Talk:Wendigo (5e Race)

Comments

• I'm going to rework this race over the next few days. I am getting rid with a lot of the current lore as its completely unplayable and wouldn't work in any party except for one that accepts evil-aligned creatures. I will thus be going with a different origin story of the Wendigo. I can include an 'evil' variant on request. Will keep updating here. -- ConcealedWife 19:14 (GMT+1), 25 May 2018

Whew, that's the lore done. Traits will be reworked ASAP. -- ConcealedWife 10:13 (GMT+1), 25 May 2018

Feedback

I like your version of the creature. It seems very “fleshed” out ;)

I appreciate the compliment! This is the first page of which I am the primary contributor of the rework and as such I hold the race very dearly. I'm expecting to start playing a wendigo sorcerer in the next few weeks so lets hope I can get some useful playtesting info! ConcealedWife (talk) 07:16, 24 November 2018 (MST)

Just out of curiosity is your game in a western American setting or a traditional high fantasy one? Wendigo (talk) 08:55, 24 November 2018 (MST)

Its a traditional high fantasy one! Wendigo fit in perfectly in colder regions. ConcealedWife (talk) 13:20, 27 November 2018 (MST)

I made a minor adjustment. "Cause Fear" is 1st level spell, not a cantrip. There's other features that I didn't add but would nonetheless like to suggest, which is immunity or resistance to cold damage, given how Wendigos have traditionally been native and adapted to intensely cold climates. I'd also imagine that something like unarmored defense would be suitable for a Wendigo, since it's difficult for me to conceptualize one even wearing clothing, much less something like plate armor. Their exposure to such inhospitable environments would provide a basis for this as well. I don't want to make this race too overpowered by piling up racial features, but these traits seemed very intuitive for a Wendigo to have. Perhaps some subraces might be feasible? Vobria (talk) 13:03, 21 January 2019 (MST)

Thank you for the correction on the "Cause Fear" spell. I've spent a lot of time considering the possibility of subraces for the wendigo, but ultimately opted to just give the base race some extra features as I couldn't decide on which features to drop from the base race. I agree with you on the unarmored defense, though I'm not sure of which other ability to swap out. There are 5e wendigo variant's on the wiki that do give the wendigo cold resistance though. I'd love to hear your thoughts. ConcealedWife (talk) 08:36, 22 January 2019 (MST)

No problem! I think dropping the "Dark Trickster" feature and swapping it out with cold resistance/immunity and unarmored defense (I suppose it would be called natural armor in this case) would work. Since this is very clearly a monstrous race, it should abide by the normal limitations that monstrous races should have. I'd add the trait "Monstrous Physiology", which will boost the damage of its natural weapons at the cost of being unable to wear clothing and armor, handle weapons, or perform any tasks that require fine manipulation. It will also prevent them from being to take advantage of any wondrous items that are worn, aside from anything that could fit on its head. I'd also consider reworking this as a composite character like the Chimera, which will allow you to start of with the normal monstrous traits that something like this should have, while spreading out other features such as magic over levels. Vobria (talk) 08:56, 23 January 2019 (MST)

Hey! I really appreciate your suggestions but I feel that they aren't exactly in line with what I had in mind with this race. First of all - a player should be able to decide whether they are a 'fresh' wendigo (mostly human) or an older, far more monstrous wendigo, themselves with this race.

I don't want to limit a player's own creativity / playability by turning it into a composite race (not to mention the fact that it's not in line with first party content and I don't want it to be a copy of the chimera.) or force "Monstrous Physiology" upon them, which again (in my opinion), limits the things a player can do with their character. Someone should be able to play a wild magic sorcerer wendigo or a rogue wendigo just as easily as they would be able to play a barbarian wendigo with the right backstory. I don't believe that taking away their ability to wear (customized) armor or use wondrous items is the way to go.

My wendigo, for example, is a (very hairy) shadow sorcerer who wears a hat of disguise to hide his monstrous head, posing as an awakened dog. He manipulates things through Mage Hand when in front of people but is very much capable of using his 'hands'.

I would, however, suggest that we can create a variant (as a collaboration project) which is more in line with your ideas. It leaves this page as intended but gives us both a chance to go wild with our ideas. ConcealedWife (talk) 16:32, 24 January 2019 (MST)

Two creature types

I've asked this on some other pages. What is the purpose of the two creature types? If someone casts hold person on a wendigo, does it work because they are a humanoid, or does it not work because they are a monstrosity? Marasmusine (talk) 07:05, 3 June 2019 (MDT)

A being with two creature types has the benefits and detriments of both creature types. Hold person would affect a wendigo because they are humanoid. -- ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇᴀʟᴇᴅᴡɪғᴇ (Contributions) (Squa) 08:15, 3 June 2019 (MDT)

I see. Have you come across any examples of how this race interacts with the monstrosity type? I'm interested in how it affects balance, but I can't think right now what the ramifications are. Marasmusine (talk) 08:28, 3 June 2019 (MDT)

I did an investigation into what spells certain creature types affected for player races that were of a different creature type. The results were that it is more of a detriment in most cases to have another creature type. Specifically, creature types like beast or fiend have a large number of spells that now also affect the player due to their dual typing. Hope that helps to quell your curiosity Mara. —ConcealedLight (talk) 09:03, 3 June 2019 (MDT)

Thanks CL. So at present it doesn't look like Monstrosity as well as Humanoid effects balance. The only thing I can think of is if NPC Rangers are tracking the player, you're more likely to have a Ranger with a monstrosity favoured enemy than one with humanoid (wendigo) but that's a pretty edge case. Marasmusine (talk) 09:56, 3 June 2019 (MDT)

No problem. At least in the capacity of spellcasting. There may be some other interactions that fall outside this but I can't recall anything other than the rangers favored enemy. —ConcealedLight (talk) 23:55, 3 June 2019 (MDT)

Category Addition

I am adding sections on this site for pages based on the various mythologies to be organized and easier for people to find. Could you please add a category titled "Native American Mythology" at the end of your site? -DevonTheTaylor 8:03, 7 October 2020 (MDT)

Mimicry feature?

Besides their appearance and particular appetite, one of the most notable traits of a wendigo I feel is their ability to mimic human voices. I suggest giving this race some variation of the kenku's mimicry trait to reflect this.

Inhuman Mimicry. You can mimic the sounds of voices you've heard. A creature that hears the voices can tell they are imitations with a successful Wisdom (Insight) check opposed by your Charisma (Deception) check.

--ZarHakkar (talk) 17:58, 12 December 2021 (MST)

That is valid, that in lore wendigo can do this. This is a trait present in the variant. Perhaps this is good for differentiation?--Yanied (talk) 21:16, 12 December 2021 (MST)

Clearing some things up

First thing: Dark Trickster says you know the cause fear spell, but doesn't give any restrictions on its use. It is intended to be once per long rest, or at will, or what? The improvements in the feature give specifications for blur and fear, but not the first thing you get.

Second of all, it's specified in their size that they usually weigh on average 140 to 160 pounds. However, when I rolled on the table I acquired a character that was around 320 lbs. I used anydice to perform a statistic analysis, and the weight for a wendigo character can range anywhere from 144 lbs to 620 lbs, with the average value gravitating around 240 lbs. If you want to achieve an average cluster of weights around 140-160 lbs, I suggest changing the base weight to 90 lbs and the weight modifier to 2d4. --ZarHakkar (talk) 10:39, 14 December 2021 (MST)

Spellcasting ability for Dark Trickster

Of the three spellcasting abilities, I personally feel like intelligence is the least suited for their spellcasting. I would strongly suggest changing it to wisdom, since wendigos seem less like they would be logical and rote and more cunning and in-tune with things. Plus, it synergizes better with the classes you would logically build them with (barbarian, monk, ranger, druid). --ZarHakkar (talk) 00:41, 10 April 2022 (MDT)