So, I found this Goblin feat, called Letter Fury...
Benefit: If someone reads or writes in your presence (including casting spells like glyph of warding or symbol) you can, as an immediate action, choose to activate your rage class ability for 1 round. This round of rage does not count toward the total number of rounds which you can rage each day, but if you wish to continue your rage beyond that single round you must expend rounds from your daily rage allotment as normal. Once you use this feat you must wait at least 1 minute after you cease raging before you can use it again.
And I knew about the True Primitive Barbarian being Illiterate...
A true primitive cannot read or write, and her superstition about such things leads her to refuse to ever learn to read or write, even if she multiclasses into other classes.
I want to have some fun with this, but not really sure about Barbarians... seems like the Superstition line of Rage Powers is a given. Other Rage Powers that seem obvious is the Beast Totem line for Pounce, although I am hoping to find alternatives to this that are more in line flavor-wise.
If there is a build that embraces this theme, Illiteracy/Letter Fury can happen with a single level dip...
But I was thinking about going full True Primitive Barbarian 1-20, Tree Runner Goblin for a bonus to Acrobatics, TWF with Tomahawks to use the racial Dex bonus and Hand Axes are the only light weapon a True Primitive is proficient with, taking Roll With It, the Goblin Foolhardiness trait... Two Weapon Rend, Pounce, full Dex/Weapon Finesse build using Rage for damage (the tomahawk could be made Agile, eventually)...
Goblin Foolhardiness:
Benefit: When facing an enemy that’s larger than you are, if you have no allies in any adjacent squares, your posturing, bravado, and cussing grant you a +1 trait bonus on attack rolls with non-reach melee weapons.
If you're going dex-to-damage I'd find it really hard to not go for a barbarian archetype which gets bonuses to dex (urban or savage technologist) or to attack/damage directly (unchained). True primitive's compatible with the unchained barbarian.
Thank you for pointing me towards that... I hadn't thought about UnChained Barbarian, because I might be stupid... like this Goblin.
I had been thinking that I could just use Dex for Acrobatics, Armor Class, Attack, Initiative, and TWF prerequisites... and Rage's scaling Strength bonus to cover/help damage. True Primitive has the fetishes to bump up damage, too.
I'm just trying to see if I can either make him effective enough in combat to make up for being stupid, or if there is something else I can make him useful at... having Rage add Strength could at least be useful in a camp of Goblins to lift things others cannot.
Was also thinking True Primitive stacks with Pack Rager... maybe even VMC Cavalier... a Strength Longspear build... find a Banner of some sort (Champion's, Commander's, Lord's) to hang off the spear... Combat Reflexes/Bodyguard... Would require a different racial trait...
VMC would eat up too many feats for TWF... otherwise I would have VMC'ed Fighter on the TWF/tomahawk build for Weapon Training and Dueling Gloves @ 11, AWT:Trained Grace @ 13, but I just didn't like the way it worked out when I first wrote it up.
VMC Cavalier on a Pack Rager actually ends up with 7 teamwork feats and two pools of Tactician... Raging Tactician, and real Tactician...
TWF/dex focus true primitive unchained barbarian (without VMC) should be effective enough in combat, I don't see a problem there. Throw in a rage power like scent or raging swimmer if you want them to have a trick for non-combat use.
Str-based pack rager true primitive (core) barbarian VMC cavalier (order of the hero?) has a desperate desire for more feats and rage powers - the combat reflexes + bodyguard combo has a minimum level of 5 for your goblin - but it should work if there's a couple of other people/pets in the party who could benefit from teamwork feats. If there's just you and a rogue or something who are willing to enter melee it might not work.
Pack Rager-True Primitive cBarbarian/
VMC Cavalier (Order of the Dragon) is ok for a Goblin general/commander NPC... Combat Reflexes@1/Bodyguard@5/Aid Allies@7 makes that trick a bit more useful... Strategy once per combat @15, 7 teamwork feats to choose from, 3 of which can be handed out to all allies within 60' whilst Raging, or 1 feat to all allies in 30' even not in Rage...
I don't think I would want to play that build from level one, but it didn't turn out so bad... especially if you just need a Goblin leader/tactician that can really rally the tribe into a coherent fighting force... all allies within 60' gaining 3 teamwork feats could potentially be a lot... Goblins are small.
You mentioned that such a build would benefit from allies with pets...
Mad Dog also stacks with True Primitive. Now we have Illiterate Goblin Barbarians that get mad at words, but these ones have War Beasts!
Three stupid Goblins and a, what Animal Companion does a Goblin use? Goblin Dog? Lame, and I thought Goblins hated dogs. Giant Frilled Lizard? Might eat them when it grows to Latge. Lol. Something that flies, perhaps?
The goblin dog isn't actually a dog, and I am sure that goblins who understand Common would be very annoyed if they heard an adventurer use that phrase.
Unfortunately, nobody at Paizo has ever (as far as I know) come up with what goblins call these creatures.
The goblin dog isn't actually a dog, and I am sure that goblins who understand Common would be very annoyed if they heard an adventurer use that phrase.Unfortunately, nobody at Paizo has ever (as far as I know) come up with what goblins call these creatures.
Interesting... I don't like.
The Goblin Druid from Burnt Offerings has a Cougar. So clearly big cats are Kosher.
There are Winged Marauder Goblins with Dire Bats and Giant Vultures... so flying creatures are definitely an option. Might not necessarily work with all the stuff from Mad Dog, but why couldn't a flying War Beast drag a target back to the Barbarian?
For whatever reason, though, I keep gravitating towards that Giant Frilled Lizard... even though to doesn't offer any benefits for its tasks involving the Mad Dog archetype other than its Large size adjustment.
Badgers would be size appropriate to coexist with Goblins, and Badgers get Rage... just like the Barbarian... although it is still not a great choice.
Honestly, given that it's way more likely to be used as an NPC, use whatever Animal Companion is most thematically appropriate for the encounter/setting. Lol.
I wasn't going to combine Alchemist and Barbarian... but it is good to know Gun Chemist and Winged Marauder stack... Goblin Gunslinger is a feat that I have been wanting to toy with, as well.
I am just trying to get a grasp on which animal companions Goblins would have... Winged Marauder specifies Dire Bats and Giant Vultures by name... clearly these are animals that Goblins are capable of training/coexisting with.
There is a NPC Goblin Druid with a Cougar.
I'm not even looking for anything tactically advantageous... just thematically appropriate for Goblins to be palling around with...
That Gun Chemist-Winged Marauder with the Goblin Gunslinger feat...
Think of a big @$$ bat with a big @$$ gun on it sticking forward between its horn-shaped ears, oh yeah, wee little Goblin glaring at you down the sights making divebomber/Vicker's Machinegun noises... the Goblin has his own crap smeared on his face as warpaint trying to be scary, but it makes him look like a homeless clown...
A homeless clown targeting your Touch AC, about to shoot you in the face with Alchemical Ordnance, most likely an Exploding Bullet... who is laughing now?
The homeless clown with his own crap on his face, that's who...
Which is good, because the tribe was in desperate need of ranged support/abilty to defeat flying foes... I'm going to end up with a whole gaggle of Goblins by the end of this... I better not feed them after midnight...
A random group of Goblins will never be a generic encounter at my table, ever again... book calls for Goblins, does it? I got me some Goblins now... just sprinkle in a dash of these Goblins in any random encounter... just add a TWF Tomahawk UnBarb, or a Longspear Tactician Barbarian, or a Longspear Barbarian with a War Beast, or a mounted/flying gun toting Alchemist, or... yeah, Goblins will be fun from now on...
The tribe my Goblin Chronicler of Worlds-Studious Librarian Bard VMC Alchemist left, just got a whole lot more interesting... but it is obvious why he left...
Goblin dogs are actually oversized rodents and they're beautiful.