Do fighter and barbarian synergize well, or is it better to stick with one?

[Mahavira]

At some point in the future, we'll be playing Skulls and Shackles, and I thought I'd try a barbarian(urban)/fighter (corsair) cross (essentially the descendant of a viking who gentrified, using his plunder to a plantations and business interests in the Chelish colonies in the Mwangi expanse). With the various abilities each class gets at different levels, however, it isn't entirely clear to me that I'm not better off just staying barbarian (or being a corsair from day one).

Corsair adds: ability to wear heavier armor while swimming/tumbling (I refuse to drown, dammit), improved cleave and great cleave, weapon training and a few extra feats.

Corsair costs: rounds of rage, rage powers, points of damage reduction, and resistance to being flanked (fewer levels to count for uncanny dodge).

As this is my first martial character in the new system (we played 3.5 until quite recently, and I don't think I ever played a barb in the entire 3.0-3.5 period) I'm not sure how to judge the trade off.

[Fredrik]

The Bottom Line

I recommend just going corsair all the way.

The Explanation

I'm not the best guide, since I haven't played a barbarian or fighter in forever, but apparently I'm all you've got. (I'm so sorry.) My opinion is that barbarian is better to dip into than out of. You have class features like Fast Movement that are awesome from level one, and then others like Rage & Rage Powers that look like they'd take awhile to come into their own.

On the other hand, Cleave is pretty cool, and so is not taking a hit to your AC while using it. And corsair is very flavorful. (So is urban barbarian, but it doesn't look like it would add that much.) So that's why I'm leaning that way.

[blackbloodtroll]

For the most part, sticking to one class usually benefits PCs.

[sieylianna]

I wouldn't mix Barbarian and Fighter. As a general rule, I would never mix full-BAB classes, you almost always lose more than you gain since there is a lot of overlap.

[Caderyn]

I think I have 1 PC for PFS with less than 3 classes (2 base + 1 prestige usually) and he still has 2 (both base classes), I personally like having multiple classes as its frequently a way to save on feats and get flavor into your character that your class would normally prohibit.

Have an idea of what you want to be, and then grab whatever mismatch of classes you need to pull it off.

[Feral]

Barring a couple very specific builds, barbarian is overall the worst martial class.

Go full Corsair.

[sunbeam]

Depends on what you are trying to do.

Head to head, I think Fighters are probably better melee combatants for the most part. And unless you have some odd Urban Barbarian archer build, barbarians aren't even in the ball park.

Don't get me wrong, barbarians have some real tricks with strength surge in particular, that is very useful. Essentially for one maneuver whether it be disarm, grapple, trip, whatever the barbarian will be unbeatable.

But for round in and round out melee damage I think Fighter does it better.

However the barbarian has some tricks with rage powers that can't be duplicated by feats or even items. In particular superstition and eater of magic. Not to mention spell sunder.

For those kinds of things alone I think barbarian is better.

Note thought that for the most part you will need to find a way to rage cycle before 17th level. Most people seem to use lame oracle, though you can go Horizon Walker as well.

Barbarian is probably best with no dipping except what you need to rage cycle.

Fighter can afford to dip a few levels in Barbarian for fast movement and a few other things. You can probably get a useful rage power or two, but it won't be as useful as for a straight barbarian.

But an even split is probably weaker than either alone I'd think.

[TriOmegaZero]

If nothing else, 40ft movement in heavy armor is awesome.

[Mahavira]

The main features of Urban Barbarian are exchanging fast move for an ability called crowd control (+1 bonus to AC when adjacent to multiple enemies and other bonuses that rarely matter) and controlled rage - the ability to either do a normal rage or to add +4 (goes up) to any one of str dex and con, and otherwise not suffer the ac penalty (or get the will save bonus) and retains the ability to use mental skills (profession sailor, for example), feats like combat expertise etc..

To get a great deal out of the other abilities of the barbarian side, it kind of looks like you'd have to go all the way, or I could just dip 2 levels to get uncanny dodge and otherwise go straight corsair.

I was originally thinking straight corsair anyway, but got caught by the idea of a gentrified, wannabe norseman going by the (hopelessly out of date) details in great grandfather's logbook.

Thanks for the feedback, we were late to the Pathfinder bandwagon and I always played more arcanists than anything else.

[Anetra]

I'm going to preface this by saying that I am not familiar enough with your specific archetypes to give you advice on them and how they synergize, but with that said: On Multiclassing Fighters And Barbarians, In General Terms.

- Two levels of barbarian aren't a bad thing for a fighter; you gain the ability to rage, and a rage power. You will have an abundance of feats from your fighter levels, allowing you to pick up feats like Extra Rage if you want to rage longer (recommended), or Extra Rage Power if you want more of those. You will never get any of the higher level rage powers, or improved forms of rage, though, and you will never get tireless rage.

- Two to four levels of fighter aren't a bad thing for a barbarian. You gain so many feats, and if you take the Weapon Master archetype you'll also net yourself one notch in Weapon Training at 3rd (allowing you to use the Duelist's Gloves for a total of +3 attack and damage with a chosen weapon). At 4th level fighter you qualify for Weapon Specialization, as well, if you have the feats.

I wouldn't go even split Barbarian/Fighter, and I probably wouldn't stray too far from the numbers above (2 in barbarian, 2 to 4 in fighter). Because you get full BAB from barbarian already, it's not important that you take all 4 of those fighter levels; you should let your archetype dictate how far you go (if you get something good at 3rd level, go to 3rd, etc).

If I do end up checking out the Corsair archetype today, I'll come back and post again, though.

[FireberdGNOME]

I played a Barb/Fighter hybrid once. She was effective. Fast Movement and Rage help a lot. The plan was to go Bar5/Fig10 by the end of the AP.

Rage
Fast Movement
2 Rage Powers
Uncanny Dodge
Improved Uncanny Dodge

Bravery
Armor Training
Weapon Training
Feats (especially Fighter Only ones)

It seemed to work well to me, and the character's background called for it... then again I like capable PCs, but will still gladly play a Rogue into Duelist =)

GNOME

[Joegoat]

Im on the opposite side of this argument, round for round I think a barbarian can out power a fighter, but while raging their ac drops so they will get hit more. Urban barbarian works around that by avoiding the drop in ac but u don't get the increase in hp either.

As for combining the two classes I think that can work too. As early as you can pick up the rage power internal fortitude, and an 8,000gp ioun stone, flawed scarlet and green cabochon, this combination let's you rage cycle as soon as you can get it. And with the rage bonuses to str., weapon training as a fighter combined with gloves of dueling, grab the power attack feat for a boost in damage and strength surge. Come and get me is a great rage power and it might be worth trying a dex based build and getting agile weapons and TWF feats or if you would rather one weapon and the dex build go with a dervish dancer. Weapon focus and specialization are amazing. Play around with it, combining the two classes should come up with something. Between the normal high ac fighter and the normal high damage barbarian