Amplified Rage

[Kerblamikus]

Hi, was wondering if I could have thoughts on the viability of the following

Amplified Rage (Teamwork)
Prerequisites: Half-orc or orc, rage class feature.
Benefit: Whenever you are raging and adjacent to a raging ally who also has this feat or flanking the same opponent as a raging ally with this feat, your morale bonuses to Strength and Constitution increase by +4. This feat does not stack with itself (you only gain this bonus from one qualifying ally, regardless of how many are adjacent to you).

To make this work requires at least 2 players to be interested in the same concept at the same time. In my experience this seldom happens.

Without resorting to Leadership (which is usually dismissed out of hand) there are various conditions that need to be satisfied for it to apply.

1) P.C is a Half orc with a rage feature – easy enough

2) An ally is required – animal companion might work

3) The ally also has to qualify for the feat. The half orc requirement can be side stepped with the inquisitor

At 3rd level, all of the inquisitor’s allies are treated as if they possessed the same teamwork feats as the inquisitor for the purpose of determining whether the inquisitor receives a bonus from her teamwork feats. Her allies do not receive any bonuses from these feats unless they actually possess the feats themselves. The allies’ positioning and actions must still meet the prerequisites listed in the teamwork feat for the inquisitor to receive the listed bonus.

4) The ally must still satisfy the positioning and action requirements. This suggests that the animal companion must also be raging. One option is to go for the badger/wolverine and wait till they get hit. The other option is to use the ferocious beast rage power though this uses up rage.

With as little detail as possible the basic idea is

Level 1 ) Barbarian , Power Attack (feat) optional
Level 2) Inquisitor, Animal/Feather Domain (kicks in at lvl 5)
Level 3) Inquisitor, Extra Rage (feat) optional
Level 4) Inquisitor, Amplified Rage (Bonus Feat)
Level 5) Inquisitor, Boon Companion (Feat)
Level 6) Barbarian, Ferocious Beast (Rage Power)

The favoured class bonus and a trait can make up for the rage lost from multiclassing but it is going to run out a lot quicker. Only 1 BAB is lost but hopefully 2 judgements /day take the sting out of it. With a focus on strength and a +2 from an item by level 6 they can be rocking 30 STR.

What do you think? A lot of investment for not much return?

Thanks in advance for any comments. I like the way Grarrrg fused the Oradin together and would like to see if the above could be achieved in a similar way.

[LoneKnave]

You could possibly get the Rage domain instead, and get a familiar/companion through arcane bloodline. Not sure how much better/worse that'd be though, but you could stay single classed.

[Kerblamikus]

Hi LoneKnave, really wanted to use a familiar as was going to take a single level of witch and give the familiar the valet archetype which gives it your teamwork feats so no inquisitor needed. I wasn't sure how to get the familiar raging. Also the rage domain takes till 8th level to kick in.
Thanks for the input will look at familiar again.

[Alistus]

I'm currently running a Hunter playtest character in PFS who is going to be using amplified rage once he reaches 3rd level by giving his badger companion amplified rage through the Hunter class feature. That seems like the easiest way to make use of amplified rage.

[Kerblamikus]

Hunter eh? I'll have a look at that. Going see if I can make use of the rage spell on a familiar too.
Cheers Alistus

[nate lange]

if you actually want an inquisitor, you're looking pretty good (you'll need extra rage though)... if you really want a barbarian, though:

mad dog barbarian archetype; dip 3 levels of inquisitor (for amplified rage bonus feat and solo tactics- don't need animal, so pick a better domain); pick up boon companion; take ferocious beast at barb 4. this takes 1 extra level to come together (7th instead of 6th), but you're a legit barbarian.

[Kerblamikus]

Hi Nate, I considered the Mad Dog but was put off by the fact the barbarian had a delayed entry into rage. On reflection though your way is probably more elegant. I'm still trying to see if I can dip a single level for a valet familiar. Maybe a wand of rage is all I need?
Cheers

[Mystically Inclined]

It's possible that a group with a skald could put this to good use. Everyone would have to spend a feat though, which means the group would need to have this in mind from day 1,

[nate lange]

wizard is better for dipping than witch (you can get a decent school power at 1st, but most hexes really depend on scaling with level). that's not how i would do it though... if you take 13 Cha you can pick up eldritch heritage [arcane] to get the familiar (and have it scale with level), and take UMD (with dangerously curious trait) to use wands of rage. pure barb, no multiclass/dipping (and an interesting/unusual build).

[Kerblamikus]

Mystically inclined- I agree that would be a pretty formidable group.
Nate - That's the tweak we needed. Levels added on to the familiar without having to add class levels. Next step get the familiar to use the wand on itself. Maybe improved familiar?

[nate lange]

yup- improved familiar is all you need. faerie dragons and tidepool dragons (i think) both cast as sorcerers, which means they can use a wand of rage with no UMD check.

edit: regarding Mystically Inclined suggestion- they don't all need the feat, you just need a barb/cavalier to use tactician to grant it to everyone (fighters, at least, have an archetype that could do that too... maybe other classes too, not sure)

[JustynThyme]

Amplified Rage requires the creature taking it be an orc or a half-orc. Animal companions are neither, unless your GM has some kind of sick house rule....

[AndIMustMask]

could also avoid dipping entirely by taking the nature soul and animal ally feats.

[FuelDrop]

I think the main thing is that NPC's taking this would be considerably more badass. The odds of two PC's meeting the prerequisites in the same party are fairly low. The odds of a tribe of orcs having multiple barbarians are much higher.

[Major_Blackhart]

Yeah, but with a properly planned party, it's awesome.

[LoneKnave]

JustynThyme wrote:

Amplified Rage requires the creature taking it be an orc or a half-orc. Animal companions are neither, unless your GM has some kind of sick house rule....

Well, you could use holy tactician+bloodrager. Or actually, skald.

And actually, you only need to fulfill the action prereq, not the feat prereqs I think.

[Shaman Bond]

I've actually been toying with a very similar Inquisitor build for a PFS group, Kerblamikus. While it's still academic for me, my solution is to replace Extra Rage with Sympathetic Rage. You lose two points of Str/Con during the rage, but it should guarantee you many more rounds of rage, and means you only need a 1/lv dip.

After thinking about Mystically Inclined's point. You could probably pull off a brutal Skald build with single level dips in both Barbarian and Cavalier, which would allow you to give your entire team both Rage and the Amplified Rage feat. Of course, as a level 1 cavalier, your tactician ability only lasts for a few rounds, but still, how many rounds do you need when every one of your allies has +8 Str/Con?

Good luck, and if you go the inquisitor route, maybe let me know how it works out for you?

[Major_Blackhart]

Why go Cavalier? Why not go Tactician Fighter?

[nate lange]

hmm... a little thread necro, eh?

the 'solution' that i think we more or less came to (which I think some may have missed) was that a mad dog barb 4/inq 3 could use the ferocious beast rage power to have a companion rage which would allow him to use solo tactics with amplified rage (which requires you be orc or 1/2orc to take, but works with any raging ally who has, or effectively has, the feat).

at the time this thread was first out animal ally may not have been an option, otherwise it probably would have come up (or maybe it just seemed to feat intensive). i think its probably viable, although the +4 flanking bonus mad dog's get would really add insult to injury during their +8 Str rage...

[Major_Blackhart]

Interesting. How would a build like that work, may I ask?
I'm curious due to the interesting combos of Inquisitor/Barbarian that I'm currently working on for my own interests.

[nate lange]

well, there's probably a few ways you could do it (and it might depend a little bit on what level you're starting at) but i think basically you'd be looking at something like this:

N, 1/2orc, mad dog barbarian 4/inquisitor[gozreh] 3
str 18 (15+2race+1@4th); dex 14; con 14; int 10; wis 14; cha 8
racial alternative: sacred tattoo, rock climber
traits: berserker of the society, fate's favored
domain: plant[growth]
skills: max ranks- acrobatics, handle animal, perception, survival; 3 ranks- ride, sense motive
1 [barb 1]- power attack
2 [barb 2]-
3 [barb 3]- ?feat?
4 [barb 4]- ferocious beast(rp)
5 [inq 1] - boon companion
6 [inq 2] -
7 [inq 3] - extra rage; amplified rage [bonus teamwork feat]

probably grab a big cat for the animal companion. personally i'd use FCB [barb] for the extra rage rounds (you'll burn through them quick using ferocious beast). i'd take one more level of inq @8 and then go straight barb from there (5 rounds of bane is nice but not worth losing 1 BAB and a level off your companion). if you grab a +2 str item, rounds where you have amplified rage and use your growth domain ability you'll be at 30 Str with probably a 2d6 falchion or 3d6 greatsword (plus a raging tiger friend)- tack on divine favor (with fate's favored bonus) and a judgement and you'll be in good shape; if you can afford to flank with your AC (instead of being adjacent) the extra +4 should pretty much guarantee you're hitting!

[Major_Blackhart]

Nice. Nice.

[Alex Mack]

Sorry for the necro but as a lot of people seem to be equally interested in amplified rage I just wanted to drop in and state that this trick can now easily be pulled of by a single class Inquisitor with the Sacred Huntsmaster Archetype as early as level 6 with the Anger inquisition and a wolverine AC. If you dip into Barbarian or preferably Bloodrager you can get going as early as level 4. The Barb Dip also works with hunter which might be stronger.

[Umbranus]

A mounted fury with the magic saddle that gives teamwork feats to the mount (could be the horsemaster's saddle) would be an easy way to use it. Or any other half-orc barbarian using a mount.