Winterfang Pack

The Unbreakable Survivors of the Wulven People

Pack Description

The snow-white and rimefurred masters of chill, The Winterfang are often white or icy blue furred Wulven whose entire lives are defined by one word and one word alone: "Survival". No other Wulven pack is as durable, as hardy, or lives in such extreme climates as the eponymous Winterfang pack...often residing in sub-arctic and arctic climates where the chill alone is enough to snapfreeze flesh and turn blood and marrow into solid chunks of frozen liquid, the Winterfang exist and persevere, stubbornly intent on living. Commonly referred to with affection by other Wulven as the definition of Wulven stubbornness and durability, the Winterfang are much less excitable than those of other packs...where other Wulven would leap excitedly into battle against a foe they deemed mighty and worthy of dying against, the Winterfang coldly analyze and examine with clinical detachment before leaping into the fray. They are highly adaptable and capable of shifting their innate resistances around to deal with nearly any scenario that comes their way, and as such treasure their lives and survival over anything. This, however, does not mean the Winterfang shy away from combat...indeed, they often are found in the heat of combat, but they simply fight for different reasons than most other Wulven. To the Winterfang, fighting is their sustenance, their food and drink, and their entire lives. They fight their environment, themselves, and the very air itself in their day to day lives...to them, fighting is something to be done for survival and to better oneself so you may better endure the next, and each fight is something to be won and endured rather than something merely to enjoy and relish. Winterfang enter combat to survive, to thrive, and to emerge tempered and hardened in the crucible of combat...enjoyment and pleasure is welcomed from these fights and they naturally seek out only the best fights, but simply for different reasons. They are thusly the longest-lived of all the Wulven overall, and are infamous for their obsession with survival that led them to even adapt as a pack to overcome the Wulven immunity to undeath...as a pack, they are isolated and somewhat distrusting of non-Wulven, and though they ascribe themselves to a structure of "Might makes right", they still care for and love their Wulven brethren...they are simply less open and gleefully excitable as other Wulven.

Pack Mechanics

Pack Trait: Your Tripping Bite natural attack does an additional 1d6 cold damage. Your Claw attacks deal an additional 1d3 cold damage each.
Their teeth coated in chilling hoarfrost and their claws coated in chilly ice that never melts, the Winterfang freeze and chill their foes with ever strike they land and are feared because of it.

Alternate Pack Traits:

Survival at any cost: Gain racial +4 bonus to Survival Checks. Gain immunity to all non-magical extreme weather effects. Gain a favored terrain as per the Ranger class feature. Replaces We Fight! We Drink! We Learn! And hunter’s nose.
Unlike the Blackclaw or other Wulven packs, the Winterfang do not endure or master the hunt out of a desire to do so...they do so out of necessity. They must survive and thrive in their inhospitable homes or death will come for them; thus they communally learn to forage and scavenge off the barren land they often live in and become familiar with the terrain...otherwise, they would quickly die.

To endure where all others fall: Gain Resistance 5 to all elemental damage types. (Cold, Fire, Sonic, Acid, Electricity). Can drop one resistance by 5 to increase another by five as a move action. No resistance can rise above 15 this way, and all resistances reset to 5 at the beginning of each day. Replaces Defined by Conflict.
Embracing the Winterfang adage of "Survival", some Winterfang go so far in their quest for survival and endurance that their bodies become resistant to the very elements themselves...and they can even move their resistances around on the fly, increasing their adaptability.

Sustained by conflict: You no longer require food, water, or sustenance except for air so long as you engage in combat once a day that ends in one party dying or falling unconscious. If you engage in combat 3 or more times in a single day with identical results, you do not require air for the rest of the day. Replaces Nature Primordials.
Many Wulven from all walks of life and all packs laugh and joke that, to Wulven as a race, fighting is their lifeblood and their sustenance...for Winterfang Wulven, this is not mere turn of phrase; it is grim reality. In their brutal home climates where almost nothing can truly live and thus food and water is incredibly scarce, Winterfang must draw sustenance and even air from the foes they fight...an oddity no doubt, but one that allows them to survive almost anywhere.

Natural-born Survivors: You may roll twice and take the better result(Or force the one imposing the effect on them to do the opposite if they do not roll) on saves or checks made against all spells with the [Emotion] descriptor. You cannot be Shaken or Frightened. All non-magical animals start two steps friendlier towards you than normal, and all magical animals start one step friendlier to you than normal. Replaces Larger than life.
Winterfang Wulven are said to be hardier and more durable than any other Wulven pack...their skin is thicker, their fur is more ample, and their muscles more resistant to wear and tear...even their minds are more durable and resilient than other Wulven, and in the name of survival do some Winterfang become incredibly resistant to mental attacks.

Pack Feats:

Survival Beyond Death:
Prerequisites: "Survival at any costs" Alternate Trait, Character level 4th
Effect: You are no longer immune to Undeath, Being Raised as an Undead, or becoming any similar undead or half-undead form. You are treated as an undead for the purposes of Positive and Negative energy.
Though the Wulven race was long ago granted immunity to Undeath by the war god Ruthger, some Winterfang become so obsessed with Survival that even this blessing cannot stop them from enduring death itself...and in time, these rare Winterfang become the first and only Wulven undead.

To Endure where Gods would fall:
Prerequisites: "To Endure where all others fall" Alternate Trait, Character level 10th
Effect: There is no upper limit any given resistance can rise to. By moving all resistances into one element, you gain immunity to the chosen element for as long as you keep all resistances in that chosen element.
Already capable of shifting their innate resistances around, some Winterfang Wulven take this adaptability to even greater heights...whether it be walking in lava, striding amidst a blizzard or diving in pits of acid...Winterfang who strive for these heights become capable of traversing them all.

Dai-Yukai companions:
Prerequisites: Character level 6th
Effect: Gain DR 10/- against Trample and Swallow Damage. May automatically avoid ONE trample attack OR auto-escape a swallow attempt once a day. Gain Giant as a bonus language if you didn’t already have it. All spells with the [Charm] descriptor gain +4 to the DC versus giants.
Rare it is for Winterfang to meet other sentient or even half-friendly creatures in the inhospitable environments of their homelands, but the Dai-Yukai Giantesses are often the only other race that prowls the freezing wastelands of the world...and as such, while the two races are hardly amicable, they often learn to ignore each other...and rarely, work together to endure. As such, the Winterfang who deal with these Giantesses often become resistant to the footfalls that so often flatten young Winterfang pups who anger them...and sometimes, that flatten entire Wulven Villages. Some even claim these Wulven learn the ancient secrets of old Giants, and learn how to better control the minds of giants...

Snow Travel:
Prerequisites: Character level 8th
Effect: Gain a burrow speed equal to your base land speed in cold terrain(Snow, Ice, Etc.). You may, once a day, may vanish in a cloud of ice and snow and teleport to any empty square within 60ft that you have line of sight to. The square you leave becomes the focus of a snowstorm one round later in a 50ft radius, inflicting a -4 to all perception checks and ranged attacks within its radius. This functions as severe wind, and you are unaffected by it. This effect can be canceled by anything that can control similar conditions such as Control Weather or Control Winds. Using this ability is a move action.
Though snow is already incredibly common in the often ice-covered wastelands the Winterfang call home, some among them learn to truly become one with this freezing powder such that they can burrow through it as easy as walking...communing with the snow such that they can even travel through it as if through teleportation to appear elsewhere, leaving behind a cloud of swirling ice and snow to buffet those near where they left.