Barbarian Builds

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I_Am_King_Midas
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Barbarian Builds

Post by I_Am_King_Midas » Wed Apr 04, 2018 7:06 pm

What are everyone's go to Barbarian builds? viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9473#p77458 Lists barbarian builds but a lot~ has changed since these were made. How does everyone feel about Barbarians at the moment? How would they compare with the classic Ftr 20/WM 7/Ro 3?

Looking forward to the discussion.
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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by Ebonstar » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:01 am

before biteback removal barbarians would clean house vs 20/7/3

now its more to the weapon master side of the coin
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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by Baron Saturday » Thu Apr 05, 2018 2:26 am

Barbarians are capable of dishing out truly absurd amounts of damage right now. A half-orc barb with a double weapon is absolutely terrifying, even with the removal of kensai. Build probably looks something like 23 barb/4 fighter/3 rogue?

Losing biteback was not the worst thing to happen to barbarians. I would not be surprised if the above build mopped the floor with 20/7/3 WMs as a part-time job.
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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by MoreThanThree » Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:54 pm

Standard WM build requires a healer to counter a standard barbarian build, without the biteback. Barbarians went from the ultimate counter to melee to losing 2v1.
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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by I_Am_King_Midas » Thu Apr 05, 2018 6:52 pm

MoreThanThree wrote:
Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:54 pm
Standard WM build requires a healer to counter a standard barbarian build, without the biteback. Barbarians went from the ultimate counter to melee to losing 2v1.
Do you think they would be better than the PM 16/ftr 10/ bard 4?

Does anyone have an actual barbarian build written up?
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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by Hunter548 » Fri Apr 06, 2018 12:39 am

Ebonstar wrote:
Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:01 am
before biteback removal barbarians would clean house vs 20/7/3

now its more to the weapon master side of the coin
MoreThanThree wrote:
Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:54 pm
Standard WM build requires a healer to counter a standard barbarian build, without the biteback. Barbarians went from the ultimate counter to melee to losing 2v1.
Image


Barbarians are exceedingly capable of being competitive with WMs after the barbarian update, and weren't hugely impressive against WMs previously unless said WM was a moron who just left clicked.


As for how to build a barbarian, it depends on if you want to be one handed or two handed. One handed build roughly similar to the barbarian build you linked, with the sole caveat that you may want a bit more dex to help you with your AC since you're going to want to wear light armor. Terrifying rage is extremely good -- Take it. Mighty rage is situational and can have some value -- you can adjust your feats if you want it.

If you want to go 2hand, you want to drop your hopes of EDR -- Humans just can't do the attributes needed (Only Half Orcs, Dwarves and Duergar can, and even they have to make intelligence sacrifices). That said, you want to shoot for thundering rage and possibly terrifying rage if you can fit it, and probably go 23 barb/4 fighter/3. There's a few variations you can do here, but this is the simplest one. It's very important you have max strength to get 25 strength for thundering rage.
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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by One Two Three Five » Fri Apr 06, 2018 1:35 am

Is one-handed thundering rage something that's being done, or just the one-hand EDR one?
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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by Hunter548 » Fri Apr 06, 2018 4:38 pm

One Two Three Five wrote:
Fri Apr 06, 2018 1:35 am
Is one-handed thundering rage something that's being done, or just the one-hand EDR one?
You can do it (Again, attributes permitting) but yeah, one handed barbs tend to be the EDR varients. It just synergizes better.

Edit: Also, thundering will mean sacrificing a feat somewhere. Barbarians who go for EDR tend to have feat problems in epic (Barbarians take all of their fighter in epic for this reason, for example) and you can only take the rage modes on barbarian levels, so the feats become a bit of a pain if you're going for two rage modes and EDR3. If you can get the strength into an EDR barb though, more power to you.
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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by Cortex » Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:21 pm

Some people would argue barbarian is still in need of nerfs, that's how powerful it is.
:)

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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by flower » Fri Apr 06, 2018 7:42 pm

Cortex wrote:
Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:21 pm
Some people would argue barbarian is still in need of nerfs, that's how powerful it is.
I would correct you a little.

There are several minor boons connecting together making barbarian to stand out so much.

Most of them are half orc bonuses. Race which gets high strenght, is gifted for free dual wielding. This allows them to make dual wielding barbarians WITHOUT dipping neccesary dexterity (up to 15 for ambidexterity) for improved two weapon fighting.

It was given to them to benefit from racial craft....but really what kind of lobby was behind that? Getting two (!) feats for free, along with powerful racial weapons for no additional ECL. This itself alone would not be game breaking, but allowing them to spare points to lift dexterity from 8 up to 15 allows them unlike other races to go fully on strenght and other abilities.

Then the fact that crappy dual bladed weapons are considered as large weapon, giving +2 AB.

So, half orcs not only benefit from like 20 starting strenght (or even more) but also get weapon which is +4 enchament, giving them penalty of -4 and countering it with +2 for being large. So they can gain really ugly AB on dual wield teamed up with the +1 rage attack.

So the issue does not sit in barbarian class itself, but in all minor buffs and boons handed around to different races and weapons, combined all together.

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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by Cortex » Fri Apr 06, 2018 8:06 pm

actually its the temp hp
:)

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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by flower » Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:08 pm

Cortex wrote:
Fri Apr 06, 2018 8:06 pm
actually its the temp hp
Yes, that too.

If i remember right, temp HPs were to counter low AC? Now barbarian can reach AC as any other meleer.

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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by Freyason » Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:58 pm

flower wrote:
Fri Apr 06, 2018 9:08 pm
Cortex wrote:
Fri Apr 06, 2018 8:06 pm
actually its the temp hp
Yes, that too.

If i remember right, temp HPs were to counter low AC? Now barbarian can reach AC as any other meleer.
Not the one you described

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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by I_Am_King_Midas » Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:39 am

Could anyone write out a build?
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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by Baron Saturday » Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:29 pm

Take a look at the New Barbarian Build Thread. It doesn't have a full 1-30 build laid out, but if you look at the epic level spread Lorkas provided and tweak the old Optimale Good Builds Compendium build a bit, it should get you what you need. Do note that to get Thundering Rage and EDR 3, you NEED to end up with with 21 con by level 21 and 25 str by 30. Realistically, this means you need to be a half-orc or a gnoll.
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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by Cortex » Tue Apr 10, 2018 2:26 am

Or a dwarf.
:)

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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by flower » Thu Apr 12, 2018 3:40 pm

He can go other race, but it will leave other abilities starving (like inteligence).

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Re: Barbarian Builds

Post by Cortex » Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:10 pm

flower wrote:
Thu Apr 12, 2018 3:40 pm
He can go other race, but it will leave other abilities starving (like inteligence).
It is true you sacrifice expertise/disarm for going Thundering and EDR3, but it's a fair build choice.
:)

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