| Power Attack | |
|---|---|
| |
| Details | |
Prerequisites |
Strength 13 |
Effect(s) |
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. The effects of this feat last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage. |
Power Attack is a feat in Owlcat Pathfinder Games.
Required For
The following Combat Maneuvers:
And the following feats:
- Cleave
- Cornugon Smash along with Persuasion 6
- Dreadful Carnage along with Strength 15, BAB 11 and Dazzling Display feat
Effects
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.
The effects of this feat last until your next turn. The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage.
Notes
The video game implementation differs a bit from the description. Halving the damage bonus only applies to light weapons (regardless of whether you wield one in your main hand or off-hand), but never to one-handed weapons (again, regardless of whether you wield one in your main hand or off-hand).
| Weapon to use | Power Attack effect | Max effect for full-BAB classes | Max effect for 3/4-BAB classes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-handed | -1 AB/+3 damage | -6 AB/+18 damage | -4 AB/+12 damage |
| One-handed with free off-hand and no Spell Combat | -1 AB/+3 damage | -6 AB/+18 damage | -4 AB/+12 damage |
| One-handed with off-hand weapon or shield or Spell Combat | -1 AB/+2 damage | -6 AB/+12 damage | -4 AB/+8 damage |
| Light | -1 AB/+1 damage | -6 AB/+6 damage | -4 AB/+4 damage |
| Primary natural | -1 AB/+2 damage | -6 AB/+12 damage | -4 AB/+8 damage |
| Secondary natural | -1 AB/+1 damage | -6 AB/+6 damage | -4 AB/+4 damage |
The default RTwP mode of the game allows you to fully control your Power Attack usage: you can leave it on for the first iterative attacks that are likely to hit, but turn it off for the later iterative attacks to try to land them anyway, albeit with lower damage. This is also very useful for proccing the Shatter Defenses ability: you may want to guarantee a hit with Power Attack turned off, then turn it on and land all subsequent hits against flat-footed AC. Turn-based mode doesn't allow this.
Strategy
Power Attack, along with Piranha Strike and Deadly Aim, are build defining feats for full-BAB classes such as the Fighter, Barbarian, or Monk. Because the effect scales one step for every 4 BAB you attain, these three feats allow Full-BAB classes to simply do more damage per hit than Medium- or Slow-BAB classes. To compensate, Medium-BAB classes like the Cleric, Bard, or Magus need to spend daily resources like Bardic Performance, Spells, or Domain abilities, which they can only do so much of per rest.
Therefore, the conventional wisdom is that classes that offer Full BAB should pick one of these feats early and only multiclass into a class that also offers full BAB, so as not to slow the progression of the damage boosting feat. Meanwhile, Medium-BAB and the rare attack rolling Slow-BAB classes can weigh damage boosting feats against those that enhance their other class abilities.
A final note, as the game progresses, you will encounter more and more enemies with Damage Reduction(DR) which will reduce a flat amount of damage from each hit. The three damage boosting feats are absolutely vital to put a character over that threshold to do real damage, while Medium or Slow BAB classes may find they struggle to punch through DR even with a damage boosting feat.
A notable exception to this would be a dip into Vivisectionist, in which you trade Power Attacks last +2DMG/-1Hit and +1BAB for up to 2 levels of Vivi depending on if Armor Mastery's bonus is deemed worth it for a final BAB of +19, But gaining Feral Mutagen +4STR, +2NA(stacks on top of ALL) and a smattering of highly useful buffs; Shield for +4AC, Truestrike, Firebelly(can be handy if dealing with trolls), Expeditious Retreat(make-up for low Move Speed of heavy armor), Enlarge(boosts Reach, Damage Dice, ect), +2d6 Sneak Attack with accomplished sneak attacker, an extra combat talent to replace the one lost by Fighter20, +2 Poison Resistance and Boosted alchemical/class bombs(also handy for Trolls and giving them something to do at range if they can't fully close). Int for combat expertise/trip and skills is generally the only useful mental stat for pure melee strikers anyway and they get quite a bit of utility starting with at least 14Int for the dip.