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The OGL Barbarian books provide supporting content for Mongoose Publishing's d20 Conan line. At the time of this review, there are currently three volumes available: The Barbaric Warrior, The Barbaric Sorcerer and Barbaric Treasures.
"What is good in life?"
"To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women."
If you wake up in the morning feeling like this, than perhaps The Barbaric Warrior is right up your alley.
For the most part well laid out and attractive, this volume suffers from a problem not seen in the other two. The cover image is slightly blurred and grainy, and inside the document there's a particular font style that's been colored red and used as a header. Text written with this font also seems blurred, and is a bit more difficult to read than other text.* Finally, while the book is long enough that bookmarks would make browsing easier, it is short enough that not having them isn't critical.
The first section of the book starts with an entry about the Knowledge (Nature) skill. From there it jumps directly into feats. Given the theme of the book most, though not all of these are related to combat. Mechanically everything seems well thought out, and stylistically there are several interesting options to help establish a unique fighting style for your mighty-thewed warrior; two-handed power stroke and scalp hunter can lead to hours of fun for the whole family. Feats such as Brawl and Improved Desperate Toss support new material presented in this volume. There are also new combat maneuvers. These are similar to feats, except that they can be performed by anyone who meets the prerequisites. Several options for attack and defense are presented, along with a few maneuvers designed to be used in conjunction with a mount.
The next section features weapons and armor. Of the weapons, I found the expanded attacks for unarmed combat to be the most interesting. Rather than introducing new suits, we're given rules for piecemeal armor; accompanied by descriptions and statistics for a number of individual pieces. It's an interesting system, but it does require a bit of bookkeeping. You have to make note of what pieces are where on the body, along with the weight, damage reduction and other statistics of each piece. On the plus side once you've done all the calculations piecemeal armor is treated as a standard suit; with the exception that each piece can be targeted for a sunder maneuver in the same manner as a shield.
Several new prestige classes are presented. They pass the acid test: they're focused on one specific aspect, and they offer abilities you're not better off just emulating with feats, or by multiclassing. Several of the classes can clearly be paired up. The Horse Lord and Divine Falconer are both revolve around animals. The Hawkeye and Kindred Archer are both masters of ranged combat, but each has their own unique flair. Supplemental material is also provided for some of the classes. The Honor Duelist and Pit Fighter both have new Codes of Honor associated with them; there is also information of dueling societies, and a section given over to pit fighting. The Warrior of Dreams is accompanied by details on lotus addiction. Of all the choices, the Pit Fighter is my least favorite; I've yet to see a d20 of this type (Gladiator, Pit Fighter etc.) that appeals to me.
This book's final section is devoted to the details involved with pit fighting, and there are a lot of details. Rules for determining the amount of a fight's prize is provided, as is a table of modifiers. Details of some of the factors surrounding a fight are discussed. A map and information on an example arena is provided, and this section is topped off by an attractive tournament-tracking chart.
*MIS1005v1B, viewed with Acrobat Reader v6.0.4<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Good options for any warrior wishing to survive in the rough and tumble Hyborean Age.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: While Conan d20 is an excellent game, I would have liked to see at least a brief appendix with conversion notes for normal d20 Fantasy. The Deep Wilder and Sea Reaver are both limited by area or environment; while perfectly fine classes, I would have liked to see classes that are of more utility in all types of games.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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