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"He then keeps them tripped through opportunity attacks."
Just to double check--he's not trip-locking them on the AOOs from standing up is he? Because he couldn't trip them again on that AOO as they are considered still prone.
CON:8
WIS:7
Oh boy. Well, he'll be making a third character eventually...
The first question is, are your players having fun? If they are, then you don't need to do anything.
One thing to understand is that this player has built a controller, not a striker. Is he really reducing the enemies ability to attack the party more than an 8th level wizard would? Possibly, against some enemies, but fairly useless against others.
As the game goes on, trip generally becomes less useful without a DM doing anything special. Flying becomes much more common. Weapon using foes become less and less the main threat. CMB scales up pretty fast beyond 10 (although a focused build can still defeat that) Right now is probably the sweet spot and letting him enjoy that is ok.
If your other players really aren't having fun, I wouldn't try to negate the build directly, just add to encounters to increase the difficulty. Adding more creatures is one easy way, then he can be screwing with several, but some are going to get through keeping the other party busy. A few ranged attackers mixed in with melee attackers could be an option too.
I wouldn't add caster foes to just target him, but any casters that would normally be present and who could dominate him likely would choose him as a target, not because they know he has low WIS, but just because the big fighter type is usually the best target for such spells anyway.
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The first question is, are your players having fun? If they are, then you don't need to do anything.
One thing to understand is that this player has built a controller, not a striker. Is he really reducing the enemies ability to attack the party more than an 8th level wizard would? Possibly, against some enemies, but fairly useless against others.
As the game goes on, trip generally becomes less useful without a DM doing anything special. Flying becomes much more common. Weapon using foes become less and less the main threat. CMB scales up pretty fast beyond 10 (although a focused build can still defeat that) Right now is probably the sweet spot and letting him enjoy that is ok.
If your other players really aren't having fun, I wouldn't try to negate the build directly, just add to encounters to increase the difficulty. Adding more creatures is one easy way, then he can be screwing with several, but some are going to get through keeping the other party busy. A few ranged attackers mixed in with melee attackers could be an option too.
I wouldn't add caster foes to just target him, but any casters that would normally be present and who could dominate him likely would choose him as a target, not because they know he has low WIS, but just because the big fighter type is usually the best target for such spells anyway.
All of that.
Don't worry book 4 and 5 will have enemies trip and disarm are just crap for.
I'm not that far in RotR, but I'll agree that this will probably not be nearly as much of a problem later. If everyone else is at the table and having fun, let him have his shtick that he sank most of his build into.
I don't think anyone linked the FAQ about how you can't perma-trip:
Link
You can't 'perma-prone' people with trip.
I see no actual whip proficiency (its an exotic weapon so he's not proficient just for being a fighter, or a human).
Also, he does not threaten with the whip without Improved Whip Mastery... so how is he getting any AoOs at all?As for what to do, sunder the damn whip, its got no hit points or hardness to speak of.
edit: also, you could use enlarge person on the giants (they are humanoids)... once they gain a size category, he would no longer be able to trip them at all without increasing in size himself... though he could still disarm them.
All of this is awesome information.
Let's add to the mix his CON of 8!
He has a WIS of 7!?!
So the way I see this playing out: He will continue to dominate and trivialize everything for a bit more. THEN the game will catch up with him and he will be dead. He probably doesn't care because you will let him make a new character. At which point he will make a new character to trivialize encounters at that level.
I would suggest sitting down with him and explaining to him that this one trick pony will die eventually in this AP (8 con and 7 wis will get that done). Allow him a remake now, and from this point on, death will mean new characters are APL-3 levels to start. That should be incentive to make a real character that has a chance to survive the AP.
If my math is correct, his CMB for tripping (on his first attack) would be:
+8(BAB) +7(Str) +2(whip) +1(proficiency) +1(focus) +4(feats) +2(Fall's) = 25
Attacks of opportunity are taken at full BAB, so his disarm would be:
+8(BAB) +7(Str) +2(whip) +1(proficiency) +1(focus) +4(feats) = 23
There is no +1 bonus for 'proficiency' that I am aware of and even if there was, as has been pointed out, he is not even proficient with the whip since he has not taken the exotic weapon proficiency for it. Also the bonus on Trip attempts from Fall's Fury should be +3 not +2 since his dex is 16.
In the end his Trip bonus is the same just for different reasons. His disarm bonus would be 1 higher though.
As with Trip, there is no 'proficiency' bonus but there is a +2 on disarm attempts with a whip since it has the disarm ability in it's weapon line.
And as has been pointed out and linked above you cannot trip a prone target trying to stand since they are prone. You can only trip a target who is already standing.
To go along with others on the rules clarifications just practically speaking a trip build is going to need to be retrained soon in that AP. You just can't use it against some of the things you will be fighting which makes his entire build a waste of feats.
Basically, a trip build isn't usually a good build option. Way too many things are immune or have super high CMDs. The only reason this has been seeming so OP so far is because of the debunked perma-tripping.
You appear to be missing a feat:
1st - 1 human, 1 fighter, 1st level
Then one additional feat each level for a total of 10 feats. I'd guess the missing feat is Whip Proficiency.
But as others have already pointed out, he can't perma-trip, and he currently doesn't threaten with the whip. He needs Improved Whip Mastery to do that.
The +1(proficiency) I listed is really the Fighter's Weapon Training(Ex):Flails. Good catch on the incorrect Dex from Fall's! So the real math should be:
TRIP
+8(BAB) +7(STR) +2(enhancement) +1(training) +1(focus) +4(feats) +3(Fall's) = 26DISARM
+8(BAB) +7(STR) +2(enhancement) +1(training) +1(focus) +4(feats) +2(feature) = 25Also, it turns out that he did take Improved Whip Mastery, he just labeled it incorrectly on his character sheet (there was a feat I couldn't identify that had 'threaten' listed next to it).
In that case, he's missing whip proficiency.
I've been GMing for a few years on and off in our group. [snip]
Combat is currently extremely one-sided thanks to this character. Basically, everything they fight winds up perma-proned and disarmed (at least until...
Hilarious indeed! I can see how this can create problems.
I am not familiar with Pathfinder, nor with D&D 3.5, but just for fun I checked my D&D 3.0 PHB, and it seems you couldn't build such a character at all. Sometimes less is definitely more :)
The +1(proficiency) I listed is really the Fighter's Weapon Training(Ex):Flails. Good catch on the incorrect Dex from Fall's!
That clears that up for me then and glad I was some assistance! :)
Javelins.
But I played this in a 5th Edition conversion, where no special feats are required to use your Strength bonus on attack and damage rolls with thrown weapons.
Or you can just make that a "racial ability" for those ogres.