Base Requirements

• Races: Human, Gnoll, Lizard Man
• Classes: Any Warrior, Any Rogue, Psionicist, Sha’ir
• Ability Requirements: Health 10
• Alignments: Any Lawful
• Starting Cash: 3d4 x10 gp
• Bonus Languages: Uloushinn, D’tarig
• Recommended Languages: Bothii, Erakic, Gnoll, Lizard Man, Netherese, Tharian, Midani

Proficiencies

• Weapon Slots: By class
• Non-weapon Slots: By class
• Available Categories: By class
• Bonus Weapon Proficiencies: Scimitar (specialized)
• Bonus Non-weapon Proficiencies: Hiding, Land-based Riding
• Required Proficiencies: Survival (Desert)
• Recommended Proficiencies: Blind-Fighting
• Forbidden Proficiencies: Any Academic Proficiencies

Overview: Anauroch, the great desert of the Heartlands, is inhabited by a nomadic people known as the Bedine, as well as Gnolls and Asabi (the Bedine word for Lizard-men). The typical Bedine of Anauroch is a man who strives to win honor, defend his family, and serve his sheikh, the leader of his tribe.

Because of the harsh conditions of the desert, many Gnolls and Asabi have been forced to seek out shelter amidst the Bedine encampments, and, over generations, have become a common accessory to the tribes.

Description: The typical Bedine is a brown skinned, dark-eyed, darkhaired man who wears loose robes called abas to protect himself from the scorching sun. Some Bedine deviate from this traditional garb, choosing instead to wear trousers, loose shirts, and vests. They wear head-dresses called keffiyehs, which are secured with a brow-band. The color and pattern of a keffiyeh identifies a Bedine warrior’s tribe.

Bedine warriors favor scimitars, daggers, lances, and short or long bows. Metal is very rare in Anauroch, so only hide or leather armor is used.

Females of Bedine tribes traditionally are covered by clothing from head to foot. They must wear opaque veils to cover their faces when in public.

Role-Playing: The typical Bedine is a proud, insular individual. The only world he knows is the great Mother Desert, and he finds it impossible to believe that there are huge, vast forests, or farmland that can be farmed continually. If a Bedine is to adventure outside the boundaries of Anauroch, he is going to be amazed and dumbfounded for a good length of time until he becomes accustomed to the wonders of life beyond his barren desert homeland.
A Bedine warrior considers food and water to be items that belong to whoever needs them at the time. Hoarding of resources or outright gluttony are thus highly offensive actions to the Bedine.

Personal and family honor are especially important to a Bedine. Honor is more important than life or death, since the Bedine believe that the gods weigh a man’s life by his behavior. To insult a Bedine or his family is to invite a feud that can last a very long time—perhaps
a generation or more!—until honor is restored. The primary way to restore a Bedine’s honor usually involves the execution of the offending cretin (or his eldest descendant, when involved in long-standing feuds).

Anyone whom a Bedine does not respect is considered a “jackal”. Dishonest traders, conmen, thieves, and tricksters are especially despised. The Bedine comes from a male-dominated society, and considers women who are unveiled, or who initiate conversation with a man, to be “brazen.”

An adventuring Bedine (one found outside of Anauroch), is one who has put the normal Bedine goals of wealth and honor aside for now. Such characters travel to learn and to experience life beyond the desert.

Special Abilities:

• All Bedine are entitled to the hit point bonus for exceptional Constitution scores as if they were warriors.
• The traditional weapon of the Bedine is the scimitar. All characters from Anauroch begin with free weapon proficiency and specialization in the scimitar (regardless of class).
• Bedine incur no attack roll penalties when firing arrows from camelback. Environmental factors and line of sight restrictions must still be taken into consideration.
• The Bedine are used to working and fighting at night. For purposes of visibility, treat conditions of night as if it were lit by a full moon and a moonless night as if it were twilight. Bedine may also take the Blind-Fighting non-weapon proficiency at the cost of only one slot (regardless of class or proficiency groups).
• Due to their years of learning how to thrive in a harsh climate, Bedine gain a +2 bonus to their adjusted ability score when using the survival non-weapon proficiency for desert survival.

Special Disadvantages:

• Due to their general fear of magic, all Bedine suffer a -2 penalty to all saving throws against Spells.
• Bedine who do travel the world tend to be thrown off by what they see as odd customs. The Bedine suffers a -2 penalty on NPC reactions when dealing with characters from outside the great desert.
• Wearing armor in the harsh environment of the Great Desert is almost unthinkable. These characters are completely unaccustomed to this practice and can never wear any kind of metal armor.
• Metal is a scarce commodity among the Bedine. Consequently, no metal equipment other than weapons may be purchased either initially, nor during any subsequent dealing with Bedine merchants and traders.

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