Cultural Aspects:
The following cultural attributes are common to most arctic races.
Personality:
Nearly all ice dwellers are more grim and humorless than members of their standard races. Efficiency in word and deed is crucial to survival in the harsh arctic realms, so arctic creatures tend to get straight to the point in conversation, and they have little patience for those who speak in riddles or half truths. Because they must struggle for even the most basic existence in the severe climate of the arctic regions, excess of any kind is offensive to them. Thus, they tend to be frugal and to value hard work for the benefit of all over individual accomplishment.
Physical Description:
An ice dweller is hartier than a member of his standard race, and he tends to carry extra weight on his frame even when in exceptional physical condition. His skin can be any shade from pale white to light blue, and his hair and eyes can be of any color found among members of his standard race.
Arctic creatures wear many layers of clothing as protection against the intense cold of their homeland. They do not particularly value jewelry or other ornamentation, and they carry only what they need to survive.
Relations:
Those who spend their lives in the bleak and comfortless arctic regions treat outsiders with guarded wariness, if not outright distrust. Though members of most arctic tribes are willing to welcome strangers in from the cold, they tend to watch such newcomers very closely and hurry them on their way as soon as possible. Of course, a stranger with a particularly useful skill may be invited to stay—it is difficult to turn away a strong back or a skilled toolmaker in the desolate and frigid lands where the arctic races make their homes.
In addition to their particular distrust of outsiders, members of arctic races tend to harbor many of the same prejudices held by their standard races.
Alignment:
Arctic races are generally toward the alignment preferences of their standard races.
Lands:
It is difficult for any living thing to survive in the frozen wastelands where arctic races live. Thus, most other races know little or nothing of their arctic cousins, and what they do know is often tainted by legend or hearsay. Most arctic creatures make their homes in ice caves or beneath the ground, although some tribes have adapted to life on the surface by building ice houses and other structures that can survive fierce winter storms.
Religion:
The gods of ice, winter, and storms often rank as highly in the pantheons of arctic races as do the deities of their ancestral race.
Adventurers:
Ice dwellers must exert themselves merely to survive the bitter climate of their homelands, so they tend to make ideal adventurers. Those who dislike the constant struggle of life in the arctic often travel far from their homes in search of comfort, if not adventure. Occasionally, arctic tribes send emissaries into temperate lands to gather aid against particularly strong enemies or to secure emergency stores during hard times.
Racial Traits:
Ice-Dwellers have the following traits:
Ability Adjustments:
An ice-dweller retains all his ancestral race's ability adjustments. In addition, he gains +2 Con and -2 Cha.
Save Adjustments:
A member of an arctic race gains a +1 racial bonus on saving throws against cold effects and a -1 racial penalty on saving throws against fire effects. These adjustments apply to cold and fire effects of any source, wheter mundane or magical.
Skills:
Ice-dwellers gain a +2 racial bonus on all Survival checks because they are taught to survive in the wild from a young age.
Spell-Like Abilities:
An ice-dweller whose ancestral race had any spell-like abilities retains those and also gains the ability to use ray of frost once per day as a 1st level caster.
Level Adjustment:
+0.
