Nonlethal Damage Specialist Optimization

[Enterti]

Hello once again my fellow Dwellers of the Playground! Today I ask assistance with the optimization of a character designed to deal nonlethal damage in melee combat. I will be giving this character to my DM as a Rival for my CG orc Barbarian, due to the allowance of the flaw "archenemy". The only requests I have for limitations are that the character MUST be LG, deal nonlethal damage, and be melee focused. I am not sure what level this character will be thrown at me so please give a level/feat tree up to 20 in spoilers. Assume that the ability scores are high enough to qualify for any pre-epic feat.

[woodenbandman]

Your character with the following stipulation:

+x merciful weapon.

EDIT: Oops he can't be a barbarian, silly me.

In that case, paladin with a +1 valorous merciful lance and spirited charge.

That's 1d8+strength+power attack x5 nonlethal.

[sambo.]

the Arcane Duellist PrC might be worth considering.

the lvl10 ability is pretty nifty if it's subdual damage you're after.....

Flurry of Swords (Ex): The pinnacle of the arcane duelist's power is to create a flurry of sword attacks against a single target. When this power is activated, the arcane duelist makes one additional attack each round at her highest base attack bonus, but each attack that round suffers a -2 penalty. All attacks must be made on the same opponent. Further, the arcane duelist creates 1d4 quasi-real images plus 1 additional image per three levels of arcane duelist. Each image attacks the same opponent as the arcane duelist herself using the same bonuses as the arcane duelist, and any hits do subdual damage to the target. This power is usable once per day per arcane duelist level, but only once per day against any opponent. It requires the full-attack action to use this power. Aside from these differences, the images act as the mirror image spell.

[Kyouhen]

You could always pick up Subduing Strike. Costs you a feat, but any attack you make can now deal nonlethal without penalty.

[Waker]

Make a LG character who deals subdual damage against a CG Barbarian type? It's getting kinda late, so I'm not going to be able to write out a full progression for it, but Paladin/Justicar could work. Justicars get the option of subdual damage whenever they want, deal extra subdual damage against flat-footed enemies (Factotum Grease trick could work here too), anytime they deal the bonus subdual damage they also deal Strength damage which really hurts a Barbarian, and lastly if they manage a good grapple check they can deny you the option of using your two-handed weapon attacks.

[Enterti]

Definitely like the Justicar idea, str drain might hurt quite a bit. I would recommend a grappler however since i recently prestiged into Bear Warrior grappling seems like a mediocre method for subduing my char at best

[Keld Denar]

Mailman with the Nonlethal Substitution feat from CArcane. Its only +1, so Arcane Thesis would take care of it easily.

450+ damage Orb of Fire to the face that makes you nap for a week to recover.

[Zaq]

LG? Darn. If the character could be chaotic, I'd say just go 1d2 Crusader using a Small whip.

Actually, wait a minute . . . Ordered Chaos (from FC1) would let you qualify as chaotic while staying LG, wouldn't it? There you go. 1d2 Crusader with Ordered Chaos and a Small whip. You want nonlethal damage? I'll give you nonlethal damage.

[Coidzor]

Well, the best thing would probably be to work with another, lethal damage dealer so that the nonlethal damage you put on them acts as a safety buffer to get them down from the lethal damage without actually killing them. A one-two combo if you will so that you can take them out with focus fire. Alternatively, being a non-lethal mailman probably obviates the need for focus fire.

Edit: And to be a proper arch nemesis, he's either going to need a posse to counteract your party or some way to get you alone for one on one fun times...


IIRC, knockout poisons (and possibly paralysis poisons) are kosher for good characters. And with weapon chambers, one can basically force several saves as an added shtick (that conveniently also makes it so that more of the wealth that would fall into your hands would be in the form of consumables)

[Crossblade]

Today I ask assistance with the optimization of a character designed to deal nonlethal damage in melee combat. .... due to the allowance of the flaw "archenemy". .... limitations are that the character MUST be LG, deal nonlethal damage, and be melee focused.

str drain might hurt quite a bit. I would recommend a grappler however since i recently prestiged into Bear Warrior grappling seems like a mediocre method for subduing my char at best

First, I'm curious as to where this flaw is from, I can't seem to find it.
Second, it seems like you're trying to massively cop-out on your rival. Non lethal damage so you don't die. Grapple because you grapple better, avoid str drain so you don't get weakened. Why not just make it a Gnome Commoner in full plate mountain plate armor who specializes in Merciful Saps... but uses Merciful Whips?