I'm the Juggernaut

[Koujow]

Note: This is not a conversion thread. Obviously, that would go in a different forum. This is about a concept and build that shares similarities with the Juggernaut.

Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I have had the same thought time and time again when playing games like Pathfinder. "Man, if only that wall between that bad guy and I wasn't there." Since battles never seem to take place in big open fields with nothing to stop my axe/arrows/animal companion, it seems to happen a lot. Maybe the villain ran into a building for cover or there was rubble to hide behind or the enemies God Wizard got to act before your God Wizard and now there is just nothing you can do but run through the mousetrap that the GM has set up for you. And I am sure that a lot of you have had this problem before, as well. So, I had an idea; lets just go THROUGH the wall.

The general idea behind this concept is this character would be an Anti-God Wizard. Not that he hunts down the God Wizard, but that he is Battlefield Destroyer. Anti-Control. Enemy had time to set up Phalanx? He overruns through it. Your guys can't get shots off? He pushes enemies into the open. Enemy is in cover? He destroys that cover. He is the Juggernaut. Alternative names include the Kool-Aid Guy and Miley Cyrus. (Get it? Wrecking Ball?)

I've been doing some research, but generally I am terrible at finding those things that break concepts and I wanted to toss it on the forums to get some advice. My initial ideas have revolved around Dwarven Monks/Brawlers (because they can ignore Hardness) or Barbarians with the Smasher rage power (which also ignores Hardness) plus investing feats into things such as Overrun (to allow you to bypass Fighter-y type walls) and Bull Rush (to push enemies into better positioning).

One major problems I see with the concept is that you would have to invest heavily into things that do not increase your damage. If you chose to play a more traditional warrior, you would probably be able to take feats or magic items that let you deal more damage and probably end an enemy sooner rather than the things you will have to invest in to counter your enemies tactics and control the battlefield on your side. Another problem I see is that certain materials are very difficult to break through. Some materials have a very high hardness and THEN a ton of HP, so opening up certain paths would be next to impossible. (I have some concepts below)

At the very least, I think it will be an interesting concept to discuss. At a recent convention, I played with a number of players who had strange and different characters and it has inspired me to try and think outside the box a little. Or in this case, try to charge out of that box.

Spoiler:

The following are a few examples that I have run into during my games that I wanted to highlight to further explain my idea.

-PFS- A villain has barred himself into the house of the man we are suppose to meet. Since the front door is barred closed, we must move into the house, one at a time, through a (trapped) window. The villain and his henchmen block the window so only two PCs can enter the house. Rather than being forced into the chokepoint, I think it would have been a better idea to break down the door or even one of the homes wooden walls. (Door would have a Hardness 5 and 10 HP. Wall would also have a hardness 5 and 60 HP)

-PFS- A group of cultist are in a stone fort with only two entrances. Cultist have both doors heavy guarded and required a long fight to get into the building. While bursting through the 6ft thick stone walls would be amazing, the Hardness 8, HP 1080 would have made this nearly impossible. Instead, Overrun through the Cultist's line (possibly knocking one prone) and then at worst, provide flank for other warrior types. Preferably, keep bull rushing and pushing around the cultist to destroy their lines and let other warrior types move into the building.

-Home Game- After killing a villains henchmen, the villain is running away through a castle and escapes by closing a portcullis. We are unable to life the gate and he escapes. It would wreck the GM's plans if we could have broken through the portcullis (Hardness 10, HP 60) or at least had the strength to lift it.

[Bob Bob Bob]

You have clearly not read enough rage powers. You've got the beginning, let me share the rest.

• Strength Surge lets you 1/rage as an immediate action add your barbarian level to a Strength Check, Combat Maneuver, or your CMD. +level on a check that's really hard to raise (Strength checks) or the manuever you want is just plain sexy. Pair with a Headband of Havoc for +4 levels on strength surge.
  
• Spell Sunder. Crowd control spell? I cast dispel with my sword!
  
• Overbearing Advance to deal some damage while overrunning. Overbearing Onslaught to overrun more than one person at once.
  

Then we have the feats. Stunning Irruption for the Kool-aid man effect. Spiked Destroyer to attack with armor spikes while overrunning. And that's all I've got, I'm sure someone else might know more.

Your examples kind of suck though. 10 HP 5 hardness? A greatsword on average does 7 damage, causing 2 damage to the door. That's with 10 strength and no other bonus to damage. A raging barbarian with a greatsword can easily get up to 2d6+9 damage, enough to blow through the door in 1 hit most of the time. Add power attack for +3 damage and you only have a 1/36 chance of not breaking the door.
Bypassing a bunch of enemies to stand alone surrounded by enemies in a place your allies can't reach sounds like a terrible idea.
Again, greatsword. Example barbarian from last time always does at least 4 damage, not enough to hack through in a couple of rounds but still enough to get through. Takes less than a minute, on average. Again, first level barbarian.

[Artemis Moonstar]

Dot for future stealing of tricks for my Spiky Bull (Overbearing Advance + Overbearing Onslaught + Spiked Destroyer).

To this I must ask... What archetypes would one suggest for a barbarian built around this?

[Koujow]

Bob Bob Bob wrote:

Your examples kind of suck though. 10 HP 5 hardness? A greatsword on average does 7 damage, causing 2 damage to the door. That's with 10 strength and no other bonus to damage. A raging barbarian with a greatsword can easily get up to 2d6+9 damage, enough to blow through the door in 1 hit most of the time. Add power attack for +3 damage and you only have a 1/36 chance of not breaking the door.
Bypassing a bunch of enemies to stand alone surrounded by enemies in a place your allies...

At the time, I was playing a Wizard. That is why I couldn't do it then, but yeah, any kind of competent warrior type could easy take out a door. Also, shut uuuuuup. I'm terrible at this.

While I did see Spell Sunder (and just forgot to mention it), I did miss those two Overbearing powers and those are awesome. It also helps answer a question I was looking for an answer to (That being, can you overrun multiple enemies).

Artemis Moonstar wrote:

To this I must ask... What archetypes would one suggest for a barbarian built around this?

I think the Invulnerable Rager is super awesome. Breaker adds half your Barb level to damaging things, so that could help with Kool-Aid manning into places. I scanned over some magic items on the wiki but couldn't locate anything that added directly to the concepts, but then again, there are a few thousand different items and I didn't read every single one.

[Lastoth]

Spiked destroyer is one free attack that eats your swift action, I think it's small beans compared to vicious stomp.

Dragon style is 100% needed by this build since an overrun can (and should) be used as part of a charge to maximize what you're doing and it lets you ignore friendlies.

I almost think an urban barbarian would be the best choice here to maximize the number of vicious stomps you'd get (and later on having come and get me is awesome)

This is how I would build it:

Barbarian1 Power Attack, Improved Overrun
Barbarian2 Overbearing Advance
Barbarian3 Combat Reflexes
Barbarian4 Superstition
Unarmed Fighter1 Vicious Stomp, Improved Unarmed Strike, Dragon Style
Barbarian5
Barbarian6 ERP: Beast Totem, Lesser, Overbearing Onslaught
Barbarian7
Barbarian8 ERP: Internal Fortitude, Beast Totem
Barbarian9
Barbarian10 ERP: Strength Surge, Beast Totem, Greater

[chaoseffect]

Check out the feat Shrapnel Strike. The damaging aspect is okay-ish, but the real value is getting to add your BAB as a bonus to strength checks to break things. Oh wow is that awesome. That plus Barbarian's Strength Surge is just so many plusses. I also came in here to say get Stunning Irruption but someone else already mentioned it.

[Lastoth]

I think investing a feat into breaking things is kind of wasted. I've never really run into a situation where having feats invested into breaking things would have made me better at breaking things on my barbarians(since a zero feat investment broke my targets anyway).

Stunning Irruption is practically written out of every adventure anyway. APs seem to go through the trouble of setting you up to get surprised and writing out ways for the party to get the drop on things. Wasting a feat on something the game is actively preventing you from using most of the time is a total waste. In any even it's an ability you'd use at most once a session, a really minor perk for a large investment of a feat.

[Sauce987654321]

Is this what you're looking for?:

Juggernaut (Ex) (Mythic Origins pg. 22) Little can stand in your way when you charge forth into battle—even solid doors and walls don't stand a chance. While charging, you may attempt a free Strength check to break through a single door or wall in your path. You can expend one use of mythic power while performing this charge to gain a +10 circumstance bonus on your Strength check to break the object. If you destroy the object, you can continue your charge as though it were never there. If you fail to destroy the object, your movement ends in the square before that object. Note that destroying integral parts of a structure may trigger a collapse (treat as a cave-in) at the GM's discretion. This ability can be combined with other path abilities and effects that modify charge attacks, such as the burst through path ability (Mythic Adventures 21). You can select this ability up to three times. Each additional time you select it, you may break through one more wall or door during your charge, and the circumstance bonus on your Strength check increases by 10 (to a maximum of a +30 circumstance bonus)

[Belabras]

Oh Yeah!