Fables of a Wandering Soul

[Thalamask]

I'm hoping this thread will keep growing, so I'm going to start an Index here to help keep track of it.

Main Character
First Life: Dwarf - Barbarian 20 / Epic 10 - TWF (Greataxe) - Frenzied Berserker

Introduction - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=5980081&viewfull=1#post5980081)

Korthos Island - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=5981078&viewfull=1#post5981078)
Arrival in Stormreach and Death - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=5983430&viewfull=1#post5983430)

Level 20 update - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=5996547&viewfull=1#post5996547)


Second Character (Raider)
First Life: Drow - Warlock 20 / Epic 10 - Enlightened Soul Aura Burster

Level 4 update - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=5985777&viewfull=1#post5985777)


Third Character (Just for fun, since I'm a helpless altoholic)
First Life: Human - Druid 20 / Epic 10 - Season's Herald primary caster / healer

Level 4 update - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=5993436&viewfull=1#post5993436)


Classes
Barbarian

[Tips] General Tips on Barbarians - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=5996547&viewfull=1#post5996547)
Dwarf Bbn 20 / Epic 10 - TWF Axes - Frenzied Berserker - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=5996547&viewfull=1#post5996547)

[Enhancements] Dwarven Racial Enhancements for Barbarians - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=6010874&viewfull=1#post6010874)

[Enhancements] Frenzied Berserker tree review - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=6014527&viewfull=1#post6014527)


Races
Dwarf

[Enhancements] Dwarven Racial Enhancements (mostly for Barbarians) - here (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487030-Fables-of-a-Wandering-Soul?p=6010874&viewfull=1#post6010874)



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// This thread is to record my wanderings through the immense process that is the cycle of life and rebirth involved in collecting past lives.
// Please feel free to comment here, all are welcome.
//
// I'm coming back after a long, long break and, given all the new content, new classes and new mechanics and such that is around,
// I may as well be considered a complete newbie to the game.
//
// For this adventure, I've started a brand new character, but I did invest some DDO Points in additional inventory and bank slots as well as
// a +6 Tome of Supreme Ability, seeing as I'll be playing the character for a while. Each of my characters is a REAL character. They
// have personalities, likes, dislikes, desires etc. As such, some will undertake certain quests and avoid others, they'll work for some factions,
// but not others etc. The build will be based on the character, nor necessarily perfect optimisation and, since I expect a problem I've solved
// to stay solved, I'll be keeping quest repetition as limited as possible on a per-life basis.
//
// If you read this thread, I hope you enjoy it. Happy gaming to all!
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////



For my first life, I decided to go with a straight barbarian based on a D&D 3.5 PnP character I played a while ago and really loved. His name was Thorgold, and he was a dwarf. He lived for the day, and loved nothing more than drinking, carousing, singing (badly - despite 5 ranks in Perform, he still had a negative modifier! :) ) and he would fight anything at the drop of a hat. He was darkly tanned and scarred, had green eyes and black hair, and he was never found more than an arm's length away from his favoured Greataxe. He was originally sworn to the dwarven god of battle, Clangeddin Silverbeard, but the party's cleric (of the dwarven deity Haela Brightaxe) quickly converted him into a steadfast guardian.

He wore Full Plate armor (because /dwarf), festooned with trinkets from his victories... and spikes. Lots of spikes. Those even came in handy once, when a Behir tried to swallow him whole... I wasn't winning the Strength checks to break it's grapple, but I was surviving against the Swallow Whole checks. Each round it nommed on me, the GM ruled that it took armour spike damage. It quite literally chewed itself to death on me, and since then every armour he's ever worn had armour spikes!

Thorgold had a rubbish, and I mean RUBBISH Armour Class. At level 16 he was running around with an AC of about 14. But that was fine.... He was built to hit the enemy no matter what it did. He got his 1-4 attacks per round (depending on level), and every enemy he killed gave him another attack (Cleave and Great Cleave). If you tried to grapple him, he hit you, courtesy of Close-Quarters Fighting. If you tried to hit him, he hit you back, thanks to Robilar's Gambit and Combat Reflexes. Hell, if you stood next to him and didn't hit him, he STILL hit you back because of Defensive Sweep. About the only thing you could do to avoid getting hammered was simply stay very, very far away from him.

He even had a dog... during one of his adventures, the party were attacked by a group of enemies who used some nasty attack dogs (based on the Riding Dog template). One of these latched itself onto his ankle while he was disposing of it's "master" and, seeing no reason to murderise a completely non-evil dumb animal, Thorgold stared it down and literally Intimidated it into submission. It started following me around and, at my next level, the GM let me take the Wild Cohort feat and thus the dog, ever so "originally" named Spike, became Thorgold's animal companion. He loved that dog, taught it to wear armour and bought it +1 Blurring Mithril Chainshirt Barding giving it an eventual AC of 32... at the same time that his AC was 14! :D

His crowning moment of awesome came when he tried to open a trapped door, and got teleported into the lair of an Old Black Dragon (CR16 for a whole party, while he was around L12). While the rest of the party hummed and hawed about what they were going to do, Thorgold solo'd that dragon. Every round, he hit it 2-3 times, doing tons of damage with what he was burning into Power Attack. Every round, it would hit him 2-4 times, and he'd hit it back just as many. It's frightful presence meant nothing, because Thorgold was Fearless, and it's acid breath didn't help much either because Thorgold had so many hitpoints that it was virtually irrelevant. It was an epic battle which Thorgold won by the skin of his teeth. The rest of the party finally used the trapped door to catch up, only to find Thorgold casually liberating a new trinket for his armour from his latest victory.

I loved that character and, while I'm enjoying my new 5E kobold wizard, I'm going to take this opportunity to resurrect Thorgold... in spirit, at least.



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http://i.imgur.com/BYsxwNV.png


Thalamask Darokor was born into one of the senior branches of House Kundarak in the Mror Holds of Khorvaire. He lacked the head for business and both a dragonmark and magic and so, for a while, it looked like he was going to be a disappointment to his family. As he grew, however, he developed an impressive physique and so his parents, with pride, ordained that he should serve in House Kundarak's Warding Guild.

Unfortunately, the blood of his dwarven ancestors flows strongly in his veins, and Thalamask was seldom able to keep his temper in combat. This resulted in an unfortunate incident, during which one of his training officers was severely injured. At great expense, his family covered up the embarrassment but, as part of the deal, Thalamask was exiled to Xen'drik.

On the way to Stormreach, however, his ship was destroyed by a dragon and he washed up on the shores of Korthos Island.....


My planned build for this character is as follows (I haven't really planned out Epic yet) :


[B]Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 4.35.301
DDO Character Planner Home Page (http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO)

Thalamask Darokor
"Always angry, all the time!"
Level 22 Chaotic Good Dwarf Male
(20 Barbarian \ 2 Epic)
Hit Points: 732
Spell Points: 0
BAB: 20\20\25\30\30
Fortitude: 24
Reflex: 8
Will: 7

Starting Feat/Enhancement
Abilities Base Stats Modified Stats
(32 Point) (Level 1) (Level 22)
Strength 17 25
Dexterity 9 14
Constitution 20 33
Intelligence 10 15
Wisdom 8 13
Charisma 6 11

Tomes Used
+6 Tome of Strength used at level 1
+6 Tome of Dexterity used at level 1
+6 Tome of Constitution used at level 1
+6 Tome of Intelligence used at level 1
+6 Tome of Wisdom used at level 1
+6 Tome of Charisma used at level 1

Starting Feat/Enhancement
Base Skills Modified Skills
Skills (Level 1) (Level 22)
Balance 6 19
Bluff 0 2
Concentration 0 13
Diplomacy 0 2
Disable Device n/a n/a
Haggle 0 2
Heal 2 14
Hide 0 4
Intimidate 0 25
Jump 4 32
Listen 4 23
Move Silently 0 4
Open Lock n/a n/a
Perform n/a n/a
Repair 0 4
Search 2 6
Spellcraft 0 4
Spot 0 3
Swim 0 9
Tumble n/a 5
Use Magic Device n/a n/a

Level 1 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+2)
Skill: Heal (+2)
Skill: Jump (+4)
Skill: Listen (+4)
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Die Hard (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Power Rage (Rank 1)


Level 2 (Barbarian)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Tumble (+1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Extra Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Extra Rage (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Tribute (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Tribute (Rank 2)


Level 3 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Cleave
Enhancement: Occult Slayer (Bar) - Weapon Bond (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Occult Slayer (Bar) - Extend Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Occult Slayer (Bar) - Extend Rage (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Occult Slayer (Bar) - Extend Rage (Rank 3)


Level 4 (Barbarian)
Ability Raise: STR
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Constitution (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Axe Training (Rank 1)


Level 5 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Power Rage (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Tribute (Rank 3)


Level 6 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Furious Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Do You Like Pain? (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Hardy Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Hardy Rage (Rank 2)


Level 7 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Pain Touch (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Do You Like Pain? (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - I Like Pain (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - I Like Pain (Rank 2)


Level 8 (Barbarian)
Ability Raise: CON
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Axe Training (Rank 1)


Level 9 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Resilience
Enhancement: Dwarf - Child of the Mountain (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Runes (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Constitution (Rank 1)


Level 10 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Runes (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Axe Training (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Frenzy (Rank 1)


Level 11 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Demoralizing Success (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Do You Like Pain? (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - I Like Pain (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Slaughter (Rank 1)


Level 12 (Barbarian)
Ability Raise: CON
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Great Cleave
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Extra Rage (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Supreme Cleave (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Supreme Cleave (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Supreme Cleave (Rank 3)


Level 13 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Frenzied Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Trail (Rank 1)


Level 14 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Constitution (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Angry Arms (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Constitution (Rank 1)


Level 15 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+2)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Trail (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Trail (Rank 3)


Level 16 (Barbarian)
Ability Raise: CON
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+2)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Barbarian Power Attack (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Barbarian Power Attack (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Slaughter (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Slaughter (Rank 3)


Level 17 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+2)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Barbarian Power Attack (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Aura of Fear (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Strength (Rank 1)


Level 18 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+2)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Angry Arms (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Mad Munitions (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Accelerated Metabolism (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Pain Touch (Rank 1)


Level 19 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+2)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Focus Wide (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Strength (Rank 1)


Level 20 (Barbarian)
Ability Raise: CON
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+2)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Runes (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - I Hit Back! (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - I Hit Back! (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - I Hit Back! (Rank 3)




Coming soon..... Adventures on Korthos! See you next time.....

[Thalamask]

http://imgur.com/UBJGa04.png



Waking up on the beach, surrounded by the wreckage of the ship I was travelling on and missing my clothes (and most especially my axe, which I'd taken great pains to hang on to) was not a pleasant experience. I'm not a big fan of water at the best of times, but this whole "sea" business is just a joke! What sort of organised, presumably intelligent deities put so much water all over the place! You can't even drink it.... you know, in emergencies. And it would have to be a pretty bloody dire emergency before I fell back on that, let me tell you! I'm pretty sure it's unhealthy to drink water.

Anyway, turns out that there's this really annoying Halfling on the beach as well who, despite my pounding headache, just wouldn't ruddy well shut up! I don't know what he's doing here... I'd hate to speculate... but he says his camp isn't too far off and invites me to join him. I certainly don't have any better plans at the moment, so I guess I may as well tag along. When we arrived at the camp, the Halfling (who introduced himself as "Jeets, Acquisitions Specialist") pointed out the Warforged "Talbron" and said that they were on their way to Korthos Village. Not having anywhere else to go at this point, I asked if I could go with them. He seemed pleased by that and said that I'd probably need a weapon - "just in case, you never know and all" - and opened up a chest of weapons for me. There was a greataxe there that looked suspiciously like the one I was missing... I'm not going to ask any questions at this point though. Right now, all I want is a stiff drink or three and a quiet lie-down out of the sun. If I find out that the rest of my stuff is in these other crates though, that Halfling is going to get the back of my hand and no mistake!

On our way to the village, we met up with the remaining member of their party, a cleric named Cellimas, and then proceeded into a large tunnel that runs under the mountains surrounding the village. Unfortunately, the tunnel was infested by sahuagin, although I've got no clue what a bunch of sea-dwellers are doing lurking around underground. I don't really want to get into the details of what happened, but they totally started it.

Eventually we made out way out of the tunnels and into the village - and this was clearly a village under siege. I saw my fair share during the War, so I know what I'm talking about. Apparently, this frigid backwater is meant to be some sort of semi-tropical paradise, and isn't supposed to be inhabited by a dragon either. Not much I can do about that right now, and I really need a drink, so I'd best see about earning some coin.

I wandered around the town a bit, and all the usual staples were there... funny noise, too scared to look, you do it... OMG, it's a rat, you do it... still, it all pays in solid coinage and beer isn't free. After sorting out a few trivial errands (and several beers), I took a stroll down to the dock to see if there were any ships heading for Stormreach. Unfortunately, there was only one, and the captain was far too afraid to leave port with a dragon on the loose. Considering what happened to the last ship I was on, I guess I can't really blame him. Probably for the best, though... I can't exactly afford passage with what I've earned so far! More trivial errands for me, I guess. And probably a not-so-trivial dragon to deal with as well.

So anyway, I ran some more errands for the villagers - the usual "maiden in distress", the other "maiden in distress" and so on (pity none of 'em were stout, well-muscled Dwarf lasses!) - and even came across this Lars Heyton character that all the villagers are convinced will be able to "solve" the dragon problem. I'm not so sure about that, though... I can count on one hand the number of times magic'ers have solved anything without creating five new problems that somebody else has to go sort out. Turns out that he does actually have a plan to deal with the dragon, although it came as no surprise to me that the "plan" involved him sitting around doing nothing, while a bunch of other people risk their necks. Guys and dresses. Never a good combination, trust me. Does something funny to the brain. Give me a good, solid suit of armour any day.

Long story short, we don't really want the dragon here, and the dragon doesn't want to be here, but it's being commanded by some freak with tentacles for a face. We fix that, the dragon moves along, and everybody's happy. It's never that easy, but hey... I'm a Dwarf. What could go wrong?

Things proceeded exactly as well as you'd expect with some wizard making the plans, but we got through it in the end. The dragon sodded off, the sun came out and we returned to Korthos Village to much celebration and rejoicing and so on. I don't care. Just pour me a LARGE beer, and let me get the hell away from this dump!




http://imgur.com/RMOy99Y.png



So, that was my adventures on Korthos Island. If you'd like some more pictures, feel free to browse the gallery (http://imgur.com/a/GuDBb). Anyway, hope you enjoyed it - I'll be moving on to Stormreach soon, and we'll see what adventures lie in store for our heroic (if grumpy) protagonist. Be safe!

[Thalamask]

http://i.imgur.com/Fv4UXbr.jpg



Arriving at Stormreach - without any further Dragon attacks - was a great relief. Time to begin a new life, I guess. If "big" cities are anything like I remember them, though, the little money I earned on Korthos isn't going to go very far, so I'd better start finding work as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, work wasn't hard to find. Just wandering around Stormreach and frequenting taverns seemed to result in fair consistent job offers. I'm going to have to avoid the Kundarak enclave, but that still leaves me with most of Stormreach to explore. It didn't take long before I was offered a job to rescue another band of adventurers. Clearly, it's amateur hour here but - amateur's or not - I would've been glad to find them alive.

I decided to spend most of my time working for "the Coin Lords" - a euphemistic title for those who really run the city - and House Deneith. Between the rich and powerful and the largest mercenary House in Eberron I should have a lot of support here if I can win their respect. I'm beginning to have a pretty major hatred of traps, though... honestly, what sort of coward falls back on these things instead of facing their enemies man to man in combat?!


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It's been a couple of months since I last wrote. I've been really, really busy. The Coin Lords and House Deneith have kept me hopping and, in between, I've been working some side jobs for additional income. I never realised how difficult life would be without the support of my House behind me.

Over the last few months, I've cleaned trogs and kobolds out of the sewers (and if I never see another kobold it'll be too soon!), helped merchants protect (or recover) their goods, squeezed citizens for their taxes and hunted down criminal gangs. I've also saved multiple kidnapee's, many dogs, defended Stormreach's outposts against marauding locals, killed off a crazy alchemist who was planning to poison the city and even attacked and cleared out a pirate base! As I said, it's been a busy few months.

I've just spent a couple of days hanging about in the Phoenix Tavern recuperating and now I'm preparing to head off to check in on a House Jorasco exploration team that seems to have run into difficulties. I'm not really expecting any trouble. Those Halflings have probably just gotten lost.....




http://i.imgur.com/KPvAEyM.jpg


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Whelp, I must admit that I'm a little disappointed to have died so early on in the adventure. I was hoping to have more to write about my favourite character! :) Still, that's what happens when you get careless and cocky. Lesson learned... probably not! :P

If you'd like to see some more pictures from my adventures, please have a look at the gallery (http://imgur.com/a/H9sWD).

Updates will probably be a little slow now, since Reincarnation only happens at 30, as opposed to when you die. I'll be back with my next life as soon as I've TR'd. Until then, be safe!


This is my character at the time of his death :


Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 4.35.301
DDO Character Planner Home Page (http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO)

Thalamask Darokor
Level 7 Chaotic Good Dwarf Male
(7 Barbarian)
Hit Points: 235
Spell Points: 25
BAB: 7\7\12
Armour Class: 28
Fortitude: 16
Reflex: 6
Will: 7

Feat/Enhancement
Abilities Modified Stats
(32 Point) (Level 7)
Strength 26
Dexterity 13
Constitution 27
Intelligence 14
Wisdom 12
Charisma 10

Feat/Enhancement
Modified Skills
Skills (Level 7)
Balance 9
Bluff -1
Concentration 6
Diplomacy -1
Disable Device n/a
Haggle -1
Heal 4
Hide 0
Intimidate 3
Jump 15
Listen 7
Move Silently 0
Open Lock n/a
Perform n/a
Repair 1
Search 3
Spellcraft 1
Spot 0
Swim 5
Tumble 1
Use Magic Device n/a



Feat: (Selected) Power Attack
Feat: (Selected) Cleave
Feat: (Selected) Two Handed Fighting


Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Constitution (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Axe Training (Rank 1)

Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Die Hard (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Extra Rage (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Power Rage (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Tribute (Rank 3)

Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Furious Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Pain Touch (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Hardy Rage (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Do You Like Pain? (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - I Like Pain (Rank 2)

Enhancement: Occult Slayer (Bar) - Weapon Bond (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Occult Slayer (Bar) - Extend Rage (Rank 3)

[Saekee]

heh, congratz for holding to your principles!

[Thalamask]

While I slowly work my "dead" character up to L30 in order to Reincarnate, I didn't want to leave this thread completely idle. As such, I've decided to add in little filler episodes to keep things flowing and the first one is on my in-progress favour-and-phat-lewt grinding toon. Originally, I was just planning to have my main character Thalamask, but my guildies persuaded me that you really need more than one character so that you can keep grinding away at raid loot and stuff while your TR character isn't in the appropriate level grades. So here we are.

The same guildie that recommended multiple toons strongly recommended that I try a warlock, because apparently they're really good. I don't think I'm really ready to be completely making my own builds yet, so I've shamelessly stolen much of my build from Gingerspyce's Voodu Warlock (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/466496-Voodu-Warlock-A-Pure-Warlock-Enlightened-Spirit-Tank-Project-companion-thread) build.


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I present : THALAMAZ DR'TAINAN


http://i.imgur.com/xRMp8yU.png


Thalamaz is currently a L4 Warlock. He has :
Str 10
Dex 12
Con 19
Int 19
Wis 10
Cha 20

90 HPs
317 SPs
AC 23
Fort 7
Ref 5
Will 7

Balance : 3 (2 ranks)
Concentration : 14 (5 ranks)
Intimidate : 16 (7 ranks)
Perform : 8 (1 rank)
Spellcraft 1: 4 (7 ranks)
Tumble : 7 (2 ranks)
UMD : 17 (6 ranks)

His feats are Empower Spell and Maximise Spell and I've taken the Fey Pact.

His spells are Feather Fall, Jump, Obscuring Mist, Shield and Blur.

His enhancements are :
Drow : Spell Resistance 1, Drow Charisma 1
Tainted Scholar : Tainted Spellcasting, Strong Pact, Eldritch Focus 1
Enlightened Spirit : Eldritch Aura, Aura of Courage, Resilience of Body 3, Resilience of Soul 3


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So far, I'm finding the character to be fairly powerful doing at-level Heroic Elites. Although he doesn't have any inbuilt healing, he's easily able to UMD a Cure Light wand for top-ups between fights and, since he isn't my first character, I can afford to supply him with a bunch of Cure Serious potions for emergency in-combat usage.

Although I'm building towards an Enlightened Spirit aura-tanking build, at the moment, the aura simply doesn't proc often enough to make it really worthwhile, so I'm still running around blasting all the things. As such, the "two button" warlock trope really does seem to be holding true for me. I buff up at the start of the dungeon, then left-click everything to death until the "Finish" button appears. It's certainly not the most engaging playstyle so far, but it's certainly effective.

One thing I have noted is that, unlike my melee toons, I can't seem to switch targets during a blast sequence. Where my melee toon can just hold down left-button and target whoever he wants to hit, the warlock blasting seems to send all three blasts in the sequence to the same target, regardless of what you're targeting when it goes off. The visuals of the blast change target, but the damage doesn't seem to. So when I kill a target mid sequence, the rest of the sequence seems to just disappear, and my new target starts taking damage from the start of the next sequence. It also makes smashing breakables particularly annoying, so I invariably find myself switching from blasting to melee to smash breakables.


Addendum : While not really related to the above, I've discovered that Iconic Classes make for great bank-mules. Because they start at 15, grinding the 150 Coin Lords rep for two extra inventory slots and the 150 Kundarak rep for the two extra bank slots is a doddle.


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Anyway, I hope you found that vaguely interesting and I'll see you next time. Be safe!

[Thalamask]

I have to admit to being a raging alt-oholic. I'm doing fairly well keeping it under control so far, but the urge got to me, so I created another character. Besides... I really wanted to play with the Druid! :)

Once again, until I feel ready to create my own builds, I've shamelessly stolen a build from the ever-reliable Gingerspyce (https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/427398-Gingerspyce-s-caster-healer-quasi-tank-build)!


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I present : Valathaniel Thalamore


http://i.imgur.com/pasuuwp.png


Valathaniel is currently a L4 Human Druid. His stats are : Str 10, Dex 8, Con 20, Int 8, Wis 22, Cha 10. He has 89 HPs, 316 SPs, AC 20, Fort 9, Ref 0, Will 10.

His skills are :
Concentration 17 (6 ranks)
Intimidate 13 (7 ranks)
Spellcraft 11 (7 ranks)
Tumble 1 (1 rank)
UMD 3 (3 ranks)

His feats are Augment Summoning, Empower Spell and Maximise Spell. I'm currently running the spells Jump, Lesser Vigor, Magic Fang, Ram's Might, Barkskin, Creeping Cold and Splinterbolt.

His enhancements are :
Human : Spellpower Boost, Focused 1, Improved Recovery
Season's Herald : Seasoned, Wand and Scroll Mastery 1, Beguile 3, Produce Flame 3


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I'm finding the character quite fun to play, but definitely finding that the DPS is far lower than I've been used to on my THF Barbarian and my Blaster'lock. Until I hit L4 and started focusing on my casting, I found it hilariously amusing to run around in Wolf Form, with a Wolf Pet and a Wolf Summon, with the whole wolf-pack buffed to the gills and murderising anything we came across! :)


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Until next time... be safe!

[Thalamask]

Well... Finally made Level 20! Woohoo! :D

I made some changes to my planned build as I tried and learned things. The "final"-ish build for Thalamask's first life is as follows :


http://i.imgur.com/pSPHNgO.png



Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 4.35.302
DDO Character Planner Home Page (http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO)


Thalamask Darokor
"Always angry, all the time!"
Level 20 Chaotic Neutral Dwarf Male
(20 Barbarian)
Hit Points: 912
Spell Points: 0
BAB: 20\20\25\30\30
AC : 45
Fortitude: 40
Reflex: 17
Will: 16
DR: 7/-


Feat/Enhancement
Abilities Modified Stats
(32 Point) (Level 20)
Strength 36
Dexterity 16
Constitution 45
Intelligence 17
Wisdom 15
Charisma 13


Tomes Used
+6 Tome of Strength used at level 1
+6 Tome of Dexterity used at level 1
+6 Tome of Constitution used at level 1
+6 Tome of Intelligence used at level 1
+6 Tome of Wisdom used at level 1
+6 Tome of Charisma used at level 1


Feat/Enhancement
Modified Skills
Skills (Level 20)
Balance 20
Bluff 3
Concentration 19
Diplomacy 4
Disable Device n/a
Haggle 4
Heal 15
Hide 7
Intimidate 35
Jump 39
Listen 22
Move Silently 7
Open Lock n/a
Perform 4
Repair 5
Search 7
Spellcraft 5
Spot 7
Swim 10
Tumble 4
Use Magic Device 8



Level 1 (Barbarian)
Skill: Intimidate (+4)
Skill: Jump (+4)
Skill: Listen (+4)
Skill: Tumble (+2)
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Axe Training (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Die Hard (Rank 1)



Level 2 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Power Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Power Rage (Rank 2)



Level 3 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Cleave
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Tribute (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Tribute (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Tribute (Rank 3)



Level 4 (Barbarian)
Ability Raise: STR
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Constitution (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Axe Training (Rank 1)



Level 5 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Enhancement: Occult Slayer (Bar) - Weapon Bond (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Occult Slayer (Bar) - Extend Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Occult Slayer (Bar) - Extend Rage (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Occult Slayer (Bar) - Extend Rage (Rank 3)



Level 6 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Furious Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Do You Like Pain? (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Hardy Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Hardy Rage (Rank 2)



Level 7 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Pain Touch (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Do You Like Pain? (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - I Like Pain (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - I Like Pain (Rank 2)



Level 8 (Barbarian)
Ability Raise: CON
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Child of the Mountain (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Runes (Rank 1)



Level 9 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Great Cleave
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Extra Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Extra Rage (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Constitution (Rank 1)



Level 10 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Frenzy (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Supreme Cleave (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Supreme Cleave (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Supreme Cleave (Rank 3)



Level 11 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Trail (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Trail (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Blood Trail (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Extra Rage (Rank 3)



Level 12 (Barbarian)
Ability Raise: CON
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Frenzied Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Angry Arms (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Angry Arms (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Angry Arms (Rank 3)



Level 13 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Constitution (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Dwarf - Dwarven Runes (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Do You Like Pain? (Rank 3)



Level 14 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Demoralizing Success (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Barbarian Power Attack (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Barbarian Power Attack (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - I Like Pain (Rank 3)



Level 15 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+0.5)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Mad Munitions (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Mad Munitions (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Constitution (Rank 1)



Level 16 (Barbarian)
Ability Raise: CON
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Heal (+0.5)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Ritual Scarring (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Barbarian Power Attack (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Strength (Rank 1)



Level 17 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+0.5)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Mad Munitions (Rank 3)

Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Focus Wide (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Accelerated Metabolism (Rank 1)



Level 18 (Barbarian)
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Heal (+0.5)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Death Frenzy (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Aura of Fear (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Aura of Fear (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Aura of Fear (Rank 3)



Level 19 (Barbarian)
Skill: Heal (+1.5)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Focused Wrath (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Lash Out (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ravager (Bar) - Pain Touch (Rank 1)



Level 20 (Barbarian)
Ability Raise: CON
Skill: Balance (+1)
Skill: Heal (+0.5)
Skill: Intimidate (+1)
Skill: Jump (+1)
Skill: Listen (+1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Storm's Eye (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Focused Wrath (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Frenzied Berserker (Bar) - Lash Out (Rank 2)



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While levelling, I learned quite a few things about playing Barbarians. I'm certainly no expert, but I'd like to share what I learned so that others can (possibly) benefit. In no particular order :



Always have Power Attack. If you're a Barbarian without Power Attack, there's a darned good chance UR DOIN' IT RONG!



Having selected Power Attack..... make sure to turn it on! For some reason, it doesn't stay on when you log off like most other stances. Remember to turn it on, or you're losing out on a chunk of damage.



Personally, I've discovered that I utterly detest the "Fatigue" mechanic that comes with Rage. You're either stuck being slow as molasses for a minute every time you rage, or you're burning through Potions of Lesser Restoration (at like 40+ pp a pop, given your probable lack of Charisma and Haggle). That gets expensive for a first life character really quickly. As a result, I didn't use Rage as often as I should while levelling... at least until I hit level 17 and got Tireless Rage. At that point, it was always rage, all the time! :rolleyes:



Self-sufficienty is a problem for Barbarians. You're not likely to have a decent UMD on your first life and potions are expensive. You're going to NEED something like the Temporary Hitpoints delivered by Blood Tribute. Personally, I found it a WONDERFUL ability and, at only 8 AP to unlock, there's very little reason for any Barbarian NOT to have it. It gives you 150 Temp HPs on a 3sec cooldown for the low, low price of a stacking -1 Con penalty. Given the kind of Constitution numbers you should be running, you should easily be able to use this ability 30+ times between shrines for a total of at least 4,500 HPs. That's nothing to sneeze at.



On that note, even if you burn your Con down to ONE, at higher levels you'll still be sitting on 400+ HPs, so don't worry about it. Do NOT burn your Con down to 0 or you'll be permanently incapacitated until you can use a rest shrine. This is extra important while you're Raging, because Raging boosts your Con. When your Rage ends (and it will), all that Con goes away, and it you've burned too much Con you'll drop straight to Con 0 for another permanent incapacitation.



One thing you can't do is kill yourself using this ability. There's no such thing as negative Con and, unlike PnP, hitting Con 0 doesn't instantly kill you.



If you're running Blood Tribute (and you should be) don't be afraid of the "costs HPs" abilities. I originally ignored them, because I wanted to save my HPs, but with Blood Tribute's Temp HPs, using those abilities can give you a massive damage boost, so do it!



I found the Slaughter ability in the Ravager tree to be basically useless. Even +10[W] abilities do barely any extra damage most of the time, and with a 20sec cooldown, I found that it just wasn't worth the effort.



I'm not sure whether this is a bug or something, but I've found that when you're Slowed or something, you can continue to spam your damaging abilities (like Cleave etc.) just as quickly as usual. It's only your ordinary attacks that seem to be slowed.



When fighting casters or ranged, they invariably try to run away from you. Try to position yourself so that "away from you" pushes them into a corner. Then you can close the distance, crowd them into the corner (from which there's no escape) and murderize them at your leisure. Also, it goes without saying.... ALWAYS kill the casters first!



I pretty much capped out Balance, but I've discovered that it doesn't actually prevent you from getting knocked over. Apparently, it makes you get up faster, but I've got to admit that I'm not really seeing it. If I were to level over again, I'm not sure I'd invest in Balance again.



If you stack up the "Extra Rage" and "Extended Rage" enhancements, you can basically perma-Rage your way through entire dungeons. And there's no reason not to!



Personally, I found no use for the +Skill enhancements, nor for the "Sprint" Action Boost ones. There's simply not enough of them and they don't last long enough.



If your Con is as good as it should be, the vast majority of the time you can simply ignore all Poisons and Diseases as you'll make your saves against them easily. That said.... always? carry Cure Blindness. You won't make THAT save often, and it can easily get you killed!



Once you start getting to higher levels, consider switching from Breastplate to Scalemail. There's a decent chance that you can get the-same-or-better on AC, and you'll probably be able to get more dodge (and avoiding damage altogether is always good!).



Well, I hope you found that interesting. I'll update this when I hit Level 30! Until then, as always.... be safe!

[Thalamask]

I haven't updated this thread in a while because not much has been happening ingame. I've slowly been grinding my way towards L30 (along with the requisite Tokens of the Twelve and Commendations of Valor), and for the past couple of weeks I was mostly focused on grinding the Crystal Cove event for Air Elemental gems. Anyway, this lack of content has allowed me time to expand my thread into a personal analysis of some of the enhancement trees. Please remember that these are just personal opinions, and of a first-life character, at that! Anyways... here goes.



Dwarf Racial Enhancements

Dwarves are a great race for Barbarians. Barbarians can never have enough Con, so the +2 is nice, and no real barbarian gives a good goddamn about Cha, so the -2 is irrelevant. The free Dwarven Axe proficiency is nice if you're planning to duel-wield and the rest of the bonuses are just icing on an already awesome cake. More balance? Yes, please... I don't do any DPS on the floor. More Search? Meh, but it's better than a slap in the face with a wet codfish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lefP0_ZM-Lw)! Extra saving throws against poison is nice, but your Con and Fort should probably be high enough that it doesn't matter and extra saves against spells is excellent, because that's likely to be one of your weak points. And finally there's the not-irrelevant +1 attack bonus against orcs and goblinoids and the +4 dodge bonus against giants. All in all, Dwarves are a wonderful race for Barbarians. So... how do their enhancements stack up?

First off, you can always just not take any... much like many builds out there. It's a perfectly valid strategy. If you do decide to take points in the Dwarf racial tree for whatever reason, these are my thoughts:

Tier 0

The three Dwarven Toughness' (+10 HPs) are nice at lower levels, but become progressively less relevant as you level. I wouldn't take them at all except for the first one to open the tree and, IF NECESSARY, the third one to unlock the second Constitution bonus.
The two Dwarven Constitution (+1 Con) enhancements are great. Barbarians can never get enough Con. If you have the APs, consider taking both. If your Con is an uneven number, only take the first one.


Tier 1

Kundarak Dragonmark Focus - If you're taking Dragonmarks, you're taking this. If you aren't taking Dragonmarks, you're not. It's pretty much that simple. Search and Fire Trap aren't particularly useful for Barbarians, so the only reason you might be taking this is to access higher level stuff.
Iron Stomach - This enhancement gives you Neutralise Poison, Remove Disease and Heroism for 2 minutes after you drink. Unfortunately, as far as I know, you can only drink in a Tavern. By the time you've run to a quest and loaded in, you've probably only got a minute left, if that. I can't recommend this one in any way. Take if for flavour if you are swimming in spare AP (is anyone ever swimming in spare AP?), but otherwise ignore.
Stout - Bonuses to Balance and Poison Saves. Your Con and Fort should generally be high enough that you pretty much auto-save on poison, and balance doesn't prevent knockdowns, only makes you get up faster (apparently... I don't think I've ever noticed it). All in all, I can think of better places to spend 3 AP. Obviously your call though.
Dwarven Weapon Training - +1 to hit and damage with Axes or Picks and Hammers. Nothing spectacular. If you're using <insert weapon>, and not taking anything else at this level, take it to open up the next level. Otherwise ignore.
Dwarven Armor Mastery - +1 to AC and Max Dex. This might be good on an AC fighter or something, but you're not an AC fighter. Barbarians face-tank everything with their massive HP pool and their solid HP regen. I wouldn't take it, but it's up to you.


Tier 2

Lesser Dragonmark of Warding - Spell Resistance is always good for Barbarians, since spells tend to be one of their weaknesses. If you're going the Dragonmark route, this is a good one to have!
Dwarven Tactics - increases the DC of your Tactical feats. It's just my opinion, but I don't tend to bother with these on a Barbarian. Your feats are needed elsewhere and, if you're mucking about trying to trip somebody, you're not burning through their HPs at max rate. All in all, dead is better than knocked down as far as I'm concerned. If you're doing Tactics, take it, if not ignore it.
Child of the Mountain - More HPs and +Fort saves. You've already got the largest HP pool in the game and the best Fort saves as well. And at 2 APs a level, it's expensive! I took one level for flavour, but otherwise ignored this one.
Dwarven Weapon Training - See Tier 1. Same deal.
Shield Mastery - +Shield AC, +Tower Shield Max Dex. See Dwarven Armor Mastery in Tier 1. Same deal.


Tier 3

Greater Dragonmark of Warding - Radiant Forcefield. 25% damage resistance for 22 seconds every 3 minutes. I dunno. I think I'd rather just stack PRR and MRR and resist damage all the time. But that's just me. I suppose it could be helpful in groups to save the healer when he pulls aggro, but apart from that, I just don't think it's worth it.
Dwarven Runes - +Saves against spell effects. Nice... as noted before, spells are one of your weaknesses. If you're this high in the tree, this is a must buy for me.
Stand Like Stone - Balance, PRR, Energy Resistance, -50% move speed, sinks in water and can't fly. You're almost certainly a melee class (I've yet to see a decent Archerian in DDO). It's bad enough when NPCs gimp your speed while trying to chase them down, do you really need to do it to yourself?! Pass... moving on.
Dwarven Weapon Training - See Tier 1. Same deal.


Tier 4

Hands of Stone - It's Earthgrab, and because of your Con you're likely to be able to get a decentish DC on it as well! Unfortunately, it's also a Dragonmark ability, so it's got limited uses per rest. If you're taking Dragonmarks, it might be nice to tie up nasty caster-types or something, but as noted before... I prefer "dead" to "tied up".
Dwarf Fortress - No, not that one. This one requires full plate and a shield... two things most Barbarians are unlikely to have. Might have some place in a flavor or gimmick build or, more likely, AC fighters.... Apart from that I'd ignore this one.
Dwarven Weapon Training - See Tier 1. Same deal.
Throw Your Weight Around - Some people swear by this one, but not me. On the surface, it looks interesting.... using Con for damage instead of Str, but it ignores two really important details. First, you still need Str for your Attack rolls and second, one of the best Barbarian substainability / self-sufficienty abilities (Blood Tribute) eats Con. Even with a great Con, using Blood Tribute means you'll soon be back to using Str for damage anyway. Having to spend 8 points on Dwarven Weapon Training and another point on Throw Your Weight Around (for 9 of your 80 points!) just doesn't stack up for me. I'd avoid this one.


Summary
So that's my advice on the Dwarven Racial Enhancements for Barbarians. If you're looking for some Dwarven flavour (like my first Barbarian life), I would recommend the following enhancements:
T0: Both Dwarven Con's.
T1: Dwarven Weapon Training (Axes)
T2: Child of the Mountain (1/3) and Dwarven Weapon Training (Axes)
T3: Dwarven Runes (2/3)
This gives a nice Dwarven flavour (without spending points on too much semi-useless stuff) for only 14 APs, and most of those APs give decent-to-good benefits for a Barbarian.

[Thalamask]

In this post, I'm going to look at the Barbarian's Frenzied Berserker enhancement tree and give my opinions (such as they are) on the various talents.

Frenzied Berserker

I'm only on my first life at this point, and this is the only tree I've primaried, but I've gotta say... it's awesome. It's a very barbarian tree, so well-done to SSG! It's all about face-tanking, hitting the other dude even harder and, if you're running a Two-Handed Fighting build, it's great for additional glancing and AoE damage.


Tier 0

Die Hard - Stabilisation is nice if you're in a party (and there's not too much AoE damage going around) but utterly useless for solo'ing. Still, it's the gateway, so you gotta get it.
Frenzied Toughness - HPs and HAmp? Yes please!
Frenzy - +5 MP passive, +2 Str and +2d6 damage for 60s (which scales with MP) for the price of 10 HPs? Again... yes please! Initially, I was pretty wary of "costs HPs" abilities at low level because low-level Barbarians aren't particularly self-sufficient, I found. However, once I picked up T2's Blood Tribute I started using this a lot more and, once I got some regen abilities as well, this ability was running pretty much all fight, every fight.
Frenzied Toughness (2) - HPs, HAmp and PRR, you say? Why not! :)
Death Frenzy - As for Frenzy. Avoid at low levels, but once you get on-demand Temp HPs or regen of some sort, go to town!
Storm's Eye - Awesome! Going Bbn 20 for this is almost guaranteed to be worth it. It costs 100 HPs to activate, but with your Temp HPs and regen it's totally worth it. 3-odd minute cooldown though, so save it for boss-types. It gives passive +4 Con, +10 MP and, when raging (which you should be permanently by L20), it gives a 5% chance for each attack to do 400 MP-scaling damage. Spread that 1-in-20 chance over all your attacks, and it amounts to a minimum of +20 damage PER ATTACK! And that's just the passives! When active it gives +25 to each attack. Apparently it's supposed to tick down by 1 point every 3 seconds, but either the UI is broken or the reduction isn't happening. Personally, I don't think the reduction mechanic is working as the damage numbers seem pretty stable until it wears off. This is BRILLIANT! Get it!


Tier 1

Extra Rage - I like this... at higher levels when you can perma-rage. That said, it depends on how often you can shrine. At L20 you get 6 rages and you Con should let them last at least 3 minutes each for a total of 18 minutes of rage. If you're likely to shrine more often than once every 18 minutes, Extra Rage isn't likely to be that helpful for you. That said, sometimes you need to cancel rages early, so it can be helpful. Assess your own playstyle and spend points on this one accordingly.
Cracking Attack - +1/2/3[W] damage (which I mostly found useless), -1/2/3 AC to enemy (again, I found mostly useless). Lasts 20s, costs 5 HPs and on a 30s cooldown. The second ability adds -1/2/3 to Fort saves (meh) and the third one adds a teeny bit of additional damage for 12s when you crit. I don't much mind the HP-cost, but the 30s cooldown is painful. 3/6/9 APs for an ability that isn't that useful (imo) and can only be used once every 30s? I'd hard pass, but it's your character.
Die Harder - Additional unconsciousness range, some Temp HPs when you hit 0, and a 5 minute CD? Strong pass. Might occasionally save you long enough to pop a Temp HP ability, or let your Cleric get a heal off, but the vast majority of the time, it's not gonna save you. Up to you, but I wouldn't waste the APs.
Power Rage - +1/2/3 Str while raging. This is nice. I would always take two levels and, if your Str is an odd number, I'd take the third one as well. +hit, +dmg, additional protection against incapacity through drainage etc. What's not to like?
Athletics - +1/2/3 to Balance, Jump and Swim. Third level gives a 20s +35% boost to speed when you activate rage. I don't find these skills to be worth the AP cost, and the top tier ability is nice, but hardly essential. Skip this one.


Tier 2

Angry Arms - +1/2/3% chance of triggering weapon effects on glancing blows and +3/4/5% glancing blow damage. Nice, but not game-changing. Fill out the necessities of your build, and spend any spare points here. Consider spending 1 AP anyway to unlock Focus Wide in Tier 5.
Body Blow - See Cracking Attack above.
Blood Tribute - +50/100/150 Temp HPs for 1 minute (plus an additional 25 per epic level) for the minor cost of a stacking -1 Con until you rest or die. Yes, yes, Yes, YES! You can get this capped by the start of Level 3 and you totally should. This provides a significant amount of self-sufficiency to a solo Barbarian as well as an emergency "OHNOES" button to party Barbarians. It's brilliant at low levels, where you can get 150 Temp HPs on top of your normal HPs of only 60-90, but it starts tapering off towards Levels 14-20 when you're still only getting 150 Temp HPs, but now you've got like 600 HPs. Ramps back up sharply into Epic levels when, by L30 you get 400 Temp HPs per activation and you're probably sitting on around 1,200 HPs. The Con cost should be trivial for most Barbarians, but be careful of overdoing it, because if you hit Con 0, you'll be incapacitated until you Shrine (or die, which is more likely). If you're using this actively, and your group doesn't mind the XP hit, a quick death and resurrection can wipe away the Con penalty letting you start all over again!
Extra Action Boost - Useful if you use action boosts, pointless if you don't. Personally, I don't find most of the action boosts all that useful, so generally I skip this one. Up to you though.
Sprint Boost - I can't say I see the point, personally. It's probably useful to close the gap when you're Slowed, or keep up with a fast enemy or something, but I simply haven't found those situations to be common enough to be worth spending the APs here.


Tier 3

Mad Munitions - See Angry Arms above.
Blood Trail - Reduces the HP cost of Supreme Cleave. You should be Supreme Cleaving all the time, so I found that this one significantly reduced my HP overhead. I'd take it, but it's up to you.
Supreme Cleave - It's an additional Cleave. Do I even need to explain?
Constitution - You're a Barbarian. You face-tank basically everything. Unless you absolutely don't have the points, take this one.


Tier 4

Crazy Strike - See Cracking Attack above.
Exhausting Blow - +2/3/4[W], 1/2/3 d6 Str damage and 1/2/3 d6 Dex damage. Looks good on paper but..... Stat damage isn't particularly useful on boss types and (if you're doing it right) nothing else will live long enough for the stat damage to be useful. You can pop this ability on one target, but then you'll kill it and move on to something else and you can't use the ability again for another 20 second. Maybe I'm just too noob or something, but I can't see how this one is useful. Pass.
Wade In - Stacking +hit, -AC on Supreme Cleave with a 4s decay. I never found that I missed often enough for it to be worth spending the APs on this ability. YMMV.
Constitution - As above. Do it.


Tier 5

Focus Wide - +10% glancing blow damage and +10% chance of weapon effects on glancing blows for 12s after a vorpal strike. You should be getting enough vorpals to keep this running a good portion of the time. I'd recommend getting this one if you can possibly squeeze it in.
Focused Wrath - Increase crit multiplier by 1 or 2 on a roll of 19 or 20 that is confirmed as a crit. It's nice, but I don't consider it game-changing enough to be worth the APs. If you have spare APs though, sure, get it.
Lash Out - Supreme Cleave can Bleed enemies and provides a decent AC debuff. Take it if you can afford it.
Healing or Hurt - This is a choice between Raging Blows (a tiny amount of additional damage) or Accelerated Metabolism (a constant stream of healing). To me, this is an absolute no-brainer. Get Accelerated Metabolism and never worry about healing up between fights again. Sure, it only gives you 3d6 every 4s (average of 10) but after all the HAmp you should have, I often found it hitting for 25-30 or more. I tended to use it by letting the enemy hit me for 200-300 damage, then pop my Temp HPs and by the time they've worked through those I'm at or near full health again. Rinse 'n repeat. Doing it this way stretches your Temp HPs a long way!
Tantrum - A 30s CD Cleave that costs 25 HPs. If it wasn't for the knock-down effect I'd say it was utterly worthless. Even with the knock-down, I don't find it that useful as the majority of things I really need to knock-down are going to make the save or be immune. I skipped it, but it's your call.



Summary

So, that's my opinions on the Frenzied Berserker enhancement tree for the Barbarian. My recommended build, coming in at the minimum of 42 APs is as follows:

T0: Die Hard, Frenzied Toughness, Frenzy, Frenzied Toughness, Death Frenzy, Storm's Eye
T1: Extra Rage (3), Power Rage (2)
T2: Angry Arms (3), Blood Tribute (3)
T3: Mad Munitions (3), Blood Trail (3), Supreme Cleave (3), Constitution
T4: Constitution
T5: Focus Wide, Focused Wrath (2), Lash Out (2), Accelerated Metabolism