Barbarian Zealot

[Trey Bright]

So I'm looking at making a half-orc barbarian zealot, and I'm wondering which feat is better? Orcish Furry? or Athlete? Orcish Furry would give me more ability to dish out damage while Athlete would give me more battle field maneuverability.

[Naanomi]

Of those two, I’d say the Fury

[Trey Bright]

Of those two, I’d say the Fury

Any particular reason?

[Chugger]

Don't have x book w/ me at the moment, but if orc fury gives you +1 str, what you do is - orcs are +2 str? To start? If so - if using point buy - you start w/ 17 str and then get 18 str at lvl 4. That keeps you on track for having 20 str by lvl 8, which is a very good thing to have.

And you get the other benefit from the feat.

Ath is not all that helpful in combat, except your improved ability to jump maybe - let's you jump over pits or rough terrain and stuff.

The "ultimate" barb tank is var human and takes shield master to start. When you rage you get adv on str checks, and knocking prone w/ shield via that feat is a str check. So your bonus action is a "shove" almost every turn, at advantage - so often your enemy will be knocked prone. He only gets the one roll and usually no pluses to it - you take the skill to add your prof and str to each of your adv rolls. Then you get adv trying to hit him w/ your one-hand melee weapon - and your buddies if meleeing do too. The drawback is if a rolled spell attack or range weap attack needs to be made - prone = disad on those, but you can work around that. Usually those guys have other targets to go after. Also a badguy you make go prone has to burn half his movement just to stand, or close to it.

This barb tank would go str at 4 and 8 (usually) and be quite effective. Bear or ancestor works best (at least I think).

[polymphus]

I wouldn't pick Orcish Furry -- he keeps getting kicked out of AnthroCon for raging in the middle of the con floor.

[Chugger]

Okay looked at the books. You can point buy a 17 str w/ orc, meaning you have 18 str at lvl 4 with Orcish Fury. The rest of Orcish Fury is weak to me, however. You get one d12 (if using great ax) per short rest and an extra attack if you use that other feature. Those are okay - they do help - and if your group gets lots of short rests use it early and use it often.

Zealot gives half your lvl + 1d6 once per turn, so if you go this orc route you get to do extra damage once per short rest and on crits and so on. In other words not every blow, after you get extra attack. It's still good.

If your aim is to do a lot of damage, consider a var Human with, oh, Pole Arm Mastery. At lvl 5 you get two 1d10 + 6 attacks (if you up str at 4) and a bonus action attack for 1d4 + 6. If you hit with all 3 that's 31.5 damage - wait - plus 1d6 and half your level for one of those (for being a zealot) - so 3.5 + 2 more for 37. AND you have reach. AND if something enters your reach you get to make an Attack of Opportunity with your reaction for another 1d10 + 6. For 48.5 points of damage. In one round at lvl 5.

An orc with a polearm would not get the extra attack or the occasional reaction attack. It would sometimes do more damage but that's not regular. Calc what an orc does typically, and on special rounds - and see if you're okay with that. If it's less but you really love the idea of a half orc zealot, it won't "destroy" the game - you'll still be effective and help your party and win.

A really weird new possibility is barb8/hexblade1 and be a half elf. At lvl 4 take Elf Accuracy feat and have cha 18. At lvl 8 take PaM or Great Weapon Mastery. If you rage and do reckless attacks you get to roll 3 times per attempt to hit, instead of just two, because of Elvish Accuracy. GWM adds +10 per blow. And you use +4 to hit and damage (+ more for raging) off your 18 Cha - because hexblade lets you use Cha for meleeing - and Elf Acc needs it to be a non-str attack irrc.

Or go var hum and take GWM at 1. At lvls 4 and 8 you can put up str.

At lvl 5 w/ GWM you attack recklessly and get adv to hit, but you are taking -5 each attempt to get the chance for +10 dam per blow. You will miss more often, but that +10 is nice. If you hit w/ both great ax swings that's 15 (7.5 av g ax dam twice) + 20 (from gwm, 10 x 2) + 12 (str and rage twice) + one zeal bonus of 3.5 + 2 = 52.5 average damage (if both hit).

But again if don't want to do this, if you don't wanna go by pure stats/optimizing, don't and enjoy. When you take a killer route on this and can do more damage, it rarely makes life easier for you. All it means is that when your DM recognizes you're that much more effective, he throws more and bigger monsters at you. :smallwink:

[Mith]

A really weird new possibility is barb8/hexblade1 and be a half elf. At lvl 4 take Elf Accuracy feat and have cha 18. At lvl 8 take PaM or Great Weapon Mastery. If you rage and do reckless attacks you get to roll 3 times per attempt to hit, instead of just two, because of Elvish Accuracy. GWM adds +10 per blow. And you use +4 to hit and damage (+ more for raging) off your 18 Cha - because hexblade lets you use Cha for meleeing - and Elf Acc needs it to be a non-str attack irrc.

Does this actually work? I think reckless attack is only with Strength Weapon attacks.

[alchahest]

Reckless attack is indeed only strength based attacks.

[MeeposFire]

Reckless attack is indeed only strength based attacks.

Yea that mistake is coming up a lot right now.

[Ralanr]

I wouldn't pick Orcish Furry -- he keeps getting kicked out of AnthroCon for raging in the middle of the con floor.

Well it’s not his fault. His dice are cursed!

[PeteNutButter]

Orcish Fury is actually pretty good. It works great in a crit fishing build. With reckless attacking odds are you’ll manage a crit about every 3 rounds, making the extra damage 2d12, as you only use it on a crit.

That’s not amazing but it synergizes well with the half orc racial encouraging crit fishing, but more importantly it’s basicslly free, raising your str from 17 to 18. Throw on 3 champion levels and you’ve got good odds to at critting when you need it.

[Klorox]

I wouldn't pick Orcish Furry -- he keeps getting kicked out of AnthroCon for raging in the middle of the con floor.

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