The barbarian in Pathfinder is a primal force,embodyinguntamed rage and raw power. Unlike fighters who rely on finesse,barbarians unleash their fury in combat. They trade tactical precision for devastating blows. The barbarian is a mobile,versatile martial class. Some barbarians learn to take whatever comes their way.
Key Abilities and Roles
The Barbarian in Pathfinder excels as both a Defender and a Striker, a formidable combination that makes them a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Their key ability, Rage, is what truly defines their role and capabilities. When a barbarian enters a rage, they tap into a wellspring of primal fury, significantly enhancing their physical prowess and resilience. This surge of power translates to increased Strength, allowing them to deliver devastating blows that can shatter defenses and obliterate enemies. The temporary hit points gained during rage provide a crucial buffer against incoming damage, enabling them to withstand attacks that would cripple other classes. Furthermore, the damage reduction (DR) they gain further bolsters their survivability, making them incredibly difficult to take down.
Beyond their raw power and resilience, barbarians also possess impressive mobility. Their Fast Movement ability allows them to traverse the battlefield with ease, closing the distance to engage enemies or repositioning themselves to protect allies. This mobility, combined with their martial proficiency, makes them highly effective at controlling the flow of combat.
While the barbarian’s primary role is often that of a melee striker, dealing massive damage to priority targets, their defensive capabilities also make them well-suited to tanking and drawing enemy attention. Their high hit points and DR allow them to absorb significant amounts of damage, protecting more vulnerable party members from harm.
However, it’s important to acknowledge that the barbarian’s rage comes with a cost. While raging, they are often less perceptive and strategic, relying more on instinct and brute force. This can make them vulnerable to certain tactics and maneuvers. Moreover, the temporary stat changes associated with rage can introduce a degree of complexity to character management.
Despite these drawbacks, the barbarian remains a powerful and versatile class, capable of fulfilling a variety of roles within a party. Their ability to dish out massive damage, withstand heavy punishment, and control the battlefield makes them an invaluable asset in any adventuring group. Whether you’re looking to crush your enemies with overwhelming force or stand as an unyielding bulwark against the tide of battle, the barbarian offers a rewarding and visceral play experience.
Races and Skills for Barbarians
When crafting a Pathfinder Barbarian, race selection significantly influences your character’s strengths and weaknesses, shaping their overall effectiveness in combat and beyond. Certain races possess inherent traits that synergize exceptionally well with the Barbarian’s core abilities, enhancing their rage-fueled prowess and survivability.
For example, Half-Orcs stand out as a particularly strong choice due to their natural affinity for aggression and resilience. Their +2 Strength bonus directly boosts the Barbarian’s damage output, while their Darkvision grants them a tactical advantage in dimly lit environments. The “Mindlessly Cruel” trait further amplifies their damage potential during rage, making them even more devastating in combat.
Similarly, Dwarves offer a sturdy and resilient option for aspiring Barbarians. Their +2 Constitution bonus enhances their hit points and survivability, allowing them to withstand greater punishment on the battlefield. Their Stonecunning ability provides valuable insights into stonework and underground environments, while their defensive racial traits make them exceptionally resistant to certain types of attacks.
Humans, with their versatile nature and bonus feat, also present a viable option for Barbarians. The extra feat allows them to customize their character build to a greater extent, selecting feats that complement their chosen combat style and enhance their overall effectiveness.
Beyond race, skill selection plays a crucial role in shaping the Barbarian’s capabilities outside of combat. While their primary focus is on martial prowess, investing in certain skills can significantly enhance their versatility and contribute to the party’s overall success.
Intimidate is a particularly valuable skill for Barbarians, allowing them to demoralize enemies and gain a tactical advantage in combat. A well-placed Intimidate check can weaken enemy resolve, making them more vulnerable to attacks and potentially even causing them to flee.
Perception is another essential skill for Barbarians, enabling them to detect hidden threats and avoid ambushes. A high Perception score can be the difference between a successful ambush and a devastating surprise attack.
Survival is a useful skill for navigating the wilderness and tracking enemies. Barbarians often find themselves in harsh environments, and the ability to forage for food, build shelters, and track prey can be invaluable for survival.
While the Barbarian’s skill points are limited, careful selection and investment in key skills can significantly enhance their overall effectiveness and contribute to their role as a versatile and capable adventurer.
Rage Powers Overview
Rage Powers are the defining feature that sets the Pathfinder Barbarian apart, granting them a diverse array of abilities that augment their combat prowess and provide unique tactical options. These powers are fueled by the Barbarian’s rage, a state of heightened aggression and primal fury that enhances their strength, resilience, and overall combat effectiveness.
Choosing the right Rage Powers is crucial for optimizing your Barbarian’s build and tailoring them to your preferred playstyle. With a vast selection of powers to choose from, it’s essential to carefully consider their effects and how they synergize with your character’s other abilities and feats.
Some Rage Powers focus on enhancing the Barbarian’s offensive capabilities, increasing their damage output, accuracy, or critical hit potential. For example, the “Lesser Beast Totem” line of powers grants natural weapons and other beastly enhancements, allowing the Barbarian to tear through enemies with claws, teeth, and savage ferocity.
Other Rage Powers prioritize defense, bolstering the Barbarian’s survivability and resistance to harm. The “Superstition” power grants a bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities, making the Barbarian more resistant to magical attacks. The “Increased Damage Reduction” power further enhances their ability to shrug off physical blows, making them incredibly difficult to take down.
Still other Rage Powers provide utility and tactical advantages, allowing the Barbarian to control the battlefield and manipulate their enemies. The “Intimidating Glare” power allows the Barbarian to demoralize opponents with a fearsome gaze, while the “Knockback” power allows them to send enemies flying with a powerful blow.
Some notable Rage Powers include:
- Animal Fury: Grants a bite attack, adding additional damage and versatility to the Barbarian’s offensive arsenal.
- Reckless Abandon: Increases attack damage at the cost of AC, a high-risk, high-reward option for maximizing damage output.
- Renewed Vigor: Provides healing during rage, enhancing survivability and allowing the Barbarian to sustain themselves in prolonged combat.
- Strength Surge: Grants a temporary bonus to Strength, further amplifying the Barbarian’s damage output and physical capabilities.
When selecting Rage Powers, consider your Barbarian’s role in the party, your preferred combat style, and the types of enemies you’re likely to face. Experiment with different combinations of powers to find the ones that best suit your character and allow you to unleash their full potential on the battlefield.
The optimal selection of Rage Powers can transform a Barbarian from a simple damage dealer into a versatile and formidable force capable of dominating any encounter.
Feats and Traits for Optimization
Optimizing a Pathfinder Barbarian involves carefully selecting feats and traits that synergize with their rage powers, combat style, and overall role within the party. Feats provide powerful abilities and enhancements, while traits offer minor but useful bonuses that can further refine your character’s strengths.
When choosing feats, consider your Barbarian’s primary focus: damage output, survivability, or battlefield control. Several feats are particularly valuable for enhancing the Barbarian’s damage potential. “Power Attack” is a classic choice, allowing you to trade accuracy for increased damage. “Improved Critical” expands your critical hit range, increasing the likelihood of dealing devastating blows. “Weapon Focus” and “Greater Weapon Focus” provide bonuses to attack rolls, improving your accuracy and consistency in combat.
For enhancing survivability, consider feats like “Toughness,” which grants additional hit points, or “Diehard,” which allows you to continue fighting even when reduced to negative hit points. “Iron Will” and “Great Fortitude” improve your saving throws against mental and physical threats, respectively. “Armor Focus” can be beneficial for barbarians who favor wearing armor, providing a bonus to their armor class.
If you prefer a more tactical approach, feats like “Intimidating Prowess” can enhance your ability to demoralize enemies, while “Step Up” and “Following Step” allow you to maintain melee engagement and control enemy movement. “Cleave” and “Great Cleave” are useful for mowing down multiple weaker opponents.
Traits, while less impactful than feats, can still provide valuable bonuses. “Reactionary” grants a bonus to initiative, allowing you to act sooner in combat. “Indomitable Faith” improves your Will saving throws. “Mindlessly Cruel” (Half-Orc) is a great damage-boosting trait.
Some specific feats and traits to consider include:
- Extra Rage: Grants additional rounds of rage per day, allowing you to maintain your enhanced combat state for longer periods.
- Raging Vitality: Provides a bonus to Constitution checks while raging, further enhancing your survivability and resistance to fatigue.
- Superstition: Grants a bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities, making you more resistant to magical attacks.
- Fast Healer: Increases the rate at which you heal naturally, allowing you to recover from injuries more quickly.
When selecting feats and traits, prioritize those that complement your Barbarian’s chosen rage powers and combat style. Consider how each choice will impact your character’s overall effectiveness in different combat scenarios. By carefully optimizing your feat and trait selection, you can create a Barbarian who is a truly formidable force on the battlefield. Experiment with different combinations to find what works best for your character and playstyle.
Barbarian Archetypes and Multiclassing
Pathfinder offers a variety of Barbarian archetypes that allow you to customize your character and explore different facets of the class. Archetypes modify or replace some of the Barbarian’s standard class features, providing a unique playstyle and thematic focus. Additionally, multiclassing, the practice of taking levels in multiple classes, can offer further customization and synergy, but requires careful planning to avoid diluting your Barbarian’s core strengths.
Several popular Barbarian archetypes include:
- Invulnerable Rager: This archetype focuses on enhancing the Barbarian’s resilience and damage reduction. The Invulnerable Rager gains increased damage reduction while raging, making them incredibly difficult to kill. They sacrifice some offensive capabilities for increased survivability.
- Mounted Fury: Specializing in mounted combat, this archetype excels at charging into battle atop a fearsome steed. They gain bonuses to mounted attack rolls and damage, and their rage powers often enhance their mount’s abilities. This is a great option for players who enjoy mobility and tactical positioning.
- Urban Barbarian: Trades the traditional Barbarian’s connection to nature for a focus on navigating the complexities of urban environments. They gain skills like Diplomacy and Sense Motive, and their rage powers often focus on social manipulation or intimidation.
- Armored Hulk: Gains the ability to wear heavier armor without suffering penalties to their rage. This archetype sacrifices some of the Barbarian’s mobility for increased armor class, making them a more durable front-line fighter.
When considering multiclassing, it’s crucial to choose classes that complement the Barbarian’s strengths and address their weaknesses. Some popular multiclass options include:
- Fighter: Dipping into Fighter can provide bonus feats and weapon proficiencies, enhancing your combat prowess.
- Rogue: A few levels in Rogue can grant valuable skills like Stealth and Disable Device, and the Sneak Attack ability can add extra damage in certain situations.
- Ranger: Ranger can offer additional combat styles and animal companion options, particularly if you’re interested in a more nature-themed Barbarian.
- Bloodrager: Similar to the Barbarian, but with access to bloodline powers and spells. Multiclassing into Bloodrager can provide additional offensive options and enhance your rage abilities. (Note: Primalist Bloodrager has mechanically stronger options)
However, it’s important to be aware of the potential drawbacks of multiclassing. Taking levels in other classes can delay your access to higher-level Barbarian rage powers and class features. It’s essential to carefully weigh the benefits of multiclassing against the potential loss of Barbarian-specific abilities. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your character concept and desired playstyle. Consider your goals for the character and choose archetypes and multiclass options that support those goals.
Mounted Barbarian Build
The Mounted Barbarian is a potent build in Pathfinder, combining the Barbarian’s raw power with the mobility and tactical advantages of mounted combat. This build excels at charging into battle, delivering devastating blows from horseback, and controlling the battlefield with speed and agility. To create an effective Mounted Barbarian, careful consideration must be given to race, feats, rage powers, and equipment.
Race Selection: Several races are well-suited for the Mounted Barbarian build.
- Human: The versatility of humans, with their bonus feat and skill point, makes them a solid choice.
- Half-Orc: Their strength bonus and ferocity racial trait synergize well with the Barbarian’s rage abilities.
- Gnomes: Small size allows riding smaller creatures like ponies and wolves, opening up unique role-playing opportunities and access to different mounts in various environments.
Key Feats: Feats are crucial for optimizing the Mounted Barbarian’s combat effectiveness.
- Mounted Combat: This feat is essential, allowing you to attempt a Ride check to negate attacks against your mount.
- Ride-By Attack: Enables you to move before and after making an attack while mounted, increasing your mobility and survivability.
- Spirited Charge: Triples the damage dealt with a charge attack while mounted, significantly boosting your damage output.
- Trample: Allows your mount to move through enemies, dealing damage and potentially knocking them prone.
Rage Powers: Rage powers further enhance the Mounted Barbarian’s combat capabilities.
- Mount Mastery: Improves your mount’s speed, armor class, and hit points, making it a more resilient combatant.
- Ferocious Charger: Increases the damage dealt during a charge attack while raging.
- Reckless Abandon: Grants a bonus to attack rolls but imposes a penalty to AC, increasing your offensive potential at the cost of defense.
Equipment: Equipping your character and mount with appropriate gear is essential.
- Lance: A powerful reach weapon that deals double damage when charging while mounted.
- Masterwork Studded Leather Armor: Provides decent protection without hindering your mount’s movement.
- Barding: Armor for your mount, increasing its survivability in combat.
- Saddle: A military saddle is recommended for combat, providing stability and control.
By carefully selecting your race, feats, rage powers, and equipment, you can create a formidable Mounted Barbarian who dominates the battlefield with speed, power, and tactical prowess; Remember to choose a mount that complements your character’s size and abilities, and practice your riding skills to maximize your effectiveness in combat.