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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 3338294" data-attributes="member: 3146">I don't think this is actually the case. I specifically excluded Cleave from my analysis above. The point of it is that what you want to do is not inflict as many hit points of damage as possible; what you want to do is drop your foes.Let's take that intermediate hit point foe you're talking about. Let's say we're talking 8th level or so, so intermediate is 30-45 hit points. Now, if we analyze an iconic style fighter-- +1 flaming bastard sword and shield, 20 strength (one handed) or +1 greatsword, 22 strength, both with weapon specialization and weapon mastery: slashing, we find that they do:1 handed: 1d10+1d6+10 damage2 handed: 2d6+14 damageThe one-handed fighter is going to have a good shot at dropping the intermediate hit point foes in two hits if he power attacks. It will take him three hits, more often than not if he doesn't Power Attack.The two-handed fighter is going to drop them in two hits pretty often without Power Attacking. If their hit points are in the mid thirties, he can reliably (> 50% of hits) one-shot them by Power Attacking for 8 points.I would suggest that, in this situation, Power Attack for maximum average damage is still not a good idea. The one-handed weapon fighter is almost certainly best off power attacking for a moderate amount in order to make them reliable two-hit kills. The two-handed fighter is probably best off either not power attacking at all/power attacking for very little or power attacking for full.In the case of a really high hit point monster, the optimal Power Attack number is probably closer to the max average damage per round, but even there, a lot will depend upon how the battle has progressed. After the first or second round, an injured high hit point monster, may well reach the stage where Power Attack should be used to reduce the number of hits to kill from three or two to two or one just like the mid-hit point monsters discussed above. I'm almost certain that over lots of battles, a flexible approach that minimizes the number of hits to drop a foe will do significantly better than maximum average damage/round.</blockquote>

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