Potential Barbarian Tank upgrades


Advice


2 people marked this as a favorite.

For a long time I've enjoyed a Barbarian build designed to absorb punishment, shrug off spells and incapacitate foes. Its always worked very well for me, but with the recent influx of more rules and options than I can even keep up with, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for improving it further, any little gems among new feats and whatnot that I may have missed.

The basic concept of the character is predicated around having very high DR and very high saves, particularly vs. Spells & SLA's. At higher levels he also uses Come and Get Me in tandem with Dazing Assault to try and keep foes off balance. The DR in particular works off of a handful of feats all working in tandem, explained below the build. The Unbreakable Fighter dip is taken at 5th level.

Human 16th level Urban Barbarian & Invulnerable Rager/1st level Unbreakable Fighter

Attributes:
STR - 15 (+2 racial bonus, +1 @ 4th, 8th & 12th level)
DEX - 14
CON - 15 (+1 @ 16th level)
INT - 13
WIS - 12
CHA - 7

Traits:
Threatening Defender (reduce attack penalty by 1 when using Combat Expertise)
Carefully Hidden (+1 to Will saves, +2 saves vs. Divination spells)

Feats & Rage Powers:
1st - Power Attack
1st - Deadly Aim
2nd - [R] Lesser Beast Totem
3rd - Combat Expertise
4th - [R] Superstition
5th - Endurance
5th - Diehard
5th - Stalwart
7th - [R] Beast Totem
7th - Extra Rage Power: [R] Reckless Abandon
9th - [R] Extra Damage Reduction
9th - Combat Reflexes
11th - [R] Greater Beast Totem
11th - Improved Stalwart
13th - [R] Come and Get Me
13th - Dazing Assault
15th - [R] Extra Damage Reduction
15th - Extra Rage Power: [R] Extra Damage Reduction
17th - [R] Witch Hunter
17th - Stunning Assault

In addition to the DR granted by the Invulnerable Rager archetype, the following feats work together to achieve the desired effect:

Combat Expertise allows you to take an attack roll penalty for a bonus to AC.
Stalwart and Improved Stalwart allow you to convert that AC bonus to DR.
Reckless Abandon allows you to convert the attack roll penalty into an AC penalty.
Beast Totem nullifies that AC penalty.

At 13th level, for instance, he would have an effective DR when raging of DR 15/- (DR 6 from archetype, DR 8 from Improved Stalwart and DR 1 from Extra DR taken at 9th) with no appreciable penalties as a result. It would be up to him if he wished to attack for damage (Power Attack) or condition (Dazing Assault), depending on situation. At 15th level that DR jumps to DR 18/- and at 17th its 21/-. That's pretty strong.

The Urban Barbarian archetype is taken to give the character some increased versatility, to protect him from the AC penalty most Barbarians normally suffer and to remove any potential problems with the fool's gold that can be the 'bonus hit points' granted by temporarily higher CON bonuses. One side benefit of it is that the character becomes a legitimate threat at range, between Reckless Abandon, being able to bump his Dexterity up and then using Deadly Aim. Another is that, through Crowd Control, he is more effective when facing multiple enemies.

The Unbreakable Fighter dip not only grants the needed feats Endurance and Diehard, but it also grants heavy armor proficiency. With no penalty from Raging, this version of the Barbarian generally has better than AC than any other Barbarian you're going to find. Movement can be a problem at times, however. The usual application of Haste from an outside source generally takes care of that though.

FCB for humans along with Superstition makes for some very high saves, particularly vs. Magic.

I mention all this by way of explanation and to show that the build is fairly finely balanced. With that in mind, can anyone think of any new(er) feats or options that might improve the character build with regards to what its trying to do? I generally don't pre-plan magical gear as part of a build, but if there are any items above and beyond the obvious that should be considered, let me know as well.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Worship Calistria and get a Wasp Familiar. Give it the Protector Archetype. For the cost of a single feat, you get +50% HP, +2 AC, +4 initiative, the ability to roll twice on all knowledge/sense motive/perception checks, and a flying scout, among other benefits.


Castilonium wrote:
Worship Calistria and get a Wasp Familiar. Give it the Protector Archetype. For the cost of a single feat, you get +50% HP, +2 AC, +4 initiative, the ability to roll twice on all knowledge/sense motive/perception checks, and a flying scout, among other benefits.

That's very, very interesting - and a totally different way than I had thought to look at the character, but it inspires some all new ideas... the alignment certainly fits the character. I assume the ability to roll twice simply references the familiar and I both getting a roll, or am I missing some additional ability?

If I were to think about it, I guess the Deadly Aim feat is the most expendable, and I could take the Familiar right there to start. Funny thing was, I was torn between Deadly Aim and Improved Initiative from the start.


Yes, the familiar is intelligent and so it makes sense that it would be able to make various skill checks alongside you, and use Speak With Master to communicate with you.

Also, here's another trick the wasp can do. It uses the stats of an imp, which means its poison deals dexterity damage. Get a party member to cast Invigorating Poison on you, or buy and drink a potion. It has a high duration, so do it before you start adventuring. Then have your wasp sting you at the start of combat, and it will give you a +4 alchemical bonus to dexterity for 1 or 2 minutes.


Replacing the fighter dip with Unchained Monk might make sense here. However this requires forgoing armor. Two handed Sansetsukon Flurry at Full BAB is nice. The alignment issue can be solved by a trait.
Also Crane Style is prolly better than combat reflexes.


Alex Mack wrote:

Replacing the fighter dip with Unchained Monk might make sense here. However this requires forgoing armor. Two handed Sansetsukon Flurry at Full BAB is nice. The alignment issue can be solved by a trait.

Also Crane Style is prolly better than combat reflexes.

Teh Combat Reflexes are intended to be used with Come and Get Me - maybe you mean Combat Expertise instead? The entire build relies on Combat Expertise to make it go so I definitely can't drop that.

I'm a big believer in a tank having multiple layers of defense - in this case saving throws, DR and AC. I'd rather not drop armor if I can help it. I appreciate the suggestion though, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.


Couldn't you combine fighting defensively and combat expertise to up the DR even more? It'll help you hit the stalwart limits at earlier levels.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / Potential Barbarian Tank upgrades All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.