Savage

Classes Allowed	Barbarian, Fighter, Ranger
Ability Score Requirements	Strength 11 Constitution 15
Prime Requisites	Strength
Races Allowed	Any
Alignments Allowed	Any

The Savage is a tribesman, technologically and culturally far more primitive than even the Barbarian and Berserker, who is very much in tune with the natural world.
A Savage can be an honorable jungle vine-swinger raised by animals, a very dirty and primitive warrior who lives in mud-wattle huts and fights with bone weapons, a breathtakingly beautiful native princess from a culture which the characters consider impossibly primitive and yet uncorrupted and very noble...and so on. In short, the tribal culture from which the Savage character comes can be as crude or civil, coarse or noble, nasty or admirable as the players and DM want it to be.

Role

In a campaign, the savage character has a couple of roles. His particular skills and benefits are of use to the average adventuring party. If he comes from a particularly noble tribe, he may choose to act as the "voice of conscience" for the adventuring party, asking why, if the other characters are supposed to be so much more civilized than his own people, their honor and ethics seem to drag so far behind? But for the most part, he's a role-playing challenge, and should be chosen only by players willing to devote the extra effort to portraying someone from such a different culture...and how that character reacts with the other PCs' culture. This is an opportunity for a lot of humor and not a little tragedy in a campaign...but only if the player is willing to go to that effort.

Advantages

• The Savage has learned a special ability, resembling a spell, which he may use once per day per experience level he has. The special ability must be chosen from the list below, must be chosen when the character is first created, and may never be changed. The special ability is not truly magic, and Detect magic will not detect it; it is an ability natural to the Savage. It does not require verbal, somatic, or material components, even if such are required from the normal spell.
1. Alarm (Wizard 1st Level). Special effects: This is only usable by the Savage when he is resting or sleeping in a quiet place. The ability does not sound an alarm like the spell; it merely alerts the Savage to intrusion (if he is already awake) or awakens him (if he is asleep). It is not cast upon a particular place; it alerts him to activity within 10 feet of the place where he lies (as if he were at the center of the 20-foot cube of effect of the actual spell).
2. Detect Magic (Wizard 1st Level). Special effects: This reflects the fact that the Savage is in tune with nature and can feel when there is something unnatural (i.e., magical) in the air. Unless the Savage is also a Ranger, he cannot determine the type of magic present (i.e., alteration, conjuration, etc.).
3. Animal Friendship (Priest 1st Level). Special effects: This ability can only make friends of an animal which is not angry or threatened. It can be used to make an angry or threatened animal calm. To make friends with an angry or threatened animal, therefore, the Savage must be able to use the ability twice that day (i.e., he must be of 2nd level or higher) and must have two uses left. To use the ability, the Savage must confront the animal, face to face, at no further away than the limits of the animal's attack range. As with the spell, the Savage must actually have no ulterior motives, for such will be detected by the animal, and the ability will fail.
4. Detect Evil (Priest 1st Level). Special effects: this is like the Detect Magic ability, above. Like the Priest spell, this Detect Evil cannot detect evil in a PConly in a monster, place, or magical item.
• The DM can disallow any of the four abilities given above, or introduce new ones though he can't add anything that resembles a magical spell above 1st level.

Disadvantages

• The Savage gets no gold (0 gp) with which to purchase his weapons and equipment. Instead, he may take up to four of the weapons chosen from among the following: Blowgun, longbow, shortbow, club, dagger, hand/throwing axe, javelin, knife, sling, and spear. He may assemble an equipment list of up to ten additional items, subject to the DM's approval, which he will have accumulated during his years with the tribe; they must be items which members of a savage tribe could have made (things such as pouches, clothing, food, rope, fishing gear, sheathes for weapons, and so forth; no mirrors, lanterns, iron cooking pots, and the like.) With the DM's permission, if the tribe is a river-tribe or a riding tribe, he may have either a riding horse (with saddle-blanket, halter, bit and bridle) or a small canoe.
• All of the Savage's weapon proficiencies must be chosen from among the above weapons.
• The Savage is uncomfortable in civilized clothes and armor. When wearing any sort of clothing more cumbersome and concealing than his normal tribe dress, he suffers a -1 to all attack and damage rolls, and a +1 penalty to all ability check rolls.
• Likewise, he can wear any type of armor, but is so uncomfortable in it that he will suffer a -3 to all attack and damage rolls and a +3 penalty to ability checks while wearing any sort of armor at all. If the character is forced or otherwise choses to ignore this penalty and continue wearing armor, the penalty increases by 1 every two days as the character becomes increasingly more uncomfortable in their unnatural trappings and finds it harder and harder to concentrate on the job at hand. This caps out at a maximum of a -10 penalty. If the character continued to wear the armor for extended periods of time, the DM may rule that he begins growing accustomed to it, lowering the penalty over time (Typically by 1 every 2-3 weeks the Savage continued to work in the armor) to a minimum of a -1 penalty.

Notable Savages