Sleeping Clown's page

Hi hi hi.

While I'm not in immediate need of a character, I sort of fall in love with the attitude/flavor of Golarion goblins every time I read anything about them. I keep a folder of builds that usually go from 1-20. While I'll usually tailor a character's origin and personality to the campaign, I like to have a few road maps so when I ding so I don't spend all week wallowing in indecision about what feat to take.

Anyway! I realized I haven't played a barbarian since... I think 3.0! I also haven't played a grappling character in Pathfinder, so the Feral Gnasher began to look pretty fun after re-reading some of the rules.

I wanted to bounce the skeleton of the build off the boards and see what people think.

Here's what I got--

For attributes, the DMs in my circle usually toss out 20 pts or more, but it is good to plan for a rainy day. My go to plan would be to put 13 pts into Str, take two from Int and Cha, and throw 2 into Dex, Con, and Wis. So that spread would look something like this:

Str 15 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 8 Wis 12 Cha 6

Stat bumps would go into Strength.

The skills every level would be Acrobatics, Perception, and... Linguistics. I know I just I usually tailor a background for a campaign, but I was thinking about shoe horning the idea of a goblin that was banished from his tribe for being cursed with letters, and having the compulsion to read aloud any writing he finds. Something like that.

Here's the spread for feats:

1st Improved Unarmed Strike
3rd Improved Grapple
5th Weapon Focus (Grapple)
7th Greater Grapple
9th Rapid Grappler
11th Deadly Aim
13th Roll With It
15th Body Shield
17th Quick Draw
19th Raging Hurler

For me, 1st through 9th is pretty set in stone because the grappling feats in conjunction with Lockjaw and Grab are the core for most fights. I usually don't see campaigns last past 13th level, so everything 13th and up is sort of a *fun* choice. Deadly Aim at 11th makes a lot of sense for this because anything I can't grapple, I'll be throwing improvised weapons at.

Wait... *gasp* no Power Attack? What kind of barbarian doesn't have Power Attack? Well, I think one that if he's in melee range, is always grappling. Because maintaining grapple checks controls the fight. I'm flexible on this, though.

I'm a little bit less confident about my rage power selections:

2nd *Archetype*
4th Superstition
6th Ghost Rager
8th Clear Mind
10th Eater of Magic
12th Fearless Rage
14th Strength Surge
16th Unexpected Strike
18th Witch Hunter
20th Spell Sunder

Basically I have a strongly ingrained fear of Save or Suck spells, and most of those powers are about making sure I survive long enough to pin you to the ground and chew your face off.

Any tips on gear priority?

I've had some insomnia lately and had an oddly specific hankering to read somebody's campaign journal. I'd like to read about a campaign set in Golarion, because my group pretty much exclusively adventures there and I'm enjoying learning about the setting, but also not from one of the Adventure Paths. Those are often what gets run in the circles I hang out in, so I want to avoid any spoilers. So, anybody know a place to read about an interesting campaign that is set in Golarion, but not an AP?

Last session I played in, my rogue1/druid6 cast a Summon Nature's Ally III and dropped five stirges on a tough enemy. The way this played out, it ruled school. All five hit with their touch attacks and dropped the enemy's Con by 5 very quickly. The enemy had to concentrate on killing the stirges if it didn't want to continue taking deadly Con damage. I shut down a serious threat with one spell. I ended up doing 9 Con damage in all, which seems magnificent for a third level druid spell.

To this point, I've been sort of the party lump; good for dialogue and plot points, but sort of just a warm body in combat. I've been making a concerted effort to try to be more clever with my spells.

And then suddenly there was this new feeling. The other players looked at me as if seeing me for the first time as a credible power. The DM furrowed his brow and checked the Bestiary before nodding sagely and begrudingly, "I'll allow it." And suddenly I have a very powerful trick in my arsenal.

... but I feel like I have some sort of... "winner's guilt." I wanted to bounce this off of these boards. Has any part of this been errata'ed? Am I cheesing too hard? As far as I can tell, even DR doesn't stop this. If the enemy is vulnerable to ability drain, this spell can hit a single target like a truck. Am I wrong? Mechanically or in sportsmanship?