The Wintreborn

An elf whose perfect symmetric beauty is offset by pallid blue skin walks through a blizzard, unconcerned. Her foes will find that even the drifting snowflake is deadly in the right context. A human with hair frozen into icy spines draws a knife made from an icicle. With a shout, he surrounds himself in whirling snow and his skin hardens into frozen sheets, and the icicle launches from him toward his foe. A silver dragonborn falls into a defensive stance. As the goblin attacks him, his very skin shimmers with unearthly light, hiding his movements as he counterattacks.

Source of Power

Deep in the Feywild, there lies a place of pure winter where the Unseelie Court holds sway. To most outsiders, that place is a terror to behold, with temperatures cold enough to freeze eyes in sockets, eerie lights, and menacing spikes and spires of ice. But to a few, the Deep Winter is a place of beauty and grace, where the ice takes perfect form under gentle auroras, and the cutting snow is as soft as down.

Not all of these people have been to the Feywild, but whether they see it in their lifetime or not, the Deep Winter is bound to them in a way that changes their very outlook and being, and in times of stress the Deep Winter is let forth from within their soul and begins to manifest.

Origin

Almost all cultures have a story in their old lore of a Wintreborn. They are sometimes heroes who bring light and joy to children in the deepest, most savage part of the season. Other times they are villains, casting an endless curse of bleakness over a region. Mostly, though, the Wintreborn are enigmatic individuals, possessed of that strange individual morality of the true fey whose power they reflect. When they do good or ill, it is for reasons of their own, pursuing that strange pattern that fills their minds with snow and ice and aurora.

Creating a Wintreborn

When creating a Wintreborn ask yourself the following questions. When and how did their link to the Deep Winter first manifest? Do they have any unusual behaviors as a result of their connection to the Feywild, such as refusing to touch iron horseshoes or only eating with their left hand?

Not all Wintreborn ultimately decide to adventure, but those who have the potential are changed in other ways. Did your character decide to ply their fey allure in the city, risking the strange looks of the people, or live in the wilderness by themselves? Work with your DM to discuss the Wintreborns' places in the society your character comes from.

Quick Build

You can make a Wintreborn quickly by following these suggestions. First, your highest ability score should be Dexterity, followed by Charisma. Second, choose the Outlander background.

The Wintreborn

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Chill Dice	Features
1st	+2	1d6	Snowcaller (one use), Ice Shard
2nd	+2	1d6	Wintreform, Feytouched
3rd	+2	2d6	Winter Adaptation
4th	+2	2d6	Ability Score Improvement
5th	+3	2d6	Hailcaller, Glaciate
6th	+3	2d6	Wintreform Ability
7th	+3	3d6	Snowcaller (two uses), Wintresight
8th	+3	3d6	Ability Score Improvement
9th	+4	4d6	Improved Wintreform, Sheer Cold
10th	+4	4d6	Wintreform Ability
11th	+4	4d6	Snow Warning
12th	+4	4d6	Ability Score Improvement
13th	+5	5d6	Snowcaller (three uses), Unseelie Mind
14th	+5	5d6	Wintreform Ability
15th	+5	6d6	Ice Beam
16th	+5	6d6	Ability Score Improvement
17th	+6	6d6	Ice Block, Improved Sheer Cold
18th	+6	6d6	Wintreform Ability
19th	+6	7d6	Ability Score Improvement
20th	+6	7d6	Unending Snow

Class Features

As a Wintreborn, you gain the following features

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d8 per Wintreborn level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per Wintreborn level after 1st.

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, rapiers, whips
Tools: One set of Artisan's Tools or one musical instrument

Saving Throws: Dexterity, Charisma
Skills: Choose 3 from Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Nature, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Survival

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

(a) a rapier or (b) a whip
(a) a light crossbow with 20 bolts or (b) any simple weapon
(a) leather armor
(a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack

Chill Dice

Some of your class features improve in power as you level up, represented by the Chill Dice column on the Wintreborn table. Unless otherwise noted, these dice are not consumed when used.

Many of your class features call for a saving throw against your Chill Dice. The DC for this saving throw is equal to 8 + your Proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier.

Snowcaller

At first level, your natural connection to the Deep Winter begins to manifest in times of stress. You may use a bonus action on their turn to summon a swirling flurry of winter weather with a 10 foot radius centered on a point up to 30 feet away. The flurry grants the following effects.

Enemies within the flurry must make a Constitution save against your Chill Dice saving throw at the start of their turn or lose 10 feet of their movement that turn.
Allies within the flurry impose disadvantage on Opportunity attacks made against them.
Ranged attacks originating outside the flurry have disadvantage targeting creatures inside the flurry, and ranged attacks by creatures inside the flurry have disadvantage targeting creatures outside the flurry.
When you deal damage with a weapon attack to an enemy inside the flurry, they take additional damage equal to your Chill Dice. You may only apply this additional damage once per turn.
You can use a bonus action on your turn to move the flurry up to 15 feet in any direction.
Many of your other features benefit from you, your enemies, or both being inside the flurry.

The flurry lasts for 1 minute or until you use another bonus action to end it. If it is not ended, it will continue even if you are incapacitated or killed.

Once you have used this feature, you cannot use it again until you have completed a short or a long rest. You can use it twice between rests starting at 7th level, and you can use it three times between rests starting at 13th level, though you may only have one flurry active at any one time. You regain all uses when you complete a short or a long rest.

Ice Shard

Also at 1st level, you learn to draw sharp blades of ice from the Feywild to strike your enemies. When you take the Attack action on your turn, you may replace one of your attacks with a conjured shard of ice. Additionally, when you use the Attack action on your turn, you may use your bonus action to conjure a shard of ice and attack with it.

Treat the ice shard as a melee weapon dealing 1d4 piercing damage with the finesse, light, and thrown (30/120) properties. If you target an enemy who is currently within a flurry created by your snowcaller ability, ranged attacks with Ice Shard suffer no disadvantage. The Ice Shard still adds your ability modifier to damage, even when used as a bonus action attack.

The Ice Shard vanishes after the attack.

Wintreform

At second level, you gain the ability to shift into a more potent representation of your Deep Winter connection. Choose between the Snowflake, Icicle, or Aurora Wintreforms, described at the end of this class description. Your choice grants you features when you pick it and again at 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels.

Most Wintreform abilities only function while transformed into your Wintreform. A Wintreborn automatically transforms at the start of their turn if they are inside the flurry created by snowcaller, and they can maintain the Wintreform by concentrating on it, as if concentrating on a spell. A Wintreform cannot be maintained for more than one minute in this way, though starting your turn inside the snowcaller flurry resets this time.

Beginning at 9th level, you no longer need to concentrate in order to maintain your Wintreform.

Feytouched

Also at second level, unlocking your Wintreform causes your body to undergo a physical change. You gain the appearance of some aspect of your Wintreform, such as your hair constantly frozen into icicle formations or your skin rippling in iridescent patterns the color of a night aurora. You can suppress or restart this appearance as an action. You cannot suppress feytouched while in your Wintreform.

While your appearance is modified through this feature, you have advantage on all saving throws against abilities used or spells cast by fey creatures, and on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma checks made which involve fey creatures.

Winter Adaptation

At 3rd level, your constant use of the energies of Deep Winter have rendered you highly resistant to winter's worst effects. You gain the following benefits:

You ignore difficult terrain caused by icy, snowy, or frigid conditions.
You may choose whether you leave tracks whenever you walk on snow or ice.
You gain resistance to cold damage, and do not suffer adverse effects for freezing temperatures.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature. Alternatively, you can choose a feat (see Chapter 6 for a list of feats).

Hailcaller

At 5th level, your Snowcaller ability improves. Enemies inside your flurry which fail their Constitution saving throws also take damage equal to your Charisma bonus (minimum 1). Once each time you use your Snowcaller feature, you may use your action to cause every creature inside it to make the same Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, creatures take cold damage equal to your Chill Dice. On a successful save they take half as much damage.

Glaciate

Also at 5th level, your Ice Shard improves. Whenever you deal damage with your Ice Shard and do not apply Chill Dice to the damage roll, you may deal an additional 1d6 cold damage. This bonus damage improves to 2d6 at 11th level and 3d6 at 17th level.

Wintresight

At 7th level, you can see through the densest blizzard as easily as on a clear sunny day. Your vision is no longer hindered by snow, sleet, rain, fog, mist, or similar phenomenon, including those created by magical effects such as fog cloud.

Sheer Cold

At 9th level, when you deal cold damage, you can choose to ignore resistance to that damage. At 17th level you can also choose to ignore immunity to cold damage in this way.

Snow Warning

At 11th level, you learn to react to threats almost instantaneously. Whenever you roll initiative, if you have a use of Snowcaller remaining, you can use it with no action required. Additionally, the radius of your Snowcaller ability increases to 20 feet, the range at which it can be summoned increases to 100 feet, and the distance you can move it with a bonus action increases to 30 feet.

Unseelie Mind

At 13th level, you psyche begins to shift, becoming more like the fey whose home you channel. You can no longer be put to sleep or charmed by magic, and you have advantage on saving throws against effects which deal psychic damage.

Ice Beam

At 15th level, you can channel your flurry into a beam of pure cold energy. As an action, you may end an active snowcaller within 60 feet of you to create a 5 foot wide, 60 foot long line connecting you to your snowcaller's location. Creatures in the line must make a Dexterity saving throw against your Chill Dice DC. Creatures who fail their save take damage equal to your Chill Dice and have their movement speed halved until the end of their next turn. Creatures who make their save take half damage and do not have their movement speed reduced.

Ice Block

Beginning at 17th level, you can freeze creatures in a block of ice. When you deal cold damage to a creature which is standing in your Snowcaller, you can use your Reaction to attempt to freeze that creature. The creature must make a Strength saving throw against your Chill Dice DC. On a failed save, they are frozen in a block of ice with hit points equal to twice your Wintreborn level, with the following effects:

The frozen creature cannot move or attack, and attack rolls against the creature have advantage
The frozen creature gains immunity to fire damage and resistance to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage.
The creature takes 2d6 cold damage at the start of each of its turns.
The creature may repeat the Strength saving throw at the end of each of its turns. On a success, they deal damage to the block of ice equal to half of the block's maximum hit points.
Any time the creature takes damage, the ice block takes the same amount of damage, calculated before resistance or immunity. The block of ice is vulnerable to fire damage, resistant to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage, and immune to cold damage.

Once you have frozen a creature with this feature, you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest.

Unending Snow

Beginning at 20th level, your Snow Warning ability no longer requires or consumes your Snowcaller charges.

Wintreforms

The Wintreborn all learn to manifest their Wintreform at level 2. Their Wintreform is fueled by that aspect of winter's beauty that they are most deeply connected to, and grants them certain benefits while they are transformed.

Snowflake Wintreform

The snowflake represents perfect symmetry and grace. Many of its features allow it to move more gracefully though the battlefield or join in allies attacks. When this form manifests, it usually gives the Wintreborn the poise and unearthly symmetry of the High Sidhe, offset but unusual traits such as crystalline hair in a fractal formation or unusual colors of skin.

Wintreform Improvement

At 2nd level, your Wintreform allows you to move across the battlefield as lightly as a snowflake. While you are in your Wintreform, your move speed increases by 10 feet and you may float up to 5 feet over the ground or the surface of liquids during movement, though you must begin and end your movement on solid ground.

Snowflake Dancer

Also at 2nd level, you gain proficiency in the Performance skill. If you were already proficient in Performance, you may add twice your proficiency bonus to checks made using that skill. This benefit applies even if you are not in your Wintreform.

Snow Cloak

At 6th level, your defenses improve as you blend into snow and ice. While you are in your Wintreform and within your Snowcaller flurry or similar weather effects, your Armor Class increases by +2. You do not receive this benefit if you are wearing heavy armor or using a shield.

Perfect Symmetry

At 10th level, your long bond to the snowflake has granted you the ability to mirror your allies strikes. When an ally makes a melee attack against a creature within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to mirror their attack by conjuring a copy of their weapon formed from ice and snow. Make a melee attack using the ally's ability score, proficiency bonus, and damage dice, but your own feats, class features, magical bonuses, or other modifiers.

Perfect Symmetry does not benefit from Snowcaller's bonus damage, but does benefit from Glaciate.

You may use this feature even if you are not in your Wintreform.

Avalanche

At 14th level, while you are in your Wintreform, you can attempt to push creatures away from you with the crushing weight of an avalanche. As an action, designate a target within 5 feet of you. They must make a Strength saving throw against your Chill Dice DC, which is made at disadvantage if both you and your target are standing within your snowcaller flurry. On a failed save, they take 2d6 bludgeoning damage plus 2d6 cold damage and are knocked back up to ten feet. On a successful save, they take half damage and are not knocked back. If a target which fails their saving throw begins or ends their movement from this effect within 5 feet of another creature, you may repeat this effect on the new creature. No creature can be affected more than once by a single use of avalanche.

Slush Rush

At 18th level, you can draw on the sudden speed of a snowflake caught in high winds. As a bonus action you can fly up to 60 feet in a straight line (including straight up or at an angle to reach higher ground). Movement from this effect does not provoke attacks of opportunity. If you end your turn above the ground, you safely fall up to 60 feet at the start of your next turn, taking no damage.

You can use this ability at will while you are in your Wintreform. Using it while you are not in your Wintreform causes you to enter your Wintreform and be unable to use it outside Wintreform until the next time you complete a long rest.

Icicle Wintreform

The icicle represents durability and the harsh edge of broken ice. Many of its features improve your attacks or harden your flesh. When this form manifests, it usually gives the Wintreborn a hard-edged icy look.

Wintreform Improvement

At 2nd level, your Wintreform increases your durability. When you are in your Wintreform, you may use your reaction when you are struck by a melee attack to produce icicles from your skin, reducing piercing or slashing damage you take by 2 (to a minimum of 1) and dealing 1d4 damage to your attacker. The damage reduction and damage both improve as you gain further levels in this class. At 6th level, you reduce the damage by 5 and deal 1d4+1 damage to your attacker. At 10th level, you reduce the damage by 7 and deal 1d6+2 damage to your attacker. At 14th level, you reduce the damage by 10 and deal 1d8+3 damage to your attacker. At 18th level, you reduce the damage by 15 and deal 1d10+5 damage to your attacker.

Harsh Guise

Also at 2nd level, your countenance takes on the harsh edges of an icicle. While you do not have your Feytouched feature suppressed, you have proficiency in Intimidation and may add twice your proficiency bonus to checks using that skill. You do not need to be in your Wintreform to benefit from this feature.

Ice Body

At 6th level, you can incorporate flurrying snow into your icy form. When you start your turn in your Snowcaller flurry or similar weather effects and are already in your Wintreform, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier plus half your levels in Wintreborn.

Icicle Spear

At 10th level, you incorporate the harsh power of the icicle into your Ice Shard. Your Ice Shard's thrown property now has a range of 80/320, and once per turn when you make a ranged attack with it, you can attack an additional target within 15 feet of the first.

You retain the benefit of this feature even if you are not in your Wintreform.

Ice Flesh

At 14th level, your Wintreform is proof against mundane armaments. You gain resistance to slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage from nonmagical weapons while in your Wintreform.

Icicle Crash

At 18th level, you may transform your whole body into a giant icicle to attack your foes. As an action, you can make a melee spell attack using Charisma against an adjacent target. If it hits, you deal 2d8 Piercing and 2d8 cold damage to the target and they are knocked prone. The cold damage is increased to 6d8 if your target is within your Snowcaller flurry.

Aurora Wintreform

The aurora represents the alien otherness and strange knowledge hidden by winter. Many of its features allow you to mesmerize or confuse the minds of others. When this form manifests, the Wintreborn takes on shifting hues in their hair, skin, or both, and they glow with a faint inner light.

Wintreform Improvement

At 2nd level, your Wintreform camoflages your true location with shifting arcane lights. When you are in your Wintreform, you shed dim light to a radius of 15 feet and you may take the Dodge action as a bonus action on your turn. Additionally, when an enemy misses you with a melee attack, you can use your reaction to teleport up to 10 feet away.

Arcane Light

Also at 2nd level, you can see secrets hidden in strange lights. You know the detect magic spell and may cast it as a ritual. You also gain proficiency in the Arcana skill.

Aurora Veil

At 6th level, you can protect yourself from magic by creating a shifting barrier of light. While you are in your Wintreform, you have resistance to damage dealt by spells. This has no effect on slashing, piercing, bludgeoning, or fire damage dealt by spells.

Aurora Beam

At 10th level, you can fire a chilling beam of boreal light which saps energy from its target. As an action on your turn, you may make a ranged spell attack against a target within 120 feet, using Charisma as your spellcasting ability modifier. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 psychic damage plus 2d6 cold damage and has disadvantage on the next weapon attack roll they make before the end of their next turn. The damage increases to 2d6 psychic and 3d6 cold at level 17.

You can use this ability even if you are not in your Wintreform.

Hypnotize

At 14th level, while you are in your Wintreform, you can attempt to charm creatures to do your bidding. As an action, designate a creature within 30 feet of you. It must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Chill Dice DC. On a failed save, you can command it to use its Reaction to make a single attack against a different creature, to drop its weapons, or to lie prone. Once a creature has been affected by this ability, it cannot be affected by it again until you complete a long rest.

Dazzling Gleam

At 18th level, you may shape the aurora of your Wintreform into a cone of scintillating light. As an action, you create a 15 foot cone centered on you. Each creature in the cone must make a Constitution saving throw against your Chill Dice DC. On a failed save, creatures take 2d6 psychic, 2d6 cold, and 1d6 radiant damage. On a successful save, they take only the cold damage.

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