Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="ShadowX" data-source="post: 3895813" data-attributes="member: 3720">It seems rather obvious to me that power attack's original purpose lay in patching up the attack bonus scaling problems in the core game.&nbsp; The disparity in attack bonuses between classes put the designers in a sticky situation regarding the AC of monsters because if it challenged fighters then other classes had no chance of hitting it, yet you catered to classes with less attack bonus and the fighters were guaranteed a hit.&nbsp; Power Attack allowed the designers to reduce monster AC since fighters could convert excess attack bonus to damage.&nbsp; This also, conveniently, helped to scale fighter damage as the game progressed.Unfortunately, splat books brought too many ways to multiply damage and Power Attack quickly escalated in effectiveness.&nbsp; Nearly every high damage melee build requires Power Attack.&nbsp; So whether it is to clean up balance or reduce calculations, Power Attack needs a fix.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ShadowX, post: 3895813, member: 3720"] It seems rather obvious to me that power attack's original purpose lay in patching up the attack bonus scaling problems in the core game. The disparity in attack bonuses between classes put the designers in a sticky situation regarding the AC of monsters because if it challenged fighters then other classes had no chance of hitting it, yet you catered to classes with less attack bonus and the fighters were guaranteed a hit. Power Attack allowed the designers to reduce monster AC since fighters could convert excess attack bonus to damage. This also, conveniently, helped to scale fighter damage as the game progressed. Unfortunately, splat books brought too many ways to multiply damage and Power Attack quickly escalated in effectiveness. Nearly every high damage melee build requires Power Attack. So whether it is to clean up balance or reduce calculations, Power Attack needs a fix. [/QUOTE]

Verification