Appearances
The Ice Warriors date all the way back to the Second Doctor’s run, a longer TV history than most of the other races I’ll be dealing with in this first batch. They make their debut in the titular story back in 1967, reappearing in The Seeds of Death in the following season. In the classic series, they reappear twice more, in the two Peladon stories during the Third Doctor’s era. Unusually, having been presented as villains in their earlier appearances, in The Curse of Peladon at least, they are shown to be a more complex race that isn’t necessarily evil, and that actively help the Doctor out. Intended returns during the Sixth and Seventh Doctors’ eras were both cancelled along with their respective seasons, so it was nearly four decades before they re-appeared in the Eleventh Doctor story Cold War, and then once more in Twelve’s run. These are perhaps midway between the Second Doctor stories and The Curse of Peladon in terms of their treatment of the race, playing up the ambiguity.
The Ice Warriors are popular enough to have appeared in five full-length novels. One of these is a sequel to the Peladon stories, and another doesn’t feature the Doctor, while GodEngine, for the Seventh Doctor, is probably the one that takes the deepest look at their culture. They have made major appearances no fewer than thirteen times in the audios, including reworkings of abandoned TV scripts as well as original sequels to the Peladon stories, and some releases that feature them as comparatively straightforward antagonists. Indeed, they were the first TV monsters to feature on the audios after the Daleks, appearing in the eighth release, Red Dawn, back in 2000. They have also featured in comics, short stories, and a 1990s video game.
Description and Biology
The Ice Warriors are Martians, the native race that evolved on that planet. In the original story, they are given the name by a scientist who discovers one frozen in a block of ice and, being unable to see it clearly, assumes it to be a human Viking warrior. Later, however, they appear to use that name for themselves, even though their connection with ice is debatable.
They appear as reptilian humanoids, but, from a biological/taxonomic standpoint, unlike the Silurians they aren’t truly reptiles, since they are alien, unrelated to anything from Earth. This means that we can’t assume that anything which is true of real-world reptiles is also true of Ice Warriors – for all we know, the only real point of similarity may be the scaly skin and reptile-like teeth. We do know that both male and female Ice Warriors exist and can be identified as such. We very rarely see the latter (only once on TV, although another is mentioned in passing in Cold Blood, and there’s one in an audio) so they might be rarer than the males – an odd biological setup if
true, although not an impossible one, as bees and ants are extreme real-world examples.
Ice Warriors are typically taller than humans and are rarely seen outside of their armour. On TV, the Eleventh Doctor is the first to state that the armour is cybernetically melded to the body of the wearer, although this had also been used in some of the earlier tie-in media. In the classic show, there are at least two forms of this armour: the heavy bulky kind worn by the regular warriors, and a much sleeker, lighter, type worn by their superiors the ‘Ice Lords’ (first seen in The Seeds of Death). This is somewhat mirrored in Empress of Mars, although the difference looks less extreme. While we know that they can take it off, this is apparently unusual, and presumably quite a lengthy process (according to one novel, it includes a waste management system, so there’s probably little need to ever remove it).
One difference from real-world reptiles is that, while Ice Warriors are stated to be ‘cold blooded’, they do better in a cold environment than a hot one, apparently because their armoured suits have difficulty compensating for the latter. Mars is much colder than Earth, being further from the Sun, so they’re surely adapted to it, even if they originally lived before the Martian surface became as uninhabitable as it is today. Similarly, Earth’s higher gravity is cited as the reason that they move slowly, and the different nature of its atmosphere causes them to wheeze and hiss when speaking. (At least in one story, we can see that this isn’t a natural part of how they speak because the Ice Lord in The Seeds of Death, when speaking from inside his own spaceship, does so with a relatively normal voice).
Game Attributes
Given their large size and cybernetic combat armour, it’s clear that Ice Warriors are significantly stronger than humans, even allowing for the weaker gravity of their homeworld. They are likely also physically resilient and the armour itself must provide a significant amount of protection. On the other hand, they are slow-moving in Earth gravity, although their hand-eye coordination is good enough to fire weapons without difficulty so, in systems that don’t split such things from general agility (and few do, these days) their dexterity is likely at the default level.
The Ice Lords are, however, a different matter. While I’m defining typical individuals here rather than, say, Iraxxa from Empress of Mars, there are enough characters at this rank in the show to make it worthwhile to describe them. Their armour is much lighter, and so likely provides less protection and provides less of the strength boost, but also does not impede their movement in Earth gravity.
In terms of mental statistics, Ice Warriors seem likely to be strong-willed, coming from an honour-based warrior culture, and their alignment could take any of the options on the Lawful axis. Intelligence for the average warrior is probably human-like, but the Lords may be slightly more so, and should certainly be charismatic, at least in systems that don’t have leadership skills separated out.
Regarding their other skills, even though the term ‘Ice Warrior’ is originally one given to them by humans, it’s obvious that their society is, indeed, highly martial in nature. Logically, they must have engineers, medics, and even food producers of some kind, but their high technology might give them enough free time for everyone to at least practice their combat skills. Either way, the ones we see are all either warriors or senior officers and will be competent in battle. How many other skills the typical Warrior will have is debatable, but the Lords must have leadership and social skills to navigate what seems to be a complex society that we’re told has a high regard for aesthetics.
Special Abilities
Apart from the cybernetic armour, the Ice Warriors don’t seem to have any special abilities and their only specific weakness is a lack of tolerance for hot conditions. This is apparently down to a design limitation of their suits, not something biological, so it may be worth noting that it’s probably the temperature itself that’s the issue, so that particularly humid weather wouldn’t feel any different to them than a ‘dry heat’. (In humans, humidity can prevent sweat from evaporating and cooling us, but that’s not the case here).
Many Ice Warriors do have sonic weapons built into their armour, which are likely controlled directly by feeds from their nervous system. More than one model has been shown, which may reflect the fact that we have seen individuals from thousands of years apart in their timeline. But these are weapons, and not part of the race itself, so I’ll not stat them up.
5E - Ice Warrior
Medium humanoid, lawful neutral
Armour Class: 17 integrated heavy combat armour
Hit Points: 28 (5d8+5)
Speed: 20 ft.
STR 16 (+3) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 12 (+1) |
INT 10 (+0) | WIS 12 (+1) | CHA 10 (+0) |
Saving Throws: Strength +6, Constitution +4
Combat Skills: Melee Attack +6, Missile Attack +3
Senses: Passive Perception 11
Temperature Sensitivity: The Ice Warrior makes all Constitution rolls to resist the effects of extreme temperature at disadvantage.
Challenge: ½ (100 XP)
5E - Ice Lord
Medium humanoid, lawful neutral
Armour Class: 14 integrated light combat armour
Hit Points: 39 (7d8+7)
Speed: 30 ft.
STR 12 (+1) | DEX 10 (+0) | CON 12 (+1) |
INT 12 (+1) | WIS 12 (+1) | CHA 14 (+2) |
Saving Throws: Wisdom +4, Charisma +4
Skills: Persuasion +5
Combat Skills: Melee Attack +4, Missile Attack +3
Senses: Passive Perception 11
Temperature Sensitivity: The Ice Lord makes all Constitution rolls to resist the effects of extreme temperature at disadvantage.
Challenge: ½ (100 XP)
BRP - Ice Warrior
STR 2D6+9 (16) | CON 2D6+6 (13) | SIZ 2D6+9 (16) |
INT 2D6+6 (13) | POW 3D6 (10-11) | |
DEX 3D6 (10-11) | CHA 3D6 (10-11) | |
Hit Points: 15 | Move: 8 | |
Base SR: 5 | Damage Bonus: +1D4 |
Armour: 10-point integrated heavy combat armour and helmet
Combat Skills: Brawl 50%, Energy Pistol 60%
Temperature Sensitivity: At temperatures above 30°C (90°F), the Ice Warrior’s Move is reduced to 6 and their effective CON is lowered by 5 (to a minimum of 1).
BRP - Ice Lord
STR 2D6+6 (13) | CON 2D6+6 (13) | SIZ 2D6+6 (13) |
INT 2D6+6 (13) | POW 3D6 (10-11) | |
DEX 3D6 (10-11) | CHA 3D6 (10-11) | |
Hit Points: 13 | Move: 10 | |
Base SR: 4 | Damage Bonus: +1D4 |
Armour: 6-point integrated light combat armour and helmet
Skills: Etiquette 60%, Command 40%
Combat Skills: Brawl 50%, Energy Pistol 60%
Temperature Sensitivity: At temperatures above 30°C (90°F), the Ice Lord’s Move is reduced to 6 and their effective CON is lowered by 5 (to a minimum of 1).
GURPS - Ice Warrior
ST 15 | DX 10 | IQ 10 | HT 12 |
Thrust: 1d+1 | Swing: 2d+1 | ||
Speed: 5.5 | Move: 4 |
Advantages:
Disadvantages: Code of Honour (Soldier's)
Skills: Beam Weapons (pistol)/TL8-12, Brawling-12
GURPS - Ice Lord
ST 12 | DX 10 | IQ 12 | HT 12 |
Thrust: 1d | Swing: 2d-1 | ||
Speed: 6 | Move: 6 |
Advantages:
Disadvantages: Code of Honour (Soldier's)
Skills: Beam Weapons (pistol)/TL8-13, Brawling-12, Leadership-13, Savoir-Faire (Martian high society)-13, any suitable artistic or social skill-12
Savage Worlds - Ice Warrior
Agility: d6 | Smarts: d6 | Spirit: d8 |
Strength: d10 | Vigour: d8 |
Skills: Fighting d6, Intimidation d4, Shooting d6
Edges: Armour +6, Brave, Strong-Willed
Temperature Sensitivity: The Ice Warrior’s Vigour and Agility drop by a die type at temperatures over 30°C (90°F) and they must make rolls to avoid taking Fatigue every hour instead of once every four hours.
Pace: 4 Parry: 5 Toughness: 12(6) Size: 1
Savage Worlds - Ice Lord
Agility: d6 | Smarts: d8 | Spirit: d8 |
Strength: d8 | Vigour: d8 |
Skills: Fighting d6, Persuasion d6, Shooting d6
Temperature Sensitivity: The Ice Lord’s Vigour and Agility drop by a die type at temperatures over 30°C (90°F) and they must make rolls to avoid taking Fatigue every hour instead of once every four hours.
Pace: 6 Parry: 5 Toughness: 10(6) Size: 0
STA - Ice Warrior
Control: 9 | Fitness: 11 | Presence: 8 |
Daring: 10 | Insight: 7 | Reason: 8 |
Command: 1 | Security: 2 | Science: 0 |
Conn: 0 | Engineering: 0 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 13 | Resistance: 2 |
Traits: Temperature Sensitivity: At temperatures above 30°C (90°F), the Ice Warrior suffers a Complication that raises the Difficulty of all Tasks involving physical activity by 1.
STA - Ice Lord
Control: 9 | Fitness: 10 | Presence: 10 |
Daring: 10 | Insight: 8 | Reason: 9 |
Command: 2 | Security: 2 | Science: 1 |
Conn: 0 | Engineering: 0 | Medicine: 0 |
Stress: 12 | Resistance: 1 |
Traits: Temperature Sensitivity: At temperatures above 30°C (90°F), the Ice Warrior suffers a Complication that raises the Difficulty of all Tasks involving physical activity by 1.
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