From what I am reading on Power Attack you no longer have any choice over what you can subtract from your attack bonus. It is a a -1 until 4th level........
Is that correct?
After I finish making houserules it will almost like I am still playing 3.5. :(
One of the worst things with the old Power Attack was figuring out exactly how much "power" you wanted in order to optimize your average damage.
It was honestly quite painful - replacing that with a simple "Do I want to hit it hard, or just hit it?" is IMO much more in keeping with the flavour of the rule and simplifies things significantly.
The new rule fits in perfect in my opinion.
I feel silly thinking about how "powerfull" my attack should be,
in Roleplay "with -2 or -4" doesn`t make any sense.It´s more like "Uh you take my pony? i will take you down with my best shot(s)!" so i mean more a yes or no question, rather than a exact self-estimation or such.
Now you additionally got a bit of risk of wether you hit or not, pre PF it was more "ok the Encounter has a AC of 30, then i can spend up to 7 Points in PA without having to roll more than a 5..."
That has nothing in common with a brutal only strengh driven powerblow
I hope it`s understandable ^^
AH and whats even more important ! you have boundaries. So PA isn`t that overpowert anymore. Nothing like "i take 12 in PA with my twohander and get +48 Damage on that roll.." or that kind of things.
After much maths every class is from power sight, really near to the other classes. The Differences are usually balanced through classfeatures and other advantages.
A -2 got you 4 points of damage. I dont think that was to much. You were also limited to BAB or strength mod, whichever was lower(BETA) so no more power attacking for a 15+ penalty. The reason for the big numbers before was shock trooper. Without shock trooper to ignore the penalty to attack there should not be any big penalties that can be laughed off.
I don't want to harp on it. What is done is done. Thanks for the clarification.
I don't want to harp on it. What is done is done. Thanks for the clarification.
The problem with Power attack was that it encouraged players to calculate on monster AC to figure out the best hit/dmg ration.
In my opinion the new system is really good. All the Power attack calculations are no longeer relevant and a clear area of min/maxing is over and done with.
Yes, it does multiply.
The problem with Power attack was that it encouraged players to calculate on monster AC to figure out the best hit/dmg ration.In my opinion the new system is really good. All the Power attack calculations are no longeer relevant and a clear area of min/maxing is over and done with.
So very true.
Although I have a player now who seems to magically hit everytime he swings once he figures out the AC of the target. So once he figures out the targets AC he power attacks everytime, since he knows what number to call out. Sigh. At least this keeps him from doing the 'full' power attack that 3.5 allowed.
In 3.5 I wouldn't min/max the damage so much really. Generally I would do enough of a power attack to bring my total attack rating to a multiple of 5 for ease of play. For instance, If I had say a 12th level fighter with a +23 total attack, I'd take either a -3 or a -8 Power Attack, leaving me with attack ratings of either +20/+15/+10 or +15/+10/+5, respectively. If I was mixing in Combat Expertise I'd combine the two to reach similar results. It just made things easier that way.
The only really bad I can think of is that power attacking a challenging opponent at higher level might mean alot more miss chance than doing that at lower level, because the penalty to hit stacks up and assumingly your to number to hit ratio doesn't, especially multiple attacks will suffer from this.