Author Topic: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian  (Read 4346 times)

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sombrastewart

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3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« on: January 05, 2009, 05:42:44 PM »
I've got a build set up for a game that will probably be a one-off at level 20.  It's a Goliath Barbarian, and for some twist and flavor, I gave him a falchion and Improved Critical.  But beyond a burst weapon, I'm not sure what good equipment selection would be for the guy.  Now, if it's printed in a WotC book that isn't campaign specific ought to be fair game, except for the Epic Level Handbook.  Nothing in that is fair game.

The build is pretty good, I think, but equipment is still a stumbling block for me.

Thanks in advance!

juton

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2009, 06:13:27 PM »
You'll want a few things, if you can use the custom Item creation rules in the DMG/SRD.

Boost your saves : Cloak of resistance + and item the gives a sacred bonus to resistance. A ring of Nine lives from the MIC could be worth your money as well.
Boost your HP : As a raging barbarian your AC probably won't be high, so instead of spending mucho dinero to get your AC into the 40s just try and get a lot of HPs.
Boost your Mobility : You'll want a way to fly and use dimension door, your friendly neighbourhood wizard or sorcerer can cast overland flight on you for flight, but being able to dimension door 1/day can be a life saver.
A few extras : a Belt of Battle (MIC), can give your extra actions, you'll want a source of magical healing as well. There is a Druid spell that gives you extra rages (the spell is in the spell compendium I think), get a command word version of that. If you can get an item of persistent wraithstrike, that goes well with powerattack.


sombrastewart

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2009, 06:26:31 PM »
You'll want a few things, if you can use the custom Item creation rules in the DMG/SRD.

Boost your saves : Cloak of resistance + and item the gives a sacred bonus to resistance. A ring of Nine lives from the MIC could be worth your money as well.

Alright, I'll look into that.

Quote
Boost your HP : As a raging barbarian your AC probably won't be high, so instead of spending mucho dinero to get your AC into the 40s just try and get a lot of HPs.

As it stands, I think his provisional HP while raging is 250.  I had thought about taking whatever the fancy name of a Book of Con +5.

Quote
Boost your Mobility : You'll want a way to fly and use dimension door, your friendly neighbourhood wizard or sorcerer can cast overland flight on you for flight, but being able to dimension door 1/day can be a life saver.

Well, with the WBL being what it is, he could buy Wings of Flying.

Quote
A few extras : a Belt of Battle (MIC), can give your extra actions, you'll want a source of magical healing as well. There is a Druid spell that gives you extra rages (the spell is in the spell compendium I think), get a command word version of that. If you can get an item of persistent wraithstrike, that goes well with powerattack.

Right now, he has 8 rages in a day.  I wasn't aware you could persist wraithstrike; I could just be confused.


JaronK

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2009, 06:54:50 PM »
Enfeebling is a good enchantment choice for your weapon. 

JaronK

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2009, 06:57:19 PM »
Skin of proteus (XPH). It allows you to use metamorphosis at will, which allows you to do all sorts of interesting things, and covers a number of bases (such as flying) that you won't have to use other items for. In addition, psychoactive skins don't take up a standard body-slot, so it's all good.

If you boost the manifester level, you can even use a hydra form.

Unfortunately, you lose your goliath abilities while morphed, but you can sub with all sorts of other cool stuff.
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Ithamar

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2009, 07:02:08 PM »
Wondrous items that give you manuevers and stances are a must!
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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2009, 07:24:54 PM »
Craft an item of continuous Flicker, which is I believe a 2nd level mystery from the Tome of Magic. Once per round, as an immediate action, you can teleport 5 feet per 2 caster levels. Just 15 feet is plenty for you, because then you'll be able to charge every round, and I'm of course assuming that you've got pounce. If you go for this, it might be prudent to take the cityscape feature street fighter, that grants you cleaving charge, which is perfect for you since you're starting at the level you get it.

sombrastewart

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2009, 07:31:17 PM »
Craft an item of continuous Flicker, which is I believe a 2nd level mystery from the Tome of Magic. Once per round, as an immediate action, you can teleport 5 feet per 2 caster levels. Just 15 feet is plenty for you, because then you'll be able to charge every round, and I'm of course assuming that you've got pounce. If you go for this, it might be prudent to take the cityscape feature street fighter, that grants you cleaving charge, which is perfect for you since you're starting at the level you get it.

Yeah, this is definitely a Lion Totem barbarian.  I'll have to see if I can find a copy of Cityscape, though; I haven't read it.

sombrastewart

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2009, 07:31:52 PM »
Enfeebling is a good enchantment choice for your weapon. 

JaronK

Jaron, where is Enfeebling as a weapon property?  MIC?

woodenbandman

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2009, 08:05:50 PM »
oh one more thing: Invest in a permanent item of Bite of the Werebear. It's a 6th level spell for a druid, but 7th for a sorceror. I think it should cost 6 (spell level) x 11(caster level) x 4 (because of the short duration) x 2000, which comes to be about 500,000 but it gives you + 16 strength, +8(I think) constitution, +7 natural armor, the benefit of the power attack and blindfight feats, claws, a bite, and multiattack. +8 strength is worth like 700000 if you use a normal item, so this is clearly a step up. If you can even think about affording it, try. A lower level spell, bite of the weretiger, is cheaper, estimated at 400,000. Also, get a weakening arm graft, which gives you +4 inherent to strength for only 40,000, which is win, because a tome is like 100k for that much strength increase, and you can touch people 2 times per day to deal strength damage, with no save. Your strength should catapult into the 50s if you do these things, which is pretty cool.

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2009, 09:15:02 PM »
Please, that's not even close to being a good idea. +8 strength is also and epic item and Barbarians hardly need a damage boosts that much. That leaves him with some 260k to get all the other items he needs, armor, weapon, save boosters, mobility enhancers and whatnot. That's not enough.

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woodenbandman

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2009, 09:51:46 PM »
Don't forget it doubles as an above-epic item of increased Con. However, if you're only after the CON, there's a 3rd level one of those that grants you +8 con, a gore attack, and a bunch of natural armor.

Also, you don't need a bunch of pluses if you're packing a +16 enhancement to strength. The only thing you'd need those for is breaking damage reduction only broken by +x weapons, and you could just buy a +1 bane weapon and get the cleric to cast GMW(if you don't have a cleric, this doesn't work). He could get by with a +1 transmuting weapon rather than a +5, saving him a +4 bonus, which is some ridiculous amount of money. This also could potentially save him a +2 bonus to his armor, which if he were to get a +10 total would end up saving him 40k, since he nets 7 NA over an amulet of NA+5 and an additional +2 to the armor.   Oh he doesn't need an amulet of natural armor anymore, add 50k more to the savings. Not to mention another attack to add onto his attack sequence, which is always nice.

The cost of all these things individually would be huge. Also, as a final thought: Steadfast Determination. costs you 2 feats, but if you can spare them, you'll be invincible to anything but reflex saves, and I've never needed a reflex save ever.

+5 enhancement + properties such as transmuting(a +3, right?) = 128k
+5 heavy fortification armor = 100k
+6 strength = 36k
+6 con = 36k
+5 tome of strength = 137,500
+5 tome of con = 137,500
+5 natural armor = 50k

Total cost: 625 k

Now just one object of Werebear:

528k
+4 weapon: 32k
+3 Armor of Heavy Fortification: 64k

Total cost: 624k, plenty left over for a use activated 3 charges per day item of flicker, mystery user level 6, and a boost to saves. Not to mention that this gives you 10 strength and thus 11 damage beyond what you're getting from a +5 weapon, with a higher to-hit bonus, the benefit of the blind-fight and power attack feats (if you should need power attack), and a bite attack. You lose 20 hp and +1 on your fort saves if you choose this route, but I think that the trade off is well worth it. Your AC in either case is identical, and it only gets higher if you have a friendly cleric to give you magic vestment. Also, I believe the spell gives you a +4 to dex, although I could be wrong as I don't actually own the spell compendium, I'm doing this from memory.

Runestar

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #12 on: January 06, 2009, 10:29:51 AM »
Some of the maneuver-granting items from Tome of Battle might be useful, especially if you are reluctant to spend precious feat slots acquiring them (or want more to round out your repertoire). Wall of blades is always nice, since your bab won't be that good (or will be practically non-existent, if you are going for some shock-trooper build). There is one which grants pounce.
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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2009, 02:14:33 PM »
Talk to Aelrynth, he will show you the way...

but really:
Valorous (+1 Weapon Enhancement, UE) gives double damage on a charge.
Death Ward (+1 Armor Enhancement, MIC) grants immunity to death effects once per day, activate as an immediate action
Crystal of: Adamant Weaponry, Demolition, True Death (MIC) all give various useful effects to your weapon, especially good if you know what you're up against and because you will be missing out on crit damage against constructs and undead without one
Belt of Battle (MIC) as a swift action, activate to take an additional one of the following: full round action, move action, standard action
Cloak of Resistance +5 (DMG)
Crystal of Mind Cloaking (MIC) +5 competence bonus versus mind-affecting spells or abilities
Keen (+1 Weapon Enhancement, DMG) 15-20 threat range for you

While trying to make this list I was thinking that knowing the rest of your party and the campaign would enable people to really help you a lot more. Do you mind sharing? We don't care if it's erotic.

edit: Also, mixing Horse Totem with your Lion Totem can be nice to give you Endurance which would then allow you to take Steadfast Determination (con instead of wis for will saves), but I didn't want to give build advice since you didn't ask for any. Whirling Frenzy (UA) is also much better than the regular rage if you can get access to that.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2009, 02:18:03 PM by wO-_-OdrOw »
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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #14 on: January 06, 2009, 04:15:25 PM »
This reminds me to do a equipment section for the handbook.
Valorous... check
Belt of battle... check
... way of protecting  will saves... check
random TOB items... check
Ways of fliying mentioned... check.
All in all this thread has a lot of what you might generically need.

I could suggest perhaps a more specific equipment set if you post your build so that
there's more opportunity to shore up the holes.
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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #15 on: January 07, 2009, 12:48:56 AM »
Go Shoppin' in the Hood for ideas.
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DavidWL

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #16 on: January 07, 2009, 01:29:02 AM »
Craft an item of continuous Flicker, which is I believe a 2nd level mystery from the Tome of Magic. Once per round, as an immediate action, you can teleport 5 feet per 2 caster levels. Just 15 feet is plenty for you, because then you'll be able to charge every round, and I'm of course assuming that you've got pounce. If you go for this, it might be prudent to take the cityscape feature street fighter, that grants you cleaving charge, which is perfect for you since you're starting at the level you get it.

Yeah, this is definitely a Lion Totem barbarian.  I'll have to see if I can find a copy of Cityscape, though; I haven't read it.

Just look here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a

Best,
David
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sombrastewart

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Re: 3.5: Equipping a level 20 Barbarian
« Reply #17 on: January 07, 2009, 05:52:31 PM »
Thanks for all the advice, guys, I appreciate it.