Punch-barian

[Fightmaster]

Hi there, some friends and I recently started a campaign and I'm playing an unarmed barbarian. I don't want to use bear warrior. There are no restrictions placed by the DM, other than no homebrew or flaws. We are level 5 and here's what I have so far. The people I'm playing with are not optimized and will consider anything too fancy as cheese.

Human Barbarian (City Brawler) 4/ Fist of the Forest 1
STR 18 DEX 17 CON 17 INT 12 WIS 16 CHA 15
Hp:70
Fort:13 Ref: 7 Will: 4
Feats:
Barb 1: Power Attack, Improved Unarmed Strike (bonus), Twf (bonus), great fortitude
Barb 3: Superior Unarmed Strike, although I can change that

[HaikenEdge]

I'm sorry, I don't see a question.

Although, if you really want to be a punch-barian, I suggest taking ranks in Craft: Mixed Drinks.

[Fightmaster]

My question would be how could I go about making an effective unarmed barbarian based on what I have so far?

[HaikenEdge]

Since you're already a Fist of the Forest, no reason to not go all the way through that. Afterwards, you can go with the Black Blood Cultist, though I'm partial to Frost Rager (even though it's unoptimized).

[Diovid]

No bear totem (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bearTotemClassFeatures )? And no Goliath Barbarian substitution level?

[Fightmaster]

Bear totem sounds pretty good to me, I'm partial to frost rager and I've heard something about combining that with blazing berserker

[Rebel7284]

Rune Scarred Berserker is pretty good at combining being a barbarian with getting a few relevant spells. Antimagic Field for the win!

[ddude987]

I second Frost Rager. It might not be especially powerful, but its interesting and does what you need it to. Also, who doesn't want to grow sharp icicle claws when they're angry?

[HaikenEdge]

Bear totem sounds pretty good to me, I'm partial to frost rager and I've heard something about combining that with blazing berserker

Be immune to fire and cold while you rage! How awesome is that?

You'd be like, a cold-powered Wolverine without the regeneration.

[ddude987]

You'd be like, a cold-powered Wolverine without the regeneration.

There are ways to get that :smallamused:

[HaikenEdge]

There are ways to get that :smallamused:

While true, that wasn't part of the original design request, and it would probably make the other players cry out "cheese!"

[Gwendol]

I don't like the vulnerability to fire of the frostrager.
Bear totem barbarian is excellent as is runescarred berserker.

[Coidzor]

What about a form of lycanthropy?

[HaikenEdge]

I don't like the vulnerability to fire of the frostrager.
Bear totem barbarian is excellent as is runescarred berserker.

Take Blazing Berserker and be immune to fire when you rage.

[Metahuman1]

About Five Levels of Kensai and the Steadfast Determination feat will help you focus on just the important attributes, though getting into Kensai might be a trick.

[HaikenEdge]

Kensai is Lawful. Barbarians can't rage if lawful.

[Metahuman1]

Missed that.

Oh well, Steadfast Determination is still a good option.

A dip into Totemist for what ever that soul meld is that get's you the ability to ignore some ability damage and Sphinxe claws might not be horrible either.

If you go that route, consider the poison Healer feat, and drinking lot's of booze for physical stat boosts and healing at negligible costs. Also very flavorful.

[weckar]

this build screams feral template, if you can spare the level.

[gorfnab]

ACFs to look into
Spirit Totem: Lion (CC)
Whirling Frenzy (UA)
Wolf Totem (UA)

Barbarian (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2502.0) Handbooks (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105525)

How about going for the Shock Trooper feat?

If you go with some Totemist (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2943.0) levels (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=287304) you could consider going into Totem Rager (MoI).

[gallagher]

:thog: Every barbarian worth ax should ask question: Does me want spellcasting? If yes, Runescarred berserker (http://dndtools.eu/classes/runescarred-berserker/). If no, then pick Runescarred berserker (http://dndtools.eu/classes/runescarred-berserker/).

The barbarian voice may not have worked, but let me break it down for you:

It has all the best parts of being a barbarian incorporated into it. You get extra rages, Greater Rage, damage reduction, and a nifty natural armor bonus.

Added bonus, it has a spell list. You dont cast spells like a normal caster, its more like you are your own magical item holding a couple of charges. In fact, you ceremonially carve them into your body. And there are a lot of really boss spells on your list, maxing out at fifth level. I'd like to highlight the following selection:
1: See Invisibility, Protection from X, Cure Moderate Wounds, True Strike.
2: Darkvision, Invisibility, Bears Endurance, Bulls Strength, Cure Serious Wounds
3: The entire third level is great for you. You get Air Walk, Cure Critical Wounds, Death Ward, Divine Power, Freedom of Movement, Haste, Greater Magic Weapon
4: Greater Invisibility, Righteous Might, Restoration, Stoneskin. Spell Immunity looks attractive, but you wont have the room on your body for it.
5: ANTIMAGIC FIELD. Done. Drop the mic on stage and walk off. Punch the wizard on the way while insulting his mother. Its like getting a capstone at level 16. You also have Dimension Door, Heal, and Polymorph, but really they all play second fiddle to Antimagic Field.

You get 7 tattoos at one time, and take a little damage that you can heal away by any means you want. Your next three levels should go Fighter 2/ Runescarred Berserker 1. take the three feats you need to qualify for RB, fill out them skills, and have fun with it.

You will have to RP the heck out of it to make it not too cheesy for your party, but in return you will add to your defense, add to your offense, and kill lots of things with lots of axes.

[Fightmaster]

The idea of dropping the mic on casters sounds pretty great:smallbiggrin: this might sound silly but do Rune Scarred Berserkers have to carve their spells again after every use?

[gallagher]

The idea of dropping the mic on casters sounds pretty great:smallbiggrin: this might sound silly but do Rune Scarred Berserkers have to carve their spells again after every use?

Yeah, but the repercussions are minimal: Scars that eventually give you natural armor and damage reduction, 1d6 damage for each tattoo you carve (which can be healed by your party cleric for free without losing the benefit of the spell), and i guess your party might sometimes watch you do it. Just play a stone-cold-bad-you-know-what

[Gavinfoxx]

1.) Be a Barbarian
2.) Take Whirling Frenzy (System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy or Unearthed Arcana) or Ferocity (Cityscape Web Enhancement http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
3.) Take Spirit Lion Totem (Complete Champion)
4.) Take Wolf Totem (System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wolfTotemClassFeatures or Unearthed Arcana)
5.) Take Skilled City Dweller-ride for tumble (Cityscape Web Enhancement http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
6.) Take City Brawler (Dragon Magazine #349, you might need to convince the GM on this one. What it actually does is pretty simple: it removes proficiency in medium armor, martial weapons, and shields, adding instead Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, Two Weapon Fighting when fighting unarmed, the improved version at 6th, the greater at 11th, and reduces the penalty with improvised weapons from -4 to -2. Quite good for a 'Monk'. You might be able to just ask for those changes themselves, of something like them.)
7.) Take Streetfighter (Cityscape Web Enhancement http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)
8.) Get the feat Superior Unarmed Strike (Tome of Battle)
9.) Get a Monk's Belt (Dungeon Master's Guide or System Resource Document http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#beltMonks. Before you get access to this, just wear light armor like normal.)
10.) Get a Necklace of Natural attacks (Savage Species, this lets you enchant unarmed strike with things beyond +#'s; very useful! You can get the smoking property to get a miss chance on your body, for example, or magebane or sure-striking!)
11.) Get a Fanged Ring (Dragon Magic)
12.) Take Snap Kick (Tome of Battle)
13.) Take mobility skill tricks of various sorts, especially to do with charging (Complete Scoundrel)
14.) You now have a fantastic and brutal, hard style martial artist!

[gallagher]

Heck, if you want to keep the build in your back pocket for when your friends become more optimized, with two flaws you could go Human Barbarian1/Fighter4/Fist of the Forest1/Frenzied Berserker1/Runescarred Berserker10/Bard3.

The bard levels are so that when you are dancing on a corpse while punching a soon-to-be-corpse, you can sing in tune without tripping over your feet. Other classes give you perform (dance) and (sing), heck you can cross-class it... but the bard levels give you bonuses while you do it.

I guess you could go with Frostrager, as it would be thematic. But Frostrafer doesnt come with a kilt.

[ddude987]

I will say do be careful, if you go the shock trooper + power attack + leap attack route and do lots of damage, well some parties and DMs cannot handle it and the game either turns into rocket tag or you get hit with crowd control for the entirety of combats.

[Socksy]

Grab a couple of Wilder levels. Get Psionic Fist and Greater Psionic Fist. Psychic Warrior if you don't want to lose BAB in favour of a bit of manifesting.

[Theomniadept]

Dunno how much this may help overall but you can in fact take 5 levels of Bear Warrior and that'll give you natural weapons and a larger size. You can use your full attack and then your natural weapons as secondary natural weapons.