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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 8606099" data-attributes="member: 6669384">I play 3.5 most of the time, but regardless of rules set, it's a simple question.  Still, I'll spell it out.The "Heavy Hitter" is typically a melee type with a two handed weapon (Great sword of great axe in 3.5), using the skills/feats/abilities to do a lot of melee damage.The down side of the build is that the two handed weapon precludes the use of a shield, so they put out a lot of damage, but they take a lot of damage as well.One player in my group has complained that this is "Power Gaming".The more extreme version is a fighter/barbarian build:  Fighters get more Feats, but Barbarians get Rage, which temporarily boosts both STRength and CONstitution (and thus hit-points).A moderate example might be a Fighter with a STRength of 16, a Great Sword (2 D6 per blow), using Power Attack, Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization.  In 3.5, this character will start off two AC points low, because of the lack of a shield.  As they advance in levels that gap widens, as others start to get magic shields that would give a wider bonus.  The HH build doesn't get it.So at 10th level the build I described is +10 to hit from BAB, +3 from Strength, +1 from a Feat and maybe another +3 from magic.  I'm seeing +17 or so to hit there.If they Power Attack for +5, their attack bonus drops to +12, but their damage increases sharply:  2D6 (sword) +5 (STR from 2 handed weapon) +3 (Magic) + 10 for the Power Attack.  Average damage is 25 per blow.If they're using a Great Axe their average damage drops by 1.5 points, but they do triple damage on a Critical Hit. (Great Sword does double damage.)Now, how often will they actually hit?  That's the question.  Our general rule-of-thumb is that a critter's AC better be Level+14, at a minimum, to be in the fight at all.  Let's presume a point higher, so a 10th level opponent will typically be AC 25.Our power-attacking HH will hit on a 13 or better.  Hits increase if they have a Bless, Prayer or Bard's Song on the field.  As it is though, the fighter has about a 40% chance of hitting on the first blow, 15% on the second.  It's a toss up whether you get those 25 points or not.Without the power attack they hit on an 8 or better, and the 13 is for their second blow, but they do 10 points less damage, 15 per hit.  So 65% 1st blow, 40% second, which means 15 per round, reliably.Net-net, the power attack is a bad idea.  Drop the enemy AC or add some buffs to the fighter and that changes.  But with or without the power attack, whether the enemy's AC is higher or lower, whether there are buffs on the field or not, the fighter's AC will be two or more points lower than their sword-and-board opponent, which translates as an average increase in the damage they take per round of 10%+.We can observe that, in some versions of D&D, a 16 strength fighter at 10th level isn't simply "modest" or "moderate", he's downright wimpy.  3.* and Pathfinder both allow for stat increases as the characters level, so an 18 is more likely, and 20 + isn't out of reach, presuming a Giant's Strength item of some kind.  That bumps not only the hit percentage, but also the damage per blow, which moves the tipping point in favor of the power-attacking fighter.So, having looked at numbers, do you thing the "Heavy Hitter" is unbalanced?</blockquote>

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