I received an advance copy of the Player’s Handbook 2 and checked out the shiny new barbarian class. Yowsa. Dungeon masters watch out, this guy is mean. As a skirmisher, he’s all about movement and doing massive damage periodically during combat. “Class Traits: Striker. You use powerful two-handed weapons to deal serious damage to your enemies.”

I say bring it on. Adding him to my group of PCs gives me an excuse to research higher level monsters. LOL.

I know at least one of my players is frothing for Player’s Handbook 2, and it’ll show up at the table next game session. My current Carnus campaign allows players to switch PCs, sometimes for interest sake, other times to bring a specialized role to an adventure or encounter. Oh, and there’s also been one TPK and one near TPK. In anticipation of having a barbarian enter the campaign one way or aonther, here are 50 barbarian character hooks and quests. If a new character is about to enter the game, we might as well take advantage of the opportunity and make the campaign more interesting because of it, eh?

50 Barbarian Hooks

1. Seeks a way to control his temper
2. To prove himself, he must cover his entire body with the scars of battle
3. Seeks out the ultimate specimen of a certain monster type to defeat it in battle
4. Aims to track down an ancient enemy and defeat it through guile, not might
5. To purge the world of a specific monster type
6. Seek out the ailing heart of the world and find a means to repair it
7. An enemy clipped his ponytail off, and now he must recover it
8. A foreign witch has stolen his soul and he seeks her out to reclaim it
9. Must go out and become a leader of men, or another racial group
10. Instructed to overthrow an evil empire
11. Must defeat an arch enemy with honour
12. Must tame a great beast, such as an ancient dragon
13. Adopted by a tribe of halflings, he journeys to beseech an exiled halfling hero to return and lead his former clan
14. Quests to gather the materials required to craft a powerful magic weapon
15. Seeks to challenge a god who whisked away his lifelong love so he can marry her himself
16. Slavers attacked his clan and he journeys the world to track down and liberate surviving clan members
17. Exact revenge on his demon father who attacked his mother all those years ago
18. His entire village was torn away into one of the planes of the abyss and he seeks its location and then to return the village to the real world
19. His village is cursed and only a powerful villain knows the cure
20. His god has tasked him with a holy war against a group of monstrous lords
21. Break the magic bloodline of a long line of evil emperors
22. His god has demanded he prove himself worthy of his markings by finding a unique creature and killing it
23. His god has demanded he prove himself worthy of his markings by finding a unique creature and befriending it
24. He aims to steal the heart of a princess away from her dashing prince
25. His father roamed the world and ascended to stand beside his god – how can he carry on such a legacy?
26. The tribal council has decreed he must bring supreme honour to the tribe
27. His animal spirit his instructed him to find a powerful magic item made from the animal’s bones and destroy it
28. He must guard and protect a natural wonder, such as a primeval forest or ancient elephant burial ground
29. To collect the teeth from 500 different kinds of beasts
30. To kill one dozen mighty creatures, each with a different weapon
31. To bring a rival clan to heel by seeking out and killing their godling totem beast
32. An ancient lie is made known to him through prophetic dreams, and he must venture forth to prove and reveal the truth to the world
33. Search out and seek the treasure from 24 ancient powerful kings
34. Coerce, steal, or loot 100 rich merchants from across the land and accumulate 1,000,000 gold coins, which should be sacrificed to his god when done
35. Gain the strength of the gods and then rip the demon emperor’s head from his shoulders with his bare hands
36. Seize the castle of an epic enemy and rule the region himself
37. Achieve such glory, fame, and reputation that his tribe must choose him over his brother for leadership when his father passes on
38. Find the cure for a debilitating disease that is killing the village’s most beautiful maiden
39. To overturn history and clear an ancestor of the false conviction of genocide
40. Stop a near immortal necromancer from piecing together a way to raise a dead god
41. Stop an evil city from further poisoning the land
42. Depose the Amazon Queen and enslave her evil hag followers
43. Return to his tribe with a certain powerful relic that will stop a wedding and make him the most worthy groom
44. Lead a band of mercenaries to the edge of the world…and beyond
45. Cursed with the eternal possession of a relic that harms as much as it helps, he seeks a way to break yet another lifetime of tragedy
46. Have a new world wonder built in his name
47. Purify a mega-dungeon of evil so the mother earth might take the vast area back and make it hers again
48. Make a pilgrimage to a holy site on another plane, bashing skulls the entire way
49. Recently discovered ancient scrolls of wisdom must be delivered by hand to the tribe’s god
50. To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women

Want to learn more about Player’s Handbook 2? Check out these articles on other blogs.

• Atomic Array: Episode 018: Player’s Handbook 2
• Game Cryer: Player’s Handbook 2 Review
• Gnome Stew: A Veteran GM’s Take on GMing and the PHB2
• Critical Hits: The Avenger
• Uncle Bear: The Bard
• Critical Ankle Bites: The Druid
• Kobold Quarterly: Review: Player’s Handbook 2
• The Core Mechanic: The Invoker
• Flames Rising: The Shaman
• Stupid Ranger: The Sorcerer
• Musings of the Chatty DM: The Warden

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