SMASH!! A Frenzied Berserker Build in need of help.

[Nosta]

So I have chosen a melee monster as my next D&D 3.5 build and would like my build to be a Frenzied Berserker character. how ever MY character is in a Gesalt game. I will be at level 10 and I will be using a 32 point buy


feats as Normal. race Human. two flaws are needed for feats and flavor


so can I get some help with a build.

Plan to use a wrathful healing great sword

[Draconium]

Focus your stats on Str and Con. They'll be your two most useful. Afterwards is Dex, then your mental stats are bottom priority. Pick up Endurance and Steadfast Determination as soon as you can (your flaws could help you get these at level one and still qualify for FB), so you can get your Con to Will saves, which will help you out with the saves to leave your frenzy.

Since you're using Gestalt, I would get a class on your other side that gives you a good Will save. Dragonfire Adept is a decent choice here, as your breath weapon will key of your Con modifier (which should be higher than normal), and also gives you a bit of natural armor and some minor invocations you can use out of combat. For your other side, take Spirit Lion Totem ACF at your first Barbarian level to trade your Fast Movement for Pounce.

Race-wise, if you can (and want to), and LA buyoff is in effect, think about playing a Half-Minotaur. They get an insane Str bonus as well as a Con bonus.

Make sure your party spellcaster prepares Grease. If combat ends but you can't stop frenzying, the caster can cast Grease in your area and, since you can't make the Dex-based Balance check, you'll fall prone, hopefully until your frenzy ends.

Those are some mechanical tips. How about flavor? What kind of character are you wanting your FB to be?

[LTwerewolf]

If you can work it so there's a red wizard of thay in your group, you can go thayan knight to autofail on their spells. That makes it so they can calm emotions with no chance of failure and end your frenzy before you wreck your party..

[Ortesk]

Ah, frenzied berserker. My favorite class.

You don't need anything fancy to be a good berserker. You need to be a water orc. Take one side as Barb 1/Fighter 5/ Frenzy 9/fighter 5. Get spirit lion totem, get whirling frenzy

On the second side, I would probably take monk (eww) or straight warblade (drools) You need feats, so theany fighter levels help

Pick up the proto template, pretty good little template that will help. You want a +1 Valorous Wrathful Healing (fill the other +4 with whatever fits the campaign) Great sword

Then go for the old, tried and true feats. Power attack, leap attack, indomitable will, Shock Trooper, ect. Look into the mage slayer feat line. A frenzy berserker works best when they are charging and power attacking. Who needs AC when you can heal half of 2D6+a lot?

With 10 levels fighter, full warblade to use when not frenzying, and a frenzy+charge to use when the BBEG wants to get smart, you should be in a very good place and coming close to being a melee beast without using silly little magic tricks. Who needs magic? Not you, that's who.

[Draconium]

...get whirling frenzy...

Actually, that may not be the best idea. According to the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy )...


A character can't use whirling frenzy at the same time that he uses any other form of rage (or similar ability).

While the Frenzied Berserker's frenzy does stack, your original frenzy will not. I can see DMs ruling this away, of course, saying that FB's take precedence, but it's something I wouldn't risk.

[Ortesk]

Actually, that may not be the best idea. According to the SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy )...



While the Frenzied Berserker's frenzy does stack, your original frenzy will not. I can see DMs ruling this away, of course, saying that FB's take precedence, but it's something I wouldn't risk.

Good catch, thank you. Will have to keep that saved for my own personal use

[dspeyer]

At the risk of stating the obvious: swordsage. Barb/FB have good BAB, HD and Fort, so this fills in skills, Ref and Will -- a perfect chassis. Moment of Perfect Mind for those times you *don't* want to rage, and Tiger Claw for flavor-appropriate violence once you do.

As a hopefully-less-obvious: binder. Good will save and a breadth of options. The powers granted aren't very powerful, but a lot of them are swift actions, passive auras or as-part-of-an-attack, so you can use them while fighting all-out.

[Deox]

Is the race negotiable?

If so, Wood Elf Ranger 2 / Fighter 2 / Barbarian 1 / Revenant Blade 5 // Warblade 10. Use a double bladed scimitar and enjoy getting full power attack returns on both ends of your weapon.

[MisterKaws]

You obviously want Warblade at the other side, to IHS the Frenzy away in the worst case.

[Ortesk]

You obviously want Warblade at the other side, to IHS the Frenzy away in the worst case.

By raw that won't work. When in a frenzy, you use your actions to attack at the best of your ability. Ending the frenzy isn't attacking at the best of your ability

[MisterKaws]

By raw that won't work. When in a frenzy, you use your actions to attack at the best of your ability. Ending the frenzy isn't attacking at the best of your ability

Well, crap.

[INoKnowNames]

Be wary of entirely dumping AC. If anyone shows up with Elusive Attack and you dump everything, you'll get slaughtered in the counter attack. Know when enough damage is enough.

I'd second Swordsage. Very solid chassis: fixes the gaps / weaknesses of the regular Frenzied Berserker, and the Maneuvers and Skills give you things to do when you aren't able to get in range to charge or when stuff is needed beyond just killing people.

Another Frenzied Berserker thread in which this advice hasn't yet popped up. If this character isn't being built in a vacuum, check if any other player can cast as a Bard 4 or Cleric 5 (and since you're 10th level, hopefully they would be able to). If so, they can cast Pacification, which is a Dragons of Faerun spell that affects the target with Calm Emotions with no saving throw. Easier to get into a build than Red Wizard of Thay / Thayan Knight. If they prepare or can cast it for every time you Frenzy, that functions as a perfect leash.

[Eldariel]

Tremendous natural Will-save helps a lot. Pride-domain to reroll through Cleric or Planar Touchstone: Catalogues of Enlightenment, and then just lots of passive buffs (you probably can't actively use abilities to help with it during Frenzy anyways). Immortal Fortitude is a rather nice way to ensure you can't die after Deathless Frenzy wears out, though stuff like Revivify/Contingent Spell can also accomplish this. Either way, ToB toys are always nice on melee characters.

EDIT: Honestly, full Cleric on the other side wouldn't be horrid either. You could just get a ton of buff spells, perhaps DMM: Persist and call it a day. Big numbers for everybody, and excellent Will-saves.

[Pyromancer999]

Not sure of exactly how much of your build each you'd want, but War Hulk would drastically improve your strength(+20 over 10 levels, plus some not-too-bad class features), provided you have a way to make yourself Large, although the doesn't improve your BAB at all, which should be fine for gestalt,and Bear Warrior(very easy to qualify for) changes your rage bonuses to +8 Str, +2 Dex, +4 Con with even a one-level dip, 5 levels ups the Str Bonus to +16 and the Con bonus to +8. 10 full levels doesn't offer much improvement other than changing the Str bonus to +20. Granted, you are effectively wildshaped into a bear during Bear Warrior rages(minus the physical ability score replacement), So 10 levels of War Hulk and/or 5 levels of Bear Warrior grant you a deific level strength score, with a +36 Strength bonus while bear raging from those levels alone. Also, their prerequisites(Large size aside) are baked into the Frenzied Berserker prerequisites.

I also echo the Half-Minotaur template choice, especially if you intend to go War Hulk, as it will make you Large. Add on Dragonborn to improve the Constitution bonus by an additional 2.