Winter Werewolf (5e Race)

Winter Werewolf

Physical Description

A female winter werewolf.

Winter Werewolves appear as a mix between a winter wolf and a human. It's body is that of a human, but it has clawed hands like those of a winter wolf, as well as wolf feet, tail and furry ears. They usually have glowing eyes in shades of blue, silver and rarely gold or red. They are a little taller and bulkier than the average human, due to their savage heritage.

History

Winter werewolves are not "real" lycanthropes, but they have lycanthrope blood in their veins. In the past there was a variation of the wolf lycantropy: the winter wolf lycantropy. These werewolves happened to be much less violent than the usual ones, they were less chaotic... This contributed for the curse to not spread fast enough among other people, as the cursed ones would travel to some cave during the full moon and stay there causing no harm to their families and communities.

These real winter werewolves still exist in some places but they are rare; the new generations are much more common and although not full lycanthropes, they are still quite powerfull.

Because of their hibrid natures they can't change between wolf, humanoid and hybrid form; instead they are permanently in a hybrid form that has mixed traits of humans and winter wolves.

These new generations of hybrids sometimes fail to control their natural violence, but in general they are not innately bad or evil and generally try to fit into society. Although they are treated with suspicion by many people because of their monstrous nature, those who have been brought up close to humans since their childhood often become dear to the nearby community and will both protect the people and be protected from prejudice from outsiders.

Society

Winter werewolves descend from a true lycanthrope, through their veins the curse of a diluted lycanthropy. They live among humans who have known their ancestors, so the community around a family of winter werewolves has grown accustomed to their presence and it is not uncommon to see human children playing with a winter werewolf or one of the adults in a tavern or working in some building in the city.

Winter Werewolf Names

Winter Werewolves generally use human names to avoid attracting more attention. Some of them, usually the ones raised amongst winter wolves, might choose names that hint at wolves, but these are very, very few.

Male: Furrick, Reggin, Francis, Markus, Garrick, etc.

Female: Maria, Anne, Maeryl, Juliet, etc.

Winter Werewolf Traits

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom scores each increase by 1.
Age. Winter werewolves mature at the same rate as humans, and live slightly longer.
Alignment. Personal freedom is very important to winter werewolves, so they tend toward the chaotic or neutral ends of the alignment spectrum.
Size. Winter werewolves are slightly taller and bulkier than humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Claws and Fangs. The damage die for your unarmed strikes increases to a d4, and you can choose to deal slashing or piercing damage instead of bludgeoning damage.
Cold Breath. You can use your action to exhale icy energy in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a Constitution saving throw, taking 2d6 cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

The damage you deal with your cold breath increases as you reach higher levels: the damage increases to 3d6 at 5th level, 4d6 at 9th level, 5d6 at 13th level, and 6d6 at 17th level.
Cold Resistance. You have resistance to cold damage.
Keen Senses. You have proficiency in the Perception skill.
Snow Camouflage. When you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide in snowy terrain, you are considered proficient in the Stealth skill if you aren't already, and you add double your proficiency bonus to the roll instead of any proficiency bonus you would normally apply.
Winter Wolf language. You can speak with winter wolves, wolves, dogs, and similar creatures of the Canis family as if you shared a language. You have advantage on Wisdom (Animal Handling) checks involving those creatures.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Winter Wolf. The winter wolf language consists mostly of growls and barks, and is difficult for more human-like folk to speak properly.

Suggested Characteristics

When creating a winter werewolf character, you can use the following table to add additional quirks to your character due to their wintry nature. Use these tables in addition to or in place of your background's characteristics.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I feel more awake at night than I do during the day, and occasionally I have trouble getting to sleep.
2	When I’m hungry, my stomach is in full control. I don’t bother with silverware or manners when hands and shoveling food in are equally viable options.
3	Sometimes it’s hard to separate the predator from myself. I can get easily distracted by small creatures and animals when I see or smell them.
4	Sometimes I can’t help but howl at the moon. Cliche, I know, but I can’t help it!
5	Nothing is more pleasant than a cold night in the snow. I have no problems with the cold but others seem to be surprised by this behavior.
6	After traveling with someone for a while, I tend to get very attached and extremely protective of them. Sometimes to an alarming degree.
7	On occasion the wolf in me really shows. I don’t always follow typical social protocol that most others do; like bathing regularly, for example.
8	I am always slightly uncomfortable indoors or in small spaces that make me feel like I’m caged.

Random Height and Weight

Base Height	Height Modifier*	Base Weight	Weight Modifier**
4′ 20″	+2d12/2d8	110 lb.	× (2d6/d24) lb.
*Height = base height + height modifier **Weight = base weight + (height modifier × weight modifier)

---

Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Races