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Hey everybody! So, I've been working on coming up with a character for my friend's new Jade Regent campaign, and was perusing the forums here for inspiration. I happened upon the idea of creating a character focused on providing party support while disarming or tripping enemies with a whip, and I'm interested in trying to create a whip-focused Inquisitor of Calistria.
My problem is that I'm really not all that familiar with combat maneuvers... or with Inquisitors, for that matter. The idea appeals to me partly because I'd be trying something completely new, but I would really appreciate some advice on making this concept viable in-game. I'm obviously not looking for something super-optimized, I just want to have a character who won't become completely useless at some point.
Anyway, thanks in advance for any pointers you can offer!
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Inquisitor doesn't seem like a bad choice for a whip user, as Bane will let you boost up your CMB to respectable levels. You still need to decide what you're going to be focusing on, because the whip is now capable of three combat maneuvers, and you don't have enough feats to specialize in them all.
Trip: Easy to use, but will become worse as more of your enemies are flying/centipedes
Disarm: Also easy, but only if you're fighting something equipped.
Grapple: Requires 4-5 feats to get going, but is also versatile, in that it will work on most enemies.
Inquisitions you should be looking at are Conversion or Fervor. Conversion (and Heresy, to a smaller extent) will let you act as the party face, while dumping charisma anyway. Since you'll need 13 INT anyway for combat expertise, you'll have no shortage of skill points. Fervor is more effective in combat, as you'll get one swift spell/movement/attack once per day.
Feats you'll need:
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip
Improved Disarm
Improved Grapple*
Whip Mastery
Improved Whip Mastery
Greater Whip Mastery*
Greater Trip/Disarm/Grapple
*you can skip these if you don't want to use grapple or don't think it's worth the feats.
So the only problem with this build is you will be feat starved the whole time. Human is probably your best bet as a result.
I advise against a dex/finesse build, as you'll do far more damage and still be relatively safe with a strength build. You can use a whip two-handed (it's a one-handed weapon so that's legal) and get 1.5xSTR and a boost on power attack by doing so.
As for stats, you need a 13 INT, a high STR and a medium-high WIS. Dump CHA into the gutter.
The tricky part about it is the number of feats involved and the fact the Inquisitor is a 3/4 BAB class. But thanks to Ultimate Combat, there is now a rather excellent line of whip-focused feats. But access is gated a bit by BAB requirements.
Whip Mastery, the first in the feat line, has a requirement of Weapon Focus (Whip) and BAB +2, meaning you could take it at 3rd level. It allows you to deal lethal damage with the whip, damage armored foes, and no longer provoke AoO's while using it.
Improved Whip Mastery has a prereq of Whip Mastery and BAB +5, so you could take it at level 7. It allows you to threaten with your whip, and to use it to grab objects.
Greater Whip Mastery has a BAB prereq of +8, and lets you grapple with your whip.
But in order to make those worth it, you'd need Improved/Greater trip, which in turn means you need Combat Expertise.
It's an extremely feat-tight build that takes a bit to really take off, but could be decent enough if done right.
Acutally you wouldn't be taking the first whip feat till 5th level, because it requires Weapon Focus. Weapon focus requires a +1 attack and can't be taken till 3rd level.
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It makes me cringe to post in this thread....
Get UC,use a scorpion whip.Get Whip Mastery.In order to get it sooner,you can dip a level into fighter for level 2.This will allow you to get Whip Mastery at level 3.
Don't dip into fighter. Inquisitor spell progression is more important than killing with your whip for the first four levels. If you really need to do lethal damage before then, then yes, get a scorpion whip, but I'll still stand by the value of being able to do non-lethal or lethal damage (without penalty), and I don't think 0.5 more damage per hit is worth losing that ability.
At levels 1-4 though, just carry a back-up weapon. Just because you've named your character "Whippy McWhipster" doesn't mean he has to use a whip from level 1. Grab a nice Morningstar and Longspear, and roleplay your character practicing with his whip every day until he reaches level 5.