First time poster here, been trolling the forums for about a week or so and see a lot of great advice and wanted to see if the community here would critique my barbarian (wild rager)/fighter build and what I plan on doing with him. We had a near TPK and had to roll up a few 4th level characters
Anyhow I know there are probably more effective builds for dealing damage and whatnot, but I chose the "wild rager" archetype for a 2 level dip in a (hopefully) 20 level AP. I wanted to give my character some flavor so I'm not asking for any advice on the barbarian wild rager part of it, because that's part of his background story and I'll have to learn to deal with the wild raging confusion possibilities.
I'm asking for a critique on the 18 levels of fighter and how to maximize his DPR with his feats/traits. I like to try to have things all planned out in advance so I'm not poring over the rulebooks and looking at webpages while at the gaming table. Below is what I currently have and what I'm planning about taking and the levels at which I was thinking of taking them. I've read about how cleave rules at low levels but then sucks at higher and how whirlwind is just good in certain situations, so that's why I felt going the critical feats tree, step up and strike tree, and penetrating strike tree may be best, but I've never played a character like this before so I'm open to suggestions on how to do this and what levels to take the feats at.
Feel free to give me any advice you have on how to optimize this guy for beastly damage output!
Ability scores (after adding in his racial bonuses and bonuses to levels):
STR: 20
DEX: 16
CON: 18
INT: 12
WIS: 15
CHA: 9
Current Weapon: +1 Masterwork Falchion
Current Armor: +1 Masterwork Agile Breastplate
Current Equipment: +1 Cloak of Resistance
Current Traits:
Birthmark - +2 Save vs Charm & Compulsion (which I believe should work to help save vs his Wild Rage confusion, but correct me if you think I'm wrong here and what would be a better alternative trait).
Killer - Add weapon's critical modifier to it's critical bonus damage
Current Feats (fgt lvl/barb lvl):
2/2 - Power Attack
2/2 - Weapon Focus (Falchion)
2/2 - Nimble Moves
2/2 - Step Up
2/2 - Furious Focus
Planned Feats (fgt lvl/barb lvl):
3/2 - Following Step
4/2 - Weapon Specialization (Falchion)
5/2 - Step Up & Strike
6/2 - Death or Glory
7/2 - Improved Critical
8/2 - Critical Focus
9/2 - Greater Weapon Focus (Falchion)
10/2 - Bleeding Critical
11/2 - Lunge
12/2 - Penetrating Strike
13/2 - Greater Weapon Specialization (Falchion)
14/2 - Staggering Critical
15/2 - Greater Penetrating Strike
16/2 - Stunning Critical
17/2 - Dreadful Carnage
18/2 - ???
Again, I appreciate any thoughts that would improve my character.
Thanks!
Current Traits:
Birthmark - +2 Save vs Charm & Compulsion (which I believe should work to help save vs his Wild Rage confusion, but correct me if you think I'm wrong here and what would be a better alternative trait)....
I don't think birthmark helps with wild rage confusion as the effect is not called out as charm/compulsion, just as a straight will save.
Uncontrolled Rage (Ex)
A wild rager’s rage functions as normal, except that when she reduces a creature to 0 or fewer hit points, she must attempt a Will save (DC 10 + the barbarian’s level + the barbarian’s Charisma modifier) or become confused. For the remainder of her current turn, she attacks the nearest creature other than herself. On the following round, refer to the confusion spell to determine her actions. At the end of this round, and each round thereafter, she can attempt a new saving throw to end the confusion effect. The rounds during which she is confused do not count against the rounds she has spent raging that day, but she cannot end her rage voluntarily, nor can she use rage powers while confused.
Probably should take a trait specific to will saves (i.e. Indomitable Faith).
I guess I was thinking that it would work because of the line in the Uncontrolled Rage which states: "refer to the confusion spell to determine her actions..."
So if you look under the confusion spell it states:
Confusion
School enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting]; Level bard 3, sorcerer/wizard 4
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M/DF (three nutshells)
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets all creatures in a 15-ft.-radius burst
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
Now if you look under the birthmark trait it states:
Birthmark: You were born with a strange birthmark that looks very similar to the holy symbol of the god you chose to worship later in life. This birthmark can serve you as a divine focus for casting spells, and as a physical manifestation of your faith, it increases your devotion to your god—you gain a +2 trait bonus on all saving throws
against charm and compulsion effects as a result.
So if you are using the confusion SPELL as referenced by the Uncontrolled Rage, it says "COMPULSION" and "mind affecting", so then look to birthmark and it says "+2 on ALL saving throws against charm and COMPULSION effects."
Because of the rolling of a saving throw for the Uncontrolled Rage confusion and the inclusion of the word "ALL" saving throws from Birthmark, technically it would work to help against this type of confusion is how I understood it.
I don't see how if it's referred to be looked up as the spell that the trait wouldn't help at all with it, or is this discussed specifically by the developers somewhere in these threads to not work with the Uncontrolled Rage confusion?
Anyhow thanks for pointing out the Indomitable Faith trait in case my interpretation of birthmark is shot down by my DM. Have any thoughts on the rest of the build?