I'm needing a Dwarven beserker themed character. I would prefer his weapon be a shield and hammer or shield and axe, and his combat style be a two weapon fighting, vicious and brutal, "get in and kill or get killed."
I would like him wearing as little armor as possible, charging into battle with bare chest and only his shield to protect him. I've dabbled with adding a single level or even 2 levels of Martial Artist archetype Monk for Wis bonus to AC. As for his build, I was leaning towards Monk 1 / Two Weapon Fighter ? / Barbarian ? I'm open to literally any suggestions to get this character to do as much damage as possible without being killed in his first run. The only catches to this. Hybrid classes and new Occult material are NOT allowed and no 3PP.
I'm unsure of how to go about building him, this half dude raging ball of beard and blades. We are starting at 9th level, with an attribute spread of 18, 16, 14, 14, 12, 12 placed as we see fit before racial adjustments.
Eh, I don't see any good reason to go monk, if you use a shield you lose your Wisdom to Ac bonus.
The best option most likely is to go slayer, thunder and Fang build. Go high in str and con and low on dex. Take the twf feats from the salyer bonus feats, and shield master at level 6 is a must.
An invulnerable rager barbarian is a perfect fit on the fluff; wis to AC won't make enough of a difference, so stay with barbarian for best possible DR and rage power effects.
The obvious rage powers are superstition, witch hunter and reckless abandon, and you might get one of knockback, knockdown or savage dirty trick to avoid getting full attacked to death by anything you didn't kill.
Most of your feats will go to making TWF work - so the character almost builds itself from there. Spare one feat for raging vitality though.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16
|
Consider the Invulnerable Rager barbarian and try to outlast through Damage reduction. Do a single level dip into Master of Many Styles for Crane Style, a single level dip into Unbreakable fighter, and take the Stalwart feat to turn your fighting defensively AC bonus unto more DR. If you put 3 ranks in Acrobatics, that's DR 7/-.
Also have a wand or potion of Mage armor if you want to go armorless.
Finally, can't use a shield if you want monk AC bonus.
I specifically said that the hybrid classes are not allowed for this game, unfortunately. I like the thought of Thunder and Fang, my question, can it only be used with the Klar/spiked light shield or can any shield be used?
If it is any then I'm much more open to the idea of this and using a heavy steel shield.
Would the overall gain of dropping the shield in favor of a second weapon be worth it if I dipped Monk or am I better off sticking to the original plan of being a shield wielding twf'er?
Ehhmm, there is a barbarian archetype that works pretty well conceptually for slayers (Savage Barbarian - gets bonuses while unarmored, but can use shield) but I find it somewhat weak mechanically. You could I guess be an ex-monk (or a martial artist) for a wisdom bonus to your AC, as I have a hard time seeing Slayers as lawful types :) . I would not bother with fighter levels.
For a weapon combo, I am partial to the good old greataxe, although both two weapons or even a weapon and a shield are doable, if maybe a bit inferioer.
Oh right. If you decides for the shield path then I will recommend go Ranger 6 (for the shield master feat) then viking fighter x.
Invulnerable rager is probably your best bet for this. No shields, just a greataxe.
I had a Martial Artist Monk 1/Inulnerable rager Barbarian X that was a wonderful time, I can see a translation to dwarven slayer going well. I did roll wonderful stats for it too, though.
I'd prefer to avoid the standard/traditional two handed weapon. I just got done playing a half orc titan mauler Barb in another game.
I'm leaning most towards 3 non-barbarian levels(Martial Artist Monk 1/Two Weapon Warrior 2) and the rest as either Invulnerable Barbarian or Savage Barbarian.
What would be people's advice for equipment for this character? I've got 46,000gp to spend and needing ideas.