So I've been looking into builds based around fearing enemies, and found a pretty cool combo you can do at level 4. I'm sure I'm not the first to discover it, but here it is:

• Start off as an evil tenet Champion with at least 14 CHA and DEX (I made a goblin with 18/12/8/14/10/16)
• At level 2, take the Swashbuckler dedication
• At level 4, take Aura of Despair, Antagonize, and Intimidating Prowess

With this combo, a Demoralized enemy can't reduce their frightened condition below 1 until they take a hostile action against you. This puts melee enemies in the tough spot, because it basically forces them to run into your Aura of Despair. If you Demoralize a melee enemy at range, they would need to run at you, Strike, then run out of your aura to shake off the Frightened condition. It would be a nutty combo if you had a Rogue teammate with Dread Striker, which also comes online at 4.

This combo also dovetails quite well into Attack of Opportunity at level 6 and Dirge of Doom from the Bard dedication at level 12, though that doesn't work with Antagonize. It's a pretty feat-light build, so you can also build for something like Athletics as well to fight mindless enemies.

The build requires a bit of GM buy-in; an evil PC, an uncommon feat (Aura of Despair) and free archetype. But it seems like a lot of fun if your GM allows it. Man, martials are fun to build in this game.

Have any of you played a build like this?