Barbarian and AC


Advice


I've never played a barbarian before, and I'm wondering about armor class. Would 18 at 5th level and 16 while raging be good enough to not be destroyed especially at range, despite the d12 hit dice?


AC is not a very good defense to try to invest in too much in the first place, as it simply gets outpaced at higher levels by attack bonuses. This is especially true as a barbarian who is going to take a hit to AC for raging, and many of their best rage powers further penalize AC. If you wanted to maximize your defense as a barbarian, you should look into the invulnerable rager archetype and the superstitious rage power chain. Barbarians are in a unique position to take advantage of two very powerful defenses, spell resistance and damage resistance.


However, is DR equal to half your level going to cut it, seeing how damages scale far quicker as your levels go up? How does a barbarian stay alive, other than having a lot of hp?

I know about stalwart, and its prerequisites are far too hefty for the build, I'm afraid.


No one single element is going to keep you alive, it's the package of high hp, DR, SR, and killing things faster than they kill you that is going to do it. And all of those are much more efficient to invest in that AC, at least in my opinion. Stalwart is a neat feat chain but it isn't necessarily required, it just happens to have a bit synergy with invulnerable rager and the things that it likes to do. What kind of build are you running, if I may ask?

Dark Archive

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If you care about AC, play a beast totem savage technologist.


I'm playing a natural weapons skinwalker. Feats go into power attack and extra features.


Warhawx wrote:
I'm playing a natural weapons skinwalker. Feats go into power attack and extra features.

Vanilla Skinwalker or Ragebred? Because Ragebred gets alot of extra stuff for Barbarians if you're okay being a pigman (although I usually flavor it as a bullman).


I'm taking witchwolf. I'm not really a fan of the hoof secondary attacks, and the +2 to all saves is a godsend for a martial with only 1 good save. True, you could take superstition, but one can never have high enough saves


I Think AC is worth investing in. Also on a barbarian with beast totem you Can be in the High end of the AC race.
But to answer your question. In the beastiary under monster creationthete is a table with aproximatly what monsters of different CRs have in the different numbers. It is a valuanle tool to look at when you decide what numbers you want to aim for on a character.


I played a Pathfinder barbarian from 1st to 10th level, and was the party's frontline warrior the entire time. At low levels I ran out of hitpoints pretty often. Later on, when I was able to boost my AC with every magic item and feat I could get my hands on, my abunadance of hit points became less important. You still need to be able to deal damage though, so plan on burning through your wealth often.

Silver Crusade

I find that 8+ unless you are

1- A paladin/fighter/insert full plate wearing bad mofo here + shield Or, a monk focused on defense, that AC is just not worth investing in.

2- Lets look at the barbarians best rage powers

reckless abandon- Instead of trading to hit for damage with power attack, you trade your AC, at level 18, thats -5 to your AC.

Come and get me- at 12th, you give enemies +4 to hit, +4 to damage against you, but you get AoOs for each attack, and you hit first. Add this with Corugun smash and or dazing assault and you may not get hit at all.

at 12, with both of those active, you are at -4 -4 -2 for a total of -10 ac. Barbarians Shouldn't focus on AC, focus on other ways of living :P


you can get away with a low ac with other mechanics too - having an item or feat or rage ability that grants you temp hp is a good one. Also damage resist. If you get hit but only take 3 damage, just as good as not getting hit.

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

I dealt 90 points of damage to an 11th level barbarian on a crit last night. On his turn, he proceeded to obliterate the creature that did it to him.

AC is nice, but having the HP to survive the hits can work, as long as you take the enemy out before he can chew through it all.

Scarab Sages

Armored hulk. Adamantine full plate AND raging.


Duiker wrote:
Armored hulk. Adamantine full plate AND raging.

nice


Other things like the Flesh Wound rage power can also cut down on need for AC since it can half your damage taken (and convert it to nonlethal which is nerfed twice as hard by your DR) and certain feats can be lovely for this too (I'm a huge fan of Roll With It since it made Badoomdoom, one of my barbarians, nearly immortal).

Scarab Sages

To add to this, of you have a Barbarian that has a means to increase the healing received (Fey Founding, Fast Healer, and/or Lesser Celestial Totem), it can become a damage-absorbing sponge, on top of possible hig AC, DR, and/or Hit Points.

I had a Barbarian that had high DR, Hit Points, and boosted recovery, and I only had to worry about health (below 100) only once ( Modern Weapon Fusillade attacks are brutal).

Dark Archive

The best defense for a Barbarian is to Do More Damage.

Silver Crusade

Is a level dip into Verminous Hunter and have a dead companion for permanent fast healing 1 and light fortification worth it?


zanbato13 wrote:
Is a level dip into Verminous Hunter and have a dead companion for permanent fast healing 1 and light fortification worth it?

No

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