The Berserker of vahalla

[dantiesilva]

So I'm soon to be sending my characters deep into enemy territory and saying they have faced mostly smart talented magic wielding or using people I was thinking of bringing it back to the basics. Hack and slash barbarian.

I was thinking of probably having the race be an ogre for the huge bump in strength. And saying it was gestlat feats would never be an issue with the barbarian fighter comb. I was also thinking of being a mythic exampler, bear warrior, Druken master for flavor, Frenzied berserker, Occult slayer for fluff, Ravager, Frostrager, Primeval and basically getting the best of each and every single class, which will be kind of hard saying you can't prestiag3e on both sides at the same time.

If anyone could help me with feat selection and the best choices of how to use these prestige classes it would be greatly appreciated.

[dantiesilva]

Anyone...anyone at all?

[Zonugal]

What level are you look at here?

[dantiesilva]

30-35ish maybe a few more levels. A feat every two levels.

[TechnOkami]

You should be a Warforged. You shift into a giant robo-bear iced over, combined w/ the Imperious Command Feat (warning: it has a charisma requirement), fear through your barbarian rage causes enemies to effectively become comatose.

[dantiesilva]

warforged get no bonus to str, though it is over kill to keep on adding it.

+2 to con for 2 negatives in wis and cha that hurts. Add in the fact that you can't wear armor because it is built into you. Weapon wise it is better as is immune to criticals. But locked gauntlets and undead give the same thing and only power you up further.

Compared to +10 to str
-2 Dex
+4 Con
-4Int
-4Cha

That nets you a +4 in the end that you make out with after losses. If i were to go orge mage though flavor wise it would not be good it would net me all positives. I'm going to stick with the orge that way my greatsword deals like 2d10 or something + str modifierx2

[enderlord99]

30-35ish maybe a few more levels. A feat every two levels.

Sounds...

:smallsmile:->:smallcool:

EPIC.

Yeeaaahhhh...

[Waker]

The fact that Warforged can't wear armor is actually a decent thing for NPCs. They can enchant their armor plating, but after death the party can't use it for themselves or even sell it.
This is just a simple build using Ogre at level 30 with Gestalt. I don't care for complicated builds.

Ogre 4RHD/Dungeoncrasher Fighter 6/Incarnate 10/Warhulk 10//
Spirit Lion Barbarian 5/Occult Slayer 5/Frenzied Berzerker 10/Incarnate 10

End result is a guy who has an absurd amount of strength and is the embodiment of chaos (from Incarnate.) Binds to consider using: Airstep Sandals, Crystal Helm, Incarnate Weapon, Strongheart Vest,

[dantiesilva]

And here i thought people would be going crazy with replies over this I'm quite surprised really. Well if its because of a lack of info I am adding more now. Because of him wielding a greatsword I was also just thinking about having him take some levels in crusader for I believe, not quite sure Stone dragon discipline that way it helps him with his greatsword damage output as well as more flavor. Though it ain't mindless rage like everything else it gives him a reason to use it say over a greataxe or some other weapon.

The barbarian 1 will be a lion totem barbarian for the pounce leap attack thing. Still new to alot of the newer books. Now that I think about it I will only take fighter up to level four that way he gets 3 bonus feats to clear up some room. I also get two free ones from being an orge. 1 for 1st level, 2nd level, and 4th level.
Feats=8feats by level 5 without faults with faults 10.
So looking at bar1/fighter1
barbarian2/fighter1/crusader1
Barbarian3/fighter2/crusader1
Barbarian4/fighter3/crusader1
barbarian5/fighter4/crusader1

Full BAB
d12HD+RHD
Bad REF and WILL saves
Rage 2/day
Trapsense +1
Taking half damage from spells that it fail a save for
Take 5 less damage a hit
+1 to all attacks when hit


All and all not bad for level 5. The feats will be what make it at this level.

Barbarian6//Fighter4//crusader1// Mythic exampler 1=+1 to fort
Barbarian7//fighter4//crusader1//mythic exampler 2=Greatsword threat range increases
Barbarian8//Fighter4/crusader 1//Mythic exampler3=+1 on all opposed str checks and +2 fort
Barbarian9//Fighter4/crusader1/Mythic exampler 4=+4 to str 1/day for 4 rounds
Barbarian10//fighter4/crusader1/mythic exempler 5=+2 on all opposed str checks, Fort +3
Barbarian10//?1/Fighter 4/crusader 1/Mythic exampler 6=always have haste in effect on yourself
Barbarian 10//?2/Fighter4/Crusader1/Mythic exampler 7=+3 on all str, +4 fort
Barbarian10//?3/fighter 4/crusader1/mythic exemplar 8=Constant divine power on self
Barbarian 10//?4/fighter 4/crusader 1/ME9=+4 to all str checks
barbarian 11//?4/fighter4/crusader1/ME10=+2 to str permant, ignores 15 points of hardness and DR

what do you think so far

[dantiesilva]

sorry was posting when people add stuff up, only problem is i do not know incantrix stuff.

And as I'm looking at my build all I'm seeing is alot of fluff. XD A Metal bear would sound fun though. Thinking of dropping bear warrior after a 1 level dip, it just aint worth the full amount. 3 levels of druken master that way i can gain a +6 to con and str for 6 rounds. and dodge bonus as wellas ac bonus is always good.

Frienzed breserker all ten adds +10 to str added on to my rage, 4:1 ratio on power attack due to greatsword.

2 levels of occult slayer for the flavor and extra damage is a help.

Dropping ravager because it aint as good as i thought it would be in the build.

Frost rager up to level 5 counteracts the - to ac from a frenzzy

Primevil all 10 levels become dire lion as well as bear, +9 to str, +5 dex, +7 con, +8na,-3int and cha.

[Waker]

sorry was posting when people add stuff up, only problem is i do not know incantrix stuff
You mean Incarnate?
Do you mean to say that you don't understand the class or you don't have the book at all?

[dantiesilva]

I believe I have the book, i just have never looked into the class really. I hear alot of people throw it into builds so obviously its good just when you got so many books it takes a while to find one thing.

[dantiesilva]

Now looking at
barbarian 14//1bear warrior//drunken master3//Frienzied berserker10//occult slayer 2/fighter4/crusader1/ME10/Primeval10/Frostrager 5

=level 30 build
Saying I would like to get in at least 5 more levels of crusader for this i have 5 free levels that need to be filled that do not rely on magic, or are feat/skill heavy.

2 RHD
3 Fighter
2 faults
16 levels

total of 23 feats to play with if anyone wants to give ideas outside of the ones i need for requirements which most are the same.

[Waker]

Well, I can give you a general description of what the class does and how it works.
The fluff for meldshapers (Incarnates, Totemists, Soulborn) is that they gather up the spiritual energy and shape it into a meld. Melds are a weird combination spell/item. You shape a meld when you wake up and it remains shaped for 24-hours. While shaped a meld is placed on a certain part of your body, but does not replace the equipment there (but see below). While shaped, you gain some benefit from a meld, such as a bonus to hit or resistance to some ailment. In addition to melds, you have a reserve of energy called "Essentia". The amount of essentia you have is based on your race and class level. As a swift action, you can reassign any or all of your essentia into whichever melds you have shaped. Investing essentia increases the benefit of a meld, I'll use the Flame Cincture meld as an example.
Flame Cincture
Benefit: You gain Fire Resistance 10. For each point of essentia invested in this meld, this resistance increases by 5.
So a character with 2 points invested would have a total of Fire Resistance 20. Now there is one more important thing about melds, which is binding them to a Chakra. There are a total of nine chakras and each meld applies to one or more chakra. When a meld is bound to a chakra you gain the standard bonus of the meld as well as the chakra bonus. While a meld is bound to a chakra, you cannot use magic items associated with that body slot. Going back to the Flame Cincture, we'll examine binding a chakra.
Flame Cincture
Chakra: Waist
Benefit: Whenever the cincture prevents fire damage the energy is stored for one round. You can expend the energy as a swift action and deal damage equal to the amount prevented. Reflex for half.

While a character has this meld bound to his Waist Chakra, he is prohibited from wearing a magical belt.

[dantiesilva]

It sounds really good and all, but I'm trying to stay as far away from magic or magic look alikes as possible so I'm going to pass on the class. I'll just take the last 5 in Barbarian and crusader to net me

+4 on will saves when raging
+6 to str and Con when raging
-2AC when raging
DR5/--
+6 to reflex and AC against traps
Rage 5/day
Cha to will saves( though it wont be much every little bit does help when your in a freenzy)
Reroll one miss chance a day
And a smite attempt, now that sounds pretty good to me for 5 levels, though if i took 6 it would net me a little bit more rage wise.

All in all starting with a flat 18 in str I have a
+8Orge
+6rage
+3 regression
+6 feral power
+6 drink like a demon
+10 frenzy
+4 paragon's lesser gift
+2Ability boost
+7levels
for a grand total of a total of 70 str for a modifier of 30 str modifier

This is not counting divine power which is constantly cast on me as well as magic items. With all those things well something that is already extremely powerful only gets higher. He can already grab a dragon by the tail, pick it up and throw it. Win an arm wrestling match with a titan.

[WinWin]

Skullcrusher Ogre (MM3) + 14
10 levels of Warhulk + 20
level boosts + 7
Base 18

59 strength, without items or the need to power up/rage/drink/whatever. Plus all your melee attacks target all squares within reach, rather than a single target. I'll let that sink in for a moment. One guy provokes an attack of opportunity, he and all his friends get attacked with the same AoO...

Still plenty of room for additional classes and feat bonuses. So you can add frenzied berserker and primeval/drunken master/whatever else to rack up situational bonuses to your strength score.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Skullcrusher Ogre (MM3) + 14
10 levels of Warhulk + 20
level boosts + 7
Base 18

59 strength, without items or the need to power up/rage/drink/whatever. Plus all your melee attacks target all squares within reach, rather than a single target. I'll let that sink in for a moment. One guy provokes an attack of opportunity, he and all his friends get attacked with the same AoO...

Still plenty of room for additional classes and feat bonuses. So you can add frenzied berserker and primeval/drunken master/whatever else to rack up situational bonuses to your strength score.

Add dungeoncrasher levels to knockback your foes constantly, robilar's gambit to make AoO:s as soon as someone attacks you and you got a decent melee-machine. Let's just hope that the party didn't bring a caster to the fight.
EDIT: And half troll perhaps, for extra durability. You can take the damage, they can't.

[dantiesilva]

I can fit four levels of the warhulk

robilar's gambit is a feat so does not bother me at all.

Half troll doesnt sound that bad either.

I can't see more then three people surrounding him at a time, and to add more warhulk i would be weakening him somewhere else. Never mind the fact you have to take all ten levels.Skullcrusher ogre im going to look at now

[dantiesilva]

After reading skullcrusher I agree it is a much better choice. Just as much so is attaching half troll to it. And because of its odd bloodline I would suspect it was born in the underdark so maybe the template that links it to magical areas just for the oddness to it. And saying it is radiation add in an extra pair of arms? What does everyone think about that?

[dantiesilva]

Thank you playground a real lot you made an ok idea become an amazing build. Have the shaman of his tribe drop an antimagic field on him that way it travels with him and....Death to all fleshes. How about feats now? Keeping in mind I am epic level and have 23 in no certain order I need these ones for requirements.

Cleave
Power attack
Dodge
Great fortitude
Improved unarmed strike
Destructive rage
Intimidating rage
Improved initative
Weapon focus (greatsword)
Frozen beserker
Endurance
Self sufficent
Toughness

thats 13 for requirements
So a total of 14 feats chosen out of 24 because I am also taking robilar's gambit so that way every single turn i hit one person, then on my opponents turn i hit three of them when one attacks.

The stone foot stance
Charging minotaur
Steel wind
Leading the attack
Battle leader's charge
Stone Vise
For manuevers

[Lucid]

You have the MM3, find the War Troll.
Look at your Skullcrusher Ogre. Now back to the War Troll, now back to the Skullcrusher, now back to the War Troll.
Sadly, the Ogre isn't a War Troll. But if you stopped using a Skullcrusher and switched to page 181 you could play a War Troll.
Look down, read it, what are these? Those are your stats, with a +20 strength and regeneration. What are 12 RHD? Those are Monstrous Humanoid, not Giant HD in level 30+ gestalt. Take warhulk levels, you are now even stronger! Anything is possible when you play a War Troll, add the Winged creature template. I can fly.

This might not be what you're looking for, but I've recently thought up a fairly simple level 25 brute build that should be able to dish out and receive damage and can be used for BFC as well. I'm sure it can be improved upon and changed to better suit your needs, and you've got extra feats to spare.

Winged War Troll
LA+8/RHD 12/Frenzied Berserker 5//Spirit Lion-Wolf Totem Barbarian 2/Dungeoncrasher Zhentarim Fighter 10/Warhulk 10/Crusader 3

Start with Barbarian, then fighter, start taking Warhulk levels at lvl 9 opposite of the War Troll HD so you don't lose BAB.
Feats:
1. Endurance
3. Steadfast Determination
6. Intimidating Rage
9. Destructive Rage
12. Imperious Command
15. Combat Reflexes
18. Knockback
21. Robilar's Gambit
24. Shocktrooper
Ftr 1. Power Attack
Ftr 3. Skill Focus(Intimidate) bonus
Ftr 4. Cleave
Ftr 8. Improved Bullrush
Ftr 10. Leap Attack
Brb 2. Improved Trip bonus

[dantiesilva]

You do know because of the half troll template I gain fast healing 5 right?

Add in the
+6str
+2DEx
+6con
-2 int
-2 cha added onto what the skullcrusher grants you which = out to +20str. So i don't quite see what you are getting at?

Add in the war troll is not shown as a playable race so i do not see where you get the +20 str from

[Lucid]

You do know because of the half troll template I gain fast healing 5 right?

Add in the
+6str
+2DEx
+6con
-2 int
-2 cha added onto what the skullcrusher grants you which = out to +20str. So i don't quite see what you are getting at?

Add in the war troll is not shown as a playable race so i do not see where you get the +20 str from The War Troll doesn't have an "X as characters block" but it has a listed LA which means it's playable.
The bonuses to it's ability scores are determined by subtracting 10 from even scores or 11 from uneven scores. See the excellent Urpriest's Monstrous Monster Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207928) for more information on monsters as (n)pc's.
Thus the War Troll gets the following bonuses:
+20 str
+6 dex
+18 con
-2 int
+4 wis
+0 cha
It also gets regeneration 9, which can only be bypassed by acid, +14 natural armor, scent, DR5/Adamantine and can daze creatures with it's attacks.

Adding the Half-Troll template to a Skullcrusher Ogre would net the same strength but lower overall ability scores and special qualities, for +7 LA instead of the War Trolls +6 LA.

Also though the War Troll has more RHD it is a Monstrous Humanoid instead of a Giant, which means it gets full BAB and good reflex and will saves. Paired with War Hulk on the other side of the gestalt you would get full benefits from both. (War Hulks' d12 hd, fort save, +2str/lvl, War Trolls' BAB and reflex and will saves)

Adding the Winged Creature template(from Savage Species) like I did would give it a fly speed and another +4 dex and +2 wis.

[dantiesilva]

Well in that case wouldn't i gain the power up of a dire lion as well from the prc primeval. Either way now that I understand what you are saying when you end up with more positive then negative I am all for it.

Either way being a wartroll grants me this for stats with no levels
Str38
Dex24
Con36
Int16
Wis 22
Cha 18

natural wow

The only help I really need now is feats. Thanks again everyone for all your help
9 feats free that need to be filled

[DeusMortuusEst]

Remember that if you go with war troll, you could combine it with Half-Dragon to be immune to acid as well. Very cheesy, but this is epic and you're a melee fighter, so why not?

[dantiesilva]

Well saying my players destroyed a summoner/blaster wizard/factorum/Malconvoker/and a few other things level 40 so...yea the more cheese the better

after adding ability modifiers im almost at 50 str for level 1 thats amazing

[Lucid]

Also remember that all the strength in the world won't help you against miss-chances, so you'll need something to bypass those.

Though I have to admit I'd hate to go up against such a monstrosity as a player, epic level play is rocket tag anyway, so either this guy doesn't hit me, or he does and I'm done for...:smallsigh:

[dantiesilva]

At level one you cant not hit with him. I'm looking for a few more templates to add that tie him more to his draconic heritae like being a follower of tiamat or adding the chaotic template to him.

And found and adding loth touched to grant him a +6 str and con netting him now a 54 in str i believe

add
+14str
+4Dex
+6 Con
-8int
+2 wis from primeval direlion and wow

and feral template

[Lucid]

Well, he probably will be able to hit anything that hasn't got AC over 100, but AC is pretty worthless at such high levels anyway.

Miss chances from invisibility, blur, blink, etherealness, mirror image and such don't care if you've got +5 or +80 to hit, you'll still have a 20 or 50% chance to miss, in the best case. In the worst case you'll have to make multiple percentile rolls, all with a chance of missing.

To negate miss-chances I'd suggest investing in a Ghost Touch weapon, some way of getting (permanent) true seeing, and the Blind-fight, Mageslayer and Pierce Magical Concealment feats. I believe that should cover it. (AFB, somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about this)

[dantiesilva]

/i always have ghost touch weapons one thing my old DM taught me. As for the feats already was thinking about them. True seeing may be hard to pull off goes against him fluff wise. Zone of antimagic works better, stops all there magic, including weapons bringing it to the barbarians playing field.

[Urpriest]

This guy is an NPC right? And gestalt? How are you reconciling gestalt with the CR rules in this case? Everyone seems to be assuming you're using LA, but that seems highly unlikely.

[dantiesilva]

La= you pay extra XP right? If so yea thats how I'm doing it. As an NPC all I need is a good backstory and roll the rest as it comes.

If LA means that you use it in place of classes then no I'm defiantly not using it that way. Think of it as a regular character he just gains levels slower. And before you say it urpriest yes I know you can not have gestalt on two sides at the same time. As DM I rule it otherwise for the fact they destroyed the wizard factorum that was made.

[Urpriest]

La= you pay extra XP right? If so yea thats how I'm doing it. As an NPC all I need is a good backstory and roll the rest as it comes.

If LA means that you use it in place of classes then no I'm defiantly not using it that way. Think of it as a regular character he just gains levels slower. And before you say it urpriest yes I know you can not have gestalt on two sides at the same time. As DM I rule it otherwise for the fact they destroyed the wizard factorum that was made.

LA means neither of those things. Remember, NPCs don't come back for multiple sessions so they don't gain XP, so XP-related rules don't have much to do with them. If you're unclear on how level adjustment and ECL work you should probably read my monster guide.

What I mean is, how are you counting levels? For example, an ogre has four racial hit dice and LA +2, so as a player it would take up six levels of the gestalt. But since this is an NPC, you wouldn't use those rules. An ogre is CR 3, so for a non-gestalt character it would take up 3 of your CR budget, but nonassociated class levels (for this guy, non-fighter-type levels, so casters, maybe sneaky classes) give half CR up until they equal the racial hit dice (4 in this case). Now all that is without gestalt, because there is no standard way for the two to interact. You'll have to come up with how they interact in your campaign, which was why I was asking. How many levels do we have to work with, and how much monster can we pack in?

[dantiesilva]

Ahhhh

Well I changed it to the wartroll which is
War troll CR 12
Add on half dragon template +2
And I was thinking of adding feral+2
Loth touched s not have a CR adjustment
So that is 12/4 I think? Please correct me if I'm wrong urpriest, bad at this stuff when it comes to monsters and gestalt and LA all combined its why I normally don't DM.

For a grand total of
STR56
DEX24
CON42
INT14
WIS24
CHA20

just from templates prier to classes

[Urpriest]

Ahhhh

Well I changed it to the wartroll which is
War troll CR 12
Add on half dragon template +2
And I was thinking of adding feral+2
Loth touched s not have a CR adjustment
So that is 12/4 I think? Please correct me if I'm wrong urpriest, bad at this stuff when it comes to monsters and gestalt and LA all combined its why I normally don't DM.

For a grand total of
STR56
DEX24
CON42
INT14
WIS24
CHA20

just from templates prier to classes

Ok, so like you say War Troll is CR 12, Half-Dragon gives +2. For a 12HD base creature like a War Troll, Feral gives +4, while Lolth-touched actually gives +1 CR. On the whole then that gives you CR 19.

Now what I don't know is how that interacts with gestalt. When you say 12/4, it makes it sound like you're separating the CR adjustments to different "sides" of the gestalt. Is that how you're handling it? I'm assuming that when you started planning a game with gestalt monsters you sketched some rules for how you wanted monster CR and gestalt to interact. What were those rules?

[dantiesilva]

O now I get what you are saying. My rule for monsters and CR and gestalt was no matter what the cr is only RHD equate to a level. Saying one of my characters wanted to be a saiyan from DBZ. Another one is a half-celestial-half gold dragon human. So I was never really Counting anything but RHD when they made there characters. After all when a sayan goes SS he gets +7 to str,dex, and con at level 7 and it only gets worst from there. Thats been my biggest problem. He can now go SS4 and gets somewhere around 160 bonus when he goes into it, which is a standard action. So he does barbarian but better, he definitely got me for not reading up every detail of the race before I said he could run with it.

[dantiesilva]

Here is a silly question but relevent.

If a carrying capacity for a light load is I don't know say 20,054,016 can I carry a larger weapon?

[Urpriest]

Here is a silly question but relevent.

If a carrying capacity for a light load is I don't know say 20,054,016 can I carry a larger weapon?

Nope. Your hands are still the same size. You may be very strong, but if the weapon's grip is bigger than your hand you still won't be very good at holding it.

[dantiesilva]

dang that stinks

[Urpriest]

dang that stinks

It's not especially important, anyway. At level 35, Power Attack and Str with a few multipliers will deal more damage than any weapon of any size. Though if you have a carrying capacity that big, have you considered Hulking Hurler?

[dantiesilva]

No not yet but thinking about it after all the time i have been told in another thread from the few people who are not lets say acting like female dogs because this is the final test to become a god in my campaign and they don't like itbecause you know you have to really think to win, not just blasty blasty.

[dantiesilva]

I keep on being told to add hulking hurler to this build because of its high str score. Do any of you think this is viable advice saying taking 3 more levels of war hulk will net me +6 to str, and almost the same abilities? If yes then what should I add to the other side? More crusader levels perhaps. Drunken master already lets me used improvised weapons, and I already get everything thats good from it. And I can't see taking 3 levels of hulking hurler/+1?//+4War hulk when two of them do the same. Any suggestions.

[Urpriest]

Hulking Hurler gives you damage based on your carrying capacity. IIRC War Hulk doesn't do that.

But really, you probably deal enough damage even without it. Just make sure you deal enough damage to kill one of your PCs in one hit, and use the rest of your build to make that more reliable/versatile.