Power Attack: like or no like?

[KingCrab]

It's fun to calculate how much you should put in to maximize the expected value of your damage (and you don't need excel to do it.) I dig power attack.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I have played characters with power attack, and DMed for characters with power attack... and, while I found it to be pretty manageable, the fact that it required managing does say something.

If there were an alternative to Power Attack that was slightly less 'fiddly' and/or slightly less breakable, that'd be a good thing, in my book.

A lot of the possible fixes for power attack that have been mentioned I think are good ones. Making power attack deal 'extra damage dice' is a good fix for some of the things that tend to break when used in conjunction with power attack, I think. Making power attack use larger increments (-4 / +4 is my favorite increment) is another good one. I am less sure of making power attack "always on", but if it were folded into a Talent Tree where you didn't actually take any attack penalties for using it (instead you give up the opportunity to take some other talent tree, assuming that all talent trees are created equal), than that'd probably be a workable idea, as well.

Until I make the switch over to 4th Edition, though, I find power attack to still be serviceable enough, even if its not the prettiest thing out there.

Later
silver

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

No like.

I don't think it needs to go away though; rather, I'd like to see the variable be fixed (eg you always Power Attack for 4 points) and the damage bonus shouldn't be overpowered the way it is now for two-handed weapons.

 

[Ahglock]

I've never seen Power Attack be an issue in a game. IME, it's one of the least disruptive combat options and offers a lot of control to the player. I seriously have lost more time to players not being able to calculate the DC of their spells than with Power Attack slowing things down.

Ditto.

 

[Delta]

I voted "like it" but I was thinking of 3.0 because I never switched to 3.5.

 

[Khairn]

Neither me or my players ever had any trouble with Power Attack. Sometimes it works out well and other times it doesn't. The player makes the call on how much he's transferring to his damage and takes his chances.

 

[Irda Ranger]

And I came to the conclusion that PA was almost required for any full BAB class in order to be effective in melee past about 10th level.

This sounds like a system bug + kludge fix. Maybe if the system bug is fixed, the need for the kludge goes away.

I voted "mixed feelings." I understand why people like it, but I do not like doing the math; the decision to use it or not is relatively easy, but picking the number to use is annoying - especially when I know there is a "right" answer but I don't have the time to do better than wing it. I'm also glad I don't have any spreadsheet users at my table, as that would really kill the feeling of being "in the game" for me.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I'm mixed.

I hated the fiddly bits of PA.

I loved PAing with my raging barbarian/cleric (smite from destruction domain) and divine power'ed up, plus Divine Might feat, with with Improved Crit swinging her flaming burst goliath greathammer (1d12, 19-20 x 4). Damage output with a crit regularly around 200 points. Those are a blast (pun intended).

 

[Lanefan]

Voted "have and like" but for the 3.0 version; I've never encountered the 3.5 version (from what I'm reading, this may be a good thing).

Lanefan

 

[Li Shenron]

I liked Power Attack as it was meant to be in 3.0.