Author Topic: Help! Epic progression for a barbarian/fighter  (Read 976 times)

Offline Ryshin

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Help! Epic progression for a barbarian/fighter
« on: March 01, 2022, 12:08:39 PM »
Hello, with my group we have reached epic levels so i need suggestions for the epic level progression of my character, i can use all books even 3rd party and magazines.

So far the build from 1to20 is: barbarian(with lion totem)/fighter/champion of gwynharwyf/psychic warrior/warblade/bloodstormblade.

Basically i rage, charge, throw my weapon if someone is outside my range and if something is still alive i activate the demoralize stunlock by rolling at least a 63 with intimidate (never outnumbered, imperious command, presence of the master, item familiar ecc).

Our master is ofc modding monsters to keep the encounters challenging so we had monsters immune to spells but not weapons, immune to demoralize, immune to weapons but not spells, monsters that can reflect all dmg for 1d4 rounds or monsters with simply 10k hp ecc

So yeah, i've reached the peak of what a martial character can do, how can i improve from level 21 onwards?
Full caster? But what, Cleric? Sorcerer? Bard? Binder? I have int 10 so wizard and psion are impossibile.
What prestige classes? Jade phoenix mage and ruby knight vindicator are cool if i want to keep progressing maneuvers but do i want that?

Thanks
I didn't choose the min/max life, the min/max life chose me.

Offline Power

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Re: Help! Epic progression for a barbarian/fighter
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2022, 04:31:23 PM »
Ability scores would be useful to know. Looks like you're CG and have divine casting already, so that rules out Ur-Priest. Well, you can use Divine Crusader and advance that with one or more prestige classes (like Contemplative) to make up for its poor list. And a good domain can go a long ways there. So to go over some basic options:
  • Summoner domain gives you a huge amount of spells through Summon Monster and Planar Ally spells
  • Spell domain gives you Anyspell, Greater Anyspell, and Limited Wish along with a slew of strong spells (Silence, Anti-Magic Field, Mordenkainen's Disjunction), and Greater Anyspell also gets you Polymorph (you may want Practiced Spellcaster for this)
  • Animal domain gives you some spellcasting through SNA and Shapechange at 9th level, but Shapechange is extremely good.
  • Luck domain gives a number of reasonably nice spells and culminates in Miracle at 9th level.
  • Shadow domain (Eberron Campaign Setting variant) gives Shadow Conjuration, Shadow Evocation, their greater variants, and Shades. Basically give up on DCs, but there are still a lot of stunts you can pull with these spells.
You should expand your Divine Crusader spell list with 1 or 6 levels of the Contemplative prestige class for the extra domains (it's a 10/10 spellcasting advancement PrC), and I'd strongly recommend taking Summoner or Spell early on. A 1 level dip in Divine Oracle for an extra Oracle domain is not bad either, especially since you can swap it for another domain by casting Substitute Domain by UMDing a wand or casting a Limited Wish or Miracle. You could also take the Sovereign Speaker prestige class for even more domains, but it doesn't have full advancement. Other prestige classes you could advance Divine Crusader into include Thaumaturgist (if you have a Summoner domain) and Ruby Knight Vindicator.

Anyway, here's a Divine Crusader guide, but it's oriented towards a more martial playstyle rather than maxing out spellcasting (which it regards as an inferior Cleric or Ur-Priest, but in this case Ur-Priest is not an option twice over and Cleric is too slow). And here is a guide for Sovereign Speaker (which is inferior to Contemplative). And here are some lists of SLAs you get through Summon Monster and SNA.

Aside from that, getting Use Magic Device as a class skill and using magic items (perhaps with a Quick Draw feat) will also do a pretty good impression of a spellcaster and give you great options. The main feats of choice to get UMD as a class skill appear to be Apprentice (Spellcaster), Aereni Focus, and Cosmopolitan. If you have no better options Skill Knowledge will work too. 24+ ranks of UMD will usually give you a decent time hitting those checks.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2023, 06:56:34 AM by Power »

Offline ketaro

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Re: Help! Epic progression for a barbarian/fighter
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2022, 11:08:08 PM »
Dip sorcerer, acquire draconic heritage (try to get Battle Dragon as your heritage, it'd make your DFI damage Sonic typed), become bard, acquire dragonfire inspiration (replaces bonus from Bardic Inspiration from +X to hit/damage to +Xd6 Damage). Acquire Words of Creation to double the Inspiration bonus/damage. Acquire a bardic prestige class to run multiple bard songs simultaneously.

ketaro suggests Seeker of the Song. It's not super OP compared to almost every other possible Bard PrC, but you get some fun songs (like halfway through the PrC you can use Bardic Music uses/day to Heal HP equal to Perform checks. Break those skills checks for excessive heals; or at 6th level being able to force anything that can hear your song to win a Concentrate vs. Perform check to be allowed to cast any magics; or a capstone song to banish everything extraplanar within 60ft with a Will save).


Offline Versatility_Nut

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Re: Help! Epic progression for a barbarian/fighter
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2022, 12:59:53 AM »
I think Soul Manifester by way of Totemist 2 is the most "direct" way to go, as it progresses Psychic Warrior to unlock options through Expanded Knowledge, and Totemist brings you a back of non-committal options, mostly centering on Natural Attacks for a backup in case your weapons don't work, get stolen, or you simply threw all of them and can't reach them.

Offline ketaro

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Re: Help! Epic progression for a barbarian/fighter
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2022, 09:02:07 PM »
Oh thats true, Totemist/soulmelds are pretty useful and specifically Totemist's have pretty good options that don't require much investment in levels to get.
Plus a lot of Totemist melds give natural weapons which can all trigger on your Lion Totem's Pounce stuff.