Cad Fighter is the archetype devoted to the concept. Beyond that, there's the dirty trick line of feats.
Use a whip for reach to use it at range and get weapon bonus. take weapn finesse if you've gone dex.
Can you use a weapon to perform a Dirty Trick?
You can use weapons for any appropraite combat maneuver. You can explicitly trip, sunder, and disarm with weapons.
So generally you can use weapons with a combat maneuver and nothing in dirty trick says you can't. One of the sample fluff pieces is hitting the enemy in a sensitive spot.
Crack the whip by their ear to deafen, remove clothing fasteners to entangle, catch them across the throat to shake em, whip a curtain or cloth to blind, etc.
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Well, I do know that outside of trip, sunder, and disarm, the enchantment bonus on the weapon does not apply to the Combat Maneuver.
I also know that, outside of trip, sunder, and disarm, Weapon Finesse does not apply to CMB. Agile Maneuvers feat is required.
Using the Whip effectively requires a large feat investment.
Is that a good idea, when most feats will be focused on Combat Maneuvers?
You definitly want one level of maneuver master monk.
MMM1/Lore warden X is great, or for higher levels MMM5/Lore warden
This is actually pretty badass. You can play it defensivly with dervish dance and crane styleor offensivly wielding a THW. Damage is good, Dirty trick is good and you can add other maneuvers like trip in addition to that.
If your GM says you can't use weapons with dirty trick, you build gets nerfed a bit. "Normally" only disarm/trip/sunder use weapons and get weapon enhancement/weapon finesse applications, but why couldn't you use weapons for dirty trick if you wanted to? It's not a hard exclusive list and nothing in dirty trick calls out unarmed.
Agile maneuvers is the safer bet, and required if your GM rules DT is unarmed only, but it means you can't sub in a light weapon for a damage strike if you want.
Lore-warden is probably better for the no-weapons-with-dirty-trick rule.
Cad is best with it, because it gives you free dirty tricks on flanks/crits/hits as you progress in levels.
Maneuver Master is a good dip. I'd be concerned about taking it too early since the flurry penalty matters more at low levels.
Are there any finessable two handed weapons?
Spiked Chain is the only one afaik.
Starting at 4 means you could take Whip Master. Gnome master craftsman means you could be proficient in any exotic weapon you craft yourself.
The combat maneuver blog said that appropriate dirty tricks could use the weapon bonuses like the 3 attack-equivalent ones, by GM approval.
+1 to maneuver master / lore warden as full of awesome.
On a 15 point buy, the 15-2 strength would be tough to fit in.
Maybe s12-2, d16, c12+2, i13, w10, ch8+2?
LW1: Weapon finesse, weapon focus
LW2: Combat expertise, whip mastery
MM1: maneuver flurry, Improved dirty trick, Agile maneuvers (for when not using a whip)
LW3: +2 cmb, +1dex
LW4: weapon spec, iron will
LW5: weapon training
MM2: evasion, combat reflexes, greater dirty trip
Some folks don't like dumping all the way to 7, but for sure those 2 extra points would be better anywhere else.
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Don't forget that an 11 charisma gives you spell-like abilities. Unless you're going with the alternate racial trait that ties it to wisdom.
I would go full lore warden. Using a reach weapon would allow you to keep yourself safe and to blind or entangle anyone who gets into melee range with you.
I'm actually of the opinion that you should bite the -2 racial bullet and make him based around strength anyway. You will EVENTUALLY climb out of the hole, and it will let you focus on other stats without having to pump your dexterity up. It also means qualifying for Power Attack!
Str 15, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 9
1 Improved Initiative, Weapon Focus (ranseur)
2 Combat Expertise, Improved Dirty Trick
3 Power Attack
4 Weapon Specialization (ranseur), Str +1
Melee mwk ranseur +10 (2d4+6/x3); Disarm +12, Trip +10
Dirty Trick +10
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Don't bother with Weapon Finesse unless your DEX is MUCH higher than your Strength-- and if you're going Dirty Tricks, there's no reason it should be, since CMB is off Strength naturally. You'll want the Dirty Trick line of feats, so you won't have a lot of extra feats to play with, so why are you going DEX-based and taking Weapon Finesse anyway?
Both your damage output and your CMB are off of Strength anyway, so put points in Strength. Yes Gnomes take a penalty in it, but 14 STR is all you need to both afford Power Attack and get an extra bonus for two-handing. DEX is nice, but as a Fighter you have all armor proficiencies and a size bonus to AC, so you don't really need it.
Get just enough Int for CE, minimum 14 Str, and you're golden. Wield a Falchion go straight into the Improved Dirty Trick line. Pick up Power Attack when and if you need a damage boost-- when you can blind and/or deafen opponents every round, you can let someone else do the DPR.
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I am still really not sure if weapons can be used to perform Dirty Trick at range, or at all.
Only Net Trickery, which seems to be an exception, allows for it.
Being a vague area of the rules, I am not sure the risk is worth it.
This DM likes his RAW, for the most part.
Unless you have a feat that specifically allows it, you can't. The reason for the reach weapon is so that you can perform several different manoeuvres without having to worry about the attack of opportunity. The Dirty Trick is an option that would be attached to an enemy that gets inside your reach, or one that really needs to be blinded.
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Well, Agile Maneuvers allows me to use Dex instead of strength for Combat Maneuvers, and Weapon Finesse allows for an Agile weapon later, which allows me to use Dex for damage.
That strength penalty seems to really hit hard on a low point buy, and I just don't quite see the boon that puts it above a Dex build.
I may have missed something.
Also, Lore Warden gives me Combat Expertise without meeting the prerequisites, so there really seems no need to pump Int.
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Hmm.
The hurt to BAB, and my general distaste of the Rogue, kind of puts the Rogue levels in a poor place.
Isn't there a Ranger archetype that gets sneak attack dice? I can't find it but dang I thought there was.
There are both Bard and Alchemist archetypes that get it, but both of those classes have the same BAB as the Rogue so neither really solves your problem.
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The issue with going Finesse AND Agile Manoeuvres is the two feats spent for the privilege of not being able to use any two-handed weapons without another feat.
While you can make use of a light weapon and Piranha Strike, you're better off just putting up with a slightly lower strength for a few levels. Two feats spent PLUS needing an agile weapon PLUS having lower damage anyway? No thanks.
You can use dirty trick with a weapon. Take a look at the PFS field guide for the dueling enchantment. It mentions that the weapon can gain the double enh. Bonus for the weapon when using dirty trick. So it goes to show, that you can have dirty for a weapon
Also, on one of the blogs on of the devs mentioned that dirty trick can be used by weapons, like a light shining off a blade, and so forth.
Lore Warden 9/ MMM1
feats: Finesse, combat expertise, dodge, imp. dirty tricks, dervish dance, dodge, crane-style-feats, greater dirty tricks, combat reflexes, imp. trip, gr. trip, agile maneuvers, WF(Scimtar), maybe furys fall if it fits in.
CMB should be like +24 dirty tricks, +28 trip, AC something like 28 without mage amor
In addition to your attacks you can - without any penalties for those - perform a dorty trick maneuever at +22 each full attack for free.
If you go THW just get high strengs, furious focus and power attack, skip the crane feats and pick up some nice stuff instead, works same as good, you will just have slightly less CMB and AC (1 point) but do more damage and have more feats abailable for other stuff
maneuver master monk
make sure you take agile maneuvers
maneuver master monk
make sure you take agile maneuvers
But more than a dip is a trap
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How would you build up a strength focused Dirty Trick Gnome?
I am really curious.
Well, first you need Strength. You said you don't need INT because you get CE as a bonus feat through Lore Wardening, and you already declared your willingness to dump CHA as low as it'll go. If we're not doing Finesse, you don't need more than 10-12 DEX, and you'll get a CON bonus anyway so you don't need any extra points there either. At a 15 point buy, you can take the extra points from dumping CHA and buy yourself a maxed-out STR, and still have enough points leftover for a 12 in either DEX, INT, or WIS, or a 14 CON (your choice). Let's say you went DEX.
STR 16, DEX 12, CON 12, INT 10, WIS 10, CHA 9. Not bad at all.
Since we don't need DEX, we do need armor, which also means we can't really use levels of Monk. We could, however, use a level of a class that didn't trade away its higher armor proficiency. I recommend Barbarian.
FEATS, ABILITIES:
1(LW).Toughness, Improved Init
2(LW).Power Attack, Combat Expertise
3(LW).Improved Dirty Trick, Maneuver Mastery
4(BR).Rage, Fast Movement
This character will have a CMB of +8 at 4th level, and can bump it to +10 for 5 rounds per day via rage. He/she will also have a 30-foot movement speed in medium armor, solid HP, and can rock a two-hander with the best of them-- at an all-gnome table, you'll probably be the main melee DPS.
Lore Warden will continue to boost your CMB and give you more of those sweet, sweet bonus feats, but an extra Barb level would give you a rage power and the rounds of rage with which to use them.
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Improved Dirty Trick still requires 13 intellect. That said, the barbarian dip IS a pretty good idea.
Str 15, Dex 10, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 9
Bar 1 Extra Rage
Fig 2 Power Attack
Fig 3 Combat Expertise, Improved Dirty Trick
Fig 4 (+2 to CMB and CMD)
Continuing on:
Bar 5 Improved Reposition, Strength Surge
Fig 6 Greater Dirty Trick
Making use of a guisarme would allow you to reposition foes into advantageous positions, and blind foes that you've cornered with Dirty Trick. Strength Surge lets you add a bit of extra oomph to one combat manoeuvre per rage, and the bonus will increase if you give yourself more barbarian levels.
I would never play a dirty trick build without one level of maneuver master monk - why would I? That is just so insanely great.