Playable 1-40, intended for PvM

DISCLAIMER: This is a build focused on one thing to the detriment of all others, ie. STR. If you don't like those type of builds, please read with that in mind. I really did it more for fun to see what would turn up. It actually turned out to be pretty playable.

INTRO
“Aye, boy, that’s a nice muscle ya got there,” the bard eyed the crowd of children as he gave the five-year old’s bicep a light squeeze and winked. Many had their hand over the mouths, so as not to hurt the boy’s feelings.

“But ya still have a long way to go to match the biggest muscles me seen in my wide berth of travels.” The bard gave the boy a nudge to have him sit down. “So, let me tell you the story of the biggest muscles I’ve ever seen.”

The bard stretched out his arms wide, then swung his left arm across his body. “So… there me was… somewhat lost at the edge of the great north, a country invested with orc savages the likes you’ve never seen before, having an ale… I mean…”-- he corrected himself after the cursory glance of one of the parents—“… a glass of nice cold water… when in comes this mountain of a half-orc.”

“Now this fella was at least seven feet tall,” the bard stood and stretched his left arm over his head as high as he could. “Or, at least, somewhere in there… for ‘e was much taller than this even with me arm stretched over my head. A foul order was worn into his clothes like the bloke had never seen a bath or a pool of water that could cover his massiveness. With his cloak wrapped tight over his ears, the mate sat at the bar and waited for the barkeep to approach. I slid me seat over just a bit, so as not to get too close, as he had a funny way of breathin’, short and quick, like ‘e was gonna blow up at any moment.”

The bard wiped his brow as moving around even the slightest bit made his fat body sweat profusely. “The barkeep, not wantin’ any trouble, mosies on ov’ and asks the savage what ‘e wants to drink. The half-orc slid his cloak over his shoulders and pulled back he’s hood to reveal the biggest arms me eyes has ever seen.” He pulled his arm in a circle across his pot belly. “These arms were not only wider than lil’ Jimmy here, but wider than most oak trees I’ve seen across Faerun herself.” Some of the kids began whispering to each other in amazement. “Why, if he clenched his arm around me head, it would pop off faster than a wench’s bodice… me means, ahhh… ahhh… well, you get my meanin’.”

Many kids shook their heads no, but the rotund storyteller continued. “Well, the orc growled something at the barkeep, and it must not ‘ave been too nice as the poor bloke ran as fast as he could to get the orc a drink. And though I didn’t hear what was said, you could tell this barbarian was in no mood for hassle nor question, so I went back to hidin’ in me mug. But then the strangest thing happened, somethin’ I’d never seen before nor since, why…”

“What, what was it?” yelled some children from the back.

“Alright, alright, I’m getting’ there soon enough,” the bard chided and took another draught off his ale. “As I was sayin’, the strangest thing happ’n’d. The door to the fine establishment came crashing down out of th’ blue, cold air and snow whipping everywhere as winter rushed in as if the ole man needed a drink heself. But…,” he paused waiting for the children to inch forward a bit. “But what was really strange was a damn grizzly bear, the meanest, biggest, nastiest bear you ever wanna meet, came strollin’ in. It seemed to look around for a bit, then spotted the orc beside me, and let out a huge roar. Why, you could smell that damn bear’s breath all over you,” he waved his hand in front of his face and made a sour expression to the kids’ laughter.

“This beast had obviously had some type of encounter with this shamblin’ mound of an orc beside me. For once he noticed that savage and let out his roar to announce his arrival, that bear got on its hind legs, claws ahead, ready for swipin’ a man’s face off he’s head, and started to move in that half-orc’s direction.” The man moved his arms in broad sweeping motions toward the children, many whom leaned back in fear. “But the blasted orc didn’ even move an inch. He just sipped his drink, while that killah bear moved in on him.”

“Needless to say, yours truly did what any right-thinkin’ man in that situation would,” he smiled, “And hid to the other side of that chair as the bear drew close. The orc took one last drink of his mug and drained it. His breath got shorter and more haggard. Then, right when that bear was getting ready to sling his head across the room like some kind of beat-up mug, the barbarian let out the scariest howl I’ve eve’ heard a man let out in all me days. Why, methinks even that dastardly old grizzly was taken aback for the beast hesitated for just a second.”

He eyed the children as he prepared for the finale. “But, that was all that orc needed. That right arm of his, veins popped out all over it like it was gonna burst, snatched ahold of that bear’s neck so fast the bear couldn’t even swipe. Then, to my astonishment, the damn savage lifted that bear off the ground while chokin’ him senseless. There, he held that grizzly, off the floor for a few seconds. Then he brought the grizzly down toward his face and snarled all mean and orcish in the bear’s face as the bear drew its last breath.”

“With a throw of his arm, the dead bear flew over some poor slob’s head and landed in front of the door. All of us were down-righted dumbfounded and stood there with our jaws on the floor, all slack and such. The orc then looked all of us over, half a snarl across his jaw, real slow like. Then, he turned to the barkeep and snarled such that you though he was looking at that gizzly again, ‘Gimme another ale, and this one be free or you and that grizzly over there will be makin’ love in the afterlife.’”


Advantages:
1) Believe this is the highest, non-disspellable STR possible in the game. You can get this base STR(44) with other builds, but not with a spell-like ability like Greater Rage.
2) Devastating Critical, DC 50 (at least, that’s what I had fighting Prismatic Dragon). If no dev criticals on your PW, switch to the Rage option, criticals will still pump out damage via Thundering Rage.
3) Naked AB of 50, 53 when using Greater Rage. One of the higher melee AB’s I’ve seen, particularly w/o WM levels. With Taunt (see below), your fully buffed AB approaches 89.
4) UMD. Can use many items and scrolls in game.
5) Can Taunt effectively adding 6 to already impressive AB, making naked AB of 59 w/ Greater Rage.
6) Huge HP.
7) If folks are running, blast them w/ Dragon Breath (DC19, 6d10 damage).
8) Dragon immunities (Fire, Paralysis, Sleep).
9) If you want, you can add Terrifying Rage but has low DC (26) as build does not have many skill points.

Disadvantages:
1) Can’t do much besides kill things and take damage.
2) Non-dev crit PW weakens this build, though it can still pump out damage.
3) Poor AC. Can take damage due to high HP, but need to kill quickly.
4) Very poor saves. Need save/attribute items as much as possible. Good news: you won’t need STR items as you’ll be fully max’d out in Rage. Use those belts for other things.

*** Builds searched to insure concept had not been done before or could be improved upon. Did not use builds and just adjust.

Other similar class builds:
Cinnabar Din’s Raging Skald Brb22/B8/RDD10
Syrath1001 (?) Brb19/B11/RDD10

Other similar idea builds:
Spooky222/SlimReaper F28/B2/RDD10
Can’t find anymore: Brb28/B2/RDD10, but not max STR build


Race: Half-Orc.

Alignment: Neutral, anything non-lawful works though.

Attributes:
STR 20
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 8
CHA 8
* All stat increase go to (yup, you guessed it) STR

Level Progression : Barbarian 1-20, Bard 1, RDD 1-10, Barbarian 21-28, Bard 2.

Final Level Distribution
Barbarian 28
Bard 2
Red Dragon Disciple 10

Feats:
L1) Weapon Focus: Greatsword*
L3) Power Attack
L6) Cleave
L9) Improved Critical: Greatsword
L12) Great Cleave
L15) Blind-Fight
L18) Improved Power Attack
L21) Epic Weapon Focus: Greatsword
L24) Great Strength I
L27) Great Strength II
L30) Great Strength III
L33) Great Strength IV
L35) Overwhelming Critical: Greatsword
L36) Great Strength V
L39) Great Strength VI & Devastating Critical: Greatsword

* I used a 2H weapon to get the 1.5x damage multiplier. Obviously, if you play this build, you may want to go Sword & Shield. In that case, I would recommend Scimitar. You could also exchange IPA for Weapon Proficiency (Exotic) and pick something like Scythe (x4 multiplier).

* If you want Dev Crit early, you can switch Barb 21-28 w/ Bard 1/RDD 1-10 as you have to use Barbarian Bonus feats for O Crit and Dev Crit.

For PWs w/ no Dev Crit:
L35) Thundering Rage
L39) Great Strength VI & Terrifying Rage

* Again, you can switch these as above to get the Rage feats early.

Final Attributes
STR 44 (20 + 10 + 6 + 8)
DEX 10
CON 16
INT 12
WIS 8
CHA 10

HP Max 520 (640 w/ Greater Rage, 880 w/ +12 CON item)

AB and Damage
BAB 30
Naked 50/45/40/35 2d6 + 25 (mundane Greatsword, 17-20/x2)
* Enraged IPA, 43/38/33/28 1d12 + 40.

Buffed (Greater Rage, + 10 item, + True Strike scroll)
83/78/73/68 1d12 + 40 (+10 Keen Greatsword, 15-20/x2)
+ Taunt, effectively 89/84/79/74

* Believe STR bonus tops out +20, hence no additional items required, etc.

AC (* Rage has -2 AC debuff that is not included below)
Naked 23 (mundane Leather)
Buffed 40 (+12 DEX, + Cat’s Grace, +5 Armor, Hasted)

Final Saves
Fortitude 28
Reflex 16
Will 16

Skills
Discipline (D) 43 (60)
Taunt (T) 43 (43)
Tumble (Tb) 36 (36)
UMD 25 (25)
Lore (L) 8 (8)

* In a Terrifying Rage build, Intimidate needs to be 25. My suggestion is to remove ranks from Taunt or Tumble.

* Suggested Rage build’s Skills: D42, I25, T30, Tb25, UMD25, L8.

Skill Progression
1) D4, T4, Save 8
2) D1, T1, Save 10
3) D1, T1, Save 12
4) D1, T1, Save 14
5) D1, T1, Save 16
6) D1, T1, Save 18
7) D1, T1, Save 20
8) D1, T1, Save 22
9) D1, T1, Save 24
10) D1, T1, Save 26
11) D1, T1, Save 28
12) D1, T1, Save 30
13) D1, T1, Save 32
14) D1, T1, Save 34
15) D1, T1, Save 36
16) D1, T1, Save 38
17) D1, T1, Save 40
18) D1, T1, Save 42
19) D1, T1, Save 44
20) D1, T1, Save 46
21) D1, L8, Tb 24, UMD16, T1
22) D1, Save 1
23) D1, Save 2
24) D1, Save 3
25) D1, Save 4
26) D1, Save 5
27) D1, Save 6
28) D1, Save 7
29) D1, Save 8
30) D1, Save 9
31) D1, Save 11
32) D1, T10
33) D1, T3
34) D1, T1, Save 3
35) D1, T1, Save 6
36) D1, T1, Save 9
37) D1, T1, Save 12
38) D1, T1, Save 15
39) D1, T1, Save 18
40) D1, T1, Tb12, UMD9

C&C welcome. I've redone this a couple of times, so some skill points might be off. I believe I copied from correct file.

Edited By Kail Pendragon on 10/18/09 20:04

Nice tale. Reminds me of that scene in Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky where the 2 strong men had a contest to see who could rip their shirts the most by flexing their muscles.

I don't you think any of us need to point out the build's inherant weaknesses, though I might suggest the following: with such a high AB, Taunt becomes almost superfluous, but Tumble and Spellcraft do not. I would make Tumble 40 (you have 36), and sink the rest into Spellcraft to fortify his saves.
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Quote: Posted 07/29/05 14:49:59 (GMT) -- grizzled_dwarflord

Nice tale. Reminds me of that scene in Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky where the 2 strong men had a contest to see who could rip their shirts the most by flexing their muscles.

I don't you think any of us need to point out the build's inherant weaknesses, though I might suggest the following: with such a high AB, Taunt becomes almost superfluous, but Tumble and Spellcraft do not. I would make Tumble 40 (you have 36), and sink the rest into Spellcraft to fortify his saves.

I'll have to try and find that book. There are a lot of good translations of modern Asian writers and Asian-American writers today. I try to read all of them as much as I can.

You're absolutely right about Spellcraft and Taunt. I have Taunt to get to the highest AB possible. As it is, I thought it was pretty neat to come close or match the highest AB for the classic AA build. I just pushed this build to maximize in one direction as much as possible. HPs will last a long time in normal PvM.

This was very apparent in battling the Prismatic Dragon in the Epic to Novice Mod. It was a race between how often he could hit me versus when I would score a hit and Dev Crit him. With appropriate items and more specifically scrolls (Premonition & True Strike), I was alright and eventually nailed him. Otherwise, my luck ran out quick.

You can salt it to taste as it has a good number of skillpoints and uses Bard which gives the broadest skill options, but defensively it's just plain weak. Every defensive option has gone to offense. In that sense, it's like a lot of Brb builds, but doesn't have the more defensive class added in to help.
Quote: Posted 07/29/05 15:28:28 (GMT) -- jjellison

Quote: Posted 07/29/05 14:49:59 (GMT) -- grizzled_dwarflord

Nice tale. Reminds me of that scene in Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky where the 2 strong men had a contest to see who could rip their shirts the most by flexing their muscles.

I'll have to try and find that book. There are a lot of good translations of modern Asian writers and Asian-American writers today. I try to read all of them as much as I can.

It's an anime movie actually. Miyazaki is the guy who did Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away.

It's a nice bruiser build...the only really comments I'd have Grizzled already brought up. But should work well to just pound the crap out of baddies. I like the way it can actually pound through Epic Warding on occasion with a mundane weapon without a crit.

Steve

Edited By Stravinsky00 on 07/29/05 17:18

Shows you how behind the times I am . I guess this old geezer needs to learn some new tricks.
Quote: Posted 07/29/05 17:13:59 (GMT) -- jjellison

Shows you how behind the times I am . I guess this old geezer needs to learn some new tricks.

Heh, you should check it out. Miyazaki is a true master.

Steve I was working on a build a lot like that, to bad you beat me to to it

For use in future posts though:

If you want to write 8) instead of , write 8[i][/i]) in the source.

EDIT: Added bolding (which was a bit tricky)

Edited By pulse cap on 08/01/05 00:39

Quote: Posted 08/01/05 00:32:27 (GMT) -- pulse cap

I was working on a build a lot like that, to bad you beat me to to it

For use in future posts though:

If you want to write 8) instead of , write 8[i][/i]) in the source.

EDIT: Added bolding (which was a bit tricky)

Nice trick pulse cap!

Or, of course, when posting your message, you could check the box that reads "Disable display of smiley graphics on this Post".

But your trick will permit you to use smileys, while still being able to type 8).

Nice!
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Quote: Posted 08/01/05 00:32:27 (GMT) -- pulse cap

I was working on a build a lot like that, to bad you beat me to to it

For use in future posts though:

If you want to write 8) instead of , write 8[i][/i]) in the source.

EDIT: Added bolding (which was a bit tricky)

Thanks, Pulse. That will be a nice change, though you've got a lot of coding buried in.

In terms of the build... I actually checked through all the builds twice to make sure there wasn't anything like this out there. I was surprised to see no one had done this. But, given the prevalence of +12 STR items on a lot of PWs, etc., you really don't have to push a build this much toward STR/offense and sacrifice defense.

In testing, the offense is strong enough that most enemies are dead very, very quickly and you take hardly any damage. The Spellcraft change that Griz mentioned is probably the most important adjustment in terms of defense from that perspective. Question Could You Be a Dwarf instead?
Quote: Posted 06/09/07 08:10 (GMT) -- DavidMcCall

Question Could You Be a Dwarf instead?

Yes but that means XP Penalty.
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