Author Topic: Advice on a Goliath brawler  (Read 3209 times)

Offline Tempest

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Advice on a Goliath brawler
« on: February 27, 2012, 05:19:29 AM »
So, our group is starting up a new campaign in a week's time or so, and I've been juggling with some character ideas and concepts, and after discovering the Thunderclap feat I sort of got this idea in my head to make a truly powerful 'Conan'esque fighter, with massive HP, DR and several combat options to choose from.

The first thing I wanted to do was to somehow get access to the Thunderclap feat as early as I could, which is when I discovered the lovely War Hulk PrC. This class fit just beautifully into the idea for my character, and I decided to go that route for a few lvls to get to that crazy 30 STR requirement of Thunderclap.

After a couple of days of searching/considering I've more or less established the mechanical and roleplaying basis for my character. Imagine a Goliath warrior monk, who trains to turn his own body as durable and powerful as the mountains which he hails from, using single extremely powerful attacks instead of several smaller ones.
I wanted him to be more controlling in a battle than simply full-attacking every single round, so I decided to use the Dungeoncrasher variant of Fighter, the Knockback, Rock Hurling, Fling Enemy and Thunderclap feats to give him some more options to choose from.

A few things to note: We've playing with a few homebrewed rules a couple of which are relevant to the creation of this character. We're using the feat progression from Pathfinder (Feat every second lvl) and we're also using the Toughness feat from Pathfinder (+3 HP, +1 for every HD past 3). My DM is going to be changing the No time to Think ability into something different, like a -1 penalty on all Int, Wis and Cha skill checks per class lvl. My DM has ruled that Powerful Build would allow me to get into the War Hulk.
We're using 84 flat points to build attributes, with a max of 18 pre-racial modifiers, so getting 20 Con and 20 Str won't be hard, and still won't look all that much like powergaming :3

I am also not looking for a way to powergame my character, I'd just like him to be optimized to a point where I won't feel as inferior with casters in my group.

I already have a decent level progression thought out past lvl 4, but I'd like your input and advice if possible =)

The first four levels, which create the basis for the character, are looking like this thus far:

Fighter 2 (Dungeoncrasher Variant) / Monk 2 (Overwhelming Attack and Decisive Strike variants)

lvl 1: Monk 1 - Imp. Unarmed, Power Attack, Toughness
lvl 2: Monk 2 - Imp. Bull Rush
lvl 3: Fighter 1 - Knockback, Roll with It
lvl 4: Fighter 2 - (Dungeoncrasher I)

This can of course be changed if needed, might even get the Fighter levels first.

At 5th or 7th lvl I'll need to get Cleave so I can get into War Hulk at lvl 7 (hopefully I should have 5+ BaB at that point)

Other feats I'd like to get at some point:

Rock Hurling
Fling Enemy
Thunderclap
Shock Trooper
Robilar's Gambit
Combat Reflexes
Even more Roll with It =)
« Last Edit: February 27, 2012, 05:21:23 AM by Tempest »

Offline Balmas

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Re: Advice on a Goliath brawler
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2012, 02:04:43 PM »
Well, with all that strength, you won't have to worry much about damage.  Several things I want to ask about, though:

It looks like you have a fairly large number of open books, but what all is allowed?

84 point buy would allow you to have stats of 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 12 according to standard point buy rules.  Is that accurate, or did you accidentally transpose it from 48?  (much more reasonable, in my opinion.)

Also, I'm not sure that Goliath monks benefit from powerful build as far as unarmed strike damage goes.

Are you planning on following standard monk style?  By that I mean, will you be running around with no armor and punching things into submission?
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Offline TenaciousJ

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Re: Advice on a Goliath brawler
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2012, 02:09:33 PM »
He's not using point buy.  His pre-racial stats can add up to 84 with nothing over 18.
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Offline muktidata

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Re: Advice on a Goliath brawler
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2012, 02:09:56 PM »
84 FLAT POINTS.

18
14
18
10
10
10

Edit: Ninja'ed by a Frog on acid...
I appreciate the logical, cool-headed responses and the lack of profanity displayed by our community.

Offline Tempest

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Re: Advice on a Goliath brawler
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2012, 03:01:50 PM »
Yup, TenaciousJ and muktidata has the right of it, but it's actually 84 points 'before' the racial modifications, sorry for not making it clearer :3

As for what books are available, pretty much everything except Dragon and web materials.

Armor and style I haven't really thought about all that much, I do want him to follow the flavor I spoke about in my opening post, a hard-hitting mountain of a man, with a bigger focus on HP and DR than AC. He'll probably be using some sort of armor, probably Light, since he won't have much Wis to increase his AC with.


Offline Garryl

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Re: Advice on a Goliath brawler
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2012, 04:52:48 PM »
Are you using fractional BaB? If so, consider taking 2 levels of Psychic Warrior. The two bonus feats will help with all you're doing, and it sets you up for Warmind after War Hulk. In addition to being a fun-sounding name combo, Warmind 5 (if you can fit it) gives Sweeping Strike (attack two adjacent targets with every attack if you move 5' or less), which combos very nicely with War Hulk's own multi-target attacks. You can also learn the Expansion power for even more strength, size, and reach.