Firstly, my GM has given me a specially enchanted warhammer that deals +2d8 (3d8 total) weapon damage and is allowing its bonus damage to be multiplied when I vital strike. I'm going to be using Torag's Divine Fighting Technique on my ranger to make vital strike attacks on one AoO a round using this warhammer. I dont need/want to be dissuaded from going the vital strike route. I know its not the most damaging way to do things, but the 3d8 warhammer should help with that.
How can I actively ensure that in every round of combat i'll get an AoO? Are there any feats I can use to force an opponent into provoking, that almost nothing or nothing at all is immune to? (Not tripping focused because too many things are immune/resistant to that, for example.)
I want to move up, vital strike and then make an AoO as soon as possible, so preferably something that forces an enemy into provoking that I can combine with the attack action used to vital strike. Are there any feats people can recommend that will make this easy for me?
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A dip into Master of Many Styles will net you a Style feat and the ability to have two Style feats active at once. Use this to have Ascetic Style and Panther Style active. Be a Cleric or Warpriest or Paladin of a Hammergod and take Crusader's Flurry. Provoke AOOs. Retaliate with AOOs.
ALT: Become large. Gain Longarm spell effect (or go Abyssal Bloodrager level 4).
ALT: Get a buddy to use Broken Wing Gambit, Improved Trip, or Improved Overrun.
Getting an Ally with Outflank and a high critical weapon would be the best way. Otherwise you have Broken Wing Gambit, but that means you have to have an ally with the teamwork feat again and THEY have to leave themselves open.
The only other way I can thing of is combat maneuvers, which if you want to Vital Strike on your turn, means you can't vital strike.
Best bet is Combat Patrol, get enemies giving AoO by movement, then ask your GM about Seize the Opportunity, or simply allow Torag's Divine Fighting Technique to be used more than once/round.
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Those are all effective techniques to fish for AoOs, but none are guaranteed. The OP asks for something consistently reliable. If 100% reliability is not possible, what's the best we can do? Pity the weapon is a Warhammer (not suitable for AoO fishing) rather than the full sized Lucerne Hammer (highly suitable for AoO fishing).
Does the answer involve layering multiple ways to fish for AoOs, or is there some sort of 'one stop shop' approach?
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I hope there isn't a way to do this. You're essentially looking to get two full attacks every round while moving, which combined with the enchantment will be all sorts of broken against CR appropriate encounters. If the DM is tweaking the game to handle/account for this, then just have him create a feat that allows reliable AoOs.
A come and get me barbarian build can sort of do this, if you are willing to encourage things to attack you. But as a Ranger you are limited to the mentioned style feats or things like stand still and pin down, none of which are guaranteed.
There really isn't a "one stop shop" approach. Panther Style is flawed too, since it only lets you make an unarmed attack. Even with Ascetic Style, thats a normal attack and not a Vital Strike.
A Vital Strike AoO build isn't that amazing without 3rd party stuff. The one feat from Path of War I mentioned earlier makes it so you can Vital Strike for every AoO. Guardian Sphere from Spheres of Mights lets you set up a better Combat Patrol and other ways for enemies to provoke AoO.
The next best thing I can offer is Snake Fang, the end of the Snake Style feat line. If you combine with Ascetic Style, you can get AoO, but that is only if an opponent missed you and you need a seriously high sense motive roll. Note this is using 5 feats for Snake Style, two for Ascetic, two for Divine Fighting, and that doesn't even count the feats needed for Vital Strike. A normal human character gets 11 feats and can't get this done.
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If you can reliably force movement on your enemy’s turn then step up and strike is a posibility.
Fear condition like frightened and antipaladins aura of cowardice is a way to do that.
If the enemy use the withdraw action you still get to hit them with step up and strike after moving 10 ft. after the enemy. If they continue the movement away from you, they will provoke an aoo. If you grab Stand Still, you can prevent them from leaving your threatened square and full attack again on your turn.
Then you only need swim speed, flyspeed and burrow ability to have a certain AOO every round (unless they teleport or blink or planeshift or becomes invisible..... haha)
These are all great suggestions, thank you.
I'll try planning out some potential paths for my character based on some of these ideas until I find the ones I like best. But add more if you like and i might consider them too.