
TLO3 |

It seems like it would work best for a NPC with allies to help set up the flat-footed or stun situation. It seems like the intent is to dazzling display, then shatter defenses, then Deadly stroke, but the fact that deadly stroke is a Standard action makes that fairly untenable. It's essentially a 3 round set-up with limited payoff. Double damage sounds nice, but with a flat-footed or stunned opponent, you'll be better off using your full attack. You're at BAB 11 so you've got 3 attacks.
That said, if you've got a bunch of Monks or grappler flunkies to set you up, it's a great opening attack before you start full attacking.

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Well, it would take a long time to see this *feat*, yes, but the feats leading up to it are not useless without it by any means. The first thing that occurs to me with this is a terrifying 2-hander rogue. Surprise round: Charge, deal double damage normal damage, plus sneak attack, plus con bleed. Then...bluff check, stealth check, repeat!
...that's really scary, actually...you could take out some pretty beefy targets of opportunity while scouting with that...I wanna make this guy now. Thanks for the inspiration!
But Dazzling Display is easily worthwhile in and of itself, and combining it with Shatter Defenses allows a rogue to sneak attack without a flank-very useful in a 3-4 man party; you could even replace the high-str 2-hander with a high-dex TWFighting sword-and-boarder and make a tank out of him; with a little sneak attack and a little weapon training, he can get by without high str for damage.

DM_Blake |

No, for many reasons.
1. The feat requirements include feats like Dazzling Display which I have never wanted on any fighter, NPC or PC. Fighters don't usually have great CHA scores, and the benefits of Dazzling Display are not worth giving up all my attacks this round to use the feat, assuming it will even work with my crappy CHA. Since I never use Dazzling Display, I never have access to feats that require it. Note: I would consider Dazzling Display on a paladin, but they are not eligible to take Deadly Stroke, so it would be a moot point.
2. If I had a fighter who actually wanted Dazzling Display and reached 11th level and considered this feat, I still wouldn't take it. Giving up all my attacks this round to do x2 damage to one foe would probably be a bad idea. This foe is either stunned or flat-footed, and I have at least 3 attacks, maybe 4, maybe even 5. Most of my attacks are going to hit because the foe is stunned or flat-footed. I can easily do more than 2x damage just attacking him normally (and I don't need two crappy feats to make those normal attacks).
2a. Maybe I have to move to attack this guy, so I can't get a full-attack. In that case, x2 damage is better than just one normal attack. But, I couldn't cleave (and by 11th level every fighter has Cleave), so if this enemy is standing next to another enemy, I can just use Cleave instead of this feat, and do 2x damage (sure, it's against two targets at 1x each, but the total damage will be about the same). I don't need to take two worthless feats to use the Cleave feat that I would have anyway.
3. One point of CON bleed is too small to care about. By the time we're 11th level, monsters we fight have lots of CON and lots of HP. We still kill them in a couple rounds. Puny little bleeds are hardly worth the feat to take them - the baddies usually die before they bleed very much, especially if this isn't the first damage they are taking in this fight (heck, this might be the killing blow, in which case there won't be any bleed at all).
4. It's too situational. I know when I take Power Attack, for example, that I can use it pretty much all the time. I know I can take Toughness and it will help me in every fight (even if that help is only to make me more confident that I can take on more enemies with less risk of dying). But when I take this feat, I know that I will rarely use it. I may go 3, 5, maybe even 10 encounters between each time that I use it. Taking a feat that I will probably only use a few times in a dozen encounters is impractical.
4a. Yes, I can do things to make this feat more useful. Heck, if Dazzling Display works, I can use that feat to set this one up. But, really, that means I spend one round making ZERO attacks so that I can spend a second round making ONE attack for 2x damage and a puny bleed. It hardly seems worth it to me to give up 6, 8, maybe 10 of my attacks, just so I can use this feat.
To me, this feat as written is a worthless feat. Drop the Dazzling Display requisite, and I could find a use for it, but probably still wouldn't take it. Tweak it up a bit on the bleed (not CON, that's too deadly in some situations) and make the enemy bleed HP, and make it scale a little, so the bleed is 1 HP per 3 BAB (so at my 11 BAB he will bleed 4 HP/round and in two more levels he will bleed 5 HP/round). Now I could take this feat and feel like it wasn't a bad idea.

TLO3 |

Well, it would take a long time to see this *feat*, yes, but the feats leading up to it are not useless without it by any means. The first thing that occurs to me with this is a terrifying 2-hander rogue. Surprise round: Charge, deal double damage normal damage, plus sneak attack, plus con bleed. Then...bluff check, stealth check, repeat!
...that's really scary, actually...you could take out some pretty beefy targets of opportunity while scouting with that...I wanna make this guy now. Thanks for the inspiration!
But Dazzling Display is easily worthwhile in and of itself, and combining it with Shatter Defenses allows a rogue to sneak attack without a flank-very useful in a 3-4 man party; you could even replace the high-str 2-hander with a high-dex TWFighting sword-and-boarder and make a tank out of him; with a little sneak attack and a little weapon training, he can get by without high str for damage.
Little problem of the Greater Weapon Focus requirement. Now you can always multi-class, of course. Either way, you won't be getting it until 12th or 13th level at 2d6 or 3d6 sneak attack damage.

Epic Meepo RPG Superstar 2009 Top 16, 2012 Top 32 |
I could see it being an okay feat for fighters that maximize their initiative modifiers. It essentially becomes the feat you use once per fight in the opening round. First-round Con bleed could prove handy against a high-hp opponent, even if the opponent only survives for a few rounds.
Granted, Deadly Stroke would be even better if you could use it in conjunction with a charge attack in a surprise round. But that's a failing of many Pathfinder fighter feats, not just Deadly Stroke.

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Meepo points out an error in my logic, though not explicitly: can't charge because charge is an action containing an attack, just like a full attakc, and deadly stroke is an action, not an attack. So unless you can get into melee with them before the surprise round, its useless.
...I take back everything I said. I can't think of any use for this feat.
EDIT: Oh. You can use it with ranged attacks. Eh, one ranged attack doesn't deal enough for doubling it to be worthwhile in the tactic I described above. It was viable as a 2h weapon tactic. Not with a bow.

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I can see it being really handy when fighting high-level humanoid enemies, but that mostly depends on the campaign you're running. Yeah, against, say, a Dragon or Giant, it probably isn't gonna matter much, but when you're fighting 5 or 6 guards, or some high-level rogues, it's nice to have a sort of "fire and forget" ability, knowing they'll eventually die unless a cleric is there.
That said, most people probably won't get over missing their giant numbers.

TLO3 |

I can see it being really handy when fighting high-level humanoid enemies, but that mostly depends on the campaign you're running. Yeah, against, say, a Dragon or Giant, it probably isn't gonna matter much, but when you're fighting 5 or 6 guards, or some high-level rogues, it's nice to have a sort of "fire and forget" ability, knowing they'll eventually die unless a cleric is there.
That said, most people probably won't get over missing their giant numbers.
Except it only works on flat-footed or stunned opponents. It's not enough to get them shaken with dazzling display. If you're doing it yourself you need to Dazzle, then hit them to trigger Shatter defenses, then on the next round use deadly stroke.
That's hardly fire and forget.

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No, for many reasons.
1. The feat requirements include feats like Dazzling Display which I have never wanted on any fighter, NPC or PC. Fighters don't usually have great CHA scores, and the benefits of Dazzling Display are not worth giving up all my attacks this round to use the feat, assuming it will even work with my crappy CHA. Since I never use Dazzling Display, I never have access to feats that require it. Note: I would consider Dazzling Display on a paladin, but they are not eligible to take Deadly Stroke, so it would be a moot point.
Yes, my fighter took Leadership and adopted a nice little aasimar paladin girlfriend with Dazzling Display, Persuasive and Skill Focus Intimidate (she's level 10, with an 18 Cha and a circlet of persuasion, and thus intimidates at +30 to the check). She does it round after round to get the rabble in panick mode... the bad part is that her Intimidate check is so high that she also often ends up frightening/panicking the big bosses, which pisses off the rest of the party as they see the almost dead BBEG teleport off to fight perhaps another day.... :P