To continue Barbarian or not (D&D 3.5)

[NapazTrix]

Human - Barbarian4 (Lion Totem) | Fighter1
STR 19, DEX12(14), CON 16, INT 8, WIS 10, CHA 8.

Feats: Whirling Frenzy as rage
Human: Weapon Focus - GreatSword
Flaw: Improved Toughness
Lv1: Extra Rage
Fighter1: Monkey Grip
Lv3: Mounted Combat
Lv6: Leadership
Lv9: Improved critical: GreatSword

When I hit level 6 I will swap feats like this:
Get rid of: Weapon Focus, Improved Toughness. Monkey Grip, Mounted Combat
Get: Power Attack, Leap Attack, Improved Bull Rush , Shock Trooper

Items: Large Greatsword, Chainmail, Healing Belt, Boots of Dexterity.
Gold: 3648
When I hit 6000 I will buy Strongarm Bracers to replace the Monkey Grip feat.


For this character he is modelled after the character Artorias from Dark souls: His Boss Battle (https://youtu.be/_l2FY9RpWmA?t=6)
So I am going for power attacking, pounce and the like so he can charge/leap into battle to deal with foes. I felt he fit the Barbarian role much better after he was corrupted by the abyss, with a level of Fighter to allow him all the training he had in his past life.

I don't really want to budge on the large weapon since it's kind of his thing, I also have a Dire Wolf for a mount which is Sif (https://youtu.be/OuOmZdH955c?t=49) who will be getting a Greatsword to wield as well.

The question I want to ask is; If I continue to level barbarian is it going to be worth it or is there a prestige/multi class that would work better to create/empower the character?

Books allowed: PHB, all "Complete" books, UA, MIC. (Though more might be allowed)

[Andezzar]

Pounce does not work while mounted. You are not charging, your mount is, you just get the usual modifiers associated with a charge. Charging yourself would mean leaving the mount.

Unless you have someone doing DCS for you, you can only retrain one feat per level up. Leap Attack requires 8 ranks of jump, Shock Trooper BAB 6, so they both can only be gained at 5th/6th level or later. The retraining rules do not allow you to circumvent this.

Unless you really want to use rage, you have more than enough levels of barbarian. If ToB is allowed I would go with Warblade. I really had fun with a Barb2/Fighter2/Warblade X. If you do get Bounding Assault (the maneuver) ASAP. It's really fun to freely move around and still get all the goodies from Pounce, Leap Attack and Shock Trooper.

[NapazTrix]

Pounce does not work while mounted. You are not charging, your mount is, you just get the usual modifiers associated with a charge. Charging yourself would mean leaving the mount.


Sif will be regulated to more of a flanker attacker/cover me at lv 6 when I drop mounted combat.


Unless you have someone doing DCS for you, you can only retrain one feat per level up. Leap Attack requires 8 ranks of jump, Shock Trooper BAB 6, so they both can only be gained at 5th/6th level or later. The retraining rules do not allow you to circumvent this.


What do you mean by DCS? I will be taking another level of Fighter to allow me the feats, forgot to change the notes I copied.



Unless you really want to use rage, you have more than enough levels of barbarian. If ToB is allowed I would go with Warblade. I really had fun with a Barb2/Fighter2/Warblade X. If you do get Bounding Assault (the maneuver) ASAP. It's really fun to freely move around and still get all the goodies from Pounce, Leap Attack and Shock Trooper.


I want to keep the frenzy due to the buff, extra attacks and it fits more with the character in the way he fights. I would like ToB for the stances/maneuvers but I will have to wait on a reply from GM on that book.

[Andezzar]

Sif will be regulated to more of a flanker attacker/cover me at lv 6 when I drop mounted combat.OK then.


What do you mean by DCS? I will be taking another level of Fighter to allow me the feats, forgot to change the notes I copied.DCS stands for Dark Chaos Shuffle, which is using the spells Embrace the Dark Chaos and Shun the Dark Chaos to replace any feat with any other feat for which you now meet the prerequisites. It's particularly popular with Elves or other characters who get (useless) bonus feats. Another fighter level should get you both feats.


I want to keep the frenzy due to the buff, extra attacks and it fits more with the character in the way he fights. I would like ToB for the stances/maneuvers but I will have to wait on a reply from GM on that book.If you want to frenzy often Warblade may not be for you. The nifty save replacing maneuvers (moment of perfect mind etc.) can't be used during a frenzy (no concentration checks) and it is debatable whether you can use maneuvers at all. I always found that the +2 to attack and damage aren't really necessary once you use all the feats you have. Leading the Charge (stance) can further increase your damage by your initiator level. +1 attack is nice, but depending on the DM it might lose its usefulness as soon as Haste is on the table, around level 5.

[ranagrande]

Pounce does not work while mounted. You are not charging, your mount is, you just get the usual modifiers associated with a charge. Charging yourself would mean leaving the mount.

If you did want a mounted pounce though, you could take all three levels of Wild Plains Outlander from Complete Adventurer. You could take a level of Beastmaster first to qualify. I've played a similar build before and it was a lot of fun.

[Andezzar]

Hah, auto correct got you, it seems. It's Wild Plains Outrider. :smallwink: The class also does not allow you to charge while remaining mounted. It only allows you to make a full attack as long as the mount only takes a single move. So you don't get all the bonuses from Leap Attack and Shock Trooper.

[NapazTrix]

We are only allowed 3 classes + favoured class + 1 Prestige so I don't exactly want to waste my prestige on outrider. My character will mostly be on foot for combat after level 6, with riding sif for only certain parts.

Any other classes that could be good for me?