Hello all,
I'm looking to make a whip user that will specialize in tripping opponents so my party can gang up on them. Have not yet decided on class or race, so all input is welcome. However, I'm really interested on what you guys consider the best feats to take aside from the obvious whip mastery tree.
Thank you for your time.
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I'd recommend a Monk or Fighter for rolling with a Whip. Not sure what Archetype if any for the Fighter. I'm not too familiar with Fighters. For the Monk, I'd definitely recommend Qinggong + Another Archetype so that you can at least have the Qinggong options of swapping certain normal Monk abilities out. Another good option is a Master of Many Styles Monk Dip then a majority of Fighter levels.
With Two-Weapon Fighting a regular whip should do the trick. With Flurry of Blows I'd probably stick with the Nine-Section Whip.
Honestly i really cannot think of any Feats other than the whip mastery tree to further enhance your whipping skills.
Perhaps some of the Style feats in Ultimate Combat might help.
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The tripping feats...
I'm kicking around the idea of a half-Orc Lore Warden tripper.
Half-Orcs can get free proficiency as a racial trait and the Lore Warden gets a nice maneuver bonus as a class feature.
It's not clever by any means, but it will work. I just haven't figured out if I should go with a STR or DEX build. Probably gonna go with DEX but my plan was to stat them both up until level 12 and compare. Just have to find the time.
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Lance Corp Clyde
Half-Orc Ranger 4/Lore Warden 2
STR: 21 (16 Initial, +2 Racial, +1 Level, +2 Belt Giants STR)
DEX: 12
CON: 12
INT: 14
WIS: 14
CHA: 7
Racial Beastmaster Trait gives Whip & Nets as Martial Weapon.
Racial Chain Fighter gives Dire Flails & Spike Chains as martial for possible back-ups if needed
Trait: Blade of Mercy gives ability to make all slashing weapons do subdual damage w/ additional +1 damage
Trait: Tusked give Orcs Bite Attack, out of Orc of Galorian
1st Level Feat Weapon Focus Whip
2nd Ranger Feat Two-Weapon Fighting
3rd Level Feat Whip Mastery
5th Level Improved Whip Mastery
5th LW Combat Reflexes
6th LW Combat Expertise
6th Level Improved Trip
Notes: My original idea was to make one of those dual weilding whip guys from the movie "The Rundown." Dex was going to be too feat taxing as Whip Master Chain is intense with feat requirements anyways.
So this is Clyde so far. Once I hit 5th, every humanoid is tripped and hasn't been able to get up to me with a charge yet. My party membesr love the enemies -4 to AC and CMD for being prone. He's fun to play. I've invested most of my money in scorpion whips of mithril, adamantine, & cold iron for overcoming the appropriate damage reductions. He's not much of a damage dealer but I still have my original Masterwork whip which can be held in two hands for additional damage if needed. It should be noted that he is primarily support and secondary damage. One nice trick you can do is trip, disarm, and then use another attack with the whip to pick up the weapon from their square, AC10, and place it in your square. Handy Dandy.
Some problems I've recently encountered and have known were coming up. We ran into a devil dog thing with a 40 CMD for a 8-9 Level Pathfinder Society Mod. Not going to be able to trip it w/o a Nat 20. As you get up in level, you'll rule humanoids, but outsiders and monsters can be a different story.
The future of Clyde holds the rest with Ranger. At 7th I get Greater Trip and 8th Imp TWF with Ranger-6. I'm not sure what else to do. I'm toying with Boon Companion at 9th and then Beast Rider to give me a Large Bad Azz Mammoth Mount. I'm even toying with Mammoth Rider to make it a huge Mammoth. Mainly because this would be simply awesome. But I'm not completely sure yet. Overall, Clyde is fun to play. I gave him a good back story.
What level are you playing? Having played one, the risk of whip-trippers is that at higher levels you get much less effective, as you start fighting creatures that you can't trip for a number of reasons (too many size categories larger than you, giant CMD's, flying with wings, flying due to spells, incorporeal, lack of legs like slimes, etc). The biggest danger is specializing too heavily; you want some sort of fallback option so that you don't end up effectively sitting out of combat for several sessions because you keep running into stuff you can't trip and don't have any options other better than pinging for 1d3 damage.
A nice choice would be a Black Blade/Kensai Magus. It has a some cool advantages:
- You can actually make a Whip your Black Blade. :D
- You get proficiency with Whips and Weapon Focus for free! This means you can take Whip Mastery earlier.
- You Whip gets enhancements for free!
- You need to invest in Int anyway, so having Int 13 as a prerequisite for Improved Trip/Disarm is not that much of a pain. Needing Combat Expertise still hurts, though. :(
- With the right Arcana (Maneuver Mastery, I believe) you can use your Magus level instead of BAB when using one maneuver of your choice (That's full BAB for you!)
- Arcane spell-casting will keep you viable at higher level.
- Arcane Strike + Trip in a single round! This is just too awesome!
- Use Shocking Grasp against targets 15ft away from you!
You'll have one less spell per day of each spell level compared to a normal Magus, but since you seem to be looking for a more martially inclined character, that's not such a problem. And Pearls of Power really help with this problem.
You should take the Whip Mastery feat chain, of course... Combat Reflexes and Lunge would also help.
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The following is not a trip build but an old whip build i made enjoy.
-Race / Class-
Half - Elf / Fighter - Lore Warden, Rogue - Thug
-Stats (20 pt)-
STR 28 (Base 15)(+2 racial)(+5 leveling)(+6 item)
DEX 20 (Base 14)(+6 item)
CON 16 (Base 10)
INT 08 (Base 13)
WIS 10 (Base 10)
CHA 20 (Base 14)(+6 item)
AC 41 (+ an addition 4 from combat expertise and an additional 5 from defending for a total of 50, also + 10 more from Offensive Defensive)
Touch 21
Flat - Footed 30
-Class / Feats-
R01 EWP Whip, Dodge
R02 Talent Weapon Training (Weapon Focus Whip)
R03 Whip Mastery
R04 Talent Offensive Defense
F05 Mobility, Spring Attack
F06 Combat Expertise, Whirlwind Attack
R07 Dazzling Display
R08 Talent Strong Impression (Intimidating Prowess)
R09 Shatter Defenses
R10 Talent Combat Trick (Lunge)
R11 Skill Focus Intimidate
R12 A Talent Improved Evasion
R13 Persuasive
R14 A Talent Entanglement of Blades
R15 Improved Feint
R16 A Talent Feat (Greater Feint)
R17 Skill Focus Bluff
R18 A Talent Skill Mastery
R19 Deceitful
R20 A Talent (w/e u want)
Traits = Bully, Defensive Strategist
-Gear-
+5 Defending Holy Ghost Touch Whip
+5 Mithril Chain Shirt
+5 Shield Cloak
+5 Ring of Protection
+5 Natural Armor Necklace
Dusty Rose Prism (Ioun Stone)
Belt of Physical Might (Str/Dex)
Headband of Alluring Charisma
-Misc-
Character performs a full-round action intimidate to demoralize all enemy targets within a 30ft radius then proceeds to attack with Whirlwind Lunge Attacks that apply Offensive Defense upon all targets or Entanglement of Blades depending on situation. For single targets move action with a whip attack or full-round action intimidate with full attack next round. Intimidate at cap level is d20+48 (20 ranks +3 trained + 6 skill focus + 4 Persuasive +5 Cha +9 Str +1 trait) and bluff is d20+38 (20 ranks +3 trained + 6 skill focus + 4 Deceitful +5 Cha).
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Here is an even old whip buld i made.
Human
Fighter (Lore Warden)
-Stats (20 point buy)-
STR 10
DEX 17 (+2 racial)(+5 leveling)(+6 item) = 30
CON 14
INT 13
WIS 10
CHA 09
-Feats-
01 Exotic Weapon Prof Scorpion Whip, Weapon Focus Scorpion Whip, Weapon Finesse
02 Combat Expertise, Whip Mastery
03 Dodge
04 Improved Trip
05 Improved Whip Mastery
06 Greater Trip
07 Combat Reflexes
08 Mobility
09 Spring Attack
10 Whirlwind Attack
11 Lunge
12 Weapon Specialization
13 Greater Weapon Focus
14 Greater Weapon Specialization
15 Piranha Strike
16 Two-Weapon Fighting
17 Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
18 Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
19 Penetrating Strike
20 Greater Penetrating Strike