Does my halfling barbarian have a dual personality?

[scatterpattern]

Hello,

This is my first post. i'm trying to decide some things on a halfling barbarian/alchemist build. Trying to make some decisions on weapons and if i should take fighter or ranger levels in the mix. Just wanted to get some opinions.

Right now he is a level one titan mauler barbarian. The idea is that he fights with 2 kukris until he rages and draws his greatsword. i originally had him statted out using a halfling greatsword, but when i told my Dm my idea that a bugbear killed my brother and that was when i entered my first rage, killed the bugbear and stole it's sword, he let me use a medium greatsword with the -2 penalty.

i also took the fleet of foot racial trait to make up for the loss of fast movement with my archetype. In the end i lose +2 to acrobatics and climb for +1 attack and +1 dodge AC on opponents medium or larger, and still move at 30 feet for a halfling.

i kind of have him planned out til level 5, with level 6 being his first alchemist level... can't decide if alchemist should be earlier. i'm also really not sure what rage power seems good in this build. Anyhow here's my plan.

1) barbarian:
feat: 2 weapon fighting
abiltities: rage, big game hunter (titan mauler)

2) fighter:
feat: weapon finesse
abilities: mutagen (mutation warrior)

3) barbarian:
feat: quick draw
abilties: uncanny dodge, rage power???

4) fighter:
feat: power attack
abilties: tactical awareness (tactician)

5) barbarian:
feat: double slice
abilities: massive weapons (titan mauler)

6) alchemist:
Abilities: sneak attack (vivisectionist), trapfinding (cryptbreaker), cryptbreakers draught (cryptbreaker), alchemy

Eventually he'll be able to sneak and poison with his kukris, then draw his greatsword and rage, then when he runs out of rage use a mutagen for dexterity and be nasty with his kuris. It might not be the best mechanically, but i think it will be fun.

Any thoughts?

[Grimserver]

To answer your question, its up to you if you want your halfling barbarian to have a duel personality.

To answer the question in your post and not your title (and I am being quite frank), your build has several notable problems (WARNING: WALL OF TEXT)

#1, You are wielding kukris, then a greatsword, and then kukris again. I would assume you are dropping the first (pair of) kukris since it is a move action to sheath a weapon. You need multiple (pairs of) kukris to work with your build, meaning lots of gold tied up in weapons.

#2, Poison is great for npcs to use against pc's, but it is horrible for pc's to use against npc's. It is expensive, generally has a low save and only applies on the first hit. Unless you have a reliable and cheap means of getting poison, it is better to just kill things quickly than to poison them and then kill them.

#3, The way your build is set up is heavily MAD (Str/Dex/Con/Int) and doesn't really work well. Weapon finesse would not apply to the greatsword, thus it is wasted when using the greatsword. Two weapon fighting is completely useless so long as you are not using two weapons, so its wasted with the greatsword. Obviously double slice is useless as well. Thus, so long as your greatsword is drawn 3 of your feats are worthless.

#4, abilities with similar names from different classes dont stack unless they say so, thus the mutagen from the fighter archtype doesn't stack with the mutagen from the alchemist.

From what I can tell you are spending most of your feats on twf, so if you want my advice I would focus on that. My recommendation would be something like this.

Urban Barbarian 2/Viviesctionest 18

Urban barbarian lets you rage but get a dex bonus (or a con or strength bonus) and you dont loose any ac. 2 levels nets you a rage power and uncanny dodge as well. Instead of a +1 to hit and damage vs larger foes, you gain a +1 to hit and ac when adjacent to multiple foes (which you should be doing, since you are AM BARBARIAN).

Vivisectionist grants you sneak attack, infusions, mutagens (hint, you are always going to go dex mutatgen) and all the other alchemist goodies.

Here is what you do. Pick up vivisectionist first. You will need the sneak attack to help with damage. Pick up weapon finesse as your first level feat, At second level pick up beastmorph discovery. You can always retrain it later, but for now it gives you 3 natural attacks when you use your mutagen. Natural attacks are finessable. By ~lvl 4 you should have enough gold to have invested in at least one +1 agile kukri. The agile enchantment allows you to use dex instead of strength for damage.

Key tip, this is where you get rid of beastmorph.

Go urban barbarian, and if you feel like it pick up an extra rage feat to two. When you rage go dex, this gives to hit, ac, and damage. If you feel like it pop your dex mutagen, since rage is moral and mutagen is alchemical they stack.

That is a +8 to dex. +4 to hit, damage, and ac.

I am going to assume that you have an 18 base dex and 2 +1 agile kukri.

This would mean that at lvl 5 your to hit is +8/+8 for 1d3+5+3d6 damage each (average 35 damage if both hit). With rage OR mutagen that is +10/+10 for 1d3+7+3d6 each. With rage AND mutagen that is +12/+12 for 1d3+9+3d6 (average 43 damage if both hit). Add in something like pirahna strike (which is power attack for light weapons) and you get +10/+10 for 1d3+9+4(2)+3d6 or 55 damage average (its still half pirahna strike damage on the second strike). Not to shabby, considering we aren't including any infusions from being an alchemist.

For progression something like this would work well

Vivi. Alch 1 (Weapon finesse)
Vivi. Alch 2
vivi. Alch 3 (TWF)
Urban Barb 1/Vivi. Alch 3
Urban Barb 2/Vivi Alch 3 (pirahna strike)

Of course, my idea obviously does not fit into your pre-defined backstory, but I just dont see how to make a greatsword/duel wielding switch hitter work.

[scatterpattern]

i recently got the Giant Hunter's Handbook and rethought this character, when i found the titan fighter archetype. My idea was always to focus on kukris, and use the greatsword while raging, but i kind of like the idea of focusing on the greatsword.

1:fighter-titan fighter: Giant Weapon Wielder (can use two handed innapropriately sized weapon at -4 penalty)

2:barbarian-titan mauler: big game hunter (+1 attack and dodge ac vs medium or larger opponents)

3:fighter-tactician: tactical awareness (+1 initiative)

4:barbarian: uncanny dodge (cannot be caught flat-footed)

5:fighter-titan fighter:incredible heft (1 less penalty for innapropriatley sized weapons, including 2 handed weapons)

6:barbarian-titan mauler: massive weapons (1 less penalty for innapropriately sized weapons)

For feats i'd probably go with power attack, furious focus, etc.

[ZanThrax]

You can't take both the tactician archetype and the titan fighter archetype; they both replace some of the same abilities. And if you were intending to take Fighter (Titan Fighter) and then multiclass into Fighter (Tactician), you can't do that at all, regardless of what the archetypes do; that would be multiclassing Fighter with Fighter.

[Fist2Jaw]

Yeah, you can't combo different archtypes of the same class, unless none of their alternative feats replace something you'd normally have from the vanilla class (Which is very rare). This also include feats that you don't get until later levels; even if you never intend to go that high, you still can't combo archetypes if they both replace the end-level feats or whatever. Also, you can't gain feats from certain archtypes just because you're at a certain level. For example, you cant' get the 2nd level feat of Titan mauler at level two if you started as alchemist. While you'd be level 2, your class would be Alchemist 1 / Titan Mauler 1.

Also while it has it's own problems, if you want to use a big menacing two-handed weapon for your angry halfing, a Spiked Chain is finessable. You'd need an exotic weapon proficiency for it, but you could say that after your brother was killed by the bugbear your halfling trained in it so he could exact vengeance against evil or something.

[Fist2Jaw]

After some further thinking in trying to keep your character both roleplayable and capable of doing what you'd want it to do, here's what I made up. I'm also going to assume that you have access to only a few of the pathfinder books and must have them to use the things you'd want, so any better alternatives are open to suggestion.

Stats: (I'm assuming you're using a 20 point buy)
Strength: 13 (You're strong... For a halfing)
Dexterity: 16 (Very nimble, it was how you survived your first encounter with the bugbear)
Constitution: 14 (Also very tough)
Intelligence: 10 (Some people think you're dumb to be fighting against bigger, stronger enemies than you, but you live and they die, so what do they know...)
Wisdom: 13 (It takes a lot of moxie to stand up to a bugbear that just killed your bother)
Charisma: 10 (You're a pretty cool halfling, though everyone think you're crazy.)

1st level: Titan Mauler 1
Feat: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Spiked Chain)

2nd level: Fighter 1 (Don't do Titan Fighter as you need that Bonus feat, though you can try to Mutation Warrior if you want the Mutagen bonus, which I suggest. Just know that you lose out on all your armor training fighter feats)
Bonus Feat: Weapon Fineness (This will make your spiked chain more pratical now taht you're using the +3 from dex to hit, though before your two-weapon kukris can be a more viable you still need more feats)

3rd level: Fighter 2
Feat: Two-weapon fighting (The corner stone of two weapon fighting)
Bonus Feat: Double Slice (Gives your kurkri's a bit of oomph)

4th Level: Titan Mauler 2 (You now have Jotun Grip; depending on how silly you want to get, you could technically wield two spiked chains)
Ability Score: Strength so you get 14, which is a +2 to damage

5th Level: This level is where some serious character development happens. You have a fairly even Titan Mauler / Fighter levels, but does your Halfing learn to let go of his anger and focus his way as a fighter, or continues to rely on his anger and continue the path of a Titan Brawler?

I tried not to min/max your character, though I'll also admit this isn't the most optimal build for a two-weapon halfing Fighter/Barbarian. Still, you have a story to tell, and you are the main character.

Oh, and also, to answer the question to your post title: Your halfing doesn't have a dual personality, but a TRIPLE personality! There's your halfling himself, the soul of your bother who has been haunting you, and the BUGBEAR who inhabits the Spiked Chain because he's out to make you kill everyone you love as a grudge. Your bother tries to steer you in the right direction, but the bugbear's anger and fury fuels your own. You may or may not have taken up drinking to silence the voices.

At some point in the future you may have a battle in the middle of your mind where you once again meet with your brother as well as the bugbear who killed him. But the bugbear takes over your brother's body, and you must fight him! But unable to strike down your brother, you falter... But your party has your back!

Of course that's just my thoughts. Feel free to do whatever you want with this guy, just try to keep things pathfinder legal.

[Malakaus]

If you'll allow me to take liberties about your character, I think there's a more viable way to make this character both functional and fit your character. Some optimization involved.

STR:15
DEX:17
CON:14
INT:7/14
WIS:7/14
CHA:9

Dump charisma since neither barbarians or fighters use much charisma based skills. The 7/14 between INT and WIS is for you to decide whichever is more appropriate for your character: Someone who's fairly smart but short-sighted, or something with a strong will but ignorant? Feel free to twist that into whatever flavor you'd favor.

Racial Feats:
Halfing Luck > Underfoot
This will give you additional dodge AC against opponents larger than you (Which is pretty much everyone) but you'd give up a +1 to all your saves.

Keen > Low Blow
Trades your +2 to Perception check to get a +1 on Critical Confirmation roles. Highly situational, but if you still want to TWF Kukris you'd need to make sure your crits land.

Slow Speed & Sure-Footed > Fleet of Foot
Basically gives you a 30ft movement speed at the price of losing a +2 to Acrobatics and Climb. Since you'd need to be a Titan Mauler to make use of the Bugbear's greatsword, which also takes away your fast movement, you'd need the extra movement unless you intend to charge everything, but that doesn't make for a good TWF.

Weapon Familiarity > Anything else
Not exactly Pathfinder Legal, but if you can ask your GM if you could try to trade out Halfing Weapon Familiarity with anything else. Orc, elven, dwarven, whatever. I'd suggest Elven myself so you can later get the Elven Branched Spear (Reach, Brace, +2 to Attacks of opportunities, and WEAPON FINESSABLE!) that just came out in the recent Melee Tactics Toolbox, though I don't know how your character would come across something like that.

Character Traits: I don't know if you have APG, so I'm going to assume you're just using whatever resource you can access online.

Bloodthirsty - Does 1 extra point of damage when you kill something (Kind of redundant at that point) or when you confirm a crit (More useful). It also doubles on a Crit, allowing you to do an additional +2 to damage on crits.

Killer - Like Bloodthirsty it's only useful if you crit a lot, but for kurkis it essentially gives you +2 to damage after you confirm a critical hit. It's a flat +2 however, and not multiplied by your critical hit modifier.

With both these traits, on any critical you confirm, you're doing at least 4 points of damage, plus your other modifiers to damage and whatever you role on your damage die.

Level/Feat Path:
1. Two-Weapon Warrior (The class feat path for this archtype is very good for TWF)
Feat: Two-weapon Fighting
Bonus Feat: Weapon Finesse

2. Two-Weapon Warrior
Bonus Feat: Double Slice

3. Titan Mauler
Feat: Two-Weapon Defense

4. Titan Mauler
Ability Score: STR or DEX, depending if you like getting more hits or hitting harder. If you put it into strength you get 16 strength which is a +3 bonus to hit and damage, but if you put it into dex it's an 18 which is a +4 to hit for your kurkris.

That's just for your initial levels. I'm going under the assumption that your character might have also already had some levels before the bugbear killed his brother, so he more or less began to first rage at level 3.

[scatterpattern]

i no longer want to do TWF with this guy, he's gonna use a big greatsword and swap with a greatclub when needed. i don't know what it is, i just personally don't like spiked chains, i have never wanted to make a character that fights with a spiked chain.

Talking to my gm he stated that if i REALLY wanted i could be a 20th level fighter with 20 different archetypes, they only affect the ability at the chosen level and can't replace duplicate abilities.

So i think the way i set out the 6 levels gets me the closest to what i want, as long as i give up on TWF and focus on medium sized two handed weapons.

[scatterpattern]

One thing i got curious about with a titan fighter.

My halfling can use a medium greatsword with a total -4 penalty. Since he can use 2 handed weapons one size category up now, i know it's a little silly but, could he use a light or one handed large weapon with 2 hands at a total of -6 penalty?

For example, could he take ewp(bastard sword) and use a large bastard sword in 2 hands?

If he continues along the titan mauler/titan fighter path, he can get rid of the penalties eventually, i just wanted to know if it makes sense, rules wise at least.

[DeathlessOne]

I once built a halfling barbarian (titan Mauler) / Fighter (viking) that used a medium sized Earthbreaker to inflict maximum carnage. He was not Dex focused, NOT AT ALL.

It took a few levels to really get him off the ground, but around level 5 he started to shine. Before then, he was good but not spectacular.

If you know you are going to be fighting a good amount of large creatures, I have some recommendations. There is a feat called Big Game Hunter that shares the same name with your class ability Big Game Hunter. Also, Risky Striker.

Power attack and Reckless Abandon (rage power) are also good contenders. If you are going to drop your AC to hit something bigger than you, and hit it hard, go all or nothing.