What's the most effective martial character build for just flat-out putting the enemy down in the ground as fast and as hard as possible?
I'm sure everyone has their own favorite class/archetype build, and I'm sure I'll get a lot of people saying some sort of sorcerer. I want martial builds, as I'm a martial type. That means weapon use. No wand-wielders here.
AM BARBARIAN. Not sure if he still is DPR king after RAGELANCEPOUNCE got nerfed. If you allow alchemists, Alchy Amy is pretty powerful.
Barbarians are probably the best all around, fighters excell at keeping an enemy on the ground and make the best all around archers, paladins win once smite is used (especially on a dragon or undead), and cavaliers can probably do the biggest one shot damage hit.
Two-Handed Fighter makes everything that's busted-good about a 2h Power Attack playstyle even better. They're probably a serious contender.
Given 20pt build and wbl for level i could build a barb that could go toe the toe with just about anything cr equiv and win (and prob things much higher than cr for that matter). A paladin is hard to beat in most campaigns, because well most things u fight are evil... Rangers can get pretty sick at mid-high levels vs FE.. Fighters are prob the best sustained every round damage, unless they fail a will save (happens more they like to admit)..
I dunno about highest damage possible, but I think Pounce makes Barbarians capable of dealing lots of damage more often than most other martial classes.
And they get lots of other cool stuff and a nice selection of skills too, so they don't run the risk of being too one-dimensional.
At 5th barb out does fighter, at 10th i still say barb is higher due to pounce, at 15th fighter prob takes a slight lead due to greater power attack and backswing, and i say prob.. Paladins are higher than either vs evil and rangers are prob close vs the FE..
I'd say Ranger, then choose whatever combat styles you want. When it goes down ot it, Rangers are quite versatile, and they have limited spellcasting abilities. I might say take Infiltrator Archetype, because you can get cool stuff from your favored enemies.
I have found ranged fighters and ranged paladins and to a lesser extent ranged rangers to be game breakingly powerful.
the ranged mechanic simply allows them to stack way too many damage bonuses on the ability to do full attacks with little or no penalty. not to mention the various feats that mitigate almost any penalty to being a ranged character)
they also seem the hardest for the GM to balance for without obvious nerfs and focused counters.