Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 1005473" data-attributes="member: 907">The thing is that the big-weapon fighter is giving up more, and the light-weapon fighter (especially one fighting with two weapons) is giving up less and getting more in return.Let's compare two characters using 3.0 power attack. Both are 5th level fighter-types chopping at a regular troll.Fighter 1 has Strength 16, Dex 14, Weapon focus (greatsword), Weapon specialization (greatsword), Power Attack, and Cleave. He's wielding a greatsword +1, so his total attack bonus is +10 for 2d6+8 damage.Fighter 2 has Strength 14, Dex 16, Ambidexterity, Two-weapon fighting, Weapon Focus (shortsword) and Power Attack. He's wielding a shortsword +1 and a masterwork shortsword, so his attack bonus when fighting with both weapons is +7/+7 and a damage of 1d6+3 and 1d6+1. Their target is a troll at AC 18, which seems somewhat average for the CR (5). There were at least a few monsters below that (zombies, dire lions) and some above (green hag), so I chose that as a pretty normal AC. For the purpose of this exercise, let's ignore crits (they would benefit both fighters equally). Let's see what average damage they do at various levels of power attack.Power attack: 0Fighter 1 hits the troll on an 8 - that's 65% chance. Each attack does 2d6+8 damage (average 15). That's 9.75 points per round.Fighter 2 hits on a 11 - 50% chance. The first attack does an average of 6.5 points and the second 4.5 points. That's 5,5 points per round.Power attack: 1Fighter 1 hits on 9 (60%) for average damage 16. That's 9,6 points per round. Note: Any amount of power attack is useless here. It's not going to get better with more power attack.Fighter 2 hits on 12 (45%) for average 7.5 and 5.5. That's 5,85 points per round. Note that unlike the greatswordsman, the two-weapon fighter benefits from power attack. Power attack: 2Fighter 2 hits on 13 (40%) for 8.5 and 6.5, total of 6 points per round.Power attack: 3Hit on 14 (35%) for 9.5 and 7.5, total 5.95 points. Power attack is no longer useful.Still, the example shows that the greatswordsman didn't benefit from power attack at all, whereas the two-weapon fighter had a sweet spot at 2 points of power attack. This means that the two-weapon fighter benefits more (in absolute terms), even if he starts out in a worse position.</blockquote>

Verification