Help Me Accomplish This with Minimal Homebrew

[Zaq]

So, I had an idle idea for a character, and I'm trying to think of how to pull it off. The idea is a simple reversal of the cliche Barbarian—rash and impulsive most of the time, but icy calm and clearheaded when raging. (Not the most original idea, but I'm not aiming for World's Most Original Character.) The kick is, I want him to be much better tactically when he's raging (or as he would call it, focused). To me, the best mechanical representation of tactical savvy is White Raven maneuvers. I'm thinking that he'd be a Barbarian/Warblade who focuses on Tiger Claw and Iron Heart while not raging, then shifts to White Raven while raging.

Is there anything you can think of that would give me any sort of benefit for doing this, or would this just be an arbitrary restriction I'd be putting on myself? If it is an arbitrary restriction, does it sound crippling, or do you think this could be a fun character? If I get more serious about this, I might ask my GM to homebrew a feat to instantly change my readied maneuvers when I rage (kinda like Wizard of the Sun and Moon in Dungeonscape), but like I said, I'm checking out non-homebrew options first. Thoughts?

[Urpriest]

White Raven has lots of charging maneuvers. I've only ever heard of one for Tiger Claw, and none for Iron Heart. Barbarian rage will improve your charging. So I could see a vague argument.

[Ernir]

You could take the Ferocity rage alternative (Cityscape web enhancement), and select some savvy feats that you don't qualify for without the Dexterity boost. Not sure what those feats should be, though.

[Diarmuid]

The Whirling Frenzy Rage alternate gives you AC boosts and extra attacks. One could certainly see those as being due to a much better understanding of the battlefield and then just build around that.

[Telonius]

The idea sounds a lot like the "Combat Form" feats in PHB2. Ask your DM if you can trade off some of your Rage abilities for taking those Feats as bonuses. Or, multiclass to Fighter for a few levels. (EDIT: This is probably a bit less powerful than you had in mind, but it's the one already-published thing I could think of for you).

[Prime32]

Whirling Frenzy is probably your best bet. Although, Ferocity grants a Dex bonus so if you have Combat Reflexes it would increase your AoOs per round...

BoED has the Righteous Wrath feat and Champion of Guenhwyvar PrC for barbarians who can concentrate.

[Seerow]

The idea sounds a lot like the "Combat Form" feats in PHB2. Ask your DM if you can trade off some of your Rage abilities for taking those Feats as bonuses. Or, multiclass to Fighter for a few levels. (EDIT: This is probably a bit less powerful than you had in mind, but it's the one already-published thing I could think of for you).

Seconding this. The combat focus feats are really pretty cool.


Also worth considering are diamond mind maneuvers, particularly the ones that replace stuff with concentration checks. Those to me seem to fit your intended fluff better than white raven, even if the crunch doesn't line up quite as well. A Warblade/Fighter with Combat Focus and a focus on Diamond Mind would fit this concept perfectly, no barbarian needed at all.

[Averis Vol]

BoED has the Righteous Wrath feat and Champion of Guenhwyvar PrC for barbarians who can concentrate.

champion of gwynharwyf :smallbiggrin:

[Wyntonian]

champion of gwynharwyf :smallbiggrin:

It's clearly Gerpaherpaderp. I second (Third?) ferocity for bonus AoO's but as a friend of 'Brewers 'round the world I support a feat that lets you switch readied maneuvers in a rage. If he gets icy-focused-cal-badass, might Diamond Mind fit?

[Lonely Tylenol]

Ask your GM to remove the restriction on the Concentration skill while in rage.

Take Diamond Mind maneuvers.

Failing that, the best representation of the Ferocity variant of rage, which adds +4 to STR and DEX and can be triggered as an immediate action, is the Miyamoto Musashi of Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi series; he is (at least originally) rash and impulsive, leaping into action at the drop of a pin, but in moments of extreme action or duress, he slips into an almost Zen-like state of alertness, reading the actions of the battlefield in real-time as if they were being narrated to him, acting on an entirely different set of impulses (that is, the innately reflexive subconscious). His mind is completely in the moment, which allows him to react extraordinarily responsively in battle.

Fluff Ferocity somewhere along these lines, take Combat Reflexes (which fits the fluff quite well and is mechanically superior in these cases), and, if necessary, take a smattering of White Raven maneuvers, and you're golden.

EDIT: If you're going Barbarian 4/Warblade 1, for example, which is very like the path Miyamoto Musashi took earlier in the Musashi series (do not mention the Samurai class to me at all, don't you do it), you might consider front-loading Diamond Mind maneuvers, specifically the counters Action before Thought and Moment of Perfect Mind, and perhaps building up into Insightful Strike or Ruby Nightmare Blade. Then, fill the rest with Iron Heart or Tiger Claw maneuvers.

[Zaq]

I talked to my GM, and he'd be cool with letting me burn a feat to have two sets of readied maneuvers, one for raging focused and one for not focused. I'm thinking that I'd use Iron Heart and Tiger Claw when not focused, and Diamond Mind and White Raven when focused. (He's letting me use Concentration while focused.) So hey, this is pretty cool. I guess my original musings have gone where I want them to go, though any other insights would be interesting.

Now I just have to figure out the rest of the character. It's an E6 game, so probably Barbarian 1 / Warblade 5. I could lose one Warblade level without losing any IL, but I'd lose one maneuver known (and the limited, but still useful, Warblade bonus feat).

Any ideas for a cool weapon to wield? I was thinking something with an 18-20 crit range (falchion?), but I'd also like reach. Know of anything that fits there?

As for the combat form feats, they did play a factor in the brainstorming that led to this character, but I don't really like the ones that are low enough level to exist in E6.

[Lonely Tylenol]

I talked to my GM, and he'd be cool with letting me burn a feat to have two sets of readied maneuvers, one for raging focused and one for not focused. I'm thinking that I'd use Iron Heart and Tiger Claw when not focused, and Diamond Mind and White Raven when focused. (He's letting me use Concentration while focused.) So hey, this is pretty cool. I guess my original musings have gone where I want them to go, though any other insights would be interesting.

Now I just have to figure out the rest of the character. It's an E6 game, so probably Barbarian 1 / Warblade 5. I could lose one Warblade level without losing any IL, but I'd lose one maneuver known (and the limited, but still useful, Warblade bonus feat).

Any ideas for a cool weapon to wield? I was thinking something with an 18-20 crit range (falchion?), but I'd also like reach. Know of anything that fits there?

As for the combat form feats, they did play a factor in the brainstorming that led to this character, but I don't really like the ones that are low enough level to exist in E6.

I almost want to say give up a level of Warblade for a level of Swordsage, but then you'd be giving up your second iterative attack for good (although you would have access to the Flashing Sun maneuver if you took this level at 5th or 6th, which could easily replace it). This would give you a second set of maneuvers to work with, from which you could draw Diamond Mind and Setting Sun maneuvers.

Doing so would also grant you access to Burning Brand, which would give you reach on a falchion (but limited applications).

This would probably be way too much bookkeeping for this, but if you were a Barbarian 1/Warblade 3/Swordsage 1/Warblade 4th, you'd have two stances (one of which is 3rd-level) and four maneuvers (readied; five known) from Warblade, ranging from first to third, from which you could draw your Iron Heart (unfocused) and White Raven (focused) maneuvers, as well as one stance and four maneuvers (readied; six known) from Swordsage, ranging from first to second, from which you could draw your Tiger Claw (unfocused) and Diamond Mind (focused) maneuvers. The caveat to this is, since you never gain a third-level maneuver naturally, you'd have to take Martial Study to grab the third-level maneuvers you'd want for Warblade, but this would allow you to have, say, the following prepared:

Stances:
Stance of Clarity (Swordsage 1)
Punishing Stance or Bolstering Voice (Warblade 1)
Leaping Dragon Stance or Pearl of Black Doubt (Warblade 4)

Maneuvers:
Steel Wind (Warblade 1)
Steely Strike (Warblade 1)
Leading the Charge (Warblade 1)
Charging Minotaur (Warblade 2)
Battle Leader's Charge or Tactical Strike (Warblade 3)
Action Before Thought (Swordsage 1)
Moment of Perfect Mind (Swordsage 1)
Flashing Sun (Swordsage 1)
Claw at the Moon (Swordsage 1)
Rabid Wolf Strike (Swordsage 1)
Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Burning Brand, Wolf Fang Strike, or any single Setting Sun Maneuver (Swordsage 1)

Martial Study can flesh out this list with the following:
- Any of the maneuvers listed at the last line of Swordsage but not taken (attached to Swordsage);
- Revitalizing Strike (attached to Warblade);
- Insightful Strike (attached to Warblade);
- Devastating Throw (attached to Warblade);
- Flesh Ripper (attached to Warblade);
- White Raven Tactics (attached to Warblade).

The trade-off is that you don't get the Warblade feat or a free third-level maneuver known (making the realization of the high end of this strategy feat-intensive, which is easily mitigated by it being E6). You also don't gain a second iterative attack naturally, but you gain Flashing Sun as a maneuver keyed to Swordsage.

EDIT: By the way, if you do take a feat to let you prepare two sets of maneuvers, just ask if he'll let you "cross-pollenate" your maneuver lists with the use of said feat (as in, you can prepare both Warblade and Swordsage maneuvers for either "maneuvers readied" list). That way, you can prepare one set of maneuvers (say, using the Warblade maneuvers readied list) that has the Tiger Claw and Iron Heart maneuvers of your choosing, plus another set of maneuvers (using the Swordsage maneuvers readied list) that uses the Diamond Mind and White Raven maneuvers, and alternate between the two (this would cut down on the in-combat bookkeeping greatly, as you can just have two flashcards with the different lists on them). Or, you can have maneuvers that you can prepare on both lists (allowing you to use Flashing Sun for two iterative attacks regardless of whether or not you're "focused").