I think the analysis is incomplete without considering striking runes. You get striking weapons pretty quickly in the progression and they will have a huge impact in the comparison.
Great video! I think where power attack shines most, is when the enemy has resistance to your damage. It werks the same way as the +to damage bonus, just exactly the other way around.
So basically, Power Attack becomes more viable when the average damage of the weapon die is more then the static damage that one adds due to strength and other bonuses. If this is true, does this mean that Power Attack can help dexterity based fighters with lower strength (around 14) wielding finesse weapons (which mostly have a D6)?
Well, my first reaction is, of course not!! And then I think about it for a second and I'm like...this might be pure genius. If adding damage decreases the effectiveness of power attack, then subtracting damage increases it's effectiveness, you might be on to something. It would be great to find some ways to increase the damage on dex to hit characters. It seems like a lot of people ask about them. I'll look into it. Really appreciate the comment. Glad you are here!!
I preffer Double Slice, for Two Actions i can make 2 Attacks with the same bonus, roll each weapon damage and add my strenght bonus for each attack, and it opens up more versatile feats later like flensing slice which gives me a free persistent bleed damage based on my weapon and two weapon flurry, which gives me two more attacks
Isn't this kind of overlooking how unlikely it is that the average character will go for a 3rd attack? In virtually any scenario it would be more effective to do anything else other than attack with maximum MAP, so the real comparison should just be between attacking twice normally and attacking once and power attacking, shouldn't it?
2E Power Attack = 1E Vital Strike. It's now a situational attack that adds burst damage. You're not supposed to use it all the time any more, so it's not a Feat Tax. But when people saw this back in play testing, they wanted to use it all the time and learned quickly it was a situational tool. It's the poster child of 1E -> 2E expectations.
Hey, thanks for the great comments. Someone else asked that same question about criticals, glad you figured it out!! All that stuff just gets rolled into the average...zeroes for misses, big numbers for crits, and average numbers for hits...then average it...and there's your number.
You should calculate dmg with a mob that had dr 10, and a crit build with a great pick and brutal finish, and furious focus, power attack only counts as 1 attack penalty with furious focus makes follow up press moves viable in 3 attacks
Hey, I used this build this week. It did tremendous damage. Also, at level 20 with weapon supremacy, using the brutal finish on the fourth attack action at minus 10 got a lot of mileage.. Good build.
A bit late, but shouldn't power attack have a lot more value at high level when we take the help action into consideration ? The help action give a massive +4 bonus on a crit using a legendary skill (most likely athletics) and with a DC of 20, critting is garanteed at high levels using assurance. The bonus is only to one attack however. A +4 is massive in the tight math of pathfinder
Would like to hear what you think about the Duel handed Assault feat from the "Fighter that uses a one handed weapon and no sheild" feat path. With a bastard sword or Daemon, you get a decent amount more damage I think. And there's really no cost to it. Plus you can use it after the Snagging Strike feat you covered in another video
Here is what I love about that. You can take combat reflexes at level 10 and improved dueling riposte at level 12, and potentially get 4 reactions each round. That would be 4 bonus attacks with NO multiple attack penalty. That makes that dual handed assault fighter pretty nasty with that b sword.
@@LegendaryCMD level 12 is such a hard choice for feats for that fighter! Dueling dance saves you so many actions, but improved dueling Riposte is so crazy too.
@@LegendaryCMD well, kinda. Ignoring the Boundless Reprisals feat at level 20, there is Quick Shield block, which DOES work with this build since you can use a buckler. It's a little silly though since you'd have to raise a buckler for no benefit, and it's not an attack. But, with a good buckler material, maybe it's worth it? It's all online by level 12. If you want 4 attack reactions, At level 20 through the Swashbuckler archetype you could take reflexive riposte but at that point, just take Boundless Reprisals. My recommendation for the "one empty hand" fighter though, is to maybe pick up guardians deflection (maybe through your daily level 9 feat) so you have a wide variety of reactions you can do. Blocking an attack for your ally, doing a riposte AND doing an attack of Oppertunity gives you a wide range of reaction triggers so it's very likely you're gonna trigger at least two of them each turn!
Why on your first attack is your damage the same? The first strike with a great sword would do 2d12+4 at the cost of 2 actions. You would never get a 3rd strike with a power attack.
Great question. It should say "actions used to attack," instead of "attacks per round." So if you only use one of your three actions to attack in a round, you can only make a regular attack hence damage is the same. If you are able to use two actions to attack, then you can power attack. If you are using three actions to attack in a round, you can power attack AND make a regular attack, or make a regular attack and power attack. Hope that helps. Glad you are here!!
On turns where you're only spending 2 actions to attack. A single Power attack would be good then, right? Edit: oh wait I get it now. Actions not attacks
But why does striking decreases the damage when using power attack? Doesn't it just increases the amount of dices I am using, just as there was the increase from dagger to great sword?
It decreases by comparison. The power attack is two actions but only one hit, so the striking only goes off the one time with that hit. If you made two attacks instead, both attacks would add the striking dice if they hit, So by comparison, not as good. Of course a striking rune isn't going to make your damage go down. I need to remake this video. It is confusing.
@@LegendaryCMD First, big thanks for responding, even tho the video is already old! Next: Yeah I got it gets down by comparison no for real, that was clear for me in the video since it was possible to see the damage. But I don't understand why it is less effective mathematically, compared to make single actions. Isn't the only difference between making a power attack and two attacks only the one time +4 instead of two times?
@@lth6576 I think I misunderstood what you said. I thought you were talking about striking runes. Power attack, if I am reading the feat correctly, says it is going to add an extra weapon dice if I hit with it. Therefore, the bigger the weapon dice, the bigger the benefit from power attack (that was the thrust of this video if I remember rightly). On the flip side, the more bonuses to damage you have, such as strength or status bonuses or whatever else, the less effective power attack becomes by comparison because it then makes more sense to strike multiple times to get those bonuses to go off. This is on me, it takes me a while to understand someone's point of view, but I do want to get what you are saying. It is worth adding, I love power attack. I think it is incredibly powerful and is definitely up there with the most deadly attacks in the game. The extra dice you get as you level are fantastic. The thrust of this video, I would say is, you derive more benefit with power attack when you use bigger weapons with large damage dice.
@@LegendaryCMD Ohhh you are right. I guess I misunderstood Power attack all the time. I thought it was meant to double the dice, but no its not like that. It is as you said, I just get one extra dice. That's why its not worth it to use it when I have the striking rune. Makes sense for me now! Big big thx!
@@lth6576 It's still a great attack. There is some pros and cons to it. You are loading everything into that one big attack, so you don't have to make that second attack at -5, which is nice to avoid that severe penalty. And power attack scales well as you level because of the extra dice at level 10 and level 18. I'm a huge fan of power attack. Either way, thanks for the conversation. Glad you are here. Working on a new video on armor class which will probably be done Friday. Cheers!!
I suspect that the effectiveness of power attack does not scale with level if you can keep up with runes for your weapon as soon as they are available.
I'm not sure, but I think it would be interesting to find this out. I need to remake this video to make it clearer and factor in weapon runes into the calculations.
@@LegendaryCMD You might also want to look at what the average AC of a creature at the level you are testing is. You used AC 18 in this video which, according to the monster creation rules isn't the average armor class until third level. According to a PDF I will link below the Median & Mode AC don't hit 18 until level 5. The number you should be using appears to be 15. This will have a big impact on the math considering how it affects the second swing on s/s/s. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E2-s8weiulPoBQjdI05LBzOUToyoZIdSsLKxHAvf8F8/edit#gid=3
The comparison is 2dice (power attack) versus 2 dice (two attacks) because of two actions used however power attack has no multiple attack component for its attack and two attacks do.
@@Feralhyena you can choose the universalist? If so, you would have to wait for level 6 because hand of the apprentice is a class feat. You don't gain it when you choose the school.
@@Feralhyena yeah, I was just coming back to explain. The builder I used was bugging out. When I selected the lvl 4 feat, nothing showed except you got one focus point. When I went back to it, a few hours later, it had a drop down for it now and you could select the hand.
Great question! +100 experiences. I guess what I mean is: "using all three actions to make attacks," instead of "making 3 attacks in a round." In other words, if I attack and then Power Attack, technically I am only making two attacks, but I'm using all three attack actions to make those two attacks.
Makes perfect sense. With that being the case, why three damage numbers fir power attack if you are only hitting twice? In theory, the graph should be: 1st attack- PA PA-3rd attack What does the “special” represent?
Replying to my own reply! I understand what you are getting at after watching your video again. The confusing part is when you say attack actions rather than just saying actions.
@@dominojoe806 I just fired two copy editors and an intern over this. That is bush league!! No excuse for that. But seriously, thanks for commenting. You are speaking my language for sure and glad to hear from other people who are interested in this stuff. You nailed it, the real challenge...or one of them is trying to lay this stuff out so it makes sense AND so people can consume it enjoyably. Work in Progress for sure.
Non-english native here. I may be wrong, but I keep hearing you saying something like "first attack has same average damage because I can't use it (Power Attack)". Why not? Power Attack is a Flourish move, not a Press.
Yeah, I confused everyone with the way I talked about actions there. In that part I'm talking about a character that has Power Attack, but that only has one action left on their turn to attack. For example, let's say you had to stand up from prone, so that used up one of your actions. And then you had to move up to the monster, that used up your second action. Now you only have one action left to attack. So you can't use Power Attack because power attack is two actions. So you just make a regular one-action attack. In that scenario, your damage would be the same as another character making one attack, "because you can't use power attack." Hope that helps.
Power Attack should only be used once all buffs/debuffs stack. Once you hit on 2+ and crit on 10+ as Fighter: it's a moment to use Power Attack->Strike/Press You should never use PA on your average attack bonus. Only once your attack bonus is at highest.
I'm not sure, that may be true. When I did this video striking runes weren't on my radar at all...so, I'm going to revisit power attack with that in mind, and/or, do the double slice vs power attack expose. Thanks for bringing that up. Glad you are here.
@@LegendaryCMD NP and thanks for the reply! I also kinda forgot that power attack upgrades at higher levels, and that you may be able to add extra buffs to a single attack (like guidance), so power attack may still be worth it in some ways
My man, very cool analysis. But my calculations are way different than yours. For example: AC: 18, HIT +9 Short Sword 1d6+4, Average Damage 7,5 MAP 0: Fail 40%, Hit 50%, Crit 10% -> Average Damage (0,5*7,5+0,1*15) = 5,3 Check! Same as yours MAP -5 Fail 65% Hit 30% Crit 5% -> Average Damage + MAP 0= (0,30*7,5+0,05*15) = 3,0 + 5,3 = 8,3 Nope MAP -10 Fail 90% Hit 5% Crit 5% -> Average Damage + MAP 0 + MAP 1 = (0,05*7,5+0,05*15) = 1,1 + 3,0 + 5,3 = 9,4 Nope I didn't try to check the power attack numbers, but I'm sure that it won't match as well. Can you explain to me how you reached your numbers?
I am COMPLETELY lost how you derive your average damage numbers. How does a dagger average 4.6 on the first strike? Your fighter had a +4 strength bonus! To me your statistical start point does not make sense at all. Please clarify.
The average damage a dagger would deal would be the average of a d4, which is 2.5, PLUS the strength, which is +4, for a total of 6.5, So you are right, 4.6 seems a little strange for an average damage. What that 4.6 number is, though, is the average damage THAT fighter would have vs a particular armor class. And in that case, there would be a lot of misses, which would be zero damage, and some crits, which would be double damage, and some hits, which would be that 6.5 damage. So what that 4.6 represents is the average of all of those possible occurrences on the roll of a d20. Hope that helps. It's a little easier to explain visually. When you role a 20 sided dice, there are 20 equal possible outcomes. So you figure out what happens on each outcome vs an armor class, for example, a 1 is a miss, so it's zero damage, etc...and then add up all those possible damages (all those zeros, hits and crits) and then divide by 20...for an average damage. This formula is at the heart of all my comparisons. Glad you are here!!
I'm completely lost on where he is getting the numbers because he says that attacking once with power attack is the SAME AVG DMG as without power attack. This doesn't make any sense because Power Attack gives you an extra Dmg dice so you should be doing TWICE the average damage on your first attack because you have TWICE then number of damage dice with most weapons since they have only 1 Dmg Dice. Also Power Attack is TWO actions so how is he making THREE attacks in ONE TURN???
Игры
One advantage of Power Attack is that it gives more weight to your Hero points used to reroll the attack roll.
I think the analysis is incomplete without considering striking runes. You get striking weapons pretty quickly in the progression and they will have a huge impact in the comparison.
Great video! I think where power attack shines most, is when the enemy has resistance to your damage. It werks the same way as the +to damage bonus, just exactly the other way around.
So basically, Power Attack becomes more viable when the average damage of the weapon die is more then the static damage that one adds due to strength and other bonuses. If this is true, does this mean that Power Attack can help dexterity based fighters with lower strength (around 14) wielding finesse weapons (which mostly have a D6)?
Well, my first reaction is, of course not!! And then I think about it for a second and I'm like...this might be pure genius. If adding damage decreases the effectiveness of power attack, then subtracting damage increases it's effectiveness, you might be on to something. It would be great to find some ways to increase the damage on dex to hit characters. It seems like a lot of people ask about them. I'll look into it. Really appreciate the comment. Glad you are here!!
I preffer Double Slice, for Two Actions i can make 2 Attacks with the same bonus, roll each weapon damage and add my strenght bonus for each attack, and it opens up more versatile feats later like flensing slice which gives me a free persistent bleed damage based on my weapon and two weapon flurry, which gives me two more attacks
Oh yeah!! That flensing slice seems nasty. At some point we will put these head to head!!
Your vids are great!
Isn't this kind of overlooking how unlikely it is that the average character will go for a 3rd attack? In virtually any scenario it would be more effective to do anything else other than attack with maximum MAP, so the real comparison should just be between attacking twice normally and attacking once and power attacking, shouldn't it?
I get that this is the pure empirical, but it's not exactly practical for most instances of actual use.
That is a really good point
2E Power Attack = 1E Vital Strike. It's now a situational attack that adds burst damage. You're not supposed to use it all the time any more, so it's not a Feat Tax.
But when people saw this back in play testing, they wanted to use it all the time and learned quickly it was a situational tool. It's the poster child of 1E -> 2E expectations.
Great Vídeo! I miss the analysis about Crit chance
Edit: Never mind, just saw the weapon damage video 😂
Hey, thanks for the great comments. Someone else asked that same question about criticals, glad you figured it out!! All that stuff just gets rolled into the average...zeroes for misses, big numbers for crits, and average numbers for hits...then average it...and there's your number.
You should calculate dmg with a mob that had dr 10, and a crit build with a great pick and brutal finish, and furious focus, power attack only counts as 1 attack penalty with furious focus makes follow up press moves viable in 3 attacks
Hey, I used this build this week. It did tremendous damage. Also, at level 20 with weapon supremacy, using the brutal finish on the fourth attack action at minus 10 got a lot of mileage.. Good build.
A bit late, but shouldn't power attack have a lot more value at high level when we take the help action into consideration ? The help action give a massive +4 bonus on a crit using a legendary skill (most likely athletics) and with a DC of 20, critting is garanteed at high levels using assurance. The bonus is only to one attack however. A +4 is massive in the tight math of pathfinder
SubSCRIBED! Been waiting for you mcdabbles.
Would like to hear what you think about the Duel handed Assault feat from the "Fighter that uses a one handed weapon and no sheild" feat path. With a bastard sword or Daemon, you get a decent amount more damage I think. And there's really no cost to it. Plus you can use it after the Snagging Strike feat you covered in another video
Here is what I love about that. You can take combat reflexes at level 10 and improved dueling riposte at level 12, and potentially get 4 reactions each round. That would be 4 bonus attacks with NO multiple attack penalty. That makes that dual handed assault fighter pretty nasty with that b sword.
@@LegendaryCMD level 12 is such a hard choice for feats for that fighter! Dueling dance saves you so many actions, but improved dueling Riposte is so crazy too.
@@tfraenckel wait, it would be three reactions. Still pretty great. Is it possible to make a build with 4 attack reactions?
@@LegendaryCMD well, kinda. Ignoring the Boundless Reprisals feat at level 20, there is Quick Shield block, which DOES work with this build since you can use a buckler. It's a little silly though since you'd have to raise a buckler for no benefit, and it's not an attack. But, with a good buckler material, maybe it's worth it? It's all online by level 12.
If you want 4 attack reactions, At level 20 through the Swashbuckler archetype you could take reflexive riposte but at that point, just take Boundless Reprisals.
My recommendation for the "one empty hand" fighter though, is to maybe pick up guardians deflection (maybe through your daily level 9 feat) so you have a wide variety of reactions you can do. Blocking an attack for your ally, doing a riposte AND doing an attack of Oppertunity gives you a wide range of reaction triggers so it's very likely you're gonna trigger at least two of them each turn!
Why on your first attack is your damage the same? The first strike with a great sword would do 2d12+4 at the cost of 2 actions. You would never get a 3rd strike with a power attack.
Great question. It should say "actions used to attack," instead of "attacks per round." So if you only use one of your three actions to attack in a round, you can only make a regular attack hence damage is the same. If you are able to use two actions to attack, then you can power attack. If you are using three actions to attack in a round, you can power attack AND make a regular attack, or make a regular attack and power attack. Hope that helps. Glad you are here!!
On turns where you're only spending 2 actions to attack. A single Power attack would be good then, right?
Edit: oh wait I get it now. Actions not attacks
But why does striking decreases the damage when using power attack? Doesn't it just increases the amount of dices I am using, just as there was the increase from dagger to great sword?
It decreases by comparison. The power attack is two actions but only one hit, so the striking only goes off the one time with that hit. If you made two attacks instead, both attacks would add the striking dice if they hit, So by comparison, not as good. Of course a striking rune isn't going to make your damage go down.
I need to remake this video. It is confusing.
@@LegendaryCMD First, big thanks for responding, even tho the video is already old! Next: Yeah I got it gets down by comparison no for real, that was clear for me in the video since it was possible to see the damage. But I don't understand why it is less effective mathematically, compared to make single actions. Isn't the only difference between making a power attack and two attacks only the one time +4 instead of two times?
@@lth6576 I think I misunderstood what you said. I thought you were talking about striking runes. Power attack, if I am reading the feat correctly, says it is going to add an extra weapon dice if I hit with it. Therefore, the bigger the weapon dice, the bigger the benefit from power attack (that was the thrust of this video if I remember rightly). On the flip side, the more bonuses to damage you have, such as strength or status bonuses or whatever else, the less effective power attack becomes by comparison because it then makes more sense to strike multiple times to get those bonuses to go off.
This is on me, it takes me a while to understand someone's point of view, but I do want to get what you are saying. It is worth adding, I love power attack. I think it is incredibly powerful and is definitely up there with the most deadly attacks in the game. The extra dice you get as you level are fantastic. The thrust of this video, I would say is, you derive more benefit with power attack when you use bigger weapons with large damage dice.
@@LegendaryCMD Ohhh you are right. I guess I misunderstood Power attack all the time. I thought it was meant to double the dice, but no its not like that. It is as you said, I just get one extra dice. That's why its not worth it to use it when I have the striking rune. Makes sense for me now! Big big thx!
@@lth6576 It's still a great attack. There is some pros and cons to it. You are loading everything into that one big attack, so you don't have to make that second attack at -5, which is nice to avoid that severe penalty. And power attack scales well as you level because of the extra dice at level 10 and level 18. I'm a huge fan of power attack. Either way, thanks for the conversation. Glad you are here. Working on a new video on armor class which will probably be done Friday. Cheers!!
I suspect that the effectiveness of power attack does not scale with level if you can keep up with runes for your weapon as soon as they are available.
I'm not sure, but I think it would be interesting to find this out. I need to remake this video to make it clearer and factor in weapon runes into the calculations.
@@LegendaryCMD You might also want to look at what the average AC of a creature at the level you are testing is. You used AC 18 in this video which, according to the monster creation rules isn't the average armor class until third level. According to a PDF I will link below the Median & Mode AC don't hit 18 until level 5. The number you should be using appears to be 15. This will have a big impact on the math considering how it affects the second swing on s/s/s.
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1E2-s8weiulPoBQjdI05LBzOUToyoZIdSsLKxHAvf8F8/edit#gid=3
Just imagine if we added the whole STR bonus to the damage instead of just one instance of it.
So, average damage with two weapon dice is the same as with one? Huh?
The comparison is 2dice (power attack) versus 2 dice (two attacks) because of two actions used however power attack has no multiple attack component for its attack and two attacks do.
power attack with a deadly or fatal weapon can be Devastating though
Ya...the crits get pretty rowdy.
Wouldn't you want to be making as many attacks as possible though, to fish for those crits?
Would love to see a head to head between a Power Attacking Fighter and a Magus with Hand of the Apprentice.
How would a magus get that focus spell?
@@dragonhearthx8369 Archetype into Wizard, obviously. It's only a 2-feat dip.
@@Feralhyena you can choose the universalist? If so, you would have to wait for level 6 because hand of the apprentice is a class feat. You don't gain it when you choose the school.
@@dragonhearthx8369 4th, it's gained through a 1st level feat. Basic Arcana is a 4th level feat that allows you to take 1st or 2nd level Wizard Feats.
@@Feralhyena yeah, I was just coming back to explain. The builder I used was bugging out. When I selected the lvl 4 feat, nothing showed except you got one focus point.
When I went back to it, a few hours later, it had a drop down for it now and you could select the hand.
If power attack costs two actions, how are you getting 3 attacks in a round?
Great question! +100 experiences. I guess what I mean is: "using all three actions to make attacks," instead of "making 3 attacks in a round." In other words, if I attack and then Power Attack, technically I am only making two attacks, but I'm using all three attack actions to make those two attacks.
Makes perfect sense. With that being the case, why three damage numbers fir power attack if you are only hitting twice? In theory, the graph should be:
1st attack- PA
PA-3rd attack
What does the “special” represent?
Replying to my own reply!
I understand what you are getting at after watching your video again.
The confusing part is when you say attack actions rather than just saying actions.
@@dominojoe806 I just fired two copy editors and an intern over this. That is bush league!! No excuse for that. But seriously, thanks for commenting. You are speaking my language for sure and glad to hear from other people who are interested in this stuff. You nailed it, the real challenge...or one of them is trying to lay this stuff out so it makes sense AND so people can consume it enjoyably. Work in Progress for sure.
How would a critical affect the damage then? What would be doubled and how?
Non-english native here. I may be wrong, but I keep hearing you saying something like "first attack has same average damage because I can't use it (Power Attack)". Why not? Power Attack is a Flourish move, not a Press.
Yeah, I confused everyone with the way I talked about actions there. In that part I'm talking about a character that has Power Attack, but that only has one action left on their turn to attack. For example, let's say you had to stand up from prone, so that used up one of your actions. And then you had to move up to the monster, that used up your second action. Now you only have one action left to attack. So you can't use Power Attack because power attack is two actions. So you just make a regular one-action attack. In that scenario, your damage would be the same as another character making one attack, "because you can't use power attack." Hope that helps.
@@LegendaryCMD So, swap "Attack" with "Action". Yea, that makes more sense. XD Thanks.
Power Attack should only be used once all buffs/debuffs stack. Once you hit on 2+ and crit on 10+ as Fighter: it's a moment to use Power Attack->Strike/Press
You should never use PA on your average attack bonus. Only once your attack bonus is at highest.
So is the moral here that power attack is always worse than two attacks once you have a striking or greater striking weapon?
I'm not sure, that may be true. When I did this video striking runes weren't on my radar at all...so, I'm going to revisit power attack with that in mind, and/or, do the double slice vs power attack expose. Thanks for bringing that up. Glad you are here.
@@LegendaryCMD NP and thanks for the reply! I also kinda forgot that power attack upgrades at higher levels, and that you may be able to add extra buffs to a single attack (like guidance), so power attack may still be worth it in some ways
My man, very cool analysis. But my calculations are way different than yours.
For example:
AC: 18, HIT +9
Short Sword 1d6+4, Average Damage 7,5
MAP 0: Fail 40%, Hit 50%, Crit 10% -> Average Damage (0,5*7,5+0,1*15) = 5,3 Check! Same as yours
MAP -5 Fail 65% Hit 30% Crit 5% -> Average Damage + MAP 0= (0,30*7,5+0,05*15) = 3,0 + 5,3 = 8,3 Nope
MAP -10 Fail 90% Hit 5% Crit 5% -> Average Damage + MAP 0 + MAP 1 = (0,05*7,5+0,05*15) = 1,1 + 3,0 + 5,3 = 9,4 Nope
I didn't try to check the power attack numbers, but I'm sure that it won't match as well.
Can you explain to me how you reached your numbers?
You missed that short sword is agile so its multiple attack penalty is lower -4 for second attack and -8 for third attack.
@@michaelciantar2674 You're right. My bad.
I meant to say this a while ago. I like how you did the math there. That formula would go easier into a spreadsheet instead of the hit box I use.
@@LegendaryCMD I'm glad that I helped somehow!
I am COMPLETELY lost how you derive your average damage numbers. How does a dagger average 4.6 on the first strike? Your fighter had a +4 strength bonus! To me your statistical start point does not make sense at all. Please clarify.
The average damage a dagger would deal would be the average of a d4, which is 2.5, PLUS the strength, which is +4, for a total of 6.5, So you are right, 4.6 seems a little strange for an average damage. What that 4.6 number is, though, is the average damage THAT fighter would have vs a particular armor class. And in that case, there would be a lot of misses, which would be zero damage, and some crits, which would be double damage, and some hits, which would be that 6.5 damage. So what that 4.6 represents is the average of all of those possible occurrences on the roll of a d20. Hope that helps. It's a little easier to explain visually. When you role a 20 sided dice, there are 20 equal possible outcomes. So you figure out what happens on each outcome vs an armor class, for example, a 1 is a miss, so it's zero damage, etc...and then add up all those possible damages (all those zeros, hits and crits) and then divide by 20...for an average damage. This formula is at the heart of all my comparisons. Glad you are here!!
I'm completely lost on where he is getting the numbers because he says that attacking once with power attack is the SAME AVG DMG as without power attack. This doesn't make any sense because Power Attack gives you an extra Dmg dice so you should be doing TWICE the average damage on your first attack because you have TWICE then number of damage dice with most weapons since they have only 1 Dmg Dice.
Also Power Attack is TWO actions so how is he making THREE attacks in ONE TURN???
Yeah...this was confusing. I misspoke. Replace "attack" with "action" and it should make sense.
Power attack uses 2 actions, you cant do 3 attacks using power attack on early lvls
So your kinda wrong on ALOT of things involving how this goes but sure w.e