Whirling Attacks

[Ruethgar]

I want to make a character that can hit a lot of targets with melee attacks. So far I am looking at Martial Monk for Great Cleave and then Swordsage to get A: The damage to trigger it and B: Free movement to avoid that crippling no 5-foot step limitation. I could also grab the Knock-Down feat so I don't have to kill them to trigger it, only deal 10 dmg and trip them. Of course a Goliath Barbarian with Wolf Totem would be good for that.

Any input from the playground?

[Oddman80]

Assuming 2 flaws allowed:
Whirling Frenzy variant/Lion Spirit Totem/Wolf Totem ACF Barbarian with 2 level dip in Fighter.

Flaw 1 - Aberration Blood (tail - gives opposed trip check bonus for added stability)
Flaw 2 - Inhuman Reach
Human - Power Attack
Lvl 1 - Cleave
Lvl 2 - Wolf Totem ACF grant Improved Trip
Lvl 3 - Knockdown
Fighter Bonus 1 - Combat Reflexes
Fighter Bonus 2 - Great Cleave

This level 4 build alone, allows you to Rage and get an extra attack when you do. You control a 45'x45' area of the battle grid (which doubles if anyone casts enlarge person on you) if you use a combination guisarme & spiked guantlet. With combat reflexes (and a respectable dex score) you get a hit on anyone moving within that zone. At level 4, you should be able to afford both a +1 enhancement on your weapon, as well as a Lesser Energy Assault Weapon Augment Crystal. This tacks on an additional 1d6 damage per strike to make sure you hit the 10 points of damage threshold

18 STR & guisarme = 2d4+6(1.5*str mod)+1(enhancement)+1d6(augment crystal)
That has damage range of 10-21.

Every hit triggers a free trip, every successful trip triggers cleave/great cleave... And did I mention you threaten a 45'x45' zone?

You can charge into the middle of the fray (literally or figuratively) and set off a cascade of damage.

Every time one of those prone enemies tries to stand, you get to hit them again with a +4 bonus to hit. Every time one dies you start up another cleave/trip cascade of attacks.

[Fax Celestis]

You also want to take Circle Kick and Snap Kick.

[Allanimal]

Assuming 2 flaws allowed:
Whirling Frenzy variant/Lion Spirit Totem/Wolf Totem ACF Barbarian with 2 level dip in Fighter.

Flaw 1 - Aberration Blood (tail - gives opposed trip check bonus for added stability)
Flaw 2 - Inhuman Reach
Human - Exotic Weapon Proficiency (spiked chain)
Lvl 1 - Cleave
Lvl 2 - Wolf Totem ACF grant Improved Trip
Lvl 3 - Knockdown
Fighter Bonus 1 - Combat Reflexes
Fighter Bonus 2 - Great Cleave



Cleave has a prereq of power attack. Where do you pick that up?

[Extra Anchovies]

Cleave has a prereq of power attack. Where do you pick that up?

Guisarme and Armor Spikes is basically identical to a spiked chain, since there aren't any weapon-specific feats in the build. Might be worth ditching EWP for PA.

[Ruethgar]

Well Fax, those are just sick together. Pity Snap Kick isn't a fighter feat so I need full BaB to get it. I could remove the spiked chain add the brawler variant to that list of barbarian and that would set me up for Snap Kick and Circle Kick with IUS as well as free up a spot for Power Attack.

[StreamOfTheSky]

- Mix Whirling Frenzy pouncing Barbarian with Warblade, and go into Bloodstorm Blade (and maybe Master Thrower). Being able to make melee attacks from range sure helps ensure they'll all land.

- Any build w/ lots of natural weapons and a maybe a monk (flurry of blows) or city brawler barbarian (TWF with unarmed) dip to chain the naturals to the end of an unarmed string. Get levels in a caster class with access to Blood Wind, a swift action level 1 spell to make natural attacks at range for 1 round.

- Guisarme-using Dervish tripper with Elusive Target. Dervish Dance to full attack on the move, and intentionally provoke to get free trips on top of your normal attacks. Dervish Dance + Whirlwind Attack is also fun (hit every foe once till you run out of 5 ft move increments), though incompatible w/ tripping shenanigans.

- If you can take pathfinder feats without incorporating its godawful martial-nerfing basic rules system, Totemist can get a ton of natural attacks and can dimension door right from level 1. Take the Dimensional Dervish PF feat chain and by level 3, you can port around and full attack like Nightcrawler. If said feats are unavailable, there's the old trusty Teflhammer (spelling?) "Shadowpounce" build, though that takes much longer to hit the payoff.

- Almost any build can benefit from Warmind 5's Sweeping Strike ability to hit foes in 2 adjacent spaces with each attack you make, if you can fit it into the build.

EDIT: Right, and Snap Kick on any build that uses unarmed strikes.

[Ruethgar]

Edit: @Stream Can't get both Bloodstorm Blade and Master Thrower in E6. Dervish has always looked awesome to me, but the heavy feat tax of entry and the limit of 5 rounds max once per day for the dance is a bit underwhelming. The Telflammar is not E6 able, but those feats are on the table and a cool idea which I'll save for later. Warmind 5, must find way to cheat into it! Or you know... Pun Pun for it. Snap kick would be for full BaB only in E6(Brawler Barbarian/X). Difficult to work with that when Martial Monk is on the table.


This is the build that I just threw together.

32 Pt Buy Wild Tundra Human
Str 16
Dex 18
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 10
Cha 6

Martial Chaos Monk 1/Spirit Lion Wolf Whirling Brawler Barbarian 2/Monk 1/Fighter 2
Flaw 1: Improved Bull Rush
Flaw 2: Jotunbrund
Monk 1: Opportunistic Tactician, Improved Unarmed Strike
Human: Power Attack
Lvl 1: Combat Reflexes
Barbarian 1: TWF Unarmed
Barbarian 2: Improved Trip
Lvl 3: Knock-Down
Monk 2: Knockback
Fighter 1: Cleave
Fighter 2: Great Cleave
Lvl 6: Circle Kick

I make 1d4 attacks(more with TWF and Frenzy if you want to miss a lot), they get knocked out of my threatened area(yay AoO from Knockback). I use my AoO and free 5ft step(from Opportunistic Tactician). Average of 13 damage without items at this point so not hard to get the Kock-Down trip and free attack from Improved Trip. Then circle kick the nearest target and repeat steps 2+ to a total of Dex times. At the end do a whirlwind of great cleaving trip knockback. Since you can't take the 5ft step between cleaves it has to be at the end, but it is a nice finish visual.

Perhaps not as good as being a spinning aura of chains, but I like the mobility of this build. Full attack, Pounce, +20ft movement speed assuming you burn all of your AoO's. Replace Jotunbrund with EWP Rope Dart and you have a fine tripper.