Barbarian cheese? Some advice

[frankthedm]

1. Always have low level fodder around. If a barbarian can do a straight line to the main foe, the fight will be over far too fast.
2. Terrain, terrain, terrain. If the battlefield is flat, unobstructed and always allows for charging, again the barbarian can one again dominate too much. A soft target right behind a covered pit does wonders as the charging barbarian gets no save to avoid the pit.*
3. Don’t make the main foe always look like the main foe.
4. Barbarian is a front liner in low armor, the missile troops should be nailing him while they slowly fall back.
5. Break line of charge whenever possible.
6. Never take it easy on the barbarian, the class's damage output is balanced by its higher chance of death. More than any other class, the barbarian is in the race of “Whoever hits hardest wins!”. The problem is losing that race means glorious death.

*Covered pits are much more dangerous. They can be detected with a DC 20 Search check, but only if the character is taking the time to carefully examine the area before walking across it. A character who fails to detect a covered pit is still entitled to a DC 20 Reflex save to avoid falling into it. However, if she was running or moving recklessly at the time, she gets no saving throw and falls automatically.

 

[Bad Paper]

losing that race means glorious death.

yay! I'll say it again: I really want to die in one of your campaigns some day.

PS: Thanks for the tip on the covered pit. I missed that bit about moving recklessly.

 

[Question]

I dont think you can cheese a barbarian unless you take FB. Its a fairly balanced class, especially the high chances of dying after the rage ends.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The main things to watch out for are

1) that rage duration is tracked properly

2) when rage wears off, he loses his bonus hit points he got from the increased CON, which could put him into negatives or even death at that point.

3) not literate unless he spends skill points or multiclasses - you can get some fun RPing out of that.

4) not a problem, but most barbs will maximise strength and use a big two handed weapon with power attack to maximise their damage. They will do a lot of damage quickly, especially if they get a critical hit. Expect to see some bad guys go down more quickly than you would have expected.

Also as an aside. I’m using the Its you not your gear house rule. Does the banning of magic items that permanently boost your ability scores extend to belts of ogre strength, gloves of Dex and so forth, or is it mean to only get rid of the ‘tomes of stat-boost?

No stat boost items of any kind (in truth, belts/headbands etc are much more of a problem than tomes of stat boost because of their earlier and more pervasive availability)

 

[BadMojo]

2) when rage wears off, he loses his bonus hit points he got from the increased CON, which could put him into negatives or even death at that point.

A compelling reason to take the Diehard feat!