Jonathan Tweet denounces Power Attack

[Evilusion]

Read the thread and you will understand. Heck, read my posts and you will at least see the other side of the coin. The key point is mathematically power attack doesn't give you more damage on average over time. Power attack also plays counter to how it should feel. The crunch and the fluff do not match well. Power attack is a massive, hard hit blow that sacrifices accuracy for damage. The feat allows to much sliding adjustment and fine tuning, which feels more like aiming and not giving it all you got to hit something really hard. The fine tuning of the modifier when the feat is used is metagaming and where someone can waste alot of time if they wish, and this can be done every combat round. Spells are only prepared at the start of each day, and thus do not constantly interrupt the combat like Power Attack.



I agree with you on this point completely.

Ok when I get a chance to I will.

Well as for a sliding scale it still does not interupt our games much. I think this has a lot to due with us playing rolemaster so much. The adding and substracting just comes easy for us. As far as people spending time trying to figure the best optium power attack is just plain nuts to me. Just chose a number and go for it.

 

[Najo]

Ok when I get a chance to I will.

Well as for a sliding scale it still does not interupt our games much. I think this has a lot to due with us playing rolemaster so much. The adding and substracting just comes easy for us. As far as people spending time trying to figure the best optium power attack is just plain nuts to me. Just chose a number and go for it.

One thing I don't want people getting me wrong on here... When I first saw power attack and the little bit I used it I like the feat. It does "appear" elegant. But I have seen and heard of power attack horror stories and abuse. Though alot of people feel the feat is fine, there is places it breaks down and stops working how it was meant to. The designers see this, and they are right. Power attack needs tighting up. It is a cool idea, and even a needed one in the current version of the game (i.e. converting attack roll excess into damage), but this version doesn't do that very well unless a) your attack roll is so high that any excess moved over to damage doesn't hurt your to hit chance, b) your target's hardness or damage reduction is so high that you can't harm it without using power attack. In any other circumstance, you are increasing your miss rate and thus actually lowering your average damage over the whole encounter, thus power attack is most of the time a wasted feat.

Besides, Power Attack is such as cool idea and it is so often taking at low level that it should be better than it is.

 

[Najo]

Here is another idea for Power Attack:


Power Attack
Pre: Str 13+

You may choose to use power attack as a standard action. Power attack counts as a single melee attack with any weapon you are holding. Damage from power attack is doubled.

You may only use power attack once per encounter.

 

[Najo]

and one more idea for Power Attack:

Power Attack
Pre: Str 13+

You may use power attack as a standard action. Power attack counts as a single melee attack with any weapon you are holding. If power attack hits, then your strength modifer added to damage is doubled for that attack. If you miss, then your opponent gets an attack of opportunity against you.

You may only use power attack once per round.

 

[Abraxas]

If you can find a usage that predates the 2002 printing of Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs, you're welcome to (re)claim provenance, with my regards.

Who knows where gamers get these things?

Not trying to claim provenance, having not read Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs I was just pointing out that FPAATT is the common usage around my neck of the woods - heck even Hyp refered to it as FPAATT back in aught5.

As for where gamers get these things, I'm sure the people who I game with got it from saying things like "I power attack full" for every attack and finally just saying "I'm full power attacking all the time unless I say otherwise" - in fact, I'm pretty sure it was one specific player that said just that with his first charater with 3.0, but we don't write these things down...and he went through lots of characters.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Not trying to claim provenance, having not read Heroes of High Favor: Half-Orcs I was just pointing out that FPAATT is the common usage around my neck of the woods - heck even Hyp refered to it as FPAATT back in aught5.

Aught5 does not predate Aught2.

(sigh)

You can't leave these things in the hands of average gamers. Put your trust in a professional wordsmith, such as myself. "All Power Attack, All The Time" has an accepted and time-honored symmetry that lesser alternatives lack.

http://www.google.com/search?client...en&q="All+*,+All+the+Time"&btnG=Google+Search

To be fair, I am sure the distinction flies right over the heads of the typical gamer philistine. As for myself, I am highly trained and highly paid to make these discerning decisions in diction. No word can be left to chance.

You wouldn't invite some average joe to come in off the street to overhaul your engine, would you? Fix your plumbing? Re-wire your house? Of course not. I respectfully suggest that you accord the same respect to the craft of the wordsmith.

I grant you license, on my behalf, to gently but firmly correct the fellow gamers in your neck of the woods:

It's All Power Attack, All the Time.

 

[BryonD]

I grant you license, on my behalf, to gently but firmly correct the fellow gamers in your neck of the woods:

It's All Power Attack, All the Time.

Well, at least for a few more months....

 

[Takei]

All Power Attack, All the Time.

Problem solved.

Seconded.

 

[Nifft]

To be fair, I am sure the distinction flies right over the heads of the typical gamer philistine. As for myself, I am highly trained and highly paid to make these discerning decisions in diction. No word can be left to chance.

APA,ATT is ambiguous, as it does not specify by how much you are Power Attacking.

FPA,ATT is unambiguous.

But to be fair, perhaps the distinction flies over some heads...

Cheers, -- N

 

[blargney the second]

FPAATT has the distinction of being onomatopoeic.
-blarg