The initial concept for this build came about a while ago when I wanted to make a non-devcrit Half-orc savage that stacked Thundering Rage and Overwhelming Crit. I scrapped the idea when I discovered that Thundering didn't stack with Overwhelming or anything with Massive Crit properties (yes, Barbs get majorly hosed in NWN1). I've rediscovered this guy in my vaults deep in the earth, dusted him off, and decided to base it off my old PnP NPCs that were called The Storm Knights, an elite corps of fighting Barbarians from a highlandic area known as The Storm Lands, and who maintained a kind of Arthurian-Romano discipline over the land and drove off the more primal factions that strove for dominance in the area. They were a heavily-armored cavalry-corps, who could take a lot of punishment, and whom each was a "Hero" in his own right, and who swore a loose fealty to the quasi-benevolent Horned Chieftains-- a roughshod type of Monarchy comprised of five Warlords... a sort of Pentarchy if you will.
While the stats look min/maxed, this is surprisingly a very balanced melee tank. Great saves, good skill set, Improved Evasion, DR 14/-, 600+ hit points, Terrifying Rage, UMD, Crippling Strike and all the necessary combat feats one needs, he's quite a beast. While he's not going to win "The Most Damage" Contests, he makes up for it in balance and staying power. He doesn't two-hand a weapon or offer WS/EWS, but he counters with a variety of other methods to damage an opponent.
Special Greater Rage (x5/day) +6 Str, +6 Con, +3 Will, -2 AC Terrifying Rage: DC 41 (+1d10) Crippling Strike Improved Evasion 110% Movement Epic Damage Reduction (12/-) ____________
Only 2 other builds with this combo: Dwarf o' the North /Barbarian 28/CoT 10/Rogue 2 by DarkStar, and The Brash Adventurer-Hero /Barbarian 21/Rogue 11/COT 8 by Xylophone
Xylo's Brash Aventurer is closest, but is more RP-friendly than it is Action-oriented, the Wrath Knight outperforms him in most combat statistics. Darkstar's is a Devcrit Dwarf with an XP penalty. _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
Edited By Kail Pendragon on 10/14/07 13:31
This is a great build. I was actually thinking of doing an updated version of my adventurer hero build with more of an eye towards statistical power, but you beat me to with this one. I'd probably use the exact same level split, in fact, since I designed my version around getting Mighty Rage (which is unfortunately a poor choice due to stacking rules).
The epic critical feat angle is interesting, and if it had worked would have made a neat build. That's too bad.
You should be fine on the damage front; especially in a heavy armor build it's hard to pass up the potential of 8 more AC for using a shield.
Probably the only thing I'd really want to see different is ESF Intimidate - when something fails its terrifying rage save, you get sneak attacks against it until it recovers.
Very maybe, I'd pick Slippery Mind instead of Improved Evasion, though you do get +3 to will saves when you rage. _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
Edited By Xylophone on 10/19/06 21:01
Quote: Posted 10/19/06 20:51 (GMT) -- Xylophone
This is a great build. I was actually thinking of doing an updated version of my adventurer hero build with more of an eye towards statistical power, but you beat me to with this one. I'd probably use the exact same level split, in fact, since I designed my version around getting Mighty Rage (which is unfortunately a poor choice due to stacking rules).
Heh. Same here. I had designed my original as a Barb24.Rogue6/CoT10,and around getting Thundering to stack with Overwhelming. It seemed like a neat way to get 5d6 extra damage. Unfortunately, Thundering Rage doesn't make any sense with anything else. It's as if the Dev's when out of their way to "balance" Barbarians because they were so "powerful", and yet turn a blind eye to Clerics, Sorcs, and Rdds. Oh, brother.
Quote: You should be fine on the damage front; especially in a heavy armor build it's hard to pass up the potential of 8 more AC for using a shield.
Spot on, Xy. 8 AC (referring to a +5 Tower) is infinitely better. In the long run, one ends up doing more damage because one doesn't have to spend rounds drinking Heals, Cures, etc., but just consistently puts out a decent amount of damage that gets through.
Quote: Probably the only thing I'd really want to see different is ESF Intimidate - when something fails its terrifying rage save, you get sneak attacks against it until it recovers.
How true, how true. Two years ago I would have said yes, get ESF Intimidate. Today, no. The DC is already as high as most Mage's 9th level spells, and that's without ESF or any Charisma/Skill Enhancements. The minimum is going to be 41, and if you're lucky 51, but I'd say on average at 40th level around 46-47. The way I figure it is, if someone or something is going to beat that DC, they're probably immune anyways or they roll their "20". No, my opinion is the Barbarian is better served spending that feat elsewhere, like ESF: Taunt or an Epic Save feat.
Quote: Very maybe, I'd pick Slippery Mind instead of Improved Evasion, though you do get +3 to will saves when you rage.
I used to like Slippery Mind. I used to go out of my way to get it. I think SM is an environment thing. Anymore, I never even consider it. I'll take an ESF: "Something," before Slippery Mind. In a way it's nice, and one needs a decent Will Save to make it worth while, which the Storm Knight does, but in many ways it's a waste if one can harness even 1st level PoA scrolls with UMD (or even Clarity Potions). Of course, this is of little use against non-good/evil baddies (like Slaadi or Neutral-esque Dragons), but I would think such things an exception rather than the rule.
Thanks for your comments, Xy. I must have looked at your build two dozen times before I posted, as I wanted to make sure that this was not just a rehash, but rather a new build. _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
My take on ESF intimidate is that it's not needed for fighting cannon fodder, but in the cases where it would make a difference it is often worth having. If immunities are rampant or there aren't any cases where it'd make a difference, then yeah, I'm on board for replacing it with something else.
On slippery mind... mind immunity is easy to get in most environments, but I consider mindspells to be more dangerous than damage spells (ie, most of the ones you'd defend against with your reflex save/improved evasion). Damage hurts, but healing is generally common, and it takes a lot of damage to knock a 600 hp barbarian out of a fight. Getting held, stunned, slept, etc - that knocks you out of the fight immediately and, if you aren't lucky, permanently (while held you are much easier to kill off afterall).
But those are personal preferences, for doing most singleplayer modules I'd probably skip both ESF intimidate and slippery mind/improved evasion in favor of something else, unless I was planning on disarming traps by setting them off (then I'd go with imp evasion). Mind immunity's easy to get with how ridiculously common magic treasure normally is, and the overuse of mind-immune enemy types in many single player mods (undead...) tends to devalue terrifying rage anyway.
God forbid that barbarians actually get a decent ability... let's make all the common enemies immune to it!
Overall though, this build just rocks, as you say, he's a very well-balanced tank who can dish it out, take it, scare the pants off his enemies, make fun of peoples' mothers, probably set and disarm traps, and use all kinds of magical gadgets. And all that without any buffing magic. What's not to love? _________________ Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
You're on a half-orc roll, I must say.
As to ESF: Intimidate, well, ... (you're probably right) I like your saves here, for a barbarian they're quite good; the fact you've also divine wrath as insurance - that's a nice touch (speaking of balance, I still don't know why it's not /x3 per day, or at least a selectable feat to make it so, like "extra wrathing" -- it's not like dev critters only get one shot, or that epic mages only have 1 spell to sling (so true, so true) ...
Looks good, GD - TR & sneak, nice twist, and it's very nice to see a half-orc presented like this - good job
Edited By TyrTemplar on 10/20/06 21:48
Another great build Grizz!! I haven't been around the forum in awhile, but glad to see it still going and you still making excellent builds!!!
I know it would totally change the build somewhat, but how would you go about using human rather than half orc. I mean what minimally would you have to change ,obviously attributes to start with.
Thanks!! _________________ A Man of War who treads the world's roads alone, as I do, must be quick. Long ago I learned to strike swiftly and without scruple. I trouble no man without cause, but one who attacks me had best resolve himself to die!
While I been away scouring lands for trolls and jotuns to protect my people from the oncoming winter, you go ahead and build a character that makes my latest obsolete and not worth a post. This build is really cool and would be a nice henchman by my side when the trolls are driven to attack because of winter-barren lands up north.
I'm back in full now and my axe sharper than ever. Good to see that your axe is too, Dwarflord. Another good build from you here, and one of the better ones in the long read I had today just to catch up. Barb/Rogues make for an interesting combo, and you cannot go wrong when including CoT to anything. Such is life.
Keep rocking, stocky one, 'till your beard gets caught. _________________ I see the fear you have inside, you can run but never hide. I will hunt you down and tear you limb from limb.
I run the Pre-Epic Builders guild. Join and share your experience.
Quote: Posted 10/22/06 09:00 (GMT) -- Grimnir77
While I been away scouring lands for trolls and jotuns to protect my people from the oncoming winter, you go ahead and build a character that makes my latest obsolete and not worth a post. This build is really cool and would be a nice henchman by my side when the trolls are driven to attack because of winter-barren lands up north.
I'm back in full now and my axe sharper than ever. Good to see that your axe is too, Dwarflord. Another good build from you here, and one of the better ones in the long read I had today just to catch up. Barb/Rogues make for an interesting combo, and you cannot go wrong when including CoT to anything. Such is life.
Keep rocking, stocky one, 'till your beard gets caught.
Err...
Nice build Griz. I'm going to play a Half-Orc through DoD and Mines of Twin Summit series _________________ "With Europe liberated, the people of the world turned their attention to that old devil, the United States of America [...] We taught that monster of old the true meaning of freedom." Star Wreck
Quote: Posted 10/22/06 09:00 (GMT) -- Grimnir77
While I been away scouring lands for trolls and jotuns to protect my people from the oncoming winter, you go ahead and build a character that makes my latest obsolete and not worth a post. This build is really cool and would be a nice henchman by my side when the trolls are driven to attack because of winter-barren lands up north.
I'm back in full now and my axe sharper than ever. Good to see that your axe is too, Dwarflord. Another good build from you here, and one of the better ones in the long read I had today just to catch up. Barb/Rogues make for an interesting combo, and you cannot go wrong when including CoT to anything. Such is life.
Keep rocking, stocky one, 'till your beard gets caught.
Why does that sound far more profound than I think it is? _________________ CATS!
Quote: Posted 10/22/06 10:54 (GMT) -- avarielo
Why does that sound far more profound than I think it is?
Whaaat?
The truth is I had to add more than a few words after all the threads I read to catch up with the guild. Went through over 30 build-threads today and this was the last one. 3 posts above you see the result. _________________ Dragonlance ROH is back, better than before! and I spend a little time here WoG
I like your saves here, for a barbarian they're quite good; the fact you've also divine wrath as insurance - that's a nice touch (speaking of balance, I still don't know why it's not /x3 per day, or at least a selectable feat to make it so, like "extra wrathing" -- it's not like dev critters only get one shot, or that epic mages only have 1 spell to sling (so true, so true) ...
