Author Topic: [PF] Building A Circus Strongman  (Read 3370 times)

Offline Rejakor

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[PF] Building A Circus Strongman
« on: November 05, 2016, 05:50:12 AM »


So i've got this concept that has tickled my fancy.  A circus strongman, circa 1850 or so, and his brother (also a circus strongman), who go adventuring.

To pull this off correctly, the only combat options should be -

-Civilized Fisticuffs (no clawing, biting, kung fu)
-Grappling
-Improvised Weapons (against foes where appropriate (not humanoids), stuff like ladders, dumb-bells, things the man has just picked up)

The circus strongman should wear no obvious armour, shouldn't be using magic (although in some cases, singing or poetry could be appropriate, and magic items without clear magical effects should be fine (and no drugs or poisons, obviously)), should be impressive in his movements (lots of posing), have buddy attacks with his Brother! the other circus strongman, and be quite difficult to damage/put down.

Obviously he won't be as tough as a real build, but i'd like to see how far I can take this.  I'm looking specifically at level 11 at the moment, and in PF.

What i've got currently is a loose collection of ideas -

Grappling focused feats
Dazzling Display
Monk X for unarmoured
Unarmed fighter archetypes?
Bard with that focused-inspiration stuff and fast inspiration so the brothers are constantly inspiring each other for massive bonuses?
Fling Ally feat from 3.5?
Leap Attack similarly for Bodyslam style attacks off Fling Ally?
Extra-dimensional holding purely for massively oversized barbells to use as part of special attacks?
something to increase carrying capacity for lifting up and throwing oversized things?

Ideas, builds?  I'm a bit stumped myself.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2016, 05:52:19 AM by Rejakor »

Offline ketaro

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Re: [PF] Building A Circus Strongman
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2016, 06:08:46 AM »
Brawler

It's a monk and a fighter all in one and stacks/counts as monk or fighter for most or all things that take a specific number of levels in either.

Offline Rejakor

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Re: [PF] Building A Circus Strongman
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2016, 06:23:08 AM »
Hrm, I had a look at the class and the only thing I really like about it is Martial Flexibility.  That gives you the ability to take some of the decent feats in pathfinder without spending every single fight doing the same thing.  But it's pretty late once it gets to the bits you want, even if you take the building block feats like Expertise and Weapon Focus with your actual feat slots.  I'm not sure a straight fighter wouldn't be better even at the 'getting feat chains' thing, and it doesn't add a stat to AC like the monk does (Although i'm not sure a circus strongman have 20 Wis would make a lot of sense).

Offline Rejakor

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Re: [PF] Building A Circus Strongman
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2016, 07:32:38 AM »
Currently i'm looking at the Flowing Monk because immediate actions to trigger grapple attempts seems pretty ludicrous.  As a dip, that is.  For the rest of it, i'm still unsure.  Brawler isn't an awful choice for the rest, although I noticed the Brawler and Siegebreaker fighter archetypes can be stacked, which would allow for some Flaming Homer style shenanigans with bull rush + overrun + free attacks stuff.  Is there anything that turns bull rush and overrun/attacks of opportunity into better stuff in PF? 

Offline ketaro

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Re: [PF] Building A Circus Strongman
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2016, 07:58:33 AM »
Well I just ran to google and found Bull Rush Strike, although it requires critting first. If you can somehow get a critfishing kind of build going for an unarmed fighter type, that could work.

Either on top of or separately, Bull Rush & Overrun can both be done as part of a Charge so you could potentially run a pretty good charge build. You had the idea of two circus strongman brothers here, so how is it not the perfect image of a circus strongman sitting on the shoulders of another circus strongman (so you can use mounted charging feats) and running people down?  :lmao

Offline awaken_D_M_golem

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Re: [PF] Building A Circus Strongman
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2016, 03:12:36 PM »
Pugilist acf for Fighter, is interesting, although not as KABOOM as Ketaro's PF link.
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Offline SalusSuprema

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Re: [PF] Building A Circus Strongman
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2016, 01:26:12 AM »
 Muleback Cords
Slot shoulders; Price 1,000 gp; Weight 1/4 lb.

These thick leather cords wrap around the wearer’s biceps and shoulders. When worn, they make the wearer’s muscles appear larger than normal. The wearer treats his Strength score as 8 higher than normal when determining his carrying capacity. This bonus does not apply to combat, breaking items, or any other Strength-related rolls, it only contributes to the amount of equipment or material the wearer can carry.
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