Barbarian

[Belondia]

I've only played a few games with a level 8 ninja swashbuckler, which is very fun, but Ive make a new character and when I think about it I'm kind of trying to make the hulk(not Bruce) without realising it until just before I decided to write this.

So far human barbarian, and I'm looking for some insight on taking certain feats and powers to scale me up a size category, use enemies as weapons, taking throw anything, advanced grappling and other abilities to ensure I can run into a room, pick up the first guy, kill the second guy with him, thus breaking my weapon(the first enemy) then repeat or just charge at the last and hold them down for interrogation.

17(+2 human) str 16 con 14 dex 8 int 10 wis 10 charisma

I took power attack and furious focus as my first two feats, have about 600g to play with as well.

Does anybody have an idea if I'm on the right track for the time being or if I should go about things in a different way?

[Secret Wizard]

1. Using Unchained or not? If you are going with Unchained, then these Rage Powers DO NOT APPLY. If you are not going with Unchained: 1) Reckless Abandon works well; 2) Strength Surge lets you make surprising strength feats; 3) Smasher sounds Hulklike; 4) if you go with a Sunder build, might as well go with Spell Sunder too?

2. Those are very good stats to work with. You are in the right track.

3. You should look into Bludgeoner and use an Earthbreaker. This will allow you deal nonlethal to knock down last folk standing with no problem. Then you are free to decide if you want to go with the Cudgeler Style line of feats, but I don't think they are necessary.

4. As said before, Sunder feats sound fitting.

[Ciaran Barnes]

If you used point buy to generate your ability scores, I would drop you Constitution down to 15 and use those extra points elsewhere. If you really want to drop an ability score below 10, I would go with Charisma instead of Dexterity.

I like the Strength Surge rage power, but I would wait till maybe 6th level, when it will start making a more significant impact. Look up what happens to barbarian's hit points when they end a rage, and accept that somewhere aroundd 6th level when you end a rage you may loose enough hut points that your character wil be completely dead. Next, look up the feat Raging Vitality.

Finally, I encourage you guys to pick up a copy of Unchained and use that barbarian instead.

[Belondia]

I am going unchained but I've had some advice to go bloodrager instead. I do prefer the barbarian though.

Sorry the stats are a bit messed up.

str 17 con 14 dex 14 int 8 wis 10 charisma 10.

I have a lot of reading to put in but I will make this beast.

[Melkiador]

Bloodrager was probably recommended because it gives physical transformations. A level 4 Abyssal bloodrager can go large size with every use of bloodrage.

Bloodrager also has the Untouchable Rager archetype if you don't want to have spells.

[Belondia]

Well it doesn't go a larger size is elogatea the arms to give me 5' extra reach. But that just means I'm smaller with some benefit I guess. I'll check over the archetypes now just looking in bloodline

[Secret Wizard]

Ehhh.... If you are going Unchained, you can do really fun things with the Barb.

Sure Bloodrager has more tricks but I love me my CMB Barbs.

- Strength Stance. (Big CMB and HUGE Strength check bonus.)
- Knockback. (Puny humans. Becomes really good when you can discard your worst attack for a full CMB + Strength Stance bull rush.)
- Quickened Reflexes for more attacks of opportunity.

This is combined, of course, with Bull Rush feats! No one can be the Hulk without being able to topple down opponents effortlessly.

- Spiked Destroyer is very fun with Knockback, give up one attack to gain a Spiked Armor attack!
- Greater Bull Rush can give your party AoOs.
- Rhino Charge is kewl. Gives you more options in battle.

[Melkiador]

There are lots of classes and archetypes that can work. I was just pointing out why Bloodrager was suggested for being "Hulk-like".

[Arachnofiend]

Secret Wizard wrote:

Ehhh.... If you are going Unchained, you can do really fun things with the Barb.

Sure Bloodrager has more tricks but I love me my CMB Barbs.

- Strength Stance. (Big CMB and HUGE Strength check bonus.)
- Knockback. (Puny humans. Becomes really good when you can discard your worst attack for a full CMB + Strength Stance bull rush.)
- Quickened Reflexes for more attacks of opportunity.

This is combined, of course, with Bull Rush feats! No one can be the Hulk without being able to topple down opponents effortlessly.

- Spiked Destroyer is very fun with Knockback, give up one attack to gain a Spiked Armor attack!
- Greater Bull Rush can give your party AoOs.
- Rhino Charge is kewl. Gives you more options in battle.

Or you could not go Unchained and have Spell Sunder, which by itself is better than literally everything the Unchained Barbarian has to offer.

[Conman the Bardbarian]

Arachnofiend wrote:

Secret Wizard wrote:

Ehhh.... If you are going Unchained, you can do really fun things with the Barb.

Sure Bloodrager has more tricks but I love me my CMB Barbs.

- Strength Stance. (Big CMB and HUGE Strength check bonus.)
- Knockback. (Puny humans. Becomes really good when you can discard your worst attack for a full CMB + Strength Stance bull rush.)
- Quickened Reflexes for more attacks of opportunity.

This is combined, of course, with Bull Rush feats! No one can be the Hulk without being able to topple down opponents effortlessly.

- Spiked Destroyer is very fun with Knockback, give up one attack to gain a Spiked Armor attack!
- Greater Bull Rush can give your party AoOs.
- Rhino Charge is kewl. Gives you more options in battle.

Or you could not go Unchained and have Spell Sunder, which by itself is better than literally everything the Unchained Barbarian has to offer.

And as human you can pump up your superstition with the favored class bonus.

I don't know about the unchained barbarian, but if you want body bludgeon at 10th level you will probably want to be able to grapple without drawing aoo's.

[Bob Bob Bob]

So literally the only way I know of to use enemies against other enemies is Body Bludgeon. It's pretty tricky to get to work though since it all centers around grapple (and only starts with a pinned opponent).

Your listed desire (run into a room, pick up a guy, kill a second guy with him) is at least a two-round affair. Minimum level 10 (for body bludgeon). And (and this is the big one) it kind of sucks as an actual tactic. It only works on things smaller than you (so you need some way to Enlarge regularly and even then it's only good for Medium and below), it's only a single attack, and you're spending a bunch of time and effort for, essentially, "hit these two people with a nonmagical longsword". There's other benefits to the grapple, sure, but the effective damage is... well, nothing special. And at the same level barbarians can pick up pounce, also known as "full attack way more often".

These issues can be somewhat mitigated. People suggested Bloodrager because spells help a lot (and you can cast your own Enlarge Person). Also Abyssal Bloodline gives you a free Enlarge Person whenever you rage. Primalist Bloodrager lets you trade out bloodline abilities for Rage Powers (so you can grab the only barbarian ones you care about, Body Bludgeon and Strength Surge). Better for the size issue is probably some way to cast Giant Form II, so far the only thing I can find is Giant Hide armor for 1/day. Goliath Druid gets it, but too late a level for it to help (even with Shaping Focus). Order of the Penitent Cavalier 2 can jump from grappled to tied up, tied up opponents cannot resist the pin so you can full attack with them.

Lastly, when you say hulk I say "mutagen fighter", "eldritch heritage orc", "something with rage", and "what do you mean it's not about cranking your strength as high as possible?" If you're talking that scene in Avengers, that was just a standard grapple for damage with unarmed strike. They don't move and Loki never successfully breaks the grapple, Hulk just drops him after (probably) knocking him unconscious.

So, I guess what I'm saying is this is a cute trick but it's higher level only and it takes a lot of work and a much narrower focus than you currently have. Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Greater Grapple (at a minimum). Maybe a few dips to get the feats or features you want. And once you do get it, you'll probably be disappointed with the damage output (nonmagical sword against two opponents). Especially with Greater Beast Totem available. Especially since at around the same level (and a similar number of feats) a barbarian can go for Whirlwind Attack with pounce to charge-fireball people (well, with enlarge and a reach weapon).

Here's a helpful thread on Body Bludgeon.

[Belondia]

I thought that from what I knew hut there's so much I don't. Would be good but probably best sticking to the brbarian with a great sword or hammer and shield I already have. Focus more to attack rolls and damage. May switch a couple of attributes and tweak my stats to something useful. Got swim, climb, perception, nature and one other but the name eludes me.

[TorresGlitch]

Secret Wizard wrote:

- Strength Stance. (Big CMB and HUGE Strength check bonus.)
- Knockback. (Puny humans. Becomes really good when you can discard your worst attack for a full CMB + Strength Stance bull rush.)

Strength stance? You mean Strength surge?

Btw When you replace an iterative attack with a Combat maneuver, it takes all relevant penalties and uses the mods and such for the attack it substitutes.
A +6/+1 BAB character's second swing (+1BAB) uses +1 BAB for it's melee attack so if you replace it with a combat maneuver, the maneuver hits with +1 BAB.

[Kalindlara]

TorresGlitch wrote:

Secret Wizard wrote:

- Strength Stance. (Big CMB and HUGE Strength check bonus.)
- Knockback. (Puny humans. Becomes really good when you can discard your worst attack for a full CMB + Strength Stance bull rush.)

Strength stance? You mean Strength surge?

I believe Strength Stance is the Unchained equivalent. ^_^

[Arachnofiend]

Strength Stance is a much weaker version of Strength Surge; it's 1/4 level rather than =level, and is mutually exclusive with other stance rage powers.