Barbarian, Quester

The rite of passage is an important ceremony for many cultures. It demonstrates the commitment one is willing to make to achieve full membership of the clan. In the case of the quester, the barbarian seeks to become a warrior in the service of a great lord. Before he can achieve this goal, he must face countless trials and combats. Usually his quest is a search for a particular boon he can bring back to his lord and achieve the full benefits of membership.

The Quintessential Barbarian
Author Robert Schwalb
Series Quintessential Series
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2003

Hence, he departs from his homeland to find this artifact or die trying, for surrendering prevents him from achieving his ultimate goal. Each quester seeks something different, whether it is a feather from the phoenix, or simply Climbing the trunk of the world tree to pluck a piece of fruit for his lord. He must always give the object of his quest to his lord. Once done, he will be forever in the graces of his master and gain favour, riches and power or even forgiveness for a past misdeed.

Adventuring: The promise of getting into his lord’s favour is the ultimate reason for his adventures. He will often ally himself with other adventurers, as long as they never interfere with his attempt to complete the quest he set out to do. Every step of his journey is one step closer to the completion of his epic quest. Thus, he will view simple dungeon crawls, the saving of towns, cities, dragon slayings and other such adventures as stepping stones to his goal. When he finally reaches his final destination, he will never allow any to assist him in its achievement, thus divorcing himself from his allies until the mission is complete.

Role-playing: The quester enjoys the company of other warriors of a similar mind. He is competitive and driven, although he will be friendly to those who will assist him. Whenever he receives a clue or a lead to his goal, his countenance and persona animate more than any other time. Once on the path, he is obsessed with reaching his destination, not stopping until it is completed.

Benefits: Thanks to his unswerving loyalty to his lord and his quest, he receives Endurance as a bonus feat at first level. In addition, he receives a +2 competence bonus on all Survival checks to sense direction.

Penalties: His obsession with his goal makes him rather one-dimensional. He can have a difficult time holding conversations relating to matters outside of his particular goal or quest. Most of his views include some aspect of his lord’s superiority over other men. For these reasons, questers suffer a -2 competence penalty to all Charisma-based skill checks.