Unarmed antipaladin

[Douglas Muir 406]

Okay, not actually unarmed. The character concept is an NPC paladin who enjoys killing his enemies with his bare hands. He's not stupid, so he carries a perfectly good black human-bane greatsword. But when the opportunity presents itself, he likes nothing better than crushing, strangling, or beating his enemies to death.

Tentative build: Human Ftr 2/Antipal 6. Give him 18 Str and 16 Cha. Feats, start with Improved Unarmed Strike, Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike), and Power Attack. That lets him make

-- an ordinary unarmed strike at +13 for d3+4 damage; or
-- an unarmed power attack, using both hands, at +11 for d3+10 damage; or,
-- an unarmed smiting power attack at +14 for d3+18 damage.

Okay, no biggie so far. But now two questions arise. First, can the antipal use his Touch of Corruption power as part of his unarmed strike? If he could do this, he'd get to throw in another 4d6 of damage 6x/day, and could try inflicting a cruelty as well. The rule say the Touch of Corruption is a touch attack, though, so probably not.

Second question: presumably an antipal with Improved Unarmed Strike could use his Fiendish Boon on an unarmed strike. So at 8th level he could make his fists +1 and Flaming or Vicious. A vicious smiting power attack would be at +15 for d3+2d6+18. Still not as good as swinging that big black greatsword, of course, but sometimes you just want to go for style.

And then grappling. Improved Grapple + Greater Grapple = +4 to CMB, no AoOs, and you can maintain a grapple as a move action. So you grab someone and then just inflict ridiculous amounts of damage on them in the next couple of rounds -- presumably, in game terms, you grab them and strangle them. Spiked armor should of course enter into this. (The 13 Dex requirement is a nuisance, requiring you to either be a 20 point build or invest heavily in stat-boosters. But that's life as a multistat character class.)

Finally, there are Stunning Fist and Punishing Kick. Both of these look nice, but they do build a save off of your Wis modifier, which is not likely to be wonderful. Still, knocking someone prone or stunning them and THEN killing them with your bare hands is pretty tempting.

I'm sure there are ways to make this even more amusing. Thoughts?

Doug M.

[Jaryn Wildmane]

You cannot use touch of corruption with unarmed strike until you get the feat Crusader's Fist. I would suggest taking a level or two of Unarmed Fighter if not going full anti-paladin. When you smite you will be a terror to whoever you decide to grapple.

[Douglas Muir 406]

I missed Crusader's Fist. Okay, so he could do an unarmed strike for d3+4+4d6, or power attack at d3+10+4d6, up to 7 times/day. Nice. A vicious smiting power attack would be at +15 for d3+6d6+18, or average 41 points of damage. But Touch of Corruption works even against nongood enemies! So he's always got that 4d6 in his pocket, along with the Fiendish boon stuff.

Oh, plus his cruelties! He gets two -- maybe fatigued and staggered? (Fatigued doesn't stack, right? I mean, you can't hit someone with it twice to make them exhausted. Still pretty good, mind.) If he has Stunning Fist and Punishing Kick, then a single blow could provoke three separate saves.

Doug M.

[Matt Stich]

You can't power attack with unarmed strike, you'd need Piranha Strike, you can find it on the PFSRD

[Brambleman]

You can power attack with any melee attack that does damage.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Let's see. If he's human, he gets 7 feats. A possible build could be

15 points:

Str 14 (+2 racial +2 level +2 item)
Dex 13
Con 12
Int 8
Wis 12
Cha 14 (+2 item)

Human - Improved Unarmed Strike
1 - Power Attack
Ftr 1 - WF Unarmed Strike
Ftr 2 - Improved Grapple
3 - Crusaders Fist
5 - Greater Grapple
7 - Stunning Fist

Obviously this is a suboptimal build in many respects. He's not that great a melee fighter, yadda yadda. But in terms of cinematic villainy, I think there's some potential here. He grabs you and strangles you, man, preferentially going after characters who are good aligned. Probably works best as part of a larger evil party, but he could also be a solo villain who challenges a PC to unarmed combat. "None shall pass unless you can first defeat me at wrestling!" The PC barbarian steps up, confident that his raging CMB will carry all before him... and gets hit with Touch of Corruption and the Fatigue cruelty.

Doug M.

[DreamAtelier]

I'd actually suggest Channel Smite instead of Stunning Fist, personally. While using it would cause him to burn through his touch of corruption more quickly, it would stack with the Touch of Corruption itself, allowing him to basically double the touch of corruption damage (though costing him three uses to do so).

A great little trick for him, in the event that he needs to get through enemies quickly, or just wants to make a statement.

[Aoth Anskuld]

Brambleman wrote:

You can power attack with any melee attack that does damage.

You can power attack with unarmed strike, but 2-handing it does not get you more than the 1-hand bonus; it's considered a light weapon.

[Douglas Muir 406]

You're right about power attack. Okay.

-- That raises a question: could you use Two-Weapon Fighting to get two unarmed attacks at -2?

Also, contemplating this guy, if I were to level him up I think I'd dip a single level of barb. Fast movement and (especially) rage would make this totally worthwhile. In fact, barb and antipal would seem a pretty natural combo -- rage and smite, rage and smite.

Doug M.

[KrispyXIV]

Douglas Muir 406 wrote:

-- That raises a question: could you use Two-Weapon Fighting to get two unarmed attacks at -2?

Totally.

Also, the key to these sorts of builds is get Dragon Style and Dragon Ferocity; extra damage on your big attack of the turn, and half your strength again on every other unarmed strike you make in the turn... and it scales with strength. And it allows No-Save Shaken applicatation via Stunning Fist.

It takes a bit to get completely up and running, but its pretty terrifying in practice IMO.