What are the 5 most powerful feats in the PHB?

[EvilGM]

- Leadership (what a nightmare)
- Power Attack (really needs a cap less than 20)
- Natural Spell (as stated before.. druid wins)
- Craft Wondrous Item (limit the flow of magic items in your campaign? I think not.)
- Improved xxxx (+4 bonuses are wrong! and the ones giving no AoO gravy)

honorable mention(s) - Mounted Combat chain (mounted combat is wonky, try to make it appealing, not overpowered)

 

[two]

Tops is Leadership

It HAS TO BE LEADERSHIP.

Nothing else comes close.

A cohort gives you free "actions" to do stuff every round.

Imagine a 10th level fighter. He considers all possible feats, and takes Leadership. Gets himself an 7-8th level Cleric.

Suddenly he gets more actions every combat, he gets insta-healing, he gets insta-buffing, he gets transportation, he gets... god the benefits are too many to be listed.

Power attack? Natural spell? Get a Druid cohort if you want to be nasty!

 

[Thanee]

1. Leadership
2. Natural Spell
3. Craft Wondrous Item
4. Improved Trip
5. Power Attack

Bye
Thanee

 

[Harlekin]

... except that by high levels they're doing ungodly amounts of damage even without power attack (insane strength, powerful magic weapons, feats, other magic items, buffs from allies, barbarian rage, high levels of ranger favored enemy-age or paladin smiting), so increasing the chance of missing has a tendency to reduce expected damage even when you're only making a single attack. 1-for-1 Power Attack (i.e. 3.0 style or non-two-handed weapon 3.5 style) is pretty much never worth it except to overcome DR or in only hit on 20/only miss on 1 edge cases.

The reason why PA is overvalued is because in non-edge cases people don't tend to attribute missing on a low non-1 roll to PA, they attribute it to rolling a 3. And that situation comes up more in practice than missing on a high non-20 roll due to PA.

That is pretty much what I said. Barring DR, power attacking is usefull, if your first attack hits on a 2 even after you subtract the penalty for PAing. However, high level fighters often have an attack bonus that is higher than the AC they are trying to hit. In this case, moving and PAing is a supperior choice over moving and no PA.

 

[Harlekin]

I'm playing a 17th-level barb right now with a greatsword, and PA has been indispensable. He has four attacks and is usually buffed by Haste or his bracers of rapid strike. Ergo, he has more attacks than I know what to do with. Given that he has so many chances "at bat," and almost every single monster we face has DR, it's insane for me not to use PA as much as possible, even if it's just soaking up buff and flank bonuses. That little boost alone will often totally compensate for most creatures' DR.

That said, our longword-wielding paladin doesn't get as much mileage out of PA, but that's the price you pay in D&D for going sword-and-board.

Anything that gives you extra attacks at full attack bonus makes PA better (e.g. haste). However, without actually tracking how often you hit or miss because of PA and how much damage you actually do, it is next to impossible to intuitively assess if PAing is good for you.

 

[Thomas Percy]

Power Attack

 

[Shade]

By out of whack, you mean let fighting characters dominate combat? I'm not sure how thats a problem. They arent scrying, teleporting, speaking with the dead, or calling outsiders to clip their nails. Fighters should hands down, be the best class in combat - deal the most damage and be the last one standing. They do jack squat outside of it.

No arguments there. I mean the 2-for-1 is out of whack...the two-weapon fighters and sword and board fellas get quickly eclipsed, the monsters don't get a similar advantage (although I've considered houseruling that a monster that normally gets 1-1/2 times its Str modifier on a natural attack gets 2-for-1 power attack), and critical hits become absolutely obscene.

Edit: Also, I find Power Attack more of a benefit with barbarians than fighters (probably because they have higher Str thanks to rage and thus can sacrifice more points of BAB), so it doesn't necessarily help the fighter rule his niche.

 

[buzz]

Anything that gives you extra attacks at full attack bonus makes PA better (e.g. haste). However, without actually tracking how often you hit or miss because of PA and how much damage you actually do, it is next to impossible to intuitively assess if PAing is good for you.

I don't see why it's impossible. After a round or two, you'll know what you need to hit your opponent, and thus can sacrifice any BAB that's "extra." If you don't have any "extra," you assess whether or not you need to take the risk in order to land hits that actually have any effect. Making sure you hit is pointless if your damage just goes *ping* due to DR.

I dunno. I've been playing this barb for four years and have had PA since 1st. It's been crazy useful just about every session.

 

[Harlekin]

I don't see why it's impossible. After a round or two, you'll know what you need to hit your opponent, and thus can sacrifice any BAB that's "extra." If you don't have any "extra," you assess whether or not you need to take the risk in order to land hits that actually have any effect. Making sure you hit is pointless if your damage just goes *ping* due to DR.

I dunno. I've been playing this barb for four years and have had PA since 1st. It's been crazy useful just about every session.

Sorry for not being clear. I meant that against creatures without DR, PA is often not as useful as it appears to be, because the extra 10 damage on a hit are nice and obvious but the attack missing because of PA is not so obvious.

 

[Chimera]

Power Attack, Leadership, Combat Reflexes, Natural Spell...Augment Summoning.

One of the things I've noticed and liked as a player recently is that when my 2nd level Bard pulls out his +2 Inspire (Inspire + Inspirational Boost), the Fighters start PA'ing for their full +2 BAB, because it's a wash hit wise but they do a boatload more damage. Taking down a LBEG because both fighters hit and do a total of 35hp damage in one round is cool.