***DISCLAIMER***
This race suggestion is loosely base on the race of the same name in Mythic Race from FFG Legends & Lairs series. If I am in infraction of any intellectual property let me know, and I will correct or remove the part concerned
Uthuk Y'llan were once a human tribe that got trapped in the frozen north centuries ago. While the few remnants of the tribe were on the verge of extinction. Y'llan the White Witch appeared to them she showed them how to survive in the cold steppes, especially the use of I'tala, a unique, and highly toxic, herb that bloom under the harsh climate of the frozen north.
From generation to generation, Uthuk Y'llan, literally "children of Y'llan", adapted to their new environment, learning the skills to survive. Frequent use of I'tala, now renamed Y'llan' Grace, cause the toxins to affect the constitution of the Uthuk over the centuries.
Physical description:
Uthuk Y'llan are tall and muscular humanoid that would pass as a human if not for the blueish skin and their totally white eyes. Uthuk Y'llan reach an average of six to seven feet tall and weigh as much as 200 to 300 pounds. Males are heavier and wider than females and have no facial hair. For both male and female hair are either pitch black or pure white. Both tend to wear their hair long. Tattoos and ritual scar are popular among Uthuk Y'llan. An other significant trait that set Uthuk Y'llan apart from human is a common deformity caused by chewing Y'llan's Grace roots: large bone spur. These spurs often resemble horns growing from the skull, spikes growing from the spine, or claws growing from hands or forearms.
Living in the frozen north is harsh and Uthuk Y'llan rarely lived past 80. They also need to mature faster so Uthuk Y'llan are consider adult around 15 years old.
Society
Uthuk Y'llan are survivors, hence they value strength,endurance and surviving skills above everything else. They are very protective of their community and have a profound distrust of strangers. Once an outsider have gain their friendship they are treated as part of the community.
Relation
Uthuk Y'llan tend to appreciate more easily half-orcs and dwarves for their physical abilities. Even though the other races are perceived as weaker, individuals who display good survival skills and feat of strength gain their respect equally.
Alignment and religion
As frozen north is a dangerous and unpredictable environment, Uthuk Y'llan are equally chaotic. Their protective nature then them to be good.
All Uthuk Y'llan revere the White Witch, but they also pay respect to other god as well.
Adventurers
Barbarian, Rangers and Witches are commonly found into Uthuk Y'llan communities, but adventurers can be of any classes.
Uthuk Y'llan Racial Traits
+4 Constitution, -2 Charisma.
Uthuk Y'llan have develop an exceptional endurance surviving the frozen north. Their odd appearance and distrust of outsider complicate their relation with others.
Medium: Uthuk Y'llan are medium size humanoids and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Normal speed: Uthuk Y'llan have a base speed of 30 feet.
Snow vision: Uthuk Y'llan can see perfectly well in snowy conditions. They don't suffer any penalties to Perception checks while in snow.
cold resistance 5
Ferocity: Uthuk Y'llan can remains conscious and can continue fighting even if its hit point total is below 0. The creature is still staggered and looses 1 hit point each round. A creature with ferocity still dies when its hit point total reaches a negative amount equal to its Constitution score.
Survivalist: Uthuk Y'llan gain +2 to their Survival checks
Immunity to Y'llan's Grace Root addiction.
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NEW DRUGS
Y'llan's Grace roots
Type: ingested (chew); Addiction: minor, Fortitude DC 20
Price: 50gp
Effect: 1d10 rounds; <i>rage</i> as per the spell
Effect:1 hour; cold resistance 5
Damage: 1d2 Wis, special (see below)
Each time someone use a dose of Y'llan's Grace roots, he must roll a Fortitude save DC 20, +5 to DC for each additional dose while intoxicated. On a failed check, 1d6 bone spurs grows. Roll 1d6 for location of spurs (1,2: head; 3,4: spine; 5: right arm; 6: left arm)
Each spurs grow 1/2 an inch. If a spurs grow on an area where spurs are present, either a new spur appears, or an existing one grows by an additional 1/2 inch. Armor cannot be worn over body area where total spurs length exceed 2 inches. For every 2 inches of spurs add +1 enhancement bonus to damage while unarmed (max. +3), also for every 2 inches of spurs add -1 penalties to all charisma-based skill checks except for Intimidation while dealing with non-Uthuk Y'llan.
Also roots users suffer for these secondary effects based on the differences between the result of the Fortitude check and the check DC:
1-10: The character experience a sense of euphoria. The world takes a wonderful glow, and even the most horrific act appears strangely beautiful. This does not affect the rage at all and in fact turns battle into an exquisite, joyous dance.
11-15: The character experiences dangerous hallucinations. 1d6 illusory endemics appear (copies of real enemies, if there are any, otherwise they are copies of the character's allies) and the raging character must make a successful Will saves (DC 15) to avoid attacking one of the illusions.
16+: The character loses control of his rage and must attack the closest character, whether an enemy or an ally. After attacking this character, the raging character can make a Will save (DC 15) to stop raging. If the character fails the saving throw, he must continue attacking whoever is closest to him until he successfully makes the save.
Y'llan's Grace leaves
Type: ingested (chew or infusion); Addiction: severe, Fortitude DC 25
Price: 50gp
Effect: 1 hour; +1d6 Wis
Damage: 1d2 Con
No comments???
Do you thinks it's balanced, overpowered, underpowered?
No comments???
Do you thinks it's balanced, overpowered, underpowered?
It can take quite a while to get a response on this board.
+4 to an attribute is comparable to a 2nd level spell. The fact that it stacks with a 2nd level spell can also seem quite powerful. I would take it down to a normal +2.
Cold Resistance might also be a bit powerful, though I can see it as flavorful and not often used. To appeal to a wider base, though, you might consider only giving a racial fortitude saving throw bonus against cold effects and spells. This can also help avoid trying to explain why they might take no damage from an Alchemist's Frost Bomb but still be staggered anyway.
If this seems like it leaves them too weak, consider giving them another skill bonus besides Survival, such as Knowledge: Nature in snowy terrains.
+4 to an attribute is comparable to a 2nd level spell. The fact that it stacks with a 2nd level spell can also seem quite powerful. I would take it down to a normal +2.
I liked the idea of having them extreme survivors, hence the +4 Con, and tuned down their racial abilities by fear it would be too powerful. But my biggest concerned is with Ferocity, does +4 Con will be too much for a ability that let you fight until negative Con?
What about +2 Str, +2 Con, and -2 Cha then?Cold Resistance might also be a bit powerful, though I can see it as flavorful and not often used. To appeal to a wider base, though, you might consider only giving a racial fortitude saving throw bonus against cold effects and spells. This can also help avoid trying to explain why they might take no damage from an Alchemist's Frost Bomb but still be staggered anyway.
I see your point. The idea, was to have a character race that could endure severe and extreme cold without having to roll too often (actually they'll have too roll as often, but eventually they will fail their save, hence the damage reduction, on average, I would have said that they would suffer 1 or 2 cold damage, after reduction, per hour)
What kind of Fortitude bonus would you give them +2, +5, +10? Usually racial modifier are +2, but I think it's a bit low for the desired effect...If this seems like it leaves them too weak, consider giving them another skill bonus besides Survival, such as Knowledge: Nature in snowy terrains.
At first I considered giving them the exact same bonus that Rangers got for Terrain (+2 initiative, Knowledge (geography), Perception, Stealth and Survival) but only for Cold Terrain. Would it be better? If so, I think Snow vision should be dropped as it's affect Perception checks in snow also...
Although the standard spread for Pathfinder attributes is +2 to a physical attribute, +2 to a mental attribute, -2 to either category is adopted by a lot of races, it isn't ubiquitous. Anything with a relation to humans (half-elves, half-orcs and humans themselves) only have +2 to something. If the race had a root in humanity, you could just give them a floating +2 bonus, or say that their history has preferentially set their floating +2 at Constitution.
What I'm trying to say is, you don't need to give them +2 to Strength. You technically don't even need the -2 to Charisma. In my eyes, a lot of races tank good character concepts by penalizing Charisma because they felt they "had to dump something." Saying a race is rude in general is more of a commentary on what their society considers social norms, rather than their capability for personability or capacity for spontaneous magic.
If you really feel the need to follow +2 +2 -2 format, you might be looking at the Dwarf layout: +2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Cha. Constitution for their hardiness, Wisdom to passively contribute to perception and survival, and the Charisma penalty for... well, reasons I personally don't understand.
As for the racial bonus to cold effects, you might consider a +3 or +4 bonus fair. +4 is the equivalent of the Endurance feat, but it will only be used to resist a narrow range of effects. +3 might be more palatable, since they will be getting a racial bonus to Con, which is going to be the most frequently contributing stat to the saving throw in question. That would be what I would offer as a general bonus to all effects relating to cold. If it seems like they're still going to be failing too many checks against their own climate, give them the racial ability to re-roll saving throws and skill checks relating to cold weather (note that this would also expand what they could do, such as walking on ice and climbing icy cliffs). I wouldn't let them re-roll against cold spells. Those don't see too terribly much use as it is.
Giving away a Ranger class ability as a racial ability is probably inappropriate, especially since Ranger seems a good choice for the class given the environment its in. There's nothing particularly wrong with Snow Vision itself, if that's the setting of the game it should be useful.
As a final note of warning; in my experience, most of the time climate effects are brought into play, instead of adding a fun new dimension of consideration... they simply annoyed. Your players will probably just as soon acquire the Endure Elements spells and be done with it... frostbite isn't particularly heroic.
You technically don't even need the -2 to Charisma. In my eyes, a lot of races tank good character concepts by penalizing Charisma because they felt they "had to dump something." Saying a race is rude in general is more of a commentary on what their society considers social norms, rather than their capability for personability or capacity for spontaneous magic.
the penalty to Charisma was to reflects the effect of their habit to chew Y'llan' Grace roots, but it's already covered in the drug dammage, so I can ditch this negative bonus.
As for the racial bonus to cold effects, ...
I got an idea yesterday, instead of cold resistance 5 to reflect their abilities to endure the cold weather, what about giving them the ability to negate light cold to roll only once per hour the effects of severe and extreme cold, no Fortitude bonus. This way they still can suffer effects of cold, suffer magical cold damage, but they will be able to whistand cold weather longer than other races before risking their lives.
Here's a rewrite of the race keeping in mind that they are a human tribe that adapted itself to their cold environment:
+2 Constitution
Medium size
Normal speed
Snow vision
Ferocity
Survivalist
Cold tolerance: Uthuk Y'llan, have a high tolerance to cold and need only to do a Fortitude save once per hour under severe and extreme cold.
Immunity to Y'llan's Grace root addiction
+2 Con is a bit more limitative than the human +2 to one ability option, but it fit the race concept.
Ferocity is like a tuned down Diehard feat. I believe giving Diehard will be too much as its a feat in a feat chain. But we can count Ferocity as equivalent of the bonus feat human gets.
Survivalist is not equivalent to Human Skilled ability, but combine with Snow vision which is effective only in snowy terrain I think it's a good match.
Finally cold tolerance and the root addiction immunity is somewhat a compensation for the tuning down of the first two aspect. cold tolerance shouldn't be too powerful and is usable only in cold condition and not everybody will go the drug route, and even then the root has is own side effect without the addiction.