Meet the Barbarian
The Barbarian is the strongest fighter of the four heroes in the HeroQuest Game System. They start with a Broadsword, roll 3 attack dice and have 8 Body Points, more than any other core hero. They cast no spells and have the lowest Mind Points, so their job is simple to describe and hard to do well: get to the monsters, hit them, and keep them off the Wizard.
In the rulebook's opening story, Mentor recalls an earlier hero of this kind: Rogar, the barbarian prince who carried the Star of the West. See The Heroes for that backstory.
Starting Stats
| Stat | Barbarian | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Attack | 3 dice | From the Broadsword. Every skull is a hit. |
| Defend | 2 dice | Every white shield blocks one hit. |
| Body Points | 8 | Your health. At 0 you die unless you drink a healing potion or cast a healing spell straight away. |
| Mind Points | 2 | Wisdom and resistance to magic. Low, so Dread spells work well against you. |
| Movement | 2 red dice | Same as every hero: roll each turn, move up to the total. |
| Starting gear | Broadsword | No armor. |
The Barbarian Next to the Other Core Heroes
Attacking: Where the Barbarian Shines
Combat dice have three skulls, two white shields and one black shield. You roll your attack dice and every skull is a hit. The monster rolls its defend dice and blocks one hit for each black shield, which is only one face in six. Each unblocked hit takes away a Body Point. That is why three attack dice matter so much: each die is a coin flip for a hit, and monsters block poorly.
Example: Barbarian against an Orc
The Orc: 3 attack, 2 defend, 1 Body Point (classic 1990 North American chart).
You roll: 3 attack dice. The Orc rolls 2 defend dice, needing black shields.
Exact odds: a 75.0% chance to kill the Orc with this one attack, and 93.8% within two attacks. On average you deal 1.22 Body Points per swing.
Chance to Destroy Each Monster
| Monster | Defend dice | Body Points |
|---|---|---|
| Goblin | 1 | 1 |
| Orc | 2 | 1 |
| Skeleton | 2 | 1 |
| Zombie | 3 | 1 |
| Abomination | 3 | 2 |
| Mummy | 4 | 2 |
| Dread Warrior | 4 | 3 |
| Gargoyle | 5 | 3 |
These are the classic 1990 North American monster stats. Fan sources say the 2021 game uses the same numbers; if your monster cards or Zargon's screen say otherwise, trust them. Quest notes can also change a single monster (one 2021 quest gives a Mummy 4 attack dice instead of 3).
The chart shows the pattern. One-Body monsters fall to the Barbarian most of the time. Dread Warriors and the Gargoyle take three unblocked hits, so expect a fight of several turns, or bring a second hero alongside.
Taking Hits: Body Points and Armor
When a monster attacks you, it rolls its attack dice and you block with white shields, a third of your dice. Eight Body Points let the Barbarian stand in front for a long time: against an Orc (3 attack dice) with 2 defend dice, you lose 0.96 Body Points per attack on average, and the chance of being killed within four Orc attacks is only 2.6%.
What Extra Defend Dice Buy You
Equipment for the Barbarian
Weapons: a weapon's attack dice replace your printed number, so the Broadsword is already your 3 dice. The classic Armory's Battle Axe rolls 4 dice but needs both hands, so no shield. With 4 dice your chance to kill an Orc in one attack rises from 75.0% to 85.1%, and against a Dread Warrior from 6.0% to 17.5%.
Armor: Helmet, Shield and Chain Mail each add a defend die in the classic Armory. Plate Armor adds more but leaves you only one red die for movement.
Potions: drinking a potion is not an action, and a healing potion saves you at 0 Body if you drink it at once. On your turn you can also hand one to an adjacent ally.
Prices, card wording and which items are in the 2021 Armory are covered in Treasure & Equipment.
Movement
All heroes roll the two red dice each turn and may move up to that many squares, never diagonally and never through monsters or walls (you may pass over other heroes). You don't have to use the full roll. You either move and then act, or act and then move. You can't move part of the way, attack, and then finish moving.
How Far You'll Get
The average roll is 7. You get 7 or more 58.3% of the time, and 4 or less 16.7% of the time. If you need 8 squares to get next to a monster, there's a 41.7% chance you reach it and attack this turn. If you don't, it's often better to attack something nearby first and then move.
Positioning: Holding the Front
Monsters, like heroes, can't attack diagonally. A hero standing in a corridor one square wide can only be attacked from the squares in front and behind. Put the Barbarian there and only one monster at a time can reach them.
One Attacker at a Time
One trade-off: heroes block line of sight just as monsters do. If the Wizard stands directly behind you in a straight corridor, they can't see past you to cast at the monsters in front. Leave a gap to one side when you're in a room, or step out of the line after the fight starts.
The Barbarian in the Party
- Goes first into rooms where a fight is expected, so the frailer heroes don't take the first attacks.
- Finishes the tough monsters others have already wounded. Damage stays on a monster between turns, so two heroes hitting the same Dread Warrior is usually better than two separate fights.
- Leaves trap work to the Dwarf. The Barbarian can search, but the Dwarf disarms without a tool kit and fails only on a black shield.
- Gets the fighter-boosting spells. A spell that adds dice, such as Courage (Fire school) or Rock Skin (Earth school) in the classic spell list, does the most good on the hero who already rolls the most.
Try It at the Table
- Before a big room, count the squares to the door and check the 2d6 chart: what are your odds of reaching it and attacking in one turn?
- Play one quest where the Barbarian always takes a corridor square when a fight starts. Count how many attacks they take compared with a quest where they charge into the middle of the room.
- Use the Dice Roller to roll 3 attack dice against a Dread Warrior's 4 defend dice ten times and see how rarely it goes down in one blow.
Where Next
- The Dwarf: the trap specialist and second fighter.
- Combat & Tactics: line of sight, corridors and focus fire for the whole party.
- The Frozen Horror: the quest pack that adds an alternate Barbarian figure (its early-1990s original opened with solo quests for the Barbarian).