Gonna sleep in armor? Endurance. Oh so you took endurance? Might as well grab diehard. Wow act until -16 what about toughness to stretch that out. Hmm what about raging vitality to stretch it even more when in rage?
Remember that in PFS, you're an adventurer who has chosen to travel the world to rediscover ancient lore, uncover magical artifacts, etc. Why is a 7 Int barbarian interested in archaeology? PFS also frequently requires Knowledge (among other) skills. If you took your Str down to just 17, you could bring your Int up to 10 for 2 more skill points per level. Take it down to 16, and you could have 12 Int and 14 Wisdom, and have a very respectable set of out-of-combat skills you can help out with. And really, a barbarian isn't going to have any trouble dealing massive damage when he needs to, so I don't think you'll miss that Strength.
I like the dorn durgar, reach weapon, with the ability to swap it in close if needed.
For a dwarf, it is a martial weapon. for others, it is exotic. :)
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I'm gonna back up rainy day ninja with this. Skills are very important in PFS, especially in season 4+ the skills matter alot, some scenarios are virtually impossible if you at least can't take 10. loosing 2 skill points a level and not knowing what a goblin is by sight will really mess with you. You are a barbarian, one of the most powerful classes in the game. you don't need to minmax so much. Take a 17 str and bump it up at level 4. It won't hurt you.
Also with all the dwarven feats, don't take superstitious. I can't stress this enough and have seen it to many times. Having to save against every spell while raging (even harmless ones) is terrible, did the cleric just try to save your life with CSW? To Bad! did the bard just cast haste? Tough luck! Did the did the oracle try to bless you? No Way! Just don't its not worth it.
As a side note I also have a reach specialist Dwarven Barbarian. He also has a few Two Hand fighter levels. I got him a dwarven boulder helmet for close range. so much fun when they get inside my dwarven long hammer and think they are safe then BAM! headbutt!
I really do hope you enjoy the character.
+1 for what RainyDayNinja and Seriphim84 said
I honestly don't understand the point of a 17. It's essentially very little better than taking a 14 given two handed rules. 18 on the other hand is significantly better. Taking 17 str is sort of pointless.I'm gonna back up rainy day ninja with this. Skills are very important in PFS, especially in season 4+ the skills matter alot, some scenarios are virtually impossible if you at least can't take 10. loosing 2 skill points a level and not knowing what a goblin is by sight will really mess with you. You are a barbarian, one of the most powerful classes in the game. you don't need to minmax so much. Take a 17 str and bump it up at level 4. It won't hurt you.
Also with all the dwarven feats, don't take superstitious. I can't stress this enough and have seen it to many times. Having to save against every spell while raging (even harmless ones) is terrible, did the cleric just try to save your life with CSW? To Bad! did the bard just cast haste? Tough luck! Did the did the oracle try to bless you? No Way! Just don't its not worth it.
As a side note I also have a reach specialist Dwarven Barbarian. He also has a few Two Hand fighter levels. I got him a dwarven boulder helmet for close range. so much fun when they get inside my dwarven long hammer and think they are safe then BAM! headbutt!
I really do hope you enjoy the character.
At level 4, you can put +1 in any stat, so you can have 18 Str then. At those low levels, you'll still be pretty much one-shotting everybody with 16 or 17 Str anyway, so you're not going to miss that extra 2 damage.
And you can put those 2 extra skill points per level into Knowledge (nature) and Survival, and perhaps recognize what kind of weapon you need to damage that monster, or find your way in the wilderness better so your rogue doesn't take a bunch of Dex damage from stumbling through a poison briar patch.
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I honestly don't understand the point of a 17. It's essentially very little better than taking a 14 given two handed rules. 18 on the other hand is significantly better. Taking 17 str is sort of pointless.
You take a 17 so it becomes an 18 at level 4, and still have enough points for a non-dumped INT for skills.
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Comparative Damage, two handed weapon, str only:
12+1, 13+1, 14+3, 15+3, 16+4, 17+4, 18+6
So two handed the difference in damage between 17 and 18 is 2. which isn't nothing but lets look at something else.
Barbarian raging str and power attack, level 1-3 with greatsword
Str 17: Str7+PA3= 2d6+10 High: 22, low, 12
Str 18: Str9+PA3= 2d6+12 High: 24, low, 14
in both cases level 1-4 with result in your damage being within the margin of the dice. The dice matter alot during these levels.
Now Look as CR 1-4 creatures by HP: CR1: 15hp, CR2: 20hp, CR 3: 30hp, CR4: 40HP.
In all of these instances, the average amount of hitpoints the creature has will mean that you will need the same amount of strikes with either an 18 or 17 strength.
If you take a 18 strength at level 4 then it will become a non-issue by time your damage starts our performing your weapon dice.
Paying 4 extra creation points at level 1 when that point at level for costs the same no matter where you put it don't make a lot of sense to me.
I have Finished my rant :-) build how you choose and hope you have fun. Just trying to show you my logic.
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I've got a PFS dwarf barbarian that started with these stats:
Str 16, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 8
He's now at level 8 and an absolute monster. Stats while raging:
Melee +1 furious greatsword +21/+16 (2d6+13/19-20); Power Attack +18/+13 (2d6+22/19-20)
Ranged +1 adaptive composite longbow +11/+6 (1d8+7/x3)
There is really no need to push for an 18 in a stat when you see so little return for it. You're spending 7 extra points (the equivalent of 3 skill points/level with the way you've dumped Int) for +1 to hit and to damage.
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Consider a couple levels of 1 of the fighter archtypes like Two-Hander.
I would also drop superstitious since with the dwarf feats you're going to be pretty resistant to magic anyway.
I would take combat reflexes before power attack. Most things you are going to one-shot or a couple of points won't make that much difference. But potentially 2 more attacks in a round is huge. Especially if you can get the rest of the party to help draw all the opponents through your threatened area.
When you start buying magic items, a belt of dex might be more valuable to you than a belt of strength.
I like Seraphim's idea of the boulder helmet to threaten close. That had not occurred to me before.
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Skills are more important for everyone (even if not class skills) in PFS because you don't know who will be sitting at the table with you. Plus Barbarian's do have some decent class skills. Knowledge nature, intimidate, perception, and survival are all good. Traits could give you some more. Some are decent even without it being a class skill. being able to speak celestial and/or abyssal has been useful almost every session in Season 5.
A couple months ago we almost had a mission fail (I think the GM just took pity on us) because my sorc with the 4 skill points / level had the highest non-combat skills at the table. We couldn't read anything, we couldn't speak to anyone, we couldn't identify anything, we didn't know what any of the monsters capabilities or defenses were, couldn't ...
A whole bunch of low DC trained only checks that no one had even a single rank in the skill.
There was not an intelligence or wisdom caster at the table. There was no bard or rogue type skill monkey. Everyone else had dumped int and/or put it all in combat skills like perception and acrobatics.
It is a fairly extreme example, but that kind of thing does happen in PFS. Plus the combat opponents are usually not so tough that you need to dump 2 stats anyway.
You will be single-shot kill on most creatures anyway. A difference of 1 or 2 points is not a 30% of your damage. The loss of 1 on your to hit is actually a bigger deal and will still not really be a problem.
... 1) It depends. Skills can in most cases be supplemented. That said I'm not saying they are useless but they effectively are ways to save gold. We had no one with profession lawyer for one adventure which virtually required it. What did we do? We hired a team of experts with Profession lawyer. Our legal team in taldor basically solved all the skill checks for gold (And gave us possibly the funniest story any of our characters have ever had) ...
I have never seen a situation where I considered that I would be allowed to hire NPC experts to go on an adventure into danger with us. I will think on whether it could be a possibility in any of the ones I have done.
... 4) Wand of comp languages solves most of the issues with that and a tongues spell if you really need it would be fine. ...
I had 2 scrolls of comp lang, that seemed sufficient. Wasn't nearly enough.
... It sounds to me like an issue with not being prepared not character builds, or rather a mind set. You can put 1 skill point in trained only skills so you can still use them without maxing them. If you lose outright to any normal pathfinder society encounter that isn't something like waking rune, a special, or past 7th level the party consists of generally conceptual characters (Which can be fun to play but tend to contribute little). By the same token I could argue that if everyone was a skill monkey in the party (say 6 bards) they'd get mopped in combat. Pretty much the only class's which can get away with doing it all is the druid and the summoner. ...
Never said you have to max the skills. Generally speaking whenever I see a character that is only built for combat he has also done no prep for anything else. There have been exceptions, but not many.
I'm not saying you must be a skill monkey. But there is a long ways between skill monkey and a couple more skill points a level.
I never proposed an ineffectual concept character. I suggested a very minor reduction in combat to gain a 100% improvement in skill points.
Most PFS scenarios actually can be beaten (sometimes fairly easily) by a squad of skill monkeys (especially bards).
I've never seen a druid or summoner built as a skill monkey. Seems difficult, but might be doable. I might actually consider that.
... I'm not going to lie I actively seek out meat grinder mods. I loved bonekeep and waking rune. I love playing with killer GM's. Social combat basically can't kill you. It can fail the adventure but it's not going to kill every character. ...
Fair enough.
I rarely have that much freedom of choice or knowledge of what the scenario will be like. There is usually 1 that both has an opening and that I haven't already run.... 4 attacks at level 11 (assumes haste, will have boots of haste so essentially assured)
5.5% per +1 (1 and 20 don't count because you can't change them) 22%. +2 additional damage and the confirmation of critical hits gained and lost. 20-30% is right on the mark. ...
You have a few math issues here. But I won't go into them as you have made your decision regardless.
I understand your decision, we were just trying to propose options that many people seem to find more rewarding when they give it a try. Most of the people I see playing a combat only build get quite frustrated and/or bored anytime combat is not happening.
Happened again last weekend. Very combat only focused fighter. No out of combat skills, items, abilities. He was bored and mildly disruptive since he had nothing to do when not fighting. The final fight was the only really tough one. A couple of points off his damage would have made zero difference in his time to kill a particular creature. One-shots would have still been one-shots. The full round kills still would have been. And the BBEG (hit point and DR tank) was several round to take down no matter what.
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As far as rage powers:
I've seen someone use the combination of elemental rage and elemental resistance to good effect.
I like the spirit totem line, but have not had a chance to try it yet. But it has been effective for NPC's I have run. (Not always the same thing I know.)
Knockdown seems like a good one with your reach weapon.
Feats like improved bullrush or improved overrun are often useful to open or get past a guarded doorway.
Improved sunder is especially useful in PFS, though it bugs a few GM's since they have to look up the hardness rules for everything.
I usually suggest iron will, but I don't think you need it with your dwarf feats.
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Or it can be a 20 at 8. :DYou take a 17 so it becomes an 18 at level 4, and still have enough points for a non-dumped INT for skills.
It would be 20 anyway with a belt. Granted, that becomes a 22 if you had a 20 naturally, but consider, the only difference between a 20 and a 22 is +1 to hit and +2 damage for a two-hander. At level 8 you are 2/3rds done with your PFS career. +1 to hit and +2 to damage for less than half your career just isn't worth as much as having more rounded attributes and more skills imo.
With a reach area denial PC, I would say dex > str > con for the belt. But an argument (especially in PFS) could be made for str > dex > con or even str > con > dex.
PFS has a strong tendency toward single or at least very small numbers of opponents. So it may be uncommon to get all the possible AoO that are theoretically possible with a reach weapon.
I still wouldn't take superstition on a dwarf with steel soul. Stopping friendly buffs and heals is (to me) too high a price to pay.
Oh, and I forgot to suggest lunge and/or combat patrol.
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So while it is not fully relevant, I played a dwarf melee-based alchemist up through level 13 (so far) in PFS. I also have a non-dwarf Invulnerable Rager Barbarian in a home campaign. The alchemist started with using the Dorn-dergar, and even still carried it around (threaten reach, but then close to melee for natural attacks).
You could go even go with a stat block of 17 Str, 14 Dex, 16 Con, 13 Int, 10 Wis, 5 Cha. This would give you 5 skill points/level. Perception, Acrobatics, K(Nature), Intimidate, Swim/Climb/etc. Some notes for some of these skills: Being a dwarf, you are not slowed down by load or armor. This allows you to still "tumble" using Acrobatics through threatened squares. Also, mithril breastplate is considered light armor (for all but proficiency), so you can still use Acrobatics with this. There is a trait called Clever Wordplay (from PFS Primer) that allows you to choose one Cha-based skill and use your Int instead of your Cha. Intimidate suddenly goes from a -3 to a +1 (4 point shift). With Cornugan Smash, this gives you a free Intimidate check to demoralize when you hit with a Power Attack. There is also a Pragmatic Activator trait that allows you to use Int for UMD instead of Cha (my alchemist had UMD as a class skill). I actually took Extra Traits on that character to effectively give him a +7 boost in Intimidate and UMD (he has an 18 Int due to Headband of Int +4(Intimidate/UMD)).
Having 13 Int also allows for Combat Expertise. This not only allows you to help with your AC if need be, but also unlock all of the Improved "Combat Manuever" feats. Improved/Greater Trip is always a nice reach weapon combination. As someone moves toward you, use your AoO to trip them at the 10' mark, and then Greater Trip gives you another free swing to hit them while they are on the ground (and at a -4 AC). If they are on their 2nd action, they are stuck. If they stand, you get another AoO (Combat Reflexes) and smash them again as they stand. Now they are hit twice and still 10' away. If they are still alive you can full attack and then 5' away to make them have to move 10' to get near you again. Granted, they probably wouldn't even be alive at this point, but still.
Or, if combat maneuvers isn't your thing, Combat Expertise is a pre-req for a bunch of other neat feats. If you want to be even tankier, Combat Expertise can be combined with Stalwart to build up your DR. If you are with melees pretty often, Gang Up gives you flanking as long as two other people are threatening the target.
Unless I'm missing something, I don't see how you plan on Rage Cycling (you mention it in your post). I know two of the common ways are Roused Anger or a dip in a lame Oracle. If you go the Roused Anger route, a 2 level dip in the prestige class Horizon Walker gives you immunity to exhaustion and makes you fatigued instead of exhausted. Combined with Roused Anger, this gives you unlimited Rage Cycling. You could also just take a 3 level dip to be immune to fatigue completely. This is useful for the 1/rage powers as well as being able to drop out of rage during a round in order for your party to hit you with heal spells without you having to save against them due to Superstition.
Another neat trick is the Ablative Barrier spell. A scroll of it would cost 375g and it turns 5 damage into nonlethal damage (up to 25 damage with a scroll). Your DR works double duty against nonlethal, so it is a way to increase your effective DR (until you hit level 10 barb that is).