I am just returning to the Pathfinder RPG scene after a very long time away and I need to build a lvl 1 Barbarian. The only problem is that I am pretty clueless, especially after being away so long.
Can anyone build me a lvl 1 Barbarian that is as optimized as possible? I'd greatly appreciate any help I can get. Any advice on how to spec him as he levels would be greatly appreciated as well while I re-familiarize myself with the game again.
Human. Your stats (depending on how they are generated) should be prioritized thusly: Str, Con, Dex, Wis, Int, Cha. Charisma can be a complete dump stat. Put the human +2 into Strength. The skill you really need is perception (everything else is situational, I like survival and acrobatics a lot).
Get a two handed weapon (I suggest a great sword or falchion). Take power attack and either weapon focus or furious focus as your feats. Get the best armor you can afford and wear without penalty.
If you have traits as an option take something to improve your reflex and will saves (I don't know the traits that well.)
In theory most of your combats are going to go like this: Rage, charge if possible, swing with a +8/10 if charging for 2dx + 12.
Take the beast totem powers when you get the chance as they give you pounce, and personally I'd say go with improved critical or get a keen falchion as this will be the absolute optimum damage without going into RAGELANCEPOUNCE craziness.
EDIT: There has been plenty of room left for flavor in this build.
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We need points and plan; are you just wanting to hit things as hard ad possible and rule the low levels?
Here is a PFS build (20 points) optimized:
Half-Orc
Str: 19
Int: 7
Wis: 10
Dex: 14
Con: 16
Chr: 7
Feat: Power Attack
Alt class feature: Toothy
Wielding: Great Sword (max early damage, the falchion is better after improved crit, but in PFS that is only 1/3rd of your levels)
Attack:
+4 2d6+9
-1 d4+4
Raging:
+6 2d6+12
+1 d4+5
Should wipe out early enemies for you.
For first level optimization I'll always take a higher to hit over an extra attack. AC's tend to start better than hit point totals.
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Well, +1 to hit (weapon focus) is worse in many ways; first, the bite (especially while raging) is enough to kill or severely hurt many at 1st level, so the odds of that extra attack hitting in and killing is far better than the 5% worse chance of hitting, IMHO. It's an extra attack that doesn't make your first attack worse... those are rare.
Reach builds with reflex are pretty amazing early though, probably better. Your weapon should be a Luceren hammer though; d12 damage. And if you do that, you should be human with Combat Reflexes, Power attack, and 16 Dex / 14 Con to maximize build. Reach is a non-Bo with Toothy.
Barbarians are easy. Moderate str and con, and let your rage do the rest. Preferably take a one or two handed weapon, weilded in two hands, and power attack. In general, most of your damage will come not from the weapon dice, but from your other bonuses, most notably your str score (especially while raging) and power attack, and these are easy to get. Take whatever skills, race and gear you want, a barbarian could hold his own with a garden rake.
Twigs is half right here. My favorite character is still Conner Hairfoot, halfling barbarian. At levels one through three he would one-shot most enemies, and at level 8 he now puts out 90 plus damage a turn on a regular basis, and he is sub optimal. (He is a sneaky little cur, though, and SURPRISE! HALFLING! has become a bit of a meme in my gaming circles...)
Ok, realize a couple of things:
1. Our GM for this game gave us a generous stat rolling mechanic, and a scaling magic weapon.
2. Our cleric tends to buff us with some divine version of a spell that is similar to haste in that I get an extra attack at my highest bonus.
3. Conner is always in front as a character quirk, and has a fairly low init. He gets charged a lot.
Important Stats, feats, abilities: Str 22 (16 base, 2 ability increases, 4 belt), 26 while raging for a +8; Cha 16(+3); Small +2 Greataxe (1d10 +2 attack and damage); weapon focus; power attack; elemental rage (and lesser); spirit totem (and lesser).
His attack bonus with the axe is 8 base + 8 Str + 1 small + 1 weapon focus + 2 weapon enhancement - 3 power attack = 17. Full attack works out to 17/17/12
His damage role on the axe is 1d10 (avg 5.5) + 12 Str + 2 weapon enhancement + 9 power attack + 1d6 elemental (avg 3.5) = 32 per swing.
Spirit Slam is at +12 (8 base, 3 Cha, 1 size) for 1d4 (2.5 avg) plus 3.
Average AC for CR8 creatures is about 21, which I hit most of the time, 50/50 with a spirit slam.
So average damage hitting with all of the attacks which is likely is actually 101.5. The actual average would work out to something more like 80 - 85 with miss chances and critical hits truely factored in, but in actual play I miss about once every two or three rounds with one attack (not counting the spirit slam, which is a fluff ability - Conner worships his ancestors).
Also, I don't believe he's rolled a critical hit since level 3, and that was his first one (except for two natural 20s vs. two different things immune to crits).
Where can I find the info on Oracle? I don't this that is in the core rulebook.
Does anyone have a skeleton outline at what feats and things like that I should take at each level?
Dotted
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PFS 20pt (150gp starting cash)
human:
STR+17
DEX:14
CON:14
INT:14
WIS:12
CHA:07
Traits: Berserker of the Society*, Threatening Defender
(*choose something else if staying straight barbarian)
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Combat Expertise
Starting equipment: four-mirror armor, buckler, bardiche, morningstar, javelins(2), misc gear and potion CLW
....the idea here is to carefully build the "base" of useful feat chains, and get the maximum bang-for-the-point-buy-buck in the stat array with lots of 14s. While other barbarians are murdering their stat spreads for a starting 19 or 20 and are -1 power-attacking for total overkill damage on Tier 1-2 opponents who have 8-12hps, you enjoy an extra point of AC using Combat Expertise for "free" (via Threatening Defender trait) with the same attack bonus as the Power Attacker with a strength score 2pts higher than yours. The pole-arm dovetails with Combat Reflexes in granting you extra attacks when getting swarmed by hordes of mooks.
....the half-orc barbarian with INT 7 receives 2 skill-points; as a human with INT14, you receive seven. Hmm... Climb, Swim, Survival, Kn:Nature, Diplomacy, Perception and Profession:Sailor.
Well, I've been sold on combat reflexes and a reach weapon. You'll need someone who can cast enlarge person to really make it sick. Stick with power attack, there's no such thing as overkill in an optimized build. Here's what I'm thinking...
20 pt. build
Str. 20 (24 raging) (human bonus); 17 pts.
Dex. 14; 5 pts.
Con. 12 (16 raging); 2 pts.
Int. 10
Wis. 10
Cha. 7; -4 pts.
Traits: Indomitable Faith, Rich Parents
Equipment (900 gp.): MW Guirsame - 309gp, MW Falchion - 375gp, Breastplate - 200gp, 16 gp left over for adventuring equipment.
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Power Attack
CMB +6 (+8 raging); CMD 18 (20 raging)
Saves: Fort 3 (5 raging), Ref 2; Will 1 (3 raging)
AC 18 (16 raging), HP 14 (16 raging, favored class bonus goes here)
Attacks
Guirsame +7 or +9 raging (+6 or +8 with PA); 2d4 + 7 or +9 raging (+9 or +11 raging with PA) x3 crit; reach
Falchion +7 or +9 raging (+6 or +8 raging with PA); 2d4 + 7 or +9 raging (+9 or +11 with PA) 18-20 x2 crit
Rage 5 rounds per day, Fast movement (with the medium armor you will have spd 30 I think)
Skills: Perception 1 rank (+4); pick 4 other skills (I suggest survival, climb, acrobatics, and something for some actual flavor like a craft or profession)
The thought is use AoO's to dish out damage at a distance. If something actually survies the AoO and steps up to you you can drop the guirsame as a free action, draw the falchion as a move action and proceed to lay waste close up and personal. It is also excellent for laying waste to BBEMs with the high critical threat range (26 - 38 damage at level one will make DMs cry).
*Edit: Ninja'd on a build. Although I don't see much value in high ac for a barbarian reach build. They have high hp and will kill most enemies before they can be hit in melee. and 2d4 +9/11 still isn't overkill in an optimized build, it simply means you'll definitely kill any opponent you hit with 13 or fewer hp (i.e. the "tier 1 - 2 opponents).
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there's no such thing as overkill in an optimized build. Here's what I'm thinking...
Sure there is -- you don't need to average 20 damage against targets that have 12 hit-points. (It's like the line from Thunderdome: "He can kill most men with his breath."[/i])
But if he wilts under the whimpiest of 1st-level mind-affecting spells, how "optimal" is he then?
(IMO the most optimal barbarians are dwarves with CON higher than STR, and Steel Soul.)
Str. 20 (24 raging) (human bonus); 17 pts.
Dex. 14; 5 pts.
Con. 12 (16 raging); 2 pts.
Int. 10
Wis. 10
Cha. 7; -4 pts.Traits: Indomitable Faith, Rich Parents
This is a perfect example of why STR20 barbarians are actually not suboptimal -- because neither STR20 nor STR24 are "sweet spots" for 1.5xSTR damage. Essentially you're spending nine more build points than you need to for what amounts to +1/+1 attack/damage doing utterly massive overkill versus targets you can one-shot anyway pretty much all the way to 3rd level.
This barbarian will never have Improved Trip (which is the primary way an AC-dumped barb grants himself pseudo-AC because opponents on the ground are -4 to hit him).
Simply dropping STR from 20 to 19 frees up four build points, or two into INT for a 12 (getting him close enough to take Improved Trip after building a headband of intellect) and two into WIS for a 12 (meaning he could take something instead of Indomitable Faith and have the same will-save).
Rich Parents is a poor trait, as it does not scale. (Obviously this will not be a concern if this characters will always be level 1, or is a bad guy's tougher-than-average mook.)
stuff
Your points are not completely invalid. You can have an 18 in strength an still be near optimal, raising your con to 14, your int to 13 and your cha to 8. I still fail to see your point about wanting improved trip. That is a fighter's purview. The barbarian I built can one shot the opponent on his own turn or on their turn. How is trip better than a KO? Take one action to defeat my opponent, or play cat and mouse? Barbarians get better abilities than trip in the form of rage powers later on.
The above stat changes take away +1 to hit which still leaves you with a slightly above 50% hit chance (again, I believe always hitting is optimal for a combat class) and 1 point of damage (which does still let you one shot most things, but again I believe that overkill isn't a thing in an optimized build). It also gives you 1 (one) extra skill point (of which you had quite a few for a martial class), access to a sub-optimal feat, 1 (one) extra round of rage and 1 (one) extra hp (the rage round is the only real benefit I see, and it becomes a moot point later on). It takes away part of your cha penalty, which you will never notice.
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I'd actually go the opposite route, 7 int; the skill selection for barbs is not impressive.
I do like Dwarven Barbs (or anything really) for their "sticking power", but I like that Str @ 18
Str: 18
Int: 7
Wis: 9
Dex: 14
Con: 18
Chr: 5
Feats: 1) Combat reflexes
3) Steely Soul
5) Power attack
Makes for the "rarely fail a save" style barb, which is better in the long run. The dwarven bonuses actually let you dump Wis as well; resulting in amazing physical stats (will is rarely not magic-based).
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I'd actually go the opposite route, 7 int; the skill selection for barbs is not impressive.
The barbarian skill selection is great: Climb, Swim, Ride, Perception, Intimidate.
A barbarian with the Dangerously Curious trait can even self-buff via UMD.
(The more "low magic/low cash" the world, the more useful the barbarian's skills become. E.g., if nobody can fly, then being able to climb up a castle wall on a Take-10 under a heavy load is amazingly useful.)
Where can I find the info on Oracle? I don't this that is in the core rulebook.
Does anyone have a skeleton outline at what feats and things like that I should take at each level?
Oracles are in the APG.
Or alternatively, you can find the class here.