So just looking for advice, we got a LVL 14 Bard who can use the inspire heroics + synesthesia + True target combo via Quickened casting and we have a fighter. The fighter does not have Double Slice but has Power Attack. Is it better to use Power Attack and then a normal attack, or is it better to attack 3 times?
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A lot of different factors and different scenarios to consider.
Against a target dummy where you will succeed, but not crit, for any attack roll made, I think 3x Strike does a bit more damage. Because it adds STR and Weapon Specialization bonus damage 3 times instead of replacing one of them with a few dice of weapon damage.
But that is certainly not the only scenario that should be considered.
Against an enemy that is resistant to your weapon damage, Power Attack is better because you will only get your round's worth of damage reduced twice - once for each attack.
Similarly against an enemy that is weak to your weapon damage, 3x Strike is going to be better because you can trigger the weakness three times instead of twice.
If you are considering the case where you aren't guaranteed to succeed at all of your attacks, then the added damage of Power Attack needs to be factored against both the action cost and reduced chances of succeeding at a 3rd Strike. It may be a better choice to do Power Attack and spend the third action on something else entirely than to do 3x Strike. And that will need to be weighed against the idea of doing 2x Strike and something else vs doing Power Attack and something else.
If you don't spend all three actions on weapon attacks, doing Power Attack once instead of Strike twice is a slightly different comparison than Power Attack + Strike vs 3x Strike.
I mention all of these scenarios because way too often people come on here with math calculations about one of these scenarios and then try to claim that this one scenario's results show that one choice is always better than the others - without ever considering the other scenarios.
Attack 3 times when possible if all those buffs/debuffs are active.
vs good AC, power attack> 3rd attack
vs medium to bad AC, 3rd attack > power attack
That's generally my take as well. Although weakness and resistance also factor, but it's a lot less common that a strike attack will be triggering weakness (but not impossible by a long shot).
Due to the fact that true target only affects the first strike, i think the real comparisson in this case is:
power attack with true target OR 3rd attack.
How about if only using two actions for attacking with. Spending one action on Stride or a defensive option like Raise Shield, or something like that.
Does this change when the comparison is between 1 True Target Power Attack or 1 True Target Strike + 1 second Strike?
1. Depends on AC. If high AC, might be better front-loading the damage.
2. Once you get greater striking runes and +2 potency with two energy damage runs, almost always better to swing for more attacks taking feats like Exacting Strike or something that will do damage even on a miss.
Power Attack does the average of a weapon die per die of extra damage. For a two-handed weapon d12 weapon it adds 6.5 up to level 9 and 13 after level 10.
Each strike with a +2 striking weapon with two runes at 14th level will do on average
2d12 + 9 (Str, spec) + 2d6 +3 Inspire heroics = 32 damage average
If you have a greater striking rune your average damage goes to 38 or 39.
So the opportunity cost of using power attack versus a second strike when accounting for the -5 MAP offset by the -3 Synesthesia Clumsy and -2 Flanking with a +2 or 3 Inspire Heroics making a second strike a roughly equal or better chance chance to hit as a first strike is roughly 32 to 38 damage versus 13 damage.
So a third strike would be like a second strike normally or better.
That would require a deeper analysis of the AC, weakness, and resistances of the enemy you're attacking.
I would think most of the time you would make three strikes in that situation. I personally start swinging three times as a fighter once I get Greater Striking runes regardless of the set up.
I'd take a feat like Exacting Strike for your second attack and Certain Strike for your third attack. You're going to do 9 points of damage even if you miss on 3rd strike with Certain Strike, which is only 4 points lower than a Power attack hit with the chance to do up to 32 to 38 points if you hit.
The reason the fighter does so much damage is they crit a lot, can take advantage of full MAP reaction attacks, and have some nice feats for mitigating failure like Exacting Strike and Certain Strike which look boring on paper, but are pretty good in practice.
I assume Furious Focus is in play at these levels.
I assume Furious Focus is in play at these levels.
Thats correct and our person does indeed have Furious Focus.
You can also use PA on your second attack if you don't have Furius Focus.
But yeah, I would only go for it if the enemy has really high AC (I also assume the Fighter has a d10+ weapon, if not, PA is borderline useless).