[3.5]I keep coming to these boards for optimization help, care to help again?

[slaydemons]

So, my last game my character left the group, It was my fault I was pretty angry, but I would like to come in with a new character my last one was a rogue-y gish type, this time I want to be a lot more straight forward. I want to use a two handed weapon and just slam through everything. My main goal is to grab every ones attention and wreck shop with their faces. I would like to use the race half-orc if possible. Thanks in advanced

[Red Fel]

First questions, as always: Game, setting, sources? Are we looking at PF, 3.5, 3.0, 3.P? Cores only (and please define "core," it varies), settings, Completes? Levels, alignments, restrictions, lactose tolerance?

[slaydemons]

First questions, as always: Game, setting, sources? Are we looking at PF, 3.5, 3.0, 3.P? Cores only (and please define "core," it varies), settings, Completes? Levels, alignments, restrictions, lactose tolerance?

Right sorry I forgot those, Every time too.
3.5 with some backports occasionally from pathfinder. restrictions are dragon mag requires approval, other then that I am good. Homebrew setting but anybook can be used. I will be only at level 4 but you can build full 20 builds so I don't mess up later, no alignments I am tolerant to lactose.

[Red Fel]

Sounds good. Let's do this. You want a Half-Orc with a big sword? Let's go big, and go Barb.

First off, you have to make a choice: To Whirling Frenzy, or not to Whirling Frenzy? (That is, in fact, the question.) The advantage is simple - hit things more. It's particularly useful for this build, which will suffer somewhat on the AC front. But on the other hand, it's not proper Rage, and therefore may disqualify you from things that require Rage. So consider that.

Second, you want the Spirit Lion Totem from Complete Champion. Trade your Fast Movement for Pounce, which is awesome. And it becomes even more awesome for Half-Orcs. Why? Racial substitution levels!

Half-Orc Barbarians get three racial substitution levels. Let's look briefly at them.

• 2: Reckless Charge. Gain +4 to attacks on a charge, but -4 to AC. This is awesome, particularly because you have Pounce. This is also where Whirling Frenzy (which gives you an AC bonus) might come in handy. Note that the +4 from this ability easily outstrips the -2 from Whirling Frenzy. Replaces Uncanny Dodge.
• 4: Insightful Rage: Bonus to disbelieve illusion spells. This is lame, don't bother. Replaces Improved Uncanny Dodge.
• 7: Two-Handed Strike. Gives you a flat +2 to damage with two-handed weapons. Easy. Pretty decent, all things considered, if you take Barbarian this far. (I'd probably PrC out before here, but it's your call.) Replaces your first point of DR, which is kind of meh, really.

There's one other bonus to Half-Orc Barbarians - Channeled Rage. It's a feat from Races of Destiny that lets you burn a daily use of Rage to add your Str to your Will save as an immediate action. Your Str should be sick, and your Will save isn't likely to be impressive, so this is a great "Nope" button for you.

Let's talk other Rage feats. Ordinarily, I'd suggest taking a beautiful combination of Instantaneous Rage, Intimidating Rage, Never Outnumbered, and Imperious Command, but your Cha is likely to be in the toilet. If you have the Cha to support it, however, this combo can basically break many encounters. Here's how it works.

• Instantaneous Rage lets you Rage at any time, even when it's not your turn.
• Intimidating Rage lets you demoralize an opponent when you Rage.
• Never Outnumbered lets you demoralize multiple opponents instead of just one.
• Imperious Command turns your demoralizing up to 11, forcing enemies to cower for one round then be shaken the next.

Basically, you can fly into a rage, reduce your enemies to trembling peons, then charge in and slaughter them at your leisure.

Now let's move on to more fun stuff. Are you familiar with Shock Trooper? Be familiar with Shock Trooper. Power Attack is your bread and butter, of course, but taking a penalty to your attack roll sucks. Shock Trooper allows you to reassign the to-hit penalty to your AC when charging. Combined with the Half-Orc Barbarian 2 substitution level, this means you take no penalty (in fact, a bonus) to all attacks on a charge, a big jump in damage, and admittedly your AC turns into toilet paper. But if you murder the target in one hit, that's not going to be a problem, is it?

PS: Read this.

[slaydemons]

All that funstuff

oh my god. I like this already.

[Troacctid]

I'd honestly play straight Warblade. They're big and beefy and very good at hitting things with a greatsword. Just take a bunch of Iron Heart and Stone Dragon maneuvers and go to town. If you like Barbarian, it's a favored class and it's extremely frontloaded, so you can dip into it to grab your rage/pounce/whirling frenzy/whatever thing with just one or two levels and go Warblade for the rest, because all you really care about after that is the BAB.