GLACIER DWARVES

Although many of the frostfell's dwarves are the same as dwarves in other lands, some have left their ancestral homes in the mountains, seeking an altogether different material from which to forge their weapons and armor. This material, known as blue ice, is found only in the deepest and most ancient glaciers. Blue ice can be forged like metal, but is lighter and keeps a sharper edge. These dwarves have taken to building their underground homes in the hearts of glaciers that carry deposits of blue ice. These glacial mines are similar in many ways to the mountain mines, except that everything is crafted from masterfully carved ice. The dwarves who dwell in these fantastic structures are often known as glacier dwarves.

Glacier dwarves are identical to dwarves, except for as follows:

  • Icecunning: Glacier dwarves gain a +2 racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual construction or hazards in ice and snow. This includes traps of ice or snow, and natural or supernatural hazards such as thin ice or blood snow. A glacier dwarf who merely comes within 10 feet of unusual ice construction or hazards can make a Search check as if he were actively searching, and a glacier dwarf can use Search to find ice or snow traps as a rogue can. This ability replaces the dwarf's stonecunning.

  • Cold Tolerant: Glacier dwarves gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against cold damage and cold effects. Glacier dwarves can also exist comfortably in conditions between -20° and 90° F (severe cold to hot) without having to make Fortitude saves. This ability counts as if a glacier dwarf had the Cold Endurance feat for purposes of fulfilling prerequisites for other feats or prestige classes.

  • Glacier dwarves have no special racial resistance to poison.

  • +2 racial bonus on Appraise and Craft checks that are related to snow, ice, or special frostfell materials. This replaces the bonus on checks that are related to stone or metal.

SNOW ELVES

Explorers into the farthest reaches of the ice sometimes return with stories of magnificent ice cities built atop remote mountaintops that are inhabited by snow elves, folk with eyes as white as snow and hair that coils like fragile wisps of cloud. They have no physical resistance to the cold, but their cities are built to shield their citizens from the surrounding environment. As a result, snow elves tend to leave their cities only rarely, and have not had much contact with the outside world.

Snow elves are in most regards similar to elves, but with the following notable changes:

  • +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma: Snow elves remain as graceful and fluid in their motions as their warmer-dwelling kin. Although they are generally much hardier than other elves, their icy environs have made their emotions sharp and their attitude even more elitist and haughty than normal.

ICE GNOMES

Gnomes born and raised in the frostfell are often called ice gnomes, if only for their propensity for decorating their homes and villages with elaborate ice sculptures. Ice gnomes possess a different set of spell-like abilities due to their environment and childhood teachings:

  • Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day - speak with animals (arctic mammal only, duration 1 minute). An ice gnome with a Charisma score of at least 10 also has the following spell-like abilities: 1/day - dancing lights, prestidigitation, ray of frost. Caster level 1st; save DC 10 + gnome's Cha modifier + spell level.

TUNDRA HALFLINGS

Halflings native to the frostfell are known as tundra halflings, for their affinity to these wide open reaches of the frozen lands. They retain their nomadic lifestyles, but often build permanent structures along the paths their wanderings commonly take; it's not uncommon for a group of tundra halflings to wander from one empty village to another as the seasons change.

Tundra halflings have the same racial traits as halflings, but with the following exceptions.

  • +2 racial bonus on Jump, Move Silently, and Survival checks. Halflings raised on the tundra have little opportunity to practice their climbing skills, while ample moments exist to hone one's skills at surviving. This replaces the halfling's bonus on Climb, Jump, and Move Silently checks.

  • Favored Class: Ranger. A multiclass tundra halfling's ranger class does not count when determining whether she takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing. Tundra halflings tend to be more isolated and insular, and do not often interact with other societies. This, combined with the fact that they are more often forced to provide for themselves by hunting and gathering, make them turn to the skills of the ranger more often than not.

NEANDERTHALS

The neanderthals are a feral race of humans, created by the crude and violent deities of the winterlands to dwell in their frozen domains. They are a primitive folk who have never seen the need to become more civilized, usually living in caves or abandoned underground ruins and hunting the surrounding regions with great skill.

Personality: Neanderthals are savage and brutal, reflections of the feral deities who created them. They react with suspicion or open hostility toward unknown developments, since they learn early on in childhood that the unknown is something to fear. If you understand the enemy, you have nothing to fear, for you know what needs to be done to overcome him. Yet among friends, neanderthals are much more relaxed and sociable, and enjoy dancing, singing, tale-telling, feasting, and other pastimes involving large numbers of people.

Physical Description: Neanderthals are hairy and thickly built, with long arms and barrel chests. Their heads are a bit larger than a human's, with a sloping brow and a prodigious jaw filled with large strong teeth capable of cracking bones. They often adorn their skin with crude tattoos and war paint, either to afford themselves camouflage in natural environments or to strike fear into their enemies. Scars are often held to be marks of honor and esteemed in neanderthal society, and are openly displayed both to honor the fallen enemy and to increase that person's prestige in the eyes of his kin. Neanderthals are towering figures, often standing between 7 and 7-1/2 feet tall and weighing about 350 pounds. They reach adulthood at the age of 14, and live about 65 years.

Relations: Neanderthals have traditionally had poor relations with other races. Orcs, frost folk, and similar savage races treat them the same way as they treat humans - as enemies at best and as food at worst. Yet the neanderthals cannot look to the civilized societies for aid, for such societies often displace neanderthals from their homelands in their relentless pursuit to colonize and settle new lands. The neanderthals never give up their homelands gently, and the history of neanderthals and civilization is a long, bloody tale of warfare and slaughter. Those few societies that understand and honor the neanderthals' traditions and hunting grounds are still regarded with suspicion; the neanderthals have been tricked and deluded far too many times for them to openly accept offers of friendship and trade.

Alignment: Neanderthals lead simple lives and are at one with the natural world. Good and evil, law and chaos have little interest to neanderthals, and they prefer to react to new situations based on similar previous encounters. They have little interest in expanding their territories, but at the same time defend their homes with a ferocity equaled by few orc tribes. While they may be bound by longstanding ancestral traditions and religions that are viewed as laws of a sort, these traditions are highly mutable and prone to change when each generation comes into power.

Neanderthal Lands: Neanderthals usually live in large groups consisting of six to ten extended families. These are known as clans. A single neanderthal clan usually dwells in a large cave network with numerous small entrances and one large main entrance, in which feasts and ceremonies are often held. Where large caverns like this are unavailable, neanderthals settle in abandoned ruins or in the lee of large rock formations if no other shelter is available; they do not build their own shelters.

Surrounding their clan's home are their hunting grounds. A clan's hunting grounds usually cover as much terrain as a person can walk in a half-day's travel, since the hunters of neanderthal society prefer to return to their homes at night after a day spent in the wild. The borders of these hunting grounds are often marked with crude fetishes made of skin, bone, and trophies taken from vanquished enemies.

Religion: Although neanderthals do not form civilized societies, their religious beliefs often rival those of civilization in complexity. Each clan adheres to specific beliefs that are handed down via oral tradition and cave paintings through the generations. Most neanderthals do not normally worship actual deities; rather, they are taught by their spiritual leaders (usually druids or sorcerers) about their clan's particular beliefs.

Some clans believe that all living creatures are part of the spiritual world, and that for each animal and each plant there exists a spiritual ideal. These are commonly held to be paragon examples of such creatures, real and physical and flesh, yet embodying all that their specific breed represents in the real world.

Other clans participate in a form of ancestor worship, in which the bodies of the dead are buried in the frozen ground and marked with a complex series of cairns and other stones placed along lines of power (real or imagined) connecting the bodies of the dead. These clans believe that the spirits of their ancestors watch over them, protect them, and judge them in death, either allowing them entrance into the world or forcing them into the frozen depths of the underworld.

Fire is also often worshiped by neanderthal clans. While all neanderthals are taught the secrets of making fire when they are old enough to hold a piece of flint and steel, the actual physical qualities of fire are still mysterious and powerful in neanderthal society. Most neanderthal caverns have a central bonfire chamber that is never allowed to go out; it's natural that some of them would start viewing this "eternal fire" as divine in nature.

A few clans actually worship specific deities, usually their savage creator deities. Neanderthals most often revere Telchur, Thrym, Ulutiu, and Vatun. More rarely, neanderthal clans are converted to the worship of civilized deities by clerics or missionaries from other races that have somehow gained the trust and admiration of the clan. When this cleric or missionary dies, the clan continues to worship the deity, often building elaborate fetishes or crude altars at which to worship or perform sacrifices. Over the generations, these cults often become quite altered from the original source, so that multiple clans who may technically be worshiping the same deity do so in wildly different ways.

In any case, religion is important in neanderthal society, for it provides a framework for them to explain everything in the world and their lives that they do not understand.

Language: Although long ago, the original neanderthals had little need of language, today their rich oral traditions make language an important part of their society. For the most part, neanderthals speak a crude form of Common that can be understood (with a bit of concentration) by anyone who speaks the language. Neanderthals are generally illiterate, and prefer to use pictures and drawings to preserve concepts and stories.

Names: Neanderthals have simple names, yet they attribute great power to them. Names are typically guttural and savage sounding. A neanderthal's given name is a jealously guarded secret known only to his most trusted friends and the other members of his clan. To outsiders, a neanderthal typically refers to himself by his class or profession in the clan, along with his clan's name. For example, a hunter might introduce himself as a hunter of the Elk Clan.

Male Names: Artok, Becksor, Brulak, Garthak, Kalak, Llurg, Murak, Orick, Ralagh, Thogart, Torak, Urak.

Female Names: Ayah, Bahgdra, Cirah, Drelli, Durana, Illka, Kara, Lana, Magala, Neruh, Onsi, Orli, Svelani, Zura.

Clan Names: Clan names are typically named after a predominant animal in the region; Bear Clan, Branta Clan, Elk Clan, Mammoth Clan, Raven Clan, Tiger Clan, and Wolf Clan are excellent examples. Rarely, a clan may take the name of a particularly powerful local menace, such as Dragon Clan, Spider Clan, or Yeti Clan.

Adventurers: It's rare, but sometimes a lone neanderthal, disillusioned with life among his tribe or forced by a more tragic history to strike out on his own, stumbles upon a more civilized society. These encounters are usually brutal and short, but in some cases, a neanderthal learns to adapt to the newly encountered settlement, and often becomes a well-liked and valued member of the community, if only for his penchant for telling engaging stories of the wild. These neanderthals often become adventurers, and take quite naturally to the adventuring lifestyle.

NEANDERTHAL RACIAL TRAITS
  • +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence. Neanderthals are strong and hardy, but are hampered by slow intellects and reflexes.

  • Medium: As Medium creatures, neanderthals have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

  • Neanderthal base land speed is 30 feet.

  • Primitive Weapon Mastery (Ex): Neanderthals have a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls made with the following weapons: bolas, club, dart, greatclub, goad, harpoon, iuak, javelin, longspear, quarterstaff, ritiik, shortbow, shortspear, sling, spear, sugliin, throwing axe, and tiger skull club.

  • +2 racial bonus on Listen, Spot, and Survival checks. Neanderthals have excellent senses and know how to get along in the wild with ease.

  • Climate Tolerant (Ex): Neanderthals suffer little harm from environmental extremes of heat or cold. They do not have to make Fortitude saves in extreme environments between -20° and 140° F (severe cold to severe heat). This ability does not provide any protection from fire or cold damage. This ability counts as if a neanderthal had the Cold Endurance feat for purposes of fulfilling prerequisites for other feats or prestige classes.

  • Human Blood: For all effects related to race, a neanderthal is considered a human. Neanderthals are just as vulnerable to special effects that affect humans as humans are, and they can use magic items that are only usable by humans.

  • Illiteracy: Neanderthals do not automatically know how to read and write. A neanderthal must spend 2 skill points to gain the ability to read and write all languages he is able to speak. He does not automatically gain this skill when taking a nonbarbarian character class, with the exception of the wizard class.

  • Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Giant, and Orc. Neanderthals are familiar with the languages of giants and orcs, for these two groups are common enemies that vie for competing land with them. Likewise, their penchant for dwelling in caves and underground ruins often puts them in contact with dwarves.

  • Favored Class: Barbarian. A multiclass neanderthal's barbarian class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

ULDRAS

Uldras are small fey that dwell in the arctic wilderness, living at peace with the natural world. In particular, uldras are quite fond of the wild animals of the world, and see themselves as the guardians and protectors of such creatures, especially in cases where civilization encroaches. Although they generally prefer to avoid conflict, they are quick to rise in the defense of local wildlife.

Personality: Uldras are exceptionally emotional creatures, and their reactions to new situations are always powerful and expressive. An uldra can be laughing with joy one moment, screaming with rage in the next, and then be calm and serene a moment later. To an uldra, these ever-changing mood swings are natural and logical, but they often project a feeling of insanity to more civilized people.

Nothing brings joy to an uldra's heart more than watching, playing with, or helping wild animals. They find domesticated animals to be depressing and enraging, and often stage midnight raids on villages to "rescue" cows, dogs, and other domesticated animals by kidnapping them and helping them to return to their wild roots. Uldras have a strong dislike of cities and civilization in general, and many of them take it upon themselves to harass and annoy travelers and other obviously city-bred folk they encounter.

Physical Description: Uldras are short and thin, standing anywhere from 2-1/2 to 3 feet tall and typically weighing 30-40 pounds. They are fairly long-lived, rivaling the elves for longevity. An uldra becomes an adult at approximately the age of 100, and can live to be more than 600 years old. Their limbs are long and thin, and each of their hands possesses three long fingers and a thumb. Their toes are also long and thin, with long sharp toenails. They tend to walk or run on the balls of their feet or their toes. Uldra skin is generally pale blue or even snow white. Hair color is typically some darker shade of blue or black, frosting to gray or light blue in advanced age. Their ears are large, but their nose, mouth, and chin are fairly small, giving their faces an expressive but undeniably alien look. The most startling feature about the uldra's visage, though, is its eyes; an uldra's eyes are quite large and colorful, and can be nearly any color (and often have two or three hues). Combinations of green, gold, and red are the most common. In the dark, their eyes seem to glow with a soft light. They prefer to dress simply in rustic clothing, and often eschew clothing altogether. The major exception is hats; uldras have a deep love of hats (especially pointed hats) and it's rare indeed to see a hatless uldra.

Relations: Uldras prefer the company of other fey (particularly dryads and other uldras), but since they tend to live closer to civilized lands than most fey, contact with the humanoid races is common. They find the most in common with gnomes, and most actively enjoy the company of gnomes and visit gnome villages to trade goods, stories, or friendship. They get along well enough with elves and halflings, but as a general rule they don't seek them out. Brutal races, such as orcs and goblinoids, are often thought of as little more than monsters by uldras, and they try to avoid contact with these creatures. The majority of conflicts in uldra society happen with humans and dwarves. These races have embraced technology more than the others, and their habits of expanding violently into the natural world or mining it for its riches enrages and depresses the average uldra. As a result, most uldras view humans and dwarves with bitter suspicion at best. Since uldras tend to avoid interacting with most nonuldra races except in times of conflict, they have developed a mostly undeserving reputation as a sinister and evil race in the eyes of most humanoids.

Alignment: Uldras are free-spirited and often give in to their emotions or act on a whim; as a result they are most often chaotic neutral. Many uldras, enraged by the lack of respect afforded the natural world by other races, turn to evil in an attempt to exact vengeance and to fight back in nature's behalf. Good-aligned uldras are rarer, but those who do resist their darker natures try to find peaceful ways for the civilized races and nature to coexist. Lawful uldras are quite rare, but not unheard of; usually such uldras are those who have had long contact with lawful humanoid societies.

Uldra Lands: Unlike humanoid races, uldras have little interest in building cities. They dwell in natural caves, hollow trees, dense thickets, or icy glacial tunnels or spires, finding comfort and shelter as they can. They tend to live in small groups of three to six family units, with about six uldras per family. Their lives are nomadic, and their society anarchic. Leadership, when necessary, is usually assumed by the loudest or strongest, and even then only lasts for a short time. Nothing breaks up uldra families faster than oppressive direction by a single overbearing authority figure.

Uldras are ferociously territorial, and usually react violently to any attempt to cultivate or alter natural regions by civilized races. They are less antagonistic toward explorers, wanderers, travelers, and adventurers, although if such creatures penetrate too deeply into lands held sacred by uldras they are often the target of ambushes.

Once in a great while, a group of uldras become seized with a powerful form of wanderlust, an irresistible urge to seek out new realms of nature beyond the tundras and glaciers and taigas of their ancestors. These uldras travel for many months, often years, following an almost terrifying obsession to find a new location to settle. These sudden urges to wander are known to uldras as homecomings, for upon arriving at the location that they have been mysteriously drawn to, uldras have a strong sense of belonging and ease. It's generally thought by uldras that a homecoming affects a particular family when a part of the natural world is endangered in some way, and this spiritual call for aid is answered when a new uldra family arrives to take the needy region under its care. Uldras usually settle in arctic regions after following a homecoming, but it's not unheard of for uldra homecomings to draw them to temperate or even tropical regions. Sometimes, an uldra family forges an iceheart to keep their new home at a more comfortable temperature, but for the most part temperate- and tropical-dwelling uldra families disband within six months.

Religion: Uldras do not normally worship deities, per se, but prefer to focus their religious attentions to nature itself. They view the natural world as a mystical force, a gift to the living that must be protected and nurtured. Animals, in particular, are viewed as the holiest portion of nature. Often, a group of uldras select a particularly powerful or ancient animal and worship it as a direct manifestation of nature. Some uldras do venerate deities, but these uldras tend to be loners or hermits that have given up family life for solitary existences.

This was not always the case, however. In the ancient past, most uldras were devout worshipers of a beautiful uldra deity named Hleid, and their faith in her tempered their natural inclination to be chaotic. Unfortunately, she was nearly slain one terrible night by her nemesis Iborighu. Her fragmented body was cast into the polar seas, where the burning remnants transformed into rimefire eidolons, which then created huge icebergs to protect themselves from further harm. The battle wounded Iborighu grievously as well, but he survived intact, and today his cult is the only organized religion in many uldra lands.

Since this time, robbed of the benign guidance of Hleid, uldras have slowly but inexorably grown more chaotic and suspicious of the world.

Today, Iborighu counts numerous sects of uldras as its most devout followers. Uldra cultists of Iborighu believe that the natural state of the world is one of perpetual winter and frozen beauty, and constantly seek ways to extend the freezing embrace of Iborighu into warmer regions. Uldra worshipers of Iborighu are, as a result, the most commonly encountered uldras outside arctic regions, and are the greatest reason that many humanoid races tend to view uldras as sinister and evil. Recently, clerics of Hleid have begun to reappear in the frostfell as well, possibly indicating that the deity is nearing a return to full divinity.

Language: Uldras are gifted linguists, and most know at least three languages spoken in the local region. Despite this, they have never developed their own language. The closest uldras have to a racial language is Sylvan. Most uldras believe that their gift for language is a gift from nature, that they were selected by the natural world to be its voice.

Names: Uldras choose their own names not long after they learn to speak as children, often basing their names on some facet of the natural world that particularly appeals to them. They don't attach much more significance to their names, and it's not unusual for an uldra to change names numerous times throughout his lifetime, as he encounters new manifestations of nature that appeal to him.

Male Names: Bluetop, Chillblood, Glacierface, Icetongue, Shiver, Tusktooth.

Female Names: Coldcrystal, Frostwillow, Glitterrime, Skie, Skitterime, Whispersnow.

Adventurers: An uldra usually becomes an adventurer in order to travel the world and seek out new natural realms to explore and experience. Often, an uldra with the urge to see the world joins with a group of like-minded adventurers (usually those with druids, barbarians, and rangers) for protection.

ULDRA RACIAL TRAITS
  • -2 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom. An uldra's small size is more than compensated for by his vigor and faith in his convictions.

  • Small: As a Small creature, an uldra gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are three-quarters of those of a Medium character.

  • An uldra's base land speed is 20 feet.

  • Darkvision: Uldras can see in the dark up to 120 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and uldras can function just fine with no light at all.

  • Low-Light Vision: An uldra can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.

  • Nature Scholar (Ex): The Knowledge (nature) skill is always a class skill for uldras, and they gain a +2 racial bonus on all Knowledge (nature) checks.

  • Cold Resistance (Ex): Uldras are completely at home in freezing environments, and they suffer no harm from being in a cold environment. The uldra's equipment is likewise protected. Against attacks that cause cold damage, an uldra possesses resistance to cold 5.

  • Frosty Touch (Su): Uldras are supernaturally cold, and as a free action they can infuse their hands with cold energy. While their hands are frosty, their unarmed attacks do an additional 1 point of cold damage. Any melee weapon an uldra wields is infused with cold and does an additional 1 point of cold damage on a successful hit as long as the uldra continues to hold the weapon. This additional damage does not stack with a magic weapon's ability to deal cold damage (if any).

  • Spell-Like Abilities: 3/day - ray of frost; 1/day - speak with animals, touch of fatigue. These abilities are as the spells cast by a druid or wizard (save DC 10 + spell level) of a level equal to the uldra's Hit Dice. The DCs are Wisdom-based.

  • Fey Blood: Uldras are fey, and as such they are not subject to spells that specifically target humanoids, such as charm person or hold person. Likewise, effects that affect fey affect uldras as well. They possess no particular weakness against cold iron, although they find it uncomfortable to the touch, similar to the sensation of holding a rotting fish in your hand.

  • Automatic Languages: Common and Sylvan. Bonus Languages: All. Uldras are gifted linguists, and the Speak Language skill is always a class skill for them.

  • Favored Class: Druid. A multiclass uldra's druid class does not count when determining whether he takes an experience point penalty for multiclassing.

  • Level Adjustment: +1.

DOMOVOI

The domovoi is a nocturnal house spirit, a protector of creatures that depend on hearth and fire to live in cold areas. While a domovoi (or just as often, a whole family of them) watches over an encampment, village, or town, the buildings are brighter lit, the hearth fires are warmer, and creatures of cold and night are less likely to strike. For all these reasons, they are found in association with humans, neanderthals, dwarves, gnomes, kobolds, orcs, and even ogres and giants. When winter camps are abandoned by nomadic hunters, the domovoi maintain them as their own until the hunters return.

A typical domovoi is a 2-foot-tall human-shaped creature with a dark, sooty skin and hairy arms, a thick beard, and furry legs, chest, and back. Domovoi typically wear rags cast off by the creatures whose houses they share. They eat small quantities of firewood and grain (offerings) as well as rats and mice they catch for themselves.

Domovoi are not eager fighters, but when driven away from their beloved fires they can grow sulky and even violent. They prefer to fight with magical manipulation of fire and smoke rather than with their rather weak claws. A domovoi typically attacks with its produce flame spell-like ability.

Domovoi never burn down the house of a host; if anything, they quench fires whenever possible. Domovoi clerics can choose two of the following domains: Chaos, Fire, and Luck.

DOMOVOI RACIAL TRAITS
  • -2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +4 Intelligence, +6 Wisdom, +6 Charisma.

  • Small size: +1 bonus to Armor Class, +1 bonus on attack rolls, +4 bonus on Hide checks, -4 penalty on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits 3/4 those of Medium characters.

  • A domovoi's base land speed is 20 feet.

  • Low-light vision.

  • Racial Hit Dice: A domovoi begins with two levels of fey, which provide 2d6 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +1, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +0, Ref +3, and Will +3.

  • Racial Skills: A domovoi's fey levels give it skill points equal to 5 × (6 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Balance, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Tumble, and Use Rope.

  • Racial Feats: A domovoi's fey levels give it one feat.

  • Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A domovoi is proficient with simple weapons.

  • +2 natural armor bonus.

  • Fire Subtype: A domovoi has immunity to fire. It has vulnerability to cold, which means it takes half again as much (+50%) damage as normal from cold, regardless of whether or not a saving throw is allowed, or if the save is a success or a failure.

  • Slippery (Ex): A domovoi's coating of ashes and soot makes it difficult to hang onto. A domovoi gains a +2 racial bonus on any Escape Artist checks or grapple checks.

  • Spell-Like Abilities: At will - produce flame, pyrotechnics (smoke cloud only, DC 15); 3/day - flaming sphere (DC 15). Caster level 3rd; save DC 10 + domovoi's Cha modifier + spell level.

  • Automatic Languages: Common, Ignan, Sylvan. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Giant, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling.

  • Favored Class: Rogue.

  • Level Adjustment: +2.

FROST FOLK

Frost folk are an isolated and xenophobic race descended from humans who struck a bargain with the gods of winter. In exchange for power over snow and ice, they sold their souls to a cruel deity - or, as some claim, an archdevil.

Frost folk are almost always encountered alone, a single frost man sometimes accompanied by a hunting winter wolf. They are of the height and weight of a typical human male, with bright blue eyes, and pale snowy skin. They favor finely stitched furs, often arctic fox, ermine, or bearskin. Some wear helmets made from bear, wolf, or wolverine skulls. A noticeable chill surrounds them.

Frost folk villages are extremely remote, found only in very cold terrain. These villages are often cliff dwellings in mountains, deep glacial caverns, or underground caverns deep under everfrost or boreal forests. Frost folk are excellent hunters and herdsmen, keeping flocks of caribou, musk oxen, and mountain sheep. A few villages are able to grow crops around hot springs, in sheltered valleys, and in some warm forested valleys.

Frost folk are feared, and the chill that surrounds them is more than physical. Human tribesfolk don't trust them and call them "ice demons." Snow goblins, urskans, and others have a superstitious fear of their ice blast. Frost folk have few friends in the frostfell.

Frost folk are disciplined fighters with a keen sense of tactics. They enjoy bloody slaughter and often set ambushes in deep snow, where axe fighters hide beneath the powder and archers can fire their bows at opponents whose movement is hindered.

FROST FOLK RACIAL TRAITS
  • +4 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma.

  • Medium.

  • A frost folk's base land speed is 30 feet.

  • Darkvision out to 60 feet.

  • Racial Hit Dice: A frost folk begins with four levels of monstrous humanoid, which provide 4d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +4, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +1, Ref +4, and Will +4.

  • Racial Skills: A frost folk's monstrous humanoid levels give it skill points equal to 7 × (2 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Climb, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot, and Survival. Frost folk have a +8 racial bonus on Hide checks in snow or ice.

  • Racial Feats: A frost folk's monstrous humanoid levels give it two feats.

  • Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Frost folk are proficient with the battleaxe and composite longbow, as well as all simple weapons. They are proficient with light armor and shields.

  • +2 natural armor bonus.

  • Cold Subtype (Ex): A frost folk has immunity to cold. It has vulnerability to fire, which means it takes half again as much (+50%) damage as normal from fire, regardless of whether a saving throw is allowed, or if the save is a success or a failure.

  • Snowsight (Ex): All frost folk have innate snowsight, as the spell. No snowstorm can obscure their vision.

  • Ice Blast (Su): Frost folk can produce a 20-foot cone of icy mist from their left eye. This deals 2d6 points of cold damage to all creatures within the area (Reflex save DC 13 half). The save DC is Constitutionbased. Once a frost folk uses his ice blast, he must wait 1d4 rounds before he can use this ability again.

  • Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Auran, Draconic, Dwarven, Giant, Goblin, Orc.

  • Favored Class: Barbarian.

  • Level adjustment +1.

SNOW GOBLINS

Snow goblins are shaggy humanoids with large throat sacs that they use to call to one another over long distances. The booming noises they make with these sacs can be heard for miles, and are used to signal hunting and war parties over wide areas. Snow goblins can also create loud monkeylike hoots.

A typical snow goblin stands 3 to 4 feet tall, with long arms and seasonal fur color, changing from glossy black or brown in summer to pure white in winter. Its fur is typically crusted with ice and snow.

Female snow goblins are larger and more aggressive than males. Both males and females take part in raiding parties, and most people who have met them agree that the females are just as aggressive as the males, and much crueler in the tortures they inflict on captives.

Snow goblins have a weak grasp of tactics but are quite fearless in their native hills. They often spring simple ambushes against invaders in their territory. These ambushes are sometimes preceded by the deliberate triggering of an avalanche in mountainous terrain. Snow goblins prefer to fight in groups, and both males and females are individually very brave, though they rarely fight in a coordinated way.

Usually, snow goblins are servants of greater powers, such as priests of winter deities, frost giants, or ogres. Under such leadership, their morale is quite high. Snow goblins love horseflesh and often rustle horses from human settlements at night.

Snow goblin clerics can choose two of the following domains: Destruction, Evil, and Cold. However, most snow goblin spellcasters are adepts.

SNOW GOBLIN RACIAL TRAITS
  • +2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma.

  • Small size: +1 bonus to Armor Class, +1 bonus on attack rolls, +4 bonus on Hide checks, -4 penalty on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits 3/4 those of Medium characters.

  • A snow goblin's base land speed is 30 feet.

  • Climb speed 20 feet. Snow goblins have a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even if rushed or threatened.

  • Darkvision out to 60 feet.

  • Booming Voice (Ex): Snow goblins can be heard over great distances, and their powerful voices can be quite intimidating. Snow goblins gain a +4 racial bonus on Intimidate checks.

  • +4 racial bonus on Move Silently checks.

  • Automatic Languages: Common, Goblin. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Giant, Orc.

  • Favored Class: Fighter.

  • Level adjustment +1.