In the next adventure pack, which is to be announced and starts in a month or two, my DM says I can play a Skinwalker. That race starts with a claw/ claw/ bite routine and could make an awesome Barbarian at low levels, HOWEVER given the preponderance of DR X,Y, and Z we've faced in this guy's campaigns before, the price of Amulets of Mighty Fists, and that even Greater Magic Fang's "bonus does not allow a natural weapon or unarmed strike to bypass damage reduction aside from magic-"
What's a poor lycanthrope supposed to do?
Our archer friends can pick up Clustered Shot or get a +5 Bow relatively cheap. The way it looks this build would be crazy good in the beginning and fade into poor by 10th Level.
Amulet of mighty fist as you mention is useful, and within your budget. You'll want AoMF(furious) as soon as you can get it. Add a +1 to it when you have the money, for a +3 enhancement bonus, that gets through DR/magic+cold iron+silver. At a cheaper price than a +3 sword.
Increasing it further is expensive.
Getting through DR/adamantine is unnecessary, in my opinion.
Getting through DR/alignment is great, but requires that expensive +5 bonus. But if that is frequent, you are probably facing a specific sort of enemies (such as evil outsider). If that is the case, the next enhancement is going to be the relevant bane, which bumps the weapon to an effective +5 against the chosen type of enemy. Your amulet might be cost twice, what an weapon wielding barbarian pays, but it is close to the +3 bane weapon another martial needs to pull it off.
So while the item might cost some, IMO it is the best option.
There is a couple of limited alternatives.
Eldritch Claws feat: Get through magic and silver.
Arcane Strike: Get through magic and get damage bonus, but require you to have a spell-like ability.
So ur dm is running magic reduction as in whatever the DR is, u gonna have to bypass it that way instead of spending money on adding another +1 to a weapon to bypass different types of DR? Ex. A monster has a DR/silver u have to have silver to bypass it and ur +5 vorpal sword will still be effected by it and not bypass because its not silver?
If so then there isnt a right answer really without knowing what type of game he runs. Does games push roleplay as a focus? Do the games mainly focus on battles? Does alot of people in ur group min/max or does the dm min/max?
Reawon why i ask because it seems gms do this for a few reasons. One reason that comes tomind is toprolong fights to be more of battles instead of just flying thru them because u have a swiss army knife weapon. Another reason is thatbthey usually want the players to feel light each monster is different in combat or to showcase ur choicew for battles. Meaning that when a player is trained to fight werewolves and one trained to fight demons, when they are fighting who they are trained against it highlights their choices and puts some spotlight on ya in those scenarios and vice versa. If hes one of those types of dms, then hes not expecting or wanting u to bypass dr on all enemies because he wants u to focus on ur way of combat with all the plusses and minuses to it. If hes not then hes wanting u to have something as a gold sink if ur chosing to fight everything and excell at every fight. I guess both types have very similar reasons but with different ulterior motives behind it.
My advice is find out what type of campaign and where at and prepare accordingly. Either accept that some fights ur not gonna be doing full dmg or be prepare to start throwing down gold for different types of weapons to bypass whatever dr is out there.
Thanks everyone for the responses.
Eldritch Claws: " Your natural weapons are considered both magic and silver for purpose of overcoming damage reduction."
yay! Now that's the kind of thing I'm looking for.
Haraldklak:
Amulet of Mighty Fists (AOMF)- +3 = 36,000
+3 Sword = 18,000
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so.
Clarification:
The DM plays rules as written. So a +5 weapon, e.g. would bypass all kinds of DR.
I can count on one, maybe two, in the group of four to engineer pretty powerful characters, FWIW.
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AoMF+1 and a Bane's Baldric. That's about 14k total I believe.
It would cost you a swift action to activate, but that would make your Enhancement bonus act as if it were +2 higher; leaving it at +3 total.
Bane's Baldric(chest or body slot, I can't remember) is a fantastic item for it's price. I don't know why any physical combatant wouldn't acquire it.
AoMF+1 and a Bane's Baldric. That's about 14k total I believe.
It would cost you a swift action to activate, but that would make your Enhancement bonus act as if it were +2 higher; leaving it at +3 total.
Bane's Baldric(chest or body slot, I can't remember) is a fantastic item for it's price. I don't know why any physical combatant wouldn't acquire it.
That is quite the item, but won't help my little claws-
Baldric, Bane:
...If the wearer is an inquisitor, she is treated as five levels higher when using her bane and greater bane abilities . If the wearer is not an inquisitor, she gains the bane ability of a 5th-level inquisitor, but must first attune a light or one-handed melee weapon to the baldric by hanging it from the cloth for 24 hours, and can only use the bane ability with the attuned weapon. Attuning a new weapon to the baldric ends the attunement for the previous weapon.[pfsrd]
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Oh, right. I was thinking of a Monk's Unarmed Strike in place of Natural Weapons. Are we sure that Natural Weapons do not count as Light Melee Weapons? I thought I read somewhere that they do. This does say "Melee Weapon" and not "Manufactured Weapon". I would think this still applies.
Hmm. I'm going to do more research on what all Natural Weapons count as.
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"Magus: When using spell combat, can the weapon in my other hand be an unarmed strike or a natural weapon?
Yes, so long as the weapon is a light or one-handed melee weapon and is associated with that hand. For example, unarmed strikes, claws, and slams are light melee weapons associated with a hand, and therefore are valid for use with spell combat. A tail slap is not associated with a hand, and therefore is not valid for use with spell combat.
—Pathfinder Design Team, 04/05/13"
Boom. I think that corrects that! Enjoy your Bane's Baldric :)
"Magus: When using spell combat, can the weapon in my other hand be an unarmed strike or a natural weapon?
Yes, so long as the weapon is a light or one-handed melee weapon and is associated with that hand. For example, unarmed strikes, claws, and slams are light melee weapons associated with a hand, and therefore are valid for use with spell combat. A tail slap is not associated with a hand, and therefore is not valid for use with spell combat.—Pathfinder Design Team, 04/05/13"
Boom. I think that corrects that!
At least for one claw attack, that looks like a solid argument. I'd NEVER heard of that beast of an item before. Thanks.
Alternatively, paladin, smite evil. Situational but works for all DR.
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Haraldklak:
Amulet of Mighty Fists (AOMF)- +3 = 36,000
+3 Sword = 18,000
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so.
The suggestion was a +1 Furious AoMF (16,000gp), which is like Bane in that it increases the weapon's enhancement bonus to +3. However, Furious does so when the user rages, not against a particular type of foe, which makes it very useful for your barbarian.
You lose 1 BAB, 2 Rage Powers, and class progression, but you get REF and WILL Saves, the ability to not need armor (as much), Stunning Fist (meh), Evasion, EVEN FASTER movement, Pain Points (meh), Martial Arts Master (better), and Exploit Weakness (now we're talkin'!).
One more level and you lose another BAB but gain RAGE CYCLING, I mean Extreme Endurance.
You also gain access to Feral Combat Training.
Something to remember about damage reduction via magic bonuses: It doesn't have to be a +3/+4/+5 ONLY. It has to be a +3/+4/+5 EQUIVALENT bonus, as show here.
You could do a +2 HOLY AOMF (counts as +4 equivalent, so the alignment DR still exists), but with HOLY you can bypass some alignments and do additional damage per successful attack on evil beings.
Exploit Weakness scales with monk lvls. Either you go Monk 20 or you forget it.
Dipping for rage-cycling has merits though. Still there are better ways to do it.
I don't entirely agree that it's 20 or nothing, but more is better, for sure. A good WIS helps a lot (especially if he's going to go unarmored) to beat CR as a DC. Sadly, Savage Barbarian doesn't help, too much, with the unarmored experience.
Something to remember about damage reduction via magic bonuses: It doesn't have to be a +3/+4/+5 ONLY. It has to be a +3/+4/+5 EQUIVALENT bonus, as show here.
You could do a +2 HOLY AOMF (counts as +4 equivalent, so the alignment DR still exists), but with HOLY you can bypass some alignments and do additional damage per successful attack on evil beings.
I don't believe that's true.
I don't believe that's true.Something to remember about damage reduction via magic bonuses: It doesn't have to be a +3/+4/+5 ONLY. It has to be a +3/+4/+5 EQUIVALENT bonus, as show here.
You could do a +2 HOLY AOMF (counts as +4 equivalent, so the alignment DR still exists), but with HOLY you can bypass some alignments and do additional damage per successful attack on evil beings.
I think Durngrun is right. The only DR that can be overcome using enhancement bonus and weapon property enhancement added together is Mythic, and that specifically says that.
I don't believe that's true.Something to remember about damage reduction via magic bonuses: It doesn't have to be a +3/+4/+5 ONLY. It has to be a +3/+4/+5 EQUIVALENT bonus, as show here.
You could do a +2 HOLY AOMF (counts as +4 equivalent, so the alignment DR still exists), but with HOLY you can bypass some alignments and do additional damage per successful attack on evil beings.
It's sort of true. A +2 furious AOMF will bypass all but DR/alignment while the wielder is raging, for instance.
EDIT: oh, yeah- no mythic or B,P,S from the "equivalent" +4, either.
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Something to remember about damage reduction via magic bonuses: It doesn't have to be a +3/+4/+5 ONLY. It has to be a +3/+4/+5 EQUIVALENT bonus, as show here.
You could do a +2 HOLY AOMF (counts as +4 equivalent, so the alignment DR still exists), but with HOLY you can bypass some alignments and do additional damage per successful attack on evil beings.
A +3 equivalent weapon does not bypass DR. A weapon whose enhancement is situationally increased through Bane, Furious, or similar properties bypasses DR as a weapon of the temporary enhancement bonus. (Confirmed by SKR)
The rules linked to read: "Weapons with an enhancement bonus of +3 or greater [not enhancement bonus equivalent] can ignore some types of damage reduction, regardless of their actual material or alignment. The following table shows what type of enhancement bonus is needed to overcome some common types of damage reduction."
The word "equivalent" in the accompanying table is misleading - it's intended as what type of DR-bypassing material the weapon is equivalent to.
The suggestion was a +1 Furious AoMF (16,000gp), which is like Bane in that it increases the weapon's enhancement bonus to +3. However, Furious does so when the user rages, not against a particular type of foe, which makes it very useful for your barbarian.Haraldklak:
Amulet of Mighty Fists (AOMF)- +3 = 36,000
+3 Sword = 18,000
I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so.
Beautiful- I hadn't heard of that of that property before on AOMF or any other weapon.
A spell to change the effective material of weapons. Be a ranger or get a party member to cast it? Only affects one tho.
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You could always drop the skinwalker idea and try a sohei monk in Brawling armor. The AoMF will augment straight up without need of further feats.
