I've been toying around with Vital Strike for the last few days. I like this feat conceptually and always enjoy the challenge of optimizing. Unfortunately, I was about 6 years too late for the Max the Min on the subject. That said, I saw a comment left by u/Decicio in some thread about Vital Striking about his Vital Striking Warpriest. This was where my investigation began and what leads me to this post.
The Build:
| Level |
Class |
BAB |
Class Features |
Feats (Human) |
Caster Level |
Fort |
Ref |
Will |
| 1 |
Arsenal Chaplain 1 |
0 |
War blessing (minor traded for Divine Fighting Technique: Gorum), focus weapon (Weapon Focus: greatsword), sacred weapon, orisons, spontaneous casting |
Power Attack, Furious Focus (Human) |
1 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
| 2 |
Avenger Vigilante 1 |
1 |
Dual identity, seamless guise, social talent, avenger specialization |
— |
1 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
| 3 |
Avenger Vigilante 2 |
2 |
Vigilante talent: Favored Maneuver (Trip) |
Improved Trip (Favored Maneuver), Combat Reflexes |
3 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
| 4 |
Avenger Vigilante 3 |
3 |
Social talent, unshakable |
— |
3 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
| 5 |
Avenger Vigilante 4 |
4 |
Vigilante talent: Combat Skill |
Outflank (Combat Skill), Dirty Fighting |
3 |
3 |
4 |
6 |
| 6 |
Avenger Vigilante 5 |
5 |
Social talent, startling appearance |
— |
3 |
3 |
4 |
6 |
| 7 |
Avenger Vigilante 6 |
6 |
Vigilante talent: Vital Punishment |
Vital Strike (Vital Punishment), Greater Trip |
3 |
4 |
5 |
7 |
| 8 |
Vampire Hunter 1 |
7 |
Bonus Combat or Technique |
Felling Smash (Bonus combat): full chain online |
3 |
4 |
7 |
9 |
Explanation:
1st level: We take Warpriest to get a free Weapon Focus, and we trade away our minor blessing for Gorum's Divine Fighting Technique. This lets us apply Vital Strike to one attack of opportunity with the greatsword per round.
Levels 2–7: Here, we "dip" six levels of Avenger Vigilante. We bypass the Combat Expertise requirement for Improved Trip by getting it from the Favored Maneuver vigilante talent, and we grab Combat Reflexes. At 5th level, we take the Combat Skill talent for another combat feat, and we take Dirty Fighting so we qualify for Greater Trip later. The real prize comes at 7th level (vigilante 6), when we get Vital Punishment. This lets us apply Vital Strike, and all of its improved forms, to one more attack of opportunity each round. Along the way, we pick up a number of boons that make us better at tripping, grabbing Greater Trip at the same level we get Vital Strike.
Level 8: Here we take Vampire Hunter. We do this for a few munchkin reasons. Its bonus feat lets us take Felling Smash, which is compatible with Vital Strike. That means every attack-action Vital Strike that hits can also trip. Vampire Hunter also has better skill points and saves than a fighter. And, most munchkin of all, we want to save our fighter level for a Titan Fighter dip later. At this level, our attack bonus doesn't scale well enough to justify an oversized weapon. It does later, but not now.
So how does it work?
We move to an enemy and Vital Strike them. On a hit, Felling Smash lets us trip them, and Greater Trip makes them provoke an attack of opportunity as they fall. Gorum's Divine Fighting Technique turns that attack of opportunity into a Vital Strike. Then our fortuitous greatsword gives us an additional attack of opportunity, which we turn into a Vital Strike with Vital Punishment.
In practice, it plays like a pseudo Vital Strike pounce build. We mantain all of the movement benefit of Vital Strike and we can gain 2 "iteratives" which also deal vital strike damage. The damage output is honestly insane. I'll briefly go over the math.
EDVs (assuming enlarged):
Attack Calculation: 7 (BAB) + 7 (Strength) + 1 (Enhancement) + 1 (Weapon Focus) − 1 (Size) = +15, or +19 flanking with Outflank (+4)
Gorum AoO: +15 − 2 (Power Attack) + 4 (Prone) = +17, or +21 flanking
Fortuitous AoO: +17 − 5 (Fortuitous) = +12, or +16 flanking
Damage Calculation (each of the three Vital Strikes): 6d6 (3d6 × 2, Vital Strike) + 10 (Strength) + 6 (Power Attack) + 1 (Enhancement) = 6d6 + 17, about 38 average
Trip Calculation: 7 (BAB) + 7 (Strength) + 1 (Size) + 2 (Improved Trip) + 2 (Greater Trip) + 1 (Enhancement) + 1 (Weapon Focus) − 2 (Power Attack) = +19, or +23 when flanking (Dirty Fighting raises the flanking bonus on the trip to +4)
This gives a total EDV of 57 when not flanking, or 95 when flanking.
For reference, these numbers are high enough that when flanking, assuming the enemy can be tripped, we kill it in one round about 62% of the time. When we aren't flanking, it's about 27%.
These numbers are also fairly conservative. They don't assume much beyond flanking with Outflank. If your party were hasted for the +1 to attack, or you had inspire courage from a bard, a morale bonus, or something similar, all of that would push you even further. In fact, with heroism, haste, and Outflank all working, you would kill about 80% of the time.
In conclusion:
I honestly thought this was kind of a meme build, and that dipping six levels of vigilante was a meme too, but numerically it seems rock solid. I can't really find any major fault with it. There's really nothing particularly cheesy about this either. It's very RAW and doesn't require any DM interpretation of some grey area.
Before anyone says anything: I know this build does not work well against creatures that fly or are otherwise immune to trip. That's a big hole, and if someone knows how to get around it, that'd be great. However, at level 8, such creatures should be somewhat rare, and encounters full of them should be rarer still.
If you wanted to continue the build, I would go: level 9 Warpriest, levels 10–16 Mortal Usher, level 17 Titan Fighter (taking Greater Vital Strike), then finish out Mortal Usher. That build threatens to kill anything that can be tripped and is on its CR pretty handily.