Power Attack - What is "2 for 1"?

[Nareau]

There are some situations where I can see it getting out of hand. Because it's an easy way to add extra damage that multiplies on a crit, the ability to power attack on a spirited charge with your lance gets pretty messy.

But it's certainly not so powerful that a skilled DM can't still make the game fun for everyone.

Nareau

 

[Plane Sailing]

If I recall correctly, the 2:1 was proposed to keep THF balanced with TWF. The decision to swithch from 1:1 to something else was due to the fact that PA was considered suboptimal for very strong fighters and instead was very effective for dual dagger wielding halflings. This went against what the designers hoped to represent with PA.

I'm sure I remember Andy Collins himself posting this rationale (although I could be wrong). I thought it was bogus then and I think it is bogus now - how many halflings fighters did he *see* who bought their STR up to 13+ (considering the -2 penalty) *and* had a dex of 15+? AND (in 3e) had to spend two extra feats for the privilege of TWF against the 2H guy who just got it for free?

If they *really* wanted to balance it against TWF (and ignoring the high attribute req for TWF *and* the number of feats it takes, *and* the fact that it only works when you get a full attack), then they should just have removed power attack for light weapons.

In the campaign I run and all the ones I play in we've nixed the 2 for 1 power attack... 2H weapons were so powerful anyway, this just made them insanely powerful.

Cheers

 

[Hypersmurf]

I believe Skip Williams once stated that the reasoning for 2:1 rather than 1.5:1 was because people generally hate dealing with the decimal point.

I think it was Andy Collins.

Something like "It's okay for Strength bonus to damage, because your Strength is fairly constant, and so you only need to calculate the x1.5 once. But you can choose a different Power Attack number each round, and to recalculate the x1.5 every time is too hard."

Or something like that. And yeah, it makes you cringe to hear it.

-Hyp.