I happened to make a guy who is pretty much awesome at grappling. I was wondering if there's anything else I should consider for him or if anyone had suggestions.
20 Point-buy
Initial stats:
STR 10
DEX 18
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 10
Level 4, 8, 12, and 16 increase to Dex (Cumulative +2)
Hogtie Hank
Male Human Lore Warden Fighter 17
Init +13; Senses Perception +17
DEFENSE
AC 35, touch 21, flat-footed 29 (+9 Armor +6 dex, +5 Natural Armor, +5 Deflection)
hp 195 (17d10+85+17 Favored Class)
Fort +17, Ref +14, Will +5
OFFENSE
Spd 30 ft.
Melee +5 Agile Cestus +39/+34/+29/+24 (1d4+22/x2)
+5 Agile Cestus (Pirahna Strike) +34/+28/+23/+18 (1d4+32/x2)
STATISTICS
Str 10, Dex 28, Con 20, Int 16, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +17; CMB +34 (+51 Grapple/Trip) CMD 49 (51 vs Grapple/Trip)
Feats Agile Maneuvers, Binding Throw, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Equipment Trick, Greater Grapple, Greater Trip, Greater Weapon Focus (Cestus), Greater Weapon Specialization (Cestus), Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Improved Unarmed Strike, Ki Throw, Rapid Grappler, Pin Down, Piranha Strike, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (Cestus), Weapon Specialization (Cestus)
Skills Acrobatics +26, Knowledge (Geography) +23, Knowledge (History) +23, Knowledge (Local) +23, Linguistics +23, Perception +17, Survival +20
Languages Common, Elven, Dwarven, Gnome, Halfling, Giant, Goblin, Gnoll, Orc, Draconic, Celestial, Infernal, Abyssal, Sylvan, Terran, Aquan, Ignan, Auran, Aklo, Undercommon
Gear +5 Agile Cestus, +5 Mithral Chain Shirt. +5 Cloak of Resistance, +6 Belt of Physical Might (Dex and Con), +2 Headband of Vast Intelligence, Dueling Gloves, Boots of Speed, Ring of Freedom of Movement, Ring of Protection +5, Bag of Holding Type 1, 5 Silk Ropes; 24,500 gp
1 Imp. Unarmed strike
H Weapon Finesse
B Agile Maneuvers
B Combat Expertise
B Imp. Grapple
3 Equipment Trick
B Weapon Focus
5 Weapon Specialization
B Greater Grapple
7 Imp Trip
B Ki Throw
9 Binding Throw
B Greater Trip
11 Combat Reflexes
G Greater Weapon Focus
13 Vicious Stomp
B Piranha Strike
15 Pin Down
B Rapid Grappler
17 Imp Initiative
This guy is a master grappler. The intent is to have this guy run in and quickly tie up an opponent. In the grapple rules, you are allowed to attempt to tie up an opponent without pinning them if you take a -10 penalty to maintin the grapple. With the Equipment Trick feat, this penalty is reduced to -5. Now, the next step is to take the Lore Warden archetype for the Fighter. Lore Warden can be seen here.
The Lore Warden is all kinds of awesome for a Fighter. First and foremost you get two additional points for skills. Even if they are Intelligence skills only, that's still two free skills. Hank starts with a pretty good Int, which later gets bumped up by his headband. Along with being human, this nets him a whopping 6 skill ranks per level and one maxed skill from his headband. In essence, that is 7 ranks per level. This is pretty much unheard of for a Fighter. Second, he gets a small bonus to his CMB/CMD. This grows to a total of +8 to both at level 15. Holy crap! All this plus the ability to negate crits and give him bonuses to specific targets? This guy is amazing.
The build becomes complete feat-wise at level 3. Taking Greater Grapple is a given, but other than that, you are free to build him as you see fit. I've given him trip focused feats as well. With the current build, he can run in, trip an enemy, take an opportunity attack against him as he falls, and take a swift action to grapple him while prone. Due to the enemy being prone, he also gets a +4 to the opportunity attack and grapple attempt. With the way I've built him, this one turn would go like this:
Trip Attempt (+51)>Opportunity Attack (+43)>Grapple Attempt (+55)
That is absolutely nuts! My friend has a level 17 Monk focused on grappling and he's only getting +29 on his grapples. There are various reasons this is so high, but the signifcant one is the Cestus this guy wears. Depending on GM interpretation, the Cestus can be used to make combat maneuvers including trips and grapples. This build assumes so, but if this is not the case at your table, just remember to factor out the bonuses.
CMB=+17 BAB, +9 Dex, +8 Lore Warden, +2 Imp. Grapple/Trip, +2 Greater Grapple/Trip, +5 Weapon Enhancement, +6 Weapon Training (Cestus), +2 Weapon Focus (Cestus)
That's such a ridiculous bonus, even if we lose out +13 from lack of cestus bonus. Here's the clincher, though. Once we've grappled the opponent, they have to try to break free. The DC is equal to our CMD. That's really tough for a standard humanoid opponent to do. Next turn, we can maintain our grapple with +5 bonus. We can choose to take a -5 to attempt to tie them up as part of our maintaining check. If we succed in maintaining and tying up with our +51 grapple, they target is bound and considered helpless. HELPLESS. The helpless condition allows for a coup de grace attempt on the helpess opponent. If they survive somehow, that's no problem. They are still bound and still helpless. The DC to escape their bindings? 20+our CMB to grapple. DC 71! Even on a natural 20, most enemies will not escape. The Tarrasque has to roll an 18 or better to beat that DC!
The build also incorporates the Piranha Strike, Vicious Stomp, and Pin Down feats. Pirahna Strike is giving us a -5 to hit and +10 to damage when in use. This would also apply to any opportunity attacks taken between turns. Pin Down lets us take opportunity attacks against anyone trying to get away. The attack may be replaced with a trip if so desired. This is greatly desired. With Combat Reflexes, we have a total of 10 opportunity attacks available to trip anyone who tries to get away from us, move past us, or decides to provoke an attack in any way. If they trip, they provoke an attack of opportunity on the way down. This allows for us to trip and attack 5 opponents. If we're Pirahna Striking, that is a +38 to hit each of these guys for 1d4+32. That's nothing to scoff at, especially when you realize that they would have to provoke an attack to stand back up, which would allow a second attack with the same bonuses.
So that's the build. Anything I should note or consider?
Why is he a dexterity build though, a strength build would be better at this.
Also, he's still running into the problem that trip and grapple just get worthless as enemies get higher CR (since that also contributes to larger size foes). He may be able to force the tarasque to roll an 18 to break a grapple, but since he can't grapple big T anyways, I don't see why that matters.
He's Dex based due to lack of higher armor profeciencies and Armor Training. The Dex is there to make up the lost AC. As for grappling the Tarrasque, there is nothing preventing him from grappling it if he can make the check.
There is no limatation for grappling based on size category.
Looks good... except that the name Hogtie Hank makes him sound like he should be starring in a BDSM flick. I suggest Manacles of Cooperation and leather armor to complete the theme.
Its mentioned that it is up to your GM whether or not those would apply. They can apply to the trip no problem, but the grapple is up to interpretation. My GM has approved this interpretation, but that's why I make note that it won't always fly.
I suggest Manacles of Cooperation and leather armor to complete the theme.
Studded leather. Preferably black.
Anyway, the build looks nice. I also don't think the cestus boni should apply to grapple checks. Its still good even without those, but if your DM is running it that way, all the better.
I would take Pin Down sooner. EDIT: Unless I'm missing something about how quickly he's hogtying people, I also think you should be grabbing Rapid Grappler ASAP (level 9).
You should also look into the Fury's Fall feat for further trip optimization.
I would make it a "str and dex" build (str primary, but dex kept at a decent level as well), so you don't have to waste 2 feats on weapon finesse and agile maneuvers (side note: if he's using the cestus, a finessable weapon, for the grapples, he doesn't even need agile maneuvers, weapon finesse covers him). Your AC and CMB will be slightly less ridiculous, but you'll do more damage, have more feats, and in general be more well rounded.
Not sure it's worth dipping out for, but 3 levels in Inquisitor will cost you 1 BAB but get you the Solo Tactics class feature and a bonus feat for Tandem Trip to make good use of it.
You should also look into the Fury's Fall feat for further trip optimization.
I would make it a "str and dex" build (str primary, but dex kept at a decent level as well), so you don't have to waste 2 feats on weapon finesse and agile maneuvers (side note: if he's using the cestus, a finessable weapon, for the grapples, he doesn't even need agile maneuvers, weapon finesse covers him). Your AC and CMB will be slightly less ridiculous, but you'll do more damage, have more feats, and in general be more well rounded.
Yes, Fury's Fall is perfect for this imagining. I completely forgot about it. As for Agile Maneuvers, I need it to use Dex for grapple attempts. I could easily make a Str version of this, but I like having the extra opportunity attacks, the increased Dex, and the higher Acrobatics to negate crits.
The more I think about it, Hank would not need Rapid Grappler. If he can take a full round, he gets enough actions to hogtie someone in one turn. Otherwise, it will always take a second turn. It's a minimum of two actions to tie someone up, so he doesn't need an extra swift action to maintain.
Thanks for the input, though!
And again, part of your build hinges on "using the cestus to make the grapple attempt" (to wrangle those big extra bonuses). If that is so, the cestus is a finessable weapon, agile maneuvers becomes unnecessary. I wish AM was just folded into Weapon Finesse anyway, it's so seldom needed, and it's such a blatant extra feat tax...