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New Player Race NEW PLAYER RACE Sample file INCLUDES DESIGNER’S NOTES New Player Race: Valkyrie 1 NEW PLAYER RACE VALKYRIE Brynhildr (armor war), Goll (noice), Gondul (wand or monster), Gunnr (battle), Geirskogul (spear bearer), Herfjotur (war maid), Hildr SERVANTS OF THE GODS (war), Hlokk (eagle cry), Hrist (shake), Mist Valkyries are the servants of the gods. They (mist), Randgrith (shield eager), Rathgrith serve the gods in multiple aspects, be it (advice giver), Reginleif (divine surviver), pouring a glass of wine or changing the tides of Sigrdrifa (victory driver), Sigrun (victory rune), a battle. Skeggjold (axe edge), Skogul (shooter), Skuld The word Valkyrie originates from the Old (necessity), Svava (life ender) and Thruthr Norse valkyrja/pl. valkyrjur. Valkyrja literally (strength). means chooser of the slain (Val = slain, Kyrja = chooser). The most important job of the VALKYRIE TRAITS Valkyrie is to select the bravest warriors fallen All Valkyries share these traits in battle and guide them safely to the afterlife. Ability score increase. Your Charisma Score Sometimes Valkyries will even interfere increases by 2, your Strength score increases with the battle as fierce warriors to insure that by 1. the bravest falls, so that they can be safely Age. Valkyries have lifespans similar to taken to the proper afterlife. humans. Alignment. Most Valkyries are good or CREATED THROUGH A RITUAL lawful, but they can have any alignment. Valkyries can be born from many different Size. Valkyries have the same range of races, most common humans and elves. height and weight as humans. Your size is Valkyries are created through a mysterious Medium. ritual that takes place at birth under an oak Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. tree. Most Valkyries are descendants of nobles. Shield maiden. You are proficient in shield, Valkyries are free-willed beings and medium armor and longsword. sometimes they will choose not to serve the Spare the fallen. You know the spare the gods. They may go on adventure or start their dying cantrip. Charisma is your spell casting own conquest. ability for it. Favored of the Gods. When you are reduced LOND WOMEN B to 0 hit points but not killed outright, you are Valkyries are always female. They resemble stable at 0 hit points and do not need to roll slender human women with blond hair. They death saves. You can’t use this feature again have piercing eyes that resembles those of a until you finish a long rest. snake. Swan skin. Starting at 3rd level, you can use your action to touch a willing creature causing VALKYRIE NAMES two luminous, incorporeal swan-like wings to Valkyries all have names that have meanings. sprout from its back. The transformation lasts SomeSample of these names are normal female names. for 1 minute or the target filecan end it as a bonus The meaning is stated in parenthesis after the action. During it, the target has a flying speed of name: 30 feet. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest. New Player Race: Valkyrie 2 Fury of the Valkyrie. Also starting at 3rd DESIGN APPROACH level, you can use your action to unleash a I used the race Aasimar as the starting point divine rage. The rage lasts for 1 minute or until supplemented with the mountain dwarf due to you end it as a bonus action. During the rage, the medium armor proficiency and the once on each of your turns, you can deal extra dwarven combat training. radiant damage to one target when you deal My biggest concern was to make it on par damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra with the Aasimar power wise. radiant damage equals your level. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish NAMES a long rest. I know the names are horrible to pronounce for Improved spare the fallen. Starting at 5th English speaking peoples, but these are the level, as an action you can touch a creature that names from the Norse mythology. I stayed true have died within the last minute and bring it to the mythology but an equally valid approach back to life. It will be unconscious and stable at could be to take normal names from the 0 hit points. You cannot bring back a creature surrounding culture, perhaps in combination that has died of old age. Once you use this trait, with a virtue name like “spear wielder” or you can't use it again until you finish a long “death guide”. rest. Some of the meanings of the names suggest Languages. You speak read and write that this particular Valkyrie might be a magic common and one additional language that you user more than a warrior. choose. It may be the language of your gods or of your racial heritage. In addition you can TRAITS speak with birds. Ability scores. I chose to increase Charisma because Valkyries are often described as very DESIGNER’S NOTES alluring. One Aasimar subraces also increases its strength which suits a warrior well. DESIGN GOALS Human like. Valkyries are very similar to I wanted to create a player race that would humans in regards to size, speed and lifespans. allow players to play a Valkyrie as they are Alignment. Valkyries are often depicted as depicted in the Norse mythology, in my own good or acting on the will of the gods. homebrew Viking campaign. I copied as many Occasionally they will defy the gods, save and traits as I could find for Valkyries. This perhaps even marry a mortal. includes the blond hair, snake eyes, the bird Shield maiden. Valkyries are often depicted speak and the ritual to create them. as shield maidens fighting from horses using I debated with myself whether to allow shields and helmets. I don’t associate helmets males. In the end I decided not to. Valkyries are with light armor so they needed to proficiency strictly a feminine phenomenon like amazons. with medium armor and shields. I imagine this From a birds eye view this race is about race will be used in a Viking campaign where guarding the doorstep of death, hasten the longsword is the default warrior weapon hence death of some while preventing others from proficiency with longsword. With these dying. proficiencies you have the basis for the Sample archetypical shield maiden. file New Player Race: Valkyrie 3 Spare the fallen. Aasimar can cast light Hopefully these two types of traits might Valkyries can cast spare the dying, just another supplement each other so that the Improved cantrip. spare the fallen and Favored of the Gods are Healing hands / Improved spare the very useful when you are a close up fighter fallen. I dropped the healing hands because it who gets armor and weapon proficiencies from didn’t feel thematic enough instead I added a the class, and vice versa. nerfed down version of revivify at 5th level. If you feel the race is overpowered consider Favored of the Gods. I felt that the race was removing Favored of the Gods. You might also underpowered compared to the Aasimar remove Improved spare the fallen. because it doesn’t have resistances, darkvision If on the other hand feel it is underpowered and healing abilities, so I decided to borrow a consider letting Spare the fallen, Improved nerfed down version of relentless endurance spare the fallen and Favored of the Gods from half-orcs. bringing creatures back with 1 hit point instead Swan Skin. Valkyries are said to have a skin of 0 hit points. Fury of the Valkyrie Might be suit that enables them to fly. This suit bears usable once per short rest instead of once per resemblance to a swan. Sometimes this suit long rest. gets stolen or used by others. I decided to make It is better to have an overpowered race that this an ability rather than a piece of equipment. you can remove stuff from, than an No other race gets equipment. I debated underpowered race that you need to add stuff whether or not to allow the Valkyrie to confer to. this ability to others. Fury of the Valkyrie. This ability together with swan skin is basically the radiant soul ability from the Aasimar. Languages. This is very setting dependent so I decided to leave it up to the player rather than locking the second language to celestial. Horses. Valkyries are almost always depicted riding on horses I debated with myself whether to add an animal handling proficiency. You don’t need animal handling to ride horses so I decided to leave it out. POWER LEVEL This was the real headache. I believe the race is on par with the Protector Aasimar. The Aasimar has a healing ability and darkvision, two extremely useful features. The Valkyrie has weapon and armor proficiencies, these might be very useful or they might be overwritten by the class features if you play a warriorSample type character. file Depending on the campaign Improved spare the fallen and Favored of the Gods might be very useful or they might never ever come up. New Player Race: Valkyrie 4 .
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