Bull Rush build, how to overcome opponent size restrictions

[Grom Kranock]

Hello Brains Trust.
I am looking to make a Shield Slamming Bull Rushing Fighter and am wondering if anyone has any advice on how to overcome the restrictions on Bull Rushing that state that I can only bull rush up to one size category larger than myself.

Are there any feats, items, cross class or archetype abilities etc that raise this limit?

Is there any items that, as a fighter type, I can use to enlarge myself thereby raising the size cap by one step? Things like a potion of enlarge or a wand are not really useful due to the 1 round duration of the buff.

This is for pathfinder society as well if that makes a difference.

[Rodinia]

Dip one level of cleric, or any class with a domain, and choose the Plant (Growth) domain. That gets you a swift action enlarge person, which is just what you need. This domain also gives you a virtual 5' step from the expand/shrink mechanic, which is worth a feat or two by itself.

The other tactical advantage this domain gives you is the ability to easily scoop up lots of AoOs via 20' reach, if that's what you want to do. Rodinia does this, and was recently able to gather 24 AoOs in a 5 hour PFS scenario (Bone Keep I).

You lose 1 BaB, but you gain a lot for it. Here's Pupsocket's Guide to Dipping Cleric. Other good domains for a fighter are Travel, Love (really!), Liberation, etc.

Grom Kranock wrote:

Things like a potion of enlarge or a wand are not really useful due to the 1 round duration of the buff.

Actually the WAND is a 1 round cast, but the POTION takes effect right away. You'll want potions for backup, or to pre-buff for a long fight. They LAST 10 combat rounds, which is plenty long enough.

[Grom Kranock]

Re: Rodinia - I should have read the enlarge spell description, thought it was 1 round per level not 1 minute. As far as the 20 foot reach goes how is this achieved? Enlarge, reach weapon and Lunge? I could get 15 with lunge and enlarge I guess.

A couple other thing I have thought of.
Same questions as above but with regards to Trip.

Can I 2-hand a heavy steel shield as my primary weapon and if so do I get 1.5 times the strength bonus to damage?

[fel_horfrost]

Four level dip into abyssal bloodrager nets you enlarge person while you rage and well bloodrage too. At 4th level a bloodrager with a con of 10 can rage for 10 rounds a day.

[Rodinia]

Grom Kranock wrote:

Re: Rodinia - I should have read the enlarge spell description, thought it was 1 round per level not 1 minute. As far as the 20 foot reach goes how is this achieved? Enlarge, reach weapon and Lunge? I could get 15 with lunge and enlarge I guess.

Medium sized with reach weapon gets you 10' reach. Large with reach weapon gets you 20' reach. Doable by a level 1 cleric. Works best with Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, and a polearm. Seriously, this domain power power is the secret to martial dominance.

There's a published PFS adventure in which you fight druids with this domain power. They are comically inept, as they use it only for the extra few HP damage and completely neglect using it with reach tactics to get extra attacks. There is the problem that druids lack proficiency in a reach weapon (so do monks!!!), but they don't even try to work around this. If they used their own domain power with some tactical smarts they'd kick the party's &^%&^%. PFS GMs must use the tactics as written for NPCs, unless the PCs give NPCs a reason to change tactics.

Grom Kranock wrote:

A couple other thing I have thought of.
Same questions as above but with regards to Trip.

Can I 2-hand a heavy steel shield as my primary weapon and if so do I get 1.5 times the strength bonus to damage?

Trip doesn't have the same size limit.

Yes, you can two-hand a shield for 1.5x STR and 1.5x Power Attack.

[LoneKnave]

The Titan Fighter from the giant hunter's book I think gets an ability that lets him attempt combat maneuvers on foes that are usually too large for him (but gives up a lot of stuff for it, so it's probably only worth it for those 5 levels).

[Grom Kranock]

Titan Fighter? I cannot seem to find it.

Anyway, thank you all for your responses, you have answered most of my questions. The Cleric dip looks fantastic BUT I am going to be a worshipper of Rovagug so the plant domain is off limits. (I know I can access it through an archetype but the rounds are limited to 4/days well so not love there)

The Bloodrager dip is perfect for my build, coupled with the Blood Conduit archetype which nets me improved trip or improved bull rush.

Now all I have to do is get my head around the whole enchanting a shield for bashing. Can I enchant the shield for defence AND offence? If so is it limited to 10 total enhancement levels or 10 for each? Do I just add shield spikes and enchant them separately or do all the shield spikes do is change the damage type and dice size?

[Rodinia]

Whew! For a moment there I was worried I'd taught a Rovagug worshipper a useful combat tactic! Yikes! Especially glad he won't take this approach, as 4 rounds per day of martial dominance for this guy is 4 rounds too many ;-)

By all means, be a Bloodrager!

[LoneKnave]

Titan Fighter is in the Giant Hunter's Handbook. Should be up on the SRD in a few days (I hope, kinda interested in all the oversized weapon options in it). I think you can enchant your shield with Sacred Armor, and then confer that bonus to attack with Shield Master.

[fel_horfrost]

If you are going for blood rager I'd recommend taking the extra rage feat for 6 more rounds of blood rage that should give you enough to make it through your day as for spells i would take true strike and long arm. True strike adds to your cmb for when you really need that maneuver to work and long arm lets you do that maneuver from 5 feet away. I hope this helps.

[Tomos]

Rodinia wrote:

Trip doesn't have the same size limit.

Unfortunately, Trip does have the same size limit.

Perhaps you are thinking of Ki Throw?

As others have said, aside from getting enlarged, there's not much to be done about the size limitations on Bull Rush.
If you want to be efficient and max out your bonus, there are lots of feats and items that add to CMB for Bull Rush.
You could also take the Accelerated Drinker trait. Start combat with a potion of Enlarge Person in hand, move action to drink (instantly become Large), standard action to Bull Rush.

Being size large lets you affect almost all enemies. How often do you fight stuff that's bigger than Huge?