I'm leveling up a character at the moment in preparation for a convention this weekend, and seeing as he'll be level 11, he gets a feat. As a very unorthodox build, I'm fine with him being unoptimized, but seeing as he had a hard time with DR last game (last October) and that it ended with his second career death, I thought I'd take a look at the go-to-feat for boosting damage.
Kalas is a Tengu Barbarian/Ranger (Unchained, Sea Reaver, Pack Rager 9/Freebooter 2 who fancies himself a Noble Privateer (former pirate but he's married into an influential family).
For a Barbarian, his Strength is quite low, and he went for a Two-Weapon Fighting style that specialized in Disarming opponents and making them bleed. Even his Belt is only a +2CON belt, though I think I was saving up for Physical Perfection +2 before having to pay for the Raise. Most of his money has been spent on his weapons and armor, with ability boosts being more of an after thought.
His abilities are 14/16/16/13/12/10
His weapons are a +1 Wounding Blood Crystal Rhoka Sword and a +1 Adamantine Swordbreaker Dagger that's kept in a Scabbard of Bleeding Edges (variant Keen Edges that applies Wounding instead of Keen)
His armor is a +1 Electric Resistant (10) Sea Drake Hide Mountain Pattern Armor
Typical tactics are to disarm the opponent before stacking the heck out of the Bleed damage.
Before the level up, a full-attack looks like this:
ASBD = Adamantine Swordbreaker Dagger
Rage = On
Powerful Stance = On
Freebooter's Bane = On
Improved Disarm = On
BCRS +14 (1d8+9 +1bleed stack), ASBD Disarm +18 (+20 vs swords), BCRS +9 (1d8+9 +1bleed stack +1 Blood Crystal)
After leveling and choosing Power Attack:
ASBD = Adamantine Swordbreaker Dagger
Rage = On
Powerful Stance = On
Freebooter's Bane = On
Improved Disarm = On
Power Attack = On
BCRS +12 (1d8+15 +1bleed stack), ASBD Disarm +16 (+18 vs swords), BCRS +7 (1d8+15 +1bleed stack +1 Blood Crystal), BCRS +2 (1d8+15 +1bleed stack +1 Blood Crystal)
The damage certainly goes up enough to bypass DR10 but my accuracy takes a hit when it already has a penalty due to TWF.
The other option I can think of is to get more attacks in general. If I use what gold I have now, I can turn my Mighty CON belt into a Physical Might Belt. If I make it DEX, I'll have enough to get Improved Two-Weapon Fighting.
ASBD = Adamantine Swordbreaker Dagger
Rage = On
Powerful Stance = On
Freebooter's Bane = On
Improved Disarm = On
BCRS +15 (1d8+9 +1bleed stack), ASBD Disarm +19 (+21 vs swords), BCRS +10 (1d8+9 +1bleed stack +1 Blood Crystal), ASBD +10 (1d4+8 +1bleed stack), BCRS +5 (1d8+9 +1bleed stack +1 Blood Crystal)
Less damage per hit, but more attacks per round with the lowest at +5 rather than +2
Your math is way off. Looks like you are adding 6 from power attack, that is only if you are two handing a weapon. You actually suffer -50%... so 1 damage for 1 accuracy.. clearly just no. Best you could do is put down a weapon and 2 hand a sword to bypass dr. Maybe hammer the gap but not sold on it with your accuracy.
Your math is way off. Looks like you are adding 6 from power attack, that is only if you are two handing a weapon. You actually suffer -50%... so 1 damage for 1 accuracy.. clearly just no. Best you could do is put down a weapon and 2 hand a sword to bypass dr. Maybe hammer the gap but not sold on it with your accuracy.
You are right about the 50% with my off hand weapon Power Attack, but notice that I'm not actually including damage for that attack since I'm using it to Disarm. But at +11 BAB, Power Attack is still at -3/+6 for my main hand weapon. If I were using it 2-handed, it would only be 3 attacks instead of 4, but Power Attack would be at -3/+9. It seems you missed the part about Kalas being level 11.
You can make exceptionally deadly melee attacks by sacrificing accuracy for strength.
Prerequisites: Str 13, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +2 bonus on all melee damage rolls. This bonus to damage is increased by half (+50%) if you are making an attack with a two-handed weapon, a one handed weapon using two hands, or a primary natural weapon that adds 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier on damage rolls. This bonus to damage is halved (–50%) if you are making an attack with an off-hand weapon or secondary natural weapon.
When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every 4 points thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the bonus to damage increases by +2.
You must choose to use this feat before making an attack roll, and its effects last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage.
Disarm with the dagger is considered a attack so -3 to hit and only 3 extra damage. I don't think there is a feat that changes that.
I would love to know if I was wrong but that is how I read power attack.
So there are a few work arounds. First and obcvious would be to put the dagger away and then choke up on the Rhoka you would then be up to -3/+9. I'm not saying all the time, just when you are at the point you really need to hit hard.
Second is start carrying options: Cold iron, silver, adamantine etc. Maybe even a heavy mace so that way you have P/S/B covered. If you have the gold maybe even the bane baldric.
Those are the options I came up with as a rapier wielding investigator. He is only level 7 so sadly I can't multiple attacks but I can definitely hit and hurt the bad guys. I'm finally gonna get his str to 14 next lvl :)
I think his primary idea is to do damage high enough to bypass dr (btw penetrating strike is a nice catch) But his dagger he is attempting to disarm with..which means he rolls a cmb attack...since he is attack with the off hand he faces the -50% damage from power attack...my belief is the penalty is applied to all attacks. Break guard is pretty nice but again he wants a way to bypass dr first. I would assume not all encounters will have dr but the higher you get that probably will be a issue. Since he has only has a 14 str is double slice even worth it though?
Well, I did consider Break Guard the last time I got a Feat, but went with Cosmopolitan instead to make Nobility a Class Skill (he can make day job checks with Nobility thanks to the boon that made him a Blackros)
The penalty from Power Attack does indeed apply to my Disarm checks, but remember that Disarming typically forgoes damage.
Feats @ level 10:
Two-Weapon Fighting
Combat Expertise
Disarm Partner
Improved Disarm
Quick Draw
Tengu Wings
Improved Disarm Partner
Cosmopolitan (Diplomacy, Nobility)
Thanks to the Pack Rager's Raging Tactician ability, I give my allies IDP while I rage and if I happen to fail to disarm the enemy (uncommon) my allies get AOs and if those AOs hit they get a free Disarm attempt. They hit, do damage, and disarm. I'm not sure if one can make an AO against an AO, so I don't know if their free AO disarm will provoke, but even if it does, we've just baited out their AO.
The dagger is primarily used for Disarming, though it has been helpful as a desperation move against DR/Adamantine for obvious reasons.
Really, I'm already pretty good at disarming, but I fall behind abit against monsters with natural attacks, DR, and/or immunity to Bleed. Power Attack may be the best way to deal with that. And rather than turning Mighty Con into a Con/Dex belt, I could make it a Con/Str belt to boost accuracy/damage slightly.
I think you are correct here. Your lower STR is really causing you a problem. And what's worse, I think Power Attack will only make this worse in your current state. I would definitely look into some boost to STR.
As for AoO's in the scenario you described:
I think it will all depend on what Improved Disarm Partner says. If it is like Improved Disarm, then your allies making a disarm attempt would not provoke attacks of opportunity.I presume Improved Disarm Partner is a teamwork feat that may have Improved Disarm as a prerequisite?
Gotcha!
According to those links, you might end up with multiple Attacks of Opportunity...Your disarm fails so you've shared Improved Disarm Partner with your allies who now get to make disarm attempts as an AoO...the disarm portion provoking an AoO from the enemy.
This would be broken if your allies also have Improved Disarm which specifically says that the characters disarm attempts do not provoke.
That scenario would be...Your disarm fails so you've shared Improved Disarm Partner with your allies who now get to make disarm attempts as an AoO...however your allies also have Improved Disarm which keeps their disarm attempts from provoking. Bad guy gets nothing but bad news.
The best part is that unlike my initial disarm attempt, where if I had succeeded I'd only get to disarm, the AOs do damage and disarm.
I'm also wondering if I should swap my Con belt for a Str belt and then once I have enough saved up, make it a +4 Str belt instead of the +2 Str/Dex/Con belt I was originally looking at.
hp would drop by 11 and I'd lose a round of rage, but I'd be more accurate and damaging.