Pole-Arm Trip & AoO Specialist


Advice


Looking to Build a strong Trip/AoO Pole-Arm User

For this I am looking at

5 levels of Lore Warden Fighter
4 levels of Flowing Monk
11 level of lore warden Fighter

Feats selected Are

Race: Fauchard Prof
Level(1) Combat Reflex
Fighter(1) Combat Expertise
Fighter(2) Improved Trip
Level(3) Wolf Style
Fighter(4) Enforcer
Level(5) Ki Throw
Monk(1)?????
Monk(1) Improved unarmed strike
Monk(2)??????
Level(7) Wolf Trip
Level(9) Wolf Savage
Level(11) Vicious Stomp
Fighter(6)?????
Level(13)?????
Fighter(8)????
Level(15)?????
Fighter(10)?????
Level(17)??????
Fighter(11)????
Level(19)?????

Traits: Blade of Mercy, Bred For War


The biggest Feats missing I see are Greater Trip (?!) and Fury's Fall. Fury's Fall lets you add your Dex Mod to your Trip Roll.

Lunge and Monkey lunge are nice. A 10' reach is good, but a 15' Reach is better.

Maybe Great Cleave, tripping everyone around you?

If you dip a level in Cavalier, you can get Coordinated Maneuvers as a Bonus Teamwork Feat, and the Tactician Class ability that will let you use it even if your fellow party members don't also take it. +2 on all Combat Maneuvers.

How important is it to you to use Fauchard? A Horschopper is a 2 handed Reach Pole Arm Martial Weapon that also does 1d10 Slashing and is a Trip Weapon. The difference is that it only Threatens crits on a 20 for 3X damage instead of Threatening on an 18-20 like the Fauchard. If the increased Threat Range is worth a Feat, fine, but if not, you can save the Feat.

How important is it to you that you use a Pole Arm? I have heard people very happy with using a Whip. I like the idea of using small, cheap, Trip weapons like sickles, kamas, and flails. The way I see it, the big advantage of the Trip Weapon Quality is that in the event of a catastrophic Trip Roll, you can elect to Drop your weapon rather than get Tripped yourself. But if your Trip weapon is a big weapon like a Fauchard, Horschopper, or Halberd, you will really miss it when it's gone. But if a bad Trip roll gets your Sickle torn out of your hands, you just shrug your shoulders and pull another one off your belt.

To that end, I've been interested in using the Throwing Shield as a Trip Weapon. Make it a Quickdraw, Throwing Shield. Acquire a Blinkback Belt. Take Quickdraw and Snapshot Feats. Then you you will Threaten with your Throwing Shield within 10'. You can use your Throwing Shield to make your AoOs. And in the event of those catastrophic Trip rolls, well, it's a Throwing Shield: you already dropped it, and it will come right back. The problem with the idea is that it is very Feat intensive.

Liberty's Edge

Flowing monk gives so many cool things, I'd just start there with a longspear.


One thing to consider is the Swordmaster's Flair: Blue Scarf. It will make any Swashbuckler type weapon into a reach weapon, which means you can have a fully DEX-based reach build. Panache is easy to get with Amateur Swashbuckler and Extra Ki if needed. This opens up interesting options, with the huge side-benefit of focused DEX and Combat Reflexes.

Flowing Monk limits their best power uses to level/day, and bases a lot of their abilities on Monk level.

For a trip build, I'd be considering Felling Smash.

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