Advice on Future character. Dwarf Barabrian


Advice


I have no up coming games but want some character ideas fleshed out for when I do.

I Have been eyeing the idea of playing Dwarf Barbarian

And I was wondering if I should go Unchained

And what if any Archtype would be worth it.

I am not to good at telling if an archetype is strong or not


In almost all cases, unchained barbarian is to be preferred, for one simple reason: avoiding "sudden barbarian death syndrome." Core barbarians of all but the lowest levels have an unfortunate tendency to die instantly when they reach negative HP, because going unconscious ends their rage, resulting in immediately losing double their level in HP when their Con resets to normal. The unchained barbarian avoids that by having rage give temporary HP instead.

There are almost certainly some archetypes that only work with the core barbarian rather than the unchained version, but I haven't built enough barbarians to be any kind of expert on the class. I'll leave it to our resident theorycrafters to chime in on whether those options are worth the risk of forgoing unchained rage.


DWARF BARBARIAN GET GIANT KILLER MAKE MANY MANY WHACK MANY GUD WHACK CRUSH ALL ENEMY DRINK BEER GET DRUNK FIGHT EVERYONE AT TAVERN GO SLEEP WAKE UP DO FOR MAKE MANY MORE WHACK ALL DAY BLOOD GOD PLEASED


I have a dwarven barbarian on my idea list, he is focused on tanking. Archetype is invulnerable rager, combined with Stalwart for high damage reduction. A single level in fighter (unbreakable) nets Diehard, which helps to avoid sudden death from rage end. It also makes heavy armor an option (high AC has amazing synergy with DR), but barbarian's fast movement won't work then. Steel Soul seems like a feat that thematically fits.

Beyond that, Advanced Race Guide has a few options about dwarves and their helmets. They are not that powerful but quite unique. I also like dwarven war-shields, but Dex 15 for dual-wield is a steep requirement for a dwarf (maybe on the long run?).

The clichee of a mindless charge into a bunch of enemies doesn't work too well in practice, a barbarian player still has to think about positioning properly. If you keep that in mind, sudden death from rage end should be much rarer.


My only advice is to wield a double-bitted axe or to have a unicorn animal companion. in either case, fur-lined boots and a horned helmet are must haves.

Shadow Lodge

Barbarian (Unchained) is probably the better option if you have limited healing (no need to heal those temporary HP), but it does lose out to the Core Barbarian in a couple of small but annoying ways (you lose the boost to Fortitude saves that you normally get from a Rage-boosted Constitution, and you don't get quite as much damage out of a two-handed weapon).

That being said, definitely go Unchained if you are planning to wield multiple weapons and/or natural attacks at one time.


I think a dwarf barbarian combination is great from a mechanical perspective regardless whether you go core or unchained.

What is really interesting to me is the combination from a role playing perspective. To what degree does the age and wisdom of a dwarf temper the typical recklessness desire to smash things of a barbarian? Perhaps the dwarf is rather chill, until the tavern runs out of ale…


Boomerang Nebula wrote:

I think a dwarf barbarian combination is great from a mechanical perspective regardless whether you go core or unchained.

What is really interesting to me is the combination from a role playing perspective. To what degree does the age and wisdom of a dwarf temper the typical recklessness desire to smash things of a barbarian? Perhaps the dwarf is rather chill, until the tavern runs out of ale…

Well for flavor maybe I Could play one of Drinking Related Arxherype

I did have an idea of a Dwarf in search of a Legendary Ale


The core difference between Core and Unchained (pun intended) is that Core Barbarian has a much higher cheese potential due to morale bonuses to scores, although that is also met with a much higher risk if you over do it. By comparison Unchained is much safer to play.

As for archetypes that one is really hard to give advice on without known more about what you want your character to do. Ex: Urban or Savage Technologist Barbarian are 100% the way to go for Dex base, while Dreadnaught is better for consistency, while Titan Mauler is just pure meme (in a good way).

If you are going for a drinking barbarian then yeah those 2 archetype would be good. Which one is better depends.

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