Round 18 is OVER

[Tolen Mar]

Power Attack. Not because I really dislike the feat, but if I look over the characters I've played over the past 4 years or so, I don't think one of them has ever had power attack. I guess I should try it out one day.

Pinotage

Thats similar to my case...though I still used it as the required gateway to others. Im voting PA this time around.

Heh, I can really pick the winning horse cant I?

 

[Insight]

Weapon Finesse is a choice, not a feat. Adios, Weapon Finesse!

 

[Psion]

It saddens me that not only is POWER ATTACK still on the island, that the remaining voters don't see it for the blight it is.

Power Attack is slightly less useful than Two Weapon Fighting or Rapid Shot, but is otherwise very useful in two circumstances:

1. Your opponent has an AC so high you need a natural 20 to hit anyway. In that situation, take maximal power attack. You won't increase or decrease your 5% chance of hitting the damn AC tank, but at least, if you hit him, he'll suffer for your troubles!
2. Your opponents have low AC, so you'll hit them anyway. With cleave, you may even get more attacks that way.

2b) This includes inanimate objects like doors (who needs a theif) and phylacteries, and other structures and tough-to-kill dinguses.
3) The DR rules supposedly add flavor to the game by making it so having a magic weapon doesn't trivialize it. Well, power attack puts us right back in the same boat.
4) All the above is not such a big deal, until you consider the case of two-handed weapons that DOUBLE the negative modifier. The "who cares if you miss if you do more damage" becomes much less of a troubling trade-off when you are getting double what you put in.

 

[NimrodvanHall]

I voted power attack because I've only ever used it as a prerequisite for later feats or other things. I am aware of the uses outlined by Gez above, but for me trying to keep that stuff in mind just adds complications which I don't want my straightforward, simplistic warriors to think about

just use power attack to lower your Attackbonus to the nearest easy number; 5, 10, 15, 20 etc. makes it EASIER to determine the AC you hit.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Improved Initiative? WTF?

How can you people vote off Improved Initiative? It's universally useful . . . ANY character can benefit from it.

It's cool at 1st level for any class:
1. Charge/Power Attack and kill the orc before it has a chance to attack/raise the alarm.
2. Charge/Sneak Attack and kill the orc before it has a chance to attack/raise the alarm.
3. Cast sleep and incapacitate the orc(s) before it has a chance to attack/raise the alarm.
4. Cast bless on the entire party before they act so they all get +1 to hit against the orc(s).

It's even cooler at 20th level for any class:
1. Charge/Power Attack/Grapple and ruin the BBEG's day before s/he can act.
2. Fire three arrows with Sneak Attack and ruin the BBEG's day before s/he can act.
3. Cast timestop and get some buffing spells up before the BBEG can act.
4. Cast energy drain and take away some of the BBEG's power before he s/he can act.

Going first is cool at low level. Going first can decide who survives the battle at high level. +4 is a 20% bonus to initiative. I can't think of any other feat that gives that kind of bonus to a d20 check. It's a check that you are guaranteed to make EVERY combat.

Improved Initiative rocks. It is easily the most universally useful, good feat.

 

[Greylock]

sigh

RAPID SHOT

Lord, I want Power Attack gone, but gotta save ImpInit first.

 

[TheEvil]

A report from the field

Field experience leads me to vote out Improved Initiative.
Those of you familiar with Living Greyhawk know about the recent conversion. People were basically allowed to rewrite their characters, but couldn't touch the starting statistics. There were some pretty dramatic changes. Almost every one I know who had characters with Improved Initiative dumped it with the conversion. Wizards, sorcerers, clerics, even a rogue. I don't know of anyone who added it.

As a disclaimer, LG authors have a bad habit of writing in autosuprise against PCs.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Good day to you, Improved Initiative. Good day.

A feat that maybe lets me go before other people. So I can do my X damage to them before they do their Y damage to me. Whoopie. If I don't want to be caught flat footed, I'll happily take Combat Reflexes instead. The only real use for it is for Sneak Attack, and while I love playing rogues, I can't endorse it because of that one built.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Still voting Imp Init off.

 

[Kelleris]

Improved Initiative is really the best of the four anyway though. If many fights in your campaign aren't mainly decided by the first round's actions, then you either have a weird mix of PCs and enemies or else one of the teams isn't using the initiative to best advantage...

Well, my original post was criticizing your "general relevance" criterion. Whether or not it's the best feat remaining is a different matter. That said:

1) I like battles that are of the large set-piece type, with conditions changing during the course of them. So the first round very rarely decides the matter IMC. I actually really hate it when I get into a fight and the outcome is obvious after the first 3 seconds. Now, that said, ImpInit is still useful, because higher initiative lets you react to changes before anyone else does - In fact, I occasionally have people roll new initiatives mid-battle to see how fast they react to new arrivals/dramatic events. I also use initiative rolls for out-of-battle things like seeing who reaches out to grab the guy who's falling first or who gives into the treasure-pile for the item they want first. (That last one sometimes ends poorly.) So my previous comment that you only get "+4 to one roll per combat " from the feat isn't even true. That said, Improved Initiative is still firmly in the nice-but-bot-necessary band for most characters, and is only occasionally taken.

2) My current reason for voting off Improved Initiative is that it's kinda dull, speaking as a player. I like feats that allow me to make choices during combat. Weapon Finesse is at least something you build a character around, though I'm inclined to think it should just be an option for light and finessable weapons.

3) Assuming Improved Initiative survives this round, I think I'll vote for something else next round, as the passion of the pro-ImpInit camp has swayed me. And anyway, it's getting hard to pick one anyway, y'know. I like all the remaining feats to a greater or lesser degree.