Over time, the petitioners (spirits of the departed) who arrive in the Wilderness of the Beastlands acquire animal traits, eventually becoming celestial beasts or animals. Some instead mingle with the beasts they will one day become, creating new races that are perpetually half-animal, half-humanoid.
Prominent among these are the wildren, beings descended from the union of partially transformed dwarf petitioners and celestial badgers.
Prowling the darkest forests of Karasuthra, the Beastlands’ lowest layer, wildren build elaborate underground burrows, which they defend, out of a co-mingled racial memory, to the death. Often short-tempered and vengeful, wildren generally live solitary lives, emerging only occasionally from their burrows to hunt and seek mates.
Personality: Wildren are edgy and easily riled, though loyal to those who befriend them and, on rare occasions, even playful (especially toward their young). They are most savage and feral when on the defensive, though they are still quite formidable on the attack.
Physical Description: The typical wildren looks like a dwarf covered in short, grizzled dark fur, with a broad white stripe of fur running from the bridge of the nose over the top of the head and down to the base of the skull. A wildren’s arms are unnaturally large and well-muscled, and her fingers end in hard claws 2 to 3 inches long. Wildren constantly emit a fetid odor.
On average, wildren are slightly taller and slightly lighter than dwarves. They reach adulthood at the same age as dwarves but mature more rapidly thereafter. It’s possible for a wildren to live for more than 500 years, but the race’s average life span is about 200 years shorter than that.
Relations: Most wildren spend their lives hunting in the perpetual night of Karasuthra. After a mating pair has raised a child to adulthood, they drive it from the burrow, forcing it to seek its own fortune. These wildren usually dig their own burrows far from their birthplace, but some never settle down, moving from layer to layer of the Beastlands in search of a new “family”. They come to see life as one long hunting expedition and can travel far afield in search of adventure. They are most comfortable on planes where wildlife is abundant, especially if the ground lends itself to the creation of a burrow. Though the average wildren finds beings of other races strange and threatening, adventuring wildren generally feel that way only toward the evil races. Wildren of any kind are most uncomfortable in cities, though they can cope if provided with a burrow-like place to sleep.
Alignment: The average wildren is chaotic good, tending toward neutral good. A few are neutral or chaotic neutral.
Religion: Most wildren pay homage to Ehlonna, not necessarily in the form of actual worship but more as a show of respect for the most dangerous animal in their immediate environment. Wildren rarely become clerics, but some are happy as druids.
Language: The wildren language is actually an amalgam of Common, Dwarven and badger growling. It is not truly a separate tongue, but rather a convenient medium for members of a race who share the same three languages.
Names: Wildren usually have only a spoken name, otherwise recognizing one another by scent. (They often see non-wildren in the same light and are confused by individuals with more than one name — and even more confused by individuals who wear perfume or cologne.)
Male Names: Arl, Brum, Durrl, Grunnur, Morrm, Nall, Vruk.
Female Names: Brayarr, Dierrel, Hugk, Mrall, Purruk, Vap.
Adventurers: Only unsettled wildren become adventurers. Without a home, but missing the camaraderie of family, they join up with other homeless (in other words, adventuring) characters to relive some of that experience.
Source: Planar Handbook (Page 16)
Your character can be either male or female.
Every player character starts as an adult. You can choose or randomly generate your character’s age. If you choose it, it must be at least the minimum age for the character’s race and class (see Table: Starting Ages). Your character’s minimum starting age is the adulthood age of his or her race plus the number of dice indicated in the entry corresponding to the character’s race and class on Table: Starting Ages.
Alternatively, refer to Table: Starting Ages and roll dice to determine how old your character is.
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 years | +3d6 (33—48) years | +5d6 (35—60) years | +7d6 (37—72) years |
1 This category includes barbarians, rogues and sorcerers.
2 This category includes bards, fighters, paladins and rangers.
3 This category includes clerics, druids, monks and wizards.
With age, a character’s physical ability scores decrease and his or her mental ability scores increase (see Table: Aging Effects). The effects of each aging step are cumulative. However, none of a character’s ability scores can be reduced below 1 in this way.
| Middle Age1 | Old Age2 | Venerable3 | Maximum Age |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 years | 120 years | 160 years | +4d% years |
1 -1 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
2 -2 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
3 -3 to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution; +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.
When a character reaches venerable age, the DM secretly rolls his or her maximum age, which is the number from the Venerable column on Table: Aging Effects plus the result of the dice roll indicated on the Maximum Age column on that table, and records the result, which the player does not know. A character who reaches his or her maximum age dies of old age at some time during the following year, as determined by the DM.
The maximum ages are for player characters. Most people in the world at large die from pestilence, accidents, infections or violence before getting to venerable age.
Choose your character’s height and weight from the ranges mentioned in the appropriate race description or from the ranges found on Table: Height and Weight. Think about what your character’s abilities might say about his or her height and weight. A weak but agile character may be thin. A strong and tough character may be tall or just heavy.
Alternatively, roll randomly for your character’s height and weight on Table: Height and Weight. The dice roll given in the Height Modifier column determines the character’s extra height beyond the base height. That same number multiplied by the dice roll or quantity given in the Weight Modifier column determines the character’s extra weight beyond the base weight.
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 3’ 8" | +2d10 (3’ 10"—5’ 4") | 120 lbs. | ×2d4 (124—280 lbs.) |
| Female | 3’ 6" | +2d10 (3’ 8"—5’ 2") | 90 lbs. | ×2d4 (94—250 lbs.) |
Source: Planar Handbook (Page 18)