Planing a Barbarians Development

[Darklone]

Glad to see there are still some axecleavers around

Nice twohanded hammers are stylish as well.

Imp Crit: Just use one of the most common 3.5 houserules and let it stack again

 

[Dark Jezter]

Power Attack and Cleave are must-haves, obviously. Depending on the campaign, Great Cleave can be an incredibly useful feat or a near-useless one; you should only take Great Cleave if your DM likes to throw hordes of weak enemies at you instead of small groups of strong ones.

The Shock Trooper feat from Complete Warrior can turn a raging barbarian with a two-handed weapon into an engine of death and destruction; the heedless charge function of that feat can often be used to kill or seriously wound enemies before they even have a chance to act.

 

[Thanee]

Shock Trooper feat from Complete Warrior?
Sure that's the right book?

I can't find a feat with that name in there...

EDIT: Ah, found it!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Darklone]

Tactical Feats, Thanee... those broken things at the end of the feat section

Or was it Combat Brute?

Edit: Both are there... both are broken

 

[iwatt]

Lightning reflexes may be useful to boost saving throws.

As Thanee said, Iron will.

Seriously, You'll have good Fort Save for those death effects (and really, how many spellcasters target their fingers of death at the greataxe wielding , mouth frothing maniac instead of the wimpy dude with the pointy hat?). You have a s****load of HP for those pesky Ref saves. Be a barbarian, suck up that fireball . But will saves are your Achilles heel. What wizard doesn't start foaming at the mouth at the simple though of dominating that same maniac into pounding his buddies into mush.


And Yeah, Axes are the coolest weapon for High strength Barbs. It ain't about the amount of times you critical, it's all about exploding entrails.

Brb PC: " Critical Threat!!!!! (gleeful and insane look in the players eye).
DM: "roll to confirm, the AC is 12"
Brb PC: "Hit!!! (wait 10 seconds while he calms down enough to roll his 3d12). Damn, I rolled a 1, a 2 and 1. That's 105 hps"
DM: (afeter a 10 second pause) .... " Well the fiendish advanced dire half dragon ogre has just become a fine pulp covering Grug the Destroyer....again"

 

[Kalendraf]

As Thanee said, Iron will.

Seriously, You'll have good Fort Save for those death effects (and really, how many spellcasters target their fingers of death at the greataxe wielding , mouth frothing maniac instead of the wimpy dude with the pointy hat?). You have a s****load of HP for those pesky Ref saves. Be a barbarian, suck up that fireball . But will saves are your Achilles heel. What wizard doesn't start foaming at the mouth at the simple though of dominating that same maniac into pounding his buddies into mush.

I meant to list Iron Will and Lightning Reflexes. I think both are useful for a barbarian. No argument on the Iron Will - have seen multiple barbarians succomb to a variety of mind effects. However, the Lightning Reflexes one isn't only for stuff like fireballs. There are some movement impeding spells or traps that use reflex saves, and I've seen the barbarians fail those saves often enough to merit recommending Lightning Reflexes. It really sucks when the barbarian needs to charge and kill something right now, but then falls on his face half-way to the target!

Imp Crit: Just use one of the most common 3.5 houserules and let it stack again

Or don't. I actually don't really mind this one way or the other. For now, I'm working under the assumption for the barbarian question that 3.5 rules are in place.

It's tempting to opt for the Keen weapon, to conserve Feats, and in the case of a pure half-orc barbarian, there's a pretty strong argument for doing so. The reason I still like the feat version is that you can then put other stronger/useful enchantments on the weapon for the same cost. With power attack, every +1 is that much more effective. Seems a bit better to be power-attacking with a +[X] weapon plus the feat, instead of a similarly priced +[X-1] Keen weapon. If you can find a feat that is more useful to you than the resulting boost in attack and damage, then take the Keen route instead.

 

[iwatt]

And check out Intimidating Rage as well. -2 to attacks and saves (Shaken) is pretty useful IMO. An I've always though that thematically it makes sense. But for Half-orcs (unless you also use the commom house rule of giving them a +2 racial bonus to intimidate) this feat looses some of it's alure. Destructive rage(although not as useeful) is a feat that's just cool when it comes into play.

DM: "The massive Iron door looks as if it has stood in place for eons. As you approach it you realize that unless you find the key, the way is barred...
PC: "Grog angry, charge door" (rolls a natural 20) "Break DC 35....."


And theese feat lead to the most broken PrC of all...the frenzied berzerker Ç(unless you nerf undying frenzy, these bad boys can really lay the hurt on you)