While Raging the saves can be fairly high, but not when being suprized by an ambush for example.
The Human [and Tengu] bonus is +1 every 3 levels and Superstitious works like Power attack and starts at +2.
So at level 12, you would have 4 from race and 5 from Superstitious.
+9 looks good to me but if you factor in a crappy Will save to start with you could be looking at a Will save of around 12-14
inb4 Roberta Yang and "Superstition makes Barbarian useless".
While Raging the saves can be fairly high, but not when being suprized by an ambush for example.
The Human [and Tengu] bonus is +1 every 3 levels and Superstitious works like Power attack and starts at +2.
So at level 12, you would have 4 from race and 5 from Superstitious.
+9 looks good to me but if you factor in a crappy Will save to start with you could be looking at a Will save of around 12-14
And of course don't forget the +2 Will saves granted by Rage on top of it all.
When playing a Barbarian I only ever use versions of Urban Barbarian, but I wouldn't want to leave that out of the calculation.
The Paladin would be as good, if not better, as he has his bonuses all day long.
If you're at +15 ish at level 12 you're doing pretty well imo.
Barbarians and Paladins... Apples and biscuits.
The rage bonus to will save does not stack with superstition bonuses. Both are a bonus to the will save, while the RAGE Con bonus, is to con, not Fort save. So the bonus from Con, which at level 12 is a +3 modifier, makes your Fort save +3 higher then your actual superstition bonus, and your Reflex and Wis. are getting normal superstition bonuses, not rage.
As for being surprised/flatfooted. If you have access to the uncanny dodge ability, not being invulnerable rager, then you can take immediate actions in a surprise round. If an invulnerable rager, I'm not sure how to get around that.
Reason this is important, is because in the Ultimate Equipment book, the Headband of Havoc, has 2 abilities only for rage characters. The second ability allows once per day as an immediate action to enter a rage, when being attacked, or having to make a save. This uses up 2 rage rounds.
This means you can rage in your surprise round when being attacked, or before you got to go, thus allowing your save for the fireball, call lightning, or a multitude of attacks/abilities, to be that much higher.
Now, as for the first ability, it allows you if a barbarian to have one rage power/per rage (so you choose each time) act as if +4 levels higher. So your level 12 superstition, is now a level 16, gaining you a +1 to each save.
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Level 12
Saves---> Fort (con), Ref (dex), will (wis)
(Remember, these are the modifiers)
At level 12, a typical barbarian, (human or tengu) with superstition cranked out, and with a starting con of 16, raging vitality, superstition, human +1/3 levels bonus, and a +6 con belt....
Con 16 = +3 base
Con belt= +3 mod
superstition = +5
human/tengu race= +4
Raging vitality= +1
rage= +3
base save= +8
Headband of havoc= +1
vest of resistance= +5
Pale Green Prism= +1 competence bonus (38k gold)
Total: +34 Fort save when raging.... (+20 not raging)
At level 12, not much can pump up your dex as a barbarian because they tend to not be very agile. They have a low save her, but if making a Come and Get Me barbarian, you want a decent dex for the AoO's.
Dex: 12 (unless making a CaGM barbarian, then its closer to 14, maybe 16)= +1 base
dex belt= +3 mod
superstition: +5
human/tengu race= +4
base save= +4
headband of havoc= +1
vest of resistance= +5
Pale Green Prism= +1 competence bonus (38k gold)
Total: +24 raging...(+14 not raging)
A level 12 barbarian again isn't going to have a high will, even more so due to the wording of Rage and superstition, both of which have for Will only as a bonus, not one of them saying wisdom. Because of this, at level l2, you lose out on a possible +3 to your Will save. Either way superstition will more than make up the lost ground.
Wis: 12 = +1
Wisdom enh. item= +3
superstition: +5
human/tengu race= +4
base save= +4
headband of havoc= +1
vest of resistance= +5
Pale Green Prism= +1 competence bonus (38k gold)
Total: +24 raging...(+14 not raging)
Your final saves are as follows...
Fort/Ref/Will
Normal: +20/+14/+14
Raging: +34/+24/+24
Your final saves are as follows...
Fort/Ref/Will
Normal: +20/+14/+14
Raging: +34/+24/+24See, that's what I'm talking about. That's just NUTS! With a base of +12/+4/+4, that makes it +46/+28/+28. How will spells even go through that??? And then they have that one rage power where they can roll twice and take the better roll for their saves. How do casters deal against something like this?
Casters could fly and slowly plink away, or they can use spells with no saves, but sooner or later you'll have to actually down this guy, and unless you have a beastly beast dude (or dudette) of your own, how the hell do you take this guy down?
Ray attacks generally have no saves. Word of power is reliant on HP, no save required. Barbarians don't do to well against AoE because of their lack of evasion, it doesn't matter if they save against 5 fireballs, they're still taking half of 50d6. There are also a lot of control spells the severely inhibit the combat abilities of Barbarians, like walls to divide up the battlefield. The list of counters goes on.
Dwarves aren't quite as good as humans for saves as a barbarian, but the Steel Soul racial feat definitely puts them in the ballpark.
It also helps that it's easier to crank up their save stats with the bonuses they get to con and wis.
And it might be worth noting that a half orc has that one alternate racial trait that increases all it's saves by one (pretty much giving it halfling luck). Or you could just be a halfling barbarian XD.