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I've been dreaming up a whip fighter, looking something like this:
Whip Fighter - Vermillion
Half-Elf - Ancestral Arms (Whip)
Fighter Archetype: Lore Warden
Alignment: Chaotic Good
At the age of 16, Vermillion was far away from his village, when he saw a caravan of human slave traders passing by. Furious, he disregarded the advice of his elders and mother and attempted to ambush the slavers that night. Needless to say, he was captured, and forced to travel many miles away, where he was eventually sold to a colosseum. At first, he repeatedly attempted to escape; however, these too met in failure, as well as severe lashings. Eventually, he relented and settled into the ways of the colosseum, but the scars on his back strengthened his hatred.
Vermillion had some training with whips from his elvish life - they were used as part of the traditional dances performed in his tribe. He quickly and bloodily refined their use in combat, using them to trip and entangle his opponents. His gladiatorial training also trained him in light armor, and a variety of other tools and weapons.
After a few years at the colosseum, Vermillion was a respected fighter, but also a loner; he ate alone and had no friends. One day, he was approached by a relentlessly cheery and talkative human youth named Markus. At first, Vermillion was cold to him, his hatred of humans ever-present in his mind. Nevertheless, Markus persisted, sitting with Vermillion and talking away, telling stories of his home and upbringing, despite the half-elf's silence. Slowly, very slowly, Vermillion warmed up to the lad - he still had a love for stories, despite having not heard any in years. Eventually, the two formed a close friendship, though Markus still did most of the talking.
One day, Vermillion walked out into the coliseum grounds for a fight - the bright sun shining on the same scene he had viewed every day for years. Today, though, was different. Today, the enemy that approached him was not some nameless brute, that Vermillion could dispatch heartlessly. Today, it was Markus that Vermillion was slated to slay.
To be continued...
Stats:
Str 19 (including +2 bonus) (boost at 4th)
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 13
Wis 8
Cha 7
Weapons: Scorpion Whip* (primary), Heavy Flail, Switchblade, maybe a Composite Longbow
Light Armor (no proficiency in heavier armors and shields, thanks to Lore Warden)
Traits:
Prehensile Whip (whip can be used as grappling hook)
Elven Reflexes (+2 on initiative) (note: requires parent be a member of a wild elven tribe)
Feats:
1 - Weapon Focus (whip)
1 - Power Attack
2 - Whip Mastery (min 2 bab)
2 - (Lore Warden) - Combat Expertise
3 - Improved Trip
4 - Combat Reflexes
5 - Improved Whip Mastery (min 5 bab)
6 - Greater Trip (min 6 bab)
7 - Felling Smash (min 6 bab)
This guy is wonderful at tripping, in theory - in this thread I calculated his bonus to trip at level 7 to be about 24. However, I'm sure my DM will send us up against spiders or flying creatures or something, and whips don't do a whole lot of damage... I'm also not sure what to do after level 7. Advice, please! (Thanks!)
PS: Greater Whip Mastery seems a little useless to me - what do you guys think?
*EDIT: Changed from regular whip to Scorpion whip.
Greater whip mastery might be your saving grace against those foes who tripping can be hard or useless against.
Against flying foes the ability to grapple and tie them up with a whip can be great if you ready for them to come in reach the same goes for things with extra legs.
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I'll be damned - I thought you couldn't apply a full strength bonus to light weapons, period, but it seems you simply can't use them two-handed. (According to RAW, you could in theory wield a regular whip with both hands, but I doubt my GM would allow that.)
Off-hand weapons get the half Str thing, and there is a feat to offset that, IIRC.
A whip is finesseable, but it is NOT a light weapon, it is a one-handed weapon with an explicit exception listed for using the feat.
As a one-handed weapon, once you hit Improved Whip Mastery, you can two-hand it for 1.5 Str & PA damage, as well as getting AoOs with it. Until then, wield a dagger or some such in your other hand, just so you can get AoOs and threaten for flanking.
By the way, stick with a regular whip, the minimal extra damage a scorpion whip provides (1d4 instead of 1d3, I think?) is not worth the argument about whether it gains reach when wielded as a whip. It says wielded as a whip, not wielded in all ways as a whip, so I don't, personally, see how it can gain Reach when it doesn't have it already. It doesn't gain any extra length, just a bit more flexibility. Just my opinion. Remember that Whip Mastery allows you to do lethal damage and ignore the armor restictions on whip damage. A scorpion whip won't allow the option of doing non-lethal damage at no penalty, as well.
Cosmopolitan and Dilettante might be useful feats, adding additional class skills, or boosting useful skills. Dilettante depends on how you spend those extra skill points, of course.
Other things to think about:
Dueling property for your whip from Pathfinder Society Field Guide, gives a bonus of 2x the enhancement bonus of your weapon to your CMB for weapon-based combat maneuvers.
Only good if he is gonna go high dex route looking at his stats it would be pointless.
If you wanted to go the Dex route you could apply the Agile enchantment to your whip as blackbloodtroll mentioned:
To get rid a need for STR:
-Weapon Finesse Feat
-Agile Enchantment
-Piranaha-strike feat (To replace Power Attack)
You wouldn't even need the Agile Manuevers feat to make up for the loss of STR to your CMB. Due to FAQ/Errata
A high DEX would yield a nice payoff from combat reflexes.
A few other feats that are definitely worth mentioning:
-Combat patrol
-Serpent Lash
-Greater Serpent Lash
If you wanted to get weird you could try and qualify for Whirlwind attack and take trips in place of standard melee attacks, which might get a little crazy.
@Atarlost: My mistake. There's a 3rd party feat that could make that work though, Lighten Weapon, but it's a bit of a stretch.
If you have a rogue or ninja in the group, consider disarming. Oponents without weapons count as flat-footed as far as i remember (could be im wrong, didnt find it just now.)
If you take serpent lash, go for greater serpent lash and greater reposition, dragging enemies through your group allowing them AoO´s.
If you want to know what greater whip mastery is for
-improved/greater grapple
-chokehold
-pinning knockout
-rapid grappler
-sleeper hold
-combat trick rope (do all of the above with a rope)
Since you grapple with the whip you get all the boni of the whip too.
And there is no paragraph im aware of that keeps you from enchanting a km of spidersilk rope or rope made of adamantium like a weapon and then cut it into adequate pieces.
Stuff you win with this trick:
-Hogtie (Improved Grapple): When you attempt to tie
up an opponent you are grappling, your penalty is only –5
instead of the normal –10. (im pretty sure there was another feat giving you a bonus on this, fury´s fall or fury´s snare or maybe some grapple feat)
-Lash (Weapon Proficiency [whip]): You can use a length
of rope as a whip at no penalty. The piece of rope that is
used as a whip must be 10 feet long—length in excess of
this must remain coiled or otherwise unused at your feet
or side.
You also may want to take a look at:
-pin down
-stand still
-steady engagement
-disruptive
This sounds really interesting, Im gonna have to check some of this out.
I've been dreaming up a whip fighter, looking something like this:
Whip Fighter - Vermillion
Half-Elf - Ancestral Arms (Whip)
Fighter Archetype: Lore Warden
Alignment: Chaotic Good** Quote cut **...
Well, here's the Fighter build I currently have going. Granted, mine is devoted to two-weapon whip fighter designed to harass and grant attacks of opportunity and sneak attacks.
Feat List:
Human: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Whip) (BAB +1)
Level 1: Two-Weapon Fighting (Dex 15)
Level 1 Fighter: Weapon Focus (Whip) (BAB +1)
Level 2 Fighter: Whip Mastery (Weapon Focus, BAB +2)
Level 3: Double Slice (Two-Weapon Fighting)
Level 4 Fighter: Weapon Specialization (Weapon Focus, 4th level Fighter)
Level 5: Improved Whip Mastery (Whip Master, BAB +5)
Level 6 Fighter: Improved Two-Fighting (Dex 17, Two-Weapon Fighting, BAB +6)
Level 7: Combat Expertise (Int 13)
Level 8 Fighter: Improved Trip (Combat Expertise)
Level 9: Improved Disarm (Combat Expertise)
Level 10 Fighter: Greater Disarm (Improved Disarm, BAB +6)
Level 11: Greater Two-Weapon Fighting (Dex 19, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, BAB +11)
Level 12 Fighter: Two-Weapon Rend (Double Slice, Imp Two-Weapon Fighting, BAB +11)
Level 13: Break Guard (Improved Disarm, Two-Fighting Weapon)
Level 14 Fighter: Weapon Finesse (Whip) (-)
Level 15: Serpent Lash (Weapon Finesse)
Level 16 Fighter: Greater Whip Mastery (Improved Whip Mastery, BAB +8)
Level 17: Improved Grapple (Greater Whip Mastery)
Level 18 Fighter: Fury's Fall (Improved Trip)
Level 19: Greater Weapon Focus (Weapon Focus, 8th Level Fighter)
Level 20 Fighter: Greater Weapon Specialization (Weapon Specialization, 12th level Fighter)
Standard Ability Adjustment:
Level 4: +1 Dex
Level 8: +1 Dex
Level 12: +1 Str
Level 16: +1 Int
Level 20: +1 Dex
Statastics
Str: 15; Dex: 17; Con: 12; Int: 15; Wis: 11; Cha: 10
Started with an Armored coat and two Scorpion whips. So at later levels it's Disarm, two feats activate Serpent Lash (Get a free Disarm attempt at for adjacent to Disarm victim) and Break Guard (Swift Action attack against first disarmed foe). And that's all a Standard Action. So Disarm->Swift Action Attack against target->Free Disarm against foe adjacent to first victim.
I'm still contemplating swapping something for Greater Trip, but he's only level 4, so I have time to consider.
Oh, and I gave him a pet Falcon for Flavour :D