Barbarian Druid Build? What can you come up with?

[Fizzban]

Ok I’m thinking about a barbarian druid build, almost a Celtic tribal shaman kind of thing. I would like to know what every one thinks, and if anyone has any good ideas. I’m looking for a human and almost most of the books are fair game. What can the people of the boards come up with from lvs 1-20 to variants to weapons to armor to animal companions to feat etc.

Fizz

[Kiteko]

Hmm, there's a few paths I could see that taking, like 10/10 for the base classes.

Another I could see is Barbarian 8, Druid 3-5, Beast Master (Complete Adventurer) X up to 20. It'd get you multiple pets with effective level of Beast Master+Druid, and decent rage stats.

There's a prestige class in Dungeonscape that lets you pick a dungeon-esqe animal companion. It's a 10 level prestige class too.

It's also in the excerpt on WotC's site so you can check it out there. I'll think up weapons and armor and such later, just the classes showed up on my mind at the moment.

Or, you could pick up Barb 5 (provided you can get flaws for the 1-2 bonus feats to pick up the rage feats) and go Frenzied Berserker and Druid, then get the Inspire Frenzy Ability for your pet to make it more dangerous (this would be so much more fun in epic or Gestalt ^^: Barb/Druid Beast Master/Frenzied Berserker).

[Dragonchess Player]

Druid (Druidic Avenger variant, UA)/Nature's Warrior (CW).

The Druidic Avenger variant is treated as a druid except for the following:

Class Skills- Remove Diplomacy, add Intimidate.
Animal Companion- The druidic avenger does not gain an animal companion.
Fast Movement- The druidic avenger gains a +10ft enhancement bonus to his speed when not in heavy armor or carrying a heavy load.
Rage- The druidic avanger gains the ability to rage 1x/day at 1st level, plus one additional time per day every 5 levels above 1st (6th, 11th, 16th). The avenger does not gain greater rage, indomitable will, or mighty rage.
Spontaneous Casting- The druidic avenger cannot channel stored spell energy into summoning spells.
Tireless Rage- At 17th level, the druidic avenger no longer becomes fatigued at the end of his rage.
Wild Empathy- The druidic avenger takes a -4 penalty to his wild empathy checks.

[Saern]

The problem I've always had with spellcaster/barbarian combos is that rage stops your spellcasting, and if you need to cast another spell, you have to end your rage and be fatigued. Seems overly burdensome to me, which is a shame, because I really like certain barbarian/spellcaster concepts.

However, it's not such a big deal with druids, since they already have decent fighting abilities along with their spellcasting, so the rage is a nice back-up for when you're out of spells and/or in bear form or some such. So, this build will probably prove better than some other caster/rager combos.

[Chris P]

Saern wrote:

The problem I've always had with spellcaster/barbarian combos is that rage stops your spellcasting, and if you need to cast another spell, you have to end your rage and be fatigued. Seems overly burdensome to me, which is a shame, because I really like certain barbarian/spellcaster concepts.

However, it's not such a big deal with druids, since they already have decent fighting abilities along with their spellcasting, so the rage is a nice back-up for when you're out of spells and/or in bear form or some such. So, this build will probably prove better than some other caster/rager combos.

Doesn't the Rage Mage in I think the Complete Warrior let you cast spells while raging? Although the concept seems kinda strange to me because I think of a rage as a raw emotional state which seems counter to spell casting. I also thing that a barbarian that went into the Champion of Gwyn.... from the Book of Exalted Deeds gets to cast spells while raging as well. This to me actually feels better than the Rage Mage since the you need a feat that makes you rage more controlled than normal to qualify for the PrC.

[Fatespinner]

Chris P wrote:

I also thing that a barbarian that went into the Champion of Gwyn.... from the Book of Exalted Deeds gets to cast spells while raging as well. This to me actually feels better than the Rage Mage since the you need a feat that makes you rage more controlled than normal to qualify for the PrC.

Actually, the very feat you're referring to is what allows spellcasting in rage, not the PrC. The PrC just gives the spells. :)

FYI, the feat is called Righteous Wrath.

[Chris P]

Fatespinner wrote:

Chris P wrote:

I also thing that a barbarian that went into the Champion of Gwyn.... from the Book of Exalted Deeds gets to cast spells while raging as well. This to me actually feels better than the Rage Mage since the you need a feat that makes you rage more controlled than normal to qualify for the PrC.

Actually, the very feat you're referring to is what allows spellcasting in rage, not the PrC. The PrC just gives the spells. :)

FYI, the feat is called Righteous Wrath.

Yeah I couldn't remember the name and have no books in front of me. ;) I just thought it said you had a clarity of mind when you raged like none other. I didn't think it said you could cast spells, I thought the PrC said that under it's description of spellcasting. Either way it's seems like a cool way to go. I can't wait to see how it turns out since one of my players in my STAP game is going that route. Plus he is a minotuar which makes it even cooler. ;p