two
First Post
Spiked Chain Halfling o' Doom
I was thinking the other day about the new power attack and how it might make viable the low-strength fighter. How? Well, read on.
By "low" I mean Strength=13, the minimum for Power Attack. You can keep this strength at 13 all the way up to level 20 if you wish, and still be effective.
Let's say you are a human fighter2. Use a not-very-uncommon 28 point-buy system (or assume these types of rolls). You wanna be a kick-arse spiked chain dude. What do you do?
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Human Fighter3: Str: 16 (10 points), Con: 16 (10 points), Dex: 14 (6 points), Wis 10 (2 points), Int 8 (0 points), Ch 8 (0 points).
Pretty standard. You don't want to get a "18" strength (costs 16) because that will lower your con/dex/everything else significantly.
Feats: EWP: Spiked Chain, Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, [free feat, assumed not to be weapon focus because most people don't take it at this level yet]. This is pretty standard I think for this type of fighter.
To hit with weapon: +3 (BAB) +3 (strength) = +6 to hit.
Damage: 2d4 + 3
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Ok that's the human fighter. What about a halfling Spiked Chain freak?
Halfling Fighter3: Strength 13 (8 points after -2 for race), Dex: 18 (10 points +2 for race), Con: 14 (6 points), Wis 12 (4 points), Int 8, Ch 8.
Feats: EWP: Spiked Chain, Power Attack, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus
To hit with the weapon: +3 (BAB) + 4 (Dex) + 1 (size) +1 (weapon focus)= +9
Damage: 1d6 +1 (strength)
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Sucks right? Yeah but... the idea is to turn every point of "extra" to hit into damage via power attack (compared with his human fighter counterpart).
In other words, use higher stats + size bonus + focus to do damage. Human fighter3 is at +6 to hit, the halfling at +9. That's a +3 difference.
Since the human fighter3 has +6 to hit, make the halfling get +6 to hit and pump the extra 3 into power attack, giving +6 to damage.
So the halfling is doing (+6 to hit, 1d6+7 damage) vs. the human (+6 to hit, 2d4 +3), which not only matches the human but exceeds him, even given the lower damage dice. Plus, of course, the Halfling has the option of not using power attack at all for very high AC baddies, which the human fighter does not have.
Now the beauty of this system is that everything can be thrown into dexterity. The Halfling's AC will be better in the long run than the fighter's given the size bonus and high dexterity. The holy grail for the low levelish Halfling fighter is a +4 dexterity item (16K, or 8K if a pal makes it), which adds 2 to AC and +2 "to hit", and thus "+4" to damage after power attacking (reducing the "to hit" to zero").
I am not sure I'm making my point. How to explain. In a low magic, lower-stat world, having just one stat to worry about makes a big difference. While the fighter buys magic armor and a belt of strength, the halfling just needs the dex boost item for both effects (plus better initiative, more combat reflexes goodness, etc.).
Of course, the halfling does not GET combat reflexes until 4th level. Some might object to this and swap it out with weapon focus. Either way works.
High stat world:
In a high stat world, it gets even better. Let's say both a human and a halfling gets a 18/16/14/12/10/8 to play with.
The halfling puts the 18 in dex (race makes it 20), 16 in strength (14 from race), 14 in con, 12, in wisdom, 10 in int, and 8 in str.
By level 3 this higher stat halfling is doing +3 (bab) +5 (dex) +1 (size) +1 (focus) = +10 to hit.
Human is doing +3 (bab) +4 (str) +1 (weapon focus is chosen) = +8.
Difference is +2, which means the halfling converts into +4 damage almost all the time.
human: +8 to hit, +4 damage, +2 to AC (14 dex), +2 to init, +2 to reflex saves
halfling: +8 to hit, +6 damage, +5 to AC, +5 to init, +5 to reflex saves
The human has an extra 2 feats to play around with (getting combat reflexes at level 2 or 3) while the halfling has higher AC with reasonable equipment, better damage, and more flexibility in battle.
By level 4, when the halfling gets combat reflexes and can make a total of 6 or 7 AOO's per round, I think it's pretty clear.
Halfling spiked chain fighters RULE.
Or at least are comparable to a human fighter. Or at least would be fun to play.
I THINK.
Did I make a rules boo-boo somewhere here? Is there a glaring gaffe I missed that nerfs the whole concept?
I was thinking the other day about the new power attack and how it might make viable the low-strength fighter. How? Well, read on.
By "low" I mean Strength=13, the minimum for Power Attack. You can keep this strength at 13 all the way up to level 20 if you wish, and still be effective.
Let's say you are a human fighter2. Use a not-very-uncommon 28 point-buy system (or assume these types of rolls). You wanna be a kick-arse spiked chain dude. What do you do?
____________________________
Human Fighter3: Str: 16 (10 points), Con: 16 (10 points), Dex: 14 (6 points), Wis 10 (2 points), Int 8 (0 points), Ch 8 (0 points).
Pretty standard. You don't want to get a "18" strength (costs 16) because that will lower your con/dex/everything else significantly.
Feats: EWP: Spiked Chain, Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, [free feat, assumed not to be weapon focus because most people don't take it at this level yet]. This is pretty standard I think for this type of fighter.
To hit with weapon: +3 (BAB) +3 (strength) = +6 to hit.
Damage: 2d4 + 3
___________________________
Ok that's the human fighter. What about a halfling Spiked Chain freak?
Halfling Fighter3: Strength 13 (8 points after -2 for race), Dex: 18 (10 points +2 for race), Con: 14 (6 points), Wis 12 (4 points), Int 8, Ch 8.
Feats: EWP: Spiked Chain, Power Attack, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus
To hit with the weapon: +3 (BAB) + 4 (Dex) + 1 (size) +1 (weapon focus)= +9
Damage: 1d6 +1 (strength)
____________________________
Sucks right? Yeah but... the idea is to turn every point of "extra" to hit into damage via power attack (compared with his human fighter counterpart).
In other words, use higher stats + size bonus + focus to do damage. Human fighter3 is at +6 to hit, the halfling at +9. That's a +3 difference.
Since the human fighter3 has +6 to hit, make the halfling get +6 to hit and pump the extra 3 into power attack, giving +6 to damage.
So the halfling is doing (+6 to hit, 1d6+7 damage) vs. the human (+6 to hit, 2d4 +3), which not only matches the human but exceeds him, even given the lower damage dice. Plus, of course, the Halfling has the option of not using power attack at all for very high AC baddies, which the human fighter does not have.
Now the beauty of this system is that everything can be thrown into dexterity. The Halfling's AC will be better in the long run than the fighter's given the size bonus and high dexterity. The holy grail for the low levelish Halfling fighter is a +4 dexterity item (16K, or 8K if a pal makes it), which adds 2 to AC and +2 "to hit", and thus "+4" to damage after power attacking (reducing the "to hit" to zero").
I am not sure I'm making my point. How to explain. In a low magic, lower-stat world, having just one stat to worry about makes a big difference. While the fighter buys magic armor and a belt of strength, the halfling just needs the dex boost item for both effects (plus better initiative, more combat reflexes goodness, etc.).
Of course, the halfling does not GET combat reflexes until 4th level. Some might object to this and swap it out with weapon focus. Either way works.
High stat world:
In a high stat world, it gets even better. Let's say both a human and a halfling gets a 18/16/14/12/10/8 to play with.
The halfling puts the 18 in dex (race makes it 20), 16 in strength (14 from race), 14 in con, 12, in wisdom, 10 in int, and 8 in str.
By level 3 this higher stat halfling is doing +3 (bab) +5 (dex) +1 (size) +1 (focus) = +10 to hit.
Human is doing +3 (bab) +4 (str) +1 (weapon focus is chosen) = +8.
Difference is +2, which means the halfling converts into +4 damage almost all the time.
human: +8 to hit, +4 damage, +2 to AC (14 dex), +2 to init, +2 to reflex saves
halfling: +8 to hit, +6 damage, +5 to AC, +5 to init, +5 to reflex saves
The human has an extra 2 feats to play around with (getting combat reflexes at level 2 or 3) while the halfling has higher AC with reasonable equipment, better damage, and more flexibility in battle.
By level 4, when the halfling gets combat reflexes and can make a total of 6 or 7 AOO's per round, I think it's pretty clear.
Halfling spiked chain fighters RULE.
Or at least are comparable to a human fighter. Or at least would be fun to play.
I THINK.
Did I make a rules boo-boo somewhere here? Is there a glaring gaffe I missed that nerfs the whole concept?
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