So a serene barbarian seems like a pretty cool concept, I'm thinking a two weapon fighter barbarian dual wielding rapiers and instead of raging he gets more calm and more focused, harder to hit and a killing machine, (kindof like a jedi) with the largest hit die per class to boot.
Rage powers that come to mind for this character are the superstitious line to dispel otherwise "melee character killing" magics. Along with the standard two weapon fighting feats and weapon finesse, picking up two agile rapiers is a must. And any items to boost dex will help with to hit, damage, and ac.
But I've never really built a barbarian before and normally stick with the cleric so this whole concept is a little out of my comfort zone. Does anyone have any items, feats or rage powers in mind that this build would need? And I feel like the boosted wisdom score is just going to waste, does anyone know how to add that into helping my build out in any way?
Go with a high dex and get any dodge bonuses possible.
I am not familiar with the archtype, but keep in mind that a rapier is not a light weapon in terms of two weapon fighting penalties. You want a light weapon for your off hand.
dip monk somehow. Can the serene barbarian be lawful?
House rule that we've always played with, rapiers are light weapons, but normally Yes I would take a -4/-4 to attacks but the serene barbarian while raging gets plusses to his dex which would offset that extra negative and still add to the damage
I'd dual wield Wakizashi's if I were you, they have an 18-20/x2 threat range, are light weapons, and deal 1d6 damage each. Then put the agile weapon enhancement and keen on them. Then get the weapon finesse feat so that you can use your Dex in place of your strength for damage. Then grab the TWF feats and you should be set to go. I might even suggest grabbing Butterfly Sting if you have someone in the group who has a 3x or 4x crit multiplier and can do massive damage (fishing for crits), especially when you have keen and can crit on 15-20 range and then hand it off to the guy/gal in the group with the bigger badder weapon.
I've recently come across this class and had the same question about the Monk. I'd like to cross it with a Zen Archer. I think it could make a devistating ranged attacker.
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Just to let you know, Joegoat, I designed the serene barbarian for Strategists & Tacticians. S&T predates the Advanced Player’s Guide, and it isn’t technically an archetype, it’s an alternate class features. The difference is basically split hairs, but if any of those split hairs matter, let me know if I can help shed some light on the mechanics.
Trogdar, CKorfmann, were I to have designed the serene barbarian as an archetype, I would have flipped the alignment restriction to any non-chaotic. My inspiration for the class was River Tam from Firefly, the idea that this meek, unassuming character can switch off her brain and switch on martial arts really appealed to me as a class concept. I think multi-classing into monk makes great thematic sense in that case.
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I created a very similar Barbarian achetype - the Focused Combatant, for Kobold Press/Open Design's Midgard Legends (the editors changed it from my original Focused Mind). It changes DR for an AC buff as well as a few other minor changes (gains some knowledge skills for fast movement IIRC, for flavor reasons) but the "Focus" chassis that replaces Rage is very similar to Ryan's concept.
Also, see if you can get the brilliant energy, ghost touch, shocking burst and flaming burst on one of those blades (preferably making them both come from small "rods" that "activate" and "deactivate" with buttons). Enjoy being Starwars!
EDIT: defensive might also be a good enhancement.
Yeah, I know it's "too much" with all the other stuff... but c'mon! Light sabers!
Trogdar, CKorfmann, were I to have designed the serene barbarian as an archetype, I would have flipped the alignment restriction to any non-chaotic. My inspiration for the class was River Tam from Firefly, the idea that this meek, unassuming character can switch off her brain and switch on martial arts really appealed to me as a class concept. I think multi-classing into monk makes great thematic sense in that case.
Thanks for the back-up. It's makes a lot of sense.
I was looking over this again and considering rage powers. There are many of them that do work, some that work by changing the attributes they enhance, and others that don't work at all, thematically or otherwise. In order the make these "serenity powers" viable, I think the list would need to be reworked.