Stacking strength effects


Rules Questions


For the sake of mini-maxing I thought about a barbarian(1)/alchemist(1) character which would benefit from the following:

rage +4str
enlarge person +2str
mutagen +4str
bear's strength +4str (bought)

-->up to a +14 str bonus for a short period.

Considering a 20 str bonus character (perfect roll + race adjustment) that would mean a total of 34 str (12 modifiers) which would make his attack:

12 + 1(bab) for a damage of 3d6+18 (enlarged 1d12). Is this "balanced" for a lvl 2 character?

So the question would be which effects actually stack, since roleplay-wise it would seem that all of them affect different areas (rage - psychic / enlarge person - magical enchantment but the increase strength is side effect from actually increasing muscle mass/ mutagen - chemical / bear's strength - magical enchantment)


In all cases, whether or not two things stack is based on what type of bonus they provide. Rage provides a "morale" bonus. Mutagen is "alchemical." Enlarge Person is "size," and Bull's Strength is "enhancement." Thus, they all stack.

I know it looks impressive, but this honestly isn't unbalanced for a Level 2 character. Rage is a handful of rounds a day, mutagen one ten minute burst. Enlarge Person and Bull's Strength (which I don't know how you are getting as a level 1 Alchemist) are only a single minute, and eat up all your daily extracts.

This is the classic definition of going "nova." You are burning all your resources for one brief burst of power. Not only that, you are spending three rounds guzzling extracts to do it. The battle may well be over by the time your giant, buffed alchemist even joins the fray.

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