How to become the Lord of Rage: N. Jolly's guide to the Pathfinder Barbarian


Advice

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I just saw your Guide... Love the over-all vibe, I can offer some constructive feedback:

Class Feature Rating for Will Saves: The Rage bonus to Will Saves seems salient to mention, considering that it sets the Barb apart from the other poor Will Save classes.

Roles: Savage/Natural Weapons: I would mention the option to use SOME Natural Weapons in combo with primary Manufactured Wpn focus, possibly countering one of the weapon's downsides (filling in Reach Weapon's donut hole, when swallowed whole, etc).

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Races:

Elves: I would say they work well with Archery, less need for CON for HPs, and Elven Accuracy = Ranged Blind-Fight.

Tengu: All Exotic Sword proficiency is also worth mentioning.

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Class Ability Rating:

Rage: The bonus to Will and (indirectly) Fort Saves seems worth mentioning (stacks with later Indominatable Will). Might mention the weird dynamic with Rage HPs suddenly disappearing, here or elsewhere(?).

Rage Powers: I would just mention that despite their apparent equivalency due to being able to get them via Extra Rage Power Feats, Rage Powers just tend to be better than nearly any Feat or things like Rogue Tricks, etc. That is the basic reality, so might as well just call it like it is. Picking up a few solid Feats is easily do-able, but you will almost always want Extra Rage Powers.

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Skills:

Survival: Nice if you are not always tagging along with other skilled/magical characters. Any time you can't see 60' and/or a landmark you need this to not get lost, that DC can be 20 or higher in forest with poor visibility.

Swim: I would mention ACP in this context, and you wanting to at least be able to handle calm water reliably.

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Rage Powers:

Animal Fury: Bite attack's usefulness for 2Handers is pretty damn nice, especially to threaten adjacent with a Reach Weapon. I would mention it's synergy w/ Grapple builds which Barbs are pretty good at w/ STR Surge.

Ferocious Beast/Mount: I would discuss the tactical difference between them, Charge type Mounts vs non-Charge type Mounts, and a Companion you are not riding is a Companion you can be Flanking with and covering more ground to block enemies/draw AoOs.

Fiend Totem: "Not worth your Totem Slot", not only that, but perhaps not worth your Rage Power Slots even if you don't want any other Totem. Lesser being the only exception, and that only if you already have a Bite (otherwise Animal Fury is probably marginally better).

Good for what Ails You: I might mention that some fancy booze in UE has nice rider buffs. There is a host of other 'alcoholic options', and if you are going for those, this could be interesting. Although it only requires 1 drink per hour, the Feat Drunken Brawler trades -2 Reflex for +2 Fort and Will, which is often a good trade. Co-enabling alcoholism and all.

Guarded Life: Perhaps better if you don't have a Cleric/Oracle who can cast Breath of Life/Resurrection in your party?

Guarded Stance: I would put it as yellow personally.

Hurling: Sure, Hurling stinks, maybe outside of a Shuriken Ninja build. But you don't seem to mention Hurling Charge AT ALL, which is the only decent part of the chain. An extra ranged attack on a Charge (no apparent restriction that it must be same target as melee Charge), fully compatable with Pounce (if you go there) or even Readied Rhino Charge. That's at least Yellow to me, if not Green (doesn't change the base Hurling rating of course).

Knockback: I am seriously surprised at this rating, I would put in more as Green. Combined with the ample AoO tactics Barbarians have, this is great, and can prevent you from being attacked at all while still doin damage. If you have Reach and are attacking not at the edge of that Reach, and have Greater Bullrush Feat, you can trigger AoOs on the target by allies. Not to mention situational "No Save or Suck" situations like cliffs, wall of blades, etc. I would rate it above KnockDOWN just because fliers are immune to Trip but nearly nothing is to Bullrush (especially with STR Surge).

Mighty Swing: I would rate it yellow, it's an end-game sort of ability, and if somebody is focused around iterative full-attacks it really does matter for lower iterative Crits (and ultra high AC opponents).

Moment of Clarity: "The dumbest thing about Rage Prophet, that forces you to take this to fulfill a Pre-Req many levels before the PrC even starts to buff it up into having any benefits".

Powerful Blow: I would rate it at least a yellow, you can't always be Full Attacking, and increasing single-hit damage can be crucial in ending a fight quickly.

Bestial Climber/Swimmer: Actually having a Climb/Swim speed is very nice for things like 5' steps and... Charging. Not that either of those are ever useful for things like making lots of attacks.

Bestial Leaper: It's actually more like Fly-By Attack, meaning it lets you use ANY special Standard Action, not just a generic single attack (that doesn't even benefit from Vital Strike) as is the case for Spring Attack.

Inspire Ferocity: You rated the Standard Action Terrifying Howl Green. I'm sure there's other nice Standards. Probably better than Red if you're taking those. Also nice if you get Nauseated or otherwise reduced to a Move Action.

Rolling Dodge: All I can say is Ranged Touch Attacks and maybe Urban Barbarians, although that's still not more than Yellow at best. The paucity of ranged attacks seems to be an anachronism of adventure design considering their generally great effectiveness (the paucity of anti-archery tactics being another anachronism). Even accepting that, PCs tend to have good archers, and GMs like guides for their NPC Barbarians too.

Roused Anger: Important to mention is that many Rage Cycling tactics only deal with Fatigue, this also works to negate Exhaustion, which is crucial if you happen to get hit with Exhaustion before entering Rage. After you get Endless Rage at 17th, this still has value. Also good as limited Rage Cycling enabler before 17th, which considering RC's inefficiency in terms of giving up on/off-turn Rage benefits, is all many players may want. Rating is fine, I'd just explain more.

Scent: I would mention utility vs Invisible enemies, it's even possible to narrow-down their location by moving around with a Move Action and figururing out what square they're in. It may prevent Surprise Round Ambushes as well, if you automatically notice a scent appearing within range.

Spirit Totem, Lesser: Could be nicer for Oracle/Rage Prophet/Cavalier m-class builds (the latter with the Orders that leverage CHA).

Staggering Drunk: There is really a large body of Feats/Rage Powers/Class Abilities and unique alchoholic beverages, and if you are using any of those, also getting Dodge bonus out of the mix could be valid.

STR Surge: Not sure why you NEED Rage Cycling to make it relevant. How many CMB checks do you need to make per Battle? One Knockback, or Escape from Grapple, etc, could be all you need... especially in it's defensive usage. Clearly synergistic with Rage Cycle, but not necessary. Rage Cycling gets over-blown just like Beast Totem, it's nice to have as an option but even if you do there is reasons not to be doing it 24/7.

Superstition: I would just add that if you CAN get your Saves jacked by other means (e.g. Dwarf) then this is largely superfluous and suffering it's downsides isn't worth it. I think it's HIGHLY worthwhile to point out that as a Morale Bonus it does NOT stack with Rage's built in bonus to Will Saves (although Superstitious also applies to Fort/Reflex), which is pretty important re: when Superstitious actually becomes very strong (particularly in comparison to Steel Soul/Glory of Old Dwarves or other strong Save options).

Deadly/Sharpened Accuracy: For it's level, I don't the first is particularly underpowered. For the second, I would just note that it can also apply to Ranged, while Ranged Blind-Fight is otherwise only available to Elves (and Elf-Lovers). Still not particularly hot, but not horrible IMHO.

Unexpected Strike: I would emphasize it's overlap with CaGM yet being available much earlier, people will actually be able to use this for almost half their career in most games, vs. CaGM, which also needs Combat Reflexes to be better than this. It also is useful for more things than just creatures attacking you personally, such as when they move towards your allies, or a caster 5' stepping like the pansies they are. :-) (This has way more realistic anti-caster usage than Disruptive/etc)

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Rage Cycling: Add Scarred Rager Archetype. 1/2 of 2 rounds = 1 round, 1 round duration expires just before your next turn. Less flexible than other approaches, it only allows 'on turn' Raging, but still a valid option and the Archetype is otherwise decent IMHO.

Silver Crusade

Quandary wrote:

I just saw your Guide... Love the over-all vibe, I can offer some constructive feedback:

Class Feature Rating for Will Saves: The Rage bonus to Will Saves seems salient to mention, considering that it sets the Barb apart from the other poor Will Save classes.

Roles: Savage/Natural Weapons: I would mention the option to use SOME Natural Weapons in combo with primary Manufactured Wpn focus, possibly countering one of the weapon's downsides (filling in Reach Weapon's donut hole, when swallowed whole, etc).

Glad you liked it so far, even though I'm terrible at updating it.

I could mention it, but it's just the soup or salad to the all you can eat rage buffet, so it might merit a mention.

I think if I did this, it'd only make sense in the THF section, since if you're using a reach weapon, you're THF, not NWF. And due to the dev's hate of 'loopholes', I wouldn't trust if I could wield my damn teeth with a polearm.

Quote:

Races:

Elves: I would say they work well with Archery, less need for CON for HPs, and Elven Accuracy = Ranged Blind-Fight.

Tengu: All Exotic Sword proficiency is also worth mentioning.

Even all those bonuses to Elves still don't make them good to me, and while I've found Barbs can play Legolas, it's still hard without the human's bonus feat.

Aside from the Falcata, I can't see another sword worth using, so the stat adjustments kill any reason to play them aside from free Falcata prof.

Quote:

Class Ability Rating:

Rage: The bonus to Will and (indirectly) Fort Saves seems worth mentioning (stacks with later Indomitable Will). Might mention the weird dynamic with Rage HPs suddenly disappearing, here or elsewhere(?).

Rage Powers: I would just mention that despite their apparent equivalency due to being able to get them via Extra Rage Power Feats, Rage Powers just tend to be better than nearly any Feat or things like Rogue Tricks, etc. That is the basic reality, so might as well just call it like it is. Picking up a few solid Feats is easily do-able, but you will almost always want Extra Rage Powers.

I could see putting the odd issue with Rage HP, but again the will and fort save bonuses seem just too basic to the ability to feel worth mentioning, but maybe that's just me being an old hand at things.

For Rage Powers, I already listed Extra Rage Powers as at least a Blue feat, although I could see moving it up to Purple, because I agree it's crazy sexy for a lot of reasons.

Quote:

Skills:

Survival: Nice if you are not always tagging along with other skilled/magical characters. Any time you can't see 60' and/or a landmark you need this to not get lost, that DC can be 20 or higher in forest with poor visibility.

Swim: I would mention ACP in this context, and you wanting to at least be able to handle calm water reliably.

I suppose I could pump Survival, but Swim is for lames. And I don't write guides for lames. Let the lames drown.

Quote:

Rage Powers:

Animal Fury: Bite attack's usefulness for 2Handers is pretty damn nice, especially to threaten adjacent with a Reach Weapon. I would mention it's synergy w/ Grapple builds which Barbs are pretty good at w/ STR Surge.

Ferocious Beast/Mount: I would discuss the tactical difference between them, Charge type Mounts vs non-Charge type Mounts, and a Companion you are not riding is a Companion you can be Flanking with and covering more ground to block enemies/draw AoOs.

Fiend Totem: "Not worth your Totem Slot", not only that, but perhaps not worth your Rage Power Slots even if you don't want any other Totem. Lesser being the only exception, and that only if you already have a Bite (otherwise Animal Fury is probably marginally better).

Good for what Ails You: I might mention that some fancy booze in UE has nice rider buffs. There is a host of other 'alcoholic options', and if you are going for those, this could be interesting. Although it only requires 1 drink per hour, the Feat Drunken Brawler trades -2 Reflex for +2 Fort and Will, which is often a good trade. Co-enabling alcoholism and all.

Guarded Life: Perhaps better if you don't have a Cleric/Oracle who can cast Breath of Life/Resurrection in your party?

Guarded Stance: I would put it as yellow personally.

Hurling: Sure, Hurling stinks, maybe outside of a Shuriken Ninja build. But you don't seem to mention Hurling Charge AT ALL, which is the only decent part of the chain. An extra ranged attack on a Charge (no apparent restriction that it must be same target as melee Charge), fully compatable with Pounce (if you go there) or even Readied Rhino Charge. That's at least Yellow to me, if not Green (doesn't change the base Hurling rating of course).

Knockback: I am seriously surprised at this rating, I would put in more as Green. Combined with the ample AoO tactics Barbarians have, this is great, and can prevent you from being attacked at all while still doin damage. If you have Reach and are attacking not at the edge of that Reach, and have Greater Bullrush Feat, you can trigger AoOs on the target by allies. Not to mention situational "No Save or Suck" situations like cliffs, wall of blades, etc. I would rate it above KnockDOWN just because fliers are immune to Trip but nearly nothing is to Bullrush (especially with STR Surge).

Mighty Swing: I would rate it yellow, it's an end-game sort of ability, and if somebody is focused around iterative full-attacks it really does matter for lower iterative Crits (and ultra high AC opponents).

Moment of Clarity: "The dumbest thing about Rage Prophet, that forces you to take this to fulfill a Pre-Req many levels before the PrC even starts to buff it up into having any benefits".

Powerful Blow: I would rate it at least a yellow, you can't always be Full Attacking, and increasing single-hit damage can be crucial in ending a fight quickly.

Bestial Climber/Swimmer: Actually having a Climb/Swim speed is very nice for things like 5' steps and... Charging. Not that either of those are ever useful for things like making lots of attacks.

Bestial Leaper: It's actually more like Fly-By Attack, meaning it lets you use ANY special Standard Action, not just a generic single attack (that doesn't even benefit from Vital Strike) as is the case for Spring Attack.

Inspire Ferocity: You rated the Standard Action Terrifying Howl Green. I'm sure there's other nice Standards. Probably better than Red if you're taking those. Also nice if you get Nauseated or otherwise reduced to a Move Action.

Rolling Dodge: All I can say is Ranged Touch Attacks and maybe Urban Barbarians, although that's still not more than Yellow at best. The paucity of ranged attacks seems to be an anachronism of adventure design considering their generally great effectiveness (the paucity of anti-archery tactics being another anachronism). Even accepting that, PCs tend to have good archers, and GMs like guides for their NPC Barbarians too.

Roused Anger: Important to mention is that many Rage Cycling tactics only deal with Fatigue, this also works to negate Exhaustion, which is crucial if you happen to get hit with Exhaustion before entering Rage. After you get Endless Rage at 17th, this still has value. Also good as limited Rage Cycling enabler before 17th, which considering RC's inefficiency in terms of giving up on/off-turn Rage benefits, is all many players may want. Rating is fine, I'd just explain more.

Scent: I would mention utility vs Invisible enemies, it's even possible to narrow-down their location by moving around with a Move Action and figururing out what square they're in. It may prevent Surprise Round Ambushes as well, if you automatically notice a scent appearing within range.

Spirit Totem, Lesser: Could be nicer for Oracle/Rage Prophet/Cavalier m-class builds (the latter with the Orders that leverage CHA).

Staggering Drunk: There is really a large body of Feats/Rage Powers/Class Abilities and unique alchoholic beverages, and if you are using any of those, also getting Dodge bonus out of the mix could be valid.

STR Surge: Not sure why you NEED Rage Cycling to make it relevant. How many CMB checks do you need to make per Battle? One Knockback, or Escape from Grapple, etc, could be all you need... especially in it's defensive usage. Clearly synergistic with Rage Cycle, but not necessary. Rage Cycling gets over-blown just like Beast Totem, it's nice to have as an option but even if you do there is reasons not to be doing it 24/7.

Superstition: I would just add that if you CAN get your Saves jacked by other means (e.g. Dwarf) then this is largely superfluous and suffering it's downsides isn't worth it. I think it's HIGHLY worthwhile to point out that as a Morale Bonus it does NOT stack with Rage's built in bonus to Will Saves (although Superstitious also applies to Fort/Reflex), which is pretty important re: when Superstitious actually becomes very strong (particularly in comparison to Steel Soul/Glory of Old Dwarves or other strong Save options).

Deadly/Sharpened Accuracy: For it's level, I don't the first is particularly underpowered. For the second, I would just note that it can also apply to Ranged, while Ranged Blind-Fight is otherwise only available to Elves (and Elf-Lovers). Still not particularly hot, but not horrible IMHO.

Unexpected Strike: I would emphasize it's overlap with CaGM yet being available much earlier, people will actually be able to use this for almost half their career in most games, vs. CaGM, which also needs Combat Reflexes to be better than this. It also is useful for more things than just creatures attacking you personally, such as when they move towards your allies, or a caster 5' stepping like the pansies they are. :-) (This has way more realistic anti-caster usage than Disruptive/etc)

Animal Fury: I can get a bite for a trait (Mother's Maw if we're not going adoption shenanigoats), so I wouldn't burn a Rage Power on it.

Feriocious: That's a little beyond the scope of a simple review of the power. I could look into discussing that in the beast master sample build possibly.

Fiend: I thought I made that clear, it's only worth it for a gore, nothing more.

Good Ails: If you can find me some of that booze, let me know and I'll take a look, I just think there's better things a Barb can be doing with their action.

Guarded Life: There's been odd discussion about this one, and I think I need to jump back into it before giving this another look, which is something I've been slacking on.

Hurling: Having a chain that's hard to pick up with basically the same feat requirements (without as much payoff) as archery seems like a weak call to me. An extra attack is nice, you could go TWF with it for stupid amounts of thrown crap, but thrown weapons have NEVER been a viable way of damaging people outside of ninja/monk wackiness.

Knockback: Maybe I was a little too harsh on this, since positioning can be key in any battle. I'll probably bump it up to orange at least.

Mighty Swing: Most of the these powers can be used over and over again, so an end game one isn't really that special here.

Moment of Clarity: Everything about this rage power is the worst thing about this rage power.

Bestial 1: I swore an oath never to advice someone to take the ability to climb really damn well when they're angry when they could be ripping magic in half. These are two options that take the same cost, screw climbing.

Bestial 2: What special action aside from Mythic Vital Strike is worth doing here? I'm genuinely asking since I don't know of any. I might drop T. Howl down, as the only point of it was starting a pre pounce part of the battle with a sweet howl, T. Howl is certainly lower once/if you have pounce.

Inspire Ferocity: It just doesn't do enough to me, maybe up to an orange, but it's still a hard sell.

Rolling Dodge: Ranged attacks are generally a lesser focus of attack (see the Crane Wing BS vs. Deflect Arrow), and a Barb can take a ranged hit unless it's Enveneration, which they're still suited to handle quite well.

Roused Anger: I think this explanation is better suited for the Rage Cycle section. A lot of me talking about this got cut for formatting's sake, as I do kind of hate G. Docs for that. Still, it's better than doing it on a forum post.

Scent: The amount of times you'll face invisible opponents before you can get something that'd give you the ability to see them anyways (or an item that gives you scent) isn't enough to validate taking this over better options, at least without retraining.

Spirit Totem: Eh, it's still a wasted Totem slot to me, which is too valuable with Beast/Dragon chilling around the corner.

Str surge: Yeah, you don't NEED to cycle, but it's useful if you can. If you need to tear down multiple spells or something of the like.

Superstitious: Buffing before battle is the way to go for me, and save can NEVER be too high. Ever. I can't think of many buff spells I'd rather have OVER the save bonus this gives. I'm more defensive on that end though.

D/S Accuracy: Maybe I'm slacking on arrow jockeys, but it still doesn't feel like a great benefit to me.

Unexpected Strike: I really do like this a lot, and while it's not CAGM, it's in a lot of ways better. Maybe I'll bump it up a bit.

Silver Crusade

Guess who FINALLY did some more work on the Barb guide?

Sample builds for Devastator/Savage are up, going to let someone else handle the archery build, and not even sure if I feel like doing a TWF build.

This guide is NOT as good as my Alch guide, but doing sample builds is pulling teeth. Mythic is still on the fence, since a lot of mythic is mythically lame.

Thinking of getting back into the Synth guide later, but I'll need some motivation.


N. Jolly wrote:


Thinking of getting back into the Synth guide later, but I'll need some motivation.

Do it! Do it!


As far as builds, it's not like archery builds have a ton of diversity so you could just say "POINT BLANK PRECISE RAPID CLUSTERED DEADLY AIM GO!"

For Mythic the correct response for any non-mage is "Mythic Vital Strike and done."

Just wrote those sections for you. You're welcome ;p

Silver Crusade

chaoseffect wrote:

As far as builds, it's not like archery builds have a ton of diversity so you could just say "POINT BLANK PRECISE RAPID CLUSTERED DEADLY AIM GO!"

For Mythic the correct response for any non-mage is "Mythic Vital Strike and done."

Just wrote those sections for you. You're welcome ;p

Yeah, that's basically what Driver said too, but with a few tweaks.

And while I agree that it's basically MVS and then you're god (especially since CRANE WING IS GONE), I can't leave a section so unfinished as that, even as much as I'd like to. I used my friend's picture for that section, and I want to do it justice.

Silver Crusade

XMorsX wrote:
N. Jolly wrote:


Thinking of getting back into the Synth guide later, but I'll need some motivation.
Do it! Do it!

It does actually jazz me up to know that people are using my guides for stuff. I actually put some donation info onto my first two guides (the Synth guide is crap now, not really worth it), not really sure how to do a donation link (if someone could help me with that via PM, that'd be baller), but my mind is thrumming with the idea of doing my own full summoner guide with Synth support if I could get up the interest in myself to do such a thing.


I am no help in that, I have not dabble in e-banking enough...

About mythic vital strike, while yes it is great, doesn't it has reduced effectiveness in conjuction with gretaer beast totem, fleet warrior and precision? Which way is essentially more effective?

It does open the way to other totems, like dragon, for sure though.

Also, consider adding this build (credits to Wiggz and Damocles Guile) or a variation of it, it is essentially an invulnerable rager done right, with a dip in unbreakable fighetr for easy access to the stalwart feats.


XMorsX wrote:
About mythic vital strike, while yes it is great, doesn't it has reduced effectiveness in conjuction with gretaer beast totem, fleet warrior and precision? Which way is essentially more effective?

I think Mythic Vital Strike wins hands down here for a couple reasons:

1. You don't have to take the Beast Totem tree, opening up other Totems or even just more Rage Powers. Side note, Bestial Leaper is pretty cool with it.

2. With the Mythic ability to spend a point for a second standard action in a turn you can essentially full attack twice, both at full BAB.

3. DR. You can get your full attack routine and have DR only apply once.

4. Mythical Vital Strike can potentially come online 4 levels earlier than Greater Beast.


chaoseffect wrote:
XMorsX wrote:
About mythic vital strike, while yes it is great, doesn't it has reduced effectiveness in conjuction with gretaer beast totem, fleet warrior and precision? Which way is essentially more effective?

I think Mythic Vital Strike wins hands down here for a couple reasons:

1. You don't have to take the Beast Totem tree, opening up other Totems or even just more Rage Powers. Side note, Bestial Leaper is pretty cool with it.

2. With the Mythic ability to spend a point for a second standard action in a turn you can essentially full attack twice, both at full BAB.

3. DR. You can get your full attack routine and have DR only apply once.

4. Mythical Vital Strike can potentially come online 4 levels earlier than Greater Beast.

I was not actually aware of the 2nd point, good to know.

I guess that a mythic PC wants to full-attack only for hitting different individuals or if he adds static damage that do not multiply on criticals, like sneak attack, baen or if he is a TWFer (or a flurry monk, or a natural weapon user). For most barbs and others Str-based two-handers, Vital Strike indeed seems better.


hi guys first time i post on paizo so just want to share my 13 lvl dwarf barbarian with you:
this is a superstitious barbarian i started as an antimage with glory of the old but ended up well rounded i think...
feats:1)improved initiative, 2)power attack, 3)raging vitality, 4)lunge, 5)extra rage power(beast totem,lesser), 6)horn of the cryosphoinix, 7)raging brutality

rage powers: 1)superstition, 2)witch hunter, 3)spell sunder, 4)beast totem, 5)beast totem,greater, 6)unexpected strike.

also i play with one +2 furious courageous earthbreaker, in rage i have pounce for attacks 25/20/15 2d6+48 with pa,rb,hoc

my saves against spells are fort 27, will 17, ref 17 (all at -3 against supernatural effects)

and i have headband of havoc so no hope at getting cought with no rage.

my stats in rage are str 30, con 26, dex 14, int 10, wis 14, cha 8

i also have boots of striding and springing so with movement 40,init 10 and reach 10 i have a lot of mobility.

i intend to go raging leaper and leaping charge at next lvls for a +8 dmg on every attack with pounce (50 dc yea thats right 50 ft leap, i am pitou!)

Silver Crusade

Sorry for not looking over this guide in a forever and a half.

What I'm asking now is what information you'd all like to see added to this guide now, since I'm pretty lazy. Personally, I'd like to fix the colors, overall scheme (there was a slight overhaul), as well as a theme change (Probably to No More Heroes), but if there's any content you think I should review especially, let me know, I'm looking for suggestions to make this guide up to date again.

Grand Lodge

Id like to know your thoughts on the new Bloodline rage powers as well as a Scary Barbarian build who utilizes Hurtful. Please and Thank You.

Silver Crusade

London Duke wrote:
Id like to know your thoughts on the new Bloodline rage powers as well as a Scary Barbarian build who utilizes Hurtful. Please and Thank You.

Yeah, I'll probably get on that in a bit, right now I'm in a redesign phase of the guide, mostly recoloring things because old me seemingly LOVED nuclear green options.

I'm probably going to look for any rage powers that slipped through the cracks, then do archetypes I've missed, and then skim new magic items.

Just in case anyone wants to know my update schedule for things, the order in which I update my guides is the following:

Alchemist
Gunslinger
Investigator
Barbarian
Character Creation
Not Synthesis


I found an use to the Breaker Barbarian archetype...

Combine it with the Savage Technologist. This way, you can use firearms, and if you misfire, instead of taking a penalty, you get a bonus to attack after level 3!


@N. Jolly: Have you seen the Masquerade Reveler archetype by chance? I had bought the book it was in awhile ago, and recently they put out another product to expand on it due to the reception. The jist of it is you trade rage bonuses for masks that grant certain sets of evolution points (4/6/8) (Fae theme for the archetype). You get to choose a different mask every barbarian level and at certain levels you start to retain a point or two of the evolutions after the mask(rage) is done (lose Dr/trap sense).

I would be curious what your ideas would be for optimizing a barbarian with the archetype (what evolutions for particular builds etc.) I only ask as you've already put together a synth guide as well so would have a better idea where they might mesh. I imagine it won't win the DPR Olympics vs some of the normal builds, but some of the utility it provides might make it worthwhile.

Silver Crusade

Skylancer4 wrote:

@N. Jolly: Have you seen the Masquerade Reveler archetype by chance? I had bought the book it was in awhile ago, and recently they put out another product to expand on it due to the reception. The jist of it is you trade rage bonuses for masks that grant certain sets of evolution points (4/6/8) (Fae theme for the archetype).

I would be curious what your ideas would be for optimizing a barbarian with the archetype (what evolutions for particular builds etc.) I only ask as you've already put together a synth guide as well so would have a better idea where they might mesh.

Well I'm slowly trying to get back to finishing off adding things to the Barb guide (still questioning if I should switch theme), things that were just added to the Barb guide are all the new rage powers (pretty tiring).

I haven't seen the archetype yet, but I think post feats (which I don't expect to be adding a lot to), I'll be getting on new archetypes and such, so I'll give an opinion on it then, but it sounds like a lot of fun.

Amusingly, thanks to a donation I'm FINALLY getting back to updating the synth guide, so be sure to check that out. It's priority now, and there's been a LOT of work done to it to help people play a synth.


I agree about the fun part. I mean the obvious way to go is natural attacks and beast totem pouncing for damage... But I think there is much more potential.

Silver Crusade

Skylancer4 wrote:
I agree about the fun part. I mean the obvious way to go is natural attacks and beast totem pouncing for damage... But I think there is much more potential.

Trust me, I agree. I'm sad that the Barb guide is probably the most straightforward of my guides, and I'd love to add other options to it to have something aside from "Super Beast" as the only viable option. I'm up for hearing build ideas to add to the guide, since right now there's just ranged and melee, which is something I'd like to change.

If/once I get the motivation, I'll probably respec the builds I have up and present them more like I did with the gunslinger builds, where I talk more about the level to level progression.

Silver Crusade

Secret Wizard wrote:

I found an use to the Breaker Barbarian archetype...

Combine it with the Savage Technologist. This way, you can use firearms, and if you misfire, instead of taking a penalty, you get a bonus to attack after level 3!

GDI, sorry I missed this. And that'd be pretty amusing, I should see if the two of those archetype stack.


They do. Breaker takes Fast Movement and Trap Sense, which the Savage Techie doesn't.

The only issue is that a firearm will blow up if it misfires twice, regardless on whether you can ignore the condition, unless it's an Advanced Firearm (a Revolver, for example, which costs 2k gold and 2 days work to create), but Advanced Firearms are not always allowed.

I need to find a way to remove the misfire chance to explode... Eventually a Reliable enhancement will handle it.

EDIT: The other problem with it is that you end up trading x4 critical chance for x2 when the weapon breaks, unless there's a way to maintain a critical multiplier on a broken weapon that I don't recall.

The other option for additional archetype for the Savage Technologist is the Savage Barbarian (fittingly), since you are going to have a MUCH higher DEX than the maximum DEX in any light armor, so you might as well go naked (this is because of the DEX rage).


I swear I had found a feat or rage power that lets you add your constituion modifyer to bullrushing damage if the person bullrushed was pushed into another person or an item, but holy heck i sure can't find it again! Am i just really mis-remembering?


Raging Throw from Ultimate Combat.


Chess Pwn wrote:
Raging Throw from Ultimate Combat.

Thank you! Don't know why the heck i couldn't find it


N. Jolly wrote:
Superior Clutch (Tiefling) If you check the d100 list of tiefling bonuses, #16 lets you hold oversized weapons without penalty, which gives you +1 damage on your already oversized greatsword. Static bonuses to damage are ALWAYS something you want.

What oversized greatsword are you talking about? All the #16 tiefling trait does is remove the -2 penalty, you still can't use a large 2-hander.

N. Jolly wrote:
Mindlessly Cruel (Half Orc) Found here, this is the best damage boosting trait you could ask for, as when you’re raging is the best time to be more punishing.

Raging gives you a morale bonus to strength, not attack rolls (though one may argue that it indirectly gives a morale bonus to attack rolls, it's a bit of a stretch).


Why no entry for the Suli? +2 Strength is good, and the Int-Cha balance each other out in point buys. Elemental Assualt is great, and ENergy Resistance 5 to all four elements.


The Oversized Goblin variant in the Monster Codex makes building a Barbarian Goblin viable. They're medium size and get +2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Cha. Other than that, they have all the racial features of standard goblins, including the ability trade out Skilled for a bite attack to make the most of the Feral Gnasher Archetype (which I've always wanted to play but not really because vanilla Goblin Barbarian is a playing on a handicap).


Furious Finish doesn't make you fatigued if you're immune to fatigue. I read that somewhere. I can't seem to remember where I saw it or figure out how to find it again though.


Reckless rage feat missing from guide


Hi! Loved your Alchemist guide, and the Investigator too!
Checked this one out.

I know you're rather busy in the Kineticist guide, but is there any hope of seeing this one update down the line?

A few archetypes I wouldn't mind seeing your opinion of (Flesh Eater, Liberator, Savage Technologist, ect), and the Titan Mauler errata (they can finally use large weapons, right?).

And hey, if the rage ever takes you over, there's always unchained!
Related note, still doing the whole patreon deal?

Silver Crusade

IronVanguard wrote:

Hi! Loved your Alchemist guide, and the Investigator too!

Checked this one out.

I know you're rather busy in the Kineticist guide, but is there any hope of seeing this one update down the line?

A few archetypes I wouldn't mind seeing your opinion of (Flesh Eater, Liberator, Savage Technologist, ect), and the Titan Mauler errata (they can finally use large weapons, right?).

And hey, if the rage ever takes you over, there's always unchained!
Related note, still doing the whole patreon deal?

This guide is slowly becoming like my Synth guide, where it's really only going to happen if there's donations because the motivation isn't nearly as there as it was before, and really to get to work on this guide I'd probably have to revamp and retheme it (HS wasn't a great call, thinking of going NMH).

I do still like the class a lot, but right now, I have a lot of other projects (including some I can't talk about), but I do appreciate the interest in the guide, and if I get some donations for it or the Synth guide, I'd easily get back to work on them.

Patreon turned out to be a bust, I couldn't get anyone to donate, so really I'm going to just remove those links for now and stick with the paypal donations, and have people just tell me which of the two guides they'd like updated.

Thanks again, and once I get some free time I'll have more of a chance to get back to this one, but the Barb guide is easily the one I like the theme and layout of most now (it was my first G docs guide, can you blame me?)

Silver Crusade

Due to issues and updates to the guide, this guide will be down indefinitely.

EDIT: To elaborate, this guide has languished for too long, and also the lack of credit I gave for the art used has started to wear on me, so now I'm looking for a new theme for this guide. So far I'm thinking No More Heroes, although I'm open to suggestion.

EDIT 2: I can't think of a new theme for this, it's going up again until I can, although it won't be updated until I can think of a new theme.


I disagree with your Halfling assessment; giving them a "red color". They should, I think, be green or even blue.

(I should have prefaced: this is just 1 disagreement; I loved your guide overall. I continue...)

YES, the ability scores suck. But you can play with the math and re-configure to make your CON awesome and your STR passable. YES, their favored class option sucks. Oh well, take the HP/level I guess.

The beauty of the Halfling is (and if anyone out there knows of ANY other feat that does something similar, please chime in): Cautious Fighter.

This allows him to MAXIMIZE the Endurance / Die Hard / Stalwart bonus (assuming 3 ranks in Acro) at Level 7. That's a total DR of 8/- at Level 7, if you're an Invulnerable Rager.

At Level 11, you're at DR 17/- (!!!). That's IR levels, plus Improved Stalwart, plus (I'd assume) your 8th and 10th rage powers being Increased Damage Reduction.

YES, I realize you must Fight Defensively all the time. But look at that again: DR 17/-, at Level 11. Those using Combat Expertise are still languishing at +6 DR, until they hit L12 (and even then it's only a +8).

For your consideration.

Nice guide.


@N. Jolly

What are your thoughts on the Unchained Barbarian (/are you going to add it to the guide)?


N Jolly isn't updating this anymore, but I thought I'd put this here for those who are still using his guide, since a fair amount of the info is obsolete now.

The Internal Fortitude + Flawed Scarlet and Green Cabochon Ioun Stone Rage Cycling combo doesn't work. Since Rage Powers are only active during the rage and you become Fatigued when you end the rage, you'd still become Fatigued (or in this case sickened) as usual at the end of the rage, since your immunity isn't active anymore. Source.

One due to Eratta: The Courageous Enchantment is Red now, or maybe Orange if you're really paranoid of fear effects. The bonus to Moral saves was always intended to only boost moral saves against Fear, but it was worded pretty poorly. So it doesn't boost any moral bonuses except for those against fear. Source.

Horn of the Criosphinx should be Orange... maybe Green? While it isn't explicitly stated for this feat specifically, there's a similar case brought up in an FAQ about doing your lance multiplier damage for iterative attacks end of a charge when you have pounce. It's ruled that because the extra damage is done from the momentum of the charge, it only applies on the first attack, since any further attacks won't have that momentum. So if we're generous any say that the Barbarian has 30 Strength, Horn of the Criosphinx will be dealing an extra 5 damage off of the first attack at the end of a charge. While that's not bad, that's kind of a best-case scenario, and it's still only on that first swing and only off of a charge. Compare that to something like Reckless Rage (a feat not in the guide because N Jolly isn't updating it anymore), and there's just no contest which is a more valuable feat. Source.


Upon re-reading this, it occurred to me that the Internal Fortitude + Ioun stone does technically work. Since Rage is only interrupted by Fatigue, you can, in theory, drop the rage, become Sickened, and start the Rage again, thus curing yourself of Sickened once you regain the immunity. This does also mean that once you run out of Rage, you're stuck being sickened, which is annoying.

A GM might, however, rule Sickened (or at least the Sickened caused by dropping the rage) as equivalent to Fatigued for purposes of Rage if you try this route though. Seems like a weak loophole to me. Probably want to try a more reliable method of Rage Cycling, such as the Cord of Stubborn Resolve.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
N. Jolly wrote:

Due to issues and updates to the guide, this guide will be down indefinitely.

EDIT: To elaborate, this guide has languished for too long, and also the lack of credit I gave for the art used has started to wear on me, so now I'm looking for a new theme for this guide. So far I'm thinking No More Heroes, although I'm open to suggestion.

EDIT 2: I can't think of a new theme for this, it's going up again until I can, although it won't be updated until I can think of a new theme.

God of War, with at of war deities of various pantheons in the art?


Could you update your guide to feature the mooncursed archetype? I’m playing one now and would love your insight.

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