| MokuGoldtusk |
Ok so, my half-orc is only a level one. but in the campaign i'm playing intimidate has been switch from cha to str. so i have a pretty decent starting intimidate.
i'm totally new to the game here and idek where to go with a build at all.
i'll post the info i have thus far but yeah any help or guidance on leveling would be appreciated!
Name: Moku
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Barbarian
Level: 1
Weapon: Unarmed (at the moment)
str 18 dex 15 con 17 int 10 wis 14 cha 8
Traits: Reactionary, Toothy, Intimidating
Feats: Power Attack
but yeah idk where to go from here exactly, i have a 7 intimidate now that it's strength based is that something i could utilize and build off of?
also idk where this class really goes or what feats or rage powers to go with at all. totally my first time playing as a barbarian
| Smallfoot |
Ok so, my half-orc is only a level one. but in the campaign i'm playing intimidate has been switch from cha to str. so i have a pretty decent starting intimidate.
[snip]
but yeah idk where to go from here exactly, i have a 7 intimidate now that it's strength based is that something i could utilize and build off of?
also idk where this class really goes or what feats or rage powers to go with at all. totally my first time playing as a barbarian
You can absolutely get a great Intimidating build on a Barbarian, even if you have to take the -1 from a low Cha score. But in this case it looks like your GM is doing you a huge favor, not only tossing aside the -1 but saving you a feat (Intimidating Prowess). As a combat build, you'll want to work toward Cornugon Smash at level 6. You can get a great boost off of Gravelly Tonic (50gp, +5 alchemical bonus, 1 hour) and Elixir of the Thundering Voice (250gp, +10 competence bonus, 1 hour).
You can get Dazzling Display, but I don't think it's worthwhile. Rather than spend a round debuffing enemies within 30', you want to get yourself in position and deal damage.
As for overall builds, look for the guides. Links are in the top pinned threads in this forum.
Gray Warden
|
First of all, racial traits and Traits are two different things. Toothy (which replaces Orc Ferocity) and Intimidating are racial traits, while Reactionary is a (Combat) Trait. Usually you have two Traits, or three if your GM allows Drawbacks, each one of which must belong to a different category (so if you pick Reactionary, which is a Combat Trait, you cannot pick another Combat Trait).
Secondly, you cannot possibly have 7 in intimidate. If it really goes with Str, then it's +4 Str, +2 Intimidate = 6. If you've spent +1 skill rank, then you unlock the +3 class skill bonus (since Intimidate is a class skill for the Barbarian), for a total of +10.
For feats, give a look to Enforcer, Hurtful and Cornugon Smash.
For Rage Powers, look at Intimidating Glare and Terrifying Howl.
| Thunderlord |
Barbarian may not be the best class for an intimidate build. You might be better of with a Cavalier or a Fighter. The Viking fighter gets rage at 4th and can demoralize as a move action at 2nd level. Vital Strike can help your action economy if your spending move actions to intimidate. Many will suggest going Inquisitor for an intimidate build but these should be solid for a full martial build.
Your intimidate should be 1(rank) + 3(trained) + 4(str) + 2(Intimidating) = 10. I would consider swapping reactionary for Thunder and Fang or Bloody Minded
edit: ninja'd on the math
| MokuGoldtusk |
Thanks so much for all of the advice!
Swapped out reactionary for bloody minded
So I'm debatingggg
Grabbing intimidating glare at level 2
Then enforcer level 3
Then guarded life (?) level 4
Then hurtful at level 5
Then beast totem, lesser at 6
Then cornugon smash 7
Terrifying howl at 8
Vital strike at 9
Guarded life greater at 10
Improved vital strike at 11
Beast totem at 12
Extra Rage power (roused anger) at 13
Beast totem greater at 14
And idk where to go from there? Is this too all over the place orr..
Syries
|
Based on Thunderlord's suggestion, you could make quite the intimidation build with a fighter with the Viking archetype, rather than barbarian.
Thunder and Fang feat allows a unique combat style of wielding an earthbreaker one handed. A TWF Thunder and Fang Viking. The archetype retains all of its bonus feats so you're not feat starved.
Using the same stats you have listed, at first level take Weapon focus (Earthbreaker) and Weapon Focus (Klar)
2) Two Weapon Fighting
3) Thunder and Fang
4) Power Attack
5) Hurtful
6+ pick up rage powers and the Improved TWF line
| MokuGoldtusk |
Based on Thunderlord's suggestion, you could make quite the intimidation build with a fighter with the Viking archetype, rather than barbarian.
Thunder and Fang feat allows a unique combat style of wielding an earthbreaker one handed. A TWF Thunder and Fang Viking. The archetype retains all of its bonus feats so you're not feat starved.
Using the same stats you have listed, at first level take Weapon focus (Earthbreaker) and Weapon Focus (Klar)
2) Two Weapon Fighting
3) Thunder and Fang
4) Power Attack
5) Hurtful
6+ pick up rage powers and the Improved TWF line
Unfortunately I'm stuck as a barbarian at this point and have just leveled up to level 2 so I need to figure out a barbarian build
Syries
|
Fair enough. Since Barbarians don't get bonus feats, best to scrap the Thunder and Fang idea. Unless you want to multiclass, but I don't think that's necessary.
Honestly the fact that your GM is swapping cha for str for Intimidate is going to go a long way with your character. It saves you from having to take Intimidating Prowess as a feat. Whenever you rage you get a +2 bonus. Power Attack, Bludgeoner, Enforcer, and Hurtful is great. On a full attack, you can make your first attack nonlethal. If it hits, free intimidate check. On a successful intimidate check, you can follow through your iteratives using lethal damage, and as a swift action make one additional attack thanks to Hurtful.
If your party has a save-or-suck caster, consider getting weapon focus and dazzling display. Open combat with it, and it's instantly a -2 to enemy saving throws for at least 1 round, assuming there are enough enemies to warrant using such an ability- often times it's just better to go in and demoralize a single target with Enforcer.
Backpack
|
So my recommendation would be to split your build between a standard barb build and an intimidating build because you don't get a ton of feats. I would take cornagun smash hurtful and signature skill for sure. Signature skill gives the unchained rouge skill unlocks, so signature skill: intimidate lets you frighten the enemy if you crush the intimidate check and at 10 ranks panicks them.
Here is how I'd recommend the feats
1:power attack
3:Hurtful
5:Skill Unlock
7:Cornugun Smash
9:either Furious focus, extra rage, extra rage power, skill focus intimidate (kinda depends on how you want to play your barbarian)
11: Raging Vitality (you flip this with your lv 9 feats, honestly past 7 you have so many options and it could go so many ways it's hard to reccomend at higher lv's.
I wouldn't go vital strike, you do so much less damage on average. plus a vital strike build would eat up so many feats that you wouldn't intimidate very well anymore.
Backpack
|
Also if you go straight only intimidate build you can go
1: Weapon focus
3: Power attack
5: Dazzling Display
7: Cornagun Smash
9: Shatter Defenses
11: Hurtful
13: Skill Unlock Intimidate
15: Skill Focus Intimidate
I dont know if I can really suggest this build as you really don't get to have a ton of fun with it till later. It works better if you have extra feats.
Gray Warden
|
Hurtful at 11 is pointless, since by that time you'll already make 3 attacks (or 4 with Haste), so an extra attack is not as important as at lower levels. The main advantage of that feat is that you can take it virtually at level 1.
I vote against Dazzling Display and Shatter Defenses. Dazzling Display because intimidating everybody at the beginning of the combat not only makes you waste a round of damage (which is what you do best), but also makes subsequent intimidate checks harder since every retry increases the DC by 5, thus jeopardising your chances of landing an extra attack with Hurtful. Shatter Defenses because you don't need to make your targets flat-footed:you don't have any form of sneak attack, nor you'll have any difficulty hitting normal AC.
If you want to make the casters happy and play also a bit the debuffer, get a Cruel weapon to make your targets Shaken and Sickened, for a total of -4 to hit,skill checks and saves, and -2 to damage.
| MokuGoldtusk |
Im debating going with a cruel aklys (huge) for its ability to do range (on fleeing maybe? idek if its worth it tho) and trip attacks plus coupled up with vital strike its badass but again is that worth it at all?
I reworked my build a bit hut wanna run it by you guys before the gym just to make sure it doesnt have any holes in it
Ok so it's now like this (alternating feats and rp's)
1 weapon focus exotic: Aklys
2 intimidating glare
3 power attack
4 guarded life
5 enforcer
6 beast totem lesser
7 hurtful
8 terrifying howl
9 cornugon smash
10 guarded life greater
11 vital strike
12 beast totem
13 improved vital strike
14 beast totem greater
15 skill focus: intimidate (?)
16 reckless abandon (?)
17 greater vital strike
18 unexpected strike (?)
19 extra rage (?)
20 come and get me (?)
Gray Warden
|
Huge Aklys means -4 to hit unless you spend money on some Irongrip Gauntlets and Effortless lace, which you WON'T be able to afford until higher levels. Also, it has been nerfed to 1d6 base damage, which becomes 2d6 when Huge. If you want to invest in Vital Strike, then spend the proficiency feat (Exotic Weapon Proficiency, not Weapon Focus) on the Butchering Axe. 3d6 base damage and no off-size shenanigans. Then you should get all Vital Strike feats as soon as you can (that is levels 7, 11, 17), otherwise it makes no sense. At the same time, I see little sense in investing both on Vital Strike (which rewards standard actions and big weapons) and Beast Totem (which instead relies on full-round attacks with natural weapons). Choose one of the two.
I'd pick Power Attack as first feat, so that I'm ready for Hurtful at 3rd, Weapon Proficiency at 5th (which can be easily substituted by spending 1500gp) and Cornugon Smash at 7th (since Cornugon Smash does more or less the same thing as Enforcer, but better, there's no point in getting both, unless you need Enforcer at 1st level and you don't want to wait).
| MokuGoldtusk |
ok so im gonna go with vital strike and the butchering axe (thank you for that!)
so i went
1 power attack
3 hurtful
5 weapon pro butchering axe
7 cornugon smash
9 vital strike
11 improved vital strike
13 ???
15 ???
17 greater vital strike
and now im just trying to figure out what rage powers to throw in there instead of beast totem
Gray Warden
|
If you want to go with Vital Strike, then maybe you don't need Cornugon Smash, since you'll often have a free move action that you can use to intimidate via Intimidating Glare. Therefore you can go:
1 Power Attack
3 Hurtful
5 Proficiency OR Furious Focus (if you buy a cracked Opalescent White Pyramid ioun stone)
7 Vital Strike
9 Furious Finish (crucial for any Vital Strike build)
11 Improved Vital Strike
13 Devastating Strike
15 x
17 Greater Vital Strike
| MokuGoldtusk |
ok sweet, i have that plugged in now
just need to figure out my rage powers
anything recommendations there? so far i have
2 intimidating glare
4 guarded life
6 superstition
8 terrifying howl
10 guarded life, greater
12 strength surge
14 reckless abandon
16 unexpected strike
18 come and get me
20 ?
not really sure about any of those lol
| Slim Jim |
Str 18 half-orc barbarian, eh?
<crack knuckles>
* Get rid of Power Attack in the 1st-level slot. You do not need it to slaughter 7hp goblins. Take Combat Reflexes and pick up a polearm. Slaughter three goblins with AoOs as they're rushing the party. On your turn, slaughter the one that's left with your single attack. -- And that's how you kill four goblins in a single turn instead of only one.
* Don't take Weapon Focus as a barbarian. (Taking Weapon Focus and Power Attack as your first two feats is....spending two feats to get +0 attack and +2 or +3 damage...which is a lame benefit for two feats. Sadly, I see players do this all the time. It's...sad.... There's plenty of time for it later when you actually need massive damage.)
* Don't take Exotic Weapon Proficiency if an Opalescent White Pyramid (cracked) will do what you need for 1500gp.
* Intimidation is overrated (sometimes ridiculously so); I would avoid it unless you're pursuing a build that can shake people as a swift action or even a free action. Throw one skill point at it because it's class, and otherwise save it until later.
Barbarians are really, really good at just beating things into greasy paste (and anything you cannot easily beat into greasy paste is probably also something that you can't scare easily), and that's almost always a better tactic than forfeiting a full-attack to try a standard- or move-action gimmick.
- - -
Alternative Racial Traits: Sacred Tattoo
Character Traits: Fate’s Favored, Finish the Fight
| Derklord |
Don't sweat it, Power Attack is a perfectly fine choice.
A reach build is less efficient in practice than it is in Slim Jim's hypothetical scenario, anyway - doesn't really work against ranged combatants (including casters) or simply anything with the intelligence of not running through the Barb's reach (at least after the first one that dies that way). It's awesome if you're fighting in narrow dungeons with an otherwise all-ranged party, though.
| MokuGoldtusk |
ok so i kinda reworked some stuff. went for more of a come and get me build with beast totem to make up for ranged stuff although i may just grab a bow to have incase of those moments but yeah, here's what i got so far.
i always did some digging and found the scarred rager archetype and went with that.
Power Attack (and terrifying visage i get with sr arch)
intimidating glare
hurtful
guarded life
weapon focus lucerne hammer
beast totem lesser
Dazzling Display
Terrifying Howl
Cornugon Smash
Beast Totem
Dazing Assault
Come and Get Me
Gory Finish
Beast Totem, Greater
Shatter Defenses
Guarded Life, Greater
Raging Vitality
Reckless Abandon (?)
Skill Focus: Intimidate (?)
Good For What Ails You (??????)
so, yeah, idk. that's what i have so far also let's say i use a dazzling display. using that with hurtful does that provoke an aoo from every enemy in my melee range (10 ft with reach on hammer)
also i hope this doesn't make me too squishy either