ideas for playing the 'tank' role with a barbarian

[Greyfell]

IN my current campaign that I'm finally a player in, I'm running a bard/lyrical Thaum aiming for sublime chord. Considering how reckless the character is (wis 6!!) and prone to sometimes bad decisions, I thought it'd be nice to flesh out concepts for a backup character.

We're currently level 9. the campaign is clearing out a huge fortress that was abandoned centuries ago and is now inhabited with monsters. So the vast majority of the campaign is indoors (except for brief, fast trips to town to resupply) and has lots of doors, narrow corridors and relatively small rooms.

The rest of the party at this point is: Dwarf Favored soul, Human focused specialist wizard (abjurer), Human Spirit Shaman, and a elven Swashbuckler/duelist.

I'm thinking something like:

Barb 6 / Champion of Gwynharwfy 3. Possibly with liberal use of any cool alternative class features I can find that fit the campaign.

A very basic question: does DR X/- stack? Both barbarian and Champ of G get untyped DR. If not, then there are things I can sub the barbarian DR out for.

[Runestar]

Dr generally won't stack with each other, though barb6 doesn't have any dr, so you are okay. For now.

[Flickerdart]

You might be able to pull off a pretty spiffy Goliath Barbarian that wields a Spiked Chain. With Mountain Rage you have awesome reach that will let you control most rooms entirely (to take into account burrowing/teleporting/tumbling enemies), and your STR and size makes sure that you win the trip checks necessary to keep your enemies down. Taking Whirling Frenzy also gives you the DEX necessary for effective Combat Reflexes use. This should keep aggro on you pretty effectively while also denying any injury to your person.

[Optimator]

My DM allows DR/- to stack and honestly it's not a big deal in the slightest and actually makes it worth seeking. Try it out; if is ruins your game I would be astonished. Champion of Gwynharwyf kicks sooo much ass. It's great, flavorful, fun, and useful.

[HunterOfJello]

Mineral Warrior or Feral (SS) template would significantly increase your tanking capacity. Both are +1 LA.


Mineral Warrior would net you

+2 Str, +4 Con, -2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha
+3 Natural Armor
8 DR/Adamantite
A burrow Speed
Darkvision
1/day 'Earth Strike' ability

[Greyfell]

Runestar: thanks, managed to track down both those facts after I'd posted. Who knows though, maybe I'll jump back into Barb at some point and replacing the DR will be a factor, especially as by that point I'll have DR 5/_ already from Champ of G.

I forgot to include a campaign specific thing (no idea why, but the DM insisted) races are limited to human, elf, and dwarf. Goliath would be awesome, but it won't fly. I'll ask about templates.

Any other options for a tripping/reach weapon? Spike chain is great, yes, I understand that. But this group has recently had 2-3 spiked chain builds and in the sake of variety I might try something else. Guisarme can trip... any martial or exotic weapons in other books that stand out for it that you guys know of?

Figure I'll be carrying a great sword or such for those times tripping isn't an option.

as for ACF's I found two I think will work well.

Lion spiritual totem (com champ) subs out fast movement for pounce. Seems overall awesome, and extra awesome in a campaign of tight spaces and hallways where my enemies will most likely be rather close anyway.

The other is "Trapkiller" from dungeonscape. Sub out trapsense for actual trapfinding and a chance to disable some traps with an attack roll. I go from blundering into the traps and trying to survive, into actively searching and trying to kill them :)


edit: AFter looking at mineral warrior, I'm not sure I want it even witht he huge upgrade to my durability. Champ of G needs WIS (bonus spells) and CHA would be nice as well (divine grace at level 1 or 2)

[Flickerdart]

Trapkiller is amazing, and you should definitely pick it up if there's no Rogue around. If you're using a Guisarme, make sure to grab armour spikes so you can attack into adjacent spaces. Lots of confined spaces makes Pounce somewhat less useful, so take a look at all the other Totems in CChamp, they have fairly good benefits too. Also you might consider the Streetfighter ACF. It replaces all the Barbarian DR (which wouldn't stack anyway) with actually useful abilities that improve the power of your charges.