Please Rate Death Blow

[smetzger]

Given that you already meet the prerequisites please rate the usefullness/Must have of Death Blow.

Death Blow [General] REQ: Base Attack bonus +2, Improved Initiative
You can perform a coup de grace attack against a helpless defender as a standard action. Sword and Fist, pg 6.

 

[Crothian]

I rated it below average. There are some characters who can make great use of this feat, but you have to build the character for this in mind.

 

[kreynolds]

I rated it below average. There are some characters who can make great use of this feat, but you have to build the character for this in mind.

Seems to me that anybody that can deal at least 20 points of damage with a coup de grace would benefit from this, wouldn't you?

 

[Crothian]

Seems to me that anybody that can deal at least 20 points of damage with a coup de grace would benefit from this, wouldn't you?

But you have to first get yourself in a position to do a coup de grace. Unless you have an easy way to make an opponet helpless, it is not a worth while feat.

 

[Willtell]

Edited

 

[kreynolds]

But you have to first get yourself in a position to do a coup de grace. Unless you have an easy way to make an opponet helpless, it is not a worth while feat.

I kinda look at it like Cleave. It's not too often that you'll be able to use it, but damn, it sure is nice to have during those sweet moments.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I voted it underpowered.

I suppose it would be nice to deal with those sleeping orcs in a hurry, but I think it is too specialized for a PC. It is dangerous to choose feats that don't get used regularly.

Realistically, how often do you find someone unconscious or helpless 10'-30' away if they are not at or below -1 HP? Quite rarely.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I kinda look at it like Cleave. It's not too often that you'll be able to use it, but damn, it sure is nice to have during those sweet moments.

True. But it is easy to substantially increase your opportunities for Cleave through strategic and tactical choices. Other than Sleep how many ways do you know to make someone helpless without grinding through HPs?

I suppose a subdual specialist make have that happen, but they almost certain to be standing next to their intended victim.

 

[AuraSeer]

It doesn't seem all that useful to me, considering that you still need to make the opponent helpless first. All the feat does is change CDG from a full-round action into a standard action.

I suppose that if an opponent is only helpless for one round, this feat would help; you could take one move to get adjacent to him, then immediately CDG before he became un-helpless. But if the target is more than 30' away, you couldn't reach him; if he's within melee range, you don't have to move first. Either way, this feat is no help at all. (Anyway, most things that inflict helplessness have more than one round of duration-- Sleep, Hold Person, below-zero hp, etc-- so if you're gonna CDG, you have plenty of time to do it.)

 

[Darkness]

It's nice, but not especially powerful. Which, considering the power inflation in Feats that's slowly but surely happening, makes it a bit below average IMO.

Myself, I like to give it to one or two NPCs in a group - just in case a PC goes down...