All Power Attack, All the Time!

[takyris]

In defense of players who do that:

The player isn't there. The character is.

A mid-to-high-level fighter knows darn well when his attack was sloppy or when it was perfectly executed, and when it was barely turned aside by the armor versus when it clanked harmless over scales designed to handle much worse. A good DM finds a way to emulate this.

I compromise -- I describe the first few attacks in greater detail: "Your strike glances off the dragon's armor, and you think that he has some magical protection, too, because your weapon was slowed down before it even hit the scales." After the first few hits, I tell the fighter that he's shooting for AC 28.

The character doesn't know the numbers, but, at mid-level and above, the character certainly knows "Ah, so I should just swing for the fences on this guy, because I can hit him REAL easily."

Mind you, that's for players who do the math without slowing the game down. I'm against pritnear anything that slows the game down, be it "What is my best possible attack routine" or "How can I maximize the effect of this fireball without hitting any of my friends, pardon me while I count squares for the next five minutes."

-Tacky

 

[KnowTheToe]

For some extra flavor, you use this with a fighter and add Improved trip and Knockdown. Whole lotta fun putting everything into each attack and throwing people on their can.

 

[Darkness]

Full power attack also makes sense when you need a 20 to hit anyway.

Which is but one of the reasons for why I prefer variants that do away with automatic hits/misses.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Which is but one of the reasons for why I prefer variants that do away with automatic hits/misses.

You would steal hope from those who are weak. You are the dark one.

 

[Storminator]

Kershek: Me too.

Though I find that the statisticians of power attack generally have done their 'home work' ahead of time and as such glance at thier notes (if they haven't got them memorized!) take a guess at the AC (if they haven't got it figured out yet) and say 'power attacking for 2' as the dice leaves thier hand.

This is fine to me. I have no problem with playing a character as effectively as possible. I really hate bogging the game down so you can show off your math skills, tho. If the only added time is what it takes to say "Power attack +2," then we're good to go.

PS

 

[Elric]

Power Attack is a fun feat. However, it isn't useful in most circumstances when you would want it.

In general, it seemed to me that if Power Attacking a lot is beneficial it means one of a few things:

1. Your character hits the enemy all the time. Assuming that you're a melee fighter, it's probably because you have very high Str and other bonuses and they don't have particularly good AC. You'll kill them very quickly (unless they have 32 HD or something like that).

2. Your character is really crummy. Remember, +1 to hit is more powerful than +1 to damage unless you're doing something wrong. If you do 20 damage and hit 90% of the time, it's not worth power attacking on average. If you only do 8 damage a hit, you should remake your melee fighter instead of taking this feat.

3. You're an Archer and hit everyone all the time because of Bracers of Archery, stacking GMWs and something like Order of the Bow Initiate Zen Archery. Too bad Power Attack doesn't work at range. I think you need Peerless Archer to do that.

4. You are a couple points of damage per hit shy of making Cleave (or Great Cleave) very useful. Of course, you shouldn't know the exact HP of your enemies well enough to benefit much from this.

5. You're using Whirlwind Attack (see Cleave).

6. You only get one attack this round (charging or something) and are a high level fighter-type, which means that your primary attack always hits. Note that your 16th level fighter does significantly more damage against AC 17 not power-attacking than using full power attack.

7. You are a 10th level frenzied berserker and the 2 points of damage for 1 point to hit trade-off makes things more worth it. Of course, by then you'll probably be doing 40 an attack and it still won't be useful to power attack because of lower chances to hit on subsequent attack. Of course, your insanely high Str means that you might hit on almost every attack, but then your opponent is taking smackdown-esque damage anyways.

I see Power Attack as a "win more" or "lose less" feat, depending on your character.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'll tell you when Power Attack is useful.

When you're fighting Collosal Zombies, that's when. AC 11 but 300+ hp. Takes forever to kill the blasted things.

That was a fun session.

 

[randomling]

I'll tell you when Power Attack is useful.

When you're fighting Collosal Zombies, that's when. AC 11 but 300+ hp. Takes forever to kill the blasted things.

That was a fun session.

I enjoyed it too! (From a DMing point of view.)

"I power attack." "You hit." "I do 30 points of damage." "It's still standing."

Rinse, repeat.

 

[Bhaal]

I'll tell you when Power Attack is useful.

When you're fighting Collosal Zombies, that's when. AC 11 but 300+ hp. Takes forever to kill the blasted things.

That was a fun session.

Hmm, I had a gargantuan zombie planned in a few sessions and two characters that love power attacking... I think I'll make them bring drinks for that session.

As for power attack not being useful against decent AC opponents: Potions of true strike are cheap. Even more so if you have a spellcaster in your party willing to lose a little exp (a good investment, since they now have a 6 foot blender guarenteed to keep their hide safe in combat) . In another campaign, we have a paladin who loves to quaff a true strike, then wade in with a full power attack/smite/etc to "break the ice" against the BBEG encounters. The DM doesn't mind, since he's very good at incorporating our minor smackdowns into his own NPCs. Suddenly all BBEGs are quaffing potions of their own just before attacking...

 

[maddman75]

I usually DM, but have had a character that used power attack to great effect. She was a ftr/rog gladiator type. Don't let the rogue fool you, all her skill points went into tumble, bluff, and perform(for gladiator abilites down the line)

Her usual tactic was to spring attack or tumble into a horde of mooks. Then power attack + cleave to take them out. I didn't do calculations, I just winged it. Once she started getting hurt, switch the PA to expertise and call for help.

Also, this is probably heresy, but my group always simply says what the AC is. You don't learn that until you actually attack. Its one of those 'we've always played that way' things. Plus I find it actually cuts down on the metagaming, as people's brains aren't trying to figure out what the AC is.