Why double on Power Attack with Two-handed?

Persiflage

First Post
Actually, if you've never worked it out you'd be surprised at how little effect Power Attack has on average damage across the range of AC's you'd reasonably expect to hit.
 

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HoboGod

First Post
The standard "benefit" of Power Attack when attacking one-handed is that you take a -1 penalty to hit - or in other words decrease your chance to hit by 5% - in exchange for +1 point of damage, yes? So it's pretty obvious that if that 5% additional miss-chance is equivalent to more than 1 point of damage, you're completely wasting your time with Power Attack.

Well, if you're charging or get flanking bonus, you can freely pop an extra +2 damage without a problem. If you win initiative, then the first round allows you to pop as much as your enemy's likely dexterity modifier. And if you have a high critical modifier like with a dire pick, then that extra damage can has devastating potential. If you have a more than reasonable chance to hit, then by all means your power attack is not a waste of time.
 

irdeggman

First Post
Well, if you're charging or get flanking bonus, you can freely pop an extra +2 damage without a problem. If you win initiative, then the first round allows you to pop as much as your enemy's likely dexterity modifier. And if you have a high critical modifier like with a dire pick, then that extra damage can has devastating potential. If you have a more than reasonable chance to hit, then by all means your power attack is not a waste of time.

More common is combining power attack with rage for a barbarian.

The increase in Str makes up for the loss of to hit bonus resulting from using power attack and the damage on a full attack is real, real sweet.
 

Maxecat1

Villager
How about the simple fact that when you're holding something
with 2 hands you can smash it down a LOT harder than when
you're holding something in one hand...? Look at lumberjacks,
& why they use 2-handed axes...ok, chainsaws, but you get the
idea... :)

Simple explanation's usually the best...

Not to belabour the point, but when you're using a 2 handed
weapon you get 1.5 times the damage anyway...
If this is the case - why would you ever take Power Attack...?

This is what I meant when refering to the 'power' of the attack,
& smacking things a lot harder. The Feat gives you the ability
to do more damage than usual.
 

radmod

First Post
Not to belabour the point, but when you're using a 2 handed
weapon you get 1.5 times the damage anyway...
If this is the case - why would you ever take Power Attack...?
Because they stack.
Presume you have 18 STR. Then you get +6 damage with a TH weapon.
Presume you have PA. If you have the BAB you can take -5 to hit and do 5 pts. extra damage.
If you have both, you can take -5 to hit and do +11 pts. damage!
 

LordMonty

First Post
Sorry for the misudnderstanding i was pretty tired and now i'm pretty drunk so to put it simpley and i see many surgestions trying to understand and explain the multiplyers but to be honest it is because it is... damn all sense we may hope to garner from it logic is 2 handers hit harder and they need variety with 2 handers and so so duel weild specs offer some extra armor so by logic 2 hands just are more offensive is how they logically play out.

There has to be advantages to two handed weapons over one handed, simple its bigger it has more damage and stuff(such as this) :)
 

irdeggman

First Post
Because they stack.
Presume you have 18 STR. Then you get +6 damage with a TH weapon.
Presume you have PA. If you have the BAB you can take -5 to hit and do 5 pts. extra damage.
If you have both, you can take -5 to hit and do +11 pts. damage!

Your math is wrong (it worked that way in 3.0) in 3.5 you get:

+9 for Str (1 1/2 times the normal Str bonus on damage) and +10 for Power attack (-5 on to hit and +10 on damage) for a net total of: +19.

Really common and effective for charater that can rage to make up for some of the loss of to hit due to increase in Str.

When WotC made this change characters switched from preferably taking 2 weapon fighting to power attack becasue of the huge up in damage dealt.
 

radmod

First Post
Your math is wrong (it worked that way in 3.0) in 3.5 you get:

LOL. I can't believe I did that.:blush: After all, the discussion in this thread, which I started, is about PA being doubled with TH!

BTW, unless I'm sadly mistaken, an 18 STR is +4. So TH, the bonus is +6, not +9.
So it would be +6 for STR and +10 for TH.
 

irdeggman

First Post
LOL. I can't believe I did that.:blush: After all, the discussion in this thread, which I started, is about PA being doubled with TH!

BTW, unless I'm sadly mistaken, an 18 STR is +4. So TH, the bonus is +6, not +9.
So it would be +6 for STR and +10 for TH.

Correct - I just copied the "poor" math.
 


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