Kalendraf
Explorer
I'm in the process of making some 14th level characters for a one-shot adventure. In the process, I found some interesting synergy between Bless Weapon, Smite, Power Attack and Power Critical, but I might be wrong in my analysis. Forgive me if this has been answered before - couldn't find anything about it in a casual search.
Consider the following scenario:
1. Paladin Level 14, BAB: +14, Smite 1/day (+14 damage vs. evil), Strength: 18, Weapon is a normal Longsword (1d8, 19-20/x2).
2. Paladin casts Bless Weapon (All critical rolls against evil foes are automatically successful so every threat is a critical hit.
3. Paladin declares his next attack is a critical threat using Power Critical feat (Once per day, you can declare a single melee attack with your chosen weapon to be an automatic threat before you make the attack roll.)
Note - The synergy between these two, assuming I'm understanding it correctly is that this is an auto critical hit with no need to roll any dice at all. Power Critical essentially makes the normal 1st die a critical threat, and bless weapon makes the backup roll successful. Moving on...
5. Paladin declares use of his Smite Ability, adding +14 to damage.
6. Paladin declares use of his Power Attack feat, subtracting +14 from BAB to add +14 to his damage.
7. Paladin attacks an evil creature.
Unless I'm missing something here, the result is an automatic critical hit dealing 2x(14+14+4)+2d8 damage. In other words, its up to 80 points of damage w/ no chance of save for the monster. Pretty powerful. You expect powerful stuff at 14th level, and this is only a 1 per day event and the target must be evil, but still that seems pretty strong.
Consider the following scenario:
1. Paladin Level 14, BAB: +14, Smite 1/day (+14 damage vs. evil), Strength: 18, Weapon is a normal Longsword (1d8, 19-20/x2).
2. Paladin casts Bless Weapon (All critical rolls against evil foes are automatically successful so every threat is a critical hit.
3. Paladin declares his next attack is a critical threat using Power Critical feat (Once per day, you can declare a single melee attack with your chosen weapon to be an automatic threat before you make the attack roll.)
Note - The synergy between these two, assuming I'm understanding it correctly is that this is an auto critical hit with no need to roll any dice at all. Power Critical essentially makes the normal 1st die a critical threat, and bless weapon makes the backup roll successful. Moving on...
5. Paladin declares use of his Smite Ability, adding +14 to damage.
6. Paladin declares use of his Power Attack feat, subtracting +14 from BAB to add +14 to his damage.
7. Paladin attacks an evil creature.
Unless I'm missing something here, the result is an automatic critical hit dealing 2x(14+14+4)+2d8 damage. In other words, its up to 80 points of damage w/ no chance of save for the monster. Pretty powerful. You expect powerful stuff at 14th level, and this is only a 1 per day event and the target must be evil, but still that seems pretty strong.