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View Full Version : Dwarven Barbarian needs assistance-3.5



Meleemancer
2011-02-05, 04:17 PM
Hello Playgrounders!
I will be in a 1 person Gestalt campaign coming up and I want to play a Dwarven Barbarian. The books available are all core, the complete series, the races of series, Eberron, forgotten realms, and some sword and sorcery stuff. I am wanting to put in The Naked Knight http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136489 Is there anything you would suggest?

paddyfool
2011-02-05, 04:35 PM
Depends what you want to do and how powerful you want your other side to be vs simply supplementary. Some possible matches:

Tier 1: Druid probably fits best. However, your most powerful abilities then all become about having big pets, turning into any of a menagerie of nasty things with teeth, and full casting, and you're not really much of a Barbarian anymore.
Tier 2: Sorceror, Wilder, or Favoured Soul. Lesser version of the same problem with all three, although you could get around it by making all your spells about self-buffs and self-heals through the Power of Awesome, and thus basically making your Barbarian able to do Barbarian Stuff better and more durably.
Tier 3: Psychic Warrior, Factotum, or Swordsage. All of these are awesome in different ways. Choose a flavour you like
Tier 4: Rogue, Feat Rogue, or Scout. Skill points, get your skill points here. Plus your choice of Sneak attack damage, Skirmish damage, or Feats.
Tier 5/6: Nothing to see here, citizen, move along.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2011-02-05, 06:12 PM
For pure power, Wizard/Incantatrix/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil would probably be the best choice. Use Metamagic Effect for Persistent buffs like Shield, Wraithstrike, Bladeweave, Thunderlance, Swift Expeditious Retreat, Greater Mirror Image, Draconic Polymorph (into yourself for +8 Str, +2 Con unnamed), Dragonsight, Dragonskin, etc. along with other long-duration buffs like (Greater) Mage/Luminous Armor, (Greater, Superior) Resistance, Greater Magic Weapon, Energy Immunity, Mind Blank, etc. Your other prepared spells can be for disabling large groups of foes and solving problems outside of combat. You could use Sorcerer instead of Wizard and get Arcane Strike to use those spell slots to boost your attacks, but Dwarves get that Cha penalty.

For versatility, Barbarian//Bard makes a really strong character. You would get better skills, some decent spellcasting, bardic music, and maybe pick up Mindbender 1 or Rage Mage or maybe Sublime Chord later on for higher level spells. Beguiler (PH2) can add unmatched versatility to almost any martial character, since their spell list can solve pretty much any noncombat challenge you could ever run into. If you absolutely won't use spells on this character, maybe use Martial Rogue (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#rogue) to get more skills and tons of extra feats.

Hawk7915
2011-02-05, 06:14 PM
Naked Knight has some synergy with being a spellcaster on the other side, as you won't be wearing armor anyways and it gives some benefits for having a high charisma (and gives a Charisma boost that would increase the Save DC against your spells.)

You might try a Dwarf variant that doesn't lower Charisma though, and try being a Sorcerer/Whatver PrC//Barbarian/Naked Knight. Rage Mage would let you cast while enraged which might be handy. Bard is another option but if you have to be unarmored, might as well be a full caster right?

Failing that I recommend Swordsage: the Wis to AC and natural AC boost will help when you are, ya know, Naked, and it gives you the perfect set up: d12 HD, full BAB, all saves are good, 6 skills/level off a decent skill list.

Meleemancer
2011-02-05, 06:27 PM
In regards to Swordsage, would I be able to initiate maneuvers during a rage?

Hawk7915
2011-02-05, 06:32 PM
You'd want to mostly avoid Diamond Mind maneuvers that ask you to make a Concentration check, as RAW you can't use Concentration in a rage. Most maneuvers should be fine though; there's even a feat that lets you knockback people if you use a Tiger Claw strike during a rage :smallcool:.

Leon
2011-02-05, 11:25 PM
Tier 1: Druid probably fits best. However, your most powerful abilities then all become about having big pets, turning into any of a menagerie of nasty things with teeth, and full casting, and you're not really much of a Barbarian anymore.


Trade in Wildshape for something more interesting and keep the spellcasting for the options it provides. The companion could go either way.

Meleemancer
2011-02-05, 11:36 PM
I could switch from Dwarf to shifter to take advantage of the Shifter Druid Acf that improves shifting, and possibly the one that gets me a spirit animal. My DM is less likely to be appalled by a near naked shifter than a near naked dwarf.

paddyfool
2011-02-06, 07:25 PM
My DM is less likely to be appalled by a near naked shifter than a near naked dwarf.

It's actually not that unusual a trope. (http://www.thefullwiki.org/Trollslayer)