I don't know if I missed all of the Hum Hallelujahs when this archetype came out, but I have to say that just seeing this thing on D20 made me so excited to play a cavalier.
Here is the link for those unfamiliar: Constable
So, what is a Constable, how is it awesome, and how does it differ from the regular Cavalier? Well, simply put the Constable replaces your Mount, everything based around your mount, and your banner with some sweet abilities. These abilities mostly focus around Combat Maneuvers, and specifically make for a great Grapple build. There are also thematic bonuses and the quite excellent Badge ability, but let me break it down below:
1: Mount -> Apprehend
-Instead of rocking a horse, your Constable instead is trained in taking down criminal scum. At first level your Constable gains Improved Unarmed Strike for free and can make a grapple attempt instead of an attack at the end of a charge. A free feat is always wonderful, but especially wonderful when the free feat opens up your level 1 feat to Improved Grapple. +4 to grapple checks from level 1 is really solid, but the ability also grants you a scaling bonus to perception and some combat maneuvers at 1, 7, 12, and 17. As long as you can charge this ability is basically a +6 to grapple checks over the life of your character and free perception is never a bad thing.
3: Cavalier's Charge -> Squad Commander
-Spend 1 minute making a plan (think like a Readied Action) which lasts for up to an hour and when triggered is a free activation of your tactician ability that lasts for 1 minute per cavalier level. There is NO limit to the number of times you can do this during a day, but you may only have one plan enabled at a time. Provided you can convince your party to give you a minute between encounters and you ready your plan correctly...your whole team will have a free teamwork feat forever because the feat lasts for MINUTES. This is so absurdly powerful that if losing your Mount wasn't compensated by Apprehend it sure as heck is now and you don't even lose anything because your mount is already gone. Its fantastic.
4: Expert Trainer -> Quick Interrogator
I don't know many people who used Expert Trainer, and even though Quick Interrogator is also a situational ability I feel like it will come up a whole lot more often than training mounts will. Especially if your GM is a stickler for the time it takes to gather public information, 1d6x5 minutes is way better than 1d4 hours because at the very least you cut the time in half. At the most, you spend 5 minutes instead of four hours. That's a lot of daylight saved when time isn't on your side. Being able to spend 5 rounds to Intimidate someone isn't always useful but if you end up on the sidelines or in the middle of a stand-off you might be able to arrange a situation where you can get this ability off. And if you do, oh its powerful. You can turn a hostile ogre guarding a bridge into a a cowed creature that will let you pass by for free.
5: Banner -> Badge
Whoooo boy, this is amazing. Banner is just a +2 to saves against fear, its basically AoE Bravery and no one likes Bravery. Badge is a +2 not only against fear but also Charm and Compulsion from level 5! Instead of waiting all the way to level 14 for that bonus. As a martial character who might grapple-crush your party if Dominated, you love this and so does everyone else within 30ft of you. Yes, the Aura is smaller which is a shame but totally reasonable. Everyone also gets a free +1 to hit verses your challenged target because why shouldn't this just be better and better?
11: Mighty Charge -> Instant Order
Yikes, this is a very dangerous ability to use. Instant Order allows you to give an ally a free standard or move action but Dazes them during their next turn. It uses up your current action, and their next turn so it is terrible for the action economy of your party but it can also save lives. Use with caution.
14: Greater Banner -> Greater Badge
This replacement is the one I'm sad about, its how we pay for getting Badge at level 5. Unlike a normal Cavalier, Constables cannot spend a standard to grant allies, within 60ft, a reroll against an ongoing spell against them. Instead, they can spend a standard to grant 2xlevel in temp hitpoints in a 30ft AoE. At level 14 this is 28 free temp per ally, including yourself which is fairly strong when you look at it from an AoE perspective but still weaker than Greater Banner. 28 HP is maybe a single hit at that level, and it takes a Standard Action. But it lasts for 10 minutes, so that is a plus and you can pre-buff before a combat spreading your Temp HP across the entire party. Your squishy backline friends will appreciate it if nothing else. But be warned, it only works once per day which is really really rough but to be fair Greater Banner works the same way.
20: Supreme Charge -> Instant Order
Instant Order is now a Move action, but only usable once per round. While it no longer dumps your Standard action it still dazes your ally and that is less than ideal. Honestly this is a crap Capstone, but the good thing is most games do not go on this long so you will rarely be disappointed.
With the abilities looked at, lets talk about Order. There are two which pair Exquisitely with the Constable Archetype. They are The Order of the Hammer and The Order of the Penitent.
The Order of the Hammer starts exceedingly strong, granting you a free Grapple Attempt after a full attack against targets of your challenge. You also gain some acrobatics and Knowledge Local to better run down criminal scum. We'll call the Order of the Hammer the Bad Cop.
Being a Bad Cop gets you monk-scaling on your non-lethal unarmed strikes right from level 2. Against anything vulnerable to non-lethal damage, you don't even need a weapon. At Eigth level, you gain Chokehold as a free feat and don't even take the penalty for using it. Spellcasters are now an even jucier target. Lastly, you gain the ability to inspire your allies with +4 to hit, strength checks, and fortitude saves just by flexing your muscles.
The Order of the Penitent also starts strong, but focuses on the ability to quickly apprehend and incapacitate your enemies. They possess an intricate knowledge of ferreting out lies, and escaping bonds. Challenged foes have a harder time using combat maneuvers against you and escaping your grapples. We'll call Order of the Penitent the Good Cop.
Being a Good Cop gets you the ludicrous ability to tie-up grappled opponents right from level 2. You don't even need to pin them, just grapple and tie. You even have a bonus on the check they need to surpass to escape. Get yourself some heavy duty rope/chain and go to town. At level Eight you not only gain a free Improved Disarm but you can automatically grab whatever was dropped if it can fit in one hand. This is perfect against anyone who wields a weapon or when the bad guy tries to leg it with the magic stone you need to save the village from human-shark criminal scum hybrids. Lastly, if the Good Cop has to beat someone down, they can choose to knock them unconscious with non-lethal damage instead of lethal damage.
Regardless as to the Order you choose, both are awesome. The Order of the Hammer excels at beating people unconscious and can spend a full turn monk-punching his challenged foe before grappling them. Meanwhile, the Order of the Penitent can simply remove foes from a fight in two rounds...or one round as soon as they get Greater Grapple. Either way, both make Great Constables mostly because the Constable archetype sures up the Order's weaknesses.
Basically, these guys are awesome grappling machines and I'm really surprised there hasn't been more said about them. Lets strike up a conversation, talk about builds, yell at me about my analysis of the class and etc. Show the Constable some love.
Order of the Penitent Constable has been a thing for a bit now. Plenty of people consider it a nessicary dip for grappling builds.
As a full level thing? As you noted it starts strong, but it does not stay that way and Cavalier already has this sharp falling off point around level 6 or 7. Unless you are addicted to Challenge by that point and Grapple builds rarely are. So, you have an order that falls off, a class that falls off, an archetype that besides from badge falls off, and no scaling horse.
Sure Cavalier falls off around 6 or 7...if by falls off you mean still really good but not as good as a Barbarian. You're rocking Smite Anything, and as a Constable a permanent aura of Tactician. Not only that but Grapple Builds reach a huge power spike with double grapple checks during a round. Penitent can simply incap an enemy per full attack but Especially Order of the Hammer Cavaliers become deadly.
Improved Grapple, Deadly Grappler, Greater Grapple, and Grappling Style. You're basically a Monk with permanent Enlarge person dealing 2d6 non-lethal damage per grapple while holding them with just one hand. Once you hit level nine you pick up Pinning Knockout and deal DOUBLE that damage and can challenge them for 4d6+18 per grapple-hit in Non-lethal damage unless the target is a Construct, an Undead, an Inevitable, a troop, or a Swarm.
Sure it falls off later on, so does every other martial, and grappling gets harder the higher the CR you get but damn if this doesn't look better than a Tertori to me.
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Deadly Grappler's language presumes you are victim (i.e. not the controller) of the grapple. So, that's a feat you'd want to bypass as, presumably, you are controlling every grapple you are in.
What the Tetori would lose in easy AC, back up martial weapons and challenge damage, it would gain in better saves, a variety of ki abilities and Freedom-of-Movement/Teleport suppression to keep grapple targets on lockdown. Grabbing Style on a Tetori is not that great simply because you'd most likely be one-hand grappling mooks whose CMDs you easily outstrip even with a -4 penalty and your base movespeed is so high, your half-movespeed grapple-to-move is basically the same as a martial's full-speed move.
I'd be intrigued in a Constable, Order of the Hammer in a low-to-mid-level game. After that, I'd prefer a Spell-Sunder Strength Surge Grapple Barbarian (who can get rid of anti-grapple spells) or a Tetori for dedicated grapplers.
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The grappling things is cool, but my personal favorite thing about the archetype is the free tactician.
"All right you layabouts, listen up. When I say duck and weave, you duck and bloody weave. You cover your flanks. You watch your six. And when you see your mate ducking and weaving, you make as much bloody noise as you bloody well can, and you get the uglies looking at you. Are we clear? good, then loody well get on with it."
Party gained the benefit of "escape route" when the cavalier says "Duck and bloody weave you sorry excuse for pathfinders!"
Apart from which, free tactician is pretty cool. On the combat maneuver front, giving the party paired opportunist, and then using improved re position to move someone directly into a bunch of smiling friends to wail on them with a substantial bonus sounds like great fun.
Not sure where you want to play this, but in PFS I'm pretty sure plenty many GMs will disagree with your interpretation of the Squad Commander ability as the wording is totally unclear and as you already figured if it becomes an infinitly often free action ability it is super powerful.
It's the main reason I haven't built a Constable and all my attempts of getting some form of clarification on how this works have been for nought.
Well you have to issue conditions for the plan to trigger, like a readied action, so as a GM if I found someone abusing it I would work on causing their plan to trigger early and then follow it up with an encounter to interrupt the Constable setting up a new plan.
And as a player I'd always formulate plans so that they will trigger at the beginning of combat...
"So once we face opposition, make sure we stick together..."
But really what I wanted to get at is that there's different ways to read the first sentence of squad commander. The reading you follow (and which intuitively appealed to me as well) and the reading that all that you get for making a plan is the ability to not expend a use of tactician.
As the first is extremely powerful I'm thinking the second reading was likely intended but that can't be discerned from the poorly written rules text.
The best Teamwork feat to use with this is probably Lastwall Phalanx (which you have to retrain at level 3). But there's also some that help with combat maneuvers which you might find more appealing for such a build.
Another feat to consider is Snapping Turtle Clutch however it might require too many swift actions to actually be useful.
Its really a tough choice between Turtle Style, Grabbing Style, and Kracken Style but when you get down to it Grabbing style is the only one that gives you dex to AC while grappled which is too important to pass up.
Now one level of MoMS...but I hate doing one level of MoMS. I much prefer the VMC rules to the regular multiclass rules and use them in all my games.