Where There’s a Whip, There’s a Way
Amanoo’s Pathfinder Guide to Whips
Source: Deviant Art, Liliesformary, quote from Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, original novel version
From adventurers like Indiana Jones, to vampire hunters like Belmont, to Dark Jedi in Legends continuity, whips can be found all over fiction. And every now and then someone comes along who wants to use whips in Pathfinder. Taking some inspiration from various guide writers such as Treantmonk, I want to explore how we can make this method of fighting effective in Pathfinder. We will focus mostly on the martial side. Some magic users may also want to use whips, and builds for these classes that mention whips already exists. My intention is to expand on the martial use.
Special thanks to the /r/Pathfinder_RPG subreddit for helping me out with some reviewing.
Whips may seem a little underpowered in a DPR calculation. You can eventually deal some damage with it, but it really isn’t meant for that. The main purpose of a whip-user is to become a controller on the battlefield. You’re not here to deal damage, but to keep the enemy from dealing damage using your Combat Maneuvers. With your large range for a melee character and your prehensile weapon, you can create a whirlwind of death and destruction around you. Or at least, a whirlwind of messiness. You won’t do a lot of death and destruction, but you can certainly trip people up or disarm them using your whip, preventing them from getting to you or to your allies, or from using their weapons against them. To this end, one of your main tools is your ability to absolutely abuse Attacks of Opportunity, which you can use for Combat Maneuvers such as trip, which you can execute using your whip. Combat Maneuvers and Attacks of Opportunity are the name of the game.
Not all maneuvers can be used, but the most important ones can. Rule of thumb: if the combat maneuver can be done instead of a single melee attack, it can be used as an Attack of Opportunity. This includes Trip, Disarm, and Sunder (this has often been debated, but current rules explicitly states that Sunder is done in place of a melee attack). These 3 maneuvers are also the only 3 that can normally be done using your weapon (although there is a feat that also allows you to grapple using your whip, but this will not turn the grapple into an attack). You cannot perform a Bull Rush, Drag, Grapple, Overrun, Reposition, Steal, or Dirty Trick as an AoO. Personally, I feel that some Dirty Tricks take a short enough time that it should be usable. As this is not possible according to RAW, this is up to your GM.
Someone enters your zone or moves anywhere within it, you trip and/or disarm them. Someone casts a spell? Attack of Opportunity. Even more interestingly: enemy tries to stand up from prone? Attack of Opportunity. However, don’t try to trip him again, as the Attack of Opportunity occurs before the provoking action. So if you try to use trip on an enemy who’s trying to stand up, you’re just using it on someone who’s still lying on the ground, and he’ll get to just stand up anyway. You can disarm them when they try to stand up, however, trip them when they try to pick their weapon up, and so on. Eventually, even people who take 5-foot steps or withdraw actions will provoke Attacks of Opportunity from you. And if an enemy is tripped, your allies will get a bonus to melee attacks. He’s not helpless, so no coup de grace, but it can still allow your party to turn someone into mincemeat right then and there.
I suggest you take a good look at the Actions in Combat table from the Melee Tactics Toolbox, as this will show you when you can and can’t make Attacks of Opportunity. For your convenience, this table will be located at the end of this guide. Also note that whips don’t have a threat area by default according to RAW. The whip is treated as a melee weapon with 15-foot reach, though you don't threaten the area into which you can make an attack. The Improved Whip Mastery feat is REQUIRED to threaten any area at all. Note that reach weapons normally double the wielder’s natural reach. The rules don’t say which weapons do, but I’d assume whips do too. That means that a whip grants the wielder a natural reach of 10ft. Improved Whip Mastery makes it so that the area you threaten is your natural reach (10 feet with a whip) + an additional 5 feet. This makes your threatened area 15 feet total. Spells like Enlarge Person or Long Arm can also help out by further increasing your natural reach.
Of course there is always the obligatory colour coding.
Red = Bad. Don’t take this. It is probably a waste or there’s a better way to get this.
Orange = Meh. Could be useful or flavourful if you reeeeally want this, but there’s so much more that’s just better for you.
Green = Pretty good. But there may still be things that you want more. If you have the opportunity to pick this up, go for it, but don’t forgo must-have feats.
Blue = Very strong. You really want this. These are part of completing your build
Purple = Must-haves. If you don’t get this, your build will not work, and you might as well go play something else.
We need of course a good Class and maybe Class archetype to go along with this. I would suggest a multiclass of Fighter and Swashbuckler. But there’s more than one road to Rome.
Bard: The ever flexible Bard can also make use of a whip. Again, he’s got spells, including some of the aforementioned whip spells. And he’s flexible enough to do a whole lot of stuff. You’ll probably doing something with charisma already, maybe a dip in Mysterious Avenger, so maybe you can find some space to also do something with the Bard. Treantmonk has a guide that describes this use, although it seems it’s just a less in-depth version of the martial stuff I intend to explain. The Bard does have an archetype named Archaeologist, though. Not that it helps him with any Whipping, but come on. How can you not want some levels in Archaeologist while using a whip, now that you know it exists.
Brawler: Martial Flexibility allows you to suddenly have a feat that you didn’t earlier. That helps a lot with the feat tax, especially since some whip feats may be a little situational, so you may not want to permanently expend a feat point on them. This may even allow you to get deeper into the whip feat trees as you otherwise would have. You also get bonus feats, which is nice for the feat tax. Unarmed Strikes may help you threaten an area or to deal damage at early levels. You also get bonuses to combat maneuvers of your choice. And if the Brawler’s Intelligence score is less than 13, it counts as 13 for the purpose of meeting the prerequisites of combat feats (and there are a lot of those). Is there anything in this class that doesn’t benefit a whip user?
Fighter: Fighters get a ton of feats. You want feats, as many as possible. Things like Weapon Training are nice. Armor training won’t hurt either. Though Brawler might be better.
Magus: Whip Magus is certainly a thing. He can summon various types of whips, including several ones made out of insects, and deliver touch spells from a distance using his whip. Spells like River Whip/Ghost Whip and Rock Whip can also be nice. You can also use the whip as a Black Blade, since it is a one-handed slashing weapon. Or just use a normal whip. Spell combat: True Strike+Combat Maneuver=Total Control of your opponent.
A Rime Frostbite Magus can entangle people on top of all that. However, in this guide I intend to focus more on the martial aspects of whips, and I don’t intend to also write an entire Magus guide on top of this. It’s a viable strategy but it falls outside the scope of this guide. Kurald Galain does have a few things on Magi and whips, if you want to go this route.
Monk (Maneuver Master): The name really says it all. This archetype is all about using maneuvers. You can’t use armor. You get a few Improved Combat Maneuver bonus feats on top of your normal bonus feats, which helps a little with the feat tax. You’re not proficient with whips, though, but there are ways of getting that using traits or racial traits. Normal monk is less great, as Flurry of Blows doesn’t work well with whip. The feat that enables that is meh.
Slayer/Ranger (Faithful of Calistria combat style): Whenever you gain a combat style feat, you can pick one of the must-have whip feats. The feat tax may be a little bit more of a struggle than, say, a Fighter. If you want to be a whip-wielding Ranger, this should work well enough. Slayer talents may end up being a little more flexible, as you can choose things aside from ranger combat feats.
Spiritualist (Phantom Blade): It’s like the Bladebound Magus, but without the restriction on what type of weapon it can be. Isn’t naturally proficient with whips, though. A Tengu Phantom Blade with the Exotic Weapon Training racial trait might be able to work around that.
Swashbuckler (Mysterious Avenger): Another strong contender. This Archetype for Swashbuckler is based around whips. You get free Weapon Finesse with whips. A free feat right there. You don’t get the bonus feat at 4th level, which is a bummer. But you do become more difficult to do something against. Avenger’s Target makes your whip stronger. Always nice. Some extra bonuses and shit. It will help. And that is on top of all the deeds. You can even parry with your whip. Is that ridiculous? Yes. Is it awesome? YES!
Vigilante: Vigilantes gets a bunch of talents. The Whip of Vengeance Talent gets you Whip Mastery and at level 6 Improved Whip Mastery. Lethal Grace gets you Weapon Finesse. Quite a few combat Maneuver things. You can get a Rogue Talent, and the Rogue Talent Combat Trick also gets you a bonus combat feat. All in all the feat tax shouldn’t be too problematic. Hangman archetype is about grappling and choking people using whips.
Avenger Specialisation for Vigilante gets full BAB instead of sneak attack, making their CMB higher, and qualify for the Vigilante talent Combat Skill, which lets them trade their Vigilante Talent for a combat feat, and can be taken more than once, effectively getting them as many combat feats as a fighter. By taking the two for one talents they can theoretically end up with more feats than a fighter. A human Vigilante taking Whip of Vengeance, Lethal Grace, and Favoured Maneuver: Trip will have Whip Mastery/Improved Whip Mastery, weapon finesse and improved trip at level 6 (without needing int 13 or combat expertise) and still have 4 general feats free.
Warpriest: Getting Weapon Focus as a free feat is nice. You get to do a bunch of things, bit of spellcasting, some healing. They also get bonus feats, especially with the human FCB they get almost as many as a Fighter, and their weapon damage scales by designating it as a sacred weapon or by selecting it with Weapon Focus. Spells like Divine Favor are also nice. This class has a lot going for it, and there are some very good builds possible with this, but again, I prefer to focus mostly on the martial side of things in this guide. For more on Whip-wielding Warpriests, I’ll refer you to N. Jolly’s Warpriest guide.
Pain Taster: A Prestige Class based around the whip. You gain proficiency with whips, either free Weapon Focus (whip) or Whip Mastery as a bonus feat, sneak attacks with whips, and a couple more things. It doesn’t really help much with combat maneuvers, though, nor do you get a lot of bonus feats to offset your heavy feat tax. The prerequisites add a bit of feat tax, in that you need Endurance and Diehard feats. Unbreakable Fighter archetype gives you these for free.
This may be depend a lot on your build. Generally speaking, especially assuming purely martial classes such as Fighter or Swashbuckler, it will probably look something like this. But if you go with something like Warpriest or Magus, for example, things may turn out very differently.
Dexterity is recommended for most conventional builds, but it depends a little on your build. Still, you will always end up using some amount of Dex. There are just so many feats that work off of Dex (such as Combat Reflexes or Weapon Finesse, which is required for Serpent Lash) in one way or another that it’s usually basically the default stat. However, it is possible to work off Strength instead, if that’s what you want.
Constitution is less important, though still good, as you’ll be on the front line, playing a tank who prevents everyone else from getting attacked. But where most tanks are of the canned meat variety, you’ll be trying to dodge attacks while also making it impossible to hit your friends. Still, it helps to be able to soak up some damage.
Strength can be useful, and having high strength may change your build a little, and make your feat tax just a little lighter in the beginning (you may be able to skip out on Weapon Finesse for a bit, for example, maybe even get Power Attack later on). Strength does allow you to gain a bonus on Attack and Damage rolls from the get-go, as well as using it on CMB, without having to spend any feats. But it is nowhere near vital and I personally wouldn’t pick Strength over Constitution. Depending on your build, you may be able to dump it completely.
Charisma may be very useful, or nearly useless, depending on your build. If you want to get at least some levels in Mysterious Avenger Swashbuckler (more on that later) or Bard, it is blue. For a single-class fighter, it is completely unimportant.
Intelligence is nearly useless for most classes, save Magus. Having 13 int is a prerequisite for Combat Expertise, though. But there are ways around that. A few levels in Lore Warden Fighter, gives you Combat Expertise for free, even if he doesn’t normally qualify. Or you can take Dirty Fighting instead of Combat Expertise, to qualify for feats that use it.
Wisdom can be useful, but is not required. It helps you with your will saves, so the DM won’t just use your character against the party. It also helps your perception checks. If you’re going with something like a Warpriest or a Maneuver Master Monk, it’s blue.
My personal priority list would be either:
Dex > Cha > Con > Wis > Int > Str , if you go the Mysterious Avenger Route, or
Dex > Con > Str > Wis > Int > Cha for a Dex Fighter type.
Assuming the first route, My example ability scores with a human (going with at least some levels in Swashbuckler) would be:
15 point buy: Str 7, Dex 16 (18), Con 14, Int 8, Wis 9, Cha 15
20 point buy: Str 7, Dex 16 (18), Con 14, Int 8, Wis 8, Cha 17
25 point buy: Str 7, Dex 16 (18), Con 16, Int 8, Wis 11, Cha 16
This may be interesting. Stat-wise, it should be fairly straightforward, but size also matters here. If you are larger than Medium size, you will gain additional natural reach (which is then presumably doubled by your whip), which grants you great overall area. Unfortunately, there are no PC races with a larger size, but casting Enlarge Person on a Medium PC will also do the trick. Weapons will also be enlarged, so yeah, you’ll just have amazing range. If you know you will have someone doing that, Medium size is great.
If you aren’t going to be enlarged, a small PC may be better. Small size does give you a few bonuses, most notably to AC. You can take the penalty to damage, since you’re not a damage dealer anyway. But aren’t your whip and your natural reach going to be smaller, you may ask. Well, actually no. Small creatures still get a 5 foot natural reach, and Pathfinder does not define small whips. Whips are just defined as having 15 feet, and being a large creature just adds some range on top of that (usually +10 feet for reach weapons).
It will probably get icky if you then enlarge a small creature wielding a whip, though. Does his whip stay the same size, making him a normal size creature with the same size whip as before? Or does he now have a longer whip than a human whip-user would have? That’s just not very well-defined within Pathfinder. I’ll leave this strange edge case to the reader’s GM to ponder upon.
Dwarf: Pretty meh. The bonus to Con is nice, but you don’t use Wisdom that much. The Charisma penalty hurts Mysterious Avengers. Might make for an decent Warpriest though.
Elf: Not the best either. The bonus to Dex is very nice. Int bonus is nice for some classes, e.g. Magus. Penalty to Con will hurt a little. Elves are just okayish Swashbucklers, but good Magi. Favoured Class Bonus for Swashbuckler is okay adding a bit to your Panache Pool size, FCB for Fighters may help decent bit, as it adds some CMD to Disarm and Sunder attempts. They don’t get much there outside of Dex bonus and FCB.
Gnome: Alright, this will do. Small size doesn’t hurt. Bonuses to Con and Charisma are helpful. Lousy Strength, but we probably won’t really be using it. Especially since a small creature also gets lighter equipment. Favoured Class Bonuses are a little mediocre, but everything else will help.
Half-Elf: Stats to any ability of choice. Put it in Dex. Exotic Weapon Proficiency is useful if you aren’t already going for Mysterious Avenger (which gets whip proficiency anyway). You can choose to get Favoured Class Bonuses of Humans or Elves, though that doesn’t make much difference. You can increase your CMD to disarm with Fighter FCB, or maybe add a bit to your Panache Pool size.
Halfling: Bonus to Dex and Cha? Excellent! Penalty to Str, who cares? Small size can be useful. Swashbuckler FCB is meh, but Fighter FCB is useful. Extra CMD. You don’t want the DM to just take your fun away.
Half-Orc: Again +2 to any ability of choice. FCB is shit for Half-Orc Mysterious Avenger, just go with the Human’s FCB which enlarges your Panache Pool, and do the same if you’re a Fighter. There are two alternate racial traits worth noting. City-Raised grants proficiency with whips and longswords, and a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (local) checks. This racial trait replaces weapon familiarity. Useful for Spiritualists, Vigilantes, and any other 3/4 BAB classes without whip proficiency.
The Beastmaster racial trait makes nets and whips a martial weapon (useful for classes with martial weapon proficiency) and gives +2 bonus on Handle Animal checks. Replaces Orc Ferocity. Note that the Caravan Driver trait also makes whips martial weapons.
Human: Again, +2 to any ability of choice, okay FCB for Swashbuckler, good FCB for Fighter. You also get an extra feat at level 1. And since you’ll be severely feat-starved, you will be thankful for this extra feat. That fact actually made me play with purple just now. You don’t need that extra feat, but it will be a big help. It might be the best race for whip users.
Now for the less standard races that still deserve a mention:
Catfolk: Definitely not a bad pick. Dex and Cha bonuses are good. Wisdom penalty doesn’t matter too much in most builds. All around just good stats. You get no FCB though. But still useful. Just don’t bring your furry BDSM fetishes to the table.
Dhampir: Dex and Cha are good, penalty to Con hurts a little. FCB for Fighter is mediocre, no Swashbuckler FCB.
Fetchling: Bonus to Dex and Cha, penalty to Wis, like Catfolk. Should be a good enough pick.
Goblin: You’d know these bastards would want to use that whip on everyone. +4 Dex is absolutely amazing. Small size can be a boon. Penalty to strength doesn’t matter. the penalty to Cha keeps these from being a deep blue.
Hobgoblin: Bonus to Dex and Con. No penalties. They’ll work. Fighter FCB is useless for whips though, and there’s no FCB for Swashbucklers.
Orc: I guess it fits roleplaying-wise. Penalties on all mental stats, and they only get strength. Pretty bad.
Merfolk: I’m really not sure how to rate this. Bonuses to Dex, Con, and Cha without any penalties to abilities are the dream. Natural armor is never a bad thing. You can’t even be tripped. But you’ll also be like a fish on dry land. Literally. You don’t have any legs. Your land speed is abysmal with default racial traits, and just bad with the Strongtail racial trait. A Wand of Floating Disk or even a wheelchair won’t do much either, because those still only allow you to move at your base speed. It is a difficult problem to work around.
Tengu: It’s one of the few races that can give you Exotic Weapon Proficiency for free with an alternate racial trait, so it’s useful for Spiritualists, Vigilantes, and any other 3/4 BAB classes without whip proficiency. -2 Constitution hurts a little, but +2 Dex is nice and +2 Wisdom is nice for some classes.
There are a bunch of others I didn’t mention. I didn’t want to list every single thing that gains Dex, because there is a lot of that. And even things that have other beneficial bonuses. Just try to get something that adds Dex, or alternatively Con, and maybe Charisma if you’re going the Swashbuckler route. And try to find something that doesn’t give penalties to these stats. Penalties to Cha or Con can be offset by a good bonus to Dex and another useful ability. Penalties to Dex are to be avoided.
This is really the most important part. This is where all the classes, races, and abilities come together, and actual make the build work. The problem here is, there is a lot that you want to get, and you will be sorely feat-starved.
Agile Maneuvers: You probably just won’t use this. Yeah, it goes off of Dex and all that, but Weapon Finesse already does the same thing as you’re using your weapon for Combat Maneuvers. Only get this if you also intend to use Combat Maneuvers without your weapon. This feat becomes a little better when using the optional stamina rules from Unchained, as this allows you to use combat maneuvers on larger enemies.
Bodyguard: When an adjacent ally is attacked, you may use an AoO to attempt an Aid Another action to improve your ally’s AC. Useful, since you want to have plenty AoOs.
Combat Expertise: Not a feat that I expect to see used much. But it is a prerequisite for some feats. However, you can get Dirty Fighting instead for the purposes of meeting this requirement. Dirty Fighting is more useful to you and doesn’t have the 13 int requirement of Combat Expertise, and also acts as 13 int for the purposes of qualifying for combat maneuver feats. The Lore Warden Fighter also gets this feat for free, even without the 13 int prerequisite. It is nice to get this feat for free as a Lore Warden, but don’t spend a feat slot on it. Dirty Fighting is just better.
Combat Patrol: Increase your threatened area by 5 feet for every +5 BAB. Your Attack of Opportunity zone will basically become bigger. You can move as part of your Attack of Opportunity. Unfortunately, it does take a full-round action. That makes it less useful early on. It’s okay at first, but later on, this feat will become incredibly useful. You may want to postpone picking this up, but you will get it eventually.
Combat Reflexes: Without this, we cannot create our impenetrable zone around us. We want to get Attacks of Opportunity left and right. That’s the purpose of our whip, and this feat is what enables exactly that.
Demoralizing Lash: Very situational. You have to have someone who intimidates enemies. This will then help out with those debuffs. You also have to be a hobgoblin. Not a bad feat, though. Just very situational.
Dex-to-damage: Nice to have in the late game, when you have the feats you really need and want to deal some damage. Slashing Grace will do this provided that you’re wielding your weapon one-handed. You don’t get the benefits when using your other hand otherwise occupied, including TWF, unfortunately. I suggest getting Deadly Agility, if your GM allows third-party content from Dreamscarred Press. The Agile item enhancement will also work.
Dirty Fighting: Pretty solid pick after Whip Mastery. Improved Combat Maneuver feats (maybe also Whip Mastery, though probably not) will allow you to not provoke Attacks of Opportunity from enemies. Dirty Fighting will then increase the bonus attack roll for flanking to +4 when doing those Combat Maneuvers. Nice stuff. Also counts as having Combat Expertise and 13 int for the purposes of meeting prerequisites of combat maneuver feats. It’s not purple only because builds without it can still work
Divine Fighting Technique (Poisoned Lash): Allows Chaotic Neutral Rogues or Slayers who worship Calistria to apply poison to a whip as a move action, which you can deliver with a combat maneuver or an attack roll.
Enforcer: When dealing non-lethal damage (as whips normally do), this allows you to make a free intimidation check on every hit. Also fits thematically. Combine with a cruel whip to make your target sickened as well.
Equipment Trick (Rope): Not entirely sure how good it is. Probably not very. Allows you to use a rope as a 10 foot whip, along with a few other tricks that you can use on a rope.
Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Whip): This should go without saying, but you need proficiency with whips. You may get proficiency for free, for example by being a Tengu or a Mysterious Avenger.
Hook Fighter: This allows you to fight with a grappling hook. You can disarm or trip people with it, or pull them towards you. Basically, you’re Pudge from DotA. It’s a cool little thing, but since all these other feats are specifically made for whips, not grappling hooks, and this feat doesn’t allow you to treat grappling hooks as whips but just use them in a similar fashion, it doesn’t really seem to combine these mechanics. Might be able to work better if combined with Equipment Trick (Rope) feat, though that would make for an experimental build.
Improved Dirty Trick: Dirty Tricks don’t provoke Attacks of Opportunity, and you get a +2 to Dirty Trick checks and defence rolls against Dirty Tricks.
Improved Disarm: +2 CMB and CMD on Disarm, you don’t provoke Attacks of Opportunity anymore doing Disarms. It is possible that Whip Mastery does this as well, though probably not.
Improved Grapple: +2 to Grapple and no longer provokes Attacks of Opportunity. Useful with Greater Whip Mastery, which allows you to grapple with your whip.
Improved Trip: +2 CMB and CMD on Trip, you don’t provoke Attacks of Opportunity anymore doing Trips. It is possible that Whip Mastery does this as well, though probably not.
Fury’s Fall: This one almost certainly just doesn’t work on Dex builds, but good for Strength builds. It allows you to add your Dex bonus to your CMB. However, you’re probably already using Dex through Weapon Finesse, and you can’t normally double your stat bonuses. Doubling bonuses is always illegal unless explicitly stated, which makes it useless for Dex.
Lunge: Extra 5 feet reach when making an attack. Announce it at the start of your turn. Useful, especially once you have Greater Serpent Lash.
Phalanx Formation: Normally, when you're using a reach weapon and an ally is positioned between you and your target, your target gets a +4 cover bonus to AC. This feat removes that cover.
Pin Down: Requires Fighter level 11, so pretty late game. Swashbuckler levels also count as Fighter levels. Opponents that take a 5-foot step or withdraw action provoke an Attack of Opportunity from you. If the attack hits, you deal no damage but they are prevented from taking the action that provoked the AoO.
Power Attack: Meh. Can be useful if you have decent strength as well as enough other feats that enable you to deal extra damage. But this is very much a luxury. We won’t get this until much later, if we get this at all.
Serpent Lash: Kind of like Cleave, but with Combat Maneuvers when using a whip. If you make one successful maneuver against someone, you can also make one against the person next to them. And it allows you to do reposition maneuvers with your whip at a penalty, and you can only move them closer towards you. More Combat Maneuvers is more better.
Two-Weapon Fighting: Actually pretty strong once you have other feats. Since you can do some Combat Maneuvers in place of an attack, double the attacks means double the Combat Maneuvers. Combine this with Greater Whip Mastery to slap people around while also grappling an enemy with your off-hand whip. Or combine with (Greater) Serpent Lash for just insane numbers of Combat Maneuvers. Solid pick-up once you have these other feats. Of course, you will take some penalties on your CMB. Use Effortless Lace to make your offhand whip light. There has been some discussion if Lace works with TWF as RAW, but the creator has stated that he intended it to work with TWF.
Weapon Focus: Will help out a little with a small bonus, but mostly it is a prerequisite for other feats. You will end up getting this because the game basically says you must.
Weapon Finesse: Finesse will allow you to use your dexterity to execute Combat Maneuvers with your weapon. That means it’s very important for Dex builds. If you’re going with a strength build, it is less necessary. Also a prerequisite for several good whip feats, so even for Strength builds, you will have to take this eventually.
Weapon Specialisation: +2 to damage is nice, but damage only matters once you have most of the must-have feats and want to deal some damage, and a +2 is only okay at that point. Not a bad feat if you have nothing better to go for, though.
Whip Mastery: You don’t provoke Attacks of Opportunity with your whip anymore (probably doesn’t work for Combat Maneuvers with a whip, not entirely sure), you can deal lethal damage, you can damage through armor. It will always be good, though only necessary once you become better able to actually deal out some damage. Still, it won’t hurt to pick it up at early levels. Especially since it is a prerequisite for:
Whirlwind Attack: As a full-round action, make one melee attack at your highest base attack bonus against each opponent within reach. When you use the Whirlwind Attack feat, you also forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats, spells, or abilities, so this feat doesn’t combine with something like Serpent Lash or Greater Trip. Prerequisites also add a lot of feat tax. Still a powerful feat, despite everything against it.
Wyvern Fury Style: Allows you to use a whip with your Brawler's Flurry if you're a brawler. Would be purple if it worked on more than one of your attacks. Guess it’s still useful, though.
Wyvern Sting: Allows allies to move through spaces threatened by an enemy without provoking an AoE after you’ve hit that enemy with your whip.
Wyvern Wing: Allows you to take 5 foot step during flurry of blows while using Wyvern Fury Style.
Bred for War (Human or Adopted): You gain a +1 trait bonus on Intimidate checks and a +1 trait bonus on your CMB because of your great size. You must be at least 6 feet tall.
Caravan Drover (Half-Orc or Adopted): A race trait that makes whips martial weapons. Useful for classes with Martial Weapon Proficiency. Note that the Beastmaster racial trait also makes whips martial weapons.
Chain Master (Tiefling or Adopted): +2 trip with whip. Good for any CMB build, and whip builds are no exception.
Dangerously Curious: Allows you to use UMD. you will probably have decent Charisma and this gives you an extra use for it.
Fate’s Favored: Whenever you are under the effect of a luck bonus of any kind, that bonus increases by 1. Combines nicely things like Dueling (PFS Field Guide version).
Heirloom Weapon: This trait would be absolutely amazing, if only it worked on exotic weapons. Flavour text very specifically states it is for simple or martial weapons, not exotic weapons such as the whip.
Opportunistic: +1 trait bonus on attacks of opportunity when using a or whip.
Prehensile Whip: You can use your whip as a rope with a grappling hook. Would be good if Improved Whip Mastery didn’t give you the same thing. Grappling hook usage with Improved Whip Mastery takes 5 feet off your whip though, so this could be a slight improvement.
Reactionary: +2 to initiative is always good. Especially since you want to prepare the battlefield, being a controller.
Scourge of the Seas: When you wield a whip or scourge, you gain a +1 trait bonus on Intimidate checks. Once per day when you use a whip or scourge to perform a successful disarm or trip combat maneuver against an opponent, you regain 1 point of grit or panache.
Silent Hunter: +1 to stealth, and makes it a class skill. You have good Dex, so this is nice.
Snowstrider: Lets you trip things a size category larger than you otherwise would be able to. That is very potent.
Whip Specialist: +1 damage on all attacks made with whip. Extra damage always helps. You probably won’t focus on damage, however.
Agile: Dex-to-damage. Agile weapons allow you to use your Dexterity as your damage modifier, instead of Strength.
Bane: Enhancement bonus against a specific type of enemy. Also works with Combat Maneuvers.
Cruel: Only good with the Enforcer feat or some other method of intimidation. Make shaken opponents sickened as well.
Deadly: Allows you to deal lethal damage. Whip Mastery feat already does this for you.
Dual-Balanced: Great for a late-game Two-Weapon Fighting thing. Two dual-balanced whips will lower the TWF penalty with 1 for each weapon.
Dueling (Ultimate Equipment): Bonus on initiative if the weapon is drawn, bonus to Disarm checks, a bit of CMD. It fits right it with a whip user.
Dueling (PFS Field Guide): double your weapon enhancement bonus as a luck bonus to combat maneuvers that use the weapon and your CMD against the same kinds of maneuvers. Possibly even better than the other Dueling enhancement. And yes, you can make a +x Dueling Dueling Whip. I’m tempted to make this purple.
Effortless Lace: When Two-Weapon Fighting, put this on your offhand whip to make it a light weapon. Purple for TWF builds.
Frost/Flaming/Shocking (Burst): Allows you to do some additional damage on a successful hit. Burst does extra damage on a crit, but your crit range is rather abysmal. Doesn’t trigger on combat maneuvers.
Fortuitous: If first Attack of Opportunity hits, you can make a second one at -5 penalty. I’m tempted to colour this purple.
Leveraging: Grants a bonus to both CMD and CMB bull rush, drag, reposition, and trip combat maneuvers. To bad Disarm wasn’t included.
Prehensile: As swift action, whip can be used as grappling hook; spend 1 panache to increase reach to 20 ft. for 1 attack, and can use the whip with precise strike. Tempted to colour this purple.
Speed: Grants one extra attack at full base attack bonus when making a full-attack action.
Training: Grants one combat feat to the wielder while drawn; the feat is chosen when this ability is placed on the weapon and cannot be changed.
Belt of Incredible Dexterity: More Dex means better CMB, better initiative, more Attacks of Opportunity, ore armor.
Belt of Superior Maneuvers: 3/day, select a combat maneuver and receive an enhancement bonus to both CMB and CMD for that maneuver for one round.
Cloak of the Hedge Wizard (Divination): True Strike 1/day, allows you to guarantee a maneuver succeeds.
Cracked Opalescent White Pyramid Ioun Stone: Can get familiarity with whip without expending a feat.
Dusty Rose Prism in Wayfinder: +1 insight bonus to all maneuvers
Gauntlets of the Skilled Maneuver: +2 to one type of maneuver
Scorpion Whip: It’s a whip with blades in it. Counts as a light weapon, whereas whips count as one-handed. Deals lethal damage, even to creatures with armor bonuses. If you are proficient with both scorpion whips and whips, you can use a scorpion whip in either the normal way, as a typical light performance weapon, or as a whip. When you use a scorpion whip as a whip, it is equivalent to a whip, but deals lethal damage and can harm creatures regardless of their armor bonus.
Thorny Ioun Stone: +2 competence bonus to one type of maneuver.
Human Fighter (Lore Warden) 3, Swashbuckler (Mysterious Avenger) 2
15 point buy: Str 7, Dex 16 (18), Con 14, Int 9, Wis 8, Cha 15
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Weapon Focus (Whip), Whip Mastery, Improved Whip Mastery, Serpent Lash, Greater Serpent Lash
Traits: Whip Specialist, Reactionary
Standard Actions | Attack of Opportunity1 |
Attack (ranged) | Yes |
Attack (unarmed) | Yes |
No | |
Maybe2 | |
Cast a spell (1 standard action casting time) | Yes |
Channel energy | No |
Concentrate to maintain an active spell | No |
Dismiss a spell | No |
Draw a hidden weapon (see Sleight of Hand skill) | No |
Drink a potion or apply an oil | Yes |
Escape a grapple | No |
No | |
Light a torch with a tindertwig | Yes |
Lower spell resistance | No |
Read a scroll | Yes |
Ready (triggers a standard action) | No |
Yes | |
Total defense | No |
Use extraordinary ability | No |
Use skill that takes 1 action | Usually |
Yes | |
Use supernatural ability | No |
Move Actions | Attack of Opportunity1 |
Move | Yes |
Control a frightened mount | Yes |
Direct or redirect an active spell | No |
Draw a weapon3 | No |
Load a hand crossbow or light crossbow | Yes |
Open or close a door | No |
Mount/dismount a steed | No |
Move a heavy object | Yes |
Pick up an item (see FAQ) | Yes (see FAQ) |
Sheathe a weapon | Yes |
Stand up from prone | Yes |
Ready or drop a shield3 | No |
Retrieve a stored item | Yes |
Full-Round Actions | Attack of Opportunity1 |
Full attack | No |
No | |
Deliver coup de grace | Yes |
Escape from a net | Yes |
Extinguish flames | No |
Light a torch | Yes |
Load a heavy or repeating crossbow | Yes |
Lock or unlock weapon in locked gauntlet | Yes |
Prepare to throw splash weapon | Yes |
Run | Yes |
Use skill that takes 1 round | Usually |
Use a touch spell on up to six friends | Yes |
Withdraw4 | No |
Free Actions | Attack of Opportunity1 |
Cease concentration on a spell | No |
Drop an item | No |
Drop to the floor | No |
Prepare spell components to cast a spell5 | No |
Speak | No |
Swift Actions | Attack of Opportunity1 |
Cast a quickened spell | No |
Immediate Actions | Attack of Opportunity1 |
Cast feather fall | No |
No Action | Attack of Opportunity1 |
No | |
5-foot step | No |
Action Type Varies | Attack of Opportunity1 |
Perform a combat maneuver6 | Yes |
Use feat7 | Varies |
1 Regardless of the action, if you move out of a threatened square, you usually provoke an attack of opportunity. This column indicates whether the action itself, not moving, provokes an attack of opportunity.
2 If you aid someone performing an action that would normally provoke an attack of opportunity, then the act of aiding another provokes an attack of opportunity as well.
3 If you have a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, you can combine one of these actions with a regular move. If you have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, you can draw two light or one-handed weapons in the time it would normally take you to draw one.
4 May be taken as a standard action if you are limited to taking only a single action in a round.
5 Unless the component is an extremely large or awkward item.
6 Some combat maneuvers substitute for a melee attack, not an action. As melee attacks, they can be used once in an attack or charge action, one or more times in a full-attack action, or even as an attack of opportunity. Others are used as a separate action.
7 The description of a feat defines its effect.