Bang goes one of my nastier builds

[Bagpuss]

Yep, pretty lame call on the part of 3.5. Can't stab anyone really hard with a knife, can you?

This screams for a feat or even a prestige class.

As a house rule I just made it so you couldn't use both Power Attack and Weapon Finesse at the same time. If you are using power attack you are using your strength not accuracy to overcome their defenses.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

An excelletn house rule for PA is to go back to the 3.0 version. Gets rid of the cheesy 2:1 tradeoff, and opens the game up for lighter fighters like scouts and rogues.

3.5 PA was a bad change IMHO.

 

[Destil]

The problem with PA is rounding. The ideal, balanced way to do it is the same as the str bonus damage: 1 1/2x for 2 handed, 1x for one handed and 1/2x for an off-hand weapopn.

 

[Darklone]

Would dual wielding two bastard swords (one being a sunblade) work instead? A sunblade counts as both a bastard sword (for power attack) and a light weapon (for TWF'ing).

You don't need a sunblade if you use Oversized TWF as Hyp mentioned.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

In Steel and Shadow (Midnight accessory), there's a feat that allows you to power attack with light weapons.

 

[VonRichthofen]

Arcanis has stats for the gladius, which is an exotic short sword that you can power attack with. And any combat feats tied specifically to the gladius also work with short swords.

Does it use normal shortsword stats ?

Considering the rather crude and violent fighting style of the ancients, PA might not be a bad idea for the shortsword...

 

[Plane Sailing]

An excelletn house rule for PA is to go back to the 3.0 version. Gets rid of the cheesy 2:1 tradeoff, and opens the game up for lighter fighters like scouts and rogues.

3.5 PA was a bad change IMHO.

QFT. We still use 3.0 power attack in all our games, even though everything else went over to 3.5.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

Can someone tell me what 3.0 PA did - how it differs from 3.5. I never really played 3.0 (straight from 2 to 3.5) and don't have the books.

Cheers in advance

 

[hong]

3.0 PA was +1 damage per -1 attack across the board.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

so simpler to remember and allows you to really hit home in an aggressive 'wild' attack even if you've only got a dagger in your hand... hmmm... plus reduces some of the greatsword fetishism... hmmm... I reckon I'm with plane sailing on this one

cheers hong