I was looking through feats and feat chains that might be good for Brawlers, and I came across a feat I don't see mentioned often that strikes me as particularly effective for usage with Pummeling Style.
Medusa's Wrath (Combat)
You can take advantage of your opponent's confusion, delivering multiple blows.
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, Gorgon's Fist, Scorpion Style, base attack bonus +11.
Benefit: Whenever you use the full-attack action and make at least one unarmed strike, you can make two additional unarmed strikes at your highest base attack bonus. These bonus attacks must be made against a dazed, flat-footed, paralyzed, staggered, stunned, or unconscious foe.
With Pummeling Style being all about pooling a high number of attacks into a single strike and hoping for a crit, this struck me as a potentially powerful damage boost on top of the number of attacks already available through BAB/Flurry/Haste.
But the fact the enemy needs to be debuffed got me thinking about ways you could potentially provide those debuffs yourself and ensure the extra damage.
Obviously, the previous feats in the chain help with that, but they all involve using standard actions to do so, which doesn't seem like a good action usage. So what other ways could you get those debuffs? Here's what I came up with:
Dazed: Dazing Assault: The attack penalty is a bit steep, and because Pummeling Style is all about one big hit, it'll be tricky to get in the first round, though obviously good for followups.
Flat-footed: The obvious one here is just to win in initiative and hit them with Pummeling Charge.
Paralyzed: Nothing off the top of my head.
Staggered: Staggering Critical is all I could think of, and chances are if you're a Pummeler who's crit an enemy, they're already dead.
Stunned: This one is possibly a bit easier, since Brawler can pick up Stunning Fist (though much later than monk) and get the level/uses per day. But the DC is still Wisdom based, and Brawlers aren't as motivated to stack Wisdom as monks are.
Unconscious: Brawlers actually have that covered in class abilities with Knockout, but more options wouldn't be bad. Though by the time an enemy is unconscious, you're probably not too worried about beating the crap out of them.
Any other ideas? Is this build even worth pursuing?
Barbarians, at 6th level can get savage dirty trick which allows to add additional penalties to those normally applied by dirty trick. So you could make a dirty trick attempt as your first attack, making the target dazed or staggered for one round if it fails its save and then make the iterative as unarmed strike which then triggers the additional attacks from medusa's wrath.
Brawler 5/barbarian 6 would qualify if I don't miss anything.
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I'm working on a Pummeling Charge build right now that should do rather obscene amounts of damage, using Sohei and a Keen Fauchard, for an 83% chance of a crit chance each round, resulting in around 300 damage on a charge at 8th level, if all six attacks hit.
Past 8th, I'm looking into Spirited Charge to double the damage output, but it's so feat heavy I'd probably dip fighter 4 to get it and weapon spec.
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I'm working on a Pummeling Charge build right now that should do rather obscene amounts of damage, using Sohei and a Keen Fauchard, for an 83% chance of a crit chance each round, resulting in around 300 damage on a charge at 8th level, if all six attacks hit.
Past 8th, I'm looking into Spirited Charge to double the damage output, but it's so feat heavy I'd probably dip fighter 4 to get it and weapon spec.
Be careful, there are people pushing for a FAQ on Pummeling style ability to work with any weapon. People are arguing that by RAI Pummeling style should only work with unarmed fist.
I would suggest, avoiding the use of such a build until what weapons Pummeling style should work with is confirmed.
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I'm working on a Pummeling Charge build right now that should do rather obscene amounts of damage, using Sohei and a Keen Fauchard, for an 83% chance of a crit chance each round, resulting in around 300 damage on a charge at 8th level, if all six attacks hit.
Past 8th, I'm looking into Spirited Charge to double the damage output, but it's so feat heavy I'd probably dip fighter 4 to get it and weapon spec.
Be careful, there are people pushing for a FAQ on Pummeling style ability to work with any weapon. People are arguing that by RAI Pummeling style should only work with unarmed fist.
I would suggest, avoiding the use of such a build until what weapons Pummeling style should work with is confirmed.
<Here> is the FAQ thread on the question, in case anyone's missed it.
Being attacked by an invisible assailant doesn't make the target flat-footed; it only causes them to lose their Dexterity modifier to AC.