Building a lvl 1 barbarian, 15 point buy for Second Darkness. builds?

I tend to be the only melee character in the group so I need someone durable as well as a good damage dealer I am looking at a barbarian, 15 point buy core races only. Show me the way my friends.

I've actually been trying to work this out myself as well.

I was thinking human with 16+2 Str, 14 Con, 14/13 Dex, 8/10 Int, 11 Wis, 7 Cha.

Feat wise Power Attack and whatever else you like. Combat Reflexes if you want to use a reach Weapon and i've seen that work really well with someone who was playing one in my party, Lots of tripping smashing.

Being human means you can take +2 to HP or skills at the start depending on what your focus is. Starting with 16 HP is nice. If you take Toughness as a feat you can start with 19 HP.

Though personally I would go with the 2 extra skill points.

At level 4 you can round up Wis to 12.

Another good second feat is Furious Focus. Works really well with power attack.

I've actually been trying to work this out myself as well.

I was thinking human with 16+2 Str, 14 Con, 14/13 Dex, 8/10 Int, 11 Wis, 7 Cha.

Feat wise Power Attack and whatever else you like. Combat Reflexes if you want to use a reach Weapon and i've seen that work really well with someone who was playing one in my party, Lots of tripping smashing.

Being human means you can take +2 to HP or skills at the start depending on what your focus is. Starting with 16 HP is nice. If you take Toughness as a feat you can start with 19 HP.

Though personally I would go with the 2 extra skill points.

At level 4 you can round up Wis to 12.

Another good second feat is Furious Focus. Works really well with power attack.

Raging Vitality is a must,+2 to con while raging and rage doesn't end if you're knocked unconscious. Normally if you're knocked out, the rage ends and all that extra hp disappears. Can kill you really easily or at least take your bleeding really near of death.

I tend to be the only melee character in the group so I need someone durable as well as a good damage dealer I am looking at a barbarian, 15 point buy core races only. Show me the way my friends.

I'd suggest reading Trinam's guide of barbarians. It's really good and has examples on... well almost everything you need to know.

Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ump_KFzNoD7x6aJ9ywGank5G9DzSVlef28bBbju Iq2U/edit?pli=1

An other example human barbarian 1
Basically you could dump int into 8 and make dex 14 wis 11 if you want since you get the +1 skill for being human.

Str:16,Dex:12,Con:14,Int:10,Wis:12,Cha:7

Level 1 feats: Power attack and raging vitality. Explained vitality in other post.

Skills, 5 per level.
Max out perception, since it's the most used skill in the game.
Acrobatics is an other good one, let's you move through those threatened areas.

Beast totem feats are a good choice later on, since greater beast totem gives you the pounce ability.

Hope this helps, the guides really help you the best.

Barbarians seem to do better when they're not tied to a weapon. I like to switch between sword/board and two-handed weapons when I play a barb in the early levels.

Since you'll probably be a meatshield more often then not, I'd try to keep uncanny dodge if you can.

Since one advantage of barbarians is hit points, I'd try to focus on that. Toughness/Raging Vitality are fairly decent choices.

There are lots of medium size creatures even at the end of the 2nd darkness so maneuvers can still be useful even at the end if you want a trip, disarm build it could be very useful. depends on how much your gm edits the adventure, you may want to let you gm know it is a 3.5 not a pathfinder adventure before he starts it. I ran it not that long ago. All the treasure and creatures have to be edited to match the pathfinder rule set as they are missing feats, exp levels don't match also, as some of the creatures are worth more than what they actual are in some case, and a lot less in others..

I would also recommend diverse skill placement for all characters As 2 of these adventures are heavy role play and one uses heavy skill checks, lacking in skill can get your character killed with no combat evolved and every party member has to have diverse skill sets, kind of being good at everything, but not great or bad at anything. Int is nothing something any character in this ap should use as drop stat in that ap.

Just how restrictive is Core Races? Because if you can use the Advanced Race Guide rules for the Cores, you have some great options.

Half-Orc is a nice choice when you trade out Orc Ferocity for Sacred Tattoo (twice as good with the Fate's Favored trait). You can also take an extra round of rage as a favored class bonus, which is kinda nice at early levels.

If you go Human, the favored class bonus for Barbs is awesome. +1/3 bonus to Superstition per level is pretty great.

You can go a few different ways with the Barbarian, so if you just want to crush things, I'd probably take this stat line:

STR 15+2 DEX 12 CON 16 INT 8 WIS 10 CHA 7

And then dump everything you can into Strength as you level. I'd recommend pursuing the Beast Totem rage powers for maximum carnage. Superstition and Raging Vitality are big ones, too. As for feats, all you really need is Power Attack and then you can keep taking Extra Rage Power. The suggestion of Furious Focus is only so so, since you can take Reckless Abandon to take an AC penalty instead of an attack roll penalty. Good on the pounce barb (just cancels out the Natural Armor from Beast Totem), and also great on the next guy (who doesn't really care about AC).

If you would rather be tougher to kill (even more than usual), there are ways for that as well. Unfortunately, you have to be smart. SO here is the stat line I would recommend. You also need to take the Invulnerable Rager archtype (which is great and also a good choice for the above mentioned pounce barb). I am playing this next one right now, and my friend at the table who is our resident Barbarian expert helped me put it together.

STR 15+2 DEX 12 CON 15 INT 13 WIS 10 CHA 7

If you are feeling brave (and with Superstitious it isn't that bad--but still kinda bad) you can drop WIS down to 7 to get a 16 CON and 13 DEX. I wouldn't go that way with a human, but if you are a half-orc with the Sacred Tattoo racial ability and the Fate's Favored trait, it isn't quite as scary at the low levels. Now, for this build you need to take a 1 level dip into Fighter (Unbreakable Fighter) at some point. The example below is human, mostly because it is a bit more feat/power intensive and because I like Conan. I highly recommend taking the +1/3 bonus to Superstition at every barbarian level.

Level 1: Barb(IR)1 --> Extra Rage Power: Raging Vitality, Power Attack
Level 2: Barb(IR)2 --> Superstition
Level 3: Barb(IR)3 --> Combat Expertise
Level 4: Fighter(UF)1 --> Diehard, Endurance
Level 5: Barb(IR)4 --> Reckless Abandon, Stalwart
Level 6: Barb(IR)5 -->
Level 7: Barb(IR)6 --> Intimidating Glare, ERP: Animal Fury
Level 8: Barb(IR)7 -->
Level 9: Barb(IR)8 --> Dragon Totem, ERP: Dragon Totem Resilience
Level 10: Barb(IR)9 -->
Level 11: Barb(IR)10 --> Dragon Totem Wings, Improved Stalwart

At this point, when you use Combat Expertise (and you will ALWAYS use Combat Expertise), you have DR 17/- while raging (and it only gets better, plus you haven't taken Increased DR yet). You can also fly in a pinch and have some pretty awesome Energy Resistance to one type depending upon the color of dragon you choose (not sure what is best for SD). Honestly, don't worry to much about armor class. I play it with no armor (currently AC 7 while raging at level 9), but the better way to go is to get armor with good abilities--fortification is a clear winner here. You will also have some fun with Animal Fury, I think.

Since armor isn't worth that much to the Dragon Totem barb a few levels in, and KainPen mentions the skill set, you could take the Urban Barbarian archtype in addition to Invulnerable Rager. You lose fast movement (which is sad, although not as important without pounce), and controlled rage doesn't really do a lot for this guy imo, but you get some different skill options if the group needs them. While I realize that a 7 CHA makes Diplomacy a little tougher, the class skill bonus makes up for it, and 6 skill points per level (4+human+int) mean you can max out a bunch of stuff. Just a thought.

At high level both of these builds can work with Combat Reflexes and the Come and Get Me rage power. This power is especially good for the Dragon Totem barb since you really aren't that concerned about armor class, so the +4 to hit you won't matter anyway. At higher levels, just take Combat Reflexes and the Come and Get Me rage power to kill things on their turns. The Quick Reflexes power also aids this approach.

Obviously, I'm more excited about the Dragon Totem guy at the moment because I'm playing one right now, but if you want a path for the Beast Totem barb I can help. It isn't too tough though, just take Beast Totem powers in time to get the Greater at 10th level and pounce away. Everything else you take/choose is personal preference at that point (beyond Power Attack).

Hope that helps!

You should plan the build to level 16. This AP will take a party of 4 to about level 16 after it is adjusted for pathfinder. When I edited mine, It got a party of 6 to level 16. I added a good bit and ran it fast leveling. Fast leveling makes up for 5 party member with no real added content. 6 party contant neededs to be added to get them to 16. So plan for about 16.