Shifter

At first glance, shifters appear to be wild humans, but a closer look, especially in battle, tells the truth of their heritage. Shifters descend from the intermingling of true lycanthropes with humans. Due to their heritage, shifters often feel the pull of the moon in their blood, ebbing and flowing like the ocean tides. Although they cannot fully change to animal form, they can temporarily take on animalistic features through a process they call shifting. Shifters have evolved into a unique race that breeds true. Ferocious heirs of the wild, the perfect fusion of civilized races and wild beast, they have a distinct culture with its own traditions and identity.

The wild is more friend to most shifters than the city, where other people tend to fear and misunderstand the rare race. Many believe that shifters have the same savage and nearly uncontrollable violent urges as most lycanthropes. Yet this is not the case. What is true is that the personality and behavior of shifters are influenced by their animal natures. They are a passionate and temperamental people, sometimes boorish and crude, or quiet, shifty, and solitary. Almost all shifters struggle in some way to control their powerful emotional responses, and culturally they retain a steadfast belief in the virtue of self-reliance, which they associate with personal freedom.

“This isn’t a battle. It’s a hunt. And you’re not the hunter.”

– Torwyn Uskevren of Selgaunt

Born to be Free

Shifters are at home in the wild amongst other animals. The city makes them nervous, with so much to overwhelm their senses. Personal freedom and being yourself are hallmarks of the shifter which they will defend to the end. In many civilized areas, shifters are feared because of their heritage, but it is not much of a problem for the shifters.

They don’t care what others think of them, state their opinions and stances boldly, and stay out of the way when matters do not concern them. When it comes to their friends, however, shifters are loyal and will defend their pack to the end.

Walkers on the Edge

Though rare in most civilized lands, in certain areas shifters are nearly as common as humans. Most reside in only the wildest regions of humanoid nations, however, eking out livings as hunters and trappers. A brave few feel compelled to venture forth into the wider world, becoming, guides, trackers, explorers, or scouts. Moving from such rugged self-reliance to the lifestyle of an adventurer is not a big step.

Those who spend time in civilization are often seeking to understand their unique heritage and reconcile the contradictions of their ancestry. They may feel alienated from the plains and forests they love, and sometimes take up the adventuring life as a way of escaping the confines of city walls and returning to nature. Some shifters, though, turn to a life of crime, preying on civilized folk like the hunters they are.

Treatment of shifters depends largely on where they are located. Among urban populations, shifters might be accepted as just more exotic travelers passing through. Should shifters appear in larger numbers, however, a community’s citizens might become suspicious. In rural environments, shifters are less readily accepted. In places where they already exist in great numbers, or have intimidated the local populace by other means, they are left alone, but tend to be seen as threats to communities rather than a part of them.

Animalistic and Wild

Shifters appear to be humans with animalistic features. They have the same build as many humans, but their bodies are exceptionally lithe. They often move in a crouched posture, springing and leaping along the ground. Their faces have a bestial cast, with wide, flat noses, large eyes and heavy eyebrows, pointed ears, and long sideburns regardless of gender. Their forearms and lower legs grow long hair, and the hair of their heads is shaggy and thick. The more subtle features of an individual shifter may be determined by the type of lycanthrope in their ancestry.

In many populations, shifters are associated with a specific type of lycanthropic bloodline, and their features clearly resemble such werecreatures. For example, longtooth shifters often claim that werewolves are their ancestors and have canine features, while many razorclaw shifters claim weretigers to be their ancestors and display feline features.

Other races are often uncomfortable around shifters due to their predatory natures and vaguely bestial appearance. For their part, shifters are accustomed to distrust and don’t expect better treatment from members of the other races, although some shifters try to earn respect and companionship through acts and deeds.

The Journey Yet to Come

Just as most lycanthropes are carnivores, shifters have a predatory personality and think of most activities in terms of hunting and prey. They view survival as a challenge, striving to be self-reliant, adaptable, and resourceful. They tend to associate independence with freedom, rather than community. Most cannot long tolerate rigid law enforcement, tyranny, or those who seek to impose their will or systems of belief on others.

Self-reliance has long been the most important virtue in the shifter mind. The greatest heroes of shifter folklore are often described as remaining constantly ready for surprise encounters and drawing on great reserves of inner strength rather than asking for help. Shifters refer to their constant state of readiness as “preparing for the journey yet to come.” Shifters believe that life can change surprisingly quickly and that one should always be ready to move on to avoid the danger.

The life of an adventurer is particularly suited to remaining ready for an unexpected trial or journey and particularly prone to having such events occur. Many shifters find themselves embarking on adventuring careers after something happens to disrupt their everyday routines—a monstrous incursion into their village or forest, for example, or a guide job gone sour.

Although they are not nomads, shifters prefer simple, well-made items that they can carry with them in a pinch. Even when they have permanent homes of their own, most shifters keep a simple pack loaded and ready for travel. Individual shifters prepare for the journey yet to come in varying ways. Some talk about it often; some remain reticent. Whether they discuss it openly with their traveling companions or not, shifters strive to make sure that their possessions are portable. They favor a small number of well-made weapons and pieces of armor over many lower quality items, even if the larger number of items equates to more overall value.

Shifter Names

Shifters tend to be named for natural land formations and objects found in the wild. They lack surnames.

Shifter traits

Your shifter character has an assortment of inborn abilities.

Bloodmarked

Werebat-kin

Bloodmarked, like werebats, are generally communal and often defer readily to their superiors within their flocks or even other leaders or employers. They associate with humans without trying to force their way of life upon them, although troublemakers are strongly frowned upon and find it hard to get any other werebat-kin to take their side if in opposition to the group.

They are fond of elaborate social ceremonies that strengthen group cohesion and loyalty. Ceremonies often involve wearing bat skins, sacrificing animals or humanoids and drinking blood. Werebat-kin are most commonly found near dense forests and jungles.

With little trust for outsiders, werebat-kin often form insular communities at the fringes of civilized societies, with each bloodmarked being loyal to every member of the community and whichever leader has bested all challengers. Like other shifters, however, bloodmarked are typically born into societies that don’t include others of their kind, and these individuals are inclined to seek out surrogate flocks, generally in the form of violent gangs, tight-knit adventuring parties, or even insular academic circles, according to the individual’s disposition.

A werebat-kin’s true nature generally manifests shortly before or during puberty, first in the form of a sudden sharpness of hearing that makes even normal conversation painful until the werebat-kin grows accustomed to it. Because of their superficial similarities to vampires and werewolves, bloodmarked are often subjects of fear and derision by ordinary humans.

Bloodmarked are generally tall and slight, with dark hair and severe features. Poor eyesight is relatively common among werebat-kin, though they often hear and smell well enough to make up for it.

Coldborn

Werebear-kin

Werebear-kin are known and respected as defenders of the wilds. They tend to carve out niches as woodland guides, rangers, and recluses to whom humans can turn for guidance in the wilderness. They are called coldborn because they often become torpid and withdrawn during the winter months unless they have matters to attend to, and they resume their typical demeanors with renewed energy at winter’s end.

Werebear-kin are renowned for their industriousness, and often make a good living trading in skins, leather, and other products of the forest. This trade allows them to acquire useful tools for defending their homes and surviving lean times. It also means that they are often in contact with a few non-coldborn, though they regard most outsiders as greedy and obsessed with wealth and status. Like werebears, coldborn tend to be quite broad-shouldered, muscular, and strong-featured.

A werebear-kin’s lycanthropic heritage usually reveals itself during or shortly after puberty. It’s not uncommon for a werebear-kin to first learn of her powers during an accidental burst of strength, and she may cause a great deal of inadvertent damage until she learns to control herself. Coldborn may be treated as dangerous beasts or exemplary teachers depending on the surrounding cultural attitudes. Werebear-kin are drawn to seek solitude much of the time, although they are commonly good-hearted.

Not all werebear-kin avoid settlements, but all avoid frequently dealing with people outside their chosen family. Coldborn usually make effective leaders and organizers for tight-knit adventuring parties and similar groups because of their naturally strong sense of empathy and desire to protect their chosen families. However, in keeping with their werebear heritage, coldborn sometimes demonstrate a more violent side, either out of frustration at mistreatment by others or due to a naturally foul temperament.

Fanglord

Weretiger-kin

Weretiger-kin are known for their fickle attitudes and unpredictable behavior. Usually, a fanglord makes his living by intimidation, cutthroat business dealings, political ploys, and military ventures. Very much like weretigers, they rarely congregate with others of their kind except as mated pairs. They often have aristocratic connections or the charm to fake it and are happy to settle in affluent areas, where one fanglord typically claims dominion over anything from a small neighborhood to a large city district.

Weretiger-kin tend to be exceptionally proud of their heritage and confident to the point of hubris regarding their authority over not only humans, but also animals.

Although usually quite capable, fanglords are not opposed to waiting for just the right moment to spring a plan or strike against an enemy, making sure they can act with overwhelming effectiveness and completely negate the chance of an opponent fighting back. As a result, they make impeccable assassins and frustrating political enemies.

Weretiger-kin often have large eyes, long noses, and sharp cheekbones. They are often charming and intimidating, features they develop from childhood but which reach their full bloom only in late adolescence, when the maturing fanglord first begins to sense just how much more aware, graceful, and strong he is than those around him.

Every movement seems to slow down for a fanglord, and he finds that he can almost divine each little vulnerability in the way humans carry themselves and go about their business—moments when they could be all too easily hurt, or killed in a way that looks like an accident, or outmaneuvered so they look silly in front of someone important. A fanglord’s first transformation is commonly triggered by his first sexual encounter.

Despite frequenting highly populated areas and enjoying the luxuries of high society, fanglords are commonly loners and generally form personal relationships with other humanoids only when they are driven to mate or if it will help them achieve some long-range goal. Rarely loyal to anyone else, weretiger-kin are often quite successful as mercenaries, assassins, and leaders in their own right.

Longtooth

Werewolf-kin

Werewolf-kin are found in many areas, ranging from misty moors to dark alleys of bustling cities, and theirs is perhaps the most common visible shifter heritage to be found. They often dwell with werewolves or others of their kind in small, isolated settlements that resound with howls on the night of the full moon. Many werewolves and longtooth shifters live in semi-nomadic bands as traders, mystics, adventurers, or entertainers, allowing them to wreak havoc in remote settlements before slipping off into the darkness to escape the subsequent suspicion and hostility of townsfolk. longtooth shifter packs are often led by witches trained in a tradition of curses and transformation tied closely to the original curse of lycanthropy; these witches are also usually the most powerful members of their packs.

Werewolf-kin generally have prominent eyebrows that grow together, long index fingers or wild hair that seems impossible to tame. When longtooth shifters take bestial form, their eyes typically take on an amber or pale blue hue, their canines sharpen to points, patches of fur form on their skin, and their ears elongate as their senses are heightened.

Longtooth shifters are often passionate and intimidating. Their first transformation commonly occurs during puberty or shortly thereafter beneath the light of the full moon. Werewolf-kin are most often drawn to a life of adventure by a desire to prove themselves, either to earn a place as a pack alpha or even a pack lord, or else to fight against the image of werewolves as violent monsters.

The latter often turn for inspiration to the legends of the Hounds of Good, rare and blessed longtooth shifters who retain human dignity and virtue despite their lycanthropic heritage. Such goodly longtooth shifters form cabals dedicated to defending a particular area from fiends, evil lycanthropes, and other monsters, or start adventuring parties that seek out their sworn enemies wherever they can be found.

Like their werewolf relatives, longtooth shifters are feared and despised for the savagery that characterizes the majority of their kind, and not without reason. While not all are monsters, certainly many werewolf-kin bands are happy enough to rob and murder fellow travelers who will not be missed or hire themselves out as mercenaries.

Nightskulk

Wererat-kin

Wererat-kin are common in urban areas, and like wererats, they usually rely on their stealth and cunning to get by in those metropolitan centers where they are persecuted. Unlike other shifters, even large nightskulk communities often draw their culture almost completely from the surrounding human society. Lacking the wererat’s ability to hide among true rats, nightskulks often specialize in hiding instead among humans. Although they try to maintain ties with other wererat-kin and true wererats for mutual security if possible, wererat-kin have learned that it is safest to remain hidden among the human masses and disappear whenever fear of lycanthropes would threaten to make pariahs out of an isolated community.

Nightskulks tend to be short and wiry, with constantly darting eyes. Males often have thin, ragged mustaches, while females have thin, birdlike builds. Both sexes like to wear fine furs and soft, voluminous garments for warmth and to show off whatever wealth they possess.

A nightskulk’s first transformation is commonly triggered by his first exposure to a significant illness or even disease in adolescence, at which point his wererat blood helps fight off the affliction. The first thing wererat-kin generally notice when their wererat-kin abilities manifest is an urge to find an out-of-the-way place to make a comfortable and secure hideout or nest, preferably furnished with precious possessions or weapons for peace of mind.

Although fond of secrecy and the safety it brings from potential foes as well as members of one’s own community, many nightskulks find it a great relief to have close friends to confide in about their experiences and abilities, leading them to form long-lasting relationships with a few close childhood friends, siblings, or associates.

As a result of their close association with pests, wererat-kin are often erroneously considered blights on the surrounding community in any number of ways, and are often purported to be crime-lords, thugs, and sources of disease and declining culture.

Ragebred

Wereboar-kin

Wereboar-kin are known for their fiery tempers, wide stubborn streaks and strong familial bonds. The ragebred’s tenacity and irrepressible expressiveness has also earned this race respect and a reputation as freedom fighters. Wereboar-kin are often ashamed of where their abilities come from and have no shortage of ill feelings for true wereboars, even if this hatred is mingled with martial respect. Wereboar-kin generally avoid large groups of people unless they feel confident of their own ability to buy, charm, or bully their way into power and respect. The ragebred who do live in busy social circles are those able to channel their strong emotions into far-reaching schemes, creative expression or their professional crafts. Others choose the more common route of carving out a place where they hold power at the edge of civilization.

Wereboar-kin sometimes struggle to maintain healthy relationships of any sort because of their mercurial natures and natural defensiveness, but some find camaraderie and strength by focusing on the strong emotions they share with their fellow wereboar-kin or humans who have known hardship.

Wereboar-kin and wereboars alike suffer the mood swings of adolescence far more severely than their human fellows. A ragebred’s first transformation is commonly triggered by suffering an injury while fighting or doing something else reckless enough to spur a burst of adrenaline. When discovering their powers, many wereboar-kin are first struck by a powerful and protective attachment to a friend or romantic interest, or by a constantly rumbling appetite for a wide variety of strange things. Some struggle to keep in check the emotions that trigger their shapechanging, and thus may have difficulty keeping their powers a secret.

Because of their powerful tempers and unpredictable moods, ragebred are often considered dangerous even when their lycanthropic heritage is unknown. Since wereboars are notorious for being obnoxious and thuggish, wereboar-kin are typically scorned or bullied when their true heritage is revealed. Those who try to integrate with humans struggle to find acceptance, especially if they look with shame upon their heritage and acquiesce to damning labels from human culture. Others, however, take pride in their physical power and expressive emotions.

Scaleheart

Werecrocodile-kin

Physically, werecrocodile-kin are thick-skinned and usually sluggish unless engaged in combat. They tend to be ruthless but patient. All are natural swimmers. Scaleheart culture respects nothing so much as the ability to demonstrate power over others, most often physically but also through cunning and magic.

Werecrocodile-kin are renowned for their surprising and violent displays of dominance they have an equally strong reputation for proving their superiority by manipulating and seducing prominent humans. Not as powerful or as solitary as true werecrocodiles, scalehearts prefer to form their own small waterside communities when they do collaborate.

Scalehearts are often brutish and mean. Their first transformation is commonly triggered by the first serious injury they witness or a sudden strong hunger. A werecrocodile-kin whose abilities have begun to appear is often struck by a craving to hurt, scare, and perhaps even kill peers who seem weaker or inferior to her in some way. Even heroic scalehearts can’t help feeling that selfish and evil creatures deserve pain and panic for being less moral than them.

Werecrocodile-kin frequently boast about their conquests to potential victims and allies alike, hoping to inspire respect fear, and anxiety however they can. Many have a hard time reading the emotions of others and expressing their own emotions in a way others can understand—those who learn to exploit this feature may become brilliant liars or ruthlessly efficient officials or mercenaries.

Because of their unpredictable temperaments, great strength, and domineering attitudes, werecrocodile-kin are generally considered cold-blooded killers by other races. They don’t bother to cultivate or maintain personal relationships, although they also recognize the security of shared space and don’t mind the presence of others of their kind.

Most dwell in low buildings near the water’s edge, either alone or with a few of their kind. Many are patient and wily enough to recognize the value of the swamp plants around them, and herbalism, alchemy, and witchcraft are all respected professions for werecrocodile-kin. Some become shamans or soothsayers and readily sell curses as well as remedies—whatever will make the most money and earn the most respected (or feared) reputation.

Seascarred

Wereshark-kin

Much like lions are seen as kings of the savanna, sharks are kings of the sea, and so seascarred often think of themselves as having noble blood. Like weresharks, they tend to be single-minded and do not like to be questioned. Although some are selfish and others heroic, most seascarred prefer to live relatively simple lives consisting primarily of hunting and eating. Many greedy or unscrupulous wereshark-kin make their way as pirates, simply taking what they want and letting their cowed peers deal with complications. Wereshark-kin prefer to be their own masters, but are willing to follow obviously more powerful leaders.

Physically, wereshark-kin tend to be broad-shouldered and muscular, with sharp, smooth features and little facial or body hair. Most seascarred proudly display large scars or tattoos as evidence of their experience and strength, lending them their hereditary name. Wereshark-kin tend to be strong-willed and uninterested in lengthy conversation.

Their first transformation is commonly triggered by the first serious injury they witness or a strong hunger, generally in or near the sea. The first thing a seascarred notices when his powers manifest is an overwhelming awareness of all the life around him, especially when he is in the water. Because of their gruff temperaments and great strength, seascarred are generally considered cold-blooded killers by the people of coastal areas. Wereshark-kin are naturally prized by crews of more monstrous buccaneers for their brawn and strong connection to the ocean. In adventuring parties, wereshark-kin are generally only willing to work and travel with others as long as they know there’s something in it for them.

class options

Shifters are to large extent humans, and approach most classes as humans would. Use the same class options as humans. In addition, classes are modified as follows: