Intimidate Barbarian


Advice

Dark Archive

So my new character is a "Paladin" - dressed up in shiny white armor, has a holy symbol of Iomedae, gets preachy, knocks people out rather than killing them, that kind of thing. What he doesn't tell people is that the holy symbol is actually a flask full of high proof grain alcohol, he got kicked out of Paladin school for drinking and then being an angry brawling drunk, and that mechanically he's actually an Unchained Barbarian :)

So I've been trying to decide how to set him up, and I'm kind of leaning in the thuggish enforcer direction, with Enforcer, Dazzling Display, and Terrifying Howl. Never done a build like that, so looking for tips.

Current planned build:

Human
Traits: Dominator, Weapon of Peace
1: Weapon Focus: Nodachi, Power Attack
2: Intimidating Glare
3: Enforcer
4: Accurate Stance
5: Dazzling Display: Nodachi
6: Deadly Accuracy
7: Shatter Defenses: Nodachi
8: Terrifying Howl
9: Improved Critical: Nodachi
[The rest would be used for Improved DR +2 rage powers)

The general idea would be to use Enforcer to Shaken as many people as possible without sacrificing useful actions (using either Weapon of Peace to only take -2 to the nonlethal strike, or later a Merciful weapon when I can afford it), then smash them with Shatter Defenses. Once a few enemies have been Shaken (or if there is a larger group, after leading off with Dazzling Display to get the whole group), use Terrifying Howl to cause some havoc. And against enemies immune to mind effecting? He's still a 2H power attacking raging Barbarian with Accurate Stance and a 15-20 critical range :)

Grand Lodge

Consider the Scarred Rager archetype.

It works fine with the Unchained Barbarian.


Intimidating Prowess Intimidating Prowess Intimidating Prowess.

Although I do recommend a Bloodrager, if you're not married to the class. You get Charisma as an important stat, spells that help reinforce the "I'm a Paladin" lie, just as many rage powers, and some bonus feats to boot (Fey Bloodline gives Intimidating Prowess).

Grand Lodge

Indeed.

As a Bloodrager, you can be LG, instead of just NG, as a Barbarian.


And you can be a Primalist Bloodrager to get the key rage powers you'd want. Though, unless your DM wants to rule it, you wouldn't get the benefits/drawbacks (depending on where you stand) of the Unchained rage update.


Also worth considering: Bullying Blow (if you're a Half-Orc), Intimidating Confidence (if you're a Half-Orc or Human), Cornugon Smash, Gory Finish, and Dreadful Display as a level 15 capstone.

With Gory Finish + Dreadful Display, you can make one attack and two intimidate checks against every enemy. With Cornugon Smash + Enforcer, every single attack against an enemy Intimidates them twice, making it all that much easier to shatter defenses.

With Intimidating Confidence, you can make an intimidate check against all enemies every time you crit—which should be often, with the Nodachi.

If you replace Improved Critical with a Keen weapon, you can free up a feat. It might also be worth dipping 1-2 levels into Fighter for the extra feats.

Dark Archive

Note that I'm not actually trying to pretend to be a Paladin like a Razmiran Priest knockoff - just carry himself like one (and then bust heads). One of those open secret kind of things - all the Silver Crusade people would know, just don't mention it in front of his face if you like your nose's current shape :) That said, I've never actually looked closely at Bloodrager, so I'll have to poke at it and see how well it will work with the character backstory concept.

thunderbeard wrote:
Intimidating Prowess Intimidating Prowess Intimidating Prowess.

One of the benefits of Unchained Intimidating Glare is that it permits you to use Str instead of Cha for Intimidate checks to demoralize. This build is more starved for feats than for rage powers, so being able to shuffle that off to a rage power helps.

So looking at some of these options (in the context of a PFS character that's going to be played out after 11, so I can't wait until level 9-10 to come online)...

=== Single Target Free Intimidates ===

Quote:
Enforcer

Requires nonlethal damage, but minimal requirements so it comes online early, and it's a free Intimidate with every attack if you always do nonlethal. No prereqs.

Quote:
Cornugon Smash

Like Enforcer, a free Intimidate with every attack but does not require nonlethal. Requires Intimidate 6, so not available until Level 7.

Quote:
Intimidating Confidence

Free Intimidate on crit, and you can apply it to anyone you threaten, not just the one you crit. Annoying prereqs of a feat you don't use for any of the other abilities on this list, plus Intimidate 5 means you can't take it until Level 6.

=== Dazzling Display and Friends - AOE Intimidation ===

Quote:
Dazzling Display

Intimidate EVERYBODY! Standard action is a big downside, so mostly useful as a prereq for other feats. Only requires Weapon Focus, so it can be taken early.

Quote:
Gory Finish

Dazzling Display on dropping an opponent. Swift Action, so only 1/round and not on AOO. Only requires Dazzling Display and Weapon Focus, so it can be taken early.

Quote:
Violent Display

Like Gory Finish, but on crits. Immediate Action, so 1/round and cannot be triggered at the same time as Gory Finish if you both crit and take someone out, but works on AOO. Requires BAB +6, not available until Level 6.

Quote:
Shatter Defenses

Takes the Dazzling Display series up to the next level - all those shaken+ people now become flat footed after you smack them, making it easier to keep smacking them. Requires BAB +6, not available until Level 6.

Quote:
Disheartening Display

This is a potentially nuclear ability in the right situation. If you hit someone who's already Shaken, Frightened, or Panicked with Dazzling Display (and hence with any of the above abilities that trigger free Dazzling Displays), it takes them one step farther, bypassing the normal limitation on not being able to use Intimidate to take someone past Shaken. Unfortunately 1/day/opponent... but hopefully they'll be dead before that matters :) Requires BAB +6, not available until Level 6.

=== Other Related Intimidate Abilities ===

Quote:
Dreadful Carnage

Unlike most of the other triggerable AOE Intimidate skills, this one is a free action, so you can spam it or combine it with the others! Dreadful Carnage -> Gory Finish w/ Disheartening Display to AOE a whole group of enemies straight from unaffected into Frightened when you drop one of their friends is a nasty combo. That said, it has a long list of prereqs (the main one not already covered elsewhere being Furious Focus) and is not available until Level 11 due to BAB +11, but would make a neat PFS capstone.

So to really fit a good chunk of these in would require at a minimum dipping a level or two of Fighter. Might have to delay Enforcer and focus on Gory Finish as the bread and butter low level Intimidate skill.

So maybe something like (still assuming Unchained Barbarian, haven't looked at it for Bloodrager yet):
1B: Weapon Focus: Nodachi, Power Attack
2B: Unchained Intimidating Glare
3F: Dazzling Display: Nodachi, Gory Finish: Nodachi
4B: -
5B: Enforcer, (Misc Rage Power)
6F: Shatter Defenses: Nodachi
7B: Disheartening Display: Nodachi
8B: (Misc Rage Power)
9B: Furious Focus
10B: Terrifying Howl
11B: Dreadful Carnage

Grand Lodge

Have you considered my suggestion of Scarred Rager Unchained Barbarian?

Dark Archive

Yeah, and I believe it would be mechanically advantageous. Just trying to decide on if I can make it fit with the character back story.

Grand Lodge

You know, reflavoring, is a thing.;)


Is there some redundancy or overlap going on with the feats and powers here? I've been building an Unchained scare-barian myself, but now I've run into an issue. I'm using the Invulnerable Rager archetype, so I don't need survival feats or powers. Intimidating Prowess and Power Attack were the obvious choices, and the scaling AC bonus from Beast Totem is ideal for a tank character.
Anyway, now I'm not entirely sure why someone would want to have both Intimidating Glare and Dazzling Display.

The STR bonus to demoralize from Intimidating Glare can't stack with the STR bonus from Intimidating Prowess, so the rage power just removes my Charisma bonus from my demoralize check (this is good if your Charisma is below 10). Also, the duration-of-the-rage benefit doesn't apply to Dazzling Display anyway. If you dazzle display first, then your enemies will already be Shaken by the time you hit them, making Intimidating Glare kind of pointless. So you take Weapon Focus, Dazzling Display, and work towards Greater Beast Totem. A seemingly viable strategy would be to area-demoralize, then charge/pounce the toughest enemy who isn't shaken.

On the other hand, the ability to keep enemies Shaken for the duration of the rage only applies to those who were demoralized when they were adjacent to you. Dazzling Display triggers AOO and is better against crowds. If this is the case, it would make much more sense to go with Intimidating Glare and Cleave - this means that you can hit 2 enemies and demoralize them both for the duration of the rage. Also, skipping Dazzling Display basically opens up 2 feats, so you could fit Cornugon Smash or something as another feat.

Am I missing something here? What sort of strategy would require taking both?


Add dip of thug 1, now they all run


Akari Sayuri "Tiger Lily" wrote:
So to really fit a good chunk of these in would require at a minimum dipping a level or two of Fighter. Might have to delay Enforcer and focus on Gory Finish as the bread and butter low level Intimidate skill.

Question about how this works. Let's say you're a level 4 Barbarian, and instead of going to 5, you take a level in fighter. So barbarian 4 / fighter 1. Now that you've leveled up, do you get 2 feats instead of 1?

Also, when you take further levels in barbarian, do you still get bonus feats? If you're a barbarian X / fighter 1, is that a bonus feat per level?

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