[PF] What does one do with reach?

[RndmNumGen]

I've been playing around with a Summoner Synthesist build for PFS that uses a Kusarigama, which has a reach of 5-10 feet and had the Trip and Grapple weapon properties. With the Reach evolution this increases to 5-15 feet, and if I can get Enlarge Person cast on myself(thinking about grabbing a wand) I go up to 5-25 feet. I can start doing this fairly early on, but I'm not sure what to do with all that reach.

I don't really want to do damage, because the build is kind of cheesy as is for using summoner and I don't want to overshadow the other players by killing things from 25 feet away.

I was then thinking about getting Improved Trip or Improved Reposition and dragging things around the battlefield, and this idea sounds doable, but I'm worried it will have limited usability; if we run into any Huge creatures or anything with lots of legs, I'm essentially useless.

Any other ideas for what I could use this for without overshadowing everybody?

[The Mentalist]

Preface: This is all coming from a 3.5 player's knowledge.

Tripping will be your very best friend with that amount of reach unless you can do something like an attack of opportunity (do they have those in Pathfinder?) monster. Doing damage is always an option, if you're worried about cheese I recommend keeping your character at "Super Sayain 1" as it were, do your job well and then when it all goes south bust out the big guns, drive your enemies before you and hear the lamentations of their women. (This is how I get away with my love of Batman Wizards and Artificers)

Tripping is a very good party support option (and there are Handbooks for it) as can be damage if you don't go all out in every fight and tailor your out-put to what your party can handle.

[Coidzor]

Tripping stops movement, and if you're outside of their reach, then they can't respond even if you lack the improved trip feat.

It also means that unless they beat you for reach, they provoke an attack if they try to get into melee with you. So free-ish hit there if you're not the one charging them.

And it helps make it so that enemy archers and casters have to take more than a 5 foot step if you manage to get adjacent to them, although casting defensively isn't all that much harder at low levels anyway, IIRC.

So you're basically a blocker against anything roughly melee-ish that isn't teleporting or really big. That's OK, but you need something else to go with it. I imagine that's where your spells come in.

[RndmNumGen]

Pathfinder has AoOs, and I was planning on picking up Combat Reflexes at one point, but I only have 12 Dex when Synthed(7 normally) so it's not a high priority.

Actually, I should probably post all my stats:

Standard:
7 STR
7 DEX
7 CON
14 INT
16 WIS
20 CHA

Synthed:
18 STR
12 DEX
13 CON
Mental stats the same.

I took a level of Oracle for Sidestep Secret, which gives me CHA to AC and Reflex saves, and with the natural armor I get from being synthed I have a very strong AC. I was thinking about taking a level of Monk for the WIS to AC and the ability to Flurry with the Kusigarama(only within standard reach though, so 5-15 max). Each dip I take weakens my synthesized form, so I don't want to do too many, but the Oracle and Monk levels seem worth it for a total +7 to AC, +6 to Reflex, 1st level divine spells and a couple bonus feats.

Tripping is a little different in Pathfinder, as Improved Trip no longer grants AoOs(You need Greater Trip for that, which has stiffer prerequisites). It's still useful for control though.

[Dr_S]

who else is in your party? if they're a bunch of casters then you might want to also consider the feat Stand Still, which prevents an enemy from moving if they provoke an Attack of Opportunity, You threaten so much of the map, that it'll take forever for enemies to get around you in enclosed spaces (assuming enlarge person isn't cast on you, you can still block a 40' line in either direction, meaning most enclosed spaces you'll be able to threaten everything that tries to pass you.)

[RndmNumGen]

who else is in your party? if they're a bunch of casters then you might want to also consider the feat Stand Still, which prevents an enemy from moving if they provoke an Attack of Opportunity, You threaten so much of the map, that it'll take forever for enemies to get around you in enclosed spaces (assuming enlarge person isn't cast on you, you can still block a 40' line in either direction, meaning most enclosed spaces you'll be able to threaten everything that tries to pass you.)

Unfortunately, Stand Still specifies adjacent squares, not squares within reach. Improved Trip will be much better in this case, since I can substitute a trip for an AoO.

[Dr_S]

Unfortunately, Stand Still specifies adjacent squares, not squares within reach. Improved Trip will be much better in this case, since I can substitute a trip for an AoO.

ah damn, I suppose that's right, when I read it, I read it as "when an enemy provokes an attack of opportunity by moving through a threatened square" as in not from casting or shooting a ranged attack... sometimes they neglect things like reach or the fact that the PC might have 18 arms (synthesist) and the way they word things are unintentionally ignoring those circumstances. (i.e. if they forgot about reach while writing that feat, then only adjacent squares could be threatened)