House Rules for Power Attack and Combat Expertise

[airwalkrr]

Bear in mind this house rule is part of a simplified set of house rules that is a hybrid of 1e and 3e. My goal is to simplify the rules set to make combat flow more quickly like it did in AD&D. I also believe power attack is simply too good. IMO DR should be effective but warriors often use power attack instead of special weapons to bypass it. In other words, I recognize how this makes DR more significant.

Power Attack allows you to take a -4 penalty on your attack roll and gives you a +4 bonus on your Strength modifier for the purpose of calculating damage. The prerequisites for Power Attack are Str 15 and BAB 4+.

Improved Power Attack (new feat) essentially allows you to take double the penalty for double the bonus. The prerequisites are Str 17 and BAB 8+.

Combat Expertise grants an additional +2 dodge bonus to your AC when fighting defensively or using the total defense action (obviously fighting defensively and CE cannot be used together any more). The prerequisites for CE are Int 13 and BAB 2+.

Improved Combat Expertise (new feat) grants an additional +2 dodge bonus (stacks with CE) to your AC when fighting defensively or using the total defense action. The prerequisites for ICE are Int 15, BAB 6+.

 

[Spatzimaus]

What I do, for both:

You can take up to a -5 attack penalty with the base Feat (although not more than your BAB), with the usual benefit. You can take the Feats multiple times, increasing the caps by an additional 5 (but again, still no more than your BAB).

 

[Crothian]

Bear in mind this house rule is part of a simplified set of house rules that is a hybrid of 1e and 3e. My goal is to simplify the rules set to make combat flow more quickly like it did in AD&D. I also believe power attack is simply too good. IMO DR should be effective but warriors often use power attack instead of special weapons to bypass it.

Your feats seem okay, but it's this I'm interested in. If fighters are using PA to get through DR effectively then either the fioghters are just getting to many bonuses to hit or the ACs are too low. Sure using PA should do more damage but it should also cause them to miuss more often.

 

[airwalkrr]

Even at high levels, there are a number of low AC opponents. Oozes come to mind, and giants aren't incredibly difficult to hit. I have noticed in my campaigns, in other campaigns I play in, and in RPGA that fighters tend to throw out as much power attack as they can unless they can't seem to hit at all. That way, a few lucky blows ensures that healing cannot keep up with the damage they do. Overall, I'd like to reduce the damage output of both monsters and players.

 

[starwed]

The version you give seems too reduced in power.

Power Attack allows you to take a -4 penalty on your attack roll and gives you a +4 bonus on your Strength modifier for the purpose of calculating damage. The prerequisites for Power Attack are Str 15 and BAB 4+.

So... you get a +2/+3 to damage for a -4 penalty. Weapon specialization gives a +2 to damage all the time. And I've never heard people complain that weapon specialization is too powerful; in fact, quite the opposite.

Still, I also think PA is a bit too powerful, especially for those using 2H weapons. I'd suggest simply splitting off that part of the feat. So Power Attack would let you deal extra damage at a 1-1 rate, while Two-handed Power Attack would increase the rate to 2-1 for 2-handeders.

 

[Sadrik]

Power Attack
Benefit: -4 to hit and +6 strength

Improved Power Attack
Benefit: -8 to hit and +12 strength

Combat Expertise
Benefit: -4 to hit and +4 dodge bonus to AC while fighting defensively and +6 dodge bonus in full defense

Improved Combat Expertise
Benefit: -4 to hit and +6 dodge bonus to AC while fighting defensively and +8 dodge bonus in full defense

 

[airwalkrr]

The version you give seems too reduced in power.

So... you get a +2/+3 to damage for a -4 penalty. Weapon specialization gives a +2 to damage all the time. And I've never heard people complain that weapon specialization is too powerful; in fact, quite the opposite.

Still, I also think PA is a bit too powerful, especially for those using 2H weapons. I'd suggest simply splitting off that part of the feat. So Power Attack would let you deal extra damage at a 1-1 rate, while Two-handed Power Attack would increase the rate to 2-1 for 2-handeders.

No, you misunderstand. You take a -4 penalty to your attack rolls in exchange for a +4 bonus to your Strength modifier (not score) for the purpose of calculating damage. This means +4 damage for a one-handed weapon and +6 damage for a two-handed weapon. Improved Power Attack allows you to take a -8 penalty to your attack rolls in exchange for a +8 bonus to your Strength modifier (not score) for the purpose of calculation damage. This means +8 damage for a one-handed weapon and +12 damage for a two-handed weapon.