Buffing a barbarian at 5th level...

[Gevaudan]

With 5th level arcane, divine and bardic magic available, what's the best stack of buffs you can think of putting on a 5th level barbarian for a tough melee combat?

[Ghufufin]

Haste is never a waste. Beyond that its all depends on the circumstance. If you have any more info on the fight, the character, the party he is in and the tactics of all involved, more specific suggestions can be made. For example, if you are fighting a dragon Resist Energy can be invaluable but against a Minotaur it wont do squat.

[J4RH34D]

ALL OF THEM!

[Chess Pwn]

haste, *fly, heroism, inspire courage, prayer, enlarge person, longarm

If they have ways that boost the barbs AC more than his magic items then those are good too.

Going from best. There's probably some others, but these are the things that come to mind as hand "always up" buffs.

[Telsyn Setiva]

Displacement is good, if you have someone who can cast it. 50% miss chance will keep your barb in the fight longer.

[Rub-Eta]

Inspire Courage +2. Gallant Inspiration (though not a buff), Weapon of Awe. Divine Favor, Prayer. There's probably some variant channeling that could be good, Protect from arrows, Haste, Cat's Grace, Heroism, Blur, Protect from [Alignment], Longarm, Enlarge Person.

There's so much more. Though I'd say that much more than one spell each is leaning towards overkill, a lot of the spells don't stack anyways. The casters will probably do better if they do other things than just buffing.

I'd say a solid buff for a hard fight would be Inspire Courage, Divine Favor/Prayer (not both), Shield (as the Barbarian probably doesn't have a shield bonus), Haste, Protect from [Alignment], Enlarge Person and Blur.

[J4RH34D]

Bulls strength never goes amiss

[RainyDayNinja]

If you can get them, infused extracts of false life and shield are good too.

[Gevaudan]

This will be the wall of meat between a BBEG with a massive DC 30' fear aura, Smite Good, two giant THF attacks per round (average damage non smite around 22hp) and a significant channel negative energy effect. The BBEG has some DR for sure. The BBEG is some kind of Skeleton Warrior AntiPaladin. My guess is level 9-12.

This will likely be in narrow hallways or a crypt.

The Barbarian is a CN Duergar with DR2/- and 70ish hp.

I need a frontliner who can stand rounds against the BBEG pretty much unassisted, as there will be other dangerous combatants to deal with before we can turn our loving attentions to the BBEG and most of us can't get close without running scared.

The fear effect is absolute, with several minutes of panicked running if you fail.

We have a Cleric, who hopes to stay far away and be ready with fear suppression. The party also has a Master Summoner, Druid, Ranged Paladin and Ranger.

[Redblade8]

J4RH34D wrote:

Bulls strength never goes amiss

It's an enhancement bonus, and folks do love their magic belts; this will run out of road fairly quickly.

[Ghufufin]

If you have the time and gold I recommend picking up a scroll of Greater Heroism if your group can find one as it would make your Barb immune to fear. If you can't get one I would recommend stacking bonuses to saves to try to avoid the fear effect.
Displace is a great spell if the enemy focuses on big hits as it can just make them go away.

[Cuttler]

all of the above plus 2 other:
blessing of the Fervor
Good Hope

[Rub-Eta]

Gevaudan wrote:

The BBEG has some DR for sure. The BBEG is some kind of Skeleton Warrior AntiPaladin. My guess is level 9-12.

I do hope you're wrong. At 9 he'll be strong enough to hit way higher than a 5th level Barbarian's max hp.

EDIT: Or do you mean that you have 5th level SPELLS available? If so, don't worry at all.

[Gevaudan]

Ghu:

It's an antipaladin. Only immunity to mental effects in total (i.e. no brain to effect) works. It cancels immunity to fear and adds a -4 bonus to saves.

Rub:

I'm pretty sure the BBEG is level 9-12, and we are PC level 5.

The goal here is 5-6 rounds of survival. What does an antipaladin get at level 9 that lets him do 70+hp in 1 round on a non-good target, aside from massive crits?

we have a Paladin in the party and are aware that the BBEG will one shot him if they base.

[Rub-Eta]

In general, having an enemy at about double your levels is a very hard thing to deal with.
Last time we fought an anti-paladin (think he was 7th level) he hit me in the face for 72 damage. Though this may have been a crit. And not being good aligned will help a lot.
To me it seems like a bit harsh to throw that at a 5th level party, but maybe your party manages just fine.

[Fruian Thistlefoot]

Bardic performance, haste, keen edge, prayer, bless (or aid), and communal protection from evil,

the occasional fly and communal resist energy when needed.

Don't need much more beyond that for most a campaign lol.

Heroism is good too but single target hurts unless the cleric picked heroism domain but that kicks in at level 8 and by then most people have a +2 cloak of resistance.

[Gevaudan]

Rub,

I've been doing a lot of damage calculations based on a level 10 THF, and it looks like a melee survivor might be really hard. Even without good alignment, a couple 50/50 chances going bad equals a dead barbarian. If the sword is keen, things get really dicey.

I'm considering a stacking between shield other from the paladin, a scroll of stoneskin and ablative barrier. That strongly mitigates the top end of any damage that the CN barbarian can take at once.

[Stompy Rex]

Gevaudan wrote:

Rub,

I've been doing a lot of damage calculations based on a level 10 THF, and it looks like a melee survivor might be really hard. Even without good alignment, a couple 50/50 chances going bad equals a dead barbarian. If the sword is keen, things get really dicey.

I'm considering a stacking between shield other from the paladin, a scroll of stoneskin and ablative barrier. That strongly mitigates the top end of any damage that the CN barbarian can take at once.

Corruption Resistance may be useful to you.