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1. Those are freakishly high stats. Was it rolled?
2. Put the racial bonus in strength. A 16 Con is plenty high combined with your d12 hitdie. I'm not even sure you need Toughness. In fact - there's an argument to switch your Con & Dex to boost your AC. You don't need as much HP if you don't get hit in the first place. (debatable) Especially if you're doing much ranged attacking.
3. You'll want to take Weapon Focus feat eventually. All martial characters should. In the long term - you'll need to focus on one weapon type as you can't afford to enchant more than one heavily.
4. If you want to tank rather than just run up and kill stuff - a reach weapon may be the way to go. Your AOOs will give you some battlefield control. This would be another reason to go with a higher dex in order to get more AOOs with Combat Reflexes (which you'll want to take if you focus on a reach weapon).
Like Charon, my suggestion would be:
20 Str (after racial) 16 dex 13 con
Some would argue you should put your ability increases all in Str, but I think it would be a reasonable idea to put your level 4 increase in Con to make it an even 14.
Weapon Focus is nice, but I wouldn't specialize too soon. I'd carry a greataxe, a lucerne hammer, and a longbow with an appropriate str rating. While you don't need to invest any feats in archery or anything, there will always be times when you come across flying enemies. And even if you have a +5 greataxe, it won't do you any good against them.
Other than that, sounds like you have a solid plan for rage powers, and Charon has mentioned possibilities if interested in a reach build. I might pop in later to comment more; have to go to work!
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Thanks.
It seems that I am dropping a lot of HP with the advice. Going without toughness, FCB to HP and a lower CON. basically will remove about 5-6HP of the bat. And with a lower AC this could be a problem. or do you think not so much?
What are your thoughts on this?
Except with the 16dex he'll have a pretty decent AC. At level 1 he'll have a 18AC to start (scale or four mirror armor) and then get to 19AC pretty quickly (Breastplate). Eventually you'll either get a mithril breastplate for movement, or get heavy armor proficiency and mithril full plate for AC. (22 before any magic etc) Not to mention your DR from Invulnerable Rager starting at 2nd. (There are ways to make it higher.)
And 14HP at level 1 is nothing to sniff at. And at level 4 I would, like Chort, reccomend boosting your Con to 14.
Also - one trick with raging is to not rage at the beginning of fights (especially at lower levels when your rounds are low) - but only after you're wounded. The extra Con gives you a static boost to HP, while the AC is a % lowering of defense.
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There is one big downside to switching the CON and DEX with this character. Raging Vitality has a minimum CON requirement of 15.
It is very easy for a Barbarian to get killed, especially at level 5+ if he gets knocked below 0 hp without raging vitality since he stops raging and immediately looses all his temporary HP from rage.
Starting with only a 13 CON you are only going to be able to raise that to 15 at 8th level if you put all increases into CON, so depending on the wealth level of the campaign, how available magic item purchases are, and how nice the GM is with giving out treasure that the PCs need (due to build choices)you could be in for a dead character by making that swap.
ok now I am getting confused a bit.
If I was to go for the high dex route then surely I should have Toughness and FCB to HP to balance out the lack of HP from CON?
Also since my CON is lower I am not going to hap a mass amount of TEMP HP anyways so Raging vitality doesn't really matter as I could just drop my rage if things get messy?
Also, I think Raging Vitality is more beneficial for those that don't take Superstitious as you can't heal when raging and if you are using RV then as soon as you drop Rage you are definitely dead. Seems like a Kamikaze approach to a lose lose situation.
Any thoughts?
Most characters that are ever built by point buy have 12 to 14 con, just because it's an important stat, but not the stat that makes your character shine, it's just necessary to stay alive. 13 Con, or 14 at level 4 is about as good as you can expect. D12 HD + Con 14 is a respectable amount of HP
Now, there's a solid case for Toughness and Con 16 (although I would stick with the Human FCB no matter what.) However, in Pathfinder, when given the choice between being harder to kill vs more combat options/killing power, I usually choose the latter.
High dex opens up new options like archery and reach (combat reflexes) And the initiative, reflex, and AC boost are subtle ways of increasing your HP. (Reflex so you take half damage, AC so you take no damage, initiative so you kill them before they kill you.)
And instead of toughness, I'd sooner start climbing feat trees, save feats for rage powers and so on.
But again, 20 str 14 dex (at level 4) and 16 con is an exceptional barbarian as well. And a Barbarian with Toughness is certainly less likely to die from damage. It's all personal preference.
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Might I suggest Str 18 Dex 16 Con 13+2?
You get all the goodies associated with a high Dex (AC, ranged attacks, AoO with Combat Reflexes, Initiative, Reflex saves, and skills) while still maintaining eligibility for Raging Vitality and getting +1 HP/HD and Fort save compared to putting your racial bonus in Str for another +1 to hit and damage.
Yes, offense is very important, especially for a barbarian, and you probably don't need the extra HP or even Raging Vitality - which has saved my character from unconsciousness but not death. Still, it sounds like the OP is defense minded and will enjoy himself more if Sudden Barbarian Death Syndrome isn't a concern - which is absolutely worth accepting a slightly less terrifying DPR.
Dual Talented as Ughbash suggested also works if you're not planning on doing anything fancy with feats long term and don't care about skills. You can always take Raging Vitality at level 3 and Combat Reflexes at level 5.
Most characters that are ever built by point buy have 12 to 14 con, just because it's an important stat, but not the stat that makes your character shine, it's just necessary to stay alive. 13 Con, or 14 at level 4 is about as good as you can expect. D12 HD + Con 14 is a respectable amount of HP
That's only true if your playstyle is adapted to typical stat arrays. I play in games with higher stat arrays than you typically get through point buy, and it's pretty common for our frontliners to have 16 Con (in addition to a Str of 18-20). And because our opponents are balanced against frontliners with lots of HP we use it.
Though still not enough to need Toughness on a barbarian.
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My advice....
Skip toughness and only take the feat Power Attack at level 1.
Take the Human alternate race ability Dula talent.
By giving up your bonus feat and skilled you get +2 to two stats.
Now add them to Con and to Str and have a 20 str and an 18 con.
Ughbash speaks as a true barbarian. This is the SMASH-est path forward.
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Might I suggest Str 18 Dex 16 Con 13+2?
You'd be better off boosting strength to 20 and just waiting until you can get a +2 con item before picking up Raging Vitality.
With Toughness at level 1 and a Con of 13, you'll have 17hp to start with. That is very high already. The extra accuracy/damage from strength is far more important than a smidge extra hp/fort.
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The higher in level you go, the more temp HP you get from raging, the greater the chance that any hit knocking you unconscious will kill you.
With a 13 Con, unconsciousness equals death at level 6 (at which point at reaching -1 HP you lose 12 rage HP, drop to -13, and are dead). If you want to avoid this, you need to take Raging Vitality by level 5.
Do you want to count on getting a constitution belt by level 5? If your group has a crafter, or your GM agrees to make sure you can find or buy one, great. But not all GMs like it when a PC build depends on finding exactly the right item at very specific levels - at this case, somewhere during level 4, since before then you cannot afford a 4,000gp item at standard WBL.
Even then, at level 4 there's a pretty narrow safety window for SBDS; an attack reducing you to -5 or lower while raging kills you. If you're OK with that, fine, Raging Vitality is very much about how much risk you're comfortable with.
But I personally would just aim to get a Strength belt around level 4-6 and not worry about exactly when I find it, instead of needing to get a Con belt by level 5 and spending levels 3 and 4 worrying about dying. I personally would also take Combat Reflexes as my second level 1 feat with Raging Vitality at level 3 since Combat Reflexes, paired with a reach weapon, is good for keeping foes from getting close enough to hit you in the first place.
With Toughness at level 1 and a Con of 13, you'll have 17hp to start with. That is very high already.
I thought we'd agreed that there were better feat choices than Toughness - in which case the extra HP is more useful.
The extra accuracy/damage from strength is far more important than a smidge extra hp/fort.
It's +1 to attack and damage; note when two-handing weapons for 1.5 Str, odd strength bonuses (such as 20/+5) get rounded down.
That's good. But far more important than a little defense? You're a barbarian. That +1 attack and damage could easily be overkill. My level 2 monk/bloodrager killed an enemy witch by accidentally punching him too hard - once - nonlethally! Double max HP with one hit!