"All Power Attack, All the Time?"

[Felix]

It's about swinging for the fence even though a sacrifice bunt is the "best" thing to do.

Swing away, man. Swing away.

Yeah. I understand exactly where you're coming from. I just happen to be a fan of small-ball.

Bunt, baby, bunt!

 

[RenoOfTheTurks]

Yeah, because maybe it's fun for certain types of characters some of the time. Not that we're all stuck in some kind of "me hitum like Conan" mold, however.

 

[Geoff Watson]

It's just the players roleplaying their low intelligence and wisdom.

Geoff.

 

[Scion]

shock trooper = good

Especially with combat brute.

Cleave works pretty well with this tactic as well.

It is probably worthy of a smack down.. doing as much damage as possible while making your ac as low as possible.. fun times! who needs ac if the bad guy is dead?

 

[Particle_Man]

Y'know, after reading this thread and then the other one about precise calculations of Power Attack, I must admit I am strongly tempted to play a half-orc fighter of the APAATT philosophy. I would use a Scythe (because if a crit. with full power attack feels good, then a crit. with full power attack and a x4 2 handed weapon will feel better!), call myself "The Reaper", and go to town! Hopefully I will play this delibarately sub-optimal character with an understanding DM, or it will be a short-lived (thought perhaps fun) experiment.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

This would work best with a PC who has a lot of non-BAB bonuses to hit. Strength, magic, insight (like a psi-warrior). . . all these would make the concept a lot more feasible.

Ayup. My 10th-level Fighter-Kensai in the Planescape game I'm in does, with his Sword of the Planes, if we're on the Material Plane, two-handed swings at +26/+21 d10+21/19-20 x2 before Power Attack. Given that my BAB is a +10, if the target has an AC in the low 20s, I'll probably ratchet up Power Attack all the way, since that'll bring me damage of d10+41 with a very good chance at hitting on the first swing.

What's behind this? BAB +10, Str 28/+9*, WF: Bastard Sword, and Kensai: Bastard Sword (8 levels of Kensai, so +2 to hit/damage), driving a +4 Bastard Sword of the Planes. I'm seriously considering adjusting to take 2 more levels of Kensai and a level of Exotic Weapon Master (for the x2 Str on a one-handed exotic weapon trick).

Plus, as has been said earlier, it's even more fun when you crit.

Brad

* - 28 = 14 (6 pts) + 4 (Racial: Anthro. Tiger) + 5 (Inherent) + 1 (Level) + 4 (Enhancement) Yep, the Inherent bonus is a bit much for our level, but the DM likes giving out treasure, to compensate for the mean, mean, mean fights he puts us through.

 

[lp]

Well I didn't finish the thread due to laziness, but I can't believe nobody (on the first page) mentioned just using power attack for super-E-Z-lazy math.. I usually APAATT for the first few levels, until I get a total attack modifier of five.. then I just keep it set to "on" so I have a total attack modifier that is really easy to add to dice due to laziness, ie 5 or 10 or what have you.

Now that's some lazy gaming.

 

[Incenjucar]

Well, normally, PA is all about swinging the hefty blade, but it could also easily be used for, say, showing that a character tries to make difficult precise cuts (Imagine a rapier-user who's trying to cut arteries rather than just poke the heck out of someone).

So you can have quite the range of characters with the same method.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Well I didn't finish the thread due to laziness, but I can't believe nobody (on the first page) mentioned just using power attack for super-E-Z-lazy math.. I usually APAATT for the first few levels, until I get a total attack modifier of five.. then I just keep it set to "on" so I have a total attack modifier that is really easy to add to dice due to laziness, ie 5 or 10 or what have you.

Now that's some lazy gaming.

Seems as if laziness was a common theme for you .

But I use similar methods - it is somehow easier to work with attack bonus that are multiples of 5. And if I can`t "optimize" the attack bonus this way, I try to do it with the bonus damage from strength and Power attack...

 

[Darklone]

I'm with the full PA or no PA guys.

I simply hate it when someone tells me he's going to charge across the room, eat a buttload of AoOs to get to the enemy mage and then starts to hack numbers in his calculator while everyone else is going to smoke a cigarette or get another beer. Then he notices that he forgot to take the mages mirror image into account and starts from scratch. In the meantime, two other party members started a game of chess and the DM is watching soccer.

Calculating PA values has no style.

Btw: I've seen many PCs who hit rather well with full PA. Especially at lower levels. Bards songs, Bless and perhaps Heroism buffs go a long way in making full Power Attack a winning tactic.