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Village they spend the night in turns out to be full of cannibals. They get awoken in the middle of the night while they sleep. The squishy spell casters will probably go down first letting the rest of the party know it's go time. Martial classes will probably last longer, but being caught without their gear on will make them much easier to deal with. Make sure they are sleeping on the second floor and their windows lead out onto an alley they can be trapped in.

We could base our number attacks off of dex and that would make sense, but would require more work to calculate. Everything is easier if we just give a bonus based on dex and envision multiple attacks. Just because it doesn't make sense to you doesn't make it untrue. The fact is you do not need much strength to kill someone, and someone who is agile is able to land a blow in just the right place much easier then someone who is strong and clumsy.

You are talking about multiple things there. Yes, you can land a blow in just the right place. That is called a critical hit in pathfinder. Making it easier to get crits is uaully the tactic dex based fighters take anyways. It's why most of the weapons that you would bother finessing have a good crit range and you can take improved crit. Improved crit represents your character putting in the effort to get good at hitting in just the right place.

If I get a knife in your back, I can twist it. You don't have that kind of control over a great axe. With a knife I can aim for more vital areas easier as it is light and small. Swinging a big axe you don't aim for small targets, you are just trying to hit the bastard. I think the problem lies with lack of imagination on your part.

I don't seem to be the one with a lack of imagination here. Assuming that a knife is better than an axe because you can twist it means you haven't consider the rouge snuck up and hit them in the neck with the axe. You do that right and the axe is just going to take off their head. Either way the person is dead, but the axe definately did more damage.

No, I am not talking about death attacks. I am talking about hitting windpipes, and groins. Using a clumsy great axe makes that much much harder to do.

Again, those are called a critical hit. You obviously are talking about death attack since you used the example of twisting a knife in someones back and that's about the most on the nose example of a death attack as possible.

I am guessing you don't watch much martial arts. Find an 80 year old that has studied and ask him whether or not he need strength to hurt you

Now you are talking about spending a lifetime of training to master the art of disabling people with minimal to no weapons. That's called a monk in this game. It's a totally different idea than sneaking up on someone and sticking a knife in their back. I think you may need to watch a few more martial arts movies yourself, as most of the heros from that tend to be ripped. They aren't built like body builders, but no one who actually fights as their living is. Go google "Bruce Leee Shirtless," or "Jackie Chan shirtless." Those are not the bodies of a low strength characters.

Dex as damage isn't core because it doesn't make sense. Adding dex to damage does not represent the "thousand cuts" approach to combat. That would be more like basing your number of attacks off dex. Theres no reason a dagger should be better at sneak attack than a great axe. A great axe should maybe be harder to sneak up on someone with, but if you can sneak up on someone with a great axe, it'll be more damaging than a dagger. If you want to simulate that feel of the rouge cutting someones throat silently from behind, then house ruling coup de graces to be easier on a sneak attack is probably what you are looking for. Also, death attack is already what you are looking for. You need str to hurt people and put them in the real world. Being very dexterous doesn't do it unless you are using weapons designed to take advantage of our anatomy and easily puncture into the squishy bits. That's why rapiers have a high crit range.