I am trying to run an Inquisitor of Calistra and it has been a challange to make her usable in combat. If you have any ideas on how to make the whip (other than scorpion whip) more effective. I appreciete any thoughts...
Enhance it with the spectral hand spell. Then you can case a touch spell into your whip and have it delivered with a successful whip attack.
The price for such a whip would depend on whether or not you want the spectral hand ability to have charges, uses per day, or whatever.
Though it's 3.5, the old Spellsword PrC from Complete Warrior would also work.
In Pathfinder, spell-storing weapons are still available.
If you have any ideas on how to make the whip (other than scorpion whip) more effective. I appreciete any thoughts...
Technically, 3.75 should be backwards compatible with things like 3.0 prestige classes. There was one in the Sword and Fist suppliment called the lasher, which does precisely this. From memory, I think you get 'use whip as hand' at the second level of five.
Alternatively, this is really just a question of deciding upon the cost. You already know what you want to achieve. I'd suggest a feat, improved whip mastery, or something like that.
Also, there are better touch attacks than inflict X. Start adding effects, like curses or blindness, and see how quickly you become terrifying.
Cheers.
We don't wanna go to war today!Where there is a whip, there is a way.
But the Lord of the Lash says "Nay! Nay! Nay!"
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Also, check out the sadist’s lash from the Relics of Lust section of the Magic of Thassilon web enhancement.
does that work for society play?
Has anyone thought of the fun, but expensive Spell Storing+ Brilliant Energy combo. Used it for nasty NPCs
Yup, Magus or Spell Storing. Brilliant Energy would help bypass armor so it's closer to a Touch Attack.
Actually, several weapons inherently make Touch Attacks, e.g. Nets, a spell storing Net would be interesting.
With whips themselves you can make several CMBs by RAW, bypassing Armor.
Otherwise, to make whips useful, there is the chain of Whip Feats, or just use a Scorpion Whip since it shares proficiency, I'm not sure why the OP is ruling that out. Other than that, you don't need to use a whip all the time, other weapons may be better for general damage use and you can just keep the whip for sentiment and the few cases where it is useful. I.e. go for Longbows or any other melee weapon: Inquisitor only grants Simple melee weapons but you may have access via Race (e.g. Elf:Longsword/Rapier, Dwarf:Battleaxe) or Trait/Feat/Multiclass dip. Inquisitors are decently synergistic with Ranged/Archery even if they get no bonus Combat Feats.
Isn't that essentially what Spellstrike does?
Yep. take a two level Magus dip. You'll lose some inquisitor progression, but you won't lose either BAB or Saves. If you can, get the Spire Defender archetype for free whip proficiency (or any disarm/ trip weapon).
I was ninja'd as I typed. T_T
The OP already has Whip proficiency via Inquisitor and their Deity's Favored Weapon.
I'm not sure if they think they can't use Scorpion Whip for some reason because it's not a vanilla Whip per se,
but it uses the exact same proficiency they get for free via their Deity's Favored Weapon, so I don't see why not,
or why that is 'un-stereotypically Calistrian', any more than an Inquisitor/Cleric of a Longsword-favoring Deity using an Aldori Dueling Sword.
Obviously a Scorpion Whip is about killing, not about S&M games, but when you are in killing-mode, Scorpion Whip makes sense to use,
save the normal non-lethal Whip for the Temple ceremonies (or otherwise)... and Calistria is also about vengeance including killing.
(not that Scorpion Whip's uber powerful per se, but it's a viable weapon without anything fancy vs. a normal whip which isn't without Whip Mastery)
You miss out on AoOs with any Whip (bar Improved Whip Mastery) but it does have awesome Reach (=more Full Attacks),
and you can certainly also have some other melee weapon for AoOs, at least Spiked Gauntlets for example.
There's no reason you can't 2H Whips to gain the 2H STR bonus as well (although if you don't have at least 14 STR, it doesn't matter).