Why would you ever use fighter power attack?


Rules Discussion


I'm reading this fighter feat Power Attack. I don't understand why you would ever use it. It takes two actions. It calculates as a second attack, so a -5 penalty to use same as a second attack. It does one extra weapon die of damage without the ability modifier bonus.

Why would you ever use this?

Is there some other feat combination this is useful with?

It seems like a very badly designed fighter feat.


It is useful for your second attack and for getting past damage resistances.

It isn't an "turn on an forget damage boost" like it was in PF1e, but it does have its uses.

Sovereign Court

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It doesn't penalize on accuracy. It just counts as two attacks. If you strike after Power attack, it will be like using a third attack, so apply the penalty as appropriate.

I remember Mark Schiefer even did talk about Power Attack back last year, when they were saying how excited they were about the new Power Attack.

Fighter class preview wrote:


Power Attack -- "Power Attack gives you one (and actually, eventually two without taking another feat to improve it!) extra damage die and does not penalize you on accuracy; and you don't want a penalty on accuracy. For a d12 two-handed weapon that might have gotten +3 damage (+3 more every 4 BAB) in PF1, that's 6.5 damage on average, going up to 13. It wasn't until BAB 16 that you would do more damage than that in PF1, and that was at a cost of -5 accuracy."

You can check out other flourish feats using two actions like Knockdown where they added the description of not counting penalties for the action executed.


The others said a lot, but: it's also decent for using as a second attack if you have the spare action (hello, bonus actions from the mages), since the third is unlikely to hit.

Or, more importantly: Furious Focus, at 6. Makes it only count as one attack.


But it does penalize accuracy. The text states, "This counts as two attacks when calculating your multiple attack penalty."

I'm reading that as a -5 penalty to use it as first attack or a -10 if using as a second attack. Is there some other way to read it?

Grand Lodge

Deriven Firelion wrote:

But it does penalize accuracy. The text states, "This counts as two attacks when calculating your multiple attack penalty."

I'm reading that as a -5 penalty to use it as first attack or a -10 if using as a second attack. Is there some other way to read it?

I think it just means that your next attack will use the multiple attack penalty as if you already took two attacks. So the power attack will be at no penalty, but the next attack will be at -10 (or whatever your penalty is for a third attack).


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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Deriven Firelion wrote:

But it does penalize accuracy. The text states, "This counts as two attacks when calculating your multiple attack penalty."

I'm reading that as a -5 penalty to use it as first attack or a -10 if using as a second attack. Is there some other way to read it?

If you power attack first, you strike at normal. Any attack after that is at -10, because it counts as two attacks. It is quite powerful for weapons with large dice.


lordcirth wrote:
Deriven Firelion wrote:

But it does penalize accuracy. The text states, "This counts as two attacks when calculating your multiple attack penalty."

I'm reading that as a -5 penalty to use it as first attack or a -10 if using as a second attack. Is there some other way to read it?

If you power attack first, you strike at normal. Any attack after that is at -10, because it counts as two attacks. It is quite powerful for weapons with large dice.

You're sure that's how it works? At least that would be decent for certain situations.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Deriven Firelion wrote:
lordcirth wrote:
Deriven Firelion wrote:

But it does penalize accuracy. The text states, "This counts as two attacks when calculating your multiple attack penalty."

I'm reading that as a -5 penalty to use it as first attack or a -10 if using as a second attack. Is there some other way to read it?

If you power attack first, you strike at normal. Any attack after that is at -10, because it counts as two attacks. It is quite powerful for weapons with large dice.
You're sure that's how it works? At least that would be decent for certain situations.

Yes. It is very good for large weapons, not just decent. If you're using a d6 weapon, though, not so much. Ironically, it's actually better the lower strength you have, since the only downside is not getting your strength twice. Oh, and deadly/fatal weapons are perfect for it.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Attack - > Power Attack is pretty nice. It's not as much damage as 3 attacks, but you don't have to eat that nasty -10.


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Deriven Firelion wrote:

But it does penalize accuracy. The text states, "This counts as two attacks when calculating your multiple attack penalty."

I'm reading that as a -5 penalty to use it as first attack or a -10 if using as a second attack. Is there some other way to read it?

You calculate your multiple attack penalty after you make an attack.

So when you make the Power Attack, you use your current MAP penalty (zero on a first attack). Then recalculate your MAP as though you made two attacks.

So using it as the only attack in a round works fine. Using it as a second attack also works fine - it would be at MAP -5 by default.


Power Attack is very useful. You are not penalized for using it at all. You spend 2 actions to perform power attack you hit normally. Then if you spend your third action to attack you take a -10 because power attack counts as 2 attacks for the multiple attack penalty.

So Fighter 1st level (18 Strength) +9 (4 Strength + 1(level) + 4 (expert)) assuming using simple or martial weapon (We will use long sword)

Your turn comes up
Power Attack:
hit: die roll + 9
dmg: 2d8 + 4 [1d8 weapon and 1d8 power attack]

Now if I attack for my third action
hit: die roll + -1 [-10 for MAP]
dmg: 1d8 + 4

Then it gets significantly better when you have Furious Focus and wielding a 2 handed weapon power attack only counts as a single attack instead of 2 for MAP

MAP - If you use an action with the attack trait more than once on the same turn, your attacks after the first takes a penalty. So Power Attack makes a strike. So this is your first attack. Any attack afterwards would have the MAP. Some feats actually state when you make the strike it counts for that strike.

It wouldn't make sense that you take a MAP on your first attack.


Also the increase to damage for magic weapons isn't the same as 1st edition or even the playlets. The most damage you can get from Striking is 4 weapon dice which is a 19th level item. The max you could get with the playtest was 5. Also Power Attack adds a 3 dice at 18th. In the playtest it capped at 2 dice at 10th level.


I actually read somebody's math that in terms of vanilla DPR it actually works just fine as 1st attack too, since Crits there are even bigger. Although that might not necessarily always be best criteria in combat, if you want to ensure maximal possibility of doing some/decent damage. Power attacking on the 1st for -0/-10 does more average damage on the first attack which means bigger crits on that -0, but -0/-5 has higher reliability of some/decent damage, even though the "big damage" on -5 is less likely crit.


At first the feat is very good as your 2nd/3rd actions, and situational as a 1st/2nd action. It's an interesting choice. Furious Focus makes it seem really powerful 1st/2nd action followed up with a -5 strike. Maybe if you are striding in that turn you wouldn't use it and just go 0/-5 but if you are using 3 actions to attack I would use it most of the time.

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