Vital Strike Tree


Rules Questions


Does the Vital Strike feat tree allow for twice your modifiers to be added to damage? I would think not, based on this quote.

Vital Strike Tree wrote:
before adding bonuses from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision-based damage, and other damage bonuses. These extra weapon damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit, but are added to the total.

It looks like you just add weapon damage twice, but the modifiers stay normal. Is this so?


aceDiamond wrote:
It looks like you just add weapon damage twice, but the modifiers stay normal. Is this so?

Yes.


Yeah only roll weapon damage multi times.
Baring a few of tye new acg feats


Zwordsman wrote:

Yeah only roll weapon damage multi times.

Baring a few of tye new acg feats

Such as?


Well You'd have to get ACG for it. cause I don't have the exact wording but..

I know there are some that require ital strike and nature magic/druid stuff.. that add effects. like, staggering entanglement, etcs.
and... bloodied arcane strike? something like that.. need a rage ability, arcane strike and vital strike. Lets you use arcane strike w/out swift action and the damage from vital strike is double/tripple/quaded by vital strike.

I do wish there had been more in it that wasn't class centric. I think all 4 of the feats I know of from ACG are doable onl y with certain classes or dips in said classes.

I think that new Ragesong class, could do some really nifty damage with vital lines, that new arcane strike vital strike thingy and furious finish (maximizes vital strike stuff I think it was).

Grand Lodge

ACG wrote:

Blooded Arcane Strike (Combat)

Arcane energy guides your devastating attack.
Prerequisites: Arcane Strike, ability to cast arcane
spells, bloodrage† class feature.
Benefit: While you are bloodraging, you don’t need
to spend a swift action to use your Arcane Strike—it is
always in effect. When you use this ability with Vital
Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike, the
bonus on damage rolls for Arcane Strike is multiplied by
the number of times (two, three, or four) you roll damage
dice for one of those feats.

There are also three other feats that work in conjunction with Vital Strike if you can cast druid or ranger spells.


I missed that from Blooded Arcane Strike. But generally, my damage will be coming from Strength and I was curious if I should take the Vital Strike tree over other barbarian/bloodrager feats.


aceDiamond wrote:
I missed that from Blooded Arcane Strike. But generally, my damage will be coming from Strength and I was curious if I should take the Vital Strike tree over other barbarian/bloodrager feats.

Here's a helpful guide to know whether or not you should invest in Vital Strike:

1. Are you a Druid (preferably a Saurian Shaman)?
-If yes, go ahead!
-If no, never, under any circumstances.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Disagree almost entirely with arachnofiend. Vital strike is useful anytime you have to move more than a 5 ft step. If the enemies AC is high enough that you cannot hit reliably on your iterative strikes. Or if you do not have a high modifier to damage past your base dice and you are facing hardness/Dr.


Tim Statler wrote:
Disagree almost entirely with arachnofiend. Vital strike is useful anytime you have to move more than a 5 ft step. If the enemies AC is high enough that you cannot hit reliably on your iterative strikes. Or if you do not have a high modifier to damage past your base dice and you are facing hardness/Dr.

If you can't hit or get past DR you might as well use your spells or whatever else you were doing in combat besides attacking. The damage you get from vital strike isn't that large, so if you're not doing damage to DR this isn't going to help much.

And I did some math on another thread and that example of a cleric did more damage if it hit 1/3 secondary attacks then if it hit 3/3 vital strikes. Also in that example, the cleric's to-hit was 1 less than a comparable fighter's. So yes while it does do more damage on a standard action, it's not worth getting and investing in. 3/4th get it later and can't upgrade all the way, and it's a lot of feats that most of them don't have. The full BAB have more reason to full attack then a 3/4 so they aren't that interested.

So unless you go druid wildshaping to get a huge base dice, or some other way to get huge base dice, it's not helping that much for the feats.

Grand Lodge

Arachnofiend wrote:
aceDiamond wrote:
I missed that from Blooded Arcane Strike. But generally, my damage will be coming from Strength and I was curious if I should take the Vital Strike tree over other barbarian/bloodrager feats.

Here's a helpful guide to know whether or not you should invest in Vital Strike:

1. Are you a Druid (preferably a Saurian Shaman)?
-If yes, go ahead!
-If no, never, under any circumstances.

I only found it because I ctrl-f'd through the pdf, it's not listed as a prereq for Blooded Arcane Strike.

I have to disagree wholeheartedly (or add another caveat to the list). Warpriests are excellent candidates for Vital Strike. They can pick it up at lvl 6 instead of normal at lvl 8 because they count their level as their bab for their bonus feats. So they can get it a whole two levels before they get their first iterative attack. Stack that on top of the Greater Weapon of the Chosen feat and they're going to hit almost every time since they get to roll two attack dice and take the better of the two.

For PFS, this is a great choice as you're basically* getting your iterative attack through the end of your warpriest's playable life.

*basically as in without bonuses being doubled. But it's a good trade-off imo for getting to use your highest BAB.

Dark Archive

Vital Strike seems like it'd be a neat toy, but it's not something you want to build around. It's full-out not as good as a full attack.

But if you want to try something different, that may not be as mechanically powerful as a normal full-attacker, go nuts.


Yeah, great tool, not a great thing to super focus on, baring specific playstylea or groups.
Or for amusing builds. Like my double xbow one shot a round guy


If you're going into the Mythic play style, then Vital Strike is basically a must for any melee character. Mythic Vital Strike allows you to double/triple/etc. all your bonuses to damage in addition to the standard increase to your damage dice.

Just something to think about.

Scarab Sages

It can more powerful than full attacking if you are a Warpriest. Thanks to bonus feats, you qualify for Vital Strike at 6 when you still only have one attack. You will always be able to get the next higher Vital Strike before you would get the next iterative attack.

Combine that with Greater Weapon of the Chosen and you get to roll twice to hit with a Vital Strike, ignore some DR, and can reroll miss % chances.

Grand Lodge

Imbicatus wrote:

It can more powerful than full attacking if you are a Warpriest. Thanks to bonus feats, you qualify for Vital Strike at 6 when you still only have one attack. You will always be able to get the next higher Vital Strike before you would get the next iterative attack.

Combine that with Greater Weapon of the Chosen and you get to roll twice to hit with a Vital Strike, ignore some DR, and can reroll miss % chances.

claudekennilol wrote:

Warpriests are excellent candidates for Vital Strike. They can pick it up at lvl 6 instead of normal at lvl 8 because they count their level as their bab for their bonus feats. So they can get it a whole two levels before they get their first iterative attack. Stack that on top of the Greater Weapon of the Chosen feat and they're going to hit almost every time since they get to roll two attack dice and take the better of the two.

For PFS, this is a great choice as you're basically* getting your iterative attack through the end of your warpriest's playable life.

*basically as in without bonuses being doubled. But it's a good trade-off imo for getting to use your highest BAB.

*whistles innocently*


The new feat nature magic gets you the prerequisites for most of the new vital strike feats for 1 rank in knowledge nature.

Grand Lodge

fel_horfrost wrote:
The new feat nature magic gets you the prerequisites for most of the new vital strike feats for 1 rank in knowledge nature.

That's awesome. Too bad I have my entire progression already planned out and filled in with teamwork feats.


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I did like my Vital-strike oriented barbarian.

I used "Furious Finish" and an "invigorating" weapon.

References:
Ultimate Combat wrote:

Furious Finish

You channel all of your rage into one massive blow to crush your enemy.

Prerequisites: Rage class feature, Vital Strike, base attack bonus +6.

Benefit: While raging, when you use the Vital Strike feat, you can choose not to roll your damage dice and instead deal damage equal to the maximum roll possible on those damage dice. If you do, your rage immediately ends, and you are fatigued (even if you would not normally be).

Ultimate Equipment wrote:

Invigorating

Price +2 bonus; Aura faint enchantment; CL 5th; Weight —

This special ability can only be placed on melee weapons. After an attack with this weapon drops a living foe (kills it or drops it to negative hit points), the weapon infuses its wielder with vigor. If its wielder is fatigued, the weapon removes the fatigue. If exhausted, the wielder becomes fatigued instead. If neither exhausted nor fatigued, the wielder gains a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls and a +10 foot enhancement bonus to all modes of movement possessed until the end of the wielder's next turn.

Construction Requirements
Cost +2 bonus
Craft Magic Arms and Armor, good hope

I called my style the "Move'n'Splotch!". It's not the most powerful, but you still can enjoy your fight.

Another way of using Vital strike is with a "sniper". You only make standard action to fire, then you roll to stealth with your -20 (or reduced bonus with some races). Pretty funny with a double-hackbut. Rolling 4 to 8d12 is always something.


Huh, I hadn't thought of the interaction with the Warpriest... Okay, I definitely can see a Warpriest of Gorum making good use out of Vital Strike.


So the X-Laser has to be the new hotness for a Vital Strike build. It's the only heavy weapon that doesn't have Slow-firing and is therefore compatible with Vital Strike, which is nice. 5d6 (fire) damage (to everything in a line!), so you can get 20d6 at medium size per shot with Greater Vital Strike; someone else can do the math for Large and Huge.

And the crit multiplier is x4, so you'll do 40d6 if you crit with Greater VS. Not too shabby. Grab those feats, some spare batteries, and go White Dragon hunting.

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