So, any advice about the last 3 rage powers I should pick? Or thoughts on feats?
I will take a look at Reckless.
For some reason, my math for my cleric barbarian's HP was off by 3. I can't figure out where I would have made that mistake. 12 HP for the first level, 6.5 for the remaining 14, Con bonus, and favored class bonus. That adds up to 178 but for some reason, I had 181 marked down. Weird.
Ok, rage powers have been selected. Reckless Abandon is not usable for an unchained barbarian so I'm going with Animal Fury instead. With that, I have 3 natural attacks. Should I focus on the natural attacks or use a manufactured weapon? The claws deal slashing damage so Slashing Grace should apply. Can natural attacks be enhanced like manufactured weapons?
For the traits, I'm going with Fate's Favored and Killer.
Have you considered giving the BBEG maximum hit points?
Is the barbarian//cleric going to be mostly fighting or mostly casting?
EDIT:
If you have feats to spare, Lightning Reflexes and maybe even Improved Lightning Reflexes? Both clerics and barbarians have poor Reflex saves.
The barbarian/cleric will be doing the melee. That's why he's a barbarian. I think the claws count as one weapon even though you get two attacks, so Slashing Grace would apply to both, but I'd have to take the feat a second time to get it to apply to my bite.
If they're considered two separate weapons, I'd have to take Slashing Grace 3 times to get Dex to Damage on all of them. That takes up a lot of room. I'll just focus on improving one claw instead. Though if there's an open slot for feats at the end, I'll take Slashing Grace a second time for the other claw.
Is there an item like Tusk Blades that can be used for claw attacks?
I see.
If you're using 2 claw attacks, maybe look into some of the rending feats? Also Weapon Focus would apply to both claws, but you probably don't need +1 to hit.
An Amulet of Mighty Fists would apply to all natural or unarmed attacks, so if he has claw/claw/bite/horn/tail/wing/wing/rake/rend/etc., it would be really good. Also a nice treasure if you have a monk or brawler or animal companion or druid or shifter.
That's a lot of Natural Attacks. I could trade out his racial traits of the Energy Resistance, +1 Natural Armor, and Bonus Cantrip for the 2 Claws and Bite trait. Then instead of the Beast Totem rage power, I could take the Fiend Totem powers and get a Gore attack. That's 4 Natural Attacks.
Only drawback about using Natural Attacks instead of a regular weapon is that you don't get extra attacks from BAB with Natural Attacks. So with a regular weapon, I'd get 3 attacks before applying any Natural Attacks. Using the above traits and feats, taking out one claw attack as that hand is occupied, that would be a total of 6 attacks with Attack Bonuses of 15,10,5,10,10,10. (Without adding enhancement or feat bonuses, of course.)
Using just the Natural Attacks, I'd have a maximum of 4 attacks though at full BAB each as they are all primary attacks.
Unless I just houserule it that Natural Attacks get the bonus attacks from BAB.
Although houseruling Natural Attacks getting extra attacks from BAB would probably be overpowered.
Applying Agile to the Amulet of Mighty Fists would get me Dex to Damage to all of my Natural Attacks so I won't have to use Slashing Grace at all. And with the Dangerous Tail feat, I'll get a Tail attack. So that's 2 Claws, Bite, Gore, and Tail. And only Tail gets a -5 BAB when used together.
That's a decent option.
Ok, I'm trying to figure out a way to bump my barbarian cleric's AC. I can't use a shield and still have both claw attacks. Not even a buckler as you lose the shield bonus when you attack with that hand. His Dex mod is 5, which is the Max Dex of his armor. His armor also has a +5 enhancement. As is, his regular AC is 25. When he's raging, it's 31. That seems rather low for a level 15 character. My level 9 Antipaladin's AC is 27.
Also, 51 rounds a day should be more than enough for an NPC, right? Because if my barbarian isn't raging, he loses all of his natural attacks except the Gore.
An amulet can only have a +5 total enhancement, so I'd have to drop the base enhancement by one, but an attack bonus of 24 is still pretty good. And that's without feats like Weapon Focus.
I play 5th Edition now, and what they do is give BBEGs a ton of hit points and only a slightly above average AC, if that. This allows the PCs to hit the BBEG relatively often, but not drop him too quickly. The theory behind this is that players like hitting, and hate missing. Let those iterative attacks hit! LOL! Also, a big bag of hit points is also tough against direct damage spells, environmental effects, falls, etc.
Giving natural attacks iterative attacks is definitely overpowered. Instead of getting 1 weapon attack that gets 3 or 4 attacks per round, you get 3 or 4 natural attacks that each get 1 attack per round (at full BAB!).
Combining magical items (amulet of natural armor + amulet of mighty fists) is one option. Changing the body slot is another, like a Vest of Natural Armor or Bracers or Gloves of Mighty Fists. Just remember the PCs will probably get the magic items after they defeat the NPCs, so consider your party make-up when designing NPC magic items.
True. And I know barbarian's generally don't have much AC compared to other classes but I still want to boost it. I think a +5 Ring of Protection should be enough to do the trick. It'll make his AC 30 and 36 when raging. That should be enough.
With 5 attacks, is it worth getting the feat Hammer The Gap?
Bracers of armor? Do they still go up to +8?
While they do, according to the core rulebook, they talk about a "source of armor". Shouldn't they stack with natural armor?
I think the sources of AC are Armor, Enhancement bonus to Armor, Natural Armor, Enhancement bonus to Natural Armor, Size, Dodge, Deflection, Insight, Dexterity, Shield, Enhancement bonus to Shield, and maybe Competence and Sacred/Profane?
Well, my barbarian has +1 Natural, +9 Armor including enhancements, +5 Dex. When he's raging, he loses 2 AC, but gains +4 Dodge and +4 Natural. And the Ring of Protection is a Deflection bonus.
Ok, my barbarian cleric has his gear. Helm of the Mammoth Lord, Agile Amulet of Mighty Fists +4, Masterwork Chain Coat +5, Rending Claw Blades, Cloak of Resistance +5, Ring of Protection +5, Ring of Mind Shielding, and Pink & Green Sphere.
He has 38970 gold left. Since a shield is pointless with 2 claw attacks, I don't think he needs anything else.
Now I need to pick out his feats. As a level 15 character, he has 8 feats plus the bonus Weapon Finesse. Two of his feats are already decided - Mad Magic so he can cast spells while raging, and Dangerous Tail to give him a Tail attack. That leaves 6 more.
These are the ones that I am considering. I'm including the dragonkin breath weapon feat.
Raging Vitality: +2 morale to Con when raging. Continue raging if unconscious.
Weapon Focus: +1 Atk with one weapon.
Blood Feast: When you damage foe with Bite, gain +1 morale on Atk and Dam with Bite until the end of your next round.
Channel Smite: Before melee attack, can use a channel energy slot as swift action to have foe take extra damage equal to your Channel Energy. Foe can make Will save to halve this damage. Channel Energy slot is still used up if you miss.
Improved Natural Attack: Increase single attack’s damage by one step. 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 2d6. Can take multiple times for different natural attacks.
Improved Natural Armor: +1 Natural Armor. Can take Multiple times.
Improved Critical: Double the crit range of one weapon.
Necromantic Affinity: +2 bonus on saving throws made to resist spells and effects that utilize negative energy, cause negative levels, or cause ability damage, drain or penalties. In addition, damage caused by inflict spells heal you as if you were undead, but you also take damage from cure spells.
Breath Attack: Requirement: Character level 5, dragonkin. Gain a breath attack in the shape of a 30-foot cone. This attack does 4d6 damage, can be used every 1d4 rounds, daily uses 2+Con. At level 9 and every 4 levels after, increase damage by 1d6 for a maximum of 7d6 at level 17. Ref save for zero damage. At level 10, Ref save for half damage. DC 10+1/2 level+Con. If you possess the Energy Resistance racial trait, this attack must match in type. Otherwise choose Acid, Cold, Fire, or Lightning when you take this feat. This choice can’t be changed.
Quicken Spell. Give him something to do with his Swift Action every round....at least when he's not raging. Or a quick self-buff before raging.
But what is your goal for this NPC? An easy to run combat brute? A complex tactician? Something else?
Combat. His brother will be the tactician. And with the Mad Magic feat, he can cast spells while he's raging.
Then load up on Quickened spells! Full Attack plus Quickened chaos hammer! Quickened divine favor!
And check out the Magical Lineage trait for reducing the metamagic level cost by 1 for 1 specific spell.
I will keep it in mind. I also need some class ideas for his brother. I don't want to do a wizard as making wizards is hard as heck. But I want him to focus on magic more than his brother as well as keeping out of melee. Bard/Ranger, maybe?
Slayer//Sorcerer?
Ranger//Sorcerer going into Arcane Archer?
Eh, Slayer seems kind of boring to me. Like Rogue but without the best features.
I guess Ranger would work if you pick Favored Enemies based on your PCs' races.... **evil grin** +8 to hit and damage!
XD
Ok, I cut out the Natural Armor feat. He's already going to have +5 Natural Armor. I also cut out Weapon Focus and Blood Feast. Now the question is, do I want to keep the Breath Weapon feat or take something else?
Power Attack? It's a classic for a reason. Or is that a freebie feat in your campaign?
The barbarian cleric is a dex build. He's getting a free Weapon Finesse. Players can choose to get a free Power Attack instead, but not both.
Oh, OK. Piranha Strike? Whatever the Dex-based "Power Attack" feat is called.
Maybe look at some Swashbuckler builds for inspiration?
NPCs are usually "one trick ponies" since the PCs only encounter them once or twice.
Do you want him to maximize damage against the PCs? Or focus on "carrier effects" like Bull Rush, Disarm, Shaken, Tripped, Poisoned, Sickened, Fatigued, Sunder, etc.?
Or do you want to make actually hitting him the challenge? High AC, miss chance from blur or displacement (or Wind Stance and Lightning Stance), mirror image, etc.?
Or do you want to punish the PCs for hitting him, like fireshield or Fiend Totem spikes or whatever or Retributive Strike or Come and Get Me or whatever that rage power is?
Does he have Pounce? He has a lot of natural attacks, but he has to stand still to benefit from all those attacks (or take a 5 foot step) otherwise.
He does not have pounce. I could drop the Swift Foot rage power and take the Great Beast Totem power to get it. Even without Swift Foot, he's got 50 Speed so reaching his opponent won't be a problem. And Greater Beast Totem increases damage on his claws.
Monk/sorcerer could work.
Especially that Dragon Scaled one that uses Charisma to AC and Stun Saves.
EDIT:
Scaled Fist.
Understood. I have one last feat to choose for my barbarian and then he's done. I think I'm going to go with Extra Rage power so I can keep Swift Foot. It's either that or Breath Attack. I worked hard to make that feat balanced and still fun. I want to use it.
Pick the custom feat!
Then buy him magic boots of +10 speed.
I'm going with Breath Attack. I'll think about the boots.
Scaled Fist is an archetype, right?
Yes. For monks.
Hey, with Scaled Fist and the feat, I get 2 breath attacks. Cool.
How does this sound for the monk/sorcerer's stats?
10 Str, 18 Dex, 16 Con, 12 Int, 20 Wis, 18 Cha.