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So I had an idea and it came from a variety of other posts I have seen lately. I was thinking of a character with the entire concept being condition stacking via martial combat (that means no Sythesists! ;) ).
I don't have a full build in mind but rather am thinking of what the tool set could include. Here are some things that I have in mind:
The Rogue Talent Befuddling Strike
The Rogue Talent Offensive Defense
Cornugon Smash + Shatter Defenses
Creative use of Dirty Trick Combat Maneuver
Maneuver Master Monk
Lore Warden Fighter
Thug Rogue (to apply sickened condition)
Use of other maneuvers like trip and possibly grapple
Feats like Disorienting Maneuver, Binding Throw, Ki Throw, Fury's Fall, Improved Trip, Improved Grapple, Improved Dirty Trick, etc.
I'm thinking it would be best to just fight unarmed for this sort of character. Also, unarmed strikes are already bludgeoning weapons and can be used as non-lethal without a penalty so it works very well with Cornugon Smash and Shatter Defenses.
I was thinking that for RP purposes that Drunken Master would be great but the mechanics don't add a lot to it so it might be better to just RP the character as a drunken master without actually taking the class.
Dirty Trick by itself can apply blinded, dazzled, deafened, entangled, shaken, or sickened. Tripping the opponent can make them prone. Grappling can make them grappled. Thug makes them sickened with a successful sneak attack. Cornugon Smash + Shatter Defenses makes them flat-footed and shaken. Between Offensive Defense and Befuddling Strike the opponent would have a -4 to attack the character.
I was thinking that due to the change in how resolution of maneuvers is handled in Pathfinder as opposed to how it was in 3.x that the negative that you give your opponent to their attacks and checks doesn't really help you for successfully completing future maneuvers against them. This is because their CMD doesn't change. However, there are a few ways to increase your effective CMB to make you more successful. I'm not aware of any way to really affect your opponent's effective CMD, though. Unless I missed/forgot something?
Also, when looking through the different maneuvers it appears as though the only ones that you can use in lieu of an attack are: disarm, sunder and trip. This actually came up in our last session and I guess I had never really realized this before mostly because we never tried it. And also, Dirty Trick is standard action only it appears. That kinda sucks. I suppose it isn't so bad in a turn where you can only get a single attack. It also doesn't really matter much after getting first level in Maneuver Master because Flurry of Maneuvers doesn't discriminate based on what kind of action the normal maneuver takes.
I also had thought about the use of style feats but I can't think of any that would be particularly good for the build. I mean it is hard to go wrong with styles like Crane Style which are just good for anyone, but I mean there is nothing that benefits the idea of the build much.
Anyway, I think right now I am just kinda in the phase of collecting ideas to add to the tool box. But if you have ideas for builds you have done before or anything that could help this kind of build, let me know. Eventually I'll likely try to work this out into a complete build.
The idea here is to stack the condition modifiers so deep on the baddies that it makes them (and the DM by proxy) cry. C'mon, I know that you guys love doing that, right? I've seen these kinds of suggestions posted for other builds. What do I gotta do to bust you guys outta the wood works?
I had a GMPC who was a cad fighter. He was there to explain some plot, but also to be a traitor later on.
Dirty trick works on a lot of things, but requires a few feats to make it useful. Greater dirty trick and quicken dirty trick are nearly a must if you go down that route.
A rogue with crippling strike to reduce str would drop CMD down, but this doesn't work on undead (where dirty trick does cause undead aren't immune to blindness or sickened iirc)
Thoss the Sorcerer
Thoss The Sorcerer: No casters, please! ;)
Also Quicken Dirty Trick is not needed with Maneuver Master.
I hadn't thought of crippling strike, thats not a bad idea. That is an advanced talent though.
BBT: No casters please!
Anything that reduces str or dex would be useful. I can't remember if there are some monk feats that do that or not.
Poisons would also work, but they tend to not have high enough DC at high levels.
Just taking some notes here about when different feats and rogue talents could be taken:
Cornugon Smash (Fighter 2)
Power Attack (Fighter 1)
Weapon Focus (Rogue Talent 1)
Dazzling Display (3rd)
Shatter Defenses (Fighter 4)
Combat Expertise (Human)
Improved Dirty Trick (Monk 1)
Improved Trip (Monk 2)
Improved Grapple (1st)
Ki Throw (5th)
Binding Throw (Fighter 6)
Fury's Fall (7th)
Dodge
Disorienting Maneuver
Befuddling Strike
Offensive Defense
Hm. Its looking like Fighter up to at least 6th and Rogue up to at least 4th would be good. If I'm going to 6th level Fighter, I might as well take it to 7th for the Lore Warden's Know Thy Enemy ability. And for Rogue every level is valuable with even levels giving an extra Rogue Talent and odd giving more Sneak Attack (which this build can fully take advantage of). Monk right now I have at only 2nd for the bonus feats but maybe later bringing it up to 6th would be good.
This is going to require more thought...
BBT: I would be interested in seeing what they have to offer.
I'm surprised I didn't get more feedback on this one.
Let me ask this: I haven't used a build that focuses on Dirty Trick yet. Can anyone give me some good uses for it? I mean, I know what the feat does but I want to know how you are doing what you do. Like how have you established that you are blinding your enemy? Knocking their helmet backwards? Kicking dirt in their face? Pulling their robe over their head?
Some of the decriptions I gave for the cad when he was blinding people was that he was cutting their brow so that blood would run down their face and into their eyes. So not doing damage, just creating hinderances.
The nice thing about dirty trick is that you can have fun with the descriptions. You could have a dirty trick component pouch like a wizard's spell one which has sand etc in it to give you choices.
You also give a few thoughts, but why not cycle all of them based on the GM's description? Fighting a wizard? You can ask if he has a hat, and you pull that over his eyes.:P I'm sure that a GM wouldn't mind if you were assisting in describing what you were fighting. The general one of 'what do they look like' will be vague, but things like 'Does he have a belt I could knock open to cause him to be entagled when his trousers start to fall down' would help them as well.
I also found the monk feat I was looking for. It was part of the jaw breaker ones that use stunning fist to give penalties.
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Condition stacking builds tend to get boring fast but if that's what you really want to do then nothing is as effective as as the Defiler Magus.
At 7th level a prepared Defiler can inflict Grappled, Staggered, Fatigued, Entangled, Prone and Shaken onto a target with a single standard action. If he decides to make a full action he can also add Blind or Sickened to that target. At the same time he's stacking all these conditions he's still putting out a scary amount of damage (Routinely 30-40 DPR) while spending next to nothing in resources (1 arcane pool point and 1 first level spell per target).
If anything leaves through that first round then you probably shouldn't be fighting it anyway.
Mathwei ap Niall: Ok, I know I said no casters but I just read that guide and it is hilarious. I wouldn't use it for a martial character as I'm suggesting for this build but that Defiler does look pretty good.
Ok, what do you think of this build?
1 - Monk 1: Improved Dirty Trick (bonus), Improved Grapple (1st), Combat Expertise (Human), Flurry of Maneuvers, Stunning Fist, Unarmed Strike
2 - Monk 2: Improved Trip (bonus), Evasion
3 - Fighter 1: Power Attack (Fighter 1), Dazzling Display (3rd)
4 - Fighter 2: Combat Expertise (bonus), Cornugon Smash (Fighter 2)
5 - Rogue 1: Ki Throw (5th), Frightening, Sneak Attack 1d6
6 - Rogue 2: Weapon Focus (Rogue Talent)
7 - Fighter 3: Maneuver Mastery, Fury's Fall (7th)
8 - Fighter 4: Shatter Defenses (Fighter 4)
9 - Fighter 5: Binding Throw (9th)
10 - Fighter 6: Dodge (Fighter 6)
11 - Fighter 7: Know Thy Enemy, Disorienting Maneuvers (11th)
12 - Rogue 3: Sneak Attack 2d6, Brutal Beating
13 - Rogue 4: Offensive Defense, Uncanny Dodge, Greater Trip (13th)
14 - Rogue 5: Sneak Attack 3d6
15 - Rogue 6: Befuddling Strike, Greater Dirty Trick(15th)
16 - Rogue 7: Sneak Attack 4d6
So this build in a single round could do all of the following: (listing conditions applied in parenthesis)
1. Declare Flurry of Maneuvers
2. Stunning Fist (Stunned) on the first atack which is a...
3. Power Attack triggering Cornugon Smash + Shattered Defenses making the foe (flat footed) and (shaken) for the remainder of the round allowing the rest of the attacks to be Sneak Attacks
4. On second attack use Dirty Trick to (Blind) the enemy.
5. On third attack use Improved Trip triggering Ki Throw (Prone) and Greater Trip another attack which is also a Sneak Attack
6. Since the foe has now been sneak attacked this triggers Offensive Defense (+4 AC), Befuddling Strike (-2 to attacks), Frightening and Brutal Beating (Sickened)
7. Since the foe was Ki Thrown this triggers Binding Throw for a free (Grapple) attempt
8. Assuming the foe is grappled, continue to (Pin)
Next round you can (Tie Up) your opponent, attempt another Stunning Fist if the first one didn't succeed, apply dazzled, deafened, or entangled via Dirty Trick or just continue to beat them senseless with Sneak Attacks.
What I like about the build is that while you are applying your conditions you are not losing out completely on damaging your opponent. With Power Attack and Sneak Attack applying on all of your attacks past the first, and Power Attack applying on the first you are able to contribute some decent damage while making the poor sap your fighting cry because he can't manage to do anything to you. I envision a fight with this guy looking like someone trying to fight Jackie Chan in any number of his movies where he ties them up with their own shirt and is a constant flurry of shenanigans throughout the fight.
Oh, and the CMB really stacks up nicely with Lore Warden granting a flat +4 by 7th level and many of the condition stacking giving the opponent stacking negatives. Blind gives -2 to CMD, Flat-Footed gives denies them adding Dex to CMD, Entangled gives -2 to CMD, Grappled gives a -2 to CMD, Pinned is an additional -2 to CMD, Prone gives a -2 to CMD, Stunned gives them a -2 to CMD and gives you a +4 to CMB.
That is a potential total of +8 to your CMB, and a -12 to their CMD. If they still have a positive Dex modifier after all of that they also lose that. They get another -2 to attacks if they try to do anything except escape the grapple.
And it isn't like they are going to attack you either. Not with the severe negatives they are getting to that: Blind giving a 50% miss chance, Dazzled -1 to attacks, Entangled -2 to attacks, Grappled -2 to attacks, Prone -4 to attacks, Shaken -2 to attacks, Sickened -2 to attacks, Befuddling Strike -2 to attacks and you have a +4 to AC from Offensive Defense.
Thats a total of -15 to their attack and +4 to your AC. That is before using Combat Expertise.
...and that is if they aren't Stunned in the first place.
Now, how about equipment? ;)
The reason that I put Monk first was because the build is going to be unarmored his entire career. If I put Fighter first being unarmored at first level without Wis to AC would be pretty painful. The difference in HP would only be on average -1 so I didn't think it was a big deal. Thank you for your suggestion though.
So for equipment I'm sure Monk's Robes would be a high priority. What about weapon enhancements for an Amulet of Mighty Fists? I'm thinking Dueling (the +1 enhancement that adds to CMB rather than the +14,000 enhancement). Agile could be good if I pump the characters Dex to take advantage of Fury's Fall.
What about Wonderous Items? I know that obviously stat boosting items will be good for this build. But is there anything else that helps him accomplish his tasks?
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Keep a few different sizes of Nets on hand. It does not matter if you are proficient with them. Entangled is a good way to start with the condition stacking.
A Cracked Opalescent White Pyramid Ioun Stone will only cost you 1500gp., and will allow you to treat the Net as a Martial weapon.
Note, this will function with Snag Nets as well, which can be used in melee without provoking.