This page was created in 2022, eighteen years after the actual playthrough for this build. I therefore may have forgotten a few details (heh). I am mostly creating it because I'm considering replaying the game, and I'd like to reorient myself.
I did manage to find a forum posting of my original build. I played this character in NWN 2 and NWN 3. It would not have worked in the original campaign, as Weapon Master was not available.
The related fanfic is
here
======================
What follows is a barely-cleaned-up copy of my forum posting.
...offensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only ... means of defence - George Washington
The best defense is a good offense. - Jack Dempsey
OVERVIEW
Fighter 16/Weapon Master 7/Barbarian 17
This strength-based build is designed to dish out damage to an opponent using a two-handed weapon (I went with Greatsword). He's something of a one-trick pony, but fortunately it is a very good trick. Although by the end I took more Barbarian levels than Fighter, this is really a Fighter build with Barbarian as icing on the cake. This build gets the core fighting feats earlier than many other builds I've seen, and includes enough skill points to make a more well-rounded character than the typical pure Fighter. Finally, at level 39 you get either Thundering Rage of Terrifying Rage (your choice) which is a nice way to top things off.
This character is very easy to play, and would be a good choice for a newbie to the D&D system to use in any of the official modules. Although not a newbie myself, I still sometimes enjoy the pure simplicity of hacking the bad guys into little pieces.
CREDITS
Here are other combinations of Fighter, Weapon Master, and Barbarian that I looked at (all nice builds):
Eastern Warrior by WarriorCleric: I took Knockdown and Imp. Knockdown instead of 2-weapon fighting feats, and get fighting feats earlier (including Dev. Crit). But I don't get both Thundering and Terrifying Rage.
AxeMaster by ReallyTwisted: This does a good job of mixing ranged and melee combat, but sacrifices some of the toe-to-toe abilities, including the Knockdowns and Overwhelming and Devastating Critical My build is weaker in ranged combat, but my character doesn't care. Hard to cut somebody's arm off with an arrow.
The Thundering Barbarian by TyrPaladin: there seem to be several versions of this build floating around. My comments apply to the one posted on 15 Aug 2003 in the thread "The Screaming Barbarian". This gets Weapon Master in very early and includes both Thundering and Terrifying Rage, but doesn't get Dev. Crit. until level 37. I wanted more time to Dev. Crit. baddies before my character was maxed out.
Also, the "How To Build An Effective Fighter" guide by NightFall Myriad on GameBanshee was helpful, even though it was only a to-level-20 guide.
SOME DETAILS
Knockdown and Improved Knockdown are important to this build because they can help against opponents who are immune to critical hits. Unless they're also immune to Knockdown, in which case you either have to try getting tactical somehow (ranged weapons and running a lot, yuck) or go toe-to-toe and drink a lot of Heal potions while you nickel-and-dime them to death. Or whatever else you can think up.
I sacrificed some Constitution in the initial stats to get Dev. Crit. as early as I wanted, and to get as many skill points as I wanted. A human turned out to be the best choice. A half-orc gets a Strength bonus, but has to spend too many points to make up the Intelligence penalty (INT=13 is needed for Improved Knockdown). A Dwarf would get better Constitution at the expense of Charisma (no big loss to this build), but losing the human bonus feat still hurts.
The DC for Dev. Crit is 10 + (Character Level / 2) + STR modifier. Increasing Strength after level 24 increases attack bonus, damage, and Dev. Crit DC. All of which are the core strengths of this build. If you prefer, you could increase other abilities and/or take some other types of feats.
Make sure to pick up at least 4 ranks in Intimidate at level 1 or level 2, while it is a class skill. They're a prereq for Weapon Master. If you go for Terrifying Rage at level 39, make sure to have assigned at least 25 ranks to Intimidate - that's a prereq.
I played a variation of this build in SoU and HotU and he handled everything nicely. The second phase of Barbarian levels came at a really good point in the plot. (Beginning of Chapter 3 - if you've played HotU, you can imagine that a character would be building some serious rage at that point.) That version of the build didn't get Dev. Crit. until level 30. Had I played the version included in this post, I would have had Dev. Crit. before the end of HotU. I only do PvM, so I have no idea how this guy would do in PvP.
Race: Human
Alignment: any non-lawful (I went with Chaotic Good)
Stats:
STR=17 (+3, Main ability. Finishes at 32.)
DEX=13 (+1, Minimum for Weapon Master prerequisites.)
CON=14 (+2, Try to increase with magic items.)
INT=14 (+2, Good skill points and Improved Knockdown)
WIS=8 (-1, Low WIS allows other stats high but hurts Will save)
CHA=8 (-1, Dump a few skill points into Appraise)
BA: Barbarian Ability
WA: Weapon Master Ability
FBF: Fighter Bonus Feat
NEF: Nonepic Feat
EF: Epic Feat
1 Barbarian - NEF:Weapon Focus, NEF:Power Attack, BA:Fast Movement, BA:Rage x1
2 Barbarian - BA:Uncanny Dodge I
3 Fighter - NEF:Knockdown, FBF:Cleave
4 Fighter - STR+1=18, FBF:Dodge
5 Fighter -
6 Fighter - NEF:Expertise, FBF:Mobility
7 Fighter -
8 Fighter - STR+1=19, FBF:Spring Attack
9 Fighter - NEF:Whirlwind Attack
10 Fighter - FBF:Improved Critical
11 Fighter -
12 Fighter - STR+1=20, NEF:Weapon Specialization, FBF:Great Cleave
13 WpnMstr - WA:Ki Damage
14 WpnMstr -
15 WpnMstr - NEF:Improved Power Attack
16 WpnMstr - STR+1=21
17 WpnMstr - WA:Increased Multiplier, WA:Superior Weapon Focus
18 WpnMstr - NEF:Improved Knockdown
19 WpnMstr - WA: Ki Critical
20 Fighter - STR+1=22
21 Fighter - NEF:Great Strength I (=23), FBF:Epic Weapon Focus
22 Fighter -
23 Fighter - FBF:Epic Weapon Specialization
24 Fighter - STR+1=24, EF:Great Strength II (=25)
25 Fighter- EF:Overwhelming Critical
26 Barbarian -
27 Barbarian - EF:Devastating Critical, BA:Rage x2
28 Barbarian -STR+1=26, BA:Uncanny Dodge II
29 Barbarian -
30 Barbarian - EF:Great Strength III (=27)
31 Barbarian - BA:Rage 3x
32 Barbarian -STR+1=28
33 Barbarian - EF:Great Strength IV (=29), BA:Uncanny Dodge III
34 Barbarian - BA:Damage Reduction I
35 Barbarian - BA:Rage 4x
36 Barbarian - STR+1=30, EF:Great Strength V (=31), BA:Uncanny Dodge IV
37 Barbarian - BA:Damage Reduction II
38 Barbarian - BA:Greater Rage
39 Barbarian - EF:Thundering Rage or EF: Terrifying Rage, BA:Uncanny Dodge V, BA:Greater Rage x5
40 Barbarian -STR+1=32, BA:Damage Reduction III