All Power Attack, All the Time!

[Zappo]

What's less fun for me are those players who have to calcluate out the EXACT Armor class to hit ratio to determine the most effect power attack modifier to use for a given opponent. The statisticians who break out the calculators, and tell me, "hmmm... if the opponent's armor class was hit by joseph's attack of 28, but not by charles' attack of 25, then there is a 74% probability that using 3.5 points of my power attack will result in a high enough roll to overcome the opponent's AC... "

In the rare cases when one of my players attempts that kind of things, I say things like, "Ok, in his round he drops his shield". Then, in the following round, "He uses Expertise". Then, "He changes his Dodge target". Then, "He quaffs a potion of cat's grace". I love to drive them nuts.

 

[takyris]

Wow, Zappo, that IS clever.

What you should also do is have invisible, incorporeal silent creatures immune to force effects and ghost touch weapons who heal the bad guy each round. That way, if any of your players DID bother to do the math and play their characters effectively, you could just undo any damage they take, too!

Another fun thing is to just make the enemy wizard and leave off his magical items, and then when your heroes cast fireball, you just decide right on the spot that he's got a ring of fire resistance, and when they switch to acid, he's got an amulet of acid resistance, and so forth. That way, no one in the party ever gets to do anything! That's brilliant!

*Cough*. Or you could provide enough clues to let the player know what their characters would know -- ie, the AC of the creature. Because, as I previously mentioned, "I hit, I miss, I hit" doesn't give much flavor, but in real life, the melee guy will know whether he's missing because of his enemy's dodges or because of his enemy's armor, and he'll know within the first few rounds how much he's missing by. You know, actually let them effectively use the feat that they purchased the one or two times in their life that it's actually useful? And if it's abused, in the "Take five minutes to determine how much to Power Attack" case, you deal with it on an individual basis?

Nah, that'd let the players potentially win. Can't have that.

No offense, but that just really strikes a nerve with me. Maybe some warrior would be smart enough to drop his shield or go into Expertise mode specifically to screw up the other guy's math -- but you're describing it as the DM, doing it to screw over your players. That's just not cool.

-Tacky

 

[Voadam]

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

For extra goodness use with a x4 crit weapon since you are only going to confirm a crit on a 20 as well.

That one in 400 shot that puts down the really big baddie.

 

[mooby]

I use Power Attack all the time, but only with my loaded dice.

j/k


There's a time and a place for everything.

 

[Endur]

I guess one of the reasons to always power attack is that, when you do hit, you will always do the most damage of anyone at the table (presuming nobody else is power attacking).

The extra damage from PA will give your hits a boost. Others may nickle and dime, but for you, "Its Clobbering Time."

 

[Fenes 2]

Our barbarian is almost always power attacking for full, but then has lousy luck with to-hit rolls...

 

[Frostmarrow]

In the rare cases when one of my players attempts that kind of things, I say things like, "Ok, in his round he drops his shield". Then, in the following round, "He uses Expertise". Then, "He changes his Dodge target". Then, "He quaffs a potion of cat's grace". I love to drive them nuts.

Good idea! I don't have this particular problem but I can see where such tactics might be put to good use. Of course when they stop the meta-thinking you revert to a more streamlined game?

 

[diaglo]

all power attack all the time has another drawback.

try fighting defensively. or aid another.

i think it definitely calls for a thought out approach for when to use it.

 

[Ravellion]

Wow, Zappo, that IS clever.

[...]

No offense, but that just really strikes a nerve with me. Maybe some warrior would be smart enough to drop his shield or go into Expertise mode specifically to screw up the other guy's math -- but you're describing it as the DM, doing it to screw over your players. That's just not cool.

You just didn't get it now did you? If someone is holding up the game, calculating to the exact decimal what is the most optimal, he is metagaming to the extrame. It is one thing to say: "I'm powerattacking, oh, about 4 I guess." and an other to say "I wish I could power attack for 4.73, but I'll go with 4, since PAing 5 would increase my miss chance by ... hence ... thus ... (3 minutes later) Crap, a 1!"

In a real fight there is no Math. Even in some wargames, math is discouraged (Warhammer tournament games disallow measuring for instance). If someone is playing like that he isn't playing Tordek the Dwarven Warrior, he is playing mister 16 STR 18 CON +14 to hit for 1d10+5 damage with PA and Cleave feats and an AC of 20. That is NOT roleplaying.

Zappo's "solution" rubs the fact that he is being obnoxious in his face, and is nowhere even close to assigning magic items on the spot. The fighter still could do the math all over again - except he has to just that - do the math ALL OVER AGAIN. Perhaps in time he'll get so fed up with doing his homework that he might eventually start playing the game.

Rav

 

[Voadam]

A different solution to the ingame number crunching is as DM to strictly enforce time for actions to keep the game flowing, no player should need more than six seconds to decide what he wants his character to do in his six seconds of action. If he can't do his math that quickly he delays and you move on to the next character.

This way you speed the game instead of exacerbating the time problem to make your point.

It keeps the quick action feel of a chaotic melee combat going better as well if they have to decide quickly.