barbarian/rogue spy hunter?

[rkanodia]

Hi all. I was thinking about designing a sort of spy-hunter character for use as an NPC in my campaign. It occurred to me that a rogue/barbarian would be pretty ideal for the purpose: he can have high ranks in Sense Motive, Diplomacy, Intimidate and Gather Information to identify spies and assassins; with lots of hit points and Uncanny Dodge, he will be able to beat them down in a melee; with fast movement, he can make it hard for them to get away.

However, the barbarian has other class features that make less sense for the spy-hunter. Specifically. I'm looking at Rage and Trap Sense. If I were to make a pseudo-prestige class (making quick modifications to a core class a la Unearthed Arcana), what would be fair to trade those abilities for? I was thinking Trap Sense could be changed to Poison Resistance but keep its regular progression.

Rage is a trickier. Can anyone think of something that would be good to do with it? I was thinking about maybe having some kind of alternative combat mode, mechanically somewhat similar to Rage but thematically different, such as a Focus ability, which grants a dodge bonus and enables the use of acrobatic, wuxia-style attacks. Has anyone done stuff like that before? Are there any suggestions, or ideas completely out of left field for what to swap Rage for?

 

[Nifft]

Use the Whirling Frenzy variant of Rage (in Unearthed Arcana):
+4 Str
+2 Dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves
Extra attack (when making full attack) each round, but all attacks are at -2 -- similar to Monk's flurry.

Trap Sense is just fine, since the rogues you're hunting down may have set traps for you. (Spies are big on traps, just like tyrants are big on minions.)

-- N

 

[rkanodia]

Wow, I completely forgot about Whirling Frenzy. Sounds quite good. Your point about traps is quite valid. Maybe I'll just give him Great Fortitude instead.