Power Attack/Greater Expertise at Epic Levels

[the Jester]

Say I'm a 30th level fighter with Power Attack... my BAB (including epic attack bonus) is +25. Am I limited to a 20-point Power Attack? Or does the epic AB count for this?

Same thing for Greater Combat Expertise...

Thanks!

 

[DanMcS]

Epic attack bonus is stated clearly to count as BAB for all purposes except gaining additional attacks.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Epic attack bonus is stated clearly to count as BAB for all purposes except gaining additional attacks.

I don't think so. The rules clearly state that you use (EA + BA) for base attack for the purpose of qualifying for feats, but anything beyond that is just conjecture.

Of course, the intent is as you said: they stack for everything but extra attacks. I just haven't seen that in print anywhere. (If you have a citation, great; otherwise, I'll stand by what I've said.)

 

[3d6]

From the SRD:
Epic Attack Bonus: Similarly, the character’s base attack bonus does not increase after character level reaches 20th. However, the character does receive a cumulative +1 epic bonus on all attacks at every odd-numbered level beyond 20th, as shown on Table: Epic Save and Epic Attack Bonuses. Any time a feat, prestige class, or other rule refers to your base attack bonus, use the sum of your base attack bonus and epic attack bonus.

Epic attack bonus counts as base attack bonus for everything except for gaining additional attacks per round.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I give up... did you deliberately choose a colour for the SRD quote that can't be seen on the default background?

-Hyp.

 

[the Jester]

He's prolly using Stealth mode, right?

Anyhow, thanks for the feedback! I'd been assuming it counts. Then again, I've been considering some sort of Epic PA/Epic CE feats. Not sure what they'd entail, though.

 

[Trainz]

I give up... did you deliberately choose a colour for the SRD quote that can't be seen on the default background?

-Hyp.

It's been happening to me (but I fixed it with an edit).

What happens, is that when you type your post, the letters appear black on white, but when you submit your post, it appears light beige on dark grey.

When you paste something (like from the SRD) in the message composition window, sometimes the original quoted text color (blask in most cases) is retained, and thus appears as black on dark grey... which is almost invisible, unless you select the text with your mouse.

To fix this, you must edit your message, select the faulty text, and change the text color to light beige.

Elementary my dear smurf.

 

[Trainz]

To get back on topic, yes, EAB stacks with BAB for Power Attack and Combat Expertise.

In the epic campaign I used to DM (went up to level 57), when the fighter needed a roll of 20 on his first attack to hit the critter, he would either Greater Combat Expertise for 35 bonus to AC (which in many cases meant that the critter also needed a 20 to hit him), or power attack for 35 (thus +70 damage while weilding a two-hander).

HTH

 

[Deset Gled]

In the epic campaign I used to DM (went up to level 57), when the fighter needed a roll of 20 on his first attack to hit the critter, he would either Greater Combat Expertise for 35 bonus to AC (which in many cases meant that the critter also needed a 20 to hit him), or power attack for 35 (thus +70 damage while weilding a two-hander).

Why not both?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Why not both?

Yup. As long as you need a 20 to hit anyway, the difference between a -35 penalty and a -70 penalty is nothing...

-Hyp.