Charge damage

[Kingkull1375]

I wanted to verify that the damage my cavalier will do on the charge is. He will be using spirited charge with a lance and power attackm is starting damage is 1d6+10 so in this case would his damage be 3d6+30?

[Shfish]

Yes, assuming all of your +10 are static mods that can increase on a crit.

[Nefreet]

Normally a critical with a lance deals x3 damage. While mounted and charging it increases to x4, and with Spirited Charge it becomes x5.

So, 5d6+50.

[Zahir ibn Mahmoud ibn Jothan]

I believe a recent FAQ entry could be useful to you as well:

FAQ wrote:

Power Attack: If I am using a two-handed weapon with one hand (such as a lance while mounted), do still I get the +50% damage for using a two-handed weapon?

Yes.

—Pathfinder Design Team, 05/24/13

[Reecy]

I always thought Power Attack was strange to add to Charge when mounted...

You are really just bracing or using the mounts Momentum for added Damage.

[Avianfoo]

With power attack you poke them harder!

[DM_Blake]

Not that this is related to the OP's question, but jut an observation.

Spoiler:

Unbreakable weapons in this game are always a bit unrealistic but it's just a nuisance most of the time. However, unbreakable lances are a real mechanical problem. Sure, a REAL mounted knight with a lance will do a TON of damage to the first enemy he skewers, but that will almost certainly break his lance, and REAL knights don't have replacement lances in sheathes on their backs, so they get one charge. ONE. Then it's down to melee combat with sword and shield.

In Pathfinder, that mounted lancer can Ride-by attack over and over and over and his lance never breaks, letting him do extremely ungodly damage every round. Heck, in Pathfinder, he doesn't even need any "time" to slow his charging horse, turn it around, and accelerate it up to attack speed.

Now, suspending this disbelief wouldn't be a problem, it's just a game, but then we get to compare a lancer like the OP's who can do, on average, a bit more than 2x as much damage as an average boulder hurled from a catapult. I daresay, in historical REAL battles, a catapult boulder would be more devastating to the human body than a lance (both would be fatal to any normal human, barring a barely glancing blow, but the boulder would leave the remains far more mutilated).

One fine solution might be to have the damage done to the enemy also be done to the lance. Or maybe half the damage. Of course, that would make them useless in an RPG, or at the very least, it would reduce them to a tactic only used in jousting tournaments or battlefield heavy cavalry charges - which, historically, is all they were used for anyway. Maybe for magical lances a +2 ability to keep them from breaking and wasting all the money spent enchanting them.

[blackbloodtroll]

Yeah.

That Knight on his Celestial Horse, using his space metal Lance, is totally cool.

When his space metal Lance doesn't break, well, that totally breaks the suspension of disbelief.

[Reecy]

LOL

Touche Troll Touche!

[blackbloodtroll]

It seems to always be really quirky things that breaks someone's suspension of disbelief.

Oh boy, do they get mad about those things too.

[Wind Chime]

Magic Breaks my suspension of disbelief it being impossible but it doesn't spoil my fun playing even knowing that it is not real and more theatrical than sensible.

[DM_Blake]

blackbloodtroll wrote:

It seems to always be really quirky things that breaks someone's suspension of disbelief.

Oh boy, do they get mad about those things too.

I already said I could suspend this disbelief. I'm certainly not mad about it. My point was that the unbreaking lances give a mechanical advantage disproportional to the rest of the combat mechanics.

Lances do TONS of damage. They do it over and over with unrealistic frequency and no limitations. This is unrealistic, but well within my ability to suspend disbelief, but the mechanically unsound extreme damage combined with the lack of limitation (breaking, for example) is where the rules get wonky for me.

Note, that RULES that are wonky, not REALITY that is wonky. It's still not about being mad about suspension of disbelief, but about questioning game balance and rules mechanics.

[blackbloodtroll]

I was, more or less, just referring to players/DMs on the whole.

Your comment just sort of reminded me of these odd things they do.

[Wind Chime]

Lance Charging is a full attack replacement so the damage makes sense, it only looks overpowered compared to the walk and attack crowd (archers, pouncers all do comparable damage).