Well spotted, and the reason I was asking about tactics for him is that he was pretty useless in the last session for a lot of the reasons highlighted above. I don't think the writers optimized any of the NPCs to be honest.
Take a rashemi berserker from the wolf lodge. Can take a feat that gives another +4 to trip checks.
+4 improved trip
+4 wolf berserker (if you take this feat first you even don't need combat expertize for improved trip anymore!)
+4 sweeping spiked chain
+5 enlarge
+str
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=pretty unbeatable