Awesome tank (contains soilers)!

lompo · Post by **lompo** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 4:14 am

Awesome tank (contains spoilers)!

Some consideration regarding a class often overlooked between the fighter classes: the barbarian.
With the right path and equipement he can become the hardest tank between the fighting classes (and one of the more effective of all the classes).
I'm using in the analisys SoA/ToB with very minor mods: Dave Gaider Baalspawn powers, revised hell trials (optional if wanted a neutral char.), while item upgrades can add some icing but don't change the story.
So let's start the analisys:
Half-orc barbarian evil aligned, with 19/18/19 in S/D/C and the rest as you like (keep Int. over 10 for fighting mindflayers).
Proficiency flails/axes/2WF and then what you like, but those will be you main and final weapons.
Equipment in SoA: FoA/DoE, Human skin (Aeger/Shadow drag. if neutral), and usual staff (Gaax, inertial barrier etc.).
In hell choose evil for Wrath/Greed /Fear and good for the rest (if you have the revised trials mods you'll remain neutral).

At beginning of ToB you should be over lev. 20 with the following stats:
Str. 22/Con. 21, around 240 hp, 75% magic res. (self. tear, Gaax, Seldarine, Human skin and cloack of Balduran), over 40% damage res. (natural/DoE/belt inertial barrier), 95% res. to fire/elect. + 45% to cold (pride tear, boots avoidance, ring fire control, Dragon helm), immune to poison, 50% res. to mafgic dmg.

As you progress in ToB over the natural progress in hp and dmg res. you can get two more point in Str., 5% res. to magic and fire, extra 10 hp and after the 4th Baalspawn power (evil answer) 25% dmg res.!!!
At this point your stats are: Str. 24, Con. 22 (23 with AoU), around 280 hp!, almost 80% dmg res, 80% magic res., elemental resistant ( 100% fire, 95% elec., 45% cold), immune to poison, 50% res. to magical dmg and regenerating at a high rate.
if you add on Hardiness you will become immune to phisical dmg, and with Regeneration spell that you can get as 2nd Baalspawn power (evil answer) you will regenerating like crazy plus you have the barbarian rage (doesn't protect from imprisonement, but raise Str./Con by 4 and you don't get fatigued).

With item upgrade you can get ring of elemental mastery (gives 50% elec. res extra) freeing you a slot for Boots of blizzard (50% cold res+haste).
In the end you are almost invulnerable to everything (only vulnerable to acid, although very few enemies use acid attack) and the eventual small dmg you take is covered by regeneration (from items/spells) plus you hav eso many hp that you can resist almost indefinetly, plus you can also deal a lot of dmg.

All in all a very interesting built.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 10:25 am

I used to play barbarians before, they really are the best fighter, IMO, even in comparison to Kensai. Never liked kensai much, I like armors and the other fighters just seem useless to me from tob to the end.

Barbarians are awesome, and with the potion swap cheese they are indestructible for real. I avoid using cheats like this one, but when first I soloed him, the Rune was defeated with cheese.

I stopped playing fighter after my attention was moved to bards, and now I'm trying to play a cleric solo. Hard to make it, though.

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 3:09 pm

My first char was a half-orc barbarian. Oh, sweet memories of Killercoot plowing through bunches of mindflayers...

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed Mar 17, 2004 3:21 pm

LMAO! I have seen many corrupt influences at GB, but this is the first time I have actually seen somebody openly name their thread a "soiler"

sorry for the spam, but I just couldn't refrain

@Lompo, no offense intended btw, the humorous typo just caught my attention

I do this stuff a lot myself at work, fortunately I double check everything manually prior to handing it in to my boss

lompo · Post by **lompo** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 2:10 am

No offense, btw unfortunatly you can correct your thread but not the title!

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 3:21 am

Dragon Wench, Lompo made that typo on purpose. Barbarians don't score very high on the intelligence charts, after all... so Lompo was just role-playing.
Besides, this thread is about barbarians, not typo's. Don't soil it by spamming

.

Back on topic: I think it was Mini Me that was very happy with his halfling barbarian a while back and I'm thinking about playing through the game one more time with a gnome barb. My party would include Jan, Mazzy and Aerie (she's fond of gnomes after all...).

Mirk · Post by **Mirk** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 7:36 am

Aery, Mazzy, Jan, Halfling Barb, (Korgan), maybe another low *altitude* char... Does this remind you of a certain farytale?..

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 8:44 am

Argh! You... you got me, pardner!

Well, I could've chosen Viconia instead of Aerie but that wouldn't be the same... Snowy Blue...

I don't think I've ever heard about someone playing a barbarian with an elf or a half-elf. Why is that? A barbarian elf wouldn't be a bad idea: +1 in long swords, 19 dex (to compensate for not being able to wear better than chain mail).

Mirk · Post by **Mirk** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 9:24 am

actually, i had an exellent expierience with an elf barbarian... i called him Barbie, since he was suposed to be a test char, but he ended up almost finishing SoA...

and the elf fighrt avatar in chainmail is SO better-looking than the human

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 10:09 am

I played in this order:

Half orc barbarian - dont like the avatar, and you dont need strength at all in SoA.

Halfling barbarian - cool to use shield, everard sling.

Half elf barbarian - good, but could be better, cause has no advantage at all.

Elven - good for using the long swords in the game, nice avatar.

Human - IMO the best. No advantage, but no disvantages and nice looking avatar.

Sytze · Post by **Sytze** » Sat Mar 20, 2004 4:20 am

Correct me if I am wrong, but Elves and Half-Elves have the same avatar, right??

I would check it myself, but I dont have the game installed right now....thus the question here.

Mirk · Post by **Mirk** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 2:17 am

yes, they do

lompo · Post by **lompo** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 2:37 am

Originally posted by Luis Antonio
I played in this order:

Half orc barbarian - dont like the avatar, and you dont need strength at all in SoA.

Well the avatar can be liked or not (but you can changed it), but I don't agree with your statement, 19 str. is a great bonus in SoA and in Tob can be boosted to terrific lev. without the use of items (which you can give to other party members).
An half-orc is a lot better then human because he gets 19 in both str. and con. and has no disadvantage: you can't dual a barb. so what advantage has a human compared to "any" other race?

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 10:05 am

In ToB, you can also boost his con from 19 to 20. IIRC, that means that your half-orc will be self-regenerating.

lompo · Post by **lompo** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 3:08 am

Originally posted by Coot
In ToB, you can also boost his con from 19 to 20. IIRC, that means that your half-orc will be self-regenerating.

With the right choice in hell he can have 21 con. at the end of SoA (this will grant you also some extra hp), so in ToB he can reach 22 with AoU and 23 with the extra point (that will increase your nat. reg. rate).