Bjorn: Mighty Bear Folk of the North!

[tempestman]

I occasionally frequent some other boards and websites involving D&D and other such games, and on one I created this race, which I thought I'd share.



Bjorn 3.5 Stats

• +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma. Bjorn are very powerful and possess great fortitude, but they have poor reflexes and social skills.
• Medium-sized monstrous humanoid: As Medium creatures, bjorn have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. However, see the powerful build ability below for more details.
• Powerful Build: The physical stature of a bjorn lets him function in many ways as if he were one size category larger. Whenever a bjorn is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for an opposed check (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), the bjorn is treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to him. A bjorn is also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as improved grab or swallow whole) can affect him. A bjorn can use weapon designed for a creature one size larger than him without penalty. However, his space and reach remain those of a creature of his actual size. The benefits of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject’s size category.
• Bjorn base land speed is 30 feet. Bjorn can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such situations).
• Low-Light Vision: Bjorn can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Scent (Ex): Bjorn have a highly developed sense of smell and can even track down others by smell alone.
• Acclimated (Ex): Bjorn are automatically acclimated to life at high altitude. They don't take the penalties for altitude described in the Mountain Travel section of the Dungeon Master's Guide. Unlike other denizens of the mountains, bjorn don't lose their acclimation to high altitude even if they spend a long time at lower elevation.
• Climate Tolerant (Ex): Bjorn 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 bjorn had the Cold Endurance feat for purposes of fulfilling prerequisites for other feats or prestige classes.
• +2 natural armor bonus. Bjorn possess toughened hides which can deflect some attacks.
• Natural Weapons: A bjorn has claw and bite attacks with which he is considered proficient. His claw attacks deal 1d6 damage each while his bite attack deals 1d8 damage.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Bjorn. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Giant, Gnoll, Terran.
• Favored Class: Barbarian. Many bjorn are savage by nature and prefer to fight aggressively.
• Level Adjustment: +2

Racial Variant Ósterkligr bjorn

Spoiler

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• +2 Strength, -2 Charisma. Ósterkligr bjorn are stronger than most other races, but weaker than "true" bjorn.
• Medium-sized monstrous humanoid: As Medium creatures, bjorn have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Ósterkligr bjorn base land speed is 30 feet. Ósterkligr bjorn can move at this speed even when wearing medium armor or when carrying a medium load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such situations).
• Low-Light Vision: Ósterkligr bjorn can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Scent (Ex): Ósterkligr bjorn have a highly developed sense of smell and can even track down others by smell alone.
• Climate Tolerant (Ex): Bjorn 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 bjorn had the Cold Endurance feat for purposes of fulfilling prerequisites for other feats or prestige classes.
• Natural Weapons: An ósterkligr bjorn bjorn has claw and bite attacks with which he is considered proficient. His claw attacks deal 1d4 damage each while his bite attack deals 1d6 damage.
• Automatic Languages: Common and Bjorn. Bonus Languages: Dwarven, Giant, Gnoll, Terran.
• Favored Class: Barbarian. While they are smaller and weaker, most ósterkligr bjorn still fight savagely to prove their worth.

In an effort to keep the post from being too long I put their generic fluff in a spoiler. The bjorn work for any campaign with a frigid northland.

Spoiler

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The björn are a race of mighty and savage bear-like people that live in the northern reaches of the world. They are a wild people that revel in combat and enjoy proving their strength. There is little social difference between the two sexes, and male and female björn are treated exactly the same except when a female is pregnant or raising her cubs. During this period of time (which typically lasts a total of six years) a female is treated almost like royalty and is constantly aided by younger björn who are not yet ready to hunt or do combat.

There are four distinct castes in björn society: the prestr (shamans), the drengr (warriors and hunters), the ósterkligr (the weak), and the aeska (the young). All newborn björn are immediately placed in the aeksa caste, and once they reach adulthood (around the age of six or seven) they are placed in one of the “true castes.” Once in a caste, a björn is incapable of rising to another caste, but is always able to fall if he is weak.

The prestr are the rulers of björn society, which is largely tribal. They are able to hear the words of the Old Gods Honir, Vidar, Vali, Modi, and Magni. The prestr relay the orders of the gods to the drengr and ósterkligr, who in turn carry out the will of the Old Gods. In order to become a true prestr, a young björn must leave his tribe and survive in the wilderness for a year and a day and await a vision from the Old Gods. If he survives and is visited by the gods, he returns to his tribe as a shaman and begins training under a more senior shaman. There are usually one or two shamans for every twenty björn in a tribe.

The second highest ranking caste is the drengr, the warrior björn. Drengr tend to wield large weapons that allow them to use their monstrous strength to its full advantage, and as such tend to wield mauls and great axes. While hunting a drengr björn usually carries a barbed spear and several javelins. Armor is sacred to a björn, and each drengr makes his own armor out of the hides of the monsters and beasts he has slain during his life. Metal is rarely used in armor smithing due to its scarcity in the regions that the björn call home. A scrap of metal is often rewarded to a drengr björn as a reward for an act of heroism. Aside from javelins and occasionally bolas, ranged weapons are looked down on with disdain by the björn, and as such are rarely used by the drengr caste.

Ósterkligr are the lowest ranking members of björn society and are placed there due to physical or mental weakness. Some björn who were once members of the drengr or prestr castes and were maimed in battle without doing anything heroic or worthy of praise are also demoted to the ósterkligr caste because they are no longer fit to serve. While they are looked down upon by the drengr and prestr björn, the ósterkligr provide valuable services to the björn tribes, serving as archers in combat, scavengers after a battle, and servants to a pregnant female. In an attempt to weed out weakness, most tribes forbid ósterkligr björn from mating, and oftentimes castrate the members of the lowest caste.

In regards to other races, björn view themselves as superior in all aspects. Non-björn are treated as little more than animals and are occasionally hunted and eaten. Most non-björn see the northern folk as mighty and fierce, a reputation the björn work hard at to cultivate.

[Mayhem]

Nice race mate, good work.

For making it LA+0, you'd also need to drop the natural attacks down a die, and drop the natural armour. Also, I assume the bite is the primary attack?

[tempestman]

Thanks for the criticism, I edited the original post and added the ósterkligr bjorn's full racial stats as well. The bite attack would be the primary natural weapon, since most bjorn would likely wield a great axe or maul.

I'll probably start working on a racial paragon prestige class soon.

[Mayhem]

Maybe they could get a small bonus to resist cold weather?

For the Ósterkligr, I think the bonus to constitution is pushing it. It'd be more balanced if you raised charisma to -2 and removed the con boost.
Alternatively you could just remove the constitution bonus and scent, then create a 1 level transition class that turns them into a true bjorn. It could then be used to represent both Ósterkligr and Aeska.

[Thugorp]

Am I just dumb(a true possiblity) or is LA not listed?

edit... I found it... but not on the sub-race?

[Mayhem]

The subrace is supposed to be LA+0. I take it that you would agree with me that they're too strong?

[tempestman]

For the ósterkligr björn I removed the +2 Constitution bonus, reduced the Charisma penalty to -2, and removed the Natural Armor bonus entirely.

As far as resisting cold, it would probably be more along the lines of the endure elements ability (for cold only) than outright resistance versus cold damage. Thoughts?

[Mayhem]

Yeah some kind of endure elements is what I meant to say. Stormrack has a feat like that for cold weather.

The Osterklingr look good now.

[tempestman]

I added the able for bjorn to endure temperatures as low as -50 degrees without harm. The ósterkligr bjorn don't get the same ability, seeing as they are smaller, weaker, and all that. Hope you guys enjoy it.

[Axinian]

Any race that makes it easier for you to be a bear riding a bear while summoning bears has my approval.

I would give the sub-race some sort of endurance to cold. Maybe make it so that they can survive for a limited time without harm? (instead of forever)

[tempestman]

Any race that makes it easier for you to be a bear riding a bear while summoning bears has my approval.

I would give the sub-race some sort of endurance to cold. Maybe make it so that they can survive for a limited time without harm? (instead of forever)

Don't forget that the bears riding and summoning bears are also werebear druids that can shapeshift and wild shape into bears.

How would this sound?

Lesser Cold Endurance: Ósterkligr bjorn can survive in temperatures as low as -50 degrees for an hour before needing to make Fortitude saves.

[Axinian]

Don't forget that the bears riding and summoning bears are also werebear druids that can shapeshift and wild shape into bears.

How would this sound?

Lesser Cold Endurance: Ósterkligr bjorn can survive in temperatures as low as -50 degrees for an hour before needing to make Fortitude saves.

That was exactly what I was suggesting yes.

I also forgot that you can have a bear animal companion and can have bear cohorts who do more bearish things.

[Kuma Kode]

The actual race is probably closer to +2 LA, while the subrace is probably +1.

The ability scores on the original race is not balanced, netting it an immediate +1 LA. The natural weapons are quite strong and allow for three attacks at level 1, which is more than a level 1 fighter so its attack routine nets it an additional +1.

The subrace has the same attack routine problem.

[tempestman]

The actual race is probably closer to +2 LA, while the subrace is probably +1.

The ability scores on the original race is not balanced, netting it an immediate +1 LA. The natural weapons are quite strong and allow for three attacks at level 1, which is more than a level 1 fighter so its attack routine nets it an additional +1.

The subrace has the same attack routine problem.

If by not balanced you mean that Charisma and Intelligence aren't equal to Strength and Constitution, then you're right for the vast majority of builds and classes (especially the ones that this race will probably end up being used for). Otherwise it's a +4 for a -4, and a +2 for a -2. I might drop Strength and Charisma to +2 and -2 respectively, but I'm not sure yet.

The natural weapons are definitely powerful, so I will look into those.

[Kuma Kode]

It's not by build. The DM's Guide is pretty clear that ability scores are not equal.

Even with all 2's, the +2 Strength is balanced by the -2 Intelligence AND the -2 Charisma. This leaves the +2 Constitution, which is not balanced and therefore nets a +1 LA. This is why the half-orc has +2 Strength, -2 Intelligence and Charisma. Strength is simply a more important ability score than Charisma or Intelligence.

While personally I would let some races slide with unbalanced ability scores, we're not discussing opinions. If you want it to be balanced by the book, that's what you're going to have to work with; it's up to the DM who ends up using it to decide whether or not to change the Level Adjustment.

[Mayhem]

Looking at the other LA+1 races, the bjorn actually is a lot stronger. It's even much stronger than goliaths. You could reduce the natural weapon's dice sizes, and give them a dexterity penalty.

[tempestman]

I'd rather make it an LA +2 race. I kept the claw and bite dice at large because of powerful build. The variant will probably change to an LA +1 or be tweaked some more.

[Tvtyrant]

It's not by build. The DM's Guide is pretty clear that ability scores are not equal.

Even with all 2's, the +2 Strength is balanced by the -2 Intelligence AND the -2 Charisma. This leaves the +2 Constitution, which is not balanced and therefore nets a +1 LA. This is why the half-orc has +2 Strength, -2 Intelligence and Charisma. Strength is simply a more important ability score than Charisma or Intelligence.

While personally I would let some races slide with unbalanced ability scores, we're not discussing opinions. If you want it to be balanced by the book, that's what you're going to have to work with; it's up to the DM who ends up using it to decide whether or not to change the Level Adjustment.

Only if we accept that WOTC knows what its talking about, which it doesn't. Hence why half-orc is never part of an optimized build. Int and Cha are the backbone of the strongest classes, str is the backbone of the weakest. So while your technically correct, the book itself I believe is wrong.

I think its fair as is, compared to humans, Illumnians, Warforged, and other races that are actually good at what they do.

[Mayhem]

If bjorn are LA+2, you can certainly give them their +4 strength back.

As for osterklingr, if you're fine with them LA+1 you might as well give them back the +2 con and +1 natural armour.

Only if we accept that WOTC knows what its talking about, which it doesn't. Hence why half-orc is never part of an optimized build. Int and Cha are the backbone of the strongest classes, str is the backbone of the weakest. So while your technically correct, the book itself I believe is wrong.

I think its fair as is, compared to humans, Illumnians, Warforged, and other races that are actually good at what they do.

If it's core then half-orc is part of many optimised builds. 3.5 was balanced on the assumption it will be played at levels below 10th, so on that basis str isn't the backbone of the weakest classes. That's not to say the half-orc is worth it, but it's actually really good for games up to 6th level.

[Kuma Kode]

Only if we accept that WOTC knows what its talking about, which it doesn't. Hence why half-orc is never part of an optimized build. Int and Cha are the backbone of the strongest classes, str is the backbone of the weakest. So while your technically correct, the book itself I believe is wrong.

I think its fair as is, compared to humans, Illumnians, Warforged, and other races that are actually good at what they do.

I wasn't stating an opinion, because that doesn't really matter when balancing something mechanically. It's best to do it by the book and let DMs make their own judgment. If you're going to be building DM fiat into the mechanics, there really isn't anything to critique.

But I agree, there should be some sort of class association for the ability scores rather than just sweeping assumptions.

[tempestman]

It's been awhile since I've looked at this thread, but I did a little tweaking. Now instead of Intelligence penalties they have Dexterity penalties. Also changed some of the racial abilities after getting my hands on Frostburn.

[Lateral]

I wasn't stating an opinion, because that doesn't really matter when balancing something mechanically. It's best to do it by the book and let DMs make their own judgment. If you're going to be building DM fiat into the mechanics, there really isn't anything to critique.

But I agree, there should be some sort of class association for the ability scores rather than just sweeping assumptions.

The book's rules are stupid, though. You don't build by stupid rules, you make something that requires as little DM adjucation to be decent as possible. Just common sense.

If you say that common sense doesn't have a place here, I will ignore you. Common sense should always be the first consideration.

Edit: Don't mind me, just talking to a five-month-old post.

For an LA +0 race, the ósterkligr look a little strong. It's three natural weapons and Scent for LA +0; for comparison, Kobolds get three natural weapons for weaker damage at the same LA, and Skarns get one (wonky) natural weapon at the same LA. It's... a bit much. LA +1 seems pretty damn appropriate for this, actually.

Also: thread necromancer much?

[Kuma Kode]

The book's rules are stupid, though. You don't build by stupid rules, you make something that requires as little DM adjucation to be decent as possible. Just common sense.

If you say that common sense doesn't have a place here, I will ignore you. Common sense should always be the first consideration.

Also: thread necromancer much?

The creator can necro his own threads in the Homebrew forum so long as he's making modifications or additions.

Not even going to touch a five month old argument.