Does that even work though? I'd assume that the cloak counts as the "weapon" you are feinting with so Blistering Feint shouldn't apply unless the cloak itself deals fire damage.For killing an army of commoners, there's nothing more effective than the Blistering Feint/Distracting Cloak/Battle Poi combo.
Just let your BBEG stand completely visible in the middle of the army, presumably on a flying mount, and then he'll feint everyone at the same time... dealing "the weapon's fire damage" to everyone who can see the BBEG. Twice.
So.
Number of commoners affected: Everyone who aren't blind.
Investment: 4 feats and being of a certain race (5 feats if Human).
Damage: (1d8 + Str + Weapon Enchantment)x2
A fighter or brawler could pull this off at level 3.
That is an incredibly cheesy abuse of the weird RAW for feint and no sane GM should allow it on his table, neither on Player nor on NPC side.
I know it works RAW, but come on...
Hey, OP wanted the atom bomb of pathfinder.
So I gave him the most disgusting weapon I know of.Cheese
Doesn't matter.
Prerequisites: Combat Expertise, Improved Feint, Ifrit.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on feint checks made while wielding a weapon that deals fire damage. Anytime you successfully feint a creature while using such a weapon, you may deal its fire damage to the enemy.
Anytime you successfully feint a creature while using such a weapon
=/=
Anytime you successfully feint a creature with such a weapon
....
[snip]Doesn't matter.
Prerequisites: Combat Expertise, Improved Feint, Ifrit.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on feint checks made while wielding a weapon that deals fire damage. Anytime you successfully feint a creature while using such a weapon, you may deal its fire damage to the enemy.
Anytime you successfully feint a creature while using such a weapon
=/=
Anytime you successfully feint a creature with such a weapon
The counter argument being that you should probably have to be actually using a thing to be considered to be using it. If I'm just holding a pen in my hand and not writing anything down, I'm not exactly using it, am I? I don't see why the same logic shouldn't apply here.
Anyway, to get back on topic, as far as genocidal effects go, 3.5 had the good old locate city bomb which if you're comfortable adding 3.5 back into your pathfinder, can produce hilariously overpowered results.
The counter argument being that you should probably have to be actually using a thing to be considered to be using it. If I'm just holding a pen in my hand and not writing anything down, I'm not exactly using it, am I? I don't see why the same logic shouldn't apply here.....
[snip]Doesn't matter.
Prerequisites: Combat Expertise, Improved Feint, Ifrit.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on feint checks made while wielding a weapon that deals fire damage. Anytime you successfully feint a creature while using such a weapon, you may deal its fire damage to the enemy.
Anytime you successfully feint a creature while using such a weapon
=/=
Anytime you successfully feint a creature with such a weapon
Well, you are using the weapon to feint.
You'll need a melee weapon to feint with to trigger the Distracting Cloak feat. This is the fire weapon you're using.
Treating the cloak as the "weapon" for the feints is a GM call, but even so the original weapon is still used for the feints.
What ever you do, make sure to play up the absolute atrocity of the scene. Even a dozen dead described in excruciating and sickening detail, they are not just dead, they a defiled, butchered.
My favorite trick, (I learned this one from Weiss and Hickman), having a skinny, injured young dog (or cat), sitting besides and pawing at/licking it's dead human playmate.
Describe how the dirty, ragged, crow eaten body of the child is guarded loyally still by their pet, have the pet be the only living thing left...
If I were a player, I know what I would do...
Bury the dead, befriend the pet, and swear a blood oath against the perpetrator of such unabashed evil.
(should mention, the mechanics of the setup may not really matter so much as how it is presented, but YRMV and what not.)
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One thing I'd consider aiming for - not just "how to do it in one round" but more "how to avoid being killed while doing it". Nothing gets under people's skin quite like helplessness. This is a situation where I'd think using save-or-suck spells on the PCs would be very justified. Cast a Mass Hold Person and it should give you at least the one round you'd have otherwise, with insult added to injury. Or a Create Pit variant and toss the corpses in after them, while they don't have any other idea what's happening besides hearing the screams. Give the guy a few bodyguards who are actually built to be effective at it - Loyal to the Death is a nice option for this, I'm thinking? - to keep anyone who made their save at bay.
For the actual one-round destruction, if you don't really need it to be on a citywide or literal genocide scale, just a very very impressive bam, people dead, Blasphemy is potentially interesting. Only kills nonevil targets, and if the PCs are the right level in comparison, it has the above "forced to watch" element built in. The only killing nonevil targets being interesting because then you have the RP challenge of that's who your survivors are to work with, the BBEG could potentially use it to find recruits ("Hey, look, I nicely spared your life for about ten seconds. Seeing as you don't have a conscience anyway, wanna join up and keep living?"), and more notably... BBEG leaves/gets fought off eventually/whatever, you now have a bunch of nasty people in a panic and with no one able to keep them in line. Hello looting and rioting, which means the PCs are going to have to jump straight to figuring out how to handle that, possibly preferably without slaughtering commoners even if they are evil jerks.
