Building the best Epic Level Strength Barbarian

[Seripham89]

Basically, I am tired of being party face in my group and one of my group members wants to do a world where there are no gods and we as epic PCs near the beginning of time are on a quest to become legends and gods. I'd like to run a barbarian (a class I've never run) and just boost the strength to stupid levels. With that in mind what are some of the best classes, races, and items to make this happen. We start at level 20 and will get to at least 30 before the campaign ends.

I was thinking of going war hulk with bear warrior with minotaur/ centaur as my race, or maybe goliath if the DM is cool with the Powerful Build Racial Trait as counting toward the WH requirement.

[Karl Aegis]

Barbarian isn't really the best class to boost strength with. By level 20 your 1st level ability has doubled in effectiveness. That isn't good, considering a full caster more than doubles in effectiveness every 4 levels.

If you really wanted to be strong I would recommend being an Archivist 17/Hulking Hurler 3.

[Ellowryn]

Avoiding the obvious answer that being a full caster = almost perfect at everything, lets see what we got.

Start off with a Water Orc and add the Half-Minotaur and Half-Ogre templates and heck even the Dragonborn of Bahamat one too for starting adjustment of +20 Str, -4 Dex, +10 Con, -6 Int, +0 Wis, -4 Cha, +3 natual Armor with 1 LA.

I don't know how you are handling LA, but by your race selection it seems you are ignoring some. If you do get to ignore more you can add on other templates like Half-Dragon and/or Half-Iron Golem.

For classes, Whirling Frenzy Barbarian 4/Dungeon Crasher Fighter 6/War Hulk 10, which nets you an additional +20 Str and +4 more when Raging.

So if you start off with an 18 in Str, your ending stat will be 74 (18 start + 20 Race/Templates + 5 Leveling + 20 Class + 5 Inherit + 6 Enhancement)

[ExLibrisMortis]

Two levels in warshaper adds another +4 strength and +4 constitution, which is probably better than two levels of anything else (except for certain templates, I suppose).

If you can get a caster-type to help you, persisted size increases and the bite of the [x] spells and such can add a nice bit of strength to what Ellowryn already listed. Bite of the Werebear is +16 enhancement to strength, for example.

[bekeleven]

There's always Tauric template stacking, but I'm assuming cheese is frowned upon.

[Chronos]

I don't know what levels 1-20 will be, but there's no reason for 21-30 to not be War Hulk. The normal drawback to the class, lack of BAB, is negated by everyone getting the same BAB in epic.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Water Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater) (+0 LA, Str +4)
Half-Minotuar (Dragon 313), which comes with a size increase (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm#sizeIncreases) (+1 LA, Str +12)
Half-Goristro (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a), bottom of the page, which comes with a size increase (+4 LA, Str +16)

That's a total Str +32 and huge size, for a +5 LA. You can say you began with Half-Minotaur, bought off the +1 LA (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm), and then gradually gained Half-Fiend (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20031010a) and bought it off as you went. Those template classes count as level adjustment and don't have to be taken in uninterrupted succession (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030824a). So you went LA +1/ [classes] 3 (bought off, 3,000 xp)/ Half-Fiend 1/ [classes] 3 (bought off, 6,000 xp)/ Half-Fiend 2/ [classes] 3 (bought off, 9,000 xp)/ Half-Fiend 3/ [classes] 3 (bought off, 12,000 xp)/ Half-Fiend 4/ [classes] 3 (bought off, 15,000 xp)/ [classes] X. You'll be 45,000 xp behind, but you'll begin play with +0 LA, Str +32, and be huge size!

Get Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) and you can have a 10% bonus to all current and future xp from 6th level, meaning you take everyone's starting xp, subtract 3,000 xp (paid before your 6th level), increase the remaining amount by 10%, and then subtract the other 42,000 xp you paid for that LA. If your characters would begin play at exactly 20th level (190,000 xp), you'll be starting at 18th level with 163,700 xp. You'll get more xp per encounter for being lower level, plus you'll get 10% more on top of that, so you should catch up rather quickly. If your characters would begin play at exactly 21st level (210,000 xp), you'll be starting at 19th level with 185,700 xp, just 4,300 xp away from 20th, and you'll still get more xp per encounter plus an extra 10% and catch up quickly.

Edit: I wouldn't necessarily make this character a Barbarian, simply because that class is quite bad at making use of such a high Str. I would include Half-Orc Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm#halfOrcParagon) 3, since Orc + half-race template = Half-Orc, after all. Get Fighter 9 with Dungeoncrasher in Dungeonscape, the Zhentarim Soldier (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a) substitution levels, and the Dead Levels (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20061013a) bonuses. Get one level of Spellthief or Psychic Rogue (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b) or just Rogue and then five levels of Scarlet Corsair (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20050805b). Fill out the rest with Orc Paragon levels, and start taking War Hulk in the epic levels. Your feats need to include Knock-Back in Races of Stone, Knock-Down (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown) if possible, Imperious Command in Drow of the Underdark, Menacing Demeanor from the Otyugh Hole in CS, and Combat Reflexes.

Always Power Attack for -2 to hit so you can use Knock-Back, and if you knock them into a solid obstacle you'll deal Dungeoncrasher damage. You can spend a swift action every round to make an Intimidate check to demoralize every opponent within 20 ft., which adds your size bonus as well, and any affected opponents will Cower for a round and then be Shaken on the following round. Use Invest Skill Ranks from your Item Familiar to add a bonus to Intimidate equal to your ranks in it. The item familiar itself should be a ring which you wear a gauntlet over so opponents never have line of sight/effect to it and cannot target it directly or Slight of Hand it. Item Familiars are intelligent items which are regarded as constructs, and constructs cannot be disabled or destroyed by dispelling or disjoining and continue to function in antimagic and dead magic areas, though such effects may suppress your benefits from the Item Familiar feat.

[Deadasadoor]

If you want to do something a little different than just stacking Minotaur templates, try the Maug from Fiend Folio. ECL 5, but they're (large) intelligent constructs with scaling spell resistance and lots of skill points. Being a construct may or may not be ideal for epic because of the immunity to cure spells though. Perhaps get a friendly epic spell caster to research a version of heal that works on constructs?

Another template, coming in either +2 or +3 LA, is Obah-blessed from Dungeon 136. It gives either 2 or 4 extra arms. There's a rule in Savage Species that says creatures wielding a 2H weapon add an extra 1/2 STR to damage for each extra arm. 4 extra arms gives you 3.5 * STR on each hit. There are no words on how it affects Power Attack though. I can see a 1:6 return on Power Attack BEFORE Leap Attack getting out of hand very quickly.

[atemu1234]

If you want to do something a little different than just stacking Minotaur templates, try the Maug from Fiend Folio. ECL 5, but they're (large) intelligent constructs with scaling spell resistance and lots of skill points. Being a construct may or may not be ideal for epic because of the immunity to cure spells though. Perhaps get a friendly epic spell caster to research a version of heal that works on constructs?

Another template, coming in either +2 or +3 LA, is Obah-blessed from Dungeon 136. It gives either 2 or 4 extra arms. There's a rule in Savage Species that says creatures wielding a 2H weapon add an extra 1/2 STR to damage for each extra arm. 4 extra arms gives you 3.5 * STR on each hit. There are no words on how it affects Power Attack though. I can see a 1:6 return on Power Attack BEFORE Leap Attack getting out of hand very quickly.

Incarnate Construct may also help with the Maug.