Barbarian Tricks.

[Amechra]

Hello, I didn't have enough material for a handbook, but here are some things I have noticed about the Barbarian.

Feats you can take at level 1:

Mad Foam Rager- You can delay the effect of one attack, spell, or effect once any time you rage or frenzy. In other words, if you go FB, you can delay a death effect for about a round, and if you aren't a FB, you still could benefit from a delayed healing/whatever.

Reckless Rage- You gain an extra +2 to your Str/Con while raging, for the penalty of another -2 to AC. It is not to shabby, IMHO.

Blazing/Frozen Berserker- Gives either the Fire or Cold subtype while raging; so if you are up against creatures that deal damage of that type (fire/cold) a lot, take the corresponding feat, and hide in the warm/cool embrace of your anger.

Instantaneous Rage- Rage at any time? I am so there. It's a free action too.

Extra/Extend Rage- You get more bang for your angry buck. What can I say? Alright, Extra Rage get's you more Rage, so it's better than Extend Rage, but only because they changed Extend Rage so that you can't take it more than once.

Intimidating Rage- You get so pissed you can smell the urine now. Oh wait, that's the guy over there who failed his save against the fear effect caused by your RAGE.

Destructive Rage- +8 on Strength checks to destroy doors and the like? Be still my beating heart, this is awful unless you are the party's sunderhound.

(Half Orcs only) Channeled Rage- Congrats, you can exchange a rage use to give yourself your Strength bonus to Will Saves. I have no opinion on this one.

And here are some idle thoughts.

-Alrighty, Bear Warrior (BW) has that Bear Form thingy, that let's them become a bear. It's actually kind of cool. The other cool thing about them is that that ability counts as wildshape for the purpose of getting into Warshaper. If it is in fact an equivalent, wouldn't that mean you could use BW to get Wild Feats? If that is the case, then we could have a Raging, Huge Sized Dire Bear on our hands. Which seriously would be sweet.

-When mentioning feats that a raging Barbarian can use, they neglected to talk at all bout whether or not you could use psionic feats, and this has never been clarified, to my knowledge. A Deep-Impact using Frenzied Berserker (if he can't focus, then he always has that psicrystal to do it for him, with the cost of 2 feats) makes me scared.

So, any thoughts on your part? I haven't really taken a look at alternate class features, so that could be next...

[Endarire]

Raging prevents you from concentrating.  From my understanding, this prevents you from making a Concentration check to gain psionic focus, but you seemingly remain focused while raging.

[Runestar]

Human from Rashemi. Take wolf lodge berserker (+4 trip, ignore prereqs for improved trip), improved trip. Wield a guisarme and have enlarge person cast on you. Congrats, you are now tripping hydras with no problem.

[ksbsnowowl]

Human from Rashemi. Take wolf lodge berserker (+4 trip, ignore prereqs for improved trip), improved trip. Wield a guisarme and have enlarge person cast on you. Congrats, you are now tripping hydras with no problem.

Alternatively, get your DM to let you be Rashemi and take Jotunbrud.  If you go Barb 1/Fighter 1 you can have a trip check of 12+Str mod by 2nd level, all the time.

[PhaedrusXY]

Human from Rashemi. Take wolf lodge berserker (+4 trip, ignore prereqs for improved trip), improved trip. Wield a guisarme and have enlarge person cast on you. Congrats, you are now tripping hydras with no problem.

Alternatively, get your DM to let you be Rashemi and take Jotunbrud.  If you go Barb 1/Fighter 1 you can have a trip check of 12+Str mod by 2nd level, all the time.

I played a character with all that once, in a game themed around fighting monsters from ancient greek and roman mythology (feats were reflavored, obviously). It was great fun.

[Havok4]

Human from Rashemi. Take wolf lodge berserker (+4 trip, ignore prereqs for improved trip), improved trip. Wield a guisarme and have enlarge person cast on you. Congrats, you are now tripping hydras with no problem.

Alternatively, get your DM to let you be Rashemi and take Jotunbrud.  If you go Barb 1/Fighter 1 you can have a trip check of 12+Str mod by 2nd level, all the time.

I played a character with all that once, in a game themed around fighting monsters from ancient greek and roman mythology (feats were reflavored, obviously). It was great fun.

Then add swordsage for setting sun maneuvers to taste.

[Ivory Knight]

If we're talking Forgotten Realms, Tireless is neat.
Dreadful Wrath + Intimidating Rage also looks frighteningly effective.

Related topic:
I have 2 effects, that make enemies shaken, so the are frightened instead?
What, if one of my enemies has the Feat "Blooded"(+2 Initiative & can't be shaken)?
Does he ignore both shaken effects, thus being immune to fear-stacking tactics?

[CantripN]

To the above questions, yes to both.

[PhaedrusXY]

If we're talking Forgotten Realms, Tireless is neat.
Dreadful Wrath + Intimidating Rage also looks frighteningly effective.

Related topic:
I have 2 effects, that make enemies shaken, so the are frightened instead?
What, if one of my enemies has the Feat "Blooded"(+2 Initiative & can't be shaken)?
Does he ignore both shaken effects, thus being immune to fear-stacking tactics?

Wow... that really improves the worth of the Blooded feat. I'd never thought about that!

[Ivory Knight]

Sadly I know off a DM, who loves the feat purely as a Boost to Initiative.
I guess, I better retire my Fear-based Rashemi Berserker

I intended to use the Blooded One Template, as we always play with LA buyoff but without flaws.
Combat Reflexes for free(for use with Tripping and/or Stand Still)
Regional Feat: Dreadful Wrath(stacking with Intimidating Rage, Imperious Command and maybe even multiclass into Sorc or Bard/Rage Mage to get some Fearspells)
Wolf Berserker Lodge gets Imp. Trip without needing Int 13(UA Wolf Totem Barbarian would work too)

[Glutton]

mad foam rager + iron heart surge, add a little instantaneous rage as well for good times.

[Amechra]

Here's a little 1st level build I came up with:

Damaran Human Boar Totem Barbarian 1

2 Flaws: Shaky and Inattentive

Feats:
Human: Jotunbrud
1st: Reckless Rage
Flaw: Mad Foam Rager
Flaw: Your choice of the following: Power Attack, Extended Rage, Extra Rage, or Instantaneous Rage.

Nice stuff about this:
-You wield weapons 1 size larger than you are for no penalty. Grab a Large Greatsword for 3d6 damage
-If you picked Power Attack, you would do 3d6+6 damage even if you have only a 10 strength; a more realistic number would be somewhere in the range of 3d6+11 damage.
-You get Diehard for free while in a rage, which is also where you get the ability to delay an effect for a round; combined with the +3 hitpoints you get from raging, which will be added to your high (for first level) hitpoints; you probably hit 18 hit points easily. This means you get about 28 hitpoints to play with at first level.

Drawbacks: You get a -4 to AC and you can only use MFR once per rage. Also, you may need to talk to your DM about Jotunbrud.

Which reminds me... take Monkey Grip at 3rd to get a Huge Greatsword, then level to 8th level, where you'll take Bear Warrior. Retrain until you have 5 levels of bear warior before 9th. If I'm right about my theories on Bear-Form-qualifies-for-Wild-feats thing, grab Great and Small at 9th level. You can now spend a rage to make yourself 1 size larger. Can anyone say a Gargantuan Greatsword, which would end up dealing about 6d6+28 damage at 9th level while raging, which is without assigning anything to your 6th level feat...

So... I'll update the top post soon, OK?

[Rebel7284]

I see a few problems.

1. Jotunbrud doesn't actually let you wield bigger weapons as I recall. 
2. Monkey Grip sucks and doesn't stack with anything.
3. It counts as wildshape for certain prerequisites, doesn't mean it IS wildshape.  Dunno how you're picking up those size increases/decreases.

[neveragon]

Its possible to make a barbarian have a very long rage duration if you build it right. More than enough for any fight I've ever been in, cept maybe a huge raging battle with lots of soldiers and such

[Runestar]

How long do your battles last? A barb with 14con gets 7 rounds of rage normally, which should more than suffice.

[neveragon]

eh, its just taking extend rage, eye of gruumsh, barbarian, and frenzied berzerker, gets you a ridiculous amount of ability to rage. There is also a spell you can make permanent that is similar to rage and doesn't stop you from raging normally

[Amechra]

I see a few problems.

1. Jotunbrud doesn't actually let you wield bigger weapons as I recall. 
2. Monkey Grip sucks and doesn't stack with anything.
3. It counts as wildshape for certain prerequisites, doesn't mean it IS wildshape.  Dunno how you're picking up those size increases/decreases.

1. Damn.
2. Double Damn.
3. Triple Damn.

Teaches me to make builds at 2 AM.

[Aliment]

Quick Question: Does Primeval qualify for Warshaper after lvl 1 (since Primeval form is mirrored off of Polymorph) or does he have to wait till lvl 10 and get teh Shapechanger type?

Just a thought since Warshaper is one of my favorite melee prestige classes (Extra Attack, Bonus Str and Con, Better Reach, and Fast heal in 4 lvls).  Right now the best way seems to be Changeling, but sometimes you just wanna be a Goliath!

[skydragonknight]

Primeval acts like Wildshape, and Wildshape is a possible entry for Warshaper, so yes, a Primeval can enter Warshaper.

[stral]

rage feats at first level? a bold idea but not so useful the way I see it.