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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 955014" data-attributes="member: 3146">IME, 3.0 power attack was wildly useful when facing low AC opponents. It is also useful when facing oppontents with just a few more hit points than the average damage from one or two attacks.For instance, a large zombie has 29 hit points and AC 11; a huge zombie has 55 hit points and AC 11. Their CRs are 1 and 3 respectively but they usually show up in large groups to be tossed against higher level parties.A typical 8th level fighter/barbarian: Str 18, +2 (item), +4 rage with a +2 greatsword will have an attack bonus of +18/+13 and will deal 2d6+14 points of damage. He will also have cleave.Against the large zombie, he will hit with both attacks on a roll of  2 and will deal 21 points of damage per hit. Against a close-packed zombie horde, that lets him kill 1.5 large zombies per round. (his second attack kills the large zombie and then he cleaves into another. The next round, his first attack kills that zombie, he cleaves into a second and finishes it off with his secondary attack).With 3.0 power attack, he can power attack for 8 points and still hit on a 2 and a 5. However, this brings his zombie-killing potential up to nearly 3/round. His first attack now drops one zombie on average, and he then cleaves into another, dropping it, and takes a 5 foot step and drops a third (80% chance or so).Against the huge zombies, he can power attack for six and stand a very good chance of dropping 1.5 zombies per round instead of the .75 zombies per round he gets without power attack.Against hordes of non-zombie mooks, it was still useful. A fourth level fighter (Str 17, +1 greatsword--+9 atk, 2d6+7 damage) with a greatsword against a troop of bugbears (AC 17, 16 hp), for instance, deals an average of 9.1 damage per round against the bugbears. And he's likely to kill one bugbear every three attacks. With Cleave, that's two bugbears every 5 rounds.If the fighter power attacks for three points, his average damage/round goes down to 8.5. However, he has a 50% chance of dropping one bugbear each round. So, his bugbear kill ratio goes up to about 1 bugbears every two rounds (1.25 bugbears every two rounds with cleave factored in)--almost twice as good as it was without power attack.When facing multiple opponents with the cleave feat (even more so with Great Cleave), average damage/round doesn't tell the whole story.</blockquote>

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