I'm trying to come up with a melee build that makes use of the various combat manoeuvres. Aside from all of those feats under Combat Expertise, what else
Are there feats/traits/items that specifically raise CMB or help with the AoO's and such provoked?
I'm looking for stuff in the 4th to 9th level range cost-wise. Aside from a fighter with high STR and lots of those Combat Expertise feats, I got nuthin...
Consider a Monk. They are the only character that can take Improved Trip without having Combat Expertise and a 13 INT . Once you get past 3rd They are a full BAB class when it comes to CMB, take Defensive Combat Training around 5th and you probably have a higher CMD then even a Fighter. A monk should be a High STR character with a good DEX, and WIS. As long as you are not playing a low point buy you can build a decent Monk.
Recommended reading Treantmonks guide to Monks.
Treanmonks guide to bards has a section for a battlefield controller bard, mixing casting with net and whip attacks and maneuvers. I've had some luck with it, starting off with a whip and agile manuevers and going from there.
I will warn you, though, while this type of character works when in its wheelhouse, its very easy to shut down. Creatures with multiple legs are harder to trip, and disarming is only useful against armed opponents. Careful spell selection is a must, as well.
If I were to go for this style again, i'd probably go straight fighter and take improved dirty trick before anything else. Maybe combined with the aldori duelist alternate track from inner sea primer, which give bonuses to disarm. Without having a good strategy to straight up kill stuff, there are going to be more than a few combats that leave you without a valid strategy.
The problem with a controller Bard is he is still a 3/4 BAB. If what you are looking for is a fun character it would be perfect. If what you are looking for is more combat effectiveness I would still go for the Monk. A Dwarven Monk would also be pretty good for this. Not only does he get a +2 WIS, but the dwarf also gets a bonus vs. Trip and Bull Rush.
The Biggest advantage the Monk has is the ability to ignore the prerequisites on the bonus feats. By 6th level he can have Improved Grapple, Improved Trip, and Improved Bull Rush without spending any regular feats that still leaves him 3 feats. Take toughness at first for HP (Also because Monks don't have a +1 BAB at first), Power Attack at 3rd for damage, and then Defensive Combat Training at 5th. With a good STR, DEX, and WIS he will be very effective . His HP will actually be about the same as the Fighter due to Toughness.
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Oricle Mystery Battle
Maneuver Mastery (Ex): Select one type of combat manuver. When performing the selected maneuver, you treat your oracle level as your base attack bonus when determining your CMB. At 7th level you
gain the Improved feat. At 11th level you gain the Greater feat. You do not need to meet the prerequisites to receive these feats.
and then you take.
Weapon Mastery (Ex): Slect one weapon you are proficent with. You gain weapon focus. At level 8 you gain improved critical. At level 11 you gain greater weapon focus. You do not need to meet the prerequisites to receive these feats.
You can use any combat manuver with out power attack or combat expertise. Now all you need is a weapon to go with it. Heavy Flail is the best choic for close melee. Guisarme for a martial reach trip weapon. Fauchard exotic reach trip weapon. Fauchard is my first choice it combines reach, damage, and combat manuver. Heavy Flail is my second choice becous it's two combat manuvers.
My 15 point buy oricle. Level 7 he should be around Trip CMB +17 with out buffs. (BAB) 7 + (Str Mod) 5 + (Improved Trip) 2 + (Trip Weapon +2)2 + (Weapon Focus) 1 = 17 Reach weapon Soft cover -2 = 15
Make a human cleric of a deity that grants the War Domain. Give him a 13 in Str, Dex and Int, and take Combat Expertise, Power Attack, Dodge Point Blank Shot and Two Weapon Fighting. Then when he hits 8th level, he gets the ability to (as a swift action for a number of rounds/day equal to his cleric level) emulate any combat feat he meets the prerequisites for. With those gateway feats, there will be literally dozens of other feats and maneuvers he can pull off as the need arises. Extremely flexible!
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While it's not the most common combat maneuver choice, I'm partial to blade-binding.
Use a temple sword to lock the weapon of a foe, and then follow up with shield-bashes to the face. As long as they try to hold onto the bound weapon, they also count as flat-footed, allowing you to pick up a level of rogue, and brutalize them. And, as long as you have their weapon bound, you get +4 to rolls to disarm or sunder that weapon.
If they drop the weapon to avoid these penalties, you've still got a sword and they don't, which is also a handy advantage. :)
Trip fighter with the Polearm Master archetype from the APG. Basically you double dip in weapon training for attacks of opportunity.
Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Improved Trip, Greater Trip, Cleave. Every time someone moves through your space you get an AoO, so you trip, and when you succeed they provoke for another attack (from allies as well). It's really solid...until level 8 or 9 when things become too big/hard to trip or always fly.
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Don't go monk. They are a trap when it comes to combat maneuvers. They might be able to ignore prerequisites for the 'improved' feats, but they still have to meat them for the 'greater' variants.
Anything that increases your attack roll also applies to the CMB, any of the full BAB classes should work, also I'd chose fighter since they get the most feats.
Use maneuvers that can be used as part of a full attack and take a weapon that allows you to trip, granting you its enhancement bonus on trip attempts. There's also a feat in the Cheliax companion that allows you to add your dexterity modifier on your trip CMB.
If you want to bull rush your enemies, play a shielded fighter and take the shield slam feat, granting you a free bull rush on each successful melee attack.
Barbarians can get enormous bonuses on CMB, too, but those are limited to once per rage, so unless you are immune to fatigue or have tireless rage, you'll have a hard time getting this bonus more than once per combat.
A magus with a wand of true strike could get +18 on CMB once per round, which isn't bad either.
I would just go simple and play a straight up fighter with a heavy flail. Combat Expertise, Trip, Disarm, and Power attack and any power attack based maneuvers you like. Maybe Improved Reposition if using those rules. High Str and Int 13, other stats as you like. I would NOT focus on just a trip build because there are too many things that either can't be tripped or have a significant bonus to CMD versus trip that it will become limited.
You will excel at whatever maneuvers you learn, and for monsters that don't respond well to maneuvers, you will do good damage with your flail--which also has an okay crit range which you can boost with feats later on.
Don't take any archetypes as you want armor training so you can move full speed in heavy armor---with a control-style warrior, you'll want to be able to move around if you need to, and since heavy flail is 2 handed, you'll rely on heavy armor for AC most likely. And Weapon training also as is will be best for boosting your combat maneuvers and damage.
I am playing a melee guy like what you are desribing in a home game. The build is pretty simple 1 wizard with the foresight school with the rest being a Brevoy Aldori Swordlord fighter out of the inner sea primer. The wizard gives me shield, true strike, and enlarge person most of which I have on wands to get around the spell failure chance. I picked up a grapplers mask for 5k to be able to grapple and bull rush. A dusty rose prism slotted in to a way finder will increase your cmb /cmd . Combat reflexs is also a good feat to have.
Go Fighter.
Take Two Weapon Fighting, but don't take more that that. Focus on Strenght.
Use a flail (as said above) and then choose basing on the enemy to trip, bull rush, or use other maneuvers (you will take most of the feats eventually). You can full attack mostly with the shield or the flail depending from your needs.
If possible, take combat reflexes. You must conceive build and tactics strongly depending from your party.
Alternatively, go Barbarian.
Use your immense strenght, Strenght Surge (take. this. rage power.), Knockback, Knockdown to perform maneuver.
YOu can use the Charge Through - Overberaing Assault - Overbearing Onslaught - Improved Overrun combo.
You can synergize Animal Fury and Improved Grapple too.
Don't go monk. They are a trap when it comes to combat maneuvers. They might be able to ignore prerequisites for the 'improved' feats, but they still have to meat them for the 'greater' variants.
Anything that increases your attack roll also applies to the CMB, any of the full BAB classes should work, also I'd chose fighter since they get the most feats.
Use maneuvers that can be used as part of a full attack and take a weapon that allows you to trip, granting you its enhancement bonus on trip attempts. There's also a feat in the Cheliax companion that allows you to add your dexterity modifier on your trip CMB.
If you want to bull rush your enemies, play a shielded fighter and take the shield slam feat, granting you a free bull rush on each successful melee attack.
Barbarians can get enormous bonuses on CMB, too, but those are limited to once per rage, so unless you are immune to fatigue or have tireless rage, you'll have a hard time getting this bonus more than once per combat.
A magus with a wand of true strike could get +18 on CMB once per round, which isn't bad either.
Considering that a Monk will have Power Attack he can get most of the greater versions except trip. I would just pick up the Improved trip and Greater Grapple as the first greater maneuver. At early levels the fighter will be picking up his beginning feats for his chain. The Monk by 6th Level can have three improved combat maneuvers. I am not saying they are the only way to go, but they do make a decent maneuver based character. Also consider that you can use trip as a part of a flurry of blows means a lot more trips then most fighters will get.
Gish with True strike Fighter/Wizard Fighter/Witch
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Here's one I haven't seen yet, whip wielding magus. I mentioned it a bit in another thread, but I think it's actually a pretty fun control character.
The goal is to mesh up your whip-based trip attacks on those a little closer to you and control spells such as glitterdust, web, aqueous orb, and the like to control the rest of the battlefield by using spell combat to get both attacks off. By level three you're as effective as a fighter with the whip (once you pick up the maneuver mastery aracana), and by level five you're likely running around with improved trip. There are tons of traits and other feats you can then focus on (e.g. greater improved trip, fury's fall, fury's snare). You also get to add in touch attacks out to 15 feet with your whip via your spellstrike ability (think ghoul's touch and vampiric touch).
I've played the character as an 8th level NPC and I can't tell you how fun it was. With a scorpion whip and the ability to charge your weapons with arcane weapon and he really did control the field. Don't expect to be the team's damage dealer, but do expect to be pretty flexible. A fun build nonetheless.
Here's one I haven't seen yet, whip wielding magus. I mentioned it a bit in another thread, but I think it's actually a pretty fun control character.
The goal is to mesh up your whip-based trip attacks on those a little closer to you and control spells such as glitterdust, web, aqueous orb, and the like to control the rest of the battlefield by using spell combat to get both attacks off. By level three you're as effective as a fighter with the whip (once you pick up the maneuver mastery aracana), and by level five you're likely running around with improved trip. There are tons of traits and other feats you can then focus on (e.g. greater improved trip, fury's fall, fury's snare). You also get to add in touch attacks out to 15 feet with your whip via your spellstrike ability (think ghoul's touch and vampiric touch).
I've played the character as an 8th level NPC and I can't tell you how fun it was. With a scorpion whip and the ability to charge your weapons with arcane weapon and he really did control the field. Don't expect to be the team's damage dealer, but do expect to be pretty flexible. A fun build nonetheless.
Sounds fun! May have to try that out.