1. Swordsage
2. Chaos Monk
3. Chaos Monk
4. Chaos Monk
5. Chaos Monk
6. Chaos Monk
7. Chaos Monk
8. Rogue
9. Ninja
10. Assassin
Feats:
Level 1: Two-Weapon Fighting
Level 2 (Via Monk): Montastic Training
Level 3: Power Attack
Level 3 (Via Monk): Combat Reflexes
Level 6: Whirling Steel Strike
Level 6 (Via Monk) Improved Trip
Level 9: Cleave
Just a note here: I have the last 10 levels already set, but I DO NOT have the feats in mind. This is just the best set up for what I need that I have found thus far. If anyone can improve on these 10 levels, please do so. Any comments, suggestions and questions welcome.
I'm not sure what you mean about sneak attack and sudden strike. Trip renders a creature prone. The prone condition doesn't deny a creature its dex bonus to AC or otherwise enable sneak attack or sudden strike.
It sounds as though you believe that tripping a creature counts as dealing enough damage to make it drop. Drop is never actually defined in the rules. I feel it was clearly not meant to include being tripped. From what I can tell, most people agree with me. Even if you get a DM to rule that tripping a creature is making it drop, you've got another problem. For cleave to function, you have to “deal a creature enough damage to make it drop.” The dropping has to be the result of damage you deal to the creature. Just dropping a creature isn't enough.
It also sounds as though you believe you can trip a prone creature. To quote from the FAQ, “You also can't trip a prone creature.” To quote more extensively:
Anything using limbs for locomotion can be tripped. Things that don’t need limbs for locomotion can’t be tripped. You can’t trip a snake, a beholder, or a gelatinous cube. You won’t find this in the rules, but then it really doesn’t need to be in there—the rules can leave some things to the DM’s common sense.A creature flying with wings can be “tripped,” in which case the creature stalls (see Tactical Aerial Movement on page 20 of the DMG). You can’t make an incorporeal creature fall down. You also can’t trip a prone creature.
Creatures can’t be tripped when they’re swimming (the water holds them up). Likewise, a burrowing creature is driving its body through a fairly solid medium that serves to hold it up.
Let's say myself and 4 characters make a cross or "t" shape with me acting as the middle (flanked on all non-diagonal sides). I use an attack action to trip the first target. Improved Trip allows me to make an immediate attack as a follow up. I am assuming that the damage (again, with ridiculousD6, I felt safe in this assumption) I reduce my targets' HP to 0 or less. Great Cleave allows me to attack again. This attack action will be used to trip my next target. Improved Trip allows me to make an immediate follow up attack, which is used to reduce my target to an HP qualifying Cleave. Repeat.
Now, actually reading on all the modifiers that allows me to deny an opponent his Dex Mod, Stunned is one of those things. So, with that new knowledge, I believe the best way to go about this is to use the Monk's Stunning Fist coupled with the Catfolk Pounce, which (if successful) would allow me to stun all of my potential targets first. With the "new" knowledge that Prone does not deny Dex, the rules above have slightly changed:
All non 3rd party books are permitted
Character can be built up to Level 20
Character cannot cast spells
I would like to keep using my Great Cleave and Improved Trip idea, simply because it seems to read "infinite attacks" to me as long as I have targets to hit. But if anyone has a better/more fun idea of going about it, I'm not opposed. And a giant thank you to Matt for the metaphorical slap in the face for not reading
Also, if you fail your trip check, your "Great Cleave" ends, as you don't get to even attack your next opponent, much less do enough damage to kill them. It seems to me that you'd be better off just attacking with that "Great Cleave" attempt. The only thing Improved Trip is getting you is an extra +4 to hit them once their prone (and the chance to fail the trip check, and therefore end your Great Cleave prematurely).
To get the most out of Great Cleave, what you want to do is optimize how much damage you do on each attack, optimize flanking (or denying multiple enemies their Dex mods to AC), and optimize the ability to get into the middle of a bunch of enemies (and survive/leave if they don't die).
Other than going with a standard "uber-charger", you're probably going to want to go with some kind of sneak attacker. Those are the two melee archtypes that typically do the most damage.
Interestingly, a monk build might be decent at this. Take the Decisive Strike ACF, dip into Swordsage for the stance that lets you flank anyone you and an enemy are adjacent to, and then go rogue with the Ascetic Rogue feat. Then get Greater Mighty Whallop cast on your unarmed strike, and you should be doing boatloads of damage to any flanked enemy with your one attack. If that enemy drops (likely), you can cleave into the next one and keep going till one survives your mega-strike. The boost that lets you turn invisible for a round as a swift action would be a good addition from the swordsage dip, also.
You'll want the Craven feat, also, for more damage.
i did one level of monk then straight rogue but really any class with a solid sneak attack progression prc would work with this well.
i chose a character race that was large sized. personally i love the half ogre out of savage species it has an LA of +1 but for large size reach +8 str +some amount of natural armor and con but minus cha and dex. also with him being large we are now gonne be using bigger daggers which is a fraction of the damage but still every point counts.
we use pathfinder feat progression so i had
feats at
1,3,5,7,9 total of 5 feats
i get improved unarmed strike from being a monk
i then take feats
improved grapple
combat expertise
improved disarm
quick draw
flick of the wrist
did you know a grappled opponent is considered flat footed???
did you know you can strike someone you are grappling as long as you use a light weapon.
my 1d6 dagger gets either 4d6 or 5d6 sneak attack damage.
i have a +8 to grapple a medium creature before figuring in my tremendous strength or dice roll.
i attack them with hand attacks, initiate a grapple quick draw my dagger stick them until they break free or die. if they break free i quick draw my back up dagger flick of the wrist and sneak attack them again then close distance and grapple rinse repeat. if they have freedom of movement this build gets hacked a bit but with this size and improved disarm you can still "unarmed" disarm them and take there weapon.
That....was beautiful! I realize after reading over my own thread how lackluster the idea sounds and what I did end up doing was what would be the worst Monk idea ever. It's a tripping, charging, cleaving, multiattacking fiend. But your advice sounds Hella fun. Would you be willing to show me a kind of progression, level by level of how you would achieve the most out of this?
your build would have been fun if you went into a town and attacked the first pedestrian filled street you found. i mean even with big sneak attack dice your chance of one shotting someone is slim to none.
Toss the sack down in a square next to your opponent.
Attack one of the toads. Declare your Sweeping Strike to affect the square of your opponent.
The toad dies, and you Great Cleave another one, making the same declaration.
There are about 5000 toads in the sack, so.... until you roll a 1, you can keep swinging.
To optimize Great Cleave you need five levels of Warmind and a sack of toads.
Toss the sack down in a square next to your opponent.
Attack one of the toads. Declare your Sweeping Strike to affect the square of your opponent.
The toad dies, and you Great Cleave another one, making the same declaration.
There are about 5000 toads in the sack, so.... until you roll a 1, you can keep swinging.
i must admit i really like this idea.
You can also do it with whirlwind attack.
the cleric tells the party these are low level undead but theres something different about them (he did a below average knowledge religion check so he couldnt tell me much.
i say to the party "i got this"
pull out my mighty axe of kill the **** out of everything. i declare (an in house modification to berserking cleave) my psycotic stance. in our game this grants me a cumulative +1d6 dmg per creature i kill in the same round and blind sense 5 feet. the flip side of this is that if i can hit it i have to. this can lead to an obliterated party member followed by another and another ouch ouch ouch. so i have to name the order of creatures i will be killing before my first attack roll. if i get a cleave/ greater cleave i have to take them. so i plot out a path (berserker allowing me to shift after every kill) through the majority of the army of skeletons and zombies. i aim for zombies first then skeles b/c of the annoying little dr the skeles have vs my big axe. so now we let my berserking half ogre fly into battle. everyone else is free and clear of my attacks.
i hit the first one and its a beautiful hit rolled a 17 with my massive bonuses i easily hit the thing for 1d12+x and it dies. the dm says boom. i say oh crap. i swing again the next one falls. dm says boom. this goes on for about 3 minutes until the entire undead legion is destroyed and my bonus dmg due to psycotic stance is up to 1d12+xstr+30d6.... so killing 30 creatures that each blow up some amount of negative energy damage which he rolls at the end of combat since no amount of damage can kill me anyways (love berserking) turns out the first few were all lowbies but the cleric in his lack luster roll didnt notice that the undead at the begining were cannon fodder and the ones towards the back got considerably more powerful.. more powerful higher hit dice bigger booms. so the dm pulls out his 10d6 and says
"ok i have to roll this 10 times."
hmmmmm so 100d6 points of damage. i ask the highest hd mob i killed he said it was something like 10hd..
i cringe at the thought of losing yet another toon to poor choices. my turn ends i have a bunch of rounds of rage left so as long as i keep raging i get to live. the problem is i cant end psycostance so if anyone tries to come close enough to heal me i have to take my aos (i have reach with half ogre)
the party not wanting to lose my toon any more than me came up with a genius solution. our healer is a cleric/radiant servant of pelor/ hierophant. so all of his healing spells are empowered/maximized/reach. i am at -50 some odd hit points and fuming pissed. i dont have to move but if i do i have to move towards something to attack. i also cant ignore attack oppurtunities that come within my blindsense. so i hold my action (as per our house rules) if anyone targets me with a spell imidiately after there spell is finished i have to target them until they die.
our malconvoker (amazing summoning build i came up with) summoned a huge elemental directly between me and the healers new loaction (30 feet away) the healer uses every item he can to enhance his best healing spell and manages to heal me back to well within living. i charge the healer not being able to go aroudn the massive elemental as i got into his threatened squares the elemental took his ao to grab me and "engulf" me (engulf is an ability that earth elementals get if you have rashemi elemental summoning feat out of a forgotten realms book) i cant use my weapon to get out but i can break out with strength. by time i break out the twin elemental that was summoned directly behind the first is in line to engulf me. they take turns moviong behind one another keepming me engulfed the rest of the rage.
the dm was laughing so hard he almost cried. exclaiming that this encounter was meant for the entire party and that the fodder were just there to heal the bigger ones with all the abilities. it was just coinicidence that i rolled a 20 on my initiative and got to go first.
our house ruling on psyco stance was terminated after that turns out it makes things way to easy with a little forethought and friends to keep u going.