My PFS barbarian is almost out of the rebuild region and I'd like to hear what people think of the build before I'm stuck with it ;).
The concept is a vaguely anime-like Tian guy who runs around breaking things with his nodachi. Currently the only things he can break are boring objects, but come 6th level and his sword will cleave even the fabric of magic itself. (Said concept also includes a distinct lack of natural attacks.)
Are there any rage powers that synergize well with the nodachi's 18-20 crit threat range?
Chai Kai, Sunder Specialist
Human (Tian) Invulnerable Rager Barbarian
Str 17 (+1 at 4th)
Dex 14
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 12
Cha 7
Traits
+1 to Will saves
Diplomacy as a class skill (helpful for when no one else has it)
1: Feats:Power Attack, Imp. Sunder
2: Rage Power: Superstitious
3: Feat: Raging Vitality
4: RP: Witch Hunter
5: F: Iron Will? Imp. Initiative?
6: RP: Spell Sunder
7: F: Greater Sunder? Extra Rage Power?
8: RP: Increased DR? Sunder Enchantment?
9: F: Sundering Strike? Crit. Focus? Imp. Crit.?
10: RP: Eater of Magic?
11: F: Dazing Assault? Feat not taken at level 8?
12: RP: Come and Get Me? (Requires taking Combat Reflexes)
I could delay Superstitious/Witch Hunter while maintaining my target of getting Spell Sunder ASAP like so:
1: Feats:Power Attack, Imp. Sunder
2: Rage Power: ??
3: Feat: Raging Vitality
4: RP: Superstitious
5: F: Extra Rage Power: Witch Hunter
6: RP: Spell Sunder
Bump?
I personally would get Guarded Life rage power early on.
Now you only need to find out if you can Sunder more than once per round.
Hopefully that question will be answered in the months it will take to level him to the point where it will matter.
Why not Breaker Barbarian?
1. Breaker loses Fast Movement (useful in most encounters) for extra sunder damage (useful only when sunder is)
2. Breaker doesn't stack with Invulnerable Rager and I'd like to begin annoying the GMs who repeat "it doesn't do as much damage as you would have expected" long after we get that fact as soon as possible by repeating it back to them (not that my DR 1/- compares to the typical DR/Hardness of 5)
if you start out as monk you can sunder as part of a full attack/flurry with UAS (not monk weapons per RAW).
even if you go all barbarian after that, your barb BAB is stacking with the flurry,
and you can sunder on every UAS attack that is part of the flurry full-attack.
i don't think nodachi is a monk weapon though, so you would have to be open to switching weapons,
or using some of the options for 'adding' a new monk weapon of your choice of weapon.
EDIT: actually, the RAW for FoB seems to only apply the UAS/monk weapon restriction to the bonus attacks, not the normal attacks for full attack, so PLAUSIBLY you can still attack with non-monk weapons for those.
you lose some stuff if you wear armor, but that is probably worth it unless you're already not inclined to wear armor.
note that the monk bonus feat can be combat reflexes, which you apparently want for Come And Get Me, although I am also partial to Improved Grapple.
FYI, Unexpected Strike is available much earlier than CaGM (at 8th vs. 12th) and similarly allows an AoO when a creature is coming up to attack you. CaGM doesn't work on creatures with Reach advantage over you anyways.
i would consider Cleave, and Imp Bullrush to qualify for Rhino Charge (readying Partial Charge).
Imp Bullrush also synergizes with the mentioned Impact quality (increasing weapon dmg size) which itself is great non-Crit damage increase that multiplies with Vital Strike.
vital strike synergizes with Sunder, and if you take Raging Leaper you can take the RP that lets you take a standard action attack in the middle of a Move Action... albeit if you can qualify for Fly-BY Attack, it does the same thing with only 1 Feat.
optimizing Crits will not help SUndering at all, since objects are immune to Crit damage,
although if you took Greater Sunder any 'spillover' Crit damage would apply to the enemy.
you don't need Increased DR RP if you are Invulnerable Rager, and you don't need Iron Will if you are Superstitious, either.
If you want more bang for your buck with Sunder, I'd go with the Vital Strike chain.
Vital Strike and Sunder can stack; you can only make 1 Sunder per round (you can't do it as an AOO, nor as a Full Attack Option RAW), and you apply the base damage dice bonus to the sunder damage, which is amazing.
It might cost you more feats, but if you want to be good at Sundering and not give up Invulnerable Rager benefits, that's the best way to go.
Oh, and an Impact enchanted Nodachi will synergize even better with your Sundering and Vital Strike combo...
We can assume nothing on Sunder RAW yet.
At this point, opinions are just opinions.
I'm only saying that is how Sunder functions as per RAW; PFS might have varied rules compared to the RAW, and chances are that's what he should follow. But current RAW, Sunder + Vital Strike + Impact Weapon + Power Attack = one destroyed item/round, and that's not including feats that allow you to Sunder via Criticals, etc. (something he should look for, especially with that 18-20 weapon).
Is Sundering Strike (sunder on crits) better than Critical Focus (+4 to confirm) or Improved Critical (Keen in a feat)?
depends how often you are choosing to attack [/fullattack] enemies for normal damage when you could be sundering their stuff. if they don't have stuff to sunder, it's useless. if you already chose to sunder their stuff because you want to achieve that result as reliably as possible, it's useless. i would probably not take it. rather than +4 to confirm crits, i would get more to-hit that applied to every attack (or more attacks). there's the RP that trades off AC for to-hit. and strength surge is worth mentioning, +level to CMBs including Sunder is worthwhile, especially if you are spending a standard action to sunder, you WANT IT to work for sure. critical focus is a pre-req for other critical feats is the main reason i would ever take it, and it DOES do something nice, but i wouldn't take it except for later critical feats. improved critical could help your damage output when not sundering, so go for it, i guess. i usually find room to take stuff like blind-fight and other 'combat utility' stuff.
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Vital Strike and Sunder can stack; you can only make 1 Sunder per round (you can't do it as an AOO, nor as a Full Attack Option RAW), and you apply the base damage dice bonus to the sunder damage, which is amazing.
Why can't you sunder multiple times as part of a full attack or AOO?
It says, "You can attempt to sunder an item held or worn by your opponent as part of an attack action in place of a melee attack." There's no restriction on how often you can do it.
So how does this look?
1: Feats:Power Attack, Imp. Sunder
2: Rage Power: Superstitious
3: Feat: Raging Vitality
4: RP: Strength Surge
5: F: Extra Rage Power:Witch Hunter
6: RP: Spell Sunder
7: F: Greater Sunder? Vital Strike?
8: RP: Sunder Enchantment? Unexpected Strike?
9: F: Sundering Strike? Crit. Focus? Imp. Crit.?
10: RP: Eater of Magic?
11: F: Feat not taken at level 8?
12: RP: ?
Also, is the Smasher rage power (ignore hardness once per rage) worth taking? (I'd totally take it if I thought I could get away with claiming that a construct was an "unattended object".)
a good multi class, if you dont really want come and get me, would be a metal oracle. you gain heavy armor profeciency, for mithril full plate, and you gain lead blades as a spell 3 times per day. you would need to swap your INT and CHA, but you would gain a boon to your damage, then you could drink a potion of enlarge person (trait makes it a move action) for a full round action netting you 4d6 (i think, size bonuses confuse the hell out of me) and reach for better sundering with a great sword.
link
Also, is the Smasher rage power (ignore hardness once per rage) worth taking?
if you went 1 level of oracle and, took the lame curse, you would be able to rage cycle that hardness bypass every round.
also by dipping oracle the feat chain of vital strike and furious finish may be an option for your sundering build. it would maximize your damage to an object/monster for one strike every round.
I would take power attack and raging vitality at 1st and imp sunder at 3rd.. Ull prob find its a better idea to just attack and kill over sundering.. Id take reckless abandon as my first rp and superstitous as my 2nd... dont spend a feat on imp crit with keen availiable.. i would do iron will at 5th.. Imo imp initiative is a marginal feat for a superstitous barb, its almost always beter to let ur party go first so u get 1st round buffs w/o having to make saves vs em...
Will you be playing solo? Cause otherwise the guy going around breaking the rest of the party's potential loot, well, you're not going to be a popular player, or character :P
