A Barbarian with style!

[candidus_cogitens]

I'm making a new wild elf barbarian character. I want to be creative and have an interesting character, preferably interesting beyond just the fact that he can deal damage. I want to have a trademark thing that I do particularly well, whether it be running and jumping, mounted combat, or whatever. Help me decide what feat to take, and how to distribute my skill points. Personality/Motivation ideas are welcome too!

STR 14
DEX 16
CON 15
INT 8
WIS 12
CHA 10

Here are my tentative preferences: I want to avoid the Power Attack/Cleave style, because frankly I find it a little boring.

I am tempted to go with Mounted Combat and plan to take Ride-by-Attack and Spirited Charge down the road. My only reservation there is that I can't use any of my feats if I'm in a dungeon.

I'm also considering Alertness, because it would complement his naturally keen elven senses. If I do that, I might also want to max out Listen, and make that one of my specialties.

Taking the Run feat and maxing out Jump would be a cool combination. Maybe down the road I could take Endurance to complement my speed.

I like Extended Rage--it's very powerful--but on the other hand it might actually be interesting not to be able to count on raging through a whole encounter, beginning to end. It's not really that stylish a feat.

Does anyone else know of any nifty Barbarian ideas--ideas that have style?

 

[Brisk-sg]

1st Level Character?

And are you looking for something that would aid you primarily in combat situations?

 

[candidus_cogitens]

Starting at second level.

Doesn't have to be primarily a combat thing, if you can think of some other nifty ideas. The thing is, there is already a druid in the party, so I don't see much point in taking Track, or putting a bunch of points into Wilderness Lore (although a few might be cool).

What about Handle Animal? Is that a useful skill at all??

Also, what about the Spellfire Wielder feat from MoF? That might make a really unique barbarian, eh?

 

[candidus_cogitens]

I should also mention that those ability scores are not final. I am using 28 point buy.

 

[Tonguez]

Tarzan emulator

- Max Tumble, Climb, Jump,Wildrness Lore, Hide and Move Silently (and Brachiation if you can get it) etc

then attack from the trees/ledges etc

- imagine a raging character that pounces out of the trees on to the backs of his victims kills quickly and then leaps back up into the branches

 

[candidus_cogitens]

Oh, that is SOOO cool! That's style!

I might just do that. Of course, I don't have that many skill points, and some of the skills you mentioned aren't class skills for barbarians either. But, I could at least max JUMP and CLIMB, and spread the rest out among LISTEN and RIDE maybe.

As a wild elf, I could take Treetopper from FRCS, which gives a bonus to climb and reduces penalties that usually make it easier to hit you when you are climbing.

And then at third level, I could take Brachiation.

Of course, if I go this route, it might be good to specialize in archery (and maybe head towards a deepwood sniper prestige class). I'm not sure that an archer barbarian makes a whole lot of sense though .... Hmmmm ...

 

[Scarab]

And then at third level, I could take Brachiation.

Dictionary.com says " To move by swinging with the arms from one hold to another, as certain apes do". I guess the feat is the same? Is it in the splatbook for barbarians and other treehuggers?

 

[candidus_cogitens]

Dictionary.com says " To move by swinging with the arms from one hold to another, as certain apes do". I guess the feat is the same? Is it in the splatbook for barbarians and other treehuggers?

Yes, it is in Masters of the Wild.

It allows you to move at your normal movement rate in that manner, so long as there are trees spaced no more than 15 ft. apart.

Next best thing to being a monkey!

 

[Jeph]

You like jumping, huh?

Consider this: 1 level of Psion (Nomad, Egoist, or Savant). Then, take Mental Leap. As long as you have 3 Power Points, jumping distance is DOUBLED, yes, DOUBLED. I've made 5th level characters that have no trouble leaping 100 feat (that was a Nezumi Psychic Warrior with 2x Speed of Thought, the Ring of Jumping, maxed out Jump and Tumble, and Mental Leap).

 

[Wicht]

Barbarians excel at two things - taking damage and dishing it out. If you want a more colorful character who is not focused on damage I suspect you really want something akin to a Barbarian/Rogue.

For a tree swinging barbarian you should take your first level in rogue and max out those acrobatic skills ignoring the skills like pick pocket and open locks and focusing on balance, tumble, climb, etc. Take your second level in Barbarian and focus your 1st level feat on either archery or a weapon of some sort to add that addition of color. Do not totally neglect the damage aspect of the barbarian or you will be wasting half the reason for the class. I might suggest the great club as a more primitive weapon. You might consider taking Point Blank Shot at first and Weapon Focus: Great Club at third.

Or if you really want character take something like the Spiked Chain as your favorite weapon and taking the exotic weapon proficiency at first, weapon finesse at third and weapon focus at sixth.