores and Wolf Empathy but otherwise function as it for alternate racial trait replacements.

## Table: Variant Varg Heritages

 Kitsune
 Civilized

Civilized Varg are Small size instead of Medium.

## Age, Height and Weight

Table: Varg Starting Ages:

 15

Table: Aging Effects:

 35 years

Table: Height and Weight

 Varg, Male
(5 ft. 8 in.-7 ft. 2 in.)
 Varg, Female
(5 ft. 1 in.-6 ft. 7 in.)
(138 - 210 lbs.)

## **Racial Feats**

The following feats are available to a varg character who meets the prerequisites.

* **Bone-Crushing Jaws**
	+ *Your jaws have strengthened so much that your bite is deadly.*
	+ **Prerequisite(s):** Str 11, varg.
	+ **Benefit:** Your bite damage improves to 1d6.

* **Desert Runner**
	+ *In your native desert and savannah environments, you are unmatched in speed.*
	+ **Prerequisite(s):** Con 13, varg.
	+ **Benefit:** You gain a +5-foot racial bonus to your base speed when you travel through desert or plains terrain. Additionally, you gain the benefits of the Run feat while in those terrains.
	+ **Special:** You may take this feat an additional time, which adds +5 feet to your base speed. This also increases your run multiplier by 1, and grants you an additional +4 bonus to your Acrobatics checks for jumping after a running start.
* **Pack Tactician**
	+ *Your pack mentality allows you to apply tactical benefits to others in your party.*
	+ **Prerequisite(s):** Any teamwork feat, varg.
	+ **Benefit:** As a standard action you grant one of your teamwork feats to an ally within 30 feet who can hear and see you. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + your Intelligence bonus (if any).
	+ **Special:** This feat may be taken more than once. For every time you take this feat, you can designate an additional ally to gain a teamwork feat, which must be the same feat for each ally. You still grant the feat as a standard action.
* **Spotter (Teamwork)**
	+ *Your ally helps you make subtle corrections to your targeting with distance weapons.*
	+ **Prerequisite(s):** Varg.
	+ **Benefits:** When you stand adjacent to an ally with this feat, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to your ranged attacks. You also benefit from Point-Blank Shot, Far Shot, or Precise Shot, if your ally has the applicable feat.
* **Taste of Blood**
	+ *The taste of blood bolsters your bite attack on the following round.*
	+ **Prerequisite(s):** Bone-Crushing Jaws, base attack bonus +6, varg.
	+ **Benefits:** When you score a hit with your bite attack, you gain a +2 racial bonus to your attack roll for bite attacks during the next round.
* **Throwdown Trip**
	+ *You have learned how to knock the breath out of an opponent that you trip.*
	+ **Prerequisite(s):** Tripping Bite, (or Int 13, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip), varg.
	+ **Benefits:** If you successfully trip an opponent, you force your foe to succeed at a Fortitude save (DC equal to CMB result) or become staggered until the end of his next turn.
* Tripping Bite
	+ *You have tapped into your wolf heritage and learned how to trip a foe that you successfully bite.*
	+ **Prerequisite(s):** Varg.
	+ **Benefits:** You gain the trip special attack, which allows you to trip an opponent as a free action, without provoking an attack of opportunity, when you hit with your bite attack. Your opponent may not attempt to trip you in return. You also gain a +2 bonus to CMB roll when making a trip attempt after biting your foe.
	+ **Normal:** You can only attempt a trip attempt in place of a melee attack, and it provokes an attack of opportunity from your target.
* **Varg Exemplar**
	+ *Your lupine traits are more defined and prominent than those of other members of your race.*
	+ **Prerequisite(s):** Varg
	+ **Benefit:** Your wolf-like nature manifests in one of the following ways. You choose the manifestation when you take this feat, and cannot change it later.
		- **Fast Loper (Ex):** You gain a +10-foot racial bonus to your base speed, and an additional +10-foot racial bonus when using the charge, run, or withdraw actions. If you have the loper racial trait, your racial bonus to your base speed increases to +20-feet, and your additional racial bonus when using the charge, run, or withdraw actions increases to a +20-foot bonus.
		- **Sharp Fangs (Ex):** If you do not have the bone-crushing jaws racial feat, you gain the bone-crushing jaws racial feat. If you have or when you gain the bone-crushing jaws racial feat, your bite damage increases to 1d8.
	+ **Special:** You can take this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you select it, you must choose a different manifestation.

## **Racial Archetypes**

The following racial archetypes are available to vargs:

* Mooncaller (Druid; Varg)
* Pack-Bonded Hunter (Beastmaster; Varg)

## **Favored Class Options**

The following favored class options are available to all characters of this race who have the listed favored class, and unless otherwise stated, the bonus applies each time you select the favored class reward.

* **Astrologian:** Add +1/3 times per day for the draw ability.
* **Beastmaster:** Add +1/2 to the damage dealt by the beastmaster’s animal companion’s natural attacks.
* **Berserker:** Add +1 to the berserker’s total number of rage rounds per day.
* **Bard:** Add +1/6 to the bonus provided by the bard’s inspire courage bardic performance.
* **Druid:** Add a +1/2 bonus on wild empathy checks and a +1/2 bonus on Handle Animal skill checks.
* **Fighter:** Add +1 to the fighter’s CMD when resisting a grapple or trip attempt.
* **Gambler:** Add +1/4 to the gambler’s luck pool.
* **Gunner:** Add +1/4 to the gunner’s grit points.
* **Monk:** Add +1 to the monk’s base speed. In combat this option has no effect unless the monk has selected it in an increment of five. This bonus stacks with the monk’s fast movement class feature and applies under the same conditions as that feature.
* **Samurai:** Add +1/3 to the samurai’s critical confirmation rolls.
* **Thief:** Add a +1/2 bonus on Stealth checks.