Barbarian (or other melee) for Iron Gods AP


Advice


Hey y'all! Since I can't help but ask for your ever-helpful advice, and it helps a shitty workday go by much faster, let's talk about builds for the Iron Gods AP!! I'm really excited about this one, and we are starting with a great group of players and a top-notch GM, so I am pumped...here is the party so far:

-Android Rogue, Android Wizard, Human Heavens Oracle, Human Gunslinger
-20 pt buy, 2 traits, one from the list of Campaign Traits, max starting hp, avg gold.

My original idea was for a Savage Technologist Barbarian, maybe eventually dipping in the Galvanic Saboteur Ranger.

I like the traits Ancestral Weapon (free mwk Cold iron or Silver weapon) and Robot Fighter from the Campaign traits. (I'm set on Robot Fighter, it hasn't been chosen by a player and seems helpful)

So let's talk Barbarian Archetypes, Feats, and Races!

I was considering a human or half-orc Savage Tech, but I am open to any race/class/archetype combo that will be a main melee force for the party (mutagenic mauler looks cool too). Thanks guys!


LazGrizzle wrote:


-Android Rogue, Android Wizard, Human Heavens Oracle, Human Gunslinger
-20 pt buy, 2 traits, one from the list of Campaign Traits, max starting hp, avg gold.

I like the traits Ancestral Weapon (free mwk Cold iron or Silver weapon) and Robot Fighter from the Campaign traits. (I'm set on Robot Fighter, it hasn't been chosen by a player and seems helpful)

Also, which of the two types of Ancestral Weapon would be most beneficial in Iron Gods (cold iron or silver)?


Talk to your GM, because I told my players that there were technology specific archetypes that exist but that they couldn't start with them. Why? Because it didn't make sense. You as a player know this turns into a great technological adventure, but your characters don't know jack about technolohy yet. Or at least not very much.

I did however also tell my players that when I felt like they had reached an acceptable point in the campaign (I decided the end of the first book) they they could freely retrain into any of the technology based archetypes. This restriciton also extended to spell selection. They couldn't choose technology specific spell yet because they weren't aware enough of such things to really begin with such information.

However, this was simply my opinion. I guess my point is just talk to your GM about it.

Now that said, as far as my players have gotten neither cold iron or silver has been particularly relevant. Bludgeoning weapons have been more important than either.

As for the free masterwork weapon....you get access to a free masterwork weapon (of your choice) pretty early in the campaign so I wouldn't worry too much about spenidng your trait on one. In my opinion it wont be worth it.


Claxon, depending on which campaign traits they chose, they very well may be entirely familiar with technology and have lived with it all their lives. If their character didn't have such a trait, then limiting them like you did makes perfect sense.

If you are set on Barbarian and already chose Robot Slayer and Ancestral Weapon, then have I got good news for you: Numerian Liberator was designed just for you! :D It basically means you will be a Kellid native to Numeria, with a predisposition towards fighting off the Technic league and any robots that get in your way. In my opinion (not a spoiler, as I have not read my copies of IG thoroughly with an eye for DR), cold iron is the superior choice. Silver deals less damage, has less hardness, and even if you do run into enemies that are sensitive to silver, you'll have other ways to deal with them. Cold Iron is more useful in more situations.

For Race, I'd recommend Human (Kellid) if you want to go the route described above. If you don't start as a Kellid, then it doesn't make sense, and I'd be with Claxon in regards to disallowing the archetype, but allowing you to learn it later. If you don't want to be Human, I'd tentatively recommend Tiefling with an alternate subrace from Book of Fiends. You don't have to be evil to pretend your ancestors were. Demon-Spawn and Devil-Born both look intriguing to me, and while Tiefling does not get a Barbarian Favored Class Bonus, there are some great Alternate Racial Traits to make you faster, gain a bite or claw attacks, natural armor, etc. All good for a Barbarian.

If you want to be a Galvanic Saboteur Ranger, I'd recommend Dwarf. Always a solid choice for Rangers. A little slow, but very tough, and with good stats and abilities.


I don't want to be a spoiler but I am playing in IG now, and my GM arranged an early encounter for my Dwarf Barbarian to obtain an Adamantine Dwarven Waraxe. It has proven its worth throughout the first book and we are just starting the second. So talk it over with your GM and see if an Adamantine weapon would be allowed.


I am mostly just spitballing as a general discussion on building melee types for this campaign (this might be more useful to me in future than LazGrizzle), but since I would imagine constructs and robots show up a lot, would DR and hardness ignoring options be powerful?

Three immediately come to mind: the martial artist monk, the steelbreaker brawler, and the irorian paladin.

The monk and brawler are fairly straight forward- they ignore DR and hardness if you pass a check. Both could work well with quarterstaff based flurries (hey, getting 2 handed power attack is rather nice, no?). Thematically, I kind of like the idea of using a lead pipe for your quarterstaff, since it can be salvaged from the ruins you find, and it has a nice 'dirty' and 'makeshift' feel that works well with 'savage lands stumbling on grand technology'.

The irorian paladin gets a bit of a bad rap, since it is a monk-ish paladin but doesn't get anything like flurry or TWF to compliment its unarmed attacks. But if you ignore that slight focus, then you have an archetype that is fairly good trade for smite in more neutral campaigns (+1-+7 bonus to attack, damage, and AC against a target, but it can be any creature and you can spend ki to ignore DR and hardness). The archetype also has a light armor focus, but that is made up by the fact that you get your CHA to AC. The fact that it also keeps lay on hands for nice tankiness is not bad.


Thanks guys, all great ideas!

Grand Lodge

Half-Orc Bloodrager Aberrant bloodline-1/Skald-X with Aberrant Tumor {Valet Archetype} Familiar, Amplified Rage, and Skalds Vigor :D


Another thing I have been thinking about for the past couple of days is a blood rager who uses the new option to trade out their 1st level power for a familiar.

This is relevant due to the familiar archetypes released in the same book. The mauler archeype removes the familiar's ability to speak, and puts all those scaling increases to INT into STR instead. The familiar can also change into medium size (which gives you a +2 to STR plus 'normal stat increases due to size change'; a bit unclear about that, but it looks like +4 STR if you are going medium from small, and +8 if you start tiny). Combine all that with the fact that all familiars get BAB, saves, and 1/2 your HP (which is an actual number for a blood rager), along with scaling natural armor bonuses....

Now, that is all well and good, it can give you something that can fight in a pinch (a poor substitute for an animal companion). The next bit of discussion is more iffy- there is a bit of dispute about whether the archetypes can apply to improved familiars. But if it does... I like the idea of applying mauler to an earth elemental (16 STR, +7 natural armor, power attack and improved bull rush). Throw some armor onto that, and that thing could actually survive a bit. And since humanoid shaped elementals get simple weapon proficiency due to their subtype (whether you can get humanoid shape is iffy), then throw a nice club, morning star, or some kind of spear onto it for great damage.

As I've said, a lot of the later details are iffy... but if you can discuss it over with your GM, it could be an interesting tag team of blood rager and high strength familiar (an earth elemental might end up with more strength than you do while raging). And I would not say that such a familiar goes too far, since it never gets any more feats- it just has some nice base AC and STR, along with the ability to grab equipment. It never gets very more effective than another warm body that gets decent damage and a maneuver. Less threatening than a wand spamming imp honestly.

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