Barbarian Build advice?

[Silver Raven]

So our evil campaign is about to end, just 2 more weeks or so and we'll be finished. So the next campaign we are doing is Mummy's Mask and the party so far looks like this:

Kitsune Arcane Archer Rouge/Sorcerer
Sacred Geometry Wizard
Channeling Cleric of Pharasma
Half-Orc Invulnerable Rager Barbarian(Me)

so I've rolled up the character and his stats look like this:
Male Half-orc barbarian(Invulnerable Rager) Chaotic Good Atheist

STR:18
DEX:15
CON:15
INT:13
WIS:12
CHA:10

skills: the ones i put points into
Climb:6
Know(Noble):6
Perception:5
Profession(Trapper):2 DM requires we at least have one point in a profession
Survival:5

Traits: Blood of the Pharaohs & Reactionary

Racial Trait: Sacred Tattoo replaced orc ferocity

Class bonus: hit point

Feat:Power Attack

THE ONLY CHARACTER TO HAVE A MAGIC WEAPON AT LVL1!!!!! +1 falchion her name is Susan

If I manage to survive til lvl2 I'm planning on dipping one lvl in Unbreakable fighter to get both Endurance and Die Hard. after that I want to at least bump up my dex and con to 16 for more Combat Ref. and not dying.

Which brings me to the meat of this post. I still haven't set my build path in stone yet. I want to be both the meat shield the team needs me to be yet I dont want to lose that much dmg. should I get superstition early and put my bonus points into buffing it up? Which Rage powers & feats are good for both dmg and Def. besides the obvious Stalwart and Beast totem options (which I will be getting)? And at what lvls should I take them? What kind of gear do I want?

Also tips for not dying at low levels would be great too. lets just say that one of my earlier characters in the evil campaign drowned in poop.

[BowStreetRunner]

skills: the ones i put points into
Climb:6
Know(Noble):6
Perception:5
Profession(Trapper):2 DM requires we at least have one point in a profession
Survival:5I think your skill math is a little off. You have most of it right, but Climb is missing some bonus.

Climb: 1 rank + 3 Class skill + 4 Str = 8
Knowledge (Nobility) = 1 rank + 3 Class Skill +1 Trait +1 Int = 6
Perception: 1 rank + 3 Class skill + 1 Wis = 5
Profession (Trapper): 1 rank + 1 Wis = 2
Survival: 1 rank + 3 Class skill + 1 Wis = 5

If you want to avoid drowning in poop again, maybe delay taking Climb and pick up a rank in Swim instead! :smallbiggrin:

As for superstition, the downside might outweigh the benefit, depending on how the rest of your party is built. Remember, "While raging, the barbarian cannot be a willing target of any spell and must make saving throws to resist all spells, even those cast by allies." If you are out there with 3 casters in your party, are you nerfing yourself by taking this? It depends on whether any of them are healers or buffers. You might want to find out some more about their plans first.

[JDL]

Seems your group is fairly optimized so I'm guessing you're able to balance the drawbacks of Superstition against the benefits. Also, rage cycling is an option through Allnight (http://archivesofnethys.com/EquipmentMiscDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Allnight) too, so it's not too much of a downside.

First question, did you roll stats? Seems to be so, since I'm getting 29 points spent via point buy method. If so, congrats on some great rolls!

Second question, why did you take Power Attack at level 1? If you plan to go for a Stalwart build to maximize the returns on Invulnerable Rager DR, your logical choice for 1st level feat would be Diehard after getting Endurance at 1st level through the Half-Orc alternate racial trait Shaman's Apprentice. Also, why did you take Sacred Tattoo but not take the Fate's Favored (http://archivesofnethys.com/TraitDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Fate%27s%20Favored) trait? Adding +2 luck bonus to all your saves beats the hell out of the Blood of Pharaohs trait. If that's not negotiable since you're required to take an AP trait, I'd still recommend Fate's Favored over Reactionary. Additionally, Reactionary (http://archivesofnethys.com/TraitDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Reactionary) is strictly mechanically inferior as a trait to Hermean Paragon (http://archivesofnethys.com/TraitDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Hermean%20Paragon) unless you plan to use your Region trait for something else, though from a roleplay perspective perhaps you have a different idea for your origin story that conflicts with this choice. Plus, if you absolutely must take an AP trait, I totally believe Trap Finder would be the most optimized choice here, especially since you have spare skill ranks to throw at it.

Here's a breakdown of how I'd build this character up to 11th level, assuming you still have the option of fiddling with the build.

Race: Half-Orc
Alternate Racial Traits: Shaman's Apprentice, Sacred Tattoo, Dusksight
Class: Barbarian
Archetype: Invulnerable Rager
Favored Class: Barbarian
Favored Class Bonus: +1/3 to the bonus from the superstition rage power where possible
Traits: Hermean Paragon, Fate's Favored
Feats: Endurance (Shaman's Apprentice), Diehard (1st)

So a few notes regarding the traits and alternate class features. Shaman's Apprentice gets you a free feat towards the prerequisites for Stalwart and Sacred Tattoo gives a +1 luck bonus to all saves. This is by far the best package for you. Due to the +1 luck bonus, you want the Fate's Favored trait to double this as well. The final trait is simply a way to get +2 initiative without spending your combat trait, which you'll want later. You'll never regret having a higher bonus to initiative. The final alternate racial trait is Dusksight, which trades your racial weapon proficiencies away for low-light vision, a good trade considering you're already proficient with martial weapons and the exotics aren't really worth worrying over. With low-light vision, you can see 80 ft. distance by torchlight (or 120 ft. by sunrod) in darkness, better than your own 60 ft. Darkvision.

A second note regarding favored class bonuses. There is a debatable argument that you cannot spend your favored class bonus on an ability if you've not yet gained that class feature. If so, I'd recommend spending your 1st level favored class bonus on HP and picking up Superstition at 2nd level if your GM's a stickler on this one. Personally, I've not met any GM who has an issue with me spending my 1st level bonus on Superstition, since it actually weakens your character in the short term, but YMMV, so check with your GM about this.

At first level you'd want to buy a guard dog for 25 gp with your starting wealth. This lets you use Handle Animal to get it to defend you, meaning you're essentially getting an extra small attack each round from your dog against anything attacking you that's not an unnatural creature. More attacks mean more DPR. You'll likely want to buy a collection of throw-away junk weapons such as a spear and longspear, sling and so forth.

You take Diehard at 1st level for your feat because this means even if you get knocked into negative, you're not out of the game yet. It's the best timing for taking the feat and might end up saving you from an unlucky critical hit.

2nd
Rage Powers: Reckless Abandon

Your first point of DR comes online. You want to upgrade to a breastplate, and my suggestion is to grab a golf bag of non-masterwork weapons to go along with your newfound wealth. I like to carry an alchemical silver cestus for an always-on melee option and DR breaker, and a cold iron lucerne hammer and greatsword for a reach weapon and two-handed, respectively.

The reason you'd get a greatsword instead of a falchion is because you want to be drinking potions of Enlarge Person pretty much constantly. This is by far the biggest DPR boost you can get at this level. A greatsword goes from 2d6 to 3d6, a falchion only goes from 2d4 to 2d6. That's 3.5 points increase average damage per hit from the greatsword vs. only 2 points for the falchion. Since you don't have improved critical or a no-fail attack bonus to back up your critical confirmation, you're better off with straight base damage bonus for now.

So your typical combat begins with you drinking your potion of Enlarge Person as your standard, then moving to a tactical position as a move action, drawing your lucerne hammer as you move. This means you've got a large creature's reach weapon threat area, and you'll probably get an attack of opportunity against anything that tries to close into melee range with you. Once you've got enemies close, drop your hammer, draw your greatsword and get slashing.

Also, upgrade your guard dog to a riding dog. Now you have an extra attack each round with a trip attempt on top! Alternatively, consider buying a combat trained bison, which is a steal at 75gp, assuming your GM lets you have a war-cow, and that your typical tactical combats allow enough room for a large creature.

3rd
Feats: Combat Expertise

This level you pick up the feat to pump your DR with Stalwart. You can also consider using this tactically to offset your AC loss from rage too. With this and the Reckless Abandon rage power, you can choose either to boost attack or AC each round as needed. You begin investing into saving for a +1 adamantine greatsword and mithral breastplate.

4th
Rage Power: Superstition
+1 Constitution

More HP! More DR! Better saves! Make sure you're drinking your Enlarge Person potions before you rage, otherwise you're gonna be embarrassing yourself when you have to save against your own potion.

5th
Feat: Stalwart

There's two schools of thinking regarding Stalwart. One says you can stack the dodge bonuses of fighting defensively and Combat Expertise together before adding them to your DR with Stalwart. The other says they're two different sources and therefore don't stack. In the first case you can get DR 7/- by using both at this level, provided you've got the 3 ranks necessary in Acrobatics. Otherwise, just use Combat Expertise if your GM rules they don't stack. This plus Reckless Abandon means you're trading -2 AC for +2 DR, which is a good trade-off to take 4 points of damage off every hit against you. If you have a +1 Furious weapon by now, you're likely not having any trouble hitting and killing in one blow.

6th
Rage Power: Witch Hunter

Iterative attacks! Your pets are probably dead by now, but you don't really care any more since you now have your own second attack each round. You're saving towards a strength belt and laugh at saving throws with +5 morale from Superstition and +2 luck from Sacred Tattoo in addition to your base saves and cloak. You probably have in the range of +18 Fort, +13 Ref and +12 Will against spells.

7th
Feat: Power Attack or Second Chance

So, here's the choice. Do you have almost zero trouble hitting even on your iterative attack? If so, Power Attack is good for this level. You might finally be reaching the point where stuff isn't getting one-hit-KO'ed and wouldn't mind an extra 6 damage per hit. Frankly, taking this feat earlier is a bit of a waste, since you're likely to turn almost anything you hit into a greasy smear on the ground with one blow even without the extra damage. On the other hand, Second Chance is very attractive for a second bite at the cherry if your first hit misses. Both solid choices, with Power Attack coming out ahead if you play a mobile, charge-heavy playstyle, and Second Chance winning if you typically make a lot of full round attacks.

8th
Rage Power: Spell Sunder
+1 Intelligence

By boosting your intelligence you get the opportunity here to dump an instant 8 retroactive skill ranks into something. I personally like Use Magic Device here, in preparation for next level. Spell Sunder is the ultimate power for a Superstition build too, able to crack through almost any spell in game with the ability to gain a ridiculously high CMB due to your class.

9th
Feat: Improved Critical or Additional Traits

Straight DPR or utility? If you go Improved Critical and a +1 furious weapon, you're gonna be hitting big, big criticals. On the other hand is the Use Magic Device option. Pragmatic Activator trait for Int to UMD, and Underlying Principles for worshipping Nethys get you UMD as a class skill. There's something deliciously wrong about a superstitious barbarian witch hunter that casts spells from wands that tickles my sense of irony oh so well.

10th
Rage Power: Eater of Magic

I'm a big fan of rerolls. This is simply must-have material, especially as you have around a +7 morale bonus from superstition, assuming you're spending your favored class bonus here. It's the next best thing to having "immune to saves" as a class feature.

11th
Feat: Improved Stalwart

DR 11/- all day, every day. An average CR 11 enemy does between 23 to 32 damage a hit. You're ignoring a third to half of this damage. Yes, it's more defensive than offensive, but it's an amazing return on investment. Alternatively, go for the feat you skipped at 7th or 9th to bump up your DPR.

Next, let's talk about gear, specifically for lower level. As you're carrying the biggest Strength score of the group, you should be the party's gear mule. So, what do you buy?

Here's my 1st level universal shopping list. Much of the latter part of this list is wishlist items to pick up after you get a bit of gold to spend, but most of it should be obtainable before level 2. This list doesn't include the cost of your primary weapons and armor since it differs by character.

Adventuring Equipment
----------------------------

Sack of Powder - 1 cp (1/2 lbs)
Invisible enemies at low levels suck. This is a ranged AC 5 attack that outlines them for a mere copper piece.

Chalk - 1 cp (0 lbs)
A cheap way to keep track of your movement in a dungeon, leave messages to others, or draw pretty pictures on walls.

Torch - 1 cp (1 lbs)
You'd be surprised how often an open flame is handy. This also gives you a last-ditch effort weapon for swarms, even if it's only 1 point of damage per hit.

Earplugs - 3 cp (0 lbs)
You get a +2 circumstance bonus to language-dependant spells or abilities whilst wearing these. Useful against enemies that you know will use enchantments, and incredibly cheap for their bonus.

4 Candles - 4 cp (0 lbs)
Again, having an open flame handy is more useful than you'd expect.

Inkpen - 1 sp (0 lbs)
Don't be an illiterate barbarian. Seriously, even barbarians should carry one of these and be ready to write down important information in character.

3 Oil Flasks - 3 sp (3 lbs)
Grease a flight of stairs. Add a fuse and throw it at a swarm. Rub it on yourself to slip out of a tight spot. In a pinch you could also light a lantern with it, I suppose.

Waterproof Bag - 5 sp (1/2 lbs)
Five times the cost of a regular sack, but temporarily protects your gear from water damage. Remember to keep your sack of powder, torch and other water sensitive items in this.

Wooden Holy Symbol - 1 gp (0 lbs)
A great litmus test to determine if the NPC is a vampire. Present this strongly at them and see if they recoil.

Grappling Hook - 1 gp (4 lbs)
Weighty, but handy to get your rope where it needs to be.

Potion Sponge - 2 gp (0 lbs)
Keep one of these loaded with your go-to underwater combat potion and you'll never need to worry about putting ranks into Swim.

Spring-Loaded Wrist Sheath - 5 gp (1 lb)
At lower levels keep a dagger handy. At higher levels keep a wand inside. Plus it's just plain cool.

Ink, 1 oz. vial - 8 gp (0 lbs)
For your inkpen, obviously.

Journal - 10 gp (1 lbs)
Always keep notes. Write down names of important NPCs, goals for the quest, riddles encountered, copies of maps, everything. Then you get to freely ask the GM to repeat themselves by simply saying "I wrote that down in character, so I check my journal."

50 ft. Silk Rope - 10 gp (5 lbs)
Lighter but more expensive than hemp. Worth the cost to keep your weight down. Also great if your character is into kinky stuff. Never leave home without rope!

Smoked Goggles - 10 gp (0 lbs)
Makes you all but immune to gaze weapons, plus you can wear your sunglasses at night.

Pathfinder's Kit - 12 gp (22 lbs)
I prefer this kit over many others. You've got your obligatory hobo items like a backpack, bedroll, waterskin, flint and steel and rations, but doesn't load you up on torches and an iron pot like many class kits. You get a signal whistle for when you're in trouble because you split the party since it seemed like a good idea at the time. You get a whetstone for an extra +1 damage on your first hit with a bladed weapon. You get a dagger to put in your spring-loaded wrist sheath.

Total: 60 gp (38 lbs) - Leave your rations and bedroll at camp or on a mount to take 12 lbs off this total

Weapons
--------------

Alchemical Silver Cestus - 25 gp (1 lbs)
Your always-on melee threat item. Superior to a spiked gauntlet in pretty much every way. Make sure you do bludgeoning damage, as the piercing would suffer -1 damage penalty due to the material. A cheap means to bypass DR/silver too, if you're in a pinch.

Cold Iron Kunai - 4 gp (2 lbs)
Aside from being a backup DR/cold iron weapon, this item does double duty functioning as a piton or crowbar, per the weapon text. Ninja headband and orange jumpsuit not included.

Total: 29 gp (3 lbs)

Pets
-------

Guard Dog - 25 gp
It's a move action and DC 10 Handle Animal check to command your guard dog to defend you. You don't even need to be trained in the skill for this usage. Simply take 10 on this skill out of combat, or take 20 if you're exceptionally uncharismatic. Having an extra pool of hit points for this cost is great value for money.

Total: 25 gp

Alchemical Items
-----------------------

Tindertwig - 1 gp (0 lbs)
For when you need a fire RFN.

2 Sunrods - 4 gp (2 lb)
Light and vision is king. Unless your whole party has darkvision, carry a few of these and don't be stingy about using them.

Vermin Repellent - 5 gp (0 lbs)
Swarms suck at low levels. Vermin repellent isn't perfect, but it might just be enough to convince a swarm to go chew on someone else instead. Worth the cost.

Smokestick - 20 gp (1/2 lbs)
Blocks line of sight, but the rules are sketchy about whether you need to light it on fire first or if it self-activates as part of the use. If your GM is finicky about the activation, glue a tindertwig on it and call it a day. It's a handy item that can buy you total concealment against ranged attacks.

Smelling Salts - 25 gp (0 lbs)
Okay, you beat the bad guys, but where do you go next? Easy, just grab one that hasn't bled out, stabilize him and then use smelling salts. Intimidate him for information about the bad guy's plans. Does your check fail? Kill him and try the next one. Also a really handy item to have in case the party healer is knocked out.

Holy Water - 25 gp (1 lbs)
Okay, it's not really an alchemical item, but it's close enough. It's also a decent way to contribute damage against both undead or evil outsiders, especially if they've got some kind of exotic damage reduction you don't have anything to bypass.

Smog Smoke Pellet - 40 gp (0 lbs)
Remember how much invisibility sucks? This is the sack of flour's big brother. Negate a creature's invisibility for 1d4 rounds if you throw it into their square.

Tanglefoot Bag - 50 gp (4 lbs)
Entangled, no save, 2d4 rounds. All you gotta do is hit them with it. Can be a lifesaver at low levels against bosses.

Air Crystals - 50 gp (0 lbs)
Underwater combat sucks, but a bag of these can save your character if they're able to get them out in time. Just make sure you have them in your mouth before you get grappled by the kraken.

Total: 220 gp (7.5 lbs)

Potions
--------------

Potion of Touch of the Sea - 50 gp (0 lbs)
Never worry about water again. Get a 30 ft. swim speed for 1 minute. Keep this in your potion sponge.

Potion of Feather Step - 50 gp (0 lbs)
Difficult terrain can ruin your day. This lets you ignore that for 10 minutes.

Potion of Remove Sickness - 50 gp (0 lbs)
The bonus to saves isn't nearly as good as the ability to negate the sickened condition for 10 minutes. There's many creatures that can inflict this status, so a counter is always handy to have as a backup.

Potion of Protection from Evil - 50 gp (0 lbs)
Typically the most common enemy type you'll face, and this one has a bunch of benefits. Deflection and resistance bonuses, prevention of mental domination, and that sweet protection from summoned creatures can shut a summoner down cold.

Potion of Remove Fear - 50 gp (0 lbs)
Many lower level mobs use fear effects or spells in their tactics blocks to disrupt the combat. Always have a means to counter this strategy available, especially if you're planning to play a front liner.

Oil of Unwelcome Halo - 50 gp (0 lbs)
A bit of an oddity, but here's the kicker: it automatically negates darkness effects, even those of a higher level. Deeper Darkness, Blacklight, and some creature's spell-like abilities are all fair game. Unfortunately, requires your character to be non-good if you're applying it to yourself.

Oil of Magic Weapon - 50 gp (0 lbs)
Bypass DR/magic, and hit incorporeal enemies with mundane weapons. An essential buy for any low level weapon user.

Oil of Bless Weapon - 50 gp (0 lbs)
Inferior to the above, but situationally useful if you need to bypass DR/good, and an automatic confirmation on critical hits is always nice.

Total: 400 gp (0 lbs)

[Geddy2112]

One big thing to note is that if your DM rules you cannot stack combat expertise and fighting defensively, you are better off not taking combat expertise until you have improved stalwart. With 3 ranks in acrobatics you get a +3 to fighting defensively, the same bonus that combat expertise gives until level 12 making combat expertise a level 13 feat. Short of stalwart, combat expertise is a terrible feat and your strategy is going to be to soak damage, not avoid being hit.

Your character needs to be in the face of the enemy at all times, and easy enough for them to hit that enemies don't go for the the rest of your squishy party. Your wizard and cleric should be buffing the pants off of you, and if a cleric of Pharasma can't keep you healed up and alive they are doing something seriously wrong.

I second getting enlarge person to make yourself an even bigger and meaner target, to literally meatshield your squishy caster friends. However, I disagree about drinking potions or even wasting money when you have two arcane casters in the party. Particularly at lower levels, make the wizard enlarge you. Heck, get a wand if they are uppity about preparing the spell, then your sorcerer friend can do it too.

Since you are going endurance/diehard/stalwart, it is really worth considering the deathless (vhttps://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/deathless-initiate-combat) feat (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/deathless-master-combat) tree (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/deathless-zealot-combat), making you incredibly hard to kill and keeping you swinging till you are capital D dead. Second chance is an okay feat when you have retraining rules, as it works best when you have 2 attacks a turn but it loses luster when you have 3 and is worthless when you have 4+. Power attack gets more mileage since you are using a 2 handed weapon but you can probably already paste enemies as JDL said, still a good feat. Furious focus is worth considering if you are 2 handed power attacking, and improved critical is nice if you have an 18-20 weapon. One thing to consider is getting a bite attack either through race trait(replacing ferocity, hard sell vs sacred tattoo and fate's favored) a racial feat, or barbarian animal fury power. Extra attacks mean extra damage.

For funsies, have your sacred geo wizard cast extended ant haul on you at higher levels. Carry around boulders and other absurdly large/heavy things.

[Silver Raven]

"I think your skill math is a little off. You have most of it right, but Climb is missing some bonus.

Climb: 1 rank + 3 Class skill + 4 Str = 8"

The calculation was done by my DM in Hero Lab so I'll ask him


"Second question, why did you take Power Attack at level 1? If you plan to go for a Stalwart build to maximize the returns on Invulnerable Rager DR, your logical choice for 1st level feat would be Diehard after getting Endurance at 1st level through the Half-Orc alternate racial trait Shaman's Apprentice."

The reason why I didnt want to take Shaman's apprentice is bc I wanted to take that one lvl dip in unbreakable fighter which gives two feats for one and as you said reading maps and stuff is nice.

" I totally believe Trap Finder would be the most optimized choice here, especially since you have spare skill ranks to throw at it."

I was heavily considering it too but we have a rouge and my will saves were **** ( and my Dm kinda of suggested I shouldn't)

"worshiping Nethys"

He's an atheist he rejects the gods, he trust in his ancestors which I guess is more Shamantic

your build is missing Beast totem rage powers which I want cause pounce is amazing! Here's what gear I bought

+1 Falchion
arrows x20
Backpack
Belt pouch
Blanket
Crowbar
Dagger
Flint and Steel
Hot Weather outfit
Lamellar (leather) armor
Miner's Pick
Pot
Rope
Shortbow
Shovel,Folding
Sling
Trail Rations
Waterskin
Current cash: 1gp,1sp

I'll talk to My DM and see if I can change somethings like my racial trait and feat But My DM doesn't have Inner Sea Primer I think