The orc chieftain looked up from the charts sprawled across the table before him.
"What was that?"
The question was targeted to his adviser, an ogre mage, caught deep in the study of a recently acquired scroll. The ogre mage suddenly became aware of much shouting from outside the chieftain's tent. He bolted to his feet, sending the pile of scrolls in front of him rolling about in disarray.
The pair of guards stationed in the tent looked questioningly at each other, then both made for the tent's doorway. From outside the tent, the shouting was rapidly turning into screams, almost buried in turn by an almost rhythmic cascade of thundering clashes.
"What the hells is going on out there?" the chieftain screamed, as he stepped back from the table and looked for his enchanted double axe.
The ogre mage caught his wits and strode confidently after the guards to the doorway.
"I will handle this," he said over his shoulder to the chieftain, but the words were almost drowned in a sudden crescendo of crashes.
Suddenly a small form burst into the tent, sending the guards sprawling to either side. A battle axe found its way to the ogre mage's chest, and his scream seemed futile as the dwarf prepared another swing.
Suddenly all was silent. The ogre mage dodged the dwarf's next blow, and began incanting the words a most powerful magic, one that would send a veritable storm of magic missiles into the wretched tunnel delver.
But he could not hear himself speak, and the words twisted as they fell from his lips.
The dwarf's next blow did not miss, and more than words fell to the floor as the ogre mage breathed a last breath he could not even hear.
The orc chieftain snarled and advanced upon the dwarf, but something about the dwarf's fury gave the chieftain pause. He could not match that rage--his life would end here. He had to get away--he had to run! He stepped backwards, then turned and flung himself away from the dwarf. He swung his double axe wildly ahead of him, trying to rip an escape route through the back wall of the tent.
The dwarf roared as he mimicked the orc chieftain, only his axe swung at the back of the orc. Panic and pain made short work of the once mighty humanoid.
The Thundering Terror smiled grimly as he calmed from his rage. The remaining orcs were probably still running. It would be a long time before one of their number united the tribes again. And the Thundering Terror would be ready.
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This pure barbarian build is intended to be viable from level one in single-player modules. I don't play multiplayer (not that there's anything wrong with that ) so I don't know how viable this will be in PvP environments. In casual PvM gaming it should be a fun build.
I went into this wanting to get Terrifying Rage and Thundering Rage as early as possible--*and* get as much damage resistance as possible. I did not want to bother with Mighty Rage, as with decent kit you will probably be hitting the cap on bonus to strength (all you need is a belt of frost giant strength and gauntlets of ogre power). The point of raging gets lost if you waltz around with +12 strength and +12 constitution items, IMHO.
I also did not want to bother with any emphasis on any weapon. This costs in maximal AB and damage output, but with the HP this build has, you can afford to take a bit longer to chink away your opponent. It also encourages players who would otherwise fixate on a given weapon (even if that isn't necessarily wise, even for weapon master specialists) to be diverse, and use what's at hand.
Someone who really wants to "play the field" may want to sub Weapon Proficiency Exotic for one of the optional feats, and maybe Two-Weapon Fighting for the other, to slightly lessen the penalty if they want to play with two weapons or a double weapon. (There isn't the dexterity really to give the build Ambidexterity and Improved Two-Weapon Fighting.)
Features of this build:
* AB progression with a mundane weapon is +39/+34/+29/+24--when raging this becomes +42/+37/+32/+27. Not too shabby.
* Weapon damage will be decent due to strength bonus, but nowhere near approaching a weapon-focused character with the critical and specialization feats. You'll take a while to whittle down the DR critters.
* AC with mundane chainmail is 22, 25 with a tower shield (20, 23 respectively when raging)
* Maximized hit points are 780 (900 when raging). Quite nice. (My no-rerolled-HP test of this build came out at a reasonable 680 hit points, 800 when raging, which is fine by me.)
* DR is 19/-. He's not quite the brick wall a dwarven defender build can be, but he can still take abuse.
* Terrifying Rage--he gets this at level 24, which gives a HotU player some potential to enjoy it a bit.
* Thundering Rage--a little boost to critical damage starting at level 27, with a chance to Deafen opponents on a critical hit.
* 6 Charisma--what epic dwarven melee build would be without it?
* Excellent fortitude saves (28), excellent reflex saves vs. traps (29), and decent will saves vs. spells (21), especially while raging (31 fortitude and 24 will save vs. spells). Normal reflex save is only 17, and normal will save is only 15 (18 while raging), however.
Race: Dwarf Alignment: Any non-lawful
Starting Stats: Str 17, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 6 Ending Stats: Str 26, Dex 13, Con 22, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 6
Increase Strength at 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 40 Increase Constitution at 28, 32, 36
Skills: max Discipline, Intimidate every level (43 each at level 40; max Tumble, Spellcraft every odd level, until level 37 (20 each at level 37); at each level 38-40, put two points into skill(s) of choice as desired
Final Skills: Discipline 43, Intimidate 43, Listen* 6, Spellcraft 20, Tumble 20 (* my choice for the optional skill)
Feats: (* denotes feats that may be replaced with your preference, BF denotes epic barbarian bonus feat)
Every level a barbarian! 1. Dodge 3. Power Attack 6. Cleave 9. Great Cleave 12. Mobility 15. Blind-Fight* 18. Spring Attack* 21. Great Strength I 24. Great Strength II, BF: Terrifying Rage 27. Thundering Rage 28. BF: Armor Skin 30. Great Constitution I 32. BF: Epic Damage Reduction I 33. Epic Damage Reduction II 36. Toughness, BF: Epic Damage Reduction III 39. Epic Toughness I 40. BF: Epic Prowess
Again, this should be a fun build for casual PvM gaming. Feel free to leave any comments or critiques. Anyone complaining that this build sucks in PvP is kinda missing the point.
Edited By griphook on 05/04/05 20:28
In playing this build through SoU and now HotU, I realized there's a feat you may want to take at 15th level (perhaps moving Blind-Fight to 18th in lieu of Spring Attack, which is not really that vital to the build): Weapon Proficiency Exotic. At 15th level you will have seen the Dwarven Waraxes introduced with HotU in a shop at least.
I chose to go ahead and take Blind-Fight, but I may take WP Exotic at 18th in lieu of Spring Attack.
) so I don't know how viable this will be in PvP environments. In casual PvM gaming it should be a fun build.