Is there a way to reduce Awesome Blow to an Attack Action?

Question

Reference:

Awesome Blow (Monster)

This creature can send opponents flying.

Benefit: As a standard action, the creature may perform an awesome blow combat maneuver.

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My Mental Imagery

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Scenario

I'm creating a level 20 encounter with an ogre that has 17 levels of fighter. That would make him CR 20, and a BAB of +20. It would also give him all the bonus feats he needs to perform lots of maneuvers.

One of those maneuvers is Awesome Blow. But taking a standard action to do so would be extremely limiting as far as action economy. I'd like to send my players flying, all four of them if possible, with a full attack action.

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Question

Is there a way to reduce the standard action requirement of Awesome Blow to an attack action?

Answer 1

Brawler level 20

Improved Awesome Blow

At 20th level, the brawler can use her awesome blow ability as an attack rather than as a standard action. She may use it on creatures of any size. If the maneuver roll is a natural 20, the brawler can immediately attempt to confirm the critical by rolling another combat maneuver check with all the same modifiers as the one just rolled; if the confirmation roll is successful, the attack deals double damage, and the damage from hitting an obstacle (if any) is also doubled.

This would raise your Ogre to CR 23, but you could just provide a situational bonus to the party to account for that, or reduce any helper creatures.

Alternately, you're the GM. Make it 17th level but allow it to use the Class Feature (or the Attack action part of it) as a Feat with Greater Awesome Blow as a 'pre-req'. Tell your players after (if they rules lawyer) that you gave it the ability to Awesome Blow as a 20th level Brawler and leave it at that.

Answer 2

Although the rogue talent sneaky maneuver gets sort of close, ultimately, I think that the only official way currently that a creature can employ the combat maneuver awesome blow (a la the feat Awesome Blow) as an attack rather than a standard action is by using the technique mentioned in this fine answer (i.e. the level 20 brawler ability improved awesome blow).

Short of having 20 character levels, the closest I can get is having the ogre make multiple awesome blows during a full attack by having the the ogre take 1, 8, or 15 levels of monk and the archetype maneuver master, which grants the extraordinary ability flurry of maneuvers:

At 1st level, as part of a full-attack action, a maneuver master can make one additional combat maneuver [like the awesome blow combat maneuver!], regardless of whether the maneuver normally replaces a melee attack or requires a standard action. The maneuver master uses his monk level in place of his base attack bonus to determine his CMB for the bonus maneuvers, though all combat maneuver checks suffer a −2 penalty when using a flurry.

At level 8 a generous reading increases this to 3 awesome blows at a −3 penalty (a less generous reading mandates a −5 penalty). At level 15 a generous reading increases this to 4 awesome blows at a −7 penalty (a less generous reading mandates an absurd (even for a level 15 character) −12 penalty). The GM should be generous with such an ogre (and any PC who can follow in this ogre's Large footsteps).

This is in addition to other maneuver master monk special abilities that nicely complement the ogre's combat style, like at level 11 the ability sweeping maneuver and—perhaps as illustrated by the question's animation—at level 15 the ability whirlwind maneuver.

Note that the Pathfinder monk is often considered a subpar class, but, in this case, the class may be the only official way to fit the image. Maybe the gods gave the ogre sufficient arbitrarily high ability scores to overcome the monk's multiple attribute dependency?

Answer 3

Brother of the seal prestige class, level 8

Rapid Slam (Ex)

At 8th level, a Brother of the Seal can use his Awesome Blow feat once per round as part of a flurry of blows. Alternatively, he can make an awesome blow combat maneuver as part of a charge or as part of the same standard action he uses to perform another combat feat that involves an attack (such as Cleave or Vital Strike). He can still only make an awesome blow maneuver once per round regardless of how many attacks he makes.