Using a half orc and the combination above would allow a raging hunter and mount combo. Throw in Amplified Rage and were are talking about a serious buff. It would only work for a minute at a time, but most combats only last 7-8 rounds at the most. Dire collars are once a day, but they are relatively cheep and a half dozen should be plenty.
Does this look viable?
What are the major flaws/advantages?
Advice for fleshing out the build?
Am I likely to take blunt force trauma from the GM's APG if I sit at a table with this?
This was the first character I built after Hunter was released, played a level 7 mythic campaign as Hunter 3/Barbarian(Mad Dog) 4. First round of combat he had ever been used in, no mythic tiers yet, 126 damage with 1 crit. I wasn't mounted, flanking makes this build even more rediculous, albeit my GM allowed outflank and Pack Tactics to stack for a total of +6 to hit when flanking with my badger.
Without that flanking bonus that characters attacks looked something like this:
I seriously looked into the Mad Dog/Hunter. My current thought is to be able to do this without ever taking a level of barbarian.
Mounted allows flanking with the Pack Flanking feat. And then I didn't have to worry about them separating and ending the Sympathetic Rage.
I assume you used Ferocious Beast rage power. That burns 2 rounds of rage a turn. Did you have problems running out of rage?
So if I understand this is you plan on taking no levels of barbarian and using your badgers rage and sympathetic rage to get you into a rage, is this correct?
A few issues:
The badger has very few rounds of rage, so you'd not be able to do it much.
You don't have your own rage to qualify for amplified rage.
The easiest way would probably be 2 levels of barb to get the raging mount rage power and then grab extra rage instead of sympathetic rage.
Check out horsemaster's sadle if your into badger riding.
Also badger can easily pick up extra rage with his level feats or eat some barbarian chew...
Does the badger count as having the rage class feature to get extra rage?
Oh, thanks. Can't believe I missed that. My original concept started out with a couple levels of barbarian.
The badger should be able to take extra rage once it gets 3 int. I don't think it can take it before that.
Yeah as someone already stated above you're going to need at least one level of Barbarian to get amplified rage. That being said, Mad Dog may or may not be the best option, I actually just started a home campaign where I will be playing the character but I think this time I'll go with something like this:
Hunter 1: Sympathetic Rage
Hunter 2: Outflank
Barbarian 1(3): Gore Fiend or Thrill of the Kill
Hunter 3(4): Amplified Rage
Barbarian 2(5): Boon Companion
Barbarian 3(6):?
Barbarian 4(7):?
Hunter 4-16(8-20)
That way by level 4 you've got everything you need to start smashing some skulls in for a few rounds a day, and a decent way to regain your rage rounds. As this is a home campaign I also got my GM to agree that the Badger's rage can scale as it already lines up with him having a barbarian level equal to his animal companion "level" meaning he would gain 2 rounds every time you level up as well, this isn't too unbelievable but some GMs might not allow it.
You could take some levels of skald for everyone's raging needs for 1 low price.
Edit: I haven't seen any skald archetypes that give a companion, but if there were you would have access to the enlarge spell for using on your companion.
As a Bardbarian I would have expected that you know that this requires a 1 level dip into Bloodrager with a Valet familiar.
Does the badger count as having the rage class feature to get extra rage?
It has an ability called Rage and states that this ability works like a Barbarian's ability...
Thanks for the input. I've scrambled my concept a bit to fit in the things I need. Now things look like:
1st Hunter (Standard) - Badger AC - Sympathetic Rage
2nd Barbarian (Pack Rager)
3rd Fighter (Lore Warden) - Gore Fiend, Boon Companion
4th Fighter (Lore Warden) - Combat Expertise, Pack Flanking
5th Hunter (Standard) - Outflank, Paired Opportunist
6th Hunter (Standard) - Amplified Rage
7th Barbarian (Pack Rager) - Combat Reflexes, Broken Wing Gambit.
what are the lore warden levels for? You still need the int 13 for pack flanking. A level of brawler lets you count as int 13.
Mainly it was just to cram three extra feats in as fast as possible. I'm also considering Drill Sergeant. At higher levels I may retrain them into Hunter or Barbarian levels.
But thanks for the reminder of the Int 13 requirement for Pack Flanking. I had forgotten.
I will give the badger Extra Rage at 5th and 8th level. I assume I need to get him to Int 3 before he can take that feat. Any precedent that may allow him to take Extra Rage before then?
Wild Child brawler 1 will get you counting as int 13 for combat feats, that can help with the stats.
Do you need sympathetic rage now that you have your own rage? That could free up a feat.
so you could go
Brawler combat expertise
Barb
Hunter pack flanking
Hunter Outflank
Hunter Amplified Rage, Paired Opportunist
barb x
That looks.......... feasible
I'm going to rough this out and see what it looks like for me. Thanks!
Any precedent that may allow him to take Extra Rage before then?
Definitely a not.
Also I'm pretty sure there's plenty of GM's who would disallow Extra Rage on a Animal Companion. I think the recent FAQ on equivalence of abilities that have different names but "work as" will help defending your cause but it's not a given.
I can't imagine many GMs having a problem with Extra Rage after Int 3. I believe the description states something like "rage:as a barbarian 6 rounds per day". So the rage is not similar, it's the same thing.
I have pondered if I would get pushback on the sympathetic rage + amplified rage combo. I can see some GMs saying sympathetic rage isn't really rage and won't work with amplified rage.