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
Totem Spirits
The new rules in this section introduce you to the concept of totem animals and allow you to design totem spirits which the barbarian of your campaign world will honour and revere. In exchange for their worship, the barbarians will gain the support of these totem spirits and will gain minor, temporary bonuses to their skills and attributes. This section also provides rules for the benefits entire barbarian tribes gain for selecting a totem spirit as their sacred patron, opening up new vistas of roleplaying opportunity.
Totem Spirit Animals
Though totem spirit animals are not as powerful as true gods, they are so attuned to the natural world that they can draw upon its strength. As a result, totem spirit animals are capable of providing spells to paladins and clerics and can also gift those who revere them with minor, magical boons.
There is a spirit animal counterpart to every animal which swims, crawls, runs or flies on the mortal plane, far too many to be listed here. As a result, this sourcebook restricts itself to presenting the most common traits totem spirit animals are thought to embody, or those which are most appropriate for use in a typical fantasy campaign.
Worshipping a Totem Spirit Animal
A barbarian, or an entire barbarian tribe, can gain several minor benefits from taking on a totem spirit animal patron. To gain access to these benefits, the barbarian or barbarian tribe must offer appropriate sacrifice to the totem animal when taking it as a patron.
An individual barbarian gains a totem spirit animal patron via the following steps.
- The barbarian must spend a minimum of one week’s time in solitary contemplation, in a location where earthly representations (meaning normal animals) of the spirit animal are known to dwell. During this time, the barbarian must endeavour to emulate the spirit animal in all respects, by eating grass and berries to emulate Elk, for example, or by plunging into the river and swimming against the current each day to honour Salmon.
- The barbarian must make a one-time expenditure of 500 experience points.
- The barbarian must, at all times, prominently display imagery of his totem animal, both on his person and on his possessions. Totem poles, tattoos, devices on shields and helmets, all these are examples of proper iconography.
- On the last day of each month, the barbarian must reaffirm his devotion to his patron, by offering up a sacrifice of food appropriate to the nature of the patron. The barbarian must hunt or gather this food himself and the ceremony necessary to honour the totem spirit animal patron requires a full day. If the barbarian successfully completes all these steps, then he gains the totem spirit animal as a patron and also gains the benefits of the minor boon its trait (see below) provides. If the barbarian fails to display his totem patron’s imagery, or if the barbarian fails to reaffirm his devotion to his patron, then he loses the minor boon his patron provides for a month, until he reaffirms his devotion on the last day of the next month. While denied the patronage of his totem spirit, the barbarian also cannot gain the benefits of a sacrificial boon from his estranged patron.
In addition to the minor, permanent benefits a barbarian receives when taking on a totem spirit patron, he can also offer sacrifices to his totem animal in order to gain temporary access to other benefits. In order to gain the powers of the totem’s sacrificial boon, the barbarian must complete the following steps.
- He must spend eight hours in contemplation and worship of his spirit animal. He need not do this in an area where the spirit animal’s earthly counterparts are known to dwell.
- He must offer a sacrifice to the spirit animal, in the form of food considered sacred to the animal.
- He must expend 25 experience points.
If a barbarian completes the above steps, then he gains the benefits of the totem spirit animal’s sacrificial boon for one full day, beginning at sunrise on the following day and ending at sunrise the day after that. In addition, the barbarian who offers the appropriate sacrifice also gains the ability to cast a single divine spell, as a cleric of his barbarian class levels, though he needs no material components or focus to do so. The barbarian can cast this one spell at any point during the next day but if it has not been cast by that time, it fades away and he cannot make use of it.
A barbarian tribe can also gain the patronage of a spirit animal totem. For the most part, the patronage of a spirit animal totem is a background element of a campaign and it will be assumed that most villages that enjoy such patronage will have long since made the sacrifices necessary to gain it. Should a Player wish for his barbarian to found his own tribe, or should that barbarian become the chief of a tribe which does not already have a totem patron, then one can be gained via the following.
- The chieftain of the tribe and his council of elders must spend a minimum of one week’s time in solitary contemplation, in a location where earthly representations (meaning normal animals) of the spirit animal are known to dwell. During this time, the chief and his elders must endeavour to emulate the spirit animal in all respects, as described above.
- The chieftain and his elders must make a one time sacrifice of 5,000 experience points. The cost in experience can be paid by any one member of the elders or by the chief himself, or can be split amongst them in any fashion.
- The barbarian tribe must, at all times, prominently display imagery of its totem animal, in the form of totem poles and icons carved onto all major dwelling in the tribe’s village or city. In addition, they must maintain a permanent shrine to the totem spirit animal.
- On the last day of each month, the barbarian tribe must reaffirm its devotion to its patron, by offering up a sacrifice of food appropriate to the nature of the patron. The sacrificial ceremony takes a full day.
If all these steps are followed correctly, then the tribe gains its totem patron and all members of the tribe gain the benefits of the animal’s tribal boon but only while they remain within the borders of the tribe’s lands. In addition, the chief gains the spell or special ability listed with that tribal boon and may use it once per month. If the chief gains access to a spell, then he casts it as a 20th level cleric but need not provide any material components for the casting. In some cases, a tribal champion or counsellor can use the ability in the chief’s stead, meaning barbarians with the Tribal Champion or Tribal Spokesman feat (see Barbarian Feats) can use this ability as described above. In any case, this special ability or spell can only be used once each month. As with a personal patron, a tribe which does not offer proper sacrifice each month loses the benefits of the tribal boon until such time as they reaffirm their devotion appropriately.
While a barbarian or barbarian tribe can revere and sacrifice to as many totem spirit animals as they wish, they can only ever have one as a patron. An individual barbarian need not have the same patron spirit as his tribe does, even if he is the chieftain, tribal champion or tribal counsellor of his tribe.
Totem Spirit Animal Embodied Traits
As stated earlier, in order to give you the maximum ability to customise totem spirit animals to fit the needs of your campaign, this section does not present specific spirit animals. Instead, it presents the most common traits the spirits are said to embody.
Each trait is broken down into all its component elements, listing, in order, the domains which a shaman who worships a totem spirit animal with that trait gains access to, the minor, permanent benefit a barbarian receives when selecting a totem animal with that trait gains, the temporary boon the barbarian gains when he offers appropriate sacrifice to the totem animal and the benefit a barbarian tribe receives when it takes on a totem animal with the appropriate trait.
In addition to the domains listed under each trait, any shaman who worships a totem spirit animal can also select the Animal domain. A shaman need not have the totem spirit animal he worships as a patron in order to gain access to its domains. If he does have it as a patron, however, then once a week he may cast any one spell from his domains at +1 caster level.
