Android Barbarian?

[logan grayble]

One of my friends got me to pick up the "Races of the Stars" book because he REALLY wants to do an interstellar campaign. I was looking through the new feats and found one for Android that makes me very curious.

Empathy. You need 13 Charisma, which is steep considering your Racial deficiency in that attribute, but you lose your Construct weaknesses of not being able to benefit from things like Moral bonuses.

So I was wondering, since Androids are immune to those pesky effects like Fatigue, does an Android Barbarian, or I suppose Bloodrager as well, sound viable?

[Imbicatus]

It works well, but there are easier ways to rage cycle.

[lemeres]

It is not exactly impossible. I mean, using a 20 pt buy, I could make stats like this:

STR: 16 DEX: 14 CON: 14 INT: 9 WIS: 10 CHA: 13

Mostly, I skimped on my usual dex and dumped int as much as possible. You could probably get the stats to levels that you would prefer, but this seems fine enough.

I would not make empathy my first level feat though. Rage rounds are just too scarce at level 1 to justify it. Just grab power attack for something that can be used more consistently. Then grab empathy at level 3.

[Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal]

Imbicatus wrote:

It works well, but there are easier ways to rage cycle.

How many of those ways are available at level 1?

[blackbloodtroll]

You could also go Dex based Barbarian.

Savage Technologist, or Urban Barbarian could work as well.

[Avoron]

Seeing as there are at least 3 ways to rage cycle that involve only minimal character investment and some cheap gear, I wouldn't bother.

Rage cycling at level 1 serves no purpose, unless you have some special early access to rage powers or Furious Finish.

[Deadmanwalking]

If you want to, go for it. It works best as a Dex-based Barbarian (for stat synergy) or a Bloodrager (since you need decent Charisma to make it work anyway).

It's not preisely optimal, but rage cycling makes it a very valid build.

And lemeres, you need Empathy at level 1 to make it work since otherwise you can't get Rage's bonuses. At all.

[Imbicatus]

Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:

Imbicatus wrote:

It works well, but there are easier ways to rage cycle.

How many of those ways are available at level 1?

None, but as lemeres said, it's not really that great at level one. Rage cycling doesn't take off until you have some decent once/rage powers, which you don't have at 1st level.