D&D (2024) Power attack suggestion / heavy weapon property

[Clint_L]

I'm not sure how you think it lets Paladins nova harder.

You only hit once instead of twice, and thus can only smite once instead of twice. That's less nova. (Also, Paladins need a bit of a nerf either way).

And I can't see a reason to leave rangers out, if they really want to invest in the Str to do it, might as well let them.

I think of nova damage as single huge hits, like stacking everything onto a critical the way paladins do. As you specifically cited punching through concentration checks, I assumed that was sort of what you were going for here.

Which is why I think paladins would seldom use this ability even if they had it, as it would reduce their chance to get a critical hit.

Leaving it as a weapon property would let any class that can use heavy weapons and get multiple attacks use it, which is fine if that's your intent - it's your idea.

 

[mellored]

I think of nova damage as single huge hits, like stacking everything onto a critical the way paladins do. As you specifically cited punching through concentration checks, I assumed that was sort of what you were going for here.

Is there a way to force a crit?
I mean, you won't know ahead of time what the roll is, unless you use divination mage or something. But that's not any worse than forcing a failed save.

Which is why I think paladins would seldom use this ability even if they had it, as it would reduce their chance to get a critical hit.

Yea, it's a bit of a niche ability. But a fun one IMO.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Power Attack, prerequisite: multi-attack

When you take the Attack action, you can choose to combine all your attacks into a single devastating blow. Roll a single Attack roll. If you hit, roll damage as if you has hit with all of your multi-attacks, combining them into a single instance.

Good for breaking concentration, or if you have Advantage on 1 Attack. Possibly as a fighting style, or tacked on to the great weapon master feat.

there used to be a West End Games DCU superhero game... in the metropolis source book (and later in other basic books) they had a power attack ability...

If you had the speed to make 3 or more attacks you could give up X number to deliver a powerful blow that did X extra damage (so teh amount of attacks and the extra damage scaled) and this was REALLY important for over coming damage reduction and invunrability.

in the book the example was superboy and superman fighting... superboy punch for punch could NOT over come supermans invulnerability, but Superman COULD overcome superboy's invulnerability. So superboy could normally take like 11 extra attacks, but could give up so that he only made 1 extra attack (2 total) each deailing 5 extra dice of damage... and could over come supermans invunrability (but most likely that wont matter). Superman could make 40 extra attacks or take all of them into 1 power punch that delt 40 extra dice of damage... not only would this for sure over come the invunrability (he already could) but could 1 shot superboy on a lucky roll

the idea was that they had all these fast characters, and they wanted to stream line the rolls so they made power punches basicly a big gamble (less chances to hit) for a bigger jackpot (more damage).

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I would still go with the 4e like Ws. Adding more weapon dice is easier and cleaner.

I could see it being heavy weapon exclusive.

At level 6 you can:
Normal weapon: Forgo Extra attack for Power Attack (1 attack at 2W+Ability Mods)
Light weapon: Forgo Extra Attack for Rapid Attack (3 attacks at 1W)

yeah I wpuld love to see Ws come back in the damage step.

I would love to (and played with in an optional rule set) see extra attack be either make a 2nd attack or add 1w to all your attacks... I had a chart and spread sheet somewhere showing all the options for a 20th level fighter with haste in that scenerio but I can't find it now.

 

[Horwath]

This is a great idea for a higher level feat! Also, thumbs up for adding a topic that is about game play - much as I appreciate and participate in the discussions of the OGL, it's good to remember that there is a game out there!

Feat?

This is at best a variant of Extra attack feature that should come baked in with 5th level Extra attack feature.

Why would anyone spend a feat for such a trivial benefit? No to mention so much risk of overkill and not being able to spread out your attacks.

Sure, you can combine it with "aim" feature of rogues and Elven accuracy plus 11 levels of fighter. But that goes to 14th level to even look beneficial.

 

[mellored]

Sure, you can combine it with "aim" feature of rogues and Elven accuracy plus 11 levels of fighter. But that goes to 14th level to even look beneficial.

Bardic inspiration is doable at level 1.

Not that you have multiple attacks at level 1, so not quite helpful.

But still, yea. It's not a big boost. So I think it would be good as a weapon property.