
Stone the Crows |

Has anyone ever used this item? Were you a barbarian, and did you have the fiend totem rage power to inflict the full 3d8+12 damage to every attack against you (melee non-reach that is)?
It costs 44k and grants 6AC (+2 Hide armour).
I want to buy it but my DM is understandably concerned about it's impact to his game. We're level 12/13 and playing Shattered Star if it makes any difference.
Edit:
Im making a level 13 Barby that is human and has superstition and a courageous weapon so my bonus to saves is +11. Base saves f +17, r +9, w +7 and raging saves f +32, r +20, w +18.
I have 200 hit points and DR 7 (+65 hp's when raging).
BUT when using Dazing Assault and Come and Get Me my AC is effectively 8! So is Hamatula Hide the right armour for me? I could save 8k and get +1 heavy fortification breastplate for 36k. Having such a low AC is like giving every monster the Bless Weapon spell, meaning they all auto-crit against me. Having a 75% chance to ignore those auto-crits might be a better option.
What do you think? Help!

Stone the Crows |

I'm thinking I should maybe at least try to get a half decent AC but can't really see how that will happen.
If I got +5 breastplate that would make my AC 21. If I go beast totem instead I can get +5 natural, making 26. A deflection bonus for +3 would make it 29.But dazing and CaGM would make it effectively 20 so it'll still be crap.
Thats why negating crits with fortification seems better. Or Hamatula for yet more damage to the monsters.
Its a toss up between poor AC and pounce, or utter crap AC and 25 damage returned per hit. Is one pounce per combat worth more than 25 damage every hit against me?

Cap. Darling |

I think beast totem is superior in pure mechanics.
But it looks like a fun character with the hamatula hide and fiend totem and i think you should give it a go.
Edit: and sorry no i havent used the armor but i have some experiance with using other aggressive defenses like Fire shield and come and get me. It is great against everything that attacks lots of times and. If you are not afraid to be littel cheasy you can consider getting a monk level and squise in snake style or even crane style. The crane style tree will force you to use a weapon in one hand. But will save you from one attack every round. If you have pasience and can wait with come and get me you can even get thet figther( unstobbable at) level and tage the stalwart feats. Connie with crane and you will have 8 more in DR.
And sorry for the mess i am on the phone.

HaraldKlak |
1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |

One thing: unless I am reading the description wrong the armor only increases the damage TO 2d8+6 not BY (which is how I assume you arrived at the 3d8+12 damage).
You are reading it wrong ;-)
The armor deals 1d8+6.
The armor changes the damage dealt from the Fiendish Totem power to 2d8+6.
These two specifically stack to a total of 3d8+12.

Skaldi the Tallest |

Lucklessone wrote:One thing: unless I am reading the description wrong the armor only increases the damage TO 2d8+6 not BY (which is how I assume you arrived at the 3d8+12 damage).
You are reading it wrong ;-)
The armor deals 1d8+6.
The armor changes the damage dealt from the Fiendish Totem power to 2d8+6.
These two specifically stack to a total of 3d8+12.
This is slightly incorrect. The two happen concurrently, dealing 1d8+6 and 2d8+6. There's a pretty big difference at level 13 when many enemies will have DR of some variety and this likely doesn't bypass any of it.

alreadytaken |
Fiend Totem with Hamatula gains even more ground over Beast Totem if you're using rules where you can upgrade charged items with more charges. Then you just need a Quickrunner Shirt and upscale it to 5 charges. I rarely need more than 5 "pounces" per day but if you need more just buy another shirt and swap between combats. Even if your GM doesn't allow charged item upscaling then just buy 10 shirts and swap them between combats. You'll get a pounce per combat PLUS the Fiend Totem (or whatever other totem you want). Beast Totem is essentially 3 rage power slots for pounce. The natural armor is useless to many barbarian builds (e.g. CAGM) and the claw attacks are generally worse than a 2H weapon unless you're cheesing natural attacks somehow.