Please review my 3rd level Dwarf Barbarian - Thanks!

[Orcus Porkus]

UPDATED on October 27

- He's now level 4
- after playtesting yesterday, it became clear that the chainmail feat was definitely worth it. As a melee striker, I was at times the single target of all monsters
- Recuperating Strike gave me the temp hit points I needed
- Howling Strike Charge attack is cool in connection with the boots of adept charging (shift 1 square after attack)
- Powerful Charge is the 4th level feat because I'm going to charge even more in the future.
Question: On a critical hit, are the additional 1d6 (magic item) and 1d12 (high crit) also "brutal 2", meaning I reroll 1's and 2's? I would say yes because the damage comes from the weapon, not from a power.
- Since Swift Panther Rage benefits charging, I switch to it from Bloodhunt Rage, which give +4 damage CON during rage, but only if I or the target is bloodied, which doesn't happen too often.

 

[lymang]

Me personally?
I wouldn't waste the feat on chain mail. You're not a defender. You're going to get hit, there's no avoiding it, but you have hit points for that.

I'd suggest Powerful Charge instead. It has a pretty good synergy with Howling Strike (and the general idea that Barbarians charge in a lot!).

I would have to have my books around to comment on the magic items but the rest of your power selections look good to me.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

I'd say the chainmail feat is definitely worth it. It's gonna make a HUGE AC difference. You could of course consider dropping it and shifting some points over to dex which would give you more initiative, some skill bonuses, and more rounded saves... but less STR/CON in exchange for it. I'd rather use the feat and keep my str/con up as high as possible but that's just me. I made a Warforged Barbarian (lv2) and actually went up to Scale Armor but I have yet to playtest him (working on getting my current character killed in our campaign...).

You have Blade Sweep written incorrectly. You missed this little clause: "Rageblood Vigor: Each enemy adjacent to you, bloodied or not, takes damage equal to your Constitution modifier." Considering Rageblood Vigor was the only option in the playtest, you definitely have it, so they don't need to be bloodied for it to effect them.

I would've probably picked the same powers. Recuperating strike doesn't really scale well into higher levels I'd think, Avalanche Strike is insanely awesome, Primal Vitality vs Great Leap you could go either way but I much preferred Great Leap (and that also scales well into later levels), Hammer Fall could be useful but it really depends on your group setup (Blade Sweep is gonna have more straight damage output, hammer fall is more useful for helping your group. the former is much more... barbarian.)

As far as magic items I don't have the book yet so I can't really comment :[ But I do know that Greataxes are FTW as far as the stuff in the PHB.

 

[Orcus Porkus]

Bumb for update

see first post

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

I've heard several mentions of how recuperating strike seems to be really nice but at the same time I'm having some trouble picturing it. Then again, I haven't had a ton of experience with temporary HP. My biggest current issue is that it's the same exact amount of HP gained at lv1 as it is at lv30... I'm starting to think it's pretty strong at low levels because of that but would also start to stink at higher levels. Of course, you can just retrain out of it.

I still haven't had a chance to play test my Barbarian >_< Hopefully Wednesday I'll have the chance to and could provide some more input.

EDIT:
By the way, Chainmail has a -1 to speed. You should have a speed of 4, shouldn't you?

 

[Orcus Porkus]

EDIT:
By the way, Chainmail has a -1 to speed. You should have a speed of 4, shouldn't you?

Dwarfs don't