Character left turn/Genasi Barbarian (Thaneborn) for LFR

[Herschel]

I decided to go away from the defender-ish concept and go towards a leaderly striker and stick with my favored non-human race: Genasi. Looking for tweaks and ideas. Here's what I have so far:

Genasi (Caustic Soul) Barbarian (Thaneborn) 1

Str: 18(16)
Con: 13
Dex: 8
Int: 16 (14)
Wis: 10
Cha: 14

Background: Thay
Feat: Fullblade

At-Will: Howling Strike, Howl of Fury
Encounter: Escalating Violence
Daily: Swift Panther Rage

Not quite a "standard" build, but here's my thinking:
Con at 13 will hit 14 at 8th and give me the "extra" surge there. Plus, I still have the minion clearing ability with Howl of Fury. Int at 16 is a cheaper buy and background gives me the HP while also "saving" me a feat (Hide Expertise) as Genasi have so many good racial ones and I may want to multi-class if I can find an "extra" feat slot to enhance my leaderly abilities. It also give me a decent Reflex. Charisma 14 is because that's the points I have to spend in it and it is my "secondary" ability.

Causticsoul is one of the new goodies to try out. Earthsoul is a personal fave but really want to get the Earthshock Master feat to make it best. Windsoul for mobility is great too.

Thoughts?

 

[Danceofmasks]

Hmm.
My take on thaneborn is that having a +3 cha mod makes it worthwhile.
Compare the effectiveness of the powers with a rageblood who took those "thaneborn" powers and you'll see very little mileage from 14 cha.

So ... my recommendation (since you're background thay anyway) ... would be to dump con (travesty, I know) for another high stat, and pump str/cha always.

Personally, if I were building a genasi barbarian, I'd go rageblood ... and put all my build points and stat bumps into str/int ... but that's just me.

 

[Mengu]

I play a near identical half-orc thaneborn in LFR, with int and dex switched. I think 14 Cha is fine, but you have to take your powers with the low charisma in mind. For instance I get decent mileage out of shifting 2 with Vault the Fallen. I don't think you would get quite as much damage with the 2 extra damage from Escalating Violence, unless you have a ranger.

If you like the power selection of Thaneborns that give damage bonuses, higher charisma would be more advisable. If you like the ones that give attack bonus or defense penalty, then even a lower charisma can yield good results because a +2 attack bonus is much stronger than a +2 damage bonus.

Having said that, in LFR it's pretty easy to survive with low Con, especially since you're from Thay as Danceofmasks pointed out. So maybe you can steal some points from there.

And I concur that Earthsoul with Earthshock Master (and Primordial Surge) is hard to pass up.

 

[Herschel]

My basic idea is attack bonus vs. damage bonus. The group now has Three controllers, three leaders (2 bards and an artificer), four defenders and six strikers as primary roles. and we'll generally be splitting up between three tables. For example, my first game is with a Dragonborn Bard, Shifter Druid, Goliath Paladin and Warforged Warden. Helping those dailies hit will be mighty helpful in completing encounters.

 

[Herschel]

Another reason for frugle feat use: I also want to multi-class in to Warlord at some fairly early point.