So I am thinking of making a Dwarven Armored Hulk (Barbarian) for a 20 point buy, 5 level start game and I'm wondering if the Armored Hulk's Armored Swiftness (Ex) would be waste on account of the Dwarf racial Slow and Steady trait.
Any thoughts? I'm interested in hearing from anyone else whose made a Dwarven Armored Hulk, on the benefits and drawbacks encountered playing one.
RAW they stack. This means at 5th level the dwarf armored hulk is actually faster while wearing full plate than when he is not wearing any armor. Many GM will probably house rule otherwise but it explicitly states it stacks with other movement..
Hell, I imagine it is intended.
I mean... heavy armored dwarves and barbarian dwarves. Those ahve been around since the beginning of core- and well tied into the general flavor adn mechanics of the options.
It is not some long distant combo of abilities that couldn't be rationally anticipated (like tiefling with an at will SLA, who then takes one of the elemental plane touched traits to trade in an SLA use for cantrips).
Armored Swiftness (Ex): At 2nd level, an armored hulk moves faster in medium and heavy armor. When wearing medium or heavy armor, an armored hulk can move 5 feet faster than normal, to a maximum of her speed. This ability replaces uncanny dodge.
Seems pretty clear to me.
Edit: now, Improved Armored Swiftness would not be a waste, as that'd make your speed 40 feet in full plate.
Whoops. this was armored swiftness? I assumed this was talking about the improved version.
Yeah. No. Normal dwarf speed until level 5. So really... the level 2 version is only wasted for 3 levels before it gets upgraded
Unfortunately no, dwarfs start at 20 move speed the first armored swiftness increases his move speed by 5 up to his base speed so he'd still be at 20, then at Lvl 5 he gets improved armored swiftness witch increases his land speed by another 10 feet but it's added in before you add armor or encumbrance. Lucky for our dwarf here he is not ever slowed down by armor or encumbrance because of his slow and steady racial trait. So at Lvl 5 his move speed would be 30.
For a dwarf the first armored swiftness is absolutely useless, sorry
And then get a wizard to cast haste on you and you can outrun everyone!
It looks like you might actually be better taking normal barbarian and just picking up Heavy Armor Proficiency.
The Armored Hulk's abilities don't actually help you much, and you lose more than you gain because you're a dwarf.
You could even go with another archetype, should you want to.
May I suggest Invulnerable Rager if you want a true tank?
Neither overpowered, nor underpowered. A nice and fitting combination. It's cool if you don't want to be beast totem invulnerable rager Nr. 121.304.
And then get a wizard to cast haste on you and you can outrun everyone!
Except monks... :)
Except the normal barbs fast movement doesn't work with heavy armor, and mithril heavy to get around that is an a$$load of gold
Yeah, the primary use of the archetype is to save on that gold/proficiency feat/waiting to get that kind of benefit.
Everything else is just a set of minor bonuses. +so and so against charges and critical hits, bonuses against charging creatures, some CMB/CMD stuff.
So it is mostly just 'heavy armor without the hassle'.