Tauren

Description:The plains of Kalimdor have long been a home to these tremendous nomads. The tauren are a race of shamans, hunters and warriors who long ago developed a complex culture and system of living without the aid of stonework, steel or conquest. This is not to say that the tauren are a race of pacifists, for when they are angered they are capable of retaliating with swift and decisive brutality. Tauren are, in a word, stoic, embodying the strong and silent type with their quiet contemplation. This introspective air combined with their immense size can lead a person to understand how many regard the tauren as a wise and dangerous race. Tauren rarely speak unless there is a true reason to, preferring to act instead of talk. However, once a tauren has learned to interact with a companion, there seems to be a more open and enthusiastic exchange of words. Since tauren warm slowly to non-tauren, however, they are usually silent, and sometimes appear brooding. If anything, a person could attribute the silence of the tauren on the strife of recent times. Tauren have no love for bloodshed, as their deep spiritual beliefs don’t have a place for warfare. The elders of a tribe solve most issues, or two tauren might resolve a conflict with a ritual challenge resembling a duel. Having become members of the Horde has led the introspective race into more and more conflict, creating a demand for tauren warriors and healers. Many must spend time putting great thought into the actions they perform on the fi eld of battle. Taking another life, whether it is man or beast, is an act filled with great signifi cance to the tauren. Appearance:Tauren are large, muscular humanoids with bull-like heads. Males average 7 1/2 feet tall and 400 pounds, while females are usually a bit shorter and lighter. Tauren are mostly muscle, having incredibly developed physiques and brawny frames most suitable for combat. Soft, downy fur (usually quite short) covers the tauren body, with manes growing along head and neck, the lengths of the arms, and the shins. Coloration can range from solid black to blond and even to white, or mottled pelts  with  a range of spots and different colors. Horns are most prominent on males, although all tauren have horns. Tauren wear natural clothing — leather or hide, and some cloth. They prize jewelry, designing fine trinkets of ivory, bone and amber. From these materials they make bracelets or necklaces, and sometimes adorn their horns or locks with such beautiful displays of artistry.

Region: After living as nomads for generations, the tauren have formed a new home amid the mesas of the vast plains of Mulgore. Thunder Bluff is the single largest tauren camp, a permanent settlement built atop a nearly impenetrable mesa deep in the southern regions of Mulgore. Most younger tauren travel there after questing for a time in Redrock Mesa, a place reserved for training youths to hunt, fight  and commune with the spirits.

Affiliation:Horde. When the tauren first encountered the orcs of Thrall’s Horde, the tauren recognized the orcs as spiritual brethren. No other race shared such a similar outlook on the world, and the shamans of both races met frequently to discuss the matters of the spirit world. The tauren allied with the orcs out of a shared vision, one of a collective of allies keeping each other well guarded. While the tauren see the orcs and trolls as potential friends to welcome, they rarely trust the Forsaken with more than a nod and a place to set their withered feet. Tauren also bear no ill will to the members of the Alliance unless threatened by them, although they do make an exception for high elves. The taint of magic on the high elven spirit is a poisonous air to the tauren, a stench of the soul that they cannot tolerate for long. Night elves are quite the opposite; tauren sometimes view them with awe and fear. Tauren and night elves have coexisted on Kalimdor for centuries, and tauren have long seen the Kaldorei as a mythinc race of demigods, possessed of great magice and steeped in natural powers.

Faith: For the tauren, nature is the mother of the world, and their faith holds a deep and resonant tone within their hearts. Tauren are connected to the ebb and flow of the world. They revere the spirits of the land and of their ancestors, and they turn to these spirits for wisdom and guidance. This connection manifests in their deeply animistic culture, where druids and shamans stand side by side with warriors and hunters. Tauren do not see a separation between the veneration of nature and the hunt; to hunt is to honor the spirits of nature.

Names:The language of the tauren is often harsh and low sounding, which is reflected in the names of their children. The last name of a tauren is usually a family nname, handed down through the generations. If the tauren has performed some act that has made an impression on the elders of his tribe, however, he may choose to take on his own last name to commemorate that act.

•Male Names: Azok, Bron, Turok, Garaddon, Hruon, Jeddek.

•Female Names: Argo, Serga, Grenda, Beruna, Halfa.

• Family Names:Darkthorn, Thunderhoof, Stormhorn, Quillsplitter, Stonebreaker, Plainstalker, Spiritwalker.

Tauren Racial Traits
• +2 Strength, –2 Agility. Tauren are incredibly powerful, but they lack grace.

• Medium: As Medium creatures, Tauren have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

• Tauren base land speed is 30 feet.

•Natural Weapon (Ex): A tauren’s horns are a natural weapon, and all adult tauren are proficient in their use. Tauren horns deal 1d8 points of damage (plus bonus damage from Strength). Male                                        tauren horns tend to be more prominent than those of females.

• Weapon Familiarity: Tauren may treat tauren halberds and totems as martial weapons rather than exotic weapons.

• Weapon Proficiency: Tauren receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for longspears and shortspears. Tauren are skilled hunters.

• +2 racial bonus on Handle Animal and Survivalchecks. These skills are considered class skills for all tauren characters.

• Automatic Languages: Common and Taur-ahe.

• Bonus Languages: Goblin, Low Common and Orcish. Tauren tend to learn languages for trade or exchanging ideas.

• Racial Levels: Unlike humans and some other races, tauren can take a few levels in “tauren” as a class to develop their racial qualities more fully.

• Favored Class: Warrior. A multiclass tauren’s warrior class does not count when determining whether he suffers an experience point penalty for multiclassing                                                                                     (see Chapter 3: Classes, “Multiclass Characters,” XP for Multiclass Characters).

Tauren Levels
Tauren can take up to three levels in “tauren” at any time. The path that a tauren follows when taking racial levels is a spiritual and physical journey. It is as much a rite of passage as it is a revelation into the workings of the world around the tauren. Because of this, most tauren embark on the journey slowly, taking a level in order to gain a better understanding of the challenges ahead of them. Tauren levels stack with a divine spellcasting class for purposes of determining caster level for spells. If the tauren has two divine spellcasting classes, add the racial levels to the higher of the two. Hit Die:d10.

Skill Points at 1st Character Level:(2 + Int modifier) x 4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level:2 + Int modifier.

“Class” Skills: Climb (Str), Concentration (Sta), Handle Animal                              (Spt), Listen (Spt), Sense Motive (Spt), Spellcraft                             (Int), Spot (Spt) and Survival (Spt). See Chapter 5: Skills for skill descriptions.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency:Tauren with levels only in                                                                 tauren (no actual class levels)                                                          are proficient in the use of simple weapons, excluding crossbows, and are able to use light armor. They retain their standard Martial Weapon Proficiency feats.

Tauren Charge (Ex): On a charge, a tauren may lower his head and use his horns instead of a melee weapon. Resolve the charge normally. In addition to the usual benefits and hazards of a                                          charge, the tauren horns deliver a single gore attack that deals regular horn damage + 1 1/2 times the tauren’s Strength modifier.

Improved Tauren Charge (Ex): A tauren is considered Large for the purpose of making tauren charges and bull rushes. He receives a +4 racial bonus on Strength checks for bull rush attempts.

Bonus Weapon Proficiency: At 2nd and 3rd level, the tauren chooses one weapon from the following list: tauren halberd, tauren totem. He is proficient with the weapon.