Bear Clan Warchief

“I will crush you.”

The bear clan warchief is a barbarian who seeks to emulate bears.They are in tune with the great bear spirit, and embody the bear’s strength, brute force, rage and unwillingness to die. Such individuals command great respect from most barbarian tribes, and often lead war parties. These barbarians often leave their tribe to wander the world in search of greater attunement with the great bear spirit, and are frequently employed as fearsome bodyguards and elite shock troops.

Hit Die: d12

Requirements

To qualify to become a bear clan warchief, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

• Level: Barbarian 5
• Alignment: any non-lawful
• Ability Scores: Str 17, Con 14
• Skills: Handle Animal 3 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 3 ranks, Survival 3 ranks
• Feats: Power Attack and either Toughness or Iron Will
• Special: Must have been a member of a barbarian tribe that venerates bears.

Class Skills

The class skills for this class (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Acrobatics (Dex), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Ride (Dex), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier

Table: The Bear Clan Warchief

Class Level	BAB	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+1	+1	+1	Wild Empathy (Bears), Bear’s Essence
2nd	+2	+1	+1	+1	Bear’s Rage, Scent 2/day
3rd	+3	+2	+1	+1	Bear Hug
4th	+4	+2	+2	+2	Bear Mantle, Die Hard
5th	+5	+3	+2	+2	Rage Improvement, Damage Reduction 1/-
6th	+6	+3	+2	+2	Rage improvement
7th	+7	+4	+3	+3	Damage Reduction 2/-, Bonus Feat (see text)
8th	+8	+4	+3	+3	Rage Improvement, Indomitable Will
9th	+9	+5	+3	+3	Damage Reduction 3/- 10th +10 +5 +4 +4 Greater Rage

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the bear clan warchief prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Bear clan warchiefs are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor, and shields.

Wild Empathy (Bears) (Ex)

At 1st level, the bear clan warchief can improve the attitude of any bear. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check to improve the attitude of a person. The bear clan warchief rolls 1d20 and adds his bear clan warchief level and his Charisma bonus to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical bear has a starting attitude of unfriendly.

To use wild empathy, the bear clan warchief and the animal must be able to study each other, which means they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal visibility conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute, but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.

The bear clan warchief can also use this ability to influence a magical bear-like beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but he takes a –2 penalty on the check.

Bear’s Essence

At 1st level, the bear clan warchief gains a +2 bonus on all Strength-based skill checks. He also gains a +4 competence bonus on Intimidate checks.

Bear’s Rage (Ex)

At 2nd level, the bear clan warchief’s rage becomes terrible to behold and he rumbles and roars like a rampaging bear. When raging, the bear clan warchief can choose one opponent within 30 feet. That opponent must save as if affected by a fear spell (Will DC 12 + the bear clan warchief’s prestige class level) that lasts for 1 round per bear clan warchief level. This ability is usable once per day. Creatures immune to fear and those without visual and auditory senses are unaffected.

Scent (Ex)

At 2nd level, twice per day as a free action the bear clan warchief can call upon the spirits of bears to lend him their natural scent ability. This ability lasts for 1d4 hours.

Bear Hug (Ex)

At 3rd level, the bear clan warchief gains the Improved Grapple feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites. He also suffers only a -2 penalty to his Dexterity from gaining the grappled condition, instead of the usual -4. He can also use a fearsome bear hug attack on opponents of up to his size. The bear hug is a grapple attack and can only be used to damage or pin opponents. When the bear clan warchief performs a bear hug grapple and beats his opponent’s CMD, his opponent is sickened from pain for one round, in addition to any damage caused by the grapple. The bear clan warchief is considered armed when using a bear hug attack and can inflict lethal damage instead of nonlethal damage, if he desires.

Bear Mantle

At 4th level, the bear clan warchief must battle an adult brown (grizzly) bear, polar bear or dire bear and single-handedly defeat it. If he wins, he skins the bear and wears its head and fur as a mantle (head or shoulders slot). The mantle is infused with the spirit of the bear, and grants the following magical benefits to the bear clan warchief as long as he wears it: 30 endure elements (cold), +2 bonus to AC, +1 bonus on Will saves, and +1 bonus on Perception checks. The mantle only works for the bear clan warchief. If he ever loses it, he may gain a new one by defeating another bear in single combat.

Die Hard

At 4th level, the bear clan warchief gains Die Hard as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites.

Rage Improvement

At 5th, 6th and 8th level, the bear clan warchief can either choose a new barbarian rage power, or he can use his barbarian rage four additional rounds per day. Once the choice is made, it cannot be changed.

Damage Reduction (Ex)

At levels 5, 7, and 9 the bear clan warchief gains the extraordinary ability to shrug off some amount of injury from each blow or attack. This ability is identical to and stacks with a barbarian’s damage reduction.

Bonus Feat

At 7th level, the bear clan warchief gains a bonus feat from the following list, provided he meets the prerequisites: Cleave, Great Fortitude, Improved Sunder, Improved Unarmed Strike, Intimidating Prowess, Iron Will, Skill Focus: Climb, Skill Focus: Intimidate, Skill Focus: Survival, Toughness.

Indomitable Will

At 8th level, the bear clan warchief gains the barbarian’s indomitable will ability.

Greater Rage

At 10th level, the bear clan warchief gains the greater rage ability identical to that of a barbarian’s.