Winter is Coming, RPG Blog Festival

Twwombat put together a week focused on Winter and how that fits in RPGs. There are a tone of awesome articles and how to tell a winter story or how to otherwise integrate winter into your game as part of the festival. This is my addition to the fun! 


Channel Divinity: The Raven Queen

While the Raven Queen is most often known for her domain over the dead, she also holds sway over the coming of winter and the frost is hers to command. After wresting control of darkened months from Khala and ushering her into her dying folds, the Queen of the Land of Decay also took on the role of Queen of Winter. Many see this as fitting since winter is a season of the long dark and cold and since the trees all appear dead, but what many fail to see is just how necessary winter truly is. Without winter, many plants cannot properly germinate. Winter is merely the natural and inevitable off setting of the cycle of seasons just as death is the natural and inevitable ending of a long life. The Raven Queen is the neutral party who is able to preside over this perfectly.

Those who serve her are not only the keeper’s of the dead, but also those who watch over the earth in the long season of darkness. Not only do they thrive in the long night of the Shadowfell, they also thrive in the long night that winter brings, which makes them ideally suited to watch over the winter months. As a servant of the Raven Queen, you have a responsibility to not only guard the dead, but to watch over the inevitable cycle of seasons. Those who would see Winter kept off through unnatural means are as abberant as the necromancers you would so despise.  You must take caution that you yourself do not seek to upend the cycle of seasons and bring Winter too long. For as death is part of the natural cycle, winter must also give way to spring.

Here are options for the faithful of the Raven Queen to give a more complete picture of her full domain and her power over the winter months.

Feats:

Winterdeath

Heroic Tier:

Prerequisite: You must worship the Raven Queen

Benefit: Choose an attack power you possess that has the Necrotic keyword. It gains the Cold keyword and if it deals necrotic damage it now deals cold and necrotic damage. You may reassign this bonus at the end of an extended rest.

Ice In Your Veins [Divinity]

Heroic Tier:

Prerequisite: Channel Divinity class feature, must worship a deity of the winter domain

Benefit: You gain the channel divinity power Ice In Your Veins.

Ice In Your Veins                              Feat Utility

As you enter a dangerous situation, you pause and draw forth an icy cloud from within you and frost forms across your skin, protecting you from harm.

Encounter   *  Divine Standard Action, Personal Channel Divinity: You can use only one Channel divinity power per encounter Effect: Until the start of your next turn, you gain resist all equal to any cold resistance you already possess. Aftereffect: You lose your cold resistance until the start of your next turn.

Guardian of the Sleeping Season

Heroic Tier:

Prerequisite: You must worship the Raven Queen

Benefit: Whenever you do cold damage to a creature with the plant keyword, they gain vulnerable 5 cold until the end of your next turn.

Magic Item:

The Chill of Death                                                                   Level 3+ Rare

This elegant sickle of blackened steel is freezing cold to the touch. This is the favored weapon of a servant of the Raven Queen and embodies both sides of her control over the dead and winter. Lvl 3                +1                  680gp            Lvl 18             +4                   85,000gp Lvl 8               +2                   3,400gp         Lvl 23             +5                   425,000gp Lvl 13             +3                   17,000gp       Lvl 28             +6                   2,125,000gp Weapon: Sickle Enhancement Bonus: attack rolls and damage rolls Critical: +1d10 cold or necrotic damage (your choice) per plus Property: If you worship the Raven Queen, you gain proficiency with this weapon and may use this weapon as a holy symbol. It adds its enhancement bonus (but not its proficiency bonus) to attack rolls and damage rolls when used in this manner. If you do not worship the Raven Queen, you do not benefit from this weapon’s property. Power (Cold, Necrotic) * At-Will (Minor Action) All cold damage dealt by this weapon is now necrotic damage, or all necrotic damage dealt by this weapon is now cold damage. Another minor action returns the damage to normal. Power (Cold, Necrotic) * Daily (Free Action) Trigger: You hit with the weapon. Target: The creature you hit with the triggering attack. Attack: Lvl + 3 vs. Fortitude Hit: The target is frozen in a pillar of black ice (petrified) and takes ongoing 5 cold and necrotic damage (save ends both). Level 13 or 18: 10 ongoing cold and necrotic damage. Level 23 or 28: 15 ongoing cold and necrotic damage.