Barbaric Traits presents 36 new character traits, and they're not just for barbarians. Indeed, these traits can help flesh out any character that hails from some savage frontier where honor and sharp steel matter more than manners and shiny coins.
Inspired by the works of Robert E. Howard and a certain cartoon barbarian with a sun sword, these 36 traits are divided evenly between Combat, Faith, Magic, and Social categories. Now your savage hero can become Blood-Mad, utter a Motivational Expletive, practice Poisonous Sorcery, or benefit from knowledge gained as a Barbaric Ambassador (to mention just one-ninth of the traits packed into this PDF).
Barbaric Traits is 11 pages of black-and-white, printer-friendly crunch.
Product Availability
Fulfilled immediately.
Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at
store@paizo.com.
This pdf is 11 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/table of contents and one page of SRD.
That leaves 8 pages of content for you.
Barbaric traits consists of…well. Traits, one of the most popular innovations for PFRPG. But they are not any kind of traits, but rather barbaric ones, i.e. traits inspired by e.g. Robert E. Howards grim barbarian and antediluvian sword & sorcery-style play. Consequently, the traits are not exclusively for barbarians, but rather for all classes and feature some nice prose. They are divided in for categories for your convenience and I’ll include two abbreviated examples so you’ll know what to expect:
Combat (9 traits):
-“Battle-Born” grants a bonus when outnumbered
-“Blood-Mad” gives you a damage-bonus when injured
Faith (9 traits):
-“Heathen Oath” gives you a bonus when swearing to accomplish a specific task
-“Ophidian Cultist” grants you a bonus with reptilian creatures
Magic (9 traits):
-“Lambent Gaze” gives you hypnotic powers with certain spells
-“Voice of Pain” gives you a bonus with damaging verbal spells
Social (9 traits):
-“Black Corsair” gives you a bonus with certain pirate skills
-“To the Conqueror” grants a wealth and equipment bonus
That makes 36 traits for a very cheap price, all with the distinct “old” feeling you know and love from Howard. The editing and formatting is good, the writing is concise and while not brilliant, good and atmospheric and none of the traits seemed over-or under-powered.
Conclusion:
I’m a sucker for pulp-fantasy, Sword & Sorcery and the like. Conan was my childhood-hero. I love these traits. But even if you’re not that into Howardesk fantasy, you still get a cheap, high-quality assortment of traits. For the price, you’ll get a definite recommendation for this file from me, especially if you plan to participate/run in Paizo’s “Serpent’s Skull AP”, Necromancer Games’ “Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia”, the Conan RPG or Xoth Publishing’s “Bride of the Spider God” with PFRPG-rules or the like. 5 stars.
Thanks for the review, Endzeitgeist. Glad you liked the PDF. I had fun writing it, especially doing the research by re-reading REH and watching Thundarr with my son. :)
While they are generic, most of the traits could easily be put in a Norse context - you could e.g. take the "blood-mad" trait and explain it as a berserkr in the ancestry.
The traits could easily be adapted to Norse background and are written so can use them for Norse, Mesopotamian, etc. backgrounds.
