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It´s actually about 2 characters.
An inquisitor using a whip and a fighter with a polearm.
How viable is it in PFS to focus on combat maneuver builds with trip and disarm and perhaps bull rush or something like that, especially if you are going to higher levels too?
IS it worth to take EWP:Fauchard and focus on crits with power attack as a damage option? In close range make a bull rush with the gauntlet from armor?
The whip thing is similar, only of course needs more feats, so i´m thinking to have 2 levels of lore warden mixed in there. The characters should not be min-maxed etc, but i want to be able to participate with them meaningfully up untill later. They can be found under my aliases for interested persons.
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It´s actually about 2 characters.
An inquisitor using a whip and a fighter with a polearm.How viable is it in PFS to focus on combat maneuver builds with trip and disarm and perhaps bull rush or something like that, especially if you are going to higher levels too?
Very. PFS has more humanoids opponents than any home game I've ever been in.
IS it worth to take EWP:Fauchard and focus on crits with power attack as a damage option?
For a fighter yes for about anyone else no.
In close range make a bull rush with the gauntlet from armor?
The only weapon i know of that you can make a bull rush with is the dwarven boulder helmet.
The whip thing is similar, only of course needs more feats, so i´m thinking to have 2 levels of lore warden mixed in there. The characters should not be min-maxed etc, but i want to be able to participate with them meaningfully up untill later. They can be found under my aliases for interested persons.
Tripping is usually good, but whips can easily be marginalized.
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Bull Rush idea for the fighter is that he let´s go of the polearm with one hand and shoves people back into reach then if someone came too close.
I am thinking to make the fighter a Lore Warden for the cool fluff, but i´m a bit worried about AC and Speed if i would later take a mithril medium or heavy armor.
For the whip the inquisitor would of course take weapon focus and whip mastery.
Thanks for the fast answers!
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In, I believe, the Advanced Players Guide, there's a Fighter archetype: The Polearm Master. Early on, they can switch their reach weapon to a melee weapon by gripping it higher up the shaft. Downside is a) it's a free action to change it from reach to melee or vice versa, and b) while attacking in melee you do so at a -4 penalty. I have seen this sort of build work, though, both with tripping and melee fighting. So it may be one option if you are able to switch to an archetype at this time.
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Ok, a question from one of my players who has a half-elf ranger:
What are the best favored enemies to pick in PFS?
Besides cleary goblins on lower levels, i can´t really tell him because i didn´t play that much scenarios yet. Humans or other player races are kind of on the edge. Probably good choices too, but then, with so many people being nitpicky about things like infernal healing etc, that could be seen as misanthropic too.
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I've got my next fighter planned out as a whip using trip specialist. The ability to control a 15' diameter (only 10' diameter for AOOs)should be pretty nice once realized. Damage will, of course, be pretty poor, but there are always tradeoffs.
I do see the ability to couple greater trip and felling smash making a mini-pounce as pretty nice.
The main issue with being a trip specialist is anything larger than large will be immune unless you beg an enlarge person off a friendly caster (or I guess you could pump UMD and do it yourself). Also flying critters nullify your main schtick as well. Basically as I see it, the build is probably quite valid in the main PFS range, but if you start getting past 11th level, efficacy will steadily drop. I don't intend to pick the whip guy as a character to continue on in levels.
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Ok, a question from one of my players who has a half-elf ranger:
What are the best favored enemies to pick in PFS?
Besides cleary goblins on lower levels, i can´t really tell him because i didn´t play that much scenarios yet. Humans or other player races are kind of on the edge. Probably good choices too, but then, with so many people being nitpicky about things like infernal healing etc, that could be seen as misanthropic too.
Humans. Humans humans humans. It affects humans, any undead which can still considered human (rare, but it's come up for me), half-elves, half-orcs, anything which is considered human by their stats. They are also one of the most common races I've come across. Was kicking myself for picking Undead for my first Favored Enemy. Once I got the option, I picked up Human and dumped the additional +2 into that.
That said, undead is a good option, but should not be the main focus. They happen, and it helps, but they're not frequent enough.
After that, I might say goblins, however most of those are so weak you don't need any bonuses. Best to choose a different option, IMHO.
My thoughts on the matter, take 'em how you will.
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For Trip & Disarm: I have two different PCs that play with that schtick.
A Human Fighter (Polearm Master), who is not 10th level, and a Human Fighter (Lore Warden) with a whip who is 6th level.
While the Polearm Master is effective at trip and disarm, that is at least partly because I took the actual feat chain. He is not, usually, a damage dealer, having only a 12 Str, but using Agile Maneuvers for his Fauchard *with Butterfly's Sting, now), and an Agile rapier (with Weapon Finesse) for back and some damage ability, he can contribute most of the time. With Greater Trip and 8 AoOs, he can do some serious enemy lockdown, when they are humanoids with weapons.
To correct the previous poster on Polearm Master, however, it is an immediate action to swap between reach and non-reach modes, you take a -4 initially, but it scales down as your PC gains more Polearm Master levels, and the Poelarm Master also gets a scaling bonus to Readied attacks and AoOs with his polearm.
With my PC's feat load, it can get a bit ridiculous calculating his to hit, since Greater Trip gives him an immediate AoO with his Disarm attack... Then, the poor sod with no weapon has to try and stand up....
For the Lore Warden, I think I haven't really concentrated on the actual disarm and trip feats, but between the reach on his whip, and the Lore Warden CMB/CMD bonuses, he gets ridiculous on his CMB numbers. He now carries a heavy flail for backup damage, too. He is strength-based, rather than dex-based, so fewer AoOs, but better base damage.
On Favored Enemies, I would recommend Humans, Undead and Evil Outsiders for higher levels.