The Golarion Gazette

Yesterday, the Justice Court of Magnimar released their ruling in favor of the plaintiff in Kruger v. Pathfinder Society, a controversial case that inflamed emotions across the political spectrum. The plaintiff in the case was Borgok Kruger, a half-orc barbarian who is a follower of the “superstition instinct,” a belief system which disallows adherents from accepting magical healing. When Kruger signed up at a Pathfinder Society lodge for the opportunity to go on quests, he was placed in several parties that only had magical healers but no non-magical healers, which Kruger was not willing to accept. Kruger asked his local Venture-Captain, Roberta Karabel, to place him in parties containing non-magical healers so he could receive healing in accordance with his beliefs, but Karabel was unwilling to do so, saying that party compositions are based on strategic and tactical need, and that giving him special access to non-magical healing would be unfair to others who also wanted it. Kruger sued under Magnimar’s antidiscrimination laws, which state that employers must provide “reasonable accommodation” to enable employees to comply with all “edicts and anathemas of their faith.”

While previous similar cases involved clerics and champions with anathemas from their deity, the Kruger case raised the new question of whether barbarian instincts also count as “faith” under the antidiscrimination laws. Another contentious issue is whether the accommodations requested are “reasonable”, given the potential disruption to Society operations. In a contentious 7-6 decision, the Court ruled in favor of Kruger, ordering the Pathfinder Society to reinstate him and provide him with the accommodations he seeks. In the opinion, Lord Justice Bayl Argentine wrote that “it is the clear intent of the legislature to make the fruits of adventuring accessible to all, even overriding military-tactical considerations,” citing as an example building codes designed to ensure adventurers can easily navigate dungeons, even if the nominal purpose of such dungeons is to be a deathtrap for the unwary. The Kruger opinion effectively overrules the precedent set by Halia v. Aspis Consortium, where the Court ruled that the Consortium did not have to accommodate a cleric of Pharasma who refused to be placed on tomb-robbing expeditions because of her faith.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Magnimar Barbarians’ Society praised the decision, saying that “for decades, barbarians have been treated as lesser under the law just because their beliefs aren’t based on a deity, but those days are over.” However, critics of the decision expressed concern that it will lead to a “flood” of lawsuits by individuals making up anathemas for the purpose of getting special treatment. “What’s next?” said one critic. “Some druid telling us we’re not allowed to eat plants?”