Project: Supercork Half-orc


Advice

Liberty's Edge

Shirtless barbarian theme; straight-class (something I almost never do):

Help me fill in the feat and rage power holes, or suggest alternatives. Build must be PFS-legal. INT seems excessive, but I want to max out several skills. Rage powers which can only be used once per rage (or per day) are annoying, and I don't like paying "taxes". (Critical Focus seems like a shoo-in for 9th, but I'd prefer something more flexible and interesting than just a chancy bonus.)

STR:14, DEX:14, CON+17, INT:(14 or 12), WIS:(12 or 14), CHA:07

1. b1 Raging Vitality
2. b2 [Guarded Life]
3. b3 Ferocious Tenacity
4. b4 [Reckless Abandon]
5. b5 Power Attack
6. b6 [Guarded Life, Greater]
7. b7 Pushing Assault
8. b8 [Quick Reflexes?]
9. b9
10 b0
11 11 [Greater Rage]
12 12 [Come and Get Me]

Leveling: take an extra round of rage (rather than hitpoint) every barbarian level.

Variant: one level of Fighter[Unbreakable] for [Endurance][Die Hard], and take the feat Deathless Initiate at 7th. Forfeits Barb12, saves end up +1/-1/-1 Fort/Ref/Will, -1 attack (loses Reckless Abandon+4), -1 DR, and loses Come and Get Me.

Weapons: bardiche, greatsword, javelins
Armor: Curly chest hair
Equipment: Cloak of Resistance (maxed as best able), Efficient Quiver, Winged Boots, Wrestler's Mask, Ioun stones and other baubles,

Note: build emphasis is on being virtually unkillable, not dishing out maximum DPR. Superstition chain not being taken because it interferes with ability to receive party healing (and we'll have lots of nonlethal damage which quickly melts away when said healing is received).

Liberty's Edge

If this is for PFS I suggest against the extra rage rounds as your favored class benefit, it will almost never be necessary.

I'm assuming you're going for the Invulnerable Rager archetype?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Whoa, did I miss-read that thread title...


I mentioned this in the big barbarian thread, but if you go the diehard/deathless initiate route, I think you need to NOT take guarded life, as the non-lethal damage will instantly knock you out.

If you're at -1 HP, and have 1 non-lethal damage, your HP < non-lethal, therefore you fall unconscious.

This isn't necessarily a huge negative, as skipping guarded life frees up two rage powers, and also a feat, as I think it makes raging vitality redundant. You end up trading the never ever dies combo of guarded life/raging vitality/ferocious tenacity for the keep on fighting until the bitter end (and still dies much less than a normal mortal) combo of deathless initiate/ferocious tenacity.

Both are cool, but I just wanted to point out that from my understanding you have to go one route or the other—guarded life and diehard are sort of mutually exclusive.

This may have been exactly what you intended anyways, but it's worth being aware of ;)

Now this would be pretty dang meta-gamey for a GM to do to you, but once you're in deathless initiate land, all it takes is 1 point of non-lethal damage to knock you out, which is a minor vulnerability to be aware of.

And Feral: I believe the extra rage rounds are to fuel ferocious tenacity, which can burn through rage mighty quick.

Liberty's Edge

Feral wrote:

If this is for PFS I suggest against the extra rage rounds as your favored class benefit, it will almost never be necessary.

I'm assuming you're going for the Invulnerable Rager archetype?

Yes, since bad guys are probably going to hit me on "2"s after 6th level. (I might even lower DEX.)

The rounds of rage fuel Ferocious Tenacity, and each is inevitably worth CON-bonus hitpoints (which is a far better deal per level than one hitpoint).

= = = = =

Unbreakable, lower DEX variant:

STR+17, DEX:10, CON:16, INT:14, WIS:12, CHA:07
traits: Threatening Defender

1. b1 DR0 [Invulnerable Rager] Raging Vitality
2. b2 DR1 [Guarded Life]
3. F1 DR1 [Endurance][Diehard], Combat Expertise
4. F2 DR3 [Unflinching], Stalwart
5. b3 DR3 Ferocious Tenacity
6. b4 DR4 [Reckless Abandon]
7. b5 DR4 Deathless Initiate
8. b6 DR6 [Guarded Life, Greater]
9. b7 DR6 ?
10 b8 DR7 ?
11 b9 DR7 ?
12 b0 DR9 ?

DR number assumes full-time Combat Expertise but not fighting defensively bonuses to AC.

-- The obvious mission now is to discover ways to increase the bonus to AC granted by either Combat Expertise or fighting defensively (because it'll be converted to DR), and take the Improved Stalwart feat if the gains are over DR10. ...any ideas?

Liberty's Edge

The first Crane Style feat.

Dark Archive

May I suggest an armoured kilt?

Liberty's Edge

Armored kilts are not PFS legal (and don't appear to grant stackable DR or bonuses from Combat Expertise or fighting defensively).

Crane Style requires Improved Unarmed Strike and Dodge, so it has a steep tax.

...any other ideas?

Dark Archive

Mergy wrote:
May I suggest an armoured kilt?

Moderate Fortification??

;)


Sorry to be a nag, but what's the story with Guarded Life + Diehard?

Doesn't the non-lethal damage knock you out?

Liberty's Edge

Beebs wrote:
I mentioned this in the big barbarian thread, but if you go the diehard/deathless initiate route, I think you need to NOT take guarded life, as the non-lethal damage will instantly knock you out.
There are probably few GMs who are going to be sticklers on nonlethal damage if you've selected feats to effect that lethal damage doesn't phase you -- and especially if you have the Orc Ferocity racial trait to begin with, and get to basically ignore the first round of below-zero HP anyway.
Quote:
This isn't necessarily a huge negative, as skipping guarded life frees up two rage powers, and also a feat, as I think it makes raging vitality redundant.

Raging Vitality is necessary for keeping rage "running" if an effect other than raw damage makes us go unconscious -- and this is critically necessary to keep all of our rage powers "switched on" (and primary among them would be Guarded Life keeping us from croaking if someone coup de graces our prone body).

I like Guarded Life in cooperative parties where incremental healing is spread around -- you're getting double-rate healing.

Quote:
You end up trading the never ever dies combo of guarded life/raging vitality/ferocious tenacity for the keep on fighting until the bitter end (and still dies much less than a normal mortal) combo of deathless initiate/ferocious tenacity.

The thing I find annoying about Ferocious Tenacity is that you can only use it once per round. Let's say you go to -2, and decide to stay there (to juice Deathless Initiate bonuses), then thirty more after DR, and burn rage rounds w/Tenacity to bring you back up as close to -3 as you can. Then the bad guy takes his last swing, and rolls 20 with high to-conform. ...Dead.

Upon reflection, Deathless Initiate is a trap which tempts you to not convert your lethal damage to nonlethal (via Guarded Life, which can't be used once you're under 0hp already, rather than bopping back and forth over the 0hp boundary)

So....are there any effects which explicitly allow you to ignore nonlethal damage effects?


Mike Schneider wrote:
Beebs wrote:
I mentioned this in the big barbarian thread, but if you go the diehard/deathless initiate route, I think you need to NOT take guarded life, as the non-lethal damage will instantly knock you out.
There are probably few GMs who are going to be sticklers on nonlethal damage if you've selected feats to effect that lethal damage doesn't phase you -- and especially if you have the Orc Ferocity racial trait to begin with, and get to basically ignore the first round of below-zero HP anyway.
Quote:
This isn't necessarily a huge negative, as skipping guarded life frees up two rage powers, and also a feat, as I think it makes raging vitality redundant.
Raging Vitality is necessary for keeping rage "running" if an effect other than raw damage makes us go unconscious.

Good point about raging vitality.

As a GM, I'd definitely consider allowing diehard/deathless initiate to allow you to stay conscious even with non-lethal damage. You're spending a lot of feats on it, and it's pretty rad. But, is Pathfinder Society a place where GMs can make these sorts of judgment calls, or is it a land where RAW prevails? (I've never played in a Society game).

Also, on a GM sidenote, an Orc Barbarian 1/Unbreakable 1 combining diehard and ferocious tenacity at level 2 makes for an awesome and evil fight to the death berserker to throw at players. And Barbarian 4/Unbreakable 2 gets you deathless initiate at level 6 if you take your second level of fighter at level 6 for the feat.

Dark Archive

I believe armoured kilts are now PFS legal, what with the errata for Adventurer's Armory, which give a stat block for it.


Dotted for further study.

Liberty's Edge

Beebs wrote:
As a GM, I'd definitely consider allowing diehard/deathless initiate to allow you to stay conscious even with non-lethal damage. You're spending a lot of feats on it, and it's pretty rad. But, is Pathfinder Society a place where GMs can make these sorts of judgment calls, or is it a land where RAW prevails? (I've never played in a Society game).

Technically RAW prevails, but there's a generous dollop of gray-area. Realistically, most GMs are harried people trying to get a mod done in four hours, and aren't going to keep track of the barbarian's split HP as much as they're likely to eye the wizard's (whose capacity to cake-walk and/or "wreck" a mod is far better than a barbarian's after 7th). The effects of non-lethal damage aren't even understood well by experienced GMs -- just last week, our local full-time GM informed a player that his PC wasn't actually dead because the cold damage he had been taking was non-lethal...and the player stood his mini back up and resumed swinging at the cold-fungus-covered monster. (He probably should have been unconscious since he'd taken as much if not more cold damage than other attack damage.)

....hmm, how to make a barbarian who can Lay on Hands? ...mwahahahah....


Lay on hands the portable way.

Wouldn't burning the later feats on extra rage rounds be the best option once the build is set?

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