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So I was poking through some of the ACG feats and hit on an idea for a potentially awesome (and probably evil) slayer build based around Killing Flourish and Violent Display. So, here it is.
Human Slayer 15/Rogue (Thug) 5 (25 PB)
Str 18
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 10
Wis 14
Cha 10
(1)S1: Weapon Focus (Kukri), Dazzling Display
(2)S2: Two-Weapon Fighting (Combat Style Talent)
(3)R1: Intimidating Prowess
(4)S3: Fearsome Finish (Combat Trick talent)
(5)S4: Killing Flourish
(6)S5.
(7)S6. Imp TWF (Combat Style Talent), Violent Display
(8)R2: Disheartening Display (Combat Trick Talent)
(9)R3: Improved Critical (Kukri)
(10)R4: Bleeding Attack Talent
(11)R5: Dastardly Finish
(12)S7:
(13)S8: Powerful Sneak Talent, Merciless Butchery
(14)S9:
(15)S10: Critical Focus, Assassinate Talent
(16)S11:
(17)S12: Gruesome Slaughter, Deadly Sneak Talent
(18)S13
(19)S14: Not sure
(20)S15: Not sure
The idea here is to basically be as brutal and bloody as possible. You kill someone (maybe with assassinate), you demoralize them through Killing Flourish. They become shaken (and eventually also sickened).
Thug lets you bump that to frightened.
Because you used Sneak Attack or scored a critical, Violent Display triggers, letting you also use Dazzling Display.
Because you have Disheartening Display, the fear is bumped to Cowering.
Because you have Dastardly Finish/Merciless Butchery, you can now coup-de-grace the cowering targets. Potentially even as a swift action, meaning you could theoretically kill two or three in a round, each one triggering more instances of the first combination if you need it.
I think it's a fun, thematic, and potentially mechanically effective build. Thoughts?
Aside from Powerful/Deadly sneak talents being remarkably ineffective it looks good. Surprise Attack and Skill Mastery could assist this indirectly and would be more worth it than the tiny damage bonus.
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Disheartening display states each creature can only be affected by it once every 24 h. So you could open with a sneak(say from sneaking around), move action study target, swift action cdg him. Problem are that his buddies will break out of panicked next round the thug trade shaken for frightened gives 1 round of frightened only. Then all his buddies jump you.
Also it may be unrealistic to count yourself getting to the bad guy with an entire round of actions intact. An animal companion mount might help with that problem though..
Are there other ways to worsen/extend fear effects? I know that Bards can do some things with Dirge of Doom, but that wouldn't really fit into this build. Also, would any particular magic items help this?
I haven't actually played either a Slayer or a Rogue in Pathfinder, so my experience as to the practicality of this kind of build are limited. But I'd love to see it tweaked to be more effective, because I really like the thematic of being a killer so brutal and intimidating that you terrify bystanders.
I mean, even the feat combinations sound awesome. Killing Flourish, Violent Display, Merciless Butchery, Gruesome Slaughter. I really like the idea, and welcome any input that would make this more viable.
I would second the hesitation on powerful / deadly sneak. Offensive Defense would be a good alternative. Maybe Skill Focus (Intimidate) just to make sure you get it to land.
Otherwise, this build looks awesome.
I'm actually moving forward with this build in a game and would love to see if anyone else had some more input on the subject (specifically some of the thoughts DethBySquirl mentioned three posts prior).
I am starting at level 5 and could use some suggestions on magical items. I also have another party member interested in taking some teamwork feats, so I am struggling to find a place to put outflank because it would work wonders for this build.