The Beastkin Berserker was pointed out as a better shifter in the shifter discussion thread. After running some numbers I tend to agree but wanted to see if other folks have come up with good builds. What does it give?
a) Utility (at level 5 you have free action access to fly,climb and swim speed)
b)Lots of natural atacks. Pretty sure you can pair your forms natural attacks with those gained through rage powers so at level 4 you can easily sport 6 attacks (2xclaws, 2xtalons, gore and bite)
c) Pounce come level 8
d) Even more STR than a normal Barbarian
Weaknesses:
- No armor on a martial is bound to hurt. Your best bet early on is prolly mage armor. Later Wild armor + naturl armor makes you competitive. Also the Archetype stacks with Invulnerable Rager or Savage technologist.
- Utility is limited by your number of rage rounds. This means you really want to stay a single class Barb.
Apropos Savage technologist. You can prolly build a small monkey that's super hot with a musket... hilarious... A halfling turning tiny could make use of Risky Striky pretty much always so there's also potential for a dex based build (Especially with Savage Technologist).
Utility measured in rounds isn't that good. Outside combat you probably want alternate movement forms/speeds or scent etc. for minutes at least. Being single classed barb will barely change that.
On the plus side some rage powers let you do some stuff which is way outside what a shifter can do. Superstition, fire totem, or ultimate clarity for example. Since you're getting pounce thru other means you don't need the beast totem line.
Utility measured in rounds isn't that good. Outside combat you probably want alternate movement forms/speeds or scent etc. for minutes at least. Being single classed barb will barely change that.
Well flight and scent are super useful during combat. They make sure that barbarian is adjacent and hitting what makes barbarian friends unhappy.
Also a Climb and or Swim Speed will often only be needed to tackle short term obstacles so while hours per day would be nice rounds isn't useless either.