One Strong Blow Per Round - Advice?

[leinathan]

Hey all! I'm gearing up for a Wrath of the Righteous campaign in a month or two, and I've been brainstorming builds for awhile.

I've been given permission to play a frost troll, an ECL 4 monster, and I've made a class table for it that both I and the GM believe is balanced. That's not the point, though - I'm not looking for advice on my troll class, I just wanted to mention it because it's important that I'll be playing a Large, high-Str and high-Con character.

What I DO want advice on are my feats. In general, my strategy is going to be twofold - making one ridiculously powerful greataxe hit per round, and when that doesn't work, grappling then and squeezing them to death into my armor spikes.

I'll be going into bloodrager post-4, so because the campaign ends at 20, I'll have sixteen levels of that.

Here are my planned feats:

Improved Unarmed Strike (1)
Improved Grapple (2) [my troll class idea nets me a bonus feat at level 2. This, besides the troll bonuses, is the only thing I get]
Power Attack (3)
Antagonize (5)
Greater Grapple (7)
Vital Strike (9)
(bonus) Disruptive (10)
Felling Smash
Improved Vital Strike (13)
Cornugon Smash (15)
(bonus) Spellbreaker (16)
Scent of Fear (17) Scent of Fear is a monster feat that gives me bonuses against shaken and frightened opponents
Greater Vital Strike (19)

These feats are, on the whole, all of the feats that I want. I'm not a hundred percent on the order. Also, any additional ideas are appreciated.

So! Give me your knowledge, advice forums!

[leinathan]

I've just thought of a re-ordering. I don't think I want the Antagonize feat - I'll be doing enough damage anyhow to attract most attackers.

Improved Unarmed Strike (1)
Improved Grapple (2)
Power Attack (3)
Cornugon Smash (5)
Felling Smash (7)
Vital Strike (9)
Disruptive (bonus, 10)
Greater Grapple (11)
Improved Vital Strike (13)
Scent of Fear (15)
Spellbreaker (bonus, 16)
Greater Vital Strike (17)

Still, advice is welcome, and I'm missing one feat slot.

[AndIMustMask]

if youre looking for a big hit build, check out some of the threads on the matter.
helpful threads:
here
here

also, if you're running cornugon smash, look into dreadful carnage as well--they let you sling debuffs around like cheap party favors, especially with a cruel-enchanted weapon.

[Ascalaphus]

You should seriously consider Combat Reflexes. You have Reach.

Even if you can't find the Dex to use the additional AoOs, you'll still get some AoOs against medium and smaller critters moving at you in the surprise round.

[leinathan]

OH MY GOD HOW DID I NEVER THINK OF THE VIKING FIGHTER ARCHETYPE.

That is SO POWERFUL. Wow.

What do y'all think?

[laarddrym]

I find the Viking Fighter archetype to be very underwhelming. You give up heavy armor proficiency, which is what barbarians don't get either. Since you lose Armor Training and Weapon Training, you basically get bonus feats at even numbered levels instead of rage powers. In addition, your effective barbarian level for rage and rage powers is 3 lower than your fighter level. At level 6 you can take rage powers in place of bonus feats. Why not just go straight barbarian then? Straight barbarian would also mean you qualify for the cooler level 8 rage powers at level 8, instead of having to wait until level 11.

Sure, you get an extra +2 AC bonus when using a shield at level 7, but if you're raging you're also taking a -2 penalty to AC. As a Fighter archetype, it still keeps armor mastery for DR 5/- at level 19 when you wear armor. But as an Invulnerable Rager barbarian, you would have gotten DR 5/- at level 10, all the time, even while sleeping naked in bed. As a Fighter you still get weapon mastery at level 20, but how many campaigns honestly go to level 20? Assuming you do reach level 20, you would probably only get to use that ability for a few game sessions before the campaign ends.

I could see doing a 2 level dip in fighter for the bonus feats, or a 3 level dip to also get armor training and move full speed in medium armor. But the archetype strikes me as really meh. Especially since nothing prevents you from roleplaying a viking while taking a different class.

[AndIMustMask]

conveniently, this thread spurred me to actually STAT the bing hit build that's been lurking in my head since BBT's thread:

BIG HIT BATTLER
CN tiefling (demon-spawn, oversized limbs) two-handed fighter 6 / invulnerable rager/urban barbarian 14
(fgt 1 / barb 2 / fgt +5 / barb +12)

str 34 (10+2), dex 20 (5), con 24 (5), int 16, wis 16 (2-2), cha 16 (-2+2)
str/str/str/str/con (level), +6 all (gear), +6 str (EH), +3 con (book/wish)

traits: optimistic gambler / ???

rage powers:
3 - reckless abandon
10 - raging leaper
12 - bestial leaper (think spring attack for vital strike)
14 - powerful blow
16* - flesh wound / lesser X totem
18 - guarded life / X totem
20 - greater guarded life / greater X totem

feats:
1 - EWP (bastard sword), power attack*
3 - furious focus
4 - combat reflexes*
5 - skill focus (survival)
6 - vital strike*
7 - lunge
8 - furious finish*
9th - eldritch heritage (orc bloodline - touch of rage)
11th - improved eldritch heritage (orc bloodline - strength of the beast)
13th - improved vital strike
15th - devastating strike
17th - greater vital strike
19th - greater eldritch heritage (orc bloodline - power of giants)

weapon: +5 courageous furious impact large-sized bastard sword

take weapon training+gloves, PA+reckless abandon, overhead chop, powerful blow, touch of rage buff (extended by gambler), VS+devastating strike, then apply furious focus and laugh. you can do this spring attack-style via lunge+bestial leaper for hit and run tactics (to prevent enemies from capitalizing on your lowered AC)

combat reflexes is useful to smack people on their turns, especially once you get reach from enlarge person.