masda's page

I know, right? The Vital Strike line is a total aberration. Not a single other feat IN THE GAME uses the same terminology, even when they must be used in a similar fashion.

Why oh why, then, do they have to use what is likely the most confusing terminology in the game?

And because of this different worden everyone seems to think "There has to be a way this works different - it is WORDED different". If they said it was an standard action, fewer people would even try to compine it with other things.

Yeah, I guessed so that they wouldn't stack. I already read here that Vital Strike doesn't work together with anything else :)

So I will take the route of Vital Strike because with the improved versions I can pimp up the damage further as with Focused Shot.

The game designers' incessant neutering of the feat has done nothing for the game except to make yet another trap for newbies. Why couldn't they have just changed the wording so you can use it whenever you make only a single attack in the round (excepting AoOs which won't benefit)? Then mobility builds with Spring Attack could actually suck LESS.

Stupid game designers.

/nerd rage

I would love that too. With the current rules, things like Spring Attack or Shot on the Run really suck. You couldn't even use Focused Shot with the latter :(

Hello Folks,

I was browsing through the feats for possibilitys to improve damage of ranged attacks (especially for the crossbow).
I found "Focused Shot" wich sounds good. But I am not shure if it's able to combine it with Vital Strike. The wording on Vital Strike is vague.

If that is not the case, then Focused Shot wouldn't be so great, right?
I mean, if I had to choose between the two as a crossbowman:

- Focused Shot gives INT to dammage, which would be 3-4 if you are a Fighter that is willing to have good INT for that reason but only works within 30ft.

- Vital Strike adds at least 1 damage die (more if you take the whole chain), that's 5.5-16.5 with a heavy crossbow without a range restriction.

Sure, FS damage is multiplied on a crit. But I think even basic VS is better.
Am I missing something?

Couldn't you attack with the haft as a improvised weapon at close range by RAW anyway?

I would say, any application of a weapon that isn't the way the weapon is meant to be counts as improvised.