Jarlhen
2016-11-07, 02:17 PM
Sorry this is going to be a bit of a long ramble and may not be super helpful. But I'm having so much fun I had to get it out of my system.
So we're running a campaign right now and we're at level 9. Somewhere on this forum I stumbled on some post where someone threw out the crazy idea of running a fighter/barb/rogue build. 3 classes? Geez, thought I, that's way overkill. Well, it was decided I was going to play a pirate captain as it was perfect for the setting and just what the party needed at the time. I was thinking swashbuckler rogue at first. Nah, I want something more vikingesque. Straight up barb? Nah, no enough skills for someone who is supposed to not only be a tough guy but also a resourceful and experience sea captain. But how viking-like does a majority barbarian feel? I don't know, I just didn't feel that an almost pure barbarian was what I wanted. A paladin of tempus perhaps? Would certainly suit his lust for fighting. But no no. Hrm, I guess we could try building a fighter/barb/rogue just to see what happens?
I should pre-face this by the fact that we roll for skills and I got fantastic rolls. 18, 17, 15, 14, 13, 8. In 20 years of gaming I've never got a stat array this incredible. It's nuts. It was one of the reasons it was so difficult to decide class. On top of that he's been very strong with the HP rolls! Even with lower stats though this build works just fine.
I ended up with 6 fight/1 barb/1 rogue to start with. The plan is to level up to 3 barbarian for that sweet bear totem, and then head down the fighter route and stay there. So what does he get from all of this? He started as rogue for reasons I can't remember. The main part here are the skills. We run campaigns where skills are used a lot. And quite frankly the skill system in 5th edition is pretty atrocious compared to other systems. If you want to not be **** at everything and also get very few skills you have to go rogue or bard. And rogue seemed to fit slightly better. So he grabbed a bunch of skills from there and expertise. This made a standard brawler into a credible leader with a broad knowledge base. Something that is imperative to a commander as far as I'm concerned. But it did cost him a level.
Then he becomes versatile in combat being a 6 level battle master, v. human on top of that. That's 3 total feats and maneuvers. He grabbed riposte, menacing attack, and disarming attack. On top of that he grabbed shield master and two weapon master. I did grab TWM after a discussion with the DM. I know this is highly debated and that's not something I intend to start here. But fighting with a shield has been a thing in the real world since day 1. So the DM judged that grabbing shield master and TWM means you can use your shield as an off-hand attack alongside the shove for 1d6. Of course with two weapon fighting you also get your ability bonus. So it's pretty good, but it does cost you two feats. That was his decision and so far it works fine. It doesn't really impact the build much though. Anyways, just from his fighter levels he gets a lot of versatility. Menacing attack and disarming attack are f**king amazing though. Can completely shut people down.
Then we grab barbarian 1 purely for the rage. Right now I'm level 9 so I grabbed 1 more barbarian. The goal is to grab 1 more level barbarian and then stick to fighter. So at this point he has:
Half damage while raging.
+shield AC when doing saving throws against Dex effect
No damage if successful against above checks.
Advantage against above checks.
Expertise in Athletics+rage advantage
2 attacks+off hand+shove
Lots of skills+2 expertise
Disarm, frighten, riposte+the extra damage from maneuver
Action surge of course
Normally I do quite min/maxed characters (to the extent possible in 5e) which end up doing great damage or having some other schtick to end encounters as quickly as possible. But this guy is just straight up tough. And this makes him a lot of fun. Of course the excellent stat rolls help a lot. The off-hand shield damage+shove is nice but it doesn't define the build (as divisive as it may be). So I just figured I'd encourage people to try something like this. It may not be very optimal but you get a great deal of stuff. And sure, you'll be a bit behind a straight up warrior in terms of damage, but you become so much more versatile. And if you grab GWM you won't really lose out on the barbarian damage either, just use the right setup for the right fight. It's a build that works well from early on but doesn't hit it's peak until around level 11-12 I suppose, depending on which way you want to go.
You could of course go further down the barbarian tree and skip much of the fighter stuff. I think primarily I went fighter because I really wanted the level 6 feat and an ASI.
I'm having a ton of fun with it. Thanks for the forums for the idea! Time to go punch a dragon on the nose.
So we're running a campaign right now and we're at level 9. Somewhere on this forum I stumbled on some post where someone threw out the crazy idea of running a fighter/barb/rogue build. 3 classes? Geez, thought I, that's way overkill. Well, it was decided I was going to play a pirate captain as it was perfect for the setting and just what the party needed at the time. I was thinking swashbuckler rogue at first. Nah, I want something more vikingesque. Straight up barb? Nah, no enough skills for someone who is supposed to not only be a tough guy but also a resourceful and experience sea captain. But how viking-like does a majority barbarian feel? I don't know, I just didn't feel that an almost pure barbarian was what I wanted. A paladin of tempus perhaps? Would certainly suit his lust for fighting. But no no. Hrm, I guess we could try building a fighter/barb/rogue just to see what happens?
I should pre-face this by the fact that we roll for skills and I got fantastic rolls. 18, 17, 15, 14, 13, 8. In 20 years of gaming I've never got a stat array this incredible. It's nuts. It was one of the reasons it was so difficult to decide class. On top of that he's been very strong with the HP rolls! Even with lower stats though this build works just fine.
I ended up with 6 fight/1 barb/1 rogue to start with. The plan is to level up to 3 barbarian for that sweet bear totem, and then head down the fighter route and stay there. So what does he get from all of this? He started as rogue for reasons I can't remember. The main part here are the skills. We run campaigns where skills are used a lot. And quite frankly the skill system in 5th edition is pretty atrocious compared to other systems. If you want to not be **** at everything and also get very few skills you have to go rogue or bard. And rogue seemed to fit slightly better. So he grabbed a bunch of skills from there and expertise. This made a standard brawler into a credible leader with a broad knowledge base. Something that is imperative to a commander as far as I'm concerned. But it did cost him a level.
Then he becomes versatile in combat being a 6 level battle master, v. human on top of that. That's 3 total feats and maneuvers. He grabbed riposte, menacing attack, and disarming attack. On top of that he grabbed shield master and two weapon master. I did grab TWM after a discussion with the DM. I know this is highly debated and that's not something I intend to start here. But fighting with a shield has been a thing in the real world since day 1. So the DM judged that grabbing shield master and TWM means you can use your shield as an off-hand attack alongside the shove for 1d6. Of course with two weapon fighting you also get your ability bonus. So it's pretty good, but it does cost you two feats. That was his decision and so far it works fine. It doesn't really impact the build much though. Anyways, just from his fighter levels he gets a lot of versatility. Menacing attack and disarming attack are f**king amazing though. Can completely shut people down.
Then we grab barbarian 1 purely for the rage. Right now I'm level 9 so I grabbed 1 more barbarian. The goal is to grab 1 more level barbarian and then stick to fighter. So at this point he has:
Half damage while raging.
+shield AC when doing saving throws against Dex effect
No damage if successful against above checks.
Advantage against above checks.
Expertise in Athletics+rage advantage
2 attacks+off hand+shove
Lots of skills+2 expertise
Disarm, frighten, riposte+the extra damage from maneuver
Action surge of course
Normally I do quite min/maxed characters (to the extent possible in 5e) which end up doing great damage or having some other schtick to end encounters as quickly as possible. But this guy is just straight up tough. And this makes him a lot of fun. Of course the excellent stat rolls help a lot. The off-hand shield damage+shove is nice but it doesn't define the build (as divisive as it may be). So I just figured I'd encourage people to try something like this. It may not be very optimal but you get a great deal of stuff. And sure, you'll be a bit behind a straight up warrior in terms of damage, but you become so much more versatile. And if you grab GWM you won't really lose out on the barbarian damage either, just use the right setup for the right fight. It's a build that works well from early on but doesn't hit it's peak until around level 11-12 I suppose, depending on which way you want to go.
You could of course go further down the barbarian tree and skip much of the fighter stuff. I think primarily I went fighter because I really wanted the level 6 feat and an ASI.
I'm having a ton of fun with it. Thanks for the forums for the idea! Time to go punch a dragon on the nose.