2h Water Genasi Barbarian Build!

[Babuguuscooties]

So yeah lol, I'm wanting to do this as a sorta side thing.

2h Barbarian

Water Genasi

Halberd for the weapon

Simple build is perfectly fine.

Barbarian 30

Barbarian/WoD

Any other ideas that might fit a water genasi more specifically.

[Sun Wukong]

High Strength, Northlander Hewing or Improved Power Attack, not both, and get Extend Rage III if going for Whirlwind Frenzy or Extend Rage II if going for Standard Rage. Oh, get Ice-troll Berserker too.

Basically that is Barbarian builds in a nutshell.

[Babuguuscooties]

High Strength, Northlander Hewing or Improved Power Attack, not both, and get Extend Rage III if going for Whirlwind Frenzy or Extend Rage II if going for Standard Rage. Oh, get Ice-troll Berserker too.

Basically that is Barbarian builds in a nutshell.

Thanks man! For northlander hewing would it better to use standard rage?

[Sun Wukong]

For Northlander Hewing, when you are leveling up the extra attack from Whirlwind Frenzy does often help you get that one more attack than what you normally would. However, at BAB of 26, both builds will be at four attacks regardless of whether you have the extra attack or not.

A two-handed build you kind of want to have more attacks as that increases your damage output. Not to mention that if you do not have the equipment to pass over, wealth to stock up your barbarian with wands and other UMD consumables, then the Whirlwind Frenzy does offer a very cheap source of extra AC.

Now, Standard Rage offers regeneration, improved saves, larger hit point pool, extra damage per hit - thus in the long run it is the better choice because the importance of that extra five points of dodge does AC grow negligible over time. You gain access to +4 Equipment, reach level 30, etc... etc...

Thus I would recommend Whirlwind Frenzy for any Barbarian that is just starting out... The server is likely to have some new 100% RCR period sometime in the future, so... You can convert your Whirlwind Frenzy barbarian into a Standard Rage barbarian if you want. (Eventually.)

[Babuguuscooties]

Okay, awesome. Thanks for the help!

[Sun Wukong]

No worries. Not that I helped all that much, I didn't even bother making you a build.

Just remember that Epic Rage requires 25 BAB and 21 Strength, and that you want Barbarian 20 ASAP. Barbarian builds are simple like that.

Hmn... Something, something, something. Oh yeah, Tireless Rage is wonderful and if you go for Warrior of Darkness you will get it at level 21. Before you do, you might not want to use your ability to Rage because of the temporary fatigue it brings - but you can - if you also keep buying stacks of lesser potions of restoration. Those take the fatigue away and you can rage again.

Oh and, in the Palace District of Baldur's Gate, in the Wide, there is a merchant that sells a +3 Natural Armor amulet with the Extra Rage feat. It is a nice thing to have.

[Babuguuscooties]

Sweet. Will definitely look into that. Wait until you see this character! I'll post a screen once I get him prettied up tomorrow lol.

[Deathgrowl]

Pure barbarian, 21 constitution, rest strength. Get epic DR.

[chad878262]

My opinion is that IPA is better if you go Whirlwind Frenzy while Northlander Hewing is better if you go Standard Rage.

Since you are not using a shield my take is to go WF and get One Hander which will often give you a slight boost to AC (sometimes it's deflection which does not stack, other times it is dodge which does), but always gives you +1 AC and can be active at the same time as IPA.

Barbarian 30 is perfectly fine, as is B20/X10 where X10 could be F6/WoD4 (or AK), FB5/DC5 or any other number of things. Personally I consider this more of a way for you to decide what kind of RP you want to include, rather than how to get more power as B20/ANYTHING10 is going to do quite well in PvE.

I also agree with basically everyone else to get 21 CON (try for 22 if Standard Rage, but as I said, for a Two Hander I recommend WF) and max STR (end on an even number). Go for Epic Rage and Epic DR. Fast healing is less important, but nice to have if you can afford it.

Don't forget you get a bonus feat at Barbarian 10, 20 and 30. If you go "pure" Barbarian or B20/X10 you will still get one bonus Epic feat that does not show in the builder either at B20 or B30.

[Sun Wukong]

In my opinion, Epic Damage reduction feats are not something that every barbarian needs. I've had my barbarians with and without them, I've even had an Epic Northlander Hewing Whirlwind Frenzy Halfling Barbarian/Dragonslayer with base 14 constitution and he did just fine. A few buffs in a party and he single handledly tanked all bosses except the White Dragon. (Never got around to face that thing.)

Yet Epic Damage Reduction is a possibility you could consider if you are playing a race with "+STR" either/or "+CON" such as Earth Genasi, Dwarf, Half-Orc, or perhaps Water Genasi. You can easily afford to start with 18 in constitution without extreme min-maxing and then just spend 3 ability increases to get your constitution to 21. (22 if you go for Standard Rage.) Overall your base strength ability score will not be that much lower, so you are just few points behind the pure strength build in AB and damage department.

But there is the topic of epic feat availability to consider, Epic Damage Reduction takes three feats. Thus on a single class Barbarian or Barbarian/Warrior of Darkness, you get a total of eight epic feats. Epic Damage Reduction eats three, Epic Rage eats one, and thus you have only four epic feats left. If you go for Expose Weakness cheese, you got two feats left for Great Strength. Thus if you started out with 16 STR and 18 CON, you will end up at 22 STR and 21 CON. Epic Rage does give you +10, and you can get that +2 strength item for buffed up 34 STR. A modifier of +12.

Thus if you are going for Epic Damage Reduction, I would turn to look towards either Fighter or Divine Champion because their bonus feats could be used on Epic Damage Reduction, Epic Prowess, Epic Toughness, or Armor Skin during the epic levels. You basically get 10 epic feats to use as you see fit, two more than staying pure.

Fighter gives Tower Shields (not to halflings even with monkey grip) and Heavy Armor, and Divine champion costs that weapon focus but gives +5 to all saves, and that temporary damage boost of +5 AB and damage.

However, if you had just increased strength and nothing else, a starting strength of 16 will end up at 42. The difference here is 4 points of AB and 6 points of two handed damage, +4 points of Damage if you are making use of Northlander Hewing. In a way it is enough to offset that fairly common damage reduction of 10/-, and you might also have much higher intelligence for additional skill points, etc... etc... The STR-CON barbarians tend to be a bit more one note on that field.

Anyhow, it is hard to mess up a barbarian no matter what you go for.

[chad878262]

Barbarian 30 gets 3 epic bonus feats (24, 28 and 30), thus:

21: Epic Prowess
23: Expose Weakness
24: Great STR
25: Great STR
27: Epic Rage
28: Epic DR 1
29: Epic DR 2
30: Epic DR 3

Assuming 16 STR, 18 CON you end up with 22 STR, 21 CON. With +2 STR item you have your 34 STR while Raging too, so no need for Fighter or Divine Champion. Though B20/DC10 will have more feats to play with, while Fighter/WoD (or AK) would have one less epic feat than pure barbarian and B20/DC5/FB5 would have 2 less. Meaning unless you go B/DC or pure Barbarian you likely need to min/max a bit more to start at 17 or 18 STR and 18 CON (or 16 STR/19 or 20 CON if you prefer) since you lose 1 or both of your Great STR feats if you want epic DR. Either way, it is not always needed, but when soloing it is certainly nice to have.

[AlfarinIcebreaker]

I second what Simian said about not needing EDR. I also play that kind of Barbarian and it is a solid build. Focusing on Strength is a viable option, especially coupled with (Improved) Knockdown, Charge feats etc.

Barbarian 30 is reasonable alternative - just make sure to go with Standard Rage and pick Steadfast Determination, otherwise your Will saves will suck. You will lose potential 2 AC since you don't have access to Tumble, but on the other hand you won't have to take any Extended/Extra Rage feats (since you will be able to rage 10 times with Primal Rage amulet, which also gives Extended Rage and that will be more than enough time). With a race with bonus to STR (Wood Elf or Half Orc) you can easily achieve 42 STR while in Rage.

That means +24 damage to every attack, from Strength alone. Your AB will also be skyhigh (about 51 - before Expose Weakness and Heroism potion) so you can also afford Northlander Hewing or Power Attack.

[Deathgrowl]

Epic DR does help a twohanded weapon wielder, though, as you kind of lose the shield AC from your defense.

[Sun Wukong]

Or if you want to go for giggles...

You could always go for a variant of my good old Barbarian 20/Fighter 10 build. Start with 20 constitution, make it 22, and spend 9 of your your possible epic feats on Epic Toughness... (You need to start with 17 Strength.)

Code: Select all

12*20 = 240 (Barbarian levels)
10*10 = 100 (Fighter levels)
12*30 = 360 (Constitution modifier under Epic Rage, standard)
30*9  = 270 (Epic Toughness feats)
1*30  = 30  (Toughness feat)

240 + 100 + 360 + 270 + 30 = 1000 (Hitpoints)

It would use Northlander Hewing Combined with Improved Combat Expertise.

Actually, this it what it would look like: http://nwn2db.com/build/?276038

[Babuguuscooties]

Or if you want to go for giggles...

You could always go for a variant of my good old Barbarian 20/Fighter 10 build. Start with 20 constitution, make it 22, and spend 9 of your your possible epic feats on Epic Toughness... (You need to start with 17 Strength.)

Code: Select all

12*20 = 240 (Barbarian levels)
10*10 = 100 (Fighter levels)
12*30 = 360 (Constitution modifier under Epic Rage, standard)
30*9  = 270 (Epic Toughness feats)
1*30  = 30  (Toughness feat)

240 + 100 + 360 + 270 + 30 = 1000 (Hitpoints)

Sounds fun lol. How is its damage?

It would use Northlander Hewing Combined with Improved Combat Expertise.

Actually, this it what it would look like: http://nwn2db.com/build/?276038