Barbarians, two stocks

Class: Barbarian
Choose from stocks: Human or half-orc. Regardless of your choice, you have human nature (Boasting, Demanding, Running).

Trait: Berserk—Barbarians are known for charging into skirmishes, lightly armored or not armored at all, with no apparent fear or concern for their own safety. They gnash their teeth, beat their shields and are terrifying to behold!

Weapons: Any but bows and crossbows
Armor: Leather or hide, helmet, shield

Starting weapons: Battle axe or two-handed sword
Starting armor: Hide (Torso, worn 2)—If targeted by a successful or tied Attack or Feint in a fight, roll a D6. On a 3+, you reduce the thrust by -1s. If failed, your opponent attacks unhindered, but your armor is not damaged. Spears, bolts and arrows negate this effect.

Alignment: Berserkers may not be aligned with Law.

Stock: Human
Starting abilities: Distribute 8 points between Will and Health; neither stat may have a rating lower than 2 or higher than 6.
Skills: Fighter 4, Hunter 3, Armorer 2, Laborer 2, Rider 2 Survivalist 2
Special skill: Pathfinder, Rider, Scout, Survivalist

Stock: Half-orc
Starting abilities: Health 6, Will 2
Skills: Fighter 4 Hunter 3 Manipulator 2 Scout 2 Scavenger 2 Survivalist 2
Half-orc wise: Orc-wise or Mercenary-wise, take a second wise of your choice following the guidelines in the main book.

Level benefits (1-5)

Level 1
Barbarian: Use any weapon save for bows and crossbows, wear any light armor (hide or leather), carry a shield and wear helmets.

Level 2
Brawler (human): Bare hands count as weapon. When you are unarmed in a fight, you do not suffer the -1D penalty to all actions. If disarmed in an ongoing fight, you automatically switch to your bare hands and thus do not suffer the -1D penalty. Bare hands do not provide a bonus to any actions.

Wolfish (half-orc): You’re accustomed to eating as much as you can when you can and then going without for a long time. If you consume 2x the rations to remove the Hungry/Thirsty condition, ignore the next Hungry/Thirsty condition you would normally receive.

Level 3
Skirmisher (human): Improved leather armor. When you’re wearing leather or hide armor, roll 2D to deflect a blow. If either die comes up a 4-6, you reduce the incoming thrust by -1s.

Night eyes (half-orc): Your orc lineage manifests as eyes that gleam dull and red in the firelight. You suffer no penalty in dim light but suffer -1D in bright sunlight light when out in the open.

Level 4
Harrier (human): You are adept at carrying two spears or two hand axes in your off-hand. You may wield any one-handed weapon (for example: a third spear or hand axe or a shield). Spears and hand axes may be thrown once per fight to counteract the effect of a longer-ranged weapons (like spears and halberds) or turn an Attack from an independent to versus test. may attack an opponent using a missile weapon an independent test. Ineffective against bows and crossbows.

Wolf-rider (half-orc): Gain a dire wolf mount. You have a tentative relationship with this beast and failing any ride or fight test may result in the dire wolf rejecting your dominance and turning on you! The wolf provides help according to its nature.

Level 5
Superstitious (human): Gain the Superstitious trait and choose a lucky charm or tribal fetish. Spend a check to remove Afraid condition at any time while in possession of this object.

Inner fire (half-orc): Gain the Fiery trait or increase it. Gain the benefit to become Angry (at will) to remove Afraid.

Wild idea here…I don’t totally dig the idea that you only get one of the two paths, locked in by your stock choice, but…

What if you could switch between the half-orc and human paths? I’m starting to envision a concept that the barbarians are humans who go and live/train among the deadly, ferocious orcish tribes, earning their approval enough to undergo an “orc blooding” ritual. Some of them embrace their new orcish blood, others stay mostly human. So every level, you pick which part of yourself to embrace, and take that benefit. You could do some nifty stuff with Nature here, akin to what you did with the monk.

Obviously you’d have to hammer out the lore here a lot, but there could be some great stuff with that.

Berserk is an awesome trait, and there’s some seriously cool level benefits there. Inner Fire is awesome, in particular. Absolutely colorfully awesome. Ah, and both Level 4 benefits are really vying for my “totally awesome” slot.

Fucking cool x2.

Converting afraid to angry is beautiful; it has a real mechanical benefit, but also just feels right.

Originally this was JUST the half-orc, so you chose the barbarian way or the orc way just as you describe. Then I made the human berserker as a class but never got around to specific benefits. Here are the original orc nature questions, for your edification and amusement:

Orc nature
(looting, raging*, marching)

If you were raised in an orc tribe, you have orc nature — answer these questions:

Did you endure the brutal initiation rituals of your orc brethren or did you fail the tests?
• If you endured and completed the sacred rituals, increase nature by 1.
• If your spirit failed you in your time of trial, your nature remains unchanged. Take the Scarred trait or increase your existing Scarred trait by one.

You are running low on supplies. In the distance, you see a farmhouse. Do you pass it by or do you take what you needed from its frightened occupants?
• If you plundered the farmhouse for supplies (or burned it to the ground), increase your nature by 1.
• If you ignored it, take the scavenger skill at 2 or increase your existing scavenger skill by 1.

Do you continue to follow the old ways and the ancient rites of your bloodthirsty cousins?
• If you follow the old ways, increase nature by 1 but decrease your Will by 1.
• If you no longer follow the old ways, your nature and Will remain unchanged.

*Requires the angry condition to be utilized in a test.

Oh, those are fun! Raging in particular as a Nature descriptor.