I'm looking to get an honest evaluation of my character build for a couple of reasons. See, my friends and I are trying to finish the Savage Tide AP - we've been working on this off and on for about 3-4 years - and we're coming close to the end. Thing is, we're level 15 now, and some disparities are beginning to show in character builds - we recently had a challenging encounter (2 brine dragons) where all of the PCs got ganked pretty hard, pretty early, except for my barbarian. I'm worried that there might be a little resentment that I've over-optimized (though I don't think I have). I'd just like to get some feedback from the fine folks here and see how'd you rate this character's effectiveness (especially those of you who have played Savage Tide).
In case it matters, here's the party:
Rogue 2/ Bard 13 (buff-centric, lots of high knowledge skills)
Illusionist 15 (SoD focused, with a weird fixation on Phantasmal Killer)
Ranger 2/ Cleric 13 [Travel/Liberation Domains] (buffing and archery)
Rogue 15 (Acrobatics and Whips, really high AC - around 41 when he SAs)
Barbarian 15 [Me]
Chaotic Good Human (Olman) Barbarian 15
Str 24(30 Raging) Dex 14 Con 24(32 Raging) Int 8 Wis 12 Cha 8
HP: 226 (+286 raging)
BAB: +15/+10/+5 Init: +2 Speed: 40ft/60ft flying.
Fort: +21(25 raging) Ref: +12 Will: +13 (16 raging, +20 vs. enchantment raging)
AC: 25 Touch: 14 Flatfooted: 25 (23 when raging, 19 when using Reckless Abandon)
CMB: +22 (+25 raging) CMD: 34 (37 raging)
Feats (9): Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Greatspear, Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, Diehard, Endurance, Iron Will, Improved Iron Will, Raging Vitality, Raging Brutality
Special Abilities: Fast Movement, Greater Rage (37 Rounds, +6 Str/Con +3 Will), Trap Sense +5, DR 3/- (DR 5/- when raging), Improved Uncanny Dodge, Rage Powers (6)
Rage Powers (7): Raging Leaper, Increased DR x2, Strength Surge, Reckless Abandon, Come and Get Me, Bestial Leaper
Traits: Ease of Faith, Quick Learner
Raging Attack Profile:
Holy Evil Outsider Bane Greatspear +28/+23/+18 (2d6+18 x3)
w/ Power Attack and Raging Brutality: (2d6+44 x3)
Gear:
Belt of Con +6
Gloves of Str +6
Cloak of Resistance +5
+2 flaming burst shark-toothed club
Winged Boots
Amulet of Natural Armor +2
Ring of Protection +2
Mithral Breastplate +3
+3 Holy, Evil Outsider Bane Greatspear
Gloves of Swimming and Climbing (not worn)
2 Potions of Cure Light Wounds
1 Potions Enlarge Person
3 Potions CSW
2 Potions CMW
1 Potions See Invis
2 Potions of Fly
1 Potions of Heroism
1 Potions of Displacement
2 Potions of Blur
5 Potions of Lesser Restoration
2 Magic Circle Against Evil
3 Oils of bless weapon
1 Oil of Silence
Unslotted Protection From Evil Item: Dinosaur Tooth Pendant
Nimbus Bow: (+2 shocking burst longbow that allows its user to add his STR bonus to attacks made with it as if it were an appropriately modeled composite longbow. Against reptilian monsters (including all dragons) and creatures with the earth subtype it is a +4 shocking burst longbow that inflicts an additional 1d6 points of damage). When outdoors, the bow has the following spells:
Summon Nature’s Ally 5 1/day Control Wind 1/day Warp Wood 3/day
One other question I'd like to pose: at this level, is it worth it to ditch his current armor/amulet/ring in favor of getting items that give him concealment/resistances? This guy gets hit all of the time except when he's rocking a miss chance, and I've been relying on DR and massive hp to stay alive.
|
You took Reckless Abandon and you're still expecting your AC to protect you? Nah, man. At that point, at this stage in the game, you're better off putting all of your money and item slots into offense.
Get yourself a minor cloak of displacement. Gives you 20% concealment, always active. In addition to the normal benefits of miss chance, this makes you completely immune to Sneak Attack, since rogues cannot Sneak Attack a creature with concealment. (Only way I know of to get around this is to use Improved Precise Shot, but that's making the rogue Sneak Attack with archery, which is even harder than just a flank).
Then a ring of invisibility will help as well. Imagine the look on your enemies faces when you cut down one of them, and then just give them a grin and vanish from sight..only to reappear next to them having cut down another one.
Imo u have a decent build, overpowerd build no, but decent yes... With that said even the basic barb buid will out damage most at 15th level. Mine uses a falcata with the beast totem line/superstitous line and has the invul rager archetype. Im in the same boat that hes gets hit with everything but the last irretative attack and somtimes it as well. i have mistmail and the miss chance certainly has paid for itself, so i would deff same its worth it to get miss chance stuff.. Other than that yes i rely on dr/hps to stay up... If u want ill post my build an you can show it to your friends if u wish.. Your not overoptimized though..
Ooh - that Mistmail sounds perfect. Cheap, too! Definitely have to add that to my gear.
I have to agree with @WerePox47, your build is definitely not OP. There are quite a few abilities and feats that you could have gotten to make yourself stronger in terms of offense, but it looks like you are going more for some survivability and defense with a few of those items, feats, and rage abilities. It looks pretty balanced to me, a barbarian should hit hard, hit often, and get hit often so you are right where you should be. Your friends are probably a bit underpowered or don't know their characters/classes as well as you do, so you seem OP to them. They need to put in a bit more work/research to get their characters up to snuff in my opinion.
for your level i would suggest a minor cloak of displacement and forgo the mistmail.. its the same buff but is always active.. i would sell the burst club and get that as well as the furious enchantment on your greatspear..
aditionally u should get the superstitous rage talent asap.. it will make your saves godlike...
The build seems perfectly fine; I've had a dwarf that was similar, except he was wielding a "great greataxe" (that is a glaive to you and me). Additionally he splashed the money to make his weapon ghost touch and got himself a ring of blinking. The combination is expensive, but 50% miss chance, as well as the ability to move through things and "fly" slowly.
additionally u should get the superstitious rage talent asap.. it will make your saves godlike...
Superstitious is a double-edged sword to me, it can help tremendously against harmful spells aimed at you from enemies while raging, but it also hampers spells aimed at you from your friendly cleric or bard who is trying to buff you or heal you because you can't be a willing target for ANY spells cast at or on you.
ub3r, If your a human with favored class bonus u end up with a +13 to all saves that stacks with resistance cloaks, fort buff from rage and will buff from 14th level ability makes it way better than missing out on an occasional buff spell and u still get save for halve heals so yes it sux but not to bad... also most wizards/sorc/bards that gonna be casting haste for example will have a much higher initiative than the barb, so usually youll get that haste bf u rage... ive played superstitious up to 13th level and my saves are redic.. even vs boss spells/effects etc i only fail on 1
What if you are down to 10 hps and it's the cleric's turn and you have a +13 to save versus his heal and fail? You get 1/2 yes, but that's pretty bad when you need the heals and only end up with 20 out of 40 hit points back and then you get nailed for 30+ the next shot by the enemies, you would have survived if you didn't have superstitious and now you not only lose the other half of the hit points, but if you didn't take the raging vitality (feat tax) or something else to keep you from actually dying when you hit the 0 hps or lower because you lose your temporary hit points as well and can be instantly dead... I'd rather be able to get healed when I really need it personally, just my opinion.
It's crap-shoot, you decide on trying to be better on defense vs letting your companions buff you or heal you while you rage. It'll depend on the style of play that you want to go with in the end though. As long as you are having fun, that's all that really matters.
You took Reckless Abandon and you're still expecting your AC to protect you? Nah, man. At that point, at this stage in the game, you're better off putting all of your money and item slots into offense.
Get yourself a minor cloak of displacement. Gives you 20% concealment, always active. In addition to the normal benefits of miss chance, this makes you completely immune to Sneak Attack, since rogues cannot Sneak Attack a creature with concealment. (Only way I know of to get around this is to use Improved Precise Shot, but that's making the rogue Sneak Attack with archery, which is even harder than just a flank).
Shadow Strike feat allows sneak attacks into concealment
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/advanced/advancedFeats.html#shadow-strik e
You accurately strike even those you cannot clearly see.
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: You can deal precision damage, such as sneak attack damage, against targets with concealment (but not total concealment).
my Brox will have this very soon
I'm hesitant about the cloak of displacement because I don't want to give up my cloak of resistance - the mistmail looks like a nice cheap compromise.
The Ring of Blink plus Ghost Touch, though - now THAT'S a combo I really like.