... and now, for the Half-Orc Barbarian

[Kyrae]

Thank you to those of me who helped me rewrite the Githzerai Psionic Madman.

The other character due a rewrite in the campaign I'm playing in, is the one I played from the start. Originally a humble Level 1 Barbarian, Zakulnar Thrombeksson (or Zak, for short) has seen me through since the very beginning of my relationship with D&D. I remember thumbing through the PHB on the day, randomly selecting feats (oh my god!! weapon focus gives me +1 to my attack, I'm the best!  ), and generally hodgepodging along.

Zak has become one of the best-loved characters in the group, he is like a cross between Conan the Barbarian and Danaerys Targaryen due his fierce countenance and loathing of slavers (having had his parents killed and being sold as a slave soldier to a nomadic tribe when young).

Here he sits now, at Level 20, having arrived in a new continent with a group and immediately beginning a massive slave uprising, several hundreds of thousands strong, overthrowing the rule of the slaving aristocracy overnight and claiming the Crown of Kings. Now the Barbarian King of the Free People, Enemies to Slavers everywhere, (he has roughly twenty titles he uses when referring to himself, I won't recount them all here), he is a major character in the story of this world.

After helping some Dragons recently, Bahamut has granted our characters the chance to reconfigure somewhat.. So.. I'm looking to make Zak's mechanics catch up with his personality.

Character is now Half-Orc Level 20. I was considering Spirit Lion Barbarian 16 / Fighter 4, but subbing out a couple of Barbarian levels for something cool, and possibly Dragon-themed (being as we are becoming scions of dragonkind on this continent, have them as allies now, etc)

STR 28, DEX 14, CON 22, INT 12, WIS 9, CHA 9  (any suggestions on changing this? As we are allowed to move ability scores around as part of the rewrite)

4 levels in Fighter alongside general feats give me:
Power Attack, Leap Attack, Shock Trooper, Combat Brute and Knockback      -     for charging and post-charge madness.
Improved Bullrush and Improved Sunder as necessary feats for the above
Combat Reflexes and Robilar's Gambit for extra not-my-turn damage
Monkey Grip, because 8 foot long Greatsword in the face. Soon to become larger still..

I'll be getting Knockback as soon as the Githzerai Madman will be putting a permanent enlarge on him, as soon as the next session begins

Questions are as follows:

1) He has +4 full plate, and now going Spirit Lion as well. His movement speed kind of sucks for a Barbarian, is there any one-level dip or somesuch for faster movement? Even Ardent 1 with Freedom Mantle?? Heh. Any other tricks to get his move speed back up?
2) Any cool ideas to make him at all "Dragon themed" - very much optional, but any cool ideas will be considered.  Maybe I could see if my DM will allow a re-fluffed Bear Warrior?
3) Is it worth bothering with any ToB? Is Tiger Claw worth adding on into this mix? I enjoy the simplicity of Zak, it's a nice contrast to play to the StP/Warblade Githzerai Erudite who wants to absorb and contain all knowledge, everywhere, ever, to further his holy war on the Illithid and Githyanki - who can be a complex, what with all the psyref's, spell conversion, feat swapping, etc.
4) Ability distribution seem okay?
5) The Dragon God is also blessing Zak by enchanting his Large Greatsword (Chainbreaker, the Slaver's Bane) with a +4 enchantment of my choosing. I'm thinking either Valorous for the charging damage, or Vampiric to be getting some health back during combat. Any fun ideas here?

Many thanks for any creative input!

Long Live Zakulnar, First of His Name, Bastard of Khul and Barbarian King of Khare,Liberator of the Free People, the Slaver's Bane and Besieging Annihilator of Drow, The Windwalking Slayer of Flayers, Champion of the Void, Guardian of Gillibrand and the Iron Helm, Crusher of Minotaurs and Champion of the Arena, The Loser of Virginity, The Patron of Walkers, The Thrice-Born, etc., etc.,

(Yeah, he gets a new title for every adventure..)

 

[phaedrusxy]

The Tooth of Savnok lets you move at normal speed while wearing heavy armor, or with a heavy load. I don't know that it would let you get your barbarian speed bonus while in heavy armor, but at least it would offset the loss of speed from the armor itself. It's very cheap, also.

Monkey Grip is a trap. The damage boost you get is minimal. You're better off power attacking for more instead. There are equipment options to allow you to use larger-than-normal weapons, if it is important to you. I think there is a balanced weapon special ability that lets you wield a weapon one size larger than normal, and maybe a pair of gloves in the magic item compendium.

Equipment is key to non-casting characters. I'd look to shore up weaknesses (flight, detection, saves, negative levels, etc). I think this character's gear is pretty solid for a melee character of his level, but he's only 8th. You can afford a LOT better at the upper levels (although quite a bit of that will be upgrading from 1x/day to permanent items that do the same things). He also has the charisma to make a Sudden Stunning weapon a good option, and has flight from a class ability.

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Fatebringer (10320): Large Sudden Stunning Psychokinetic Earth Breaker

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(Cha mod, currently 4) times per day, you can make a stunning attack. A struck opponent must make a Reflex save (DC =10+1/2 char level + Cha mod, currently 18) or be stunned for 1d4+1 rounds.

Smoking Dastana(2302): Provides a small "stinking cloud" in his square that he can see through and ignores

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Smoking (Lords of Darkness p.180): Upon command this weapon fills wielder's area with (5ft square) noxious smoke equivalent to stinking cloud spell (wielder not affected but any that venture into his square are). Smoke provides concealment but wielder can see through smoke as normal. Smoke dissipates and reforms when wielder moves into a new square. [+1 bonus]

Chahar-aina (125) with Warning Armor Spikes (2350): +5 initiative
Death Ward Chain Shirt (1200) (MIC): +1 armor enhancement. Once per day, ignore Death effects, energy drain and negative energy effects as an immediate action.
Iron Ward Diamond (Lesser) (3000): DR 3/-, absorbs up to 30 damage per day
Scout's Headband (MIC, 3400GP):

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head slot. Allows you to flush out all of the item's daily charges to gain True Seeing for one minute. Standard action activation. Can spend fewer charges to gain lesser vision-based benefits.

Least Weapon Crystal of Revelation (400 gp): Invisible struck target surrounded by glowing aura for 1 round
Third Eye Freedom (MIC, 2600GP), face slot: Once per day, as an immediate action, gain Freedom of Movement for one round.
Wand of Lesser Vigor (750)

If I were you, I'd be sorely tempted to add the dragonborn template to this guy for the non-magical flight (or senses, which are also great). Those antimagic shackles might be something interesting and useful to give him, also. The idea of using shackles as an offensive weapon sounds like it could fit very well thematically for him (and the idea is for him to wear the shackles to suppress the magic of his enemies, not to shackle the enemies themselves).

[Jackinthegreen]

If you're going with full plate, it needs to be mithril for the barbarian's fast movement to work with it because fast movement only works with medium or lighter armor.

As Phae mentioned, Monkey Grip is almost always a trap.  Going from a large greatsword to a huge one is only an increase of 1d6 damage, which averages out to 3.5 extra damage for -2 accuracy.  Compare that to Power Attack's guaranteed +4 damage for -2 accuracy with just a 2h weapon.  Only when you go from huge to gargantuan does it becomes worthwhile since that's an extra 2d6 damage (huge 4d6 -> gargantuan 6d6).

The Strongarm Bracers from MiC page 139 allow the user to wield weapons one size category larger if you absolutely need to have a bigger weapon.

The Balanced weapon ability from the Arms and Equipment Guide is a 3.0 weapon ability and would need to be converted to 3.5 due to how they changed weapon rules.  The wording needed to update it to 3.5 would be something along the lines of "You may treat a 2-handed weapon appropriate to your size category as a 1-handed weapon."

You might want to look at the Alternate Class Features handbook for some ideas on other ACFs.

[phaedrusxy]

From his other thread, I think they're playing with mostly 3.0 rules with some 3.5 stuff added in. So converting Balanced won't be necessary.

[Kyrae]

Somewhere out there in the countryside, is a Huge Regal Griffin in full Mithril running around since we killed it's previous rider. We may have to Scry it, take it out, and reforge it's armour...

However, as I'm going with the Pounce ACF, there is no Fast Movement to worry about - so the Tooth of Savnok would certainly do the trick for 30 ft. speed in Heavy Armour.

Dropping Monkey Grip feat in exchange for Strongarm Bracers sounds like a good idea. The feat slot I can use for Improved Initiative.

The Githzerai is probably going to pull the guys on a sidequest to take out some Githyanki or Illithid as he has been helping them for several months now without using them for any of his own extraplanar agendas - I am thinking some Permanencied Superior Resistances would make a fetching reward for the other PCs who help.

Dragonborn looks interesting, will have a chat with my DM about it.. I'm not sure if I want to look *that* Dragonified, although Breath Weapon or Wings sound good.!

Will need to look more at items to help the build. Stats include a +6str item, by the way.

And no.. we're playing 3.5, perhaps a touch loosely as we are going far into epic.. the BBEG is levelled into the 80s, apparently. 

[Rebel7284]

There is always psychic warrior.  Get as many feats as a fighter, lose one BAB, but get cool martial themed powers.  Warblade is probably more powerful though as you can get 8 initiator levels from the 16 Barbarian levels.

[Dawnmor]

I suggest you look into the Fighter Sub level Dungeon Crasher from the Dungeonscape book.

as for your character, hmm half orc is good Pure orcs are better but anyways classes, I suggest The Barbarian and taking levels in Champion of XXX I forgot the PRC name totally but it increases your Rage as usual as per being a barbarian, you get a spell list, full BAB and whatever is left look into taking fighter?.  or something I dunno.

But you have to remember that Daenaris never actually did any fighting, infact I dont remember her picking up a sword or anything not once through out the book series or the movies now ?

So she probly wouldnrt be a good role model lol.

Also consider being a half dragon? either the 5 level template from Races of Dragon or take a temporary LA cut of I think +3 to get the template? would increase the draconic feel of Daenryis you wont control dragons? but you can breath like one.

[Maat Mons]

If you keep 19 of those barbarian levels, you could try out the streetfighter alternative class feature.  That lets you charge multiple times in a round if you can keep killing your targets on the first hit. 

If you do stick with barbarian 20, the relentless smash alternative class feature (Dragon 349, p92) would be good.  It lets you stun your opponent for 1d3 rounds with no save if you score a critical hit or make three successful attacks in a round.  You do give up mighty rage, but stunning without a save is very nice.  Devil's luck, on the same page, would also be good if you don't go with streetfighter.  It gives you a +5 luck bonus on saves instead of DR 5/-. 

I see you want to be faster.  The fangshields 3rd-level substitution for barbarian (Champions of Valor, p40) gives you a +60 foot enhancement bonus to your speed when charging.  The problem here is that you need a type other than humanoid to qualify.  There are a variety of easy ways to be a non-humanoid, but none of them seem well-suited to your character.  The closest I can think of is the otherwordly feat (Player's Guide to Faerun, p41), which makes you an outsider.  This requires using the variant on page 150 of Races of Destiny that allows half-orcs (and half-elves) to qualify for feats as if human.  Deep Imaskari, one of the groups that qualifies for the feat, is just a human subrace. 

Frostblood half-orc (Dragon Magic, p10) is a subrace of half-orc infused with the power of white dragons (because your ancestors drank dragon blood).  You could probably re-theme that to being infused with the power of silver dragons because of the blessing of this Dragon God.  One of the benefits of frostblood over regular half-orc is that you get the endurance feat for free.  The feat itself isn't very good, but it qualifies you to take steadfast determination (Player's Handbook II, p83), which lets you use constitution instead of wisdom for will saves.  It also removes the always-fail-on-a-1 proviso from fortitude saves. 

[altpersona]

LA buyoff?

Dawnmor beat me to the half dragon template..

+3 la hurts, but its only 1? if you get the benefits of buy off

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Becomes a ‘Dragon’ Increased hit die type (up to d12)
Half-Dragons of Large-size or greater have reptilian wings which allow Flying (Average maneuverability) at twice the base creature’s ground speed (max 120’).
Natural Armor bonus improves by +4
Str +8    Con +2    Int +2  Cha +2

Low-light vision.
Darkvision 60’.
Immune to sleep & paralysis effects.
Gain two 1d4 Claw & one 1d6 Bite attacks (if Medium).
Base Skill Points are now (6+Int mod) * (Racial HD+3).
Gain a breath weapon matching its parent, usable once per day.
It does 6d8 damage and the DC is Constitution-based.
‘Line’ is always 60’. ‘Cone’ is always 30’.

[Kyrae]

Wow-eeee!

Barbarian Streetfighter ACF looks AWESOME.
Fighter Dungeon Crasher ACF looks COOL!
Half-dragon looks tempting, but costly.
Dragonborn template could be worked in with a ritual, would be nice.
Psychic Warrior looks like I'll be giving myself a psionics OD after all the work I've done on the Githzerai.
Becoming an outsider looks like a really twisted way to get really fast - I love it, but its too much.
Thanks for all the suggestions - there is some exciting stuff here.

Exciting stuff.

I will be taking Spirit Lion Streetfighting Barbarian / Dungeoncrasher Fighter.

Seem like the long-term goal shall be Barbarian 20/Fighter 6. I'm just divided on what to go with now at ECL 20.. 

If I just go Barbarian 14/Fighter 6, I can just focus all my XP into more Barbarism, adapt to the leap attack/shock trooper charging goodness (which I am new to), whilst adapting to the 36+8d6 joy of crushing my enemies into walls.  Heck - it is already a large step up from what I was playing before (Barbarian 11/Fighter 8, no ACFs, poor feat selection) so I may just run with this and see how I go, adding more ridiculous charging benefits with additional levels.

Or if I go Barbarian 18/Fighter 2, I get some of the Dungeoncrasher goodness, but I'm only one level away from getting the Cleaving Charge part of the Streetfighter ACF. Once I've hit Barbarian 20/Fighter 2, just go more Fighter. Seems like the more balanced approach, and means I won't be waiting months to get the fun Streetfighter/Tekken charging challenge

Does  STR 28, DEX 14, CON 22, INT 12, WIS 9, CHA 9   sound reasonable?  Taking into account I'll be Large next session, the more tempting option is:
STR 36, DEX 14, CON 22, INT 12, WIS 6, CHA 6... when in Greater Rage, the STR will go up to 42, and the CON to 28. I love it. I'm doing that. To Hades with "reasonable" 

By the way Dawnmor - when I say he is a cross of Conan and Danaerys - the Danaerys aspect is more his disdain for slavers. Danaerys in thought, Conan in action. 

[phaedrusxy]

I was going to suggest that maybe you could take epic barbarian levels, but then I looked at it...  The epic PrCs in the SRD look like crap as well... which I was a bit surprised at. Are there any decent epic melee PrCs this guy could take?

Some of the epic feats aren't that bad, like Devastating Critical.
Edit: Strike that. I think that's the only decent looking one for you... unless you pick up a caster level of 12 somehow for Spell Stowaway (Runescarred Berzerker, maybe?).

[Kyrae]

Getting to Barbarian 20, Fighter 6 will take me long enough, no worries. After that if I'm desperate I can always go Warblade/Bloodstorm Blade, or Hurlking Hurler, or Bear Warrior, or War Hulk, or, or,

Runescarred Beserker was considered, and rejected, on the basic of the prerequisite feats.

My new concern is a couple ACF'd colliding at Barbarian 7.

Spirit Lion Totem:

Level 7
Replaces: This benefit replaces the damage reduction class feature, including all damage reduction increases gained at
higher levels of the barbarian class.
Benefit: Each of these effects is a supernatural ability. Lion Totem rewards you with the ability to loose a powerful and intimidating roar. When you roar, every creature within a 30-foot radius must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your barbarian level + your Str modifi er) or be shaken for a number of rounds equal to your barbarian level. This ability can be used once per day, and you gain an additional use per day at each level at which your damage reduction would increase (10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th levels).


Streetfighter Level 7:
Critical threat range on weapon increases by 1 on a charge.


I care little for the Streetfighter 7, but muchly for the Spirit Lion 7.  I'm just going to decide now, I'm taking the Spirit Lion 7, to hell with rules.  Zakulnar must roar, all must cower. It just makes sense, sorry DM.

[Kyrae]

OK, done.

ZAKULNARR THROMBEKSSON, BARBARIAN KING OF KHARE.
LEVEL 20 C.N. ORC  SPIRIT LION TOTEM STREETFIGHTER BARBARIAN 18 / DUNGEONCRASHER FIGHTER 2
13ft tall, 2,000 lbs.

STR: 36 (28 basic, +6item, +2 size)
DEX: 12 (14 basic, -2 size)
CON 22 (22 basic)
INT: 12 (12 basic)
WIS 6 (6 basic)
CHA 6 (6 basic)

When in Greater Rage, STR 42  (+16 bonus), CON 28 (+9 bonus)

HP: 257
Rage HP: 317

Flaw: Shaky  (-2 on ranged attack rolls)
Feats:
Power Attack, Leap Attack, Shock Trooper, Improved Bullrush, Improved Sunder, Combat Brute, Knockback, Combat Reflexes, Robilar's Gambit

Streetfighter at 18th level Barbarian - can make single turn of up to 90 degrees during a charge, can charge through squares occupied by allies or noncombatants, can move up to four times normal speed when charging...  (one more level until the Charging Cleave)

Dungeoncrasher at 2nd level Fighter - bonus on saves or breaking doors/similar objects. When bullrushing opponent into solid object, deals bludgeoning damage (str bonus x 2) + 4d6  -  so whilst raging, 32+4d6.   (Once at six levels, that becomes str mod x 3 ) 8d6 so 48 + 8d6.

Spirit Lion Totem -  Loses fast movement, gains Pounce.  Can view the spirit world once/day for various perceptual bonuses.  When you roar, every creature within a 30 foot radius must succeed on a will save (DC 10 + 1/2 barbarian level + str mod - so 35 when raging) of be shaken for round/barbarian level.


Should do the trick.

[phaedrusxy]

I'm pretty sure each of those alternate class levels can be taken completely independently. So you can take Lion Totem 1, Streetfighter 7, etc. Heck, as long as they don't both give up the same class features (or explicitly bar you from taking them together), I think you could even take two at the same level (i.e. Lion Totem 7 and Streetfighter 7).

[Kyrae]

Spirit Lion Totem 7 and Streetfighter 7 do indeed give up the same class feature, hence me choosing just one of their benefits.

I chose a +4 Flaming Speed Greatsword.

Using all of this, with shocktrooper,
A Greater Rage Charging Leap Full Power Attack is +39/+39/+34/+29/+24, each attack dealing 60+24+4+4d6+1d6 fire damage = average 105.5 damage per hit.. with 5 attacks.

That is just silly. I actually feel *too* powerful. Maybe I should swap the Speed for Wrathful Healing. One less attack but regaining some health feels a bit more balanced.

I suppose that's why the name of the game is to kill them in one hit, so I can charge on to the next opponent.

[phaedrusxy]

lol, Wrathful Healing is WAAAAAY more powerful than Speed. You can get the same effect of Speed from wearing Boots of Speed, which are far cheaper (buy multiple pairs and stick them in a backpack to trade out between combats if you need more than what one provides). Wrathful Healing on the other hand is often regarded as one of the most overpowered special weapon abilities ever printed for D&D 3.X (the other would probably be Splitting, but that's for bows).

And if you're traveling with spellcasters or someone who can give your weapon a temporary enhancement bonus, there is no reason to ever get above an actual +1 enhancement bonus. Spend the rest of your +9 on special abilities, then add on Greater Magic Weapon to get the +5 enhancement bonus. I'd highly suggest adding Berzerking (or whatever it is that increases the enhancement bonus while raging). That way, you can get the benefit of having a +6 or higher bonus without having to actually pay for an epic weapon.

[Jackinthegreen]

If Dragon Mag is available then you might want to look at Dragon Mag ACFs for barbarian.  The fighter variants might not be worth it unless you went for Exoticist and then used the free exotic weapon profs to go into Exotic Weapon Master (Complete Warrior) to get Flurry and/or Uncanny Blow (2x strength to damage with a 1h weapon used in 2 hands instead of 1.5x strength).  As far as damage goes the best way to use this is take the spiked chain and add the Sizing enhancement to it, then make it small (or the equivalent size to make it a one-handed weapon for you) so that it works for both Flurry and Uncanny Blow.  Even if it's just Uncanny Blow though, at 36 strength with a huge weapon the bastard sword at 2x strength does 6 more damage average than the greatsword at 1.5x strength.

I wouldn't bother with Flaming if I were you.  An extra 1d6 fire damage won't be meaningful to you compared to some other great +1 enhancements especially since fire is the most resisted type of elemental damage.  If Captnq hasn't finished his weapon ability guide starting with http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8277.0 then you'll want to look at http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=12795 to see what the optimization community considers good weapon enhancements.  That link doesn't have all of them, but it's a good start.

[Kyrae]

Wrathful Healing is... allowed.

I love it. In order to survive combat with his 0AC, he has to continue dealing out horrendous amount of damage. It's a fight for survival and after our last session, I'm glad to say I'm thrilled with his new build.  GM and players cracked up laughing on numerous occasions as I started dealing out 300+ damage in a single rageful charge.

Not looking at any more ACFs for a while!

I will look into Bloodstorm Blade, and Hulking Hurler, though. Or War Hulk. More 'Hulk Smash' methinks, now he is permanently enlarged.

He does have a low will save, think I need to permanency superior resistance on him.. and that's just for a start.

[Jackinthegreen]

Make sure you're using the errata for War Hulk if you're going into it.  Basically it makes Mighty Swing an attack action and not a standard, so you can do a full attack mighty swing charge.

[Kyrae]

So I could  "Leap Attack Charge Pounce Mighty Swing Full Power Attack" for ridiculous damage vs. 3 opponents? That is ridiculous. Also Cleave would grant an extra attack on a 4th opponent, if any of them are left standing after taking roughly 4-500 damage each. With Greater Cleave and 100 damage per attack average that is ridiculous.

Barbarian 20/Fighter 2/War Hulk X it is, then. DM has already mentioned that Divine Ranks are a possibility if our characters achieve certain feats of magnificence (such as doing inhuman amounts of damage).

In the last session, Zakulnar and the gang attempted a raid on a Beholder cult underground. Didn't go well, but at least Zak managed to kill 3 level 20 casters, constantly recharging health as it was slashed from him by large groups of desperate melee opponents. So fun.