barbarian noob

[PeteThePanda]

Looking to start my second playthrough this time a co-op one! Half-orc barbarian is what im looking to roll but im kinda "confused" by armor or no armor. Any other tips for a first time barb would be appreciated!

[Tax evasion]

Wearing armor impedes your rage. So, usually, you're running no armor.
EDIT : as said below, it's actually only heavy armor. You only lose your CON bonus to AC if wearing light to medium armor
To counter that, you get resistance to physical damage while rageing / frenzy-ing.

[Lord Farquad]

a half-orc barbarian? real gamers play a gnome or halfling barbarian

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by Tax evasion:

Wearing armor impedes your rage. So, usually, you're running no armor.
To counter that, you get resistance to physical damage while rageing / frenzy-ing.

Only Heavy Armor impedes Rage. Medium is fine, but you lose out on Unarmored Defense; basically you can wear Medium or Light Armor (including boots/gloves/helm) or no armor (robes or monk/barb clothing) and get your CON bonus to AC. Early game, the latter is definitely better but you can start getting good Medium/Light armor pieces towards the tail end of Act 1 that can be worth it.

[Sonic Titan]

If you can roar, do that.

[PeteThePanda]

Originally posted by Lord Cumquad:

a half-orc barbarian? real gamers play a gnome or halfling barbarian

what would you know, you gingerbread torturing bastard!

[AokiYakumo]

Originally posted by PeteThePanda:

Looking to start my second playthrough this time a co-op one! Half-orc barbarian is what im looking to roll but im kinda "confused" by armor or no armor. Any other tips for a first time barb would be appreciated!

Biggest thing is BRB's Unarmored Defense being blocked if you wear armor, but most Medium armor will give a base AC of 13+ which is what you'd get from CON 16 anyways, and you can still use a shield if you want. This makes Unarmored Defense a tiny bit redundant impo; for me I just put Karlach in Scale Mail or some other AC 14+ medium armor and profit, since I generally don't boost her CON past 16 and DEX isn't a BRB strong-suit.

Where the Unarmored Defense could be useful is if you did a DEX-based BRB who wore the Amulet of Health in Act III, allowing you to get base AC 21 before other item buffs. That's high enough that - with Walking Fortress and both Protection pieces (Ring & Cloak), you'd sit at AC 26.

-----

Truth is, however, AC isn't the BRB's schtick. I mean, their 2nd level ability gives enemies advantage on attacks against the BRB in exchange for the BRB getting advantage on their own attacks, and Rage gives phys. resist to the class with the d12 hit die, so even CON 14 nets you a base Max HP of 65 before buffs.

They're the beat-stick. Their whole plan is kill 'em ded while they hack away fruitlessly at your Olympian Body Armor. Give them whatever body pieces (of a non-Heavy variety) that help them do their job of HP-tanking or deleting b*tches.

For HP-Tanking, you want status resists, save bonuses, or damage reduction. Best armor for that is Adamantine Scale which is in Act I and Helldusk Helm in Act II (for the +2 to all saves).

For Damage amps, two-handed weapons for GWM, throw boosts for TB-Throwers, weapons with bonus damage dice, and other attack or damage roll buffs you can get on armor will be your best friend. A TB-Thrower Karlach with Returning Pike in Act I can net you 1d10+1d6+3d4+11 per throw, with 2-3 throws per turn, averaging 27.5 damage per hit and 55-83 damage per round with an effective accuracy in the upper 80%'s, and it goes up HARD in later acts, upwards of like 170 damage per round with a juiced up Mama K getting gigabuffed by Minthara.

-----

BRB benefits most from staying in the front-lines where the enemy is, so the enemy can't get to (or has more difficulty getting to) your squishies in the back. They pick the biggest motherf*cker and beats them to death with another motherf*cker, Quan-Chi Style. Pair them with a CLC who can give Bless amps, a ROG who can take advantage of the BRB's presence, a WIZ or WLK who can play lockdown to give the BRB a thunderdome to play in, or a BRD who can play off the BRB's chaos.

[Lord Farquad]

Originally posted by PeteThePanda:

Originally posted by Lord Cumquad:

a half-orc barbarian? real gamers play a gnome or halfling barbarian

what would you know, you gingerbread torturing bastard!

halfling barbarian = funne

[seeker1]

If you're into modding, I have some recommendations.

Wildheart really stinks without the Nexus mod that lets you choose which animal aspect you should use situationally (have them all available instead of constantly switching them out as you level up) ... which is really how it should work. Even still, it's underwhelming, but at least. There's also a mod that lets you start rage before combat, though it will still end abruptly if you wait more than a turn to hit something.

The Storm Herald subclass mod is really nice, it actually makes a lot of sense for Karlach to charge into battle with a storming aura of fire.

[guard65]

Barbarian is pretty easy to play.

Me hit. Me get hit. Me mad, enraged. Me hit more. Grrrr.

[TaKo]

wear the best medium armor you can find, its gonna be the best for you most of the time(there's a few pieces of clothing clearly meant to be used with barbarians/barbarian multiclasses but purely AC-wise, medium armor will be the best for you)

unarmoured defense is a bit of a trap

it *sounds* good but realistically you're only gonna have 14, MAYBE 16 CON depending on what you're doing for most of the game

with unarmored defense thats +2 to +3 being added to your base 10 AC + your Dex modifier

a basic suit of non-enchanted half-plate is 15AC adding up to +2(14) from your dex modifier to that... and to add insult to injury the game has a few sets of medium armor with no dex limit so even if doing for a dex barbarian you're still better off using those sets of medium armor instead of cloth

but with all that said, as aoki described, barbarians dont really need to be min-maxing AC, they get phys. dmg resistance from raging(or resistence to all but 1 dmg type if bear raging) and realistically you are going to be triggering reckless attacks a lot, specialy if using GWM, so you will be getting hit

minimizing the amount of getting hit is fine, but if you wanna use mighty cloth or smth like that, thats fine too

[Cutlass Jack]

Originally posted by guard65:

Barbarian is pretty easy to play.

Me hit. Me get hit. Me mad, enraged. Me hit more. Grrrr.

There are advanced tactics with Barbarian:
Pick up thing that makes you mad and hit other thing with it. Repeat.

Once you go Throwing/Improv Weapon Berskerer, you never want to go back.

[zero]

in terms of unarmored defense: its used until you find armor that suits you in terms of status effects or defensive stats on top of AC

there are bracers that give +2 ac when not wearing armor, which is nice, but you lose out on a lot of effects that armor barbs can naturally wear can provide, but up to you.

in terms of gameplay, not complicated at all, you hit hard and have a lot of defensive stuff under the various specs barb get, so it does amount to "stand and hit while keeping everything on you, if possible"

[buttawise]

Getting Mage Slayer with the Sussur Bark great sword is OP on a Barb. Jump onto the back line next to any caster. they cast. you hit. You win. usually. Also Frenzy gives you Alert for free. I love barbs.

[seandeven]

I've run Karlach as a Barbarian Eagle-Stallion /Open-hand Monk ......throwbarian, she slaped hard.
A half Orc barbarian sounds fun to play.

The monk would also get that movement bonuses, dash and jump bonuses you become M.A.D. but aren't you already mad as a barbarian....
---
*edit
Typical is people put two or three levels of Rouge with a barbarian build. I like monk tho they are fun.

[Gaius]

For a lot of the game, medium armor is the obvious choice - up to +2 bonus from DEX and can rage.

Late game some no-armor clothes give cool bonuses, but overall, AGI 14, STR to the max and CON 16 is a really good combo.

Also, barb is interesting because they have unique speech options to balance the fact it's not a CHA class.