The Quintessential Barbarian II
The Quintessential Barbarian II first edition cover
| Author | Patrick Younts |
| Series | Quintessential Series |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2004 |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | 1-904854-31-1 |
| OGL Section 15 | qbbnii |
The material below is designated as Open Game Content
Heart Eater
Certain tribes have a long standing tradition of devouring the hearts of their opponents. In this way, they both honour their enemies and absorb a portion of their essence into themselves, gaining great spiritual strength. For most tribesmen, this is a symbolic gesture only but your spirit is more exalted than that; those opponents you devour do live on within you, at least for a short time.
Prerequisites: Ability to rage, Con 13+
Benefits: If you eat the heart (or a substantial part of the heart in the case of Huge, Gargantuan or Colossal creatures) of those opponents you personally slay, you gain a portion of their strength as your own. Upon consuming the heart, you temporarily take on any one of the consumed being’s ability score modifiers, using it in place of your own. The choice of which ability score modifier you gain must be decided immediately after the heart is consumed; before selecting, the Games Master gives you general impressions of the strength of the consumed being’s attributes in comparison to your own. If none of the consumed being’s ability scores are higher than your own, then you suffer no penalty but gain no benefit.
In order to gain any benefit, you must slay the owner of the heart in single combat; no one else can help you during the fight, in any way. This means that a cure spell cast upon you by an ally will negate your ability to absorb your opponent’s essence. The benefits of a consumed
heart last for one full hour.
Consuming hearts and assuming their owner’s strengths is very spiritually wearying, as you must concentrate fully to avoid being dominated by the heart’s lingering essence. You can consume a maximum number of hearts per day equal to 1 + your Constitution bonus (minimum 1). You can only gain the benefits of a single consumed heart at any one time; consuming a second heart immediately ends the benefits received from the first heart. Consuming a heart is a full round action.
Special: It is possible to preserve a heart for later use but the spirit essence fades quickly, meaning it will become useless in a very short time. Each day, the essence contained within the heart loses two points from every ability score. When the essence’s ability score modifiers all drop to +0, the essence disperses completely.
