I have previously made reference to Barbarians that are extraordinarily difficult to deal with, but I have yet to put up a build for one here. That changes today. Or maybe tomorrow, depending on how long it takes me to write. But for you, it effectively changes RIGHT NOW! As of you reading of this. There are Barbarians with a little more punch in terms of damage than these guys, but nobody’s got anything on their saves vs. spells while raging.
Archetype:
– Armored Hulk
This is the way to go for sure. Armored Hulk gives you access to heavy armor, which will make full plate your armor of choice. You’re a Dwarf too, so you won’t be slowed down by it at all, like other Barbarians would be. Plus a Dwarf in heavy armor is like a fish in water thematically.
Race:
Dwarf is the entire point of this build, so this isn’t really a point of discussion. The Dwarven racial features dovetail beautifully with the Barbarian bonuses that you most want, rendering you nigh-immune to magic.
Ability Scores:
Epic Fantasy:
- Str: 18 (17)
- Dex: 14 (5)
- Con: 14 -> 16 (5)
- Int: 10 (0)
- Wis: 10 -> 12 (0)
- Cha: 8 -> 6 (-2)
High Fantasy:
- Str: 18 (17)
- Dex: 12 (2)
- Con: 14 -> 16 (5)
- Int: 8 (-2)
- Wis: 10 -> 12 (0)
- Cha: 8 -> 6 (-2)
Standard Fantasy:
- Str: 17 (13)
- Dex: 12 (2)
- Con: 12 -> 14 (2)
- Int: 10 (0)
- Wis: 10 -> 12 (0)
- Cha: 8 -> 6 (-2)
Low Fantasy:
- Str: 16 (10)
- Dex: 12 (2)
- Con: 12 -> 14 (2)
- Int: 8 (-2)
- Wis: 10 -> 12 (0)
- Cha: 8 -> 6 (-2)
Strength is the primary building block for your character’s power. Since you’re a Dwarf, you don’t need to heavily invest in Constitution to have a decent hit point pool and Fortitude save. Wisdom is shored up by your other racial bonus, and Charisma, a natural dump stat anyways for most Barbarians, is given the axe. Intelligence dips here with some point totals in favour of increasing scores that make a bigger difference to your character’s power and survivability, but could be adjusted if the flavour doesn’t suit you, or you dislike the idea of having two dump stats. If you were feeling particularly cheesy, you could even drop your Charisma (or Int for that matter) down to 7 to score an extra two points, but 5 Charisma is nearing “reasonable people flee on sight” territory, and your party members kicking you out because you’re just that intolerable (not that 6 Charisma is going to win you any popularity contests). There is a fair bit of flexibility here, but I wouldn’t drop below 16 Strength with any pointbuy, as any less would start to significantly diminish your combat effectiveness. Getting Dexterity up to 16 on a higher pointbuy is tempting, as it would allow you to gain the full Dex bonus from mithral full plate, but it’s a big investment, and is difficult to pull off without negatively impacting your other scores to a significant degree.
Alternate Racial Traits:
- Rock Stepper
You don’t particularly want any of the alternate racial traits for Dwarves, but Rock Stepper is generally worthwhile. There are some other ones you could take if you like the flavour, like Craftsman or Wyrmscourged, just don’t take anything that replaces the Hardy trait, as it is essential for this character.
Skills:
- Any
It doesn’t really matter what you pick here, as you don’t dip any prestige classes. Your primary skill-set revolves around rampant carnage on the battlefield anyways. Still, Perception is always a good choice, if you really can’t decide.
Progression:
- 1: Power Attack
- 2: Superstitious (RP)
- 3: Steel Soul
- 4: Lesser Beast Totem (RP)
- 5: Weapon Focus – Nodachi / Falchion
- 6: Beast Totem (RP)
- 7: Furious Focus
- 8: Guarded Life / Reckless Abandon (RP)
- 9: Improved Critical
- 10: Greater Beast Totem (RP)
- 11: Lunge
- 12: Eater of Magic (RP)
- 13: Improved Initiative
- 14: Guarded Life / Reckless Abandon (RP)
- 15: Extra Rage Power – Fearless Rage
- 16: Witch Hunter (RP)
- 17: Extra Rage Power – Increased Damage Reduction
- 18: Increased Damage Reduction (RP)
- 19: Extra Rage Power – Increased Damage Reduction
- 20: Clear Mind (RP)
A bunch of your higher level choices, including both Rage Powers (RP) and feats, can be swapped around however you like. I would recommend sticking with the progression chart up until level 10 though. If your GM likes long slogs, you may want to throw in an Extra Rage feat at level 11 or somesuch, though fitting it in earlier would diminish your combat effectiveness. As for weapon choice, nodachi and falchion are your best options, as they maximize your threat range, which is generally superior to scoring critical hits less often for more damage. If you like the flavour of some other weapon though, any two-handed weapon will be sufficient.
Traits:
- Glory of Old
- Lessons of Chaldira / Berserker of the Society
Glory of Old is essential here. Other than that, there are a few good options, including Berserker of the Society to snag some extra rage rounds per day, or Lessons of Chaldira to cover yourself when you happen to roll badly on an important save. Having another saving throw booster in there might sound nice, but since trait bonuses don’t stack, there aren’t a lot of ways to make it worthwhile. If you can’t take either of the last two, just grab whatever appeals to you.
Favored Class Bonus:
– +1 round of Rage / day (Dwarf Barbarian)
How It Works:
Between monstrous damage, a truly daunting hit point pool, decent AC and absolutely absurd saving throws against spells, especially while raging, this is one tough customer. Your GM will quickly realize that targeting you with the spells of even Wizards with Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus is generally a waste of an action and time, and supplementing this resilience with Rage Powers like Eater of Magic can help save your skin in the rare situations where you roll a failed save. Since you’re a warrior class (with pounce, no less), Haste is still your best friend, so try to cajole one of your friends into casting Haste at the beginning of every fight before you start to rage, so you don’t have to roll a save against it. You can always role-play your character as accepting it reluctantly, but out of character, you’re definitely going to really want Haste to happen.
I won’t go into a detailed gear breakdown, but suffice to say you want a belt to increase your Strength, and items to boost your attacks, saves, damage and AC. Adding a little extra mobility with Jaunt Boots is always a good idea for a melee character as well, for those situations where pounce isn’t going to work for you.
Bring this Dwarf to bear and experience a whole different kind of power; the power of a character nearly immune to the most dangerous aspect of the game… magic.
That’s all for now.
Until next time,
Uni
Renaissance Gamer 