As the title. Please say why.
I would also love to hear any stories you may have where your style feat chain did something AWESOME!
We had some pretty cinematic moments when playtesting the Griffon Style feats.
Daron Woodson
Abandoned Arts
Personally? Crane is just super powerful.
Used it on a Martial Artist NPC, combined with his exploit weakness ability it would either fully negate the penalty from fighting defensively while flurrying while ignoring DR, or you could get a stupidly high AC(since it adds half level) when used with the bonuses you get. And you don't even have to worry about crits, since, you can just negate one, with crane deflect, then can follow up with a free attack from Riposte.
The guy, held off the party much, much longer than should have been possible for a CR6 and nearly killed the rogue.
I like Dragon for its terrain-ignoring properties during a charge.
I like monkey style personally. Its just so great on a drunken style fighter. I just keep thinkig brad wong style fighting. Plus you can fall down while fighting the bbeg and get +4 ac vs all his archery mooks for free. Also it laughs at trip builds.
Dragon style is by far my favourite, you just get so much great stuff for only one feat... I am slo very fond of Mantis Style too, though... Just because I am very very fond of Stunning Fist.
Janni Style, into Janni Rush
RIDER KICK!
Wow, Janni style does have its ups and downs... right into the face! It's vital strike on a charge. Although I'm a tad confused as to how you jump in a charge. Acrobatics check to jump X distance, where X is between you and your target? And does that allow you to jump over allies and enemies on a charge, assuming enough headroom?
I hadn't really looked at that style much before.
Griffon style is an aerial style? That's pretty wicked!
Dragon Style seems like it would be the biggest damage dealing style. Flurry of blows with an extra .5 STR to each damage roll, never mind the 1.5 STR mod to the first hit, huge damage.
I rather like the flavor of Tiger Style. Hit two-handed with a bull rush and then next turn swiftly move in to do it again. The first level of the style feels pretty weak. Slashing is fine and all, and occasionally you'll get a critical for that extra bleed. It's the second level that's really cool. Seems as though it would be better off on a monk build that surrenders Flurry of Blows. For MoMS, Tiger style mixes with Janni style well. Janni gives a bonus to bull rush and tiger style gives you free bull rushes. Add in Mantis style to get bonuses to that single hit if you make it a Stunning Fist. Add in Dragon style later to up your damage on your first hit(?). One attack each turn, but that attack is always a doozy.
Snake seems weak. It gives you lots of options, but all of them use an immediate action for full effect.
I don't know that I have a favorite just yet, but if Janni style does some of the things I think it does I think it's a strong contender. With Dragon as a sheer damage output style for 2nd fave.
I enjoy Crane Style, its more defensive but take it with flowing monk, improved trip, and vicious stomp and suddenly your not letting anything with legs get away unscathed. *Note that with legs i mean anything that doesn't fly regularly, not an ooze, plant, worm, swim, does not need to be "standing" or bigger then large( or huge when I dont have my trusty wizard to buff my, oh wait he didn't take my request to prepare enlarge person.....) At levels above 10 these things are much more frequent.....le sigh.....