Bugbears
Appearance: Generally a little over 7 feet tall, and averaging around 400
pounds in weight. Bulky with muscle, large bones, and thick, leathery skin.
Hairy all over, with especially long hair on the chest, back, and head.
Hair is coarse and thick, generally brown, mahogany, or grayish-brown in shade,
while skin ranges from yellow to yellowish-brown or burnt orange in color. Eyes
are some shade of green, with pupils of red or orange rather than black, with a
savage look to them. Nose is small and black, somewhat higher on the face than
that of a human's, resembling that of a bear or wolf. Ears stick out to the sides,
somewhat wedge-shaped and ragged, often pierced. Large teeth and nails, almost
like claws. Head sticks out a bit more forward than a human's, with the neck
almost horizontal, such that the scalp is only slightly higher than the shoulders,
giving a slightly-hunched-looking appearance.

Description: Big and imposing, bugbears like to bully smaller creatures and torture
their enemies, with a knack for various forms of cruelty. Bugbears are cold and
calculating, with little room in their hearts for compassion or even comradery.
They tend towards neutral evil alignment, though some are more chaotic or lawful,
and a rare few are less cruel, but almost never good-aligned. They often wander
alone or in small family groups, with a somewhat-nomadic impulse driving them to
look for new places to plunder and new people to terrorize. Bugbears are
opportunists and scavengers at heart, happily taking the fruits of other peoples'
labors and taking advantage of everything around them. A bugbear would rather
steal an enemy's armor and weaponry than make his own, even if it means a bit of
work hammering the armor out to fit the bugbear. Likewise, they'd rather steal
and raid for food rather than grow or hunt their own. Nonetheless, bugbears are
keen hunters of prey and loot, and are capable enough of supporting themselves
when circumstances are poor for bugbear opportunism. They have a harsh but almost
hedonistic society, living in small family groups and meeting occasionally with
other families, trading slaves and gear, enjoying revelry and sport whenever they
aren't raiding. Of course, violence is just another sport to bugbears. Bugbears
have little loyalty to even their families, however, and tend to be more
calculating than emotional. The bugbear families tend to inhabit the Vrak'Murg
Woodland and various border territories around other humanoids, but a small number
live in the Grsh'Nath Highlands, where they dominate a few goblin tribes. A
slightly larger number of bugbears than those in the Highlands are those who live
amongst hobgoblins in the Trg'Mal Cliffs, where the bugbears are enslaved to
hobgoblin armies and construction projects. Bugbears themselves tend to live in
caves, huts, or large tents, often just temporary arrangements for a season or
two, maybe a year or more if raiding in the area is prosperous. Bugbears are not
very inclined towards mysticism, history lessons, or formal education, so they
have little in the way of magic-users or scholars, just an occasional cleric,
shaman, or wu jen of mediocre skill. However, they do have a knack for trickery-
related magic from their long tradition of trickster-mages and raider-priests,
keeping their few magic-users similar in prowess to the spellcasters of more
civilized races.

Relations: Bugbears are the top of the goblinoid heirarchy in general, but individuals
and small clans often fall under hobgoblin dominion, and are subjected to being mere
brute labor or shock troops for hobgoblin forces. Often, a bugbear or a small family
of them will lead a goblin tribe, or serve as taskmasters of a goblin warren. Many
bugbears, however, live fairly isolated in their own lands or in border territories,
raiding humanoid settlements or resorting to banditry on the roads. Bugbears
are thus enemies of almost everyone but their own kind, although bugbear raiders
will generally forge some sort of agreement with other bandits and raiders in their
area, staying out of each others' way, unless the bugbears can overrun or frighten
off their competition. Bugbears will occasionally trade with other goblinoids, as
well as a few orcs and lizardfolk. Halflings generally won't approach bugbear
territories for fear of being eaten or enslaved, and other folk just avoid
dealing with bugbears out of revulsion or hatred.

Basic Stats: Medium Humanoid (Goblinoid); Base Speed (30 feet); +4 Strength, +2
Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma (Bugbears are big, burly humanoids with
bulging muscles and thick skin, covered in hair, yet they are also surprisingly
agile for such big folk, though their manners and temperment are terrible,
often crude and bullying, arrogant and snide.); Darkvision (60 feet); Natural
Armor (+3 AC); +4 Hide, +4 Intimidate, +4 Move Silently; Power Attack (racial
bonus feat); Sneak Attack (+1d6 damage, functions as per the rogue class
ability, stacks with any other Sneak Attack damage dice); Mighty Build (gets a
+2 size bonus on any checks, rolls, or DCs where a creature one size larger
would have gotten a bonus, and bugbears have the carrying capacities of a
creature one size larger than themselves); Subterfuge (adds +3 to the DC of any
Illusion, Enchantment, or Transmutation spells and abilities they may acquire,
also added to their saving throws against such spells and abilities, and also
counts towards their caster level with any such spells and abilities they may
acquire, but only for purposes of the effects, caster level checks, and
dispelling, but Subterfuge does not apply with use of or saves against magic
items, and finally, any bugbear spellcaster gains 3 additional spell slots per
day of the highest level they can cast at any given spellcaster level, but can
only use these three slots for Illusions, Enchantments, and Transmutations, and
these slots are applied only to one of their highest-level spellcasting
classes); Racial Hit Dice (3d8 humanoid hit dice, which count towards character
level, gaining +2 base Reflex, 6 + Int mod skill points, proficiency in simple
weapons, and proficiency in light armors from their first racial hit die, while
gaining another +1 Reflex, +1 BAB, and 1 skill point from their second racial
hit die, and gaining +1 Fortitude, +1 Will, a further +1 BAB, and 1 skill point
from their third racial hit die, while the class skills for bugbear racial hit dice
are Climb, Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot); Effective
Character Level +1 (counts as a character 1 level higher for purposes of XP,
starting level, starting wealth, rewards, and challenges); Automatic Language
(Goblin); Intelligence Bonus Languages (Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Gilden, Orcish,
Rizan, Tashi, Tribal); Favored Class (Rogue).

Bugbear Racial Level Progression (Alternative): If making a bugbear character
at total initial ECL of 3 or lower, advance the bugbear along the following
progression as appropriate. They cannot gain any class levels until after they
have acquired all bugbear racial levels. The first three racial levels apply
normally towards character level for all intents and purposes, but the fourth
bugbear racial level does not. The fourth bugbear racial level only counts
towards character level as an ECL adjustment of +1, thus affecting nothing more
than XP earned, XP needed for gaining levels, wealth, rewards, and challenges.
A bugbear's base racial traits when using the following progression are: Medium
Humanoid (Goblinoid), base speed 30 feet, -2 Charisma, Darkvision 60 feet, +4
racial bonus on Hide checks, Power Attack racial bonus feat, Sneak Attack +1d6,
automatic language (Goblin), Intelligence bonus languages (Dwarven, Elven,
Giant, Gilden, Orcish, Rizan, Tashi, Tribal), and favored class (Rogue). The
racial hit dice are humanoid hit dice, and the first racial hit die provides
proficiency in all simple weapons and all light armors.
Racial Total Racial Additional Racial
Level Hit Dice Traits And Adjustments
1 1d8 Str +2, Move Silently +4, Subterfuge +1, Natural Armor +1
2 2d8 Intimidate +2, Con +1, Subterfuge +1, Natural Armor +1
3 3d8 Intimidate +2, Con +1, Subterfuge +1, Natural Armor +1
4 3d8 Str +2, Dex +2, Mighty Build, Subterfuge (bonus slots)
Racial Base Base Base Base Total Skill Points
Hit Dice Attack Fort. Ref. Will Gained From This Hit Die
1d8 +0 +0 +2 +0 6 + Intelligence modifier
2d8 +1 +0 +3 +0 1
3d8 +2 +1 +3 +1 1

Bugbear Lifespans: Adults by age 12, middle aged by 26, old at 39, venerable at
50, maximum age is 3d4 years after reaching venerable.
Common Bugbear Armaments: Daggers, maces, flails, morningstars, hammers,
battleaxes, throwing axes, great axes, halberds, glaives, guisarmes,
leather, studded leather.
Sample Male Bugbear Names: Gorvak, Draug, Borig, Vardaal, Zark, Rugan, Vort.
Sample Female Bugbear Names: Sashral, Solkuth, Baza, Turga, Volga, Rishkuth, Naen.
Bugbear Surnames: Rhunarian bugbears simply use the name of their father or
mother as an identifier when needed, such as "Gorvak of Terzog," or sometimes
the name of a grandparent, such as "Draug of Solkuth's brood." Their numbers
are comparatively smaller than most other humanoids, so they have little need
nor care for surnames, and bugbears often unknowingly mate with distant cousins
or the like. Bugbear males and females alike practice polygamy, though some
might not marry anew until their former mate is dead or lost. Bugbears often
like to give themselves a title descriptive of their deeds, possessions, or
appearance, such as "Borig the Blood-Spitter" or "Sashral of the Seven-Skull
Necklace". Such titles are often used in place of parent or grandparent names,
especially for lone bugbears.

Bugbear PC Class Choices: (common) Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, (uncommon)
Barbarian, Cleric, (rare) Shaman, Wu Jen.
Bugbear Cleric Domain Choices: Air, Darkness, Death, Destruction, Earth, Evil, Fire,
Healing, Liberation, Protection, Strength, Travel, Trickery, War, Water, Weather.
Bugbear Shaman Domain Choices: Flame, Fury, Grave, Guardian, Healing, Hero,
Metal, River, Stone, Travel, Trickery, War.
Bugbear Prestige Domain Choices: Celerity, Domination, Exorcism, Mysticism,
Pestilence, Summoning.