Pure Barbarian?

[Hazard]

Cookie-cutter barbarian looks pretty cool, but I am wondering if anyone has any tips and suggestions on making a pure barbarian. I'd like to make the most of their barbarian con bonuses to damage, all rages and EDR but I don't think it would be possible to fit them all in the same build.

What do you people think? Forget EDR and go for all rages? Mighty/Thundering not worth it? Stick to cookie? Any and all ideas welcome while I just brainstorm. I am totally okay with not having any lore or UMD with this BAMBAM style of character.

Races I am considering are human, who may use heavy flail, 2h axe, or shield+axe if similar to cookie-cutter.
Or! A halfling who would use club (which I hope is 2h on halflings). Really I'd love the halfling but their starting stats just seem terrible for a barbarian if trying for all the goodies.

[Wuthering]

Club is 2h, if you want a small race with no strength penalty try wild dwarf or derro...

I am pretty sure barbarian with a few fighter levels would be better if you want the rages plus EDR, fighter levels will bring bonus feats along with them. I don't have time to do the math right now so maybe someone will contradict me on that. But being "pure" on most melee classes doesn't really do anything for you except satisfy some sense of integrity you might have.

I do know that Mighty Rage's worth is quite debatable. Extending rage for a turn is not necessarily the best strategy and being able to rage twice in a longer fight may be much more advantageous.

[Archnon]

I would go COT and not fighter. Smite+saves is nice for a one time blast, plus the barb gets so much damage bonus, that not getting +6 won't hit you too bad and saves you the feats. But then again, there is a big RP difference there.

As far as rages, it seems the consensus is terrifying and thundering are great, mighty is risky. Key point of the rage is the temp health. Doing this more often than not is key as it will get used up early in the rage. Secondly, the debuff is worthless. Most of your buff damage is gonna hit during the fight, not at the beginning when you rage. Then you can't rerage for even longer.... again, worrysome.

Twohanding is an awesome damage increase but swinging into sword and board with Improved expertise or parry on when your rage is over is not crazy, to survive and do damage until the next rage. If you don't kill them on the first rage, your a bit of a sitting duck.

My current build i am playing on an alt manages thundering rage, terrifying rage and 2 EDR feats but skimps on the Epic weapon focus and epic discipline. It is doable with only 16 barbarian levels. (I dip pdk for 8 for double fear and rogue for UMD). However, it seems if you wanted to build as pure as possible 24 barbarian nets you nice bonuses (9 damage single handed) or 21 barbarian at a min for the terrifying rage 3X. Then take the rest as a fighter/COT. BG dip might be interesting if you go Charisma. WM is also popular for really really insane damage, but it is super feat heavy and you may need to cap lower (17 barb, 6 fighter, 7 WM?)

Finally, bonus points if you make a hin that uses throwing axes because that would be hilarious!

[Hazard]

Finally, bonus points if you make a hin that uses throwing axes because that would be hilarious!

I was hoping to use throwing axes and a petrified fish as a club

[Hazard]

Follow up question!

Now that weapon feats are all bunched together, would 1h concussive feats count towards a club (2hand) being wielded by a halfling? As there is no 2h concussive feat.

And does 1h club being used as a 2h by halfling also get disarm ab bonus?

[Hazard]

Okay, so here is what I've come up with for a fun little pure barb. Far from optimal I know, but just imagine them running about with their little club wailing on stuff :')

halfling
(creation stats pre-gifts)
15 str, 16 con, 14 int, rest into dex.
dump into str

1: Toughness
3: WF Club
6: KD
9: IKD
12: Blind Fight
15: Imp Crit Club
18: Idunnosomething? Called shot? Reflex?
21: EWF Club
24: Terrifying Rage, ESF Disc
27: Great Str
28: Thundering Rage
30: Great Str II

Ends with 26 str, 18 con, after gifts, naked.

Am I shooting myself in the foot a little TOO MUCH?

I took the great str so I can qualify for thundering rage but it left me at 25 str (yuck) so I took another to get 26.

[CptJonas]

Cookie-cutter barbarian looks pretty cool, but I am wondering if anyone has any tips and suggestions on making a pure barbarian. I'd like to make the most of their barbarian con bonuses to damage, all rages and EDR but I don't think it would be possible to fit them all in the same build.

What do you people think? Forget EDR and go for all rages? Mighty/Thundering not worth it? Stick to cookie? Any and all ideas welcome while I just brainstorm. I am totally okay with not having any lore or UMD with this BAMBAM style of character.

Races I am considering are human, who may use heavy flail, 2h axe, or shield+axe if similar to cookie-cutter.
Or! A halfling who would use club (which I hope is 2h on halflings). Really I'd love the halfling but their starting stats just seem terrible for a barbarian if trying for all the goodies.

If you want run build like this...EDR and all rages...you could go my old way...20 barb/10 fighter...exactly in that order...

[Hazard]

Cookie-cutter barbarian looks pretty cool, but I am wondering if anyone has any tips and suggestions on making a pure barbarian. I'd like to make the most of their barbarian con bonuses to damage, all rages and EDR but I don't think it would be possible to fit them all in the same build.

What do you people think? Forget EDR and go for all rages? Mighty/Thundering not worth it? Stick to cookie? Any and all ideas welcome while I just brainstorm. I am totally okay with not having any lore or UMD with this BAMBAM style of character.

Races I am considering are human, who may use heavy flail, 2h axe, or shield+axe if similar to cookie-cutter.
Or! A halfling who would use club (which I hope is 2h on halflings). Really I'd love the halfling but their starting stats just seem terrible for a barbarian if trying for all the goodies.

If you want run build like this...EDR and all rages...you could go my old way...20 barb/10 fighter...exactly in that order...

Thanks. I'll play around with that too! So many choices.

[Archnon]

Are you going hin for RP purposes or for small stature purposes. An alternative that would still be fun to RP would be to roll it up as a rock gnome. Then you are trading -2 STR for +2 Con, so you will hit your con and str easier. Also, I'm biased to gnome RP which you can check my track record and see on the forums. You can get 16 Str, 16 Con, 14 Int and 10 Dex with a rock gnome..... with two gifts that puts you at 18 Str, 18 Con, meaning you can take the strength you need to hit 25 strength without gifts (level 28) or if you want to round to 26 strength, you can take it once.

This means
21-EWF Concussion
24-Terrifying, EDR
27-EDR
28-Thundering Rage
30-EDR

Also, if a gnome, you can swap out your fancy club to a svirf rune hammer and get +5 damage that is gonna jump through shields.

I have also found on my dwarf that being able to drop into expertise while I wait out the 1 minute timer in a long fight is awesome so consider that for your missing feat.

[Hazard]

Are you going hin for RP purposes or for small stature purposes. An alternative that would still be fun to RP would be to roll it up as a rock gnome. Then you are trading -2 STR for +2 Con, so you will hit your con and str easier. Also, I'm biased to gnome RP which you can check my track record and see on the forums. You can get 16 Str, 16 Con, 14 Int and 10 Dex with a rock gnome..... with two gifts that puts you at 18 Str, 18 Con, meaning you can take the strength you need to hit 25 strength without gifts (level 28) or if you want to round to 26 strength, you can take it once.

This means
21-EWF Concussion
24-Terrifying, EDR
27-EDR
28-Thundering Rage
30-EDR

Also, if a gnome, you can swap out your fancy club to a svirf rune hammer and get +5 damage that is gonna jump through shields.

I have also found on my dwarf that being able to drop into expertise while I wait out the 1 minute timer in a long fight is awesome so consider that for your missing feat.

Hin for RP purposes but I could pivot and go for gnome, too. That sounds pretty good!
I just wish their NWN models were .. better looking

[Wuthering]

Follow up question!

Now that weapon feats are all bunched together, would 1h concussive feats count towards a club (2hand) being wielded by a halfling? As there is no 2h concussive feat.

And does 1h club being used as a 2h by halfling also get disarm ab bonus?

To the first question, it depends on the weapon not the race. Clubs are in the "1h concussion" category even if wielded with two hands. So you could go from 1H mace & shield to 2H club and both are covered by your 1H concussion focus.

[Hazard]

Follow up question!

Now that weapon feats are all bunched together, would 1h concussive feats count towards a club (2hand) being wielded by a halfling? As there is no 2h concussive feat.

And does 1h club being used as a 2h by halfling also get disarm ab bonus?

To the first question, it depends on the weapon not the race. Clubs are in the "1h concussion" category even if wielded with two hands. So you could go from 1H mace & shield to 2H club and both are covered by your 1H concussion focus.

Thanks!

[Kenji]

The only pure barbarian build I'd go for would be Tribal Barbarians. But that is a whole different discussion compared to what one may want out of one's classic barbarian experience.

[Void]

But being "pure" on most melee classes doesn't really do anything for you except satisfy some sense of integrity you might have.

Sticking to one class for 30 levels grants you epic bonus feats. Unfortunately they are not as powerful as they are in nwn2, where fighter 30(and ONLY fighter 30) could reach something like 35 or 37 unbuffed strength with them. In case of barbarian, by going for 30 levels you get more damage reduction.

[Wuthering]

Yeah, you get two bonus feats, one at 24 and one at 28. Four levels of fighter gives three bonus feats and access to epic weapon specialization if you can work that out.

[Void]

Yeah, you get two bonus feats, one at 24 and one at 28. Four levels of fighter gives three bonus feats and access to epic weapon specialization if you can work that out.

Well, you'll still end up losing 1 point of EDR.

Checking things out it seems that nwn1 (unlike nwn2) does not distinguish between character level and class level for determining bonus feats, and 4 fighter levels give you access to epic bonus feats.

So if you can align feats so you can qualify for epic specizliation, you gain 6 bonus damage, BUT lose 3 bonus damage while raging (specialization gives more than that), lose 1 will save bonus wile raging and lose and 1 point of barbarian damage resistance. Overall a decent tradeoff, I guess.