[PFS] Please help me with a Warpriest Mancatcher-Grappler

[Frogman55]

Starting Stats: 14, 13, 11, 12, 14, 12 (20 point buy). I don't want to dump INT, skills are just too useful in PFS play. I'm also comfortable with dropping my con by a bit - Fort is a good save, and HP loss has never really worried me in PFS games. I may want to tweak this a bit, depending on racial choice.

Race: undecided. Human is always nice, bonus skills and feats. Aasimar is attractive too, though I'm not sure the +2 cha is worth losing the feat. Maybe. To be honest, this guy probably won't see actual play until after the book has come out - favored class options may affect my decisions.

Feats:
1) Weapon Proficiency (Mancatcher)
3) Improved Unarmed Strike
B3) Improved Grapple
5) Power Attack
B6) Chokehold
7) Furious Focus
9) ?
B9) ?

Basically, I want to take advantage of three things: Full BAB in my chosen weapon (the Mancatcher), improved damage with that weapon (no longer 1d2!), and the possibility of swift-casting cleric buffs.

I know that grappling is a limited-return tactic, but I'm intending this for PFS play, which means that the top level will be only 12, and that the vast majority of enemies are NPCs with sub-optimal spell choices. Thus, grappling gets better, especially when you figure in that this guy will be able to use weapon enhancements in his CMB to grapple. He'll carry around a primary weapon to use on medium sized targets, and a secondary (cheaper one) tailored for small sized targets. He'll lose some potency with other sized enemies, though judicious use of enlarge/reduce person will allow him to grapple tiny and large sized creatures too; even when this isn't possible he'll still have a two-handed reach weapon to thwack things with.


Clearly, I need help with some feat decisions. To make it work, at a minimum, I need exotic weapon proficiency (I don't think there are any PFS legal gods with a favored weapon (mancatcher)), improved unarmed strike, and improved grapple. Power attack is always nice, and so on.

But I dearly need better ideas for what to go for, I feel like I'm lacking focus or breadth. I dunno.

[edit]To be clear: my primary goal here is to have a PFS-legal build that grapples with a mancatcher. I'd like to make that build as effective as possible. Other classes, archetypes, feats, etc. that further that goal will be cheerfully accepted. Part of me feels like a couple levels of lore-warden would be helpful, if only for bonus feats; given that I'm already not sure what additional feats I aught to take, I thought that more warpriest levels would be preferred. But I'm still not sure.

Oh, and does anyone know what happens to the break DC if I make the mancatcher out of Adamantine? Or what happens when it gets magically enhanced? I can figure out the difference in hardness and HP, but I'm not sure about the DCs.

[Power]

I honestly think the mancatcher is a terrible weapon, considering a mancatcher can only target creatures of a specific size, so you'd need multiple ones, which makes getting enhancement bonuses on your mancatchers harder. With that out of the way...

I'd go Oni-spawn Tiefling if I were you: +2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Cha. Also, your stat distribution is a bit weird. I would probably go with these stats for your Warpriest:

16 str - 12 dex - 14 con - 12 int - 14 wis - 7 cha

Racial modifiers:

18 str - 12 dex - 14 con - 12 int - 16 wis - 5 cha

You need high strength to initiate combat maneuvers. Also, take 1 level of Maneuver Master Monk to pick up Improved Grapple (and +2 to all saves) without bothering with the dex prerequisite. If you're worried about dumping social skills, take the Student of Philosophy or Clever Wordplay social trait so that they're int-based instead. Pick up the Celestial Obedience feat and worship Falayna (LG, domains: Good, Law, Liberation, Strength) as your patron. Her Celestial Obedience boon is a +4 sacred bonus to Grapple and CMD. You should also get the Fate's Favored trait to increase the luck bonus from Divine Favor by 1 (Luck boosts CMB).

[Frogman55]

I honestly think the mancatcher is a terrible weapon, considering a mancatcher can only target creatures of a specific size, so you'd need multiple ones, which makes getting enhancement bonuses on your mancatchers harder. With that out of the way...

Yup. It's very terrible. I'm planning on keeping enlarge and reduce person available to mitigate this - that way I can still use a single weapon (and its investments) to work on small-large creatures. A second and third weapon could let me try and grapple tiny and huge creatures too.

Frankly, without the warpriests damage benefits and his fervor, I wouldn't try this. For that matter, I wouldn't try this in a normal game either. I think I can get away with it in PFS. Just think of it like optimizing a commoner.

I'd go Oni-spawn Tiefling if I were you: +2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Cha.

I'm concerned about going with an outsider, given that I'm intending to rely on enlarge/reduce person to widen my versatility.

Also, your stat distribution is a bit weird. I would probably go with these stats for your Warpriest:

16 str - 12 dex - 14 con - 12 int - 14 wis - 7 cha

Racial modifiers:

18 str - 12 dex - 14 con - 12 int - 16 wis - 5 cha

You need high strength to initiate combat maneuvers. Also, take 1 level of Maneuver Master Monk to pick up Improved Grapple (and +2 to all saves) without bothering with the dex prerequisite.

I'm going to want greater grapple at level 6 (forgot that in the above), so I'll still need dex 13 to qualify for that anyways - doesn't really affect the spread though, as I could just make dex my level 4 boost.

As to monk for the lowered pre-req, the save boost is nice, and it could save me the improved unarmed feat. Of course, I could potentially find a deity that has unarmed strikes as their favored weapon instead.

If you're worried about dumping social skills, take the Student of Philosophy or Clever Wordplay social trait so that they're int-based instead. Pick up the Celestial Obedience feat and worship Falayna (LG, domains: Good, Law, Liberation, Strength) as your patron. Her Celestial Obedience boon is a +4 sacred bonus to Grapple and CMD. You should also get the Fate's Favored trait to increase the luck bonus from Divine Favor by 1 (Luck boosts CMB).

Good call on the traits. It does make me feel much less hesitant to dump Cha, though I'd really like more fervor points, especially given that there aren't currently any feats to boost it.

I really need to get myself a copy of Chronicles of the Righteous. Its definitely the right call if I'm dipping monk. When I get away from work I'll check over the other deities - maybe one of the unarmed gods has a useful boon. If I can get improved unarmed strike for free, loosing that boon might be worth not needing to dip.