>.> Warforged Warrior/Barbarian questions

[Theroc]

Alright. I've been asking various questions beforehand trying to make a build myself.

Working on a Militaristic Warforged (Set in a Non-Eberron setting where Warforged are not common, in a setup similar to sparta). The campaign/adventure is using the Book of Experimental Might, but I myself don't own the book, so I cannot just go straight fighter(as Fighter is heavily altered past level 2 and I can't access the changes and such that the book uses), so I planned to go Fighter 2/Barbarian X.

Other things of note for the campaign:
Characters gain a feat at every level, not every third. Prereqs are unchanged.

Ability Scores
28 point buy (slightly modified).
8 = 0 points
9 = 1 points
10 = 2 points
11 = 3 points
12 = 4 points
13 = 5 points
14 = 6 points
15 = 7 points
16 = 9 points
17 = 11 points
18 = 14 points

Anyways, I'm not concerned with this character being a skillmonkey or particularly wise or charismatic, since in the setting he'd be built as an experimental construct soldier.

But I am seeking advice for making a very blunt fighter/Barbarian who basically goes all in, "Hulk smash!" when on the offense, and able to protect allies when needed(The rules allow me to hop in and take a hit for my allies).

Mainly, I am wondering what Armor I should take for my Warforged. The basic composite plating seem illsuited for just about anything, as it provides little armor, and gives ASF(though that's irrelevant for me). Adamantine appears like it would be good... but I'm also realizing there's no way to increase that AC further, and that it hinders my Dex to AC heavily, making it hard to increase AC during the levelling process.

Anyone have suggestions?

 

[milo]

You can improve the armor with magic just like you can any other armor. There are some feats for improving your warforgedness in eberron campaign setting and races of Eberron. As well as some racial sub levels for fighter. If you go barb I would suggest going with mithral body instead of Adamantite body, better speed and you have a higher max dex to play with.
Spiked body and jaws of death with the racial sub levels would get focus and specialization, then you could pick up cold iron tracery and silver tracery for bypassing DR as well as getting a +1 fort and will vs spells. I don't know how the fighter was modified in Experimental Might. So I am limited in how much I can help with a straight fighter build which is what I would do.

 

[Theroc]

You can improve the armor with magic just like you can any other armor. There are some feats for improving your warforgedness in eberron campaign setting and races of Eberron. As well as some racial sub levels for fighter. If you go barb I would suggest going with mithral body instead of Adamantite body, better speed and you have a higher max dex to play with.
Spiked body and jaws of death with the racial sub levels would get focus and specialization, then you could pick up cold iron tracery and silver tracery for bypassing DR as well as getting a +1 fort and will vs spells. I don't know how the fighter was modified in Experimental Might. So I am limited in how much I can help with a straight fighter build which is what I would do.

Apparently the BoXM added a ton of additional bonuses to various feats and options to fighters, but since I myself don't have the book, and crystalkeep has no PDF of the book, I can't see the material. So the person running the game said I shouldn't go past level 2 in fighter. I plan to take advantage of the warforged feats, as the DM has approved them.

 

[pawsplay]

Lots of feats to play with, eh? Right off the bat, there are two tactical feats in Complete Warrior, Shock Trooper and Combat Brute, that are nice. Throw in Powerful Charge, from the Minis handbook, too.

Starting at 8th level, take Improved Critical and throw in Power Critical, too; once they became easier to get, critical hits can shift things in favor of an offense specialist.

Power Attack is tempting, but as damage goes up, it becomes less and less useful, statistically. But bonuses to hit are always useful. With so many feats, weapon specialization is a no brainer. You can pick something with good numbers, like a greatsword or greataxe, something versatile, like the spiked chain or halberd, or the morningstar (medium-ish damage, inflicts multiple damage types).

If you plan on pumping Strength, you can take Brutal Thrower and use Str to hit with thrown weapons. Combined with PBS and Far Shot, you can have a credible ranged attack as a backup.

 

[Theroc]

Lots of feats to play with, eh? Right off the bat, there are two tactical feats in Complete Warrior, Shock Trooper and Combat Brute, that are nice. Throw in Powerful Charge, from the Minis handbook, too.

Starting at 8th level, take Improved Critical and throw in Power Critical, too; once they became easier to get, critical hits can shift things in favor of an offense specialist.

Power Attack is tempting, but as damage goes up, it becomes less and less useful, statistically. But bonuses to hit are always useful. With so many feats, weapon specialization is a no brainer. You can pick something with good numbers, like a greatsword or greataxe, something versatile, like the spiked chain or halberd, or the morningstar (medium-ish damage, inflicts multiple damage types).

If you plan on pumping Strength, you can take Brutal Thrower and use Str to hit with thrown weapons. Combined with PBS and Far Shot, you can have a credible ranged attack as a backup.

I won't be able to access feats that require levels in Fighter, Pawsplay, as without the BoXM I cannot use the features presented there, so I can only take two levels of fighter, and then I will have to switch to another class(barbarian wasn't altered until much higher levels, so I figured that would work).

So they'd have to not require levels in fighter.

Basically, anything in the BoXM I can't use because I don't know it, and fighter is drastically changed in BoXM. So I'll have to contend with that.

So far, what I am getting from this so far though, is that charging is good, and most of the feats you recommended, Paws require Power Attack. Also those throwing feats sound pretty good if I carry some spears or javelins.

 

[Drowbane]

What level?

warforged fighter 1 / barbarian 1
9 str 16 (20 in rage)
5 dex 13
14 con 20
int 8
wis 6
cha 6
(yay for dump stats)

feats (edit, missed the part about feat/level)
1: adamantine body, power attack
2: extra rage (rage +2/day)
3: cleave
4: +1 DR feat from ECS
5:
6:

Gear
+s in your armor
+X keen falchion (when you have high str, 18-20 is teh awesome), adamantine if you can get it
storage-type items (Handy Haversack, Bag of Holding IV, etc)
+str item
+X heavy steel shield (if you go with a shield, swap out falchion for a scimitar)

edit: if XPH is available; warforged psion can tank better than a warforged warrior-type

 

[Theroc]

What level?

warforged fighter 2 / barbarian X
9 str 16 (20 in rage)
5 dex 13
14 con 20
int 8
wis 6
cha 6
(yay for dump stats)

feats
1st adamantine body, power attack
2nd extra rage (rage +2/day)
3rd cleave
6th thick-skinned (savage species; increases your DR to 4/adamantine)

Gear
+s in your armor
+X keen falchion (when you have high str, 18-20 is teh awesome), adamantine if you can get it
storage-type items (Handy Haversack, Bag of Holding IV, etc)
+str item
+X heavy steel shield (if you go with a shield, swap out falchion for a scimitar)

edit: if XPH is available; warforged psion can tank better than a warforged warrior-type

Campaign begins at level 2. I don't believe Savage Species is an allowed source. Eberron sources(as I asked for Warforged), and the Completes are allowed. XPH is also allowed, but I'm much more a melee oriented person, and I'm not entirely certain why a race of magically created machines can do a physical task better as a mentally based caster class(I dislike the flavor, I won't contest it's metagame viability.)

DM's rules on feat selection:
"I will allow feats and character options from Player's Handbook II, but not the classes. I will allow all feats from the Core Rules, The Complete Book of Experimental Might, The Book of Nine Swords and the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Other feats are by approval."

I suppose I should have said that before, but I'd missed it when trying to supply the relevant information here.

Also:
"Swapping Feats
When they gain a level, characters can change a feat they have chosen previously if they have not used that feat during the preceding level. For example, if a character takes Weapon Focus (Greatsword) but finds a magical longsword she wants to use instead, she can stop using her greatsword for a level and change her feat to Weapon Focus (Longsword). In addition, she gains whatever new feats are due her for the new level."

Edit: Also, intelligence of 13 or higher is needed for several Fighter feats, such as Combat Expertise.

 

[Drowbane]

The ECS has a feat that improves your adamantine body DR by 1, so that might be better than nothing.

It might be worth it to start out as Fi 1 / Bbn 1 to have access to rage.

...and I'm not entirely certain why a race of magically created machines can do a physical task better as a mentally based caster class (I dislike the flavor, I won't contest it's metagame viability.).

Flavor is what you make of it. Personally, I use the psionic mechanics to present "what sorcerers wished they were". I like flexibility, but I don't like "wizard-lite-dragon-mages".

Let me know if you'd like to peer into the darkside... I can show you how/why a Warforged Psion makes for a better soldier than a warrior-type.

 

[Theroc]

The ECS has a feat that improves your adamantine body DR by 1, so that might be better than nothing.

It might be worth it to start out as Fi 1 / Bbn 1 to have access to rage.



Flavor is what you make of it. Personally, I use the psionic mechanics to present "what sorcerers wished they were". I like flexibility, but I don't like "wizard-lite-dragon-mages".

Let me know if you'd like to peer into the darkside... I can show you how/why a Warforged Psion makes for a better soldier than a warrior-type.

Go ahead and explain it to me, maybe I'll decide I'd rather try it. I just tend to prefer the idea of a "Hulk Smash!" Construct. However, I also decided I would likely slide into a psionic class for Psionic Body and the Psionic Weapon feats to amp damage... flavorwise, my Warforged would be overcharging his powersource(I'm planning to indicate that magic flows through his body at any given time).

 

[Drowbane]

...I'm planning to indicate that magic flows through his body at any given time...

Innate magic and/or damaged power source (why he has a reserve of power that runs out) is an excellent way of explaining a psionic warforged.

Warforged Psion 5

First you need to choose a Discipline. Three that I like for warforged are: Egoist (mainly for the 4th lvl power Metamorphosis, if the campaign is going to last long enough and you can wait, you can pick it up with Expanded Knowledge at 9th lvl), Kineticist (good for blowing stuff up), and Shaper (key powers include Astral Construct, and Psionic Repair Damage).

6 Str 14 (still a "warrior", just not the mecha-Hulk)
2 Dex 10
9 Con 18
11 Int 17 (improved every chance)
0 Wis 6
0 Cha 6

Feats
1st: adamantine body, psionic weapon
2nd: improved damage reduction: ask your DM if you can take thick-skinned, if so go for it, you can also get IDR later
3rd: psi-crystal affinity: this is a huge part of your survivability... that a word? But you don't need it until you get Share Pain, a 2nd lvl power
4th: over channel: not as good as wild-surge, but it fits thematically to your over-surged power source idea. And there is a PrC in Complete-Psi that lets you acquire wild-surge.
5th: deep impact : this competes with greater psi-weapon, but you can only use one of them at a time and deep impact will almost always be better - expanded knowledge: energy missile

Powers (just listing those that I like, and why below)
1st level
Astral construct (1st): my warforged psion created temp-clones of himself with this power, ACs are some of the best melee-summons in the game.
Mind thrust: 1d10 damage per psi point, Will negates is the only thing preventing this power from being horribly broken.
Vigor: +5 temp HP to you and your Psi-crystal per Psi-point expended
2nd level
Share pain: use with your psi-crystal, it now takes 1/2 of your damage -Ablative Shielding, this greatly increases your ability to survive. (vigor + share pain, both with your psi-crystal... )
Dampen power(complete psi): you take minimal damage from spells/powers/SLAs(?). Party gets hit by a 10d6 fireball, spend some Psi and take only 10 fire (preferably off of your already placed vigor)
Energy missile: the ability to choose 5 targets out of a group and not have to worry about aiming your AoE is awesome. note: there is a typo in the XPH, which is pointed out in complete psi. DC goes up like every other damaging power (2 psi to +1 DC).
3rd level
energy burst: 40ft radius burst, centered on you.
time hop: not the most powerful 3rd lvl power out there, but it can be used to save a dying comrade (long enough for the cleric to get close enough to heal) or make a heavy hitter go away long enough for the party to regroup.
4th
D-Door: great with energy ball, invest in a ring of feather-fall
Energy ball: fire-ball range, more versitility.
Freedom of movement: nuf said
Metamorphisis: Shapechange-lite. Due to the current polymorph rules, a warforged with adamantine body keeps his armor in any shape he takes...

DR (even if its just 2) + Vigor + sharepain + psi-crystal makes for an extremely hard to kill character... just make sure you have it going when you need it...

Deep impact (can't get til 5th, until then use psi-weapon) will soften the blow of losing so much BAB if you choose to enter melee.

A warforged psion isn't a tank in the normal RPG-sense... its more like a real world tank (thick armor, and blows stuff up).

Are you familiar with Magic of Incarnum? Warforged make wicked Totemists also...