Power Critical (Ray) + Polar Ray/Disintegrate = Much pain

[Particle_Man]

Illusions are great ways to counter these "once a day" tricks.

You power critical...my projected image! Sucks to be you!

 

[James McMurray]

And at 20th level when you do that to your bad guy and then you find out he's got a ring of spellturning? Or just when you find out that you've done 150 points to a bad guy that has over a thousand HPs. For an 8th level slot, I can probably live with it.

Spell turning doesn't turn touch spells, so you'll still get your damage through. Besides, what are you going to do to a guy that has a thousand hit points other than whittle him down? Odds are any combatant like that is going to have a way to be immune to Otto's Ireistable dance, so you might as well help yourself and hurt him instead of just hurting him.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Power Critical is the sort of feat that gives splatbooks a bad name.

It was published in 3.0, when vorpal weapons were allowed. It should never have been printed in the first place.

 

[Hypersmurf]

It is true that a Ftr1/Wiz5/EdK9 who takes this feat can, once per day, whack his target with a maximized touch of idiocy spell for an automatic 12-point penalty to Int, Wis, and Cha.

No, it isn't.

A penalty to an ability is not damage, and is therefore not multiplied on a crit.

If the spell dealt temporary or permanent damage to the abilities, it would work.

-Hyp.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Power Critical is the sort of feat that gives splatbooks a bad name.

It was published in 3.0, when vorpal weapons were allowed. It should never have been printed in the first place.

That's no problems of Power Critical. It's a problem of the ridiculous vorpal ability. They should have get rid of it. Another sacred cow that badly needs to be slaugtered.

 

[ruleslawyer]

No, it isn't.

A penalty to an ability is not damage, and is therefore not multiplied on a crit.

If the spell dealt temporary or permanent damage to the abilities, it would work.

-Hyp.

Good point! OK, so let me edit this to vampiric touch...

And KaeYoss, I agree. Power Critical is balanced just fine; in fact, I wish it had made it into 3.5 core. It's a nice high-level fighter feat, and we know they need more of those.

 

[Darklone]

Power Critical? Let's see... Paladin with 3.0 Rhino Hide, Smite Evil, True Strike Potion, Spirited Charge, 3.0 Holy sword, Charge and full Power Attack. Scythe? Would be nice.

Yeah. Balanced.

How many hundred points of damage? Bye bye Tarrasque.

How would this look like in 3.5? Not that bad I think

 

[ruleslawyer]

3.0 haste: not balanced.

Potion of true strike? Notable source of abuse. Besides, it takes a standard action to use and triggers AoO.

Smite evil doesn't work on the tarrasque.

As often is the case, you're pointing to factors other than the Power Critical feat itself to claim that the feat is unbalanced. That's not good analysis.

In any case, the charge + smite + Power Critical attack is a tactic that can only be done once per day, requires getting into melee (which at these levels is always risky) and exposes the charging PC to all manner of anti-charging defenses (Hold the Line, Large and in Charge, readied weapons, etc.). By the same level, the charging warrior's buddies can unleash multiple disintegrates from a nice, safe, invisible distance, inflict up to 18d6 sneak attack damage at a distance and from full concealment, and other similarly effective tactics that involve far less risk to the attacker and are repeatable.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

That's no problems of Power Critical. It's a problem of the ridiculous vorpal ability. They should have get rid of it. Another sacred cow that badly needs to be slaugtered.

I'll have to come up with another abuse then

Maybe the problem was too many abilities were triggered by critical hits - those are balanced only if crits were rare. The exception would be the elemental burst weapons.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

You mean "rare" like 1/day? Power Crit only grants you one attack with a crit range of 2-20. It's not even guaranteed, as you can still miss (at the first or the second attack). I don't think that's too bad.