Feat:Sure Attack

[Goblyn]

While thinking about 3.x and all its glory I noticed that Power Attack has no counterpart, and for some reason this struck me as lacking.
So I thought I'd write it up and post it here to hear what you all think.

Sure Attack{General}
You can forego power for precision in combat.
Prerequisities:none
Benefit: At the beginning of your turn, you may subtract an amount of damage you deal and add the same amount to your attack roll(for a single attack). This amount cannot completely nullify the damage a weapon does. Any modifications to the weapons damage, magical or otherwise, have any effect on this limit.For example, a character using Sure Attack while wielding a dagger may take as much as a -3 penalty to damage, for a +3 attack bonus.

Thoughts?

 

[Aaron2]

While thinking about 3.x and all its glory I noticed that Power Attack has no counterpart, and for some reason this struck me as lacking.
So I thought I'd write it up and post it here to hear what you all think.

My problem with this is math related. A Power Attack (at least a one-handed one) will generally reduce your average damage per round unless you either can't miss or you would hit on a 20 anyway. Reversinng it (negative damage for positive to-hit) will generally increase your average damage. Plus you get the annoying effect where some weapons have special properties if they hit; these will be much improved. Generally +1 to hit is worth the same as +2 damage but I'd have to run the number to see if a +1/-2 Sure Attack is still too good.


Aaron

 

[the Jester]

I don't like it in principle. I considered something very similar after the 3.0 PH came out and came to the conclusion that such a feat breaks a very basic balance test: you don't take a penalty to gain a bonus every time you use the feat because if you don't hit, there's no applied penalty. Also, it vastly increases the power of the flaming/shock/etc. weapons.

 

[monboesen]

Way to good for a rogue. Does not care about the weapon damage, its sneak attack that does the killing.

 

[Darklone]

Check out the Unerring Strike feat in the Kalamar update sheets. Kenzer&Co homepage, Kingdoms of Kalamar, scroll down.

 

[Goblyn]

Check out the Unerring Strike feat in the Kalamar update sheets. Kenzer&Co homepage, Kingdoms of Kalamar, scroll down.

Thanks, Darklone, that's exactly the feat that fills the gap. And thanks all for replying.

 

[the Jester]

Check out the Unerring Strike feat in the Kalamar update sheets. Kenzer&Co homepage, Kingdoms of Kalamar, scroll down.

Oh, out with it! What's it do??

 

[Sammael]

It does the same exact thing as Power Attack, only reversed. It's not a prime example of balance, either.

 

[Goblyn]

It does the same exact thing as Power Attack, only reversed. It's not a prime example of balance, either.

The version I saw gave a 2-for-1 ratio, as in giving up 2 damage for each +1 to attack.

I'm not sure what to do here ... I see a clear lacking for such a type of feat(counterpart to power attack), but the balance monster rears it's ugly head: does anyone have any suggestions of a feat that could fill this void?

 

[LightPhoenix]

The problem I have with the idea personally is that with Power Attack you're taking a constant (BAB) and adding it to a variable (damage). The opposite though is taking a variable and adding it to a constant. That means that you can add to your BAB something that potentially isn't there. -5/+5 would mean that it doesn't matter whether you roll a one or a five for damage - both are no damage, and full benefit.