Arkhios
2018-05-21, 02:44 PM
This thread's purpose is to fish up opinions about a build for yet another character I had to make for the adventure path in question. My previous characters were a Dwarf Paladin 3/Fighter 1 and a Half-orc Barbarian 3/Psychic Warrior 3.
Some of you may have played the AP and know from experience that this one in particular is somewhat lethal, which I have (re-)learned the hard way - twice. For the record, I have played the AP's anniversary edition using pathfinder previously so I was kinda expecting someone might end up having their character(s) killed. I'm not exactly surprised it was me, since my characters have been the de facto "tanks" in our group, and ...well... tanks sort of tend to be taking the most of the beating.
Anyway, here I am, having just rolled my 3rd character and I'm seriously hoping that I won't have to make a 4th (fingers crossed, no kidding).
When I said "rolled", I meant it. The newest character ended up becoming a Dwarf Barbarian 5/Fighter 1 (who is actually the deceased paladin's cousin and member of the same clan)
His stats (after racial modifiers and 4th level increase) are:
Str 18, Dex 15, Con 19, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 10.
We're playing the original version of the AP (made for D&D 3.5 rules) so we're using 3.5, but limited to using only Player's Handbook, Deities and Demigods (mostly just the feats and domains where applicable to Golarion), Expanded Psionics Handbook (pretty much everything except the races), and the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting (3.5 era).
So, anyway, I ended up taking Power Attack, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip ... and Leadership (yes, I'm aware you can't use Combat Expertise while raging).
For my Cohort I ended up choosing this character's twin brother who is a cleric, basically just to back up our primary cleric and to possibly make it more likely for my character to survive a bit longer with his own "healer" watching for his back.
I intend to take at least 4 fighter levels in total, and the Knock-Down feat at fighter 2 (character 7), basically trying to "mimic" the old Spiked Chain tripper build, with a slightly different approach. I plan to take Cleave as well, when I'm able, but aside from those (and Rapid Metabolism at some point), I'm not sure what else should I do with this character. Seeing that my options are very limited and the "Core" Prestige Classes are not exactly good for a barbarian, I'm thinking I just might stick to barbarian after fighter 4.
Fun thought I had when laying down the likely progression is that I could manage to take the "dreaded" Whirlwind Attack feat chain. Should I aim for it, in addition to what I already have planned for? :smallbiggrin:
I'd imagine that combining Whirlwind Attack with Knock-Down, Improved Trip, and Cleave would be insane given the implications that a barbarian (with greater rage at that point) is more than likely to deal at least 10 damage per each hit, thus triggering the free trip check for each hit, and each target dropped to 0 or lower triggering Cleave for even more attacks, and consequently more Knock-Down trips.
Some of you may have played the AP and know from experience that this one in particular is somewhat lethal, which I have (re-)learned the hard way - twice. For the record, I have played the AP's anniversary edition using pathfinder previously so I was kinda expecting someone might end up having their character(s) killed. I'm not exactly surprised it was me, since my characters have been the de facto "tanks" in our group, and ...well... tanks sort of tend to be taking the most of the beating.
Anyway, here I am, having just rolled my 3rd character and I'm seriously hoping that I won't have to make a 4th (fingers crossed, no kidding).
When I said "rolled", I meant it. The newest character ended up becoming a Dwarf Barbarian 5/Fighter 1 (who is actually the deceased paladin's cousin and member of the same clan)
His stats (after racial modifiers and 4th level increase) are:
Str 18, Dex 15, Con 19, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 10.
We're playing the original version of the AP (made for D&D 3.5 rules) so we're using 3.5, but limited to using only Player's Handbook, Deities and Demigods (mostly just the feats and domains where applicable to Golarion), Expanded Psionics Handbook (pretty much everything except the races), and the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting (3.5 era).
So, anyway, I ended up taking Power Attack, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip ... and Leadership (yes, I'm aware you can't use Combat Expertise while raging).
For my Cohort I ended up choosing this character's twin brother who is a cleric, basically just to back up our primary cleric and to possibly make it more likely for my character to survive a bit longer with his own "healer" watching for his back.
I intend to take at least 4 fighter levels in total, and the Knock-Down feat at fighter 2 (character 7), basically trying to "mimic" the old Spiked Chain tripper build, with a slightly different approach. I plan to take Cleave as well, when I'm able, but aside from those (and Rapid Metabolism at some point), I'm not sure what else should I do with this character. Seeing that my options are very limited and the "Core" Prestige Classes are not exactly good for a barbarian, I'm thinking I just might stick to barbarian after fighter 4.
Fun thought I had when laying down the likely progression is that I could manage to take the "dreaded" Whirlwind Attack feat chain. Should I aim for it, in addition to what I already have planned for? :smallbiggrin:
I'd imagine that combining Whirlwind Attack with Knock-Down, Improved Trip, and Cleave would be insane given the implications that a barbarian (with greater rage at that point) is more than likely to deal at least 10 damage per each hit, thus triggering the free trip check for each hit, and each target dropped to 0 or lower triggering Cleave for even more attacks, and consequently more Knock-Down trips.