Since it's a free action, could you engage the energy attunement after confirming a hit but before calculating damage?
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Not as far as I know - between attacks would be fine, but at the point where the hit has connected it's too late to change what you have connected with I think.
Free Action: Free actions consume a very small amount of time and effort. You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally. However, there are reasonable limits on what you can really do for free, as decided by the GM.
Damage is applied when you hit, not a second after you hit. Since a free action does take a small amount of time you cannot use a free action to affect a hit that has already been made unless the ability specifically states it can.
Yeah, there is no time in between hitting and dealing damage to interrupt the damage dealt.*
*Generally speaking, there are a few abilities that are "luck based" which allow you to do things like force rerolls, but you don't actually get to see the damage dealt.
In short, no you can't activate it only for the damage in an attempt to save uses and avoid wasting it the points.
Free Actions still take time to accomplish, like yelling "Incoming from the West!!" or performing a Bull Rush as part of a Shield Bash with a "shoulder-check style shove", etc. To be fair, this is entirely a GM call so your ability to do this might change from table to table.
Personally, I would say that the time between confirming a hit and actually causing damage is not within the purview of a Free Action-- it happens too quick for you to make that kind of a reaction-- so make your decision to engage energy attunement before you make the attack roll.