Why do you even need an archetype? It seems to me that the base barbarian has everything you need. The way most mages work they either rely on their targets failing a save or by targeting touch AC. A dwarf barbarian with steel soul and glory of old takes care of the saving throws. Uncanny Dodge and Danger Sense (if Unchained) help keeping your touch AC at full at all times. If you really want to be the anti-mage tank don’t take any archetype that trades away uncanny dodge.
Don’t fall into the trap of a low DEX heavy armor or your touch AC is going to be your undoing. You don’t need to max out DEX but should have a decent DEX. This will also boost your reflex save which is going to be the one you need to worry about most. You get FAST fortitude and a racial bonus to CON so fortitude is your best save. You also have a racial bonus to WIS and rage gives you a bonus to WIS. That leaves reflex saves as your weakest save. Go with at least a 14 DEX and consider taking dodge as feat to boost up your touch AC.
Yeah, like Mysterious Stranger said, no archetype required. Glory of Old, Steel Soul, and Superstition push your saves against spells through the stratosphere. If you want even more, rage cycle Clear Mind (and while you're at it, rage cycling Spell Sunder further increases the anti-mage-thing).
If you want to defend against attack roll spells like rays, Smash from the Air allows that for a fairly heavy feat cost (you can qualify via Martial Focus).
I mean, you could take the Geminate Invoker archetype which grants save bonuses instead of the normal rage bonuses, but I think that's overkill...
Your basic concept does not require much besides steel soul, glory of old and superstitious. Add in power attack for some damage and you have pretty much what you are looking for.
Ghost Rager would be a useful rage power. Being able to damage incorporeal creatures with normal weapons is always useful. But the real benefit is it gives you an increasing bonus to your touch AC. It cannot raise your touch AC higher than your normal AC, but that is still going to be useful.
Guarded Life and Greater Guarded life can keep you alive when you are brought to 0 HP or below. If you are not playing an unchained barbarian this is almost a must have.
Raging Vitality increases your CON bonus from rage which boost your fortitude save and gives you more HP.
Witch Hunter seems like an obvious choice, and it qualifies your for Spell Sunder.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'd offer a general advice here, one that applies to literally every PF character: Don't try to "win more"! What that means is: Don't build too one-sided, because at a certain point, you're putting recources into something that you only benefit from in situations that you're already strongly favored in (which means the investment has diminishing returns). In other words, don't put all your eggs in one basket - all the magical defenses in the world won't do you any good if the opponent spellcaster targets your party members, and you're unable to stop them because you neglected your offense. Thus, I'd still take a two-handed weapon, Power Attack, and Greater Beast Totem. For cBarb, I'd also build towards Greater Elemental Blood (Air) to get a fly speed, so that you can fulfill your "tanking" duties against flying or otherwise unreachable enemies, too.
With a Dex around 14 or so and weapon familiarity, I feel like I'd be tempted to take Combat Reflexes and a long hammer. There's also Step Up and No Escape; anything to force the possibility of AoO and Concentration checks.
But as said above, I don't think you need much. Raging Vitality, Superstition, Power Attack. With okay stats and no magic items at lvl3, that's something like 40+hp, AC16ish, around +7 attack, +10 damage, and Fort +6 (+13 vs magic), Ref +3 (+10 vs magic), Will +4 (+11 vs magic). With that many hp and those kinds of saves, I feel like the only "anti mage" thing you need after that is to just swing a big heavy thing at mages. Spell Sunder would be good, along with anything to improve your mobility and make it harder for enemies to cast spells or get away from you.
Note that spending a feat on Heavy Armor Proficiency (or possibly dipping a single level in fighter) isn't a bad option at higher levels for a dwarf barbarian. Mithral heavy armor (counts as medium except for proficiency) is a bit expensive, but you can still end up with good normal and decent touch AC (mithral full plate +9 armor/+3 max. Dex, mithral o-yoroi +8 armor/+4 max. Dex, or mithral tatami-do +7 armor/+5 max. Dex).
I would just spend the feat for heavy armor proficiency. Dipping will delay level dependent class abilities. By the time he is high enough level to afford Mitral Full Plate he is going to have picked up all the feats he really needs. While it may not hurt a barbarian as much to lose 1 level as it would most casters it still delays things.
It may depend on the fighter archetype (such as titan fighter to use a Large two-handed weapon as a Medium character or maybe gloomblade to create any nonmagical weapon as a move action), more than the bonus feat, depending on what the OP wants out of the character at that point. Hence the "or possibly dipping a single level in fighter."