Planning a barbarian build

[Phneri]

So I'm a pretty high point buy game and I'm rolling with the 2-handed weapon barbarian. So far things are good. Power attack and rage deliver as promised, invulnerable rager is offering up delicious, delicious DR, and skills are...did I mention power attack and rage are awesome?

So I'm thinking of level 3+ advancement, and I've noticed some interesting class options. While full on barbarian seems pretty rad, I keep looking at the 1-level mix-in of an arcane duelist bard. Arcane strike seems like a fair trade off, especially at low levels, and the spellcasting, while not absurd, is useful.

Base character is going to be a melee monster investing combat expertise and the trip feats. Rage powers are focused around avoiding damage.

Just wanted to hear some thoughts. Right now I'm torn between picking up a bard level (or more) and sacrificing some of that DR and BAB, or sticking with barbarian, picking up superstition, and tripping my way to smashy glee without magic, skills, and what have you.

[SpaceChomp]

BARDBARIAN.

It's all about taste, and party composition.

Personally, i would just stick out the barbarian, and move towards getting superstitous (which is redonkulous if you're a human) and pounce. In my experience multiclassing spellcasting classes and melee classes never turns out as good as intended.

[Phneri]

SpaceChomp wrote:

BARDBARIAN.

You've taken that one word and ruined the entire concept for me. I have sorrow.

...

Anyway, I was definitely going to focus 90-95% melee. 1 level of arcane duelist was going to do 4 things for me:

arcane strike = no need to enchant cold iron/silver/other secondary weapons

rallying cry with a pretty beefy intimidate check to counter fear (more of a perk than a direct benefit)

access to UMD as a class skill and bard list for using wands/scrolls (wand of CLW comes to mind specifically) and some minor spellcasting (more for flavor than anything else, though I could see potential in invigorate long-term, and cantrips can be good).

potential for a bump to dragon disciple later, though I'd have to replan my feat tree to make up for the lost barbarian levels (rage powers, extend rage, etc).

And while it does smell of a bit of cheddar, there's nothing that specifically says a barbarian can't multiclass into spellcasting and take superstition as a rage power..though it does seem to break some of the flavor behind the power.

[Father Dale]

I don't think Arcane Duelist is a bad choice, but if just using it for Arcane Strike I think it would be a waste. You'll lose +1 BAB in order to gain +1 damage through Arcane Strike (and using a swift action). Probably not worth it, although I can see the synergy with Rallying Cry and a Barbarians likely high Intimidate. I don't even think the skills would be worth it, as bard would give you 6 skill points instead of 4, and you could always add an extra one with Barbarian as favored class, so its just a 1 skill point boost; granted, it opens up a bunch of class skills, but so does Ranger without dropping your BAB.

Could I suggest instead that you look at 2 levels of Battle Oracle? At 2nd level you get Enlarge Person as a spell known; this can be very effective for a tripping build, especially if using a reach weapon such as a guisarme. And it will offer a substantial increase in damage due to the Strength boost and the increase in weapon damage size. And you can drop a bless before going into a rage to get back your lost BAB.

Additionally, Battle Oracle offers some very nice revelations for a melee character. Warsight and Surprising Charge in particular. And after just one level of Oracle you can take the feat to gain other revelations.

Oracle also opens up the Rage Prophet class if you are inclined to mix more spellcasting into your build.

EDIT: Oh I forgot about Dragon Disciple. That would be a solid way to go too I think.

[meatrace]

Since you have access to the APG I'd suggest Beast Totem Barbarian.

Even with the base Rage Power you get 2 attacks at highest BAB for 1d6+Str. With rage it is pretty darn decent when you start stacking STR from any source you can get. At 10th level you get pounce. I'd also suggest taking Combat Reflexes and aiming for Come And Get Me at higher levels.

[SpaceChomp]

Phneri wrote:

SpaceChomp wrote:

BARDBARIAN.

You've taken that one word and ruined the entire concept for me. I have sorrow.

...

Meh. It was in one of the books when talking about a random orc encounter.

When multiclassing bard, to me, it's a waste most times unless you're willing to put in 5 levels or so.

The rage prophet thing above is pretty interesting though.

[Phneri]

With any class I'm just thinking of a mix-in so I don't lose too much of that sweet, sweet invulnerable rager DR. I was mostly looking at the duelist for magic weapons on the cheap, +2 to ref and will saves, and some minor magic in exchange for a barbarian level.

Savage stuff I've looked at and disliked, primarily because my build so far is based on power-attacking with large 2h weapons, and I want rage power space for superstition and flesh wound.

Thanks for the feedback, though. Given me some good ideas to look into.