Nightwalker

Not to be confused with the Nightwalker Nightshade. The fact that the race and the extraplanar entity shares a name is purely coincidental.

Nightwalker[T]

Description

Nightwalkers are a people that, as the name implies, walk in the night and icy regions of the world. They are found on both Orn and K'Shaal, but as prolonged journeys in the night is dangerous even for those used to it, the Nighwalkers on the two continents rarely ever meet.

Nightwalkers have a rich tradition of using runes for everything from communication to their own brand of magic. This is a gift passed down to them through their heritage, which some say came through a pact made with giants, and others say is due to the fact that they carry some giant blood in their veins.

Death rites

Burial in mounds, with size depending on status in life. Where possible, many prefer their burials mounds to be made close to that of a giant, who share this burial practice.

Racial Traits

• Ability Score Modifiers: Nightwalkers are large and bulky, but this sometimes gets in the way when they're trying to be nimble. They gain +4 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence.
• Medium: Nightwalkers are Medium creatures and have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size, except for those described below.
• Arctic Survival: Because they live in the mostly inhospitable cold tundra of dusk, or close to the icy night, nightwalkers are adept at making the best of any situation. They receive a +2 racial bonus to Survival checks.
• Acclimated to the Cold: Nightwlkers live hard lives in a cold climate, and after enduring the hardships of many brutal winters for generations, they’ve gained some benefit from the frozen environs. They treat extreme cold conditions as severe cold, and severe cold as cold weather conditions. They are also not impacted at all by normal cold weather conditions. In addition, they do not become fatigued by frostbite or hypothermia.
• Powerful Build: The physical stature of nightwalkers lets them function in many ways as if they were one size category larger. Whenever a Nightwalker is subject to a size modifier or special size modifier for a Combat Maneuver Bonus or Combat Maneuver Defense (such as during grapple checks, bull rush attempts, and trip attempts), they are treated as one size larger if doing so is advantageous to them. A nightwalker is also considered to be one size larger when determining whether a creature’s special attacks based on size (such as grab or swallow whole) can affect them. A nightwalker can use weapons designed for a creature one size larger without penalty. However, their space and reach remain those of a creature of their actual size. The benefts of this racial trait stack with the effects of powers, abilities, and spells that change the subject’s own size category.
• Low-light vision: Nightwalkers can see twice as far in dim light.
• Languages: Nightwalkers begin play speaking Nightwalker common and Giant. If they have a high Intelligence scores they can choose any reasonable languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic). See the Linguistics skill page for more information about their choices.

Alternate Racial Traits

Warmblooded

A warmblooded Nightwalker gains the skilled racial trait like that of a human.

This replaces Arctic Survival and Acclimated to the Cold

Heart of Midnight

The Nighwalker gains darkvision 60 ft., light blindness, and an improved acclimatization trait, which allows them to Ignore up to two steps of extreme cold instead of the normal single step.

Replaces powerful build and low-light vision

Racial Feats

• Warding Runes
• Bulky Stability