Best ways to avoid Improved Trip and Stunning Attack?

[Elder-Basilisk]

Avoiding stunning attacks? Get a good fort save. If you're a multiclassed fighter/barbarian, with a good con and a cloak of resistance, your fort save should be through the roof. Stunning attacks aren't really a threat--especially not when you're raging.

Avoiding Improved Trip? High strength will go a long way towards this. Being a dwarf helps too (+4 stability bonus). Potions of Enlarge person do double duty. Rage helps too. Flying with the fly spell makes you effectively immune and steadfast boots make you truly immune to tripping.

Avoiding Ray of Enfeeblement? Touch AC really isn't a great possibility for the barbarian. He might make it to 15 or 16 but that's still not too difficult to hit. Displacement or mirror image will help. Unfortunately mirror image is a personal spell so it can't be put into a potion. A ring of Counterspells would negate the first ray of enfeeblement. A potion of Lesser Restoration would enable the barbarian to negate the effects of a second. Minor globe of invulnerability, or the Spell Immunity spell would also work.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Fortification negates sneak attacks that score and crits depending upon the percentage of the armor, although heavy fort (100%) would basically be the above negating sneak attacks and crits 100% (all) of the time. Am I missing something?

The Sage had some freaky interpretation that stated "'negates' doesn't mean 'negates'", but I don't think it ever made it into an FAQ.

As I read it, if you confirm a critical with a Flaming Burst weapon on someone who is immune to crits, they take no extra damage from the critical, but because you successfully confirmed a critical hit, the Flaming Burst still triggers, and they take the extra fire damage.

If you confirm a critical with a Flaming Burst weapon on someone, but it is negated by their Fortification armor, then the critical never occurs, and the Flaming Burst does not trigger.

However, the first opponent is immune to stunning (since he is immune to critical hits); the second opponent is not (since he is not immune to critical hits; it's just that no critical hit is ever successful against him (in the case of Heavy Fortification, at least)).

-Hyp.

 

[Azalnubizar]

here is my approach on stunning fist & trip.

I have nearly always had a monk in my group and I found out that dealing damage everytime someone touches me discourages bare-hand-attack of monks greatly.
Mirror Image is nice, but since the opponent is obviously a monk a flurry of blows can "counter" this very fast.
I would try to discourage trip & stun by getting a scroll of fire or cold shield. Since you are an arcane caster you can use it and it's the cheapest way IMO.

Alternate Form and similiar spells could be used to give you additional limbs, which give you boni against trip attacks without getting the problem to be an easy target with large size...

how to avoid stunning fist without a good fort-save? this is hard without changing your type/template (as mentioned above). Since Undeads/Construct-forms are both immune to ability drain & stun this would fit you best IMO.
A minor globe of invulnerability would stop ray of enfeeblement as well BTW.

There are many spells that help (power up) like cat's grace, blur, displacement, blink, haste, mirror image etc.

You could also try not to be seen, with invisibility, greater invisibility, darkness, obscuring mist, fog cloud or something like it. This way you cannot be targeted from afar by ray of enfeeblement.

there even used to be a spell that allowed (I think bards) to set up a wall of dispelling or something like it. Cannot remember which book it came from, right now, ...

hope I helped somewhat

Azal

 

[robberbaron]

Invisibility, cover and a ranged weapon.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

A lesser spell immunity spell ought to keep off that ray of enfeeblement - a scroll and UMD ought to do it?

Although, as others have suggested, a really big fort save would put a stop to that and the stunning fist in 1 fell swoop.

Trying trip attempts against a raging Barbarian doesn't seem like the smartest move in the world. Seems likely you'd end up on your butt from the counter trip. Especially if the barbarian was an enlarged Dwarf, as others have suggested...


I think having the improved trip feat would add a further +4 to defense against the trip attack. Although I can't check that at the moment and it might be well be wrong! Either way, it would boost the counter trips.

Another good way to avoid trips would be to keep people away from you using a variation on the same tactic - take improved trip, combat reflexes and a spiked chain... However this is more a fighter tactic - needs lots of feats and don't think you can use improved trip while raging - as it runs off expertise and all...


All in all, I wouldn't worry overly - a barbarain ought to be pretty resilient to the sorceror monk...