I was thinking today that, at least in my neck of the woods, there's a lot of combat and fighter feats that I've never seen anyone use. The specific one I was thinking about was Whirlwind Attack, and I was thinking that the difference between it being effective and a waste was the size of your threatened area, and about a build to make the most of it.
Then I realized that a whirlwind attack build also is good for other little-used options, like disruptive, teleport tactician, and combat patrol.
The end result of this was the Ultimate Fighter Battlefield Controller!
Polearm Master Fighter
Weapon: Guisarme
Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack, Lunge, Disruptive, Spellbreaker, Teleport Tactician,
Then for fun, take tripping, disarming, and cleaving feats to taste. Pepper weapon focus and weapon specializations as needed.
The idea is to charge past enemies into a central position, then use his ridiculous threatening area from lunge and his weapon to affect the most people possible with cleave, whirlwind attack, disruptive, spellbreaker, combat reflexes, and teleport tactician. If he can't get into that central position, you can use combat patrol to keep anyone from getting near the rest of his party, again with a ridiculous range. Trip is just an added, debilitating ability to throw into a fight when one has access to big range and Whirlwind's (and cleave's) ability to make attacks at multiple people at full BAB.
What do you think? Anything else that could be added to this build to make it an even better controller? Any other good builds that take little-used feats and make them worthwhile?
Just a thought, and thanks in advance for any feedback.
I had a similar build but it was more focused on Improved Reposition and polearms. Was really fun and I honestly do like Whirlwind attack.
I'm not sure all those feats and abilities can be used simultaneously.
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First, lunge doesn't actually increase threat area since the positive effects of lunge end at the end of your turn, not at the beginning of your next turn (like power attack). So it just increases your reach when you can take normal attacks, not AoOs, sadly. However, getting enlarged is going to be a priority, so get a helpful wizard friend or invest in Giant Hide.
You are also rather MAD for a fighter. You need 13 INT for Combat Expertise (a normal dump stat), at least a DEX of 13 for Combat Reflexes, but you surely want more than just one additional AoO, so it'll likely be closer to 18 or 20 by the time this build comes to fruition. You also need a decent CON to survive being in the middle of the mobs it takes to make this build worthwhile. And you need a decent strength to make your attacks hit and deal any damage. In a point build, you are going to end up dumping WIS, which will give you a pretty abysmal Will save.
However, if you can convince your GM to do what we did and change the prerequisites for Whirlwind Attack, it might help. We changed the prereqs to "Power Attack, BAB +1, Cleave, Great Cleave, Str 13, Dex 13" because that makes more sense to us. If you can't get that houserule in place, you are just going to have to look at dealing minimal damage and having a useless feat or two.
Since Cleave is a standard action, you can't combine it with the full-round action of Whirlwind attack, so (without the houserule) it'd be a useless feat. However, since you've already qualified for Improved Trip and Greater Trip, you might as well take those and use all those AoOs when you make them fall down, and again when you make them stand up. I'd suggest grabbing Weapon Finesse and taking a finessable trip weapon (maybe the spiked chain, if you are a half-orc and can get it as Martial via Chain Fighter) and keeping STR to about 14 (plus magic) and pumping DEX for more AoOs.
Consider lighter armor (unless you retain armor training) so you can make better use of the dexterity to your AC.
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Some options to consider:
Lore Warden, it gives you Combat Expertise for "free", and adds all the Knowledge skills to your class skill list. And trades off Armor Training for a bonus to CMB & CMD.
Whip and its feat tree: No Str x1.5 for using it two-handed, but having the trip & disarm keywaords on a reach weapon (15' attack, 10' AoiOs at 5th level, increase both if under effects of an Enlarge Person).
If staying with high Str, consider the Fauchard as the weapon. Again, Trip & Disarm, but an 18-20 crit range and 1d10 base damage.
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First, lunge doesn't actually increase threat area since the positive effects of lunge end at the end of your turn, not at the beginning of your next turn (like power attack). So it just increases your reach when you can take normal attacks, not AoOs, sadly. However, getting enlarged is going to be a priority, so get a helpful wizard friend or invest in Giant Hide.
You are also rather MAD for a fighter. You need 13 INT for Combat Expertise (a normal dump stat), at least a DEX of 13 for Combat Reflexes, but you surely want more than just one additional AoO, so it'll likely be closer to 18 or 20 by the time this build comes to fruition. You also need a decent CON to survive being in the middle of the mobs it takes to make this build worthwhile. And you need a decent strength to make your attacks hit and deal any damage. In a point build, you are going to end up dumping WIS, which will give you a pretty abysmal Will save.
However, if you can convince your GM to do what we did and change the prerequisites for Whirlwind Attack, it might help. We changed the prereqs to "Power Attack, BAB +1, Cleave, Great Cleave, Str 13, Dex 13" because that makes more sense to us. If you can't get that houserule in place, you are just going to have to look at dealing minimal damage and having a useless feat or two.
Since Cleave is a standard action, you can't combine it with the full-round action of Whirlwind attack, so (without the houserule) it'd be a useless feat. However, since you've already qualified for Improved Trip and Greater Trip, you might as well take those and use all those AoOs when you make them fall down, and again when you make them stand up. I'd suggest grabbing Weapon Finesse and taking a finessable trip weapon (maybe the spiked chain, if you are a half-orc and can get it as Martial via Chain Fighter) and keeping STR to about 14 (plus magic) and pumping DEX for more AoOs.
Consider lighter armor (unless you retain armor training) so you can make better use of the dexterity to your AC.
IMO Cleave and Great Cleave are probably not any more useful than Mobility and Spring Attack - unless your DM is in the habit of lining up the bad guys for you when you fight them. Spring Attack (when combined with a decent speed) is a great way for your enlarged, increase-threat-area fighter to get into position, while still getting a single attack off as he positions himself.
Spiked chain is not a reach weapon in Pathfinder; there is no finessable reach weapon that I am aware of. You need a decent STR to pull off the attacks and maneuvers with a decent success rate, but your INT, CON and DEX don't have to be crazy high.
A human with base stats like this would be a reasonable starting point, w/ all level bumps going into STR (and the alt human racial trait taken to bump DEX by +2):
STR:17 DEX:16 CON:14 INT:14 WIS:12 CHA:7
I'd suggest (as have others) using a base of Lore Warden,for the bonus feat and the bonuses to CMB/CMD. Living Monolith is a great prestige class for dipping into for 3/day swift action size increase.
I like the idea of combining a polearm-wielding Lore Warden with a 2-level dip into Monk (Maneuver Master or Master of Many Styles), so that you have the areas inside of your weapon reach covered with your unarmed strike threatened area (although armor spikes offer an effective, if less artistic solution). Master of Many Styles opens up Dragon Style (for excellent movement options and extra unarmed damage), as well as Tiger Pounce (for extra accuracy with your two-handed Power Attacks).