Hi, just a quick overview. I'm playing in a skulls and shackles adventure path we just finished the final encounter of the first book. This bumped us up two levels which was nice. The downside was a party member died during the final fight, leaving my orc fighter as the only front line warrior. I'm not particularly used to pathfinder but I played alot of 4e and my knee jerk reaction to being the only melle target is to shore up my offenses so I'm the most tempting target. To do that I was debating dipping into barbarian. I'm a Two-Handed fighter so this seemed to have alot of synergy. But I can't decide if the barbarian thing should be a one level dip or if I should keep on going down that path. The barbarian rage powers are very nice but the issue is I'm already two levels into fighter some part of me thinks using the extra feats for additional rage rounds per day, and getting some duelists gloves to stack with my furious weapon would keep my damage relevant.
Currently the party consists of five level four members
A bard (disruptive spellcasting and singing)
An alchemist (Vanilla but I think he's going to specialize in bombs)
A sea witch (From what I understand she'll be buffing and hitting with save or sucks)
A musketeer gunslinger (amazing damage in about a level)
And me Fighter 3 Barbarian 1
My stat blocks included thanks for giving this the once over.
Unnamed Hero
Male Orc Barbarian 1 Fighter (Two-Handed Fighter) 3
CN Medium Humanoid (orc)
Init +2; Senses darkvision; Perception +4
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Defense
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AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+6 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 42 (1d12+3d10+12)
Fort +8, Ref +3, Will +1
Defensive Abilities ferocity
Weakness light sensitivity
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee Dagger +9 (1d4+5/19-20/x2) and
Masterwork Falchion +11 (2d4+7/18-20/x2)
Ranged Shortbow, Comp. (Str +0) +6 (1d6/x3)
Special Attacks overhand chop, rage (7 rounds/day), shattering strike +1
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Statistics
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Str 20, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +4; CMB +9 (+10 Sundering); CMD 21 (22 vs. Sunder)
Feats Cleave, Furious Focus, Power Attack -2/+4, Weapon Focus (Falchion)
Traits Buccaneer's Blood
Skills Acrobatics -2, Climb +9, Escape Artist -2, Fly -2, Intimidate +7, Perception +4, Profession (sailor)
+7, Ride -2, Stealth -2, Swim +5
Languages Common, Orc
SQ fast movement +10
Other Gear Agile breastplate, Armored coat, Dagger, Masterwork Falchion, Shortbow, Comp. (Str +0),
Weapon cord, 152 PP, 2 GP, 9 SP
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Special Abilities
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Cleave If you hit a foe, attack an adjacent target at the same attack bonus but take -2 AC.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Fast Movement +10 (Ex) +10 feet to speed, unless heavily loaded.
Ferocity (Ex) Fight without penalty even while disabled or dying.
Furious Focus If you are wielding a weapon in two hands, ignore the penalty for your first attack of each
turn.
Light Sensitivity (Ex) Dazzled as long as they remain in bright light.
Overhand Chop (Ex) Single attacks with two-handed weapons receive double STR bonus.
Power Attack -2/+4 You can subtract from your attack roll to add to your damage.
Rage (7 rounds/day) (Ex) +4 Str, +4 Con, +2 to Will saves, -2 to AC when enraged.
Shattering Strike +1 (Ex) +1 Sunder and damage vs. objects.
Weapon cord Attached weapon can be recovered as a swift action.
Fighters are King of Damage on Pathfinder, pretty much. Don't feel you have to dip for any reason more than flavour, because you don't - what you gain in rage you will lose out in other class features of the fighter you will be getting later than normal. Your damage is ALWAYS going to be relevant as a two-handed fighter, end of. You will probably hit every bit as hard as a barbarian of the same level, and have better armour.
Fighters are King of Damage on Pathfinder, pretty much. Don't feel you have to dip for any reason more than flavour, because you don't - what you gain in rage you will lose out in other class features of the fighter you will be getting later than normal. Your damage is ALWAYS going to be relevant as a two-handed fighter, end of. You will probably hit every bit as hard as a barbarian of the same level, and have better armour.
Thats not quite true as a two handed fighter archetype as long as he gets 7 levels of two handed fighter. at level 7 every attack he makes with a 2 handed weapon gets a 2.0 modifier on strength meaning every point of strength stacking will be vicious. Fighter weapon training wont scale as quickly.
True, but up until level 7 he's not going to want to dip because it will make that point harder to reach. After that point, well, maybe it's worth it for a tiny bit extra, but it's not necessary to push it that hard.
Generally, never dip. Later, you will regret doing so.
This is blatantly untrue, so long as its well thought out. I'd go so far as to say characters that multiclass well are by far more powerful than straight classes.
Fighters are King of Damage on Pathfinder, pretty much. Don't feel you have to dip for any reason more than flavour, because you don't - what you gain in rage you will lose out in other class features of the fighter you will be getting later than normal. Your damage is ALWAYS going to be relevant as a two-handed fighter, end of. You will probably hit every bit as hard as a barbarian of the same level, and have better armour.
Thats not quite true as a two handed fighter archetype as long as he gets 7 levels of two handed fighter. at level 7 every attack he makes with a 2 handed weapon gets a 2.0 modifier on strength meaning every point of strength stacking will be vicious. Fighter weapon training wont scale as quickly.
Actually not EVERY attack will get the 2x str modifier. Overhand Chop at level 3 does it and Backswing at level 7 does it. So during a full attack action he can do ONE or the OTHER, not BOTH. Overhand chop is great as an opening when charging in, then we you get more iterative attacks the Backswing hits on the 2nd/3rd/4th attacks with a normal 1st swing. If you doubt me read the words on backswing and then check it out in the forums where it has been discussed in detail with Jason Nelson who wrote the abilities for the class.
My 2H fighter/Barbarian:
I'm playing a 2h fighter/barbarian in one of my games and he hits like a mac truck, I've actually planned out two different builds for him and decided on taking 5 levels of barbarian and 15 levels of 2h fighter. This will give him a bit of rage, two rage powers plenty of damage from the 2h archetype (he also can retrain feats at level 4/8/12 of fighter), a bunch of feats from the fighter side, and access to Greater Power Attack. He's currently level 11 and uses spring attack to close in, hit with his Overhand Chop, then backs out of range and waits for the enemy to follow him and then unleashes hell with a full round action of 3 attacks (1st attack normal/2nd Backswing/3rd Backswing). Usually he puts things down in a round or two at most, he also has improved crit and critical focus wielding a falchion. So at level 20 he gets his "capstone" with that Greater Power Attack, added with rage, magical items and whatnot he will definitely be relevant with the rest of the group.
Actually not EVERY attack will get the 2x str modifier. Overhand Chop at level 3 does it and Backswing at level 7 does it. So during a full attack action he can do ONE or the OTHER, not BOTH. Overhand chop is great as an opening when charging in, then we you get more iterative attacks the Backswing hits on the 2nd/3rd/4th attacks with a normal 1st swing. If you doubt me read the words on backswing and then check it out in the forums where it has been discussed in detail with Jason Nelson who wrote the abilities for the class.
** spoiler omitted **...
You are correct sir lol. Though you can't do one or the other on a full attack, overhand chop specifically says "on a single attack."
Still I've looked into and am building an alchemist/ two handed fighter dual wielder. the extra arms from the alchemist don't give you extra attacks but they do allow you to wield two handed weapons and treat them as if you're wielding two handed weapons which, when coupled with the strength bonus, becomes quite nasty :P
Yeah, when I first looked at the class I wanted to make sure I was doing it right so I researched it and found the forum discussion to clarify it for me.
A bit off topic @Thomas Long:
The only problem I see with your alchemist/2H fighter is that he'll be taking some nasty negatives or have to invest a lot of feats into TWF. Just off the top of my head: have you thought about instead of 2H fighter, going with a TWW archetype and maybe using bastard swords or going with half-elf who has ancestral arms or an elf, so that you can dual wield Elven Curved Blades?
he'll take a -4 for the twf but with the fighter full BAB and running with the raging alchemist with a +6 str for mutagens along with gloves of dueling and weapon training I think I should still have a moderately good to hit. Frankly dipping alchemist 4 levels with lose me 1 BAB and dualwielding greatswords or falchions will give me a -4 to hit so i'm -5 below the normal max but I get a +3 from the strength modifier putting me only 2 beneath a normal fighter, 3 if you count the loss of one level of weapon training.
Edit:
Build:
Ex
12th level: 8 fighter/ 4 alchemist
11 BAB
9 STR (16 + 2 racial +2 levels +6 mutagen + 2 enchantment (items))
2 WF
3 WT (1 Level 5 + 2 Gloves of Dueling)
-4 TWF
-3 Pow
2 Ench (on each sword for a total of 16k gold)
+20/+20/+15/+15/+10
Damage 2d6 + 34 (all attacks after first)
47k Spent (defense included in there so not breaking rules)
Starting Stats
Str 16
Dex 14
Con 14
int 10
wis 10
cha 10
Start as alchemist since you can't dualwield great swords until level 4 when you have 4 arms anyways, then just start grabbing fighter.
Generally, never dip. Later, you will regret doing so.
This is blatantly untrue, so long as its well thought out. I'd go so far as to say characters that multiclass well are by far more powerful than straight classes.
he'll take a -4 for the twf but with the fighter full BAB and running with the raging alchemist with a +6 str for mutagens along with gloves of dueling and weapon training I think I should still have a moderately good to hit. Frankly dipping alchemist 4 levels with lose me 1 BAB and dualwielding greatswords or falchions will give me a -4 to hit so i'm -5 below the normal max but I get a +3 from the strength modifier putting me only 2 beneath a normal fighter, 3 if you count the loss of one level of weapon training.
Edit:
** spoiler omitted **
Not too bad, it looks like you thought it out pretty nicely and I'm sure you'll have a blast playing him.
Generally, never dip. Later, you will regret doing so.
This is blatantly untrue, so long as its well thought out. I'd go so far as to say characters that multiclass well are by far more powerful than straight classes.
In 3.5 not PF. Esp with spellcasting classes.
And of course you lose the capstone.
Nope found it to be true in PF too. Consider a level 2 alchemist/ level 2 MOMS/ Level 8 Druid. Dragon style with the claws and bite from alchemist. go ragechemist because you have huge will anyways. Huge size earth elemental (feat that allows you to take) with rage subdomain and alchemical bonus means before items you get a +18 strength with 2 slams attacks, 2 claw attacks and a bite attack at your highest BAB. then theres a feat that'll let you apply the bonus from dragon to your claws and boots of speed.
My point is, as long as you pick things that enhance each other you can beat out anything that goes one class. There are combinations and modifiers to consider and yes sometimes you lose out a bit on casting, but especially for martial classes like his, a dipped character can be godlike.
Not too bad, it looks like you thought it out pretty nicely and I'm sure you'll have a blast playing him.
Yeah my favorite part is if I ever have a hard time hitting just switch 1 sword into both of my "extra hands" and attack like normal and my bonus goes up by 4.
