Bloodrager newb needs help with build


Advice


I'm starting a new pathfinder campaign. I have limited experience with pathfinder and no experience with the advanced classes. I was hoping a few people could list some builds to help me get started.

I get a 25 point build for character creation in this campaign. I want to be a half orc. I want to either have the aberrant or arcane bloodline. I can use Primalist archetype.

What I'd like to see and get help with in particular are feat progress list for builds especially using Primalist and figuring out what to dump and what to replace in regards to aberrant and arcane bloodlines. Also what Rage powers to take as replacements.

Thanks in advanced


Half Orcs are amazing Bloodragers. You get +2 Intimidate, so don't waste it. Pump your Intimidate and get Cornugon Smash and a +1 Cruel Enchantment on your weapon for a devastating debuff combo of Shaken/Sicken every time you Power Attack someone (which should be every time you attack), and your enemy now has a -4 hit, skill checks, saves, ability checks, and a -2 dmg. Very low investment, extremely high benefits to your survivability. And your caster buddies will LOVE the -4 to saves.

Sacred Tattoo + Fate's Favored is an awesome Trait Combo for a +2 to all saves, and any time you're benefiting from a Luck bonus, you get a +1 to that bonus.

18 str (+2), 13 dex, 14 con, 11 int, 12 wis, 14 cha is what I'd recommend for abil scores.

As far as weapons, I'd grab a Fauchard (two-handed, 1d10, 18-20/x2, reach), greataxe (1d12 x3), or greatsword (2d6 19-20/x2). If you go with Fauchard, you can capitalize on a 30% critical strike chance with Improved Critical at lvl 9 or lvl 11 (15-20/x2). With Improved Cleaving Finish, you will crit a lot and kill things a lot, provoking the extra attacks from ICF often. Get a +1 Mighty Cleaving or +2 Culling Enchant asap, and get the +1 Cruel enchant later (when you have Cornugon smash).

Feats, get Power Attack and Cleave asap. Go all the way to Improved Cleaving Finish + Cornugon Smash and become an AoE Ginsu Buzzsaw + Debuff monster (shaken/sicken combo). Consider Improved Critical (or a Keen enchant), Critical Focus & Blinding Critical for mid/late game.

Arcane Bloodline is an excellent choice. +2 DC for casters trying to cast in an area you threaten, Magic Missile for ranged attacks, Invisibility and Dimension Door for getting into position/survivability, and Blur/Haste when you rage. Also, pick up Enlarge Person and get a 10-15ft Cleave range (depending on if your weapon has reach).

As far as primalist, I would consider dropping your lvl 4 Arcane for Animal Fury and Beast Totem, Lesser, and then drop your lvl 12 Arcane Bloodline for Beast Totem and Greater Beast Totem for Pounce. Full Attack at the end of a charge at level 12 with Haste from lvl 8 Arcane Bloodrage and Animal Fury would be lots of Nom Nom at the end of a charge. And next round, you could turn into an aoe buzzsaw with Great Cleave/Imp Cleaving Finish.

Lesser Beast Totem is just a Rage Tax for getting Pounce, but it does come in handy if you get disarmed or pitch your weapon on a 1 roll.


You might actually do better with Feat advancement if you went Human rather than half-orc though. Something like this for a Human?

Lvl1 Power Attack, Bonus Human Feat: Cleave, Disruptive Bloodrage
Lvl2
Lvl3 Cleaving Finish
Lvl4 Lesser Beast Totem and either Animal Fury or Superstition
Lvl5 Great Cleave (get +2 Culling Enchant on weapon)
Lvl6 Bonus Feat: Disruptive
Lvl7 Improved Cleaving Finish
Lvl8 Greater Arcane Bloodrage
Lvl9 Cornugon Smash, Feat: Combat Reflexes (get +1 Cruel Enchant on weapon)
Lvl10
Lvl11 Improved Critical
Lvl12 Beast Totem, Greater Beast Totem, Feat: Spellbreaker
Lvl13 Critical Focus
Lvl14
Lvl15 Blinding Critical, Feat: Iron Will
Lvl16 True Arcane Bloodrage
Lvl17
Lvl18
Lvl19
Lvl20


Awesome!! Thanks for the help!!!

What about aberrant blood line. Any feat suggestions or power switch outs for that bloodline with Primalist?

Also with aberrant bloodline I hear a lot of folks mention the tumor familiar. Is that any good. It almost looked like people were saying you could get the tumor familiar to carry a wand and cast heal spells? Is that correct?


Aberrant is a fantastic bloodline. Being immune to multiple debilitating status effects makes this a great defensive option, and having additional range can make you a good defensive fighter. The only option I would swap out would be the first level ability, staggering strike, since it relies on a critical hit to trigger. However, if you’re okay with crit fishing, it can stack well with staggering critical.

For equipment, I would suggest using a sarissa due to its incredible reach (15 feet!) and getting longarm bracers. Even though the bracers will give you an attack penalty, extra range doesn’t hurt. Bloodragers also get the spell Long Arm, which grants more reach.

Aberrant Tumor can definitely help, especially if you give it an archetype like mauler. Instant flank buddy!


People used to do tumor familiar with protector for "free healing" but that was errata'd away. Having a familiar can still be useful, getting the familiar ability like bonus to skills or saves and having it do something.
Like you could be a 5 int nagaji with a tumor sage familiar that starts with 7 int. Your little growth is smarter than you are!


Ah so you can no longer take the protector archetype for the tumor? Can you still do mauler?


Or I guess a better question is if protector is not available is mauler the next best choice?

Grand Lodge

Mauler is good for some extra damage. Grab mauler's endurance. Valet is popular to share amplified rage.

The last option is a sage figment familiar. This is a good option as it rounds out your character making them more useful outside of combat. You also have a tumour that you exist only in your that happens to be smarter than you.


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Reduxist wrote:

Aberrant is a fantastic bloodline. Being immune to multiple debilitating status effects makes this a great defensive option, and having additional range can make you a good defensive fighter. The only option I would swap out would be the first level ability, staggering strike, since it relies on a critical hit to trigger. However, if you’re okay with crit fishing, it can stack well with staggering critical.

For equipment, I would suggest using a sarissa due to its incredible reach (15 feet!) and getting longarm bracers. Even though the bracers will give you an attack penalty, extra range doesn’t hurt. Bloodragers also get the spell Long Arm, which grants more reach.

Aberrant Tumor can definitely help, especially if you give it an archetype like mauler. Instant flank buddy!

I would say that crit fishing is much nicer for aberrant since they are a bloodline with a heavy focus on reach builds (AoO's means more attacks=more chances to crit). Staggering is also a rather nice effect.

Anyway, in terms of reach builds (which means aberrant, since that is the main focus of the bloodline), I tend to go in a more conservative direction in order to avoid the doughnut problem (a problem with some reach builds where there is a large enough gap in your attack range where you cannot simply take a 5' step back to attack the enemy that is adjacent to you). While reach builds with doughnuts tend to cover more of the field, I like to keep the option to engage nearby enemies with my big shiny, well enhanced polearm.

As such, I wouldn't go for Sarissa- it is designed with a doughnut from the get go. Additionally, I wouldn't go with enlarge person spells when using a reach weapon (no one has suggested this, but it is common for 'coverage' reach builds).

You can still get obscene reach just using additive reach options. A reach weapon+aberrant bloodline already allows you 15' threatening reach (20' attack when you 5' step). The long arm spell can be a great alternative to enlarge person (just a free 5' extra reach); you can also auto cast it when you rage once you reach level 10- this brings you to 20' threaten/25' full attack. Add on lunge, and you can full attack at 30' away- you can full attack at a distance that the great axe using dwarf cannot reach even after a move+attack!


Thinking about it further- stagger causing crits might be a disgustingly good power for the reach focused aberrant bloodline.

...if you get an AoO due to enemy movement, and then you make them staggered... doesn't that mean that the enemy cannot do anything else that turn?

The enemy took a move action in order to cross your threatened area. And staggered limits you to one move or standard action per round. So wouldn't the enemy have already used up their actions?

So a 10-30% chance to just end the opponent's turn... that is pretty good. The odds are even better if you have a fortuitous weapon.

This is useful against both melee and caster enemies. Against melee, you can make it hard for enemies to approach you to do damage. Against magic, you can cut off a caster's turn when they try to run away so they can cast in peace (of course, that would require you to make it so that adjacent squares are not a safe zone; knocking cheeky casters out of their finger wiggling is one of the few uses of armor spikes I support).


Guys, I just want to point out that this guy said he is relatively new to PF, you might want to reign in the Combat Reflexes Reach AoO builds a bit.

The Barbarian AM SMASH guide might help you out with the barbarian side of things as well.

Shadow Lodge

lemeres wrote:

Thinking about it further- stagger causing crits might be a disgustingly good power for the reach focused aberrant bloodline.

...if you get an AoO due to enemy movement, and then you make them staggered... doesn't that mean that the enemy cannot do anything else that turn?

The enemy took a move action in order to cross your threatened area. And staggered limits you to one move or standard action per round. So wouldn't the enemy have already used up their actions?

So a 10-30% chance to just end the opponent's turn... that is pretty good. The odds are even better if you have a fortuitous weapon.

This is useful against both melee and caster enemies. Against melee, you can make it hard for enemies to approach you to do damage. Against magic, you can cut off a caster's turn when they try to run away so they can cast in peace (of course, that would require you to make it so that adjacent squares are not a safe zone; knocking cheeky casters out of their finger wiggling is one of the few uses of armor spikes I support).

Wait a minute: Are you saying that when my raging Aberrant Bloodrager cousins crit with a two-handed weapon, their opponents might be staggered??? My opponents tend to just die...


Taja the Barbarian wrote:
Wait a minute: Are you saying that when my raging Aberrant Bloodrager cousins crit with a two-handed weapon, their opponents might be staggered??? My opponents tend to just die...

Yes, but the opponent might be a barbarian with a ton of DR. In which case, the bloodrager would really, really like to not get murdered this turn.


I would suggest first looking at the half orc chassis, and finding what appeals to you the most, as there are two main abilities for a bloodrager you really won't need: Orc ferocity and weapon familiarity. I suggest trading these out, to get either the Human Raised ability for an extra skill point each level, or Sacred Tattoo for the save bonus, as well as Get Thoughts to get Use Magic Device and another skill from the list as class skills.

I have done a lot of looking at the Aberrant and Arcane bloodlines, and my opinion is that if you go Arcane, primalist really won't come into play until level 12, where Aberrant starts netting you rage powers at level 8.

If you go Arcane, you will generally want to keep the level 4 and 8 abilities for the free buffs. The power is not only the action economy of having the buff not cost an action, but it's flexible based on the environment. Fighting archers? Look who has protection from arrows ready. Lots of rogues? Blur is a good friend. Floor is suddenly lava? We'll, that should irritate you enough to crawl up the walls with spider climb.

Aberrant, the big kicker is level four. 5 feet of extra reach while raging, means fifteen feet of reach when enlarged, without using a reach weapon. That is a lot of squares on the battlefield. Level 8 and twelve, that let's you swap out for some wonderful rage powers. If you pick up Intrnal Fortitude at 8, you still have your standard immunity, but now you get a rage power on top of it. Some would say the least totem line would be ideal, and it is pretty much the gold standard.

Looking at a different angle, I would suggest something different with Aberrant. The Nodachi is a wonderful eastern weapon. 1d10 18-20/x2 works well with you level 1 bloodline power. Pick up power attack, raging vitality, intimidating prowess, and cornugon smash. For rage powers, pick up Superstition, Witch Hunter, Spell Sunder, and Internal Fortitude.


JasonKain wrote:
Aberrant, the big kicker is level four. 5 feet of extra reach while raging, means fifteen feet of reach when enlarged, without using a reach weapon. That is a lot of squares on the battlefield. Level 8 and twelve, that let's you swap out for some wonderful rage powers. If you pick up Intrnal Fortitude at 8, you still have your standard immunity, but now you get a rage power on top of it. Some would say the least totem line would be ideal, and it is pretty much the gold standard.

And you can auto cast enlarge person at level 10 once you blood rage.

Although personally, I prefer reach weapon+long arm. It doesn't have the messy number changes from enlarge person, and just gives a smooth +5 reach. So your circle is slightly farther out for AoOs. And the reach weapon allows for reach tactics before you act in battle (ie- without rage or buffs).

But size based reach is perfectly fine and simpler to use. It also tends to have higher damage numbers due to size increase of weapons and better damage dice on smashy 2 handed weapons over polearms.

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