Barbarian wants to head to being an Slayer of Undead

[Orpheus108]

So the game continues on and my Barbarian players asks tells me that he wants to look at getting the leadership feat to attract others to his side, build a permanent camp/fort and then go out from there hunting undead.
The game does focus in both dragonspawn and undead, both intelligent and the braindead ones

He wants to keep the Barbarian class but wants to be an Undead Slayer. After looking through all the books, i cant find a Barbarian Undead Slayer class.

Im seeking help to pass on the info on feats and a good prestige class that can handle taking on the undead.

Cheers

[tyckspoon]

Most undead are about as vulnerable to Standard Barbarian Tactics (ie, hit it until it stops moving) as anything else. So Barbarian undead-fighting tactics are likely to focus more on defeating and denying the common special attacks of undead - improve your Will save so they can't shake you with fear, find a way resist energy drain and stat damage, etc (fortunately this overlaps a lot with things adventurers want anyways!)

[Thurbane]

Unfortunately basically all of the undead slaying PrCs in 3.5 require you to be a spellcaster and/or have the ability to turn undead. It's a niche that was seriously neglected.


Argent Fist: requires turn undead
Deadgrim: requires divine spells and turn undead or favored enemy undead
Hunter of the Dead: requires turn undead
Illumine Soul: requires mind blade and psychic strike
Knight of the Raven: requires divine spells
Master of Radiance: requires aiblity to cast Daylight as a divine spell
Radiant Servant of Pelor: requires turn undead
Skullclan Hunter: requires turn undead and sneak attack
Sacred Purifier: requires divine spells and turn undead
Silver Pyromancer: requires arcane spells and turn undead

...a martial Undead Hunter is probably best represented in D&D by investing in feats: Knowledge Devotion (religion), Enduring Life, Lasting Life, Necropotent, Unquenchable Flame of Life, Vampire Hunter etc. but feats are usually in short supply for a character like a Barbarian.

I actually consider the lack of this niche being supported by PrCs a major failing of 3E. They could manufacture 300 different variations of casting PrCs, but not one purely martial Undead Hunter. :smallfurious:

[tiercel]

but not one purely martial Undead Hunter. :smallfurious:

Swift Hunter build, FE: undead.

(Yes, OK, not a PrC, and more to the point of this thread, not much help to a barbarian....)

There’s also FCII’s Hellreaver, which while fluffed as a devil-slayer, nearly all of its mechanics slayerizes undeads pretty much just as well. It would work pretty well out of the box, and one could furthermore refluff it and change its entry requirements to K:Religion, “must slay a/some number of undead” and tweak its capstone to work on undead instead.

[Orpheus108]

Out of all the prestige classes out there they could have gone into more than smash hulk prestige classes for the barbarians. Its a pity they didnt flesh them out more

[Grim Reader]

Hunter of the Dead? Full-BaB, smash undead prestige class. Finicky to get into without taking a divine level though. It requires Turn Undead. You can get that off Necromantic Bloodline and Kin Mastery, but Necromantic Bloodline requires the ability to cast arcane spells without preparation. Magical Training gives you that. So three feats, but technically Magical Training is a level 1 only regional feat.

He'd probably be better off taking a level of Cleric/Archivist/Druid and going Knight of the Raven.

[liquidformat]

I will suggest Champion of Gwynharwyf from Book of Exalted Deeds; though not specifically geared specifically towards undead it has enough going for it to work well in the niche and enough extras to not be a one trick pony.

[Thurbane]

Hunter of the Dead? Full-BaB, smash undead prestige class. Finicky to get into without taking a divine level though. It requires Turn Undead. You can get that off Necromantic Bloodline and Kin Mastery, but Necromantic Bloodline requires the ability to cast arcane spells without preparation. Magical Training gives you that. So three feats, but technically Magical Training is a level 1 only regional feat.

He'd probably be better off taking a level of Cleric/Archivist/Druid and going Knight of the Raven.

I totally missed Hunter of the Dead in my list...

Yet another that requires Turn Undead, but at least no casting required.

[liquidformat]

In an odd sort of way a Kensai is a decent undead slayer class for a barbarian

[Orpheus108]

Kensai is an interesting look at a barbarian as an undead slayer

[ExLibrisMortis]

I will suggest Champion of Gwynharwyf from Book of Exalted Deeds; though not specifically geared specifically towards undead it has enough going for it to work well in the niche and enough extras to not be a one trick pony.
This is the best barbarian PrC (my favourite, anyway). It also meets the divine spellcasting requirement for Knight of the Raven. Knight of the Raven grants Turn Undead (at level 3), meeting the requirements for the other PrCs Thurbane listed.

Barbarian 1/[full base attack] 5/champion of Gwynharwyf 4/knight of the raven 10 is a pretty nice build. Full base attack, Charisma to all saves, ten levels of good Will saves, Enduring Life and Lasting Life as bonus feats, a little bit of spellcasting that can be used while raging, good Intimidation ability. If you really want to buff the barbarian, allow Battle Blessing to apply to CoG spellcasting.

I'd fill up [full base attack] with wolf totem barbarian 1/crusader 4 or warblade 5. Straight fighter or barbarian levels work just fine, though.

[liquidformat]

This is the best barbarian PrC (my favourite, anyway). It also meets the divine spellcasting requirement for Knight of the Raven. Knight of the Raven grants Turn Undead (at level 3), meeting the requirements for the other PrCs Thurbane listed.

Barbarian 1/[full base attack] 5/champion of Gwynharwyf 4/knight of the raven 10 is a pretty nice build. Full base attack, Charisma to all saves, ten levels of good Will saves, Enduring Life and Lasting Life as bonus feats, a little bit of spellcasting that can be used while raging, good Intimidation ability. If you really want to buff the barbarian, allow Battle Blessing to apply to CoG spellcasting.

I'd fill up [full base attack] with wolf totem barbarian 1/crusader 4 or warblade 5. Straight fighter or barbarian levels work just fine, though.

You actually need Barbarian 2 to take advantage of wolf totem, alternatively if you want your barbarian to be more useful outside of combat give them taking trapkiller is a great choice too. Both CoG and KoR have survival so you can keep it useful throughout your carrier.

[ExLibrisMortis]

You actually need Barbarian 2 to take advantage of wolf totem, alternatively if you want your barbarian to be more useful outside of combat give them taking trapkiller is a great choice too. Both CoG and KoR have survival so you can keep it useful throughout your carrier.
Yes, the barbarian 1/crusader 4 is in addition to the first barbarian level (so you'd enter CoG as barb 2/crus 4). Survival is a good idea, for sure. If you're going (almost) straight barbarian, wolf totem also gives Track at level 5.