For boredom's sake, I am building a character for maximum retaliatory damage. Stuff that goes "Anyone who strikes the character with a melee weapon, unarmed strike, or natural weapon takes 1d6 damage."
The hyperboreal robe, bloodflame ring, and hamatula hide are what I've been able to find so far.
All Paizo books are open, PC races only, assume unlimited wealth.
the spell Fire Shield immediately comes to mind.
Crane Riposte works a little differently, but still I would say fits into the category of retaliatory damage.
School evocation; Level sorcerer/wizard 6
CASTING
Casting Time at least 10 minutes; see text
Components V, S, M (quicksilver and an eyelash of a spell-using creature), F (ivory statuette of you worth 1,500 gp)
EFFECT
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 day/level (D) or until discharged
[This content was created for the Pathfinder rules by Paizo Publishing LLC and is part of the Pathfinder RPG product line.]
DESCRIPTION
You can place another spell upon your person so that it comes into effect under some condition you dictate when casting contingency. The contingency spell and the companion spell are cast at the same time. The 10-minute casting time is the minimum total for both castings; if the companion spell has a casting time longer than 10 minutes, use that instead. You must pay any costs associated with the companion spell when you cast contingency.
The spell to be brought into effect by the contingency must be one that affects your person and be of a spell level no higher than one-third your caster level (rounded down, maximum 6th level).
The conditions needed to bring the spell into effect must be clear, although they can be general. In all cases, the contingency immediately brings into effect the companion spell, the latter being "cast" instantaneously when the prescribed circumstances occur. If complicated or convoluted conditions are prescribed, the whole spell combination (contingency and the companion magic) may fail when triggered. The companion spell occurs based solely on the stated conditions, regardless of whether you want it to.
You can use only one contingency spell at a time; if a second is cast, the first one (if still active) is dispelled.
Contingency to do what, exactly? Cast fire shield when struck seems like a good one I suppose. Not really different than the answer I gave before though.
You could also use Elemental Body to take the form of a fire Elemental. The Burn special ability does retributive damage against unarmed attacks and natural attacks. Manufactured weapon users would be unaffected though.
Thorn Body as well. Sorry for all these posts, this topic interests me as well =p.
Thorn Body is pretty much Fire Shield for Druids and Oracle of Wood. A cleric of Sun could pick up fire shield, but no Contingency or Elemental Body. I guess I'd suggest going Arcane. Druid could rock Wild Shape fire elemental with Thorn Body on though...
Edit instead of a new post: How about Druid with the Fire Domain, you could have Elemental Body, Thorn Body, and Fire Shield all on at the same time. at lvl 9 you have Thorn Body and Fire Shield on at the same time, and throw in Elemental Body-2 (fire) from Wild Shape if you really want it. Honestly though Elemental Body-2 to take the shape of a Water Elemental might be more beneficial in the long run because extra HP will hopefully let you use your retaliatory strikes more.
2d6+18 retributive damage before adding bonuses from gear or feats seems pretty solid. I guess I'd concentrate on things that would let you get your buffs out faster, (Metamagic Rod of Quicken Spell) or cast more Fire Shields/day. Possibly wand or scrolls. Expensive but hey, thats the character concept.
Fire elemental wizard has a good one, but my favorite is monk with all the panther claw feats. Just provoke attacks of opportunity while you move to make your own "flurry of blows." You can also go hungry ghost monk to kick people away before they even hit you.
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A Samsaran Barbarian/Wood Oracle/Rage prophet is the highest I can manage right now.
Going with hamatula hide and fiend totem, and casting water shield + thorn body (from mystery) + fire shield (being samsaran) + defensive shock (being samsaran), with a caster level of 15 (through leveling and/or traits+feats), he get a retaliatory damage of:
3d8+3d6+6d6+55 or an average of 100 on the first attack, falling to 79 when the defensive shock is depleted.
Pretty mean, eventhough some of the spells has short duration. But most monsters in melee is going to die before they kill you.
If we have unlimited wealth, we could use a couple of rings of immolation to get fire shield without using a standard action.
And I'd probably spend gold to get coldfire wrappings, eventhough I expect it won't stack with fire shield as a spell. But it is nice to have in a pinch, since it is activated with an immediate action.
snake style lets you smack anyone who misses you (twice if you spend a swift action)
crane style lets you auto-deflect an attack while youre fighting defensively and with a free hand, and then AoO them for their trouble.
archon style lets you take an incoming attack against an ally, and THEY get to AoO the enemy (pairs well with crane style to take the attack and grant your ally an AoO, then auto-deflect it and AoO him yourself as well).
panther style lets you smack anyone who attacks you while you're moving--BEFORE they get to swing (and giving you a bonus against their incoming attack), and it's not an AoO--it's a "retaliatory unarmed strike".
the Come and Get Me rage power lets you do much the same as panther style (combining the two on a feral combat training barbarian with the claws from beast totem is MEAN)
the flowing monk archetype can reposition and/or trip people who attack him (costs a swift action), which can give him AoOs via greater trip, vicious stomp, etc. combine with the ki throw feats for more shenanigans.
not sure about other sources.
makes me wonder if you could build a character who never attacks on their own turn--they spend their actions moving and casting their defensive spells, while using their AoOs and retributive spell damage to maul anyone who attacks them
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I believe the Plant domain for clerics lets you grow thorns that act like Thorn Body for a limited time.
Contingency, suggested above, would probably be the best option for sheer damage potential. Trouble is, the contingency'd spell has to target you-- no Maximized Shocking Grasping the thing that hit you. Detonate might be a good choice, especially if you have energy resistance or immunity.
