The Battlefield Control Barbarian or BC barbarian is based on a couple of concepts. The German Battlecruisers of WW1 were not the heavy hitters of the German fleet but were very survivable, fast and controlled the tempo of naval operations to a large degree. The Barb in PF seems to lack some of the DPR firepower of the Fighter but does have survivability enhancing options. The build I am proposing uses some of the APG feats and rage powers to provide a distinct role for the Barb.
My build is as follows, [Invulnerable Rager]
1) Power attack , Cleave
2) RP-Superstitious
3) Toughness
4) RP-Lesser Beast Totem
5) Raging Vitality
6) RP-Reckless abandon
7) Combat Reflexes
8) RP-Beast Totem
9) Critical Focus
10) RP-Greater Beast Totem
11) Dazing Assault
12) RP-Come and “GetSome”
13) Lunge
14) RP-Flesh Wound
15) Staggering Assault
16) RP-Clear Mind
17) Stunning Assault
18) RP-Damage Reduction??
19) Great Cleave?
20) RP-Guarded Life
This build provides a lot of damage mitigation and arcane resistances [ty superstition!] The fact that Invulnerable Rage confers double resistance to non-lethal damage makes Flesh Wound and Guarded Life no brainers. The Beast totems, Superstition, CAGM and Reckless Abandon seem to be the “big six” of rage powers . This character would have the option of applying both Stunned and Dazed conditions at the same time to the correct foe types which leads to a greater chance of one or the other condition being applied. Staggering critical is chosen to help deal with Fortitude based save types. The build does call into question some Rage Powers, DPR is not helped by many of the Damage mitigation Rage Powers. Surprise Accuracy may in fact be a crucial Rage Power here to help land a -10 dual Daze/Stun Assault! Also 2 feats could be saved by foregoing the Critical Focus and Condition for just “Mighty Swing”. When rinse-cycle raging occurs at level 17 this may prove very viable. A saved feat could be used for leadership and a Savage Skald…. Lunge and Great cleave would allow dispensation of the necessary Assaults to larger groupings. My concern is whether the advantages of both Assault feats are worth the penalties? Is Great Cleave a useful feat here? Would an offensive RP work better?
I do not like Cleave. There are so many feats I would take instead of that for your character. Any of the +Save feats are a better choice. You will benefit from them frequently. Fortitude saves come up more often, but the last thing you want your barbarian to fail is a will save and any cushion you can add to that is needed, Iron Will.
Want an awesome feat you will use every single time you attack? Pick up Furious Focus.
For trying to make a hard to hit/kill barbarian it's odd that you chose rage powers like Reckless Abandon and Come and Get me.
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Take Combat Reflexes at 1st level if you have a reach-weapon.
If Great Cleave wasn't good enough to have really early, there's no point in taking it at 19th.
Want an awesome feat you will use every single time you attack? Pick up Furious Focus.
Actually it only counts if you Power Attack. It's basically just a rebranded Weapon Focus which is only better than WF if you're frequently switching melee weapon types.
You're right, it only works when Power Attacking, but from 1st-4th level with this feat there is no reason not to Power Attack. You will only ever have one attack. Unless you're worried about landing an AoO. After that the only time to not Power Attack is if you are worried about you're iterative attacks missing. (and he's thinking about taking Reckless Abandon, so really that offsets even the iterative penalties) There's nothing stopping you from taking both Furious Focus and Weapon Focus as well. Cleave is just far to situational to justify spending a whole feat, especially when there are so many others you will constantly benefit from.
It doesn't matter how you get your +1 attack. You could just as easily take Heirloom Weapon trait and hope you never lose it.
Its not like you can only get one those feats before level 4, and both remain useful for your entire adventuring career.
In fact, I am pretty sure the fully optimized 1st level two-handed fighter picks Heirloom Weapon, Power Attack, Furious Focus, and Weapon Focus. Added together, they are effectively +3 to hit and damage with the first attack of the round, increasing to +3/+6 at level 4.
Since this build doesn't have a Weapon Focus or any other weapon specific feats in it, why not replace Cleave with Furious Focus at level 1?
For trying to make a hard to hit/kill barbarian it's odd that you chose rage powers like Reckless Abandon and Come and Get me...
The application of both Stunning and Dazing assaults may require a fairly high add to the attack bonus. Reckless Abandon is a great way to get that. Come and get me I hope will add to longevity as a certain percentage of melee attackers will be stunned or dazed before they attack/attack effectively.
I can see the point with furious focus for power attacking and it seems that great cleave may not be worth it, so I will consider that or perhaps an additional rage power....which may be better here! Strike Back seems to be limited to one attack only against a reach opponent, could it work here?