Minus AC to Add Damage?

[TheRinni]

My DM was telling me there is a feat out there similar to Power Attack. The difference being you take a negative to AC instead of Attack, and add the bonus to your damage.

Does this feat exist? I can't seem to find it.

[gkathellar]

Shock Trooper. It requires Power Attack and Improved Bull Rush, and can only be used on a charge. It's a key component of most charge builds.

It's in Complete Warrior, and it does some other stuff too.

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Reckless Offensive. It's one of the Faerun books. It's limited to like +/- 2 or 4 or something like that, though.

[Person_Man]

Shock Trooper. It requires Power Attack and Improved Bull Rush, and can only be used on a charge. It's a key component of most charge builds.

It's in Complete Warrior, and it does some other stuff too.

This. Also, the other stuff is Bull Rush related, and can be just as useful and powerful as the ability to shift your PA penalty to AC. Assuming that you want high damage and Bull Rush, Shock Trooper is one of the best feats that a full BAB class can take.

[ericgrau]

Reckless offensive is the more reasonable feat since it trades 2 AC per attack bonus and is capped.

Shock trooper isn't the key, perhaps strongest feat in high damage melee builds. It's the key 1/3 of a feat with the other 2/3 of that feat totally ignored. It's printed among a dozen other feats each containing 3 mediocre mini feats. Once you see something so good that it's in most major melee builds when it was supposed to be mediocre, well you have an oversight.

I don't know the optimization level of your group so maybe shock trooper is no big deal, heck there's a good chance it's the same feat your DM suggested, but if it isn't what he meant then be forewarned.

[SethFahad]

Yeah... I've made a Barbarian Lion totem/Frenzied Berserker with Leap attack, Pounce, Shock trooper, improved initiative.
His AC drops to 4 (!!!) and even a child can hit him...
but after the first round ... only thing left is.... body members... scattered around... brrrr :smallbiggrin:... so there is no one left to fight him.:smalltongue:

[SethFahad]

Yeah... I've made a Barbarian Lion totem/Frenzied Berserker with Leap attack, Pounce, Shock trooper, improved initiative.
His AC drops to 4 (!!!) and even a child can hit him...
but after the first round ... only thing left is.... body members... scattered around... brrrr :smallbiggrin:... so there is no one left to fight him.:smalltongue:

[Douglas]

Yeah... I've made a Barbarian Lion totem/Frenzied Berserker with Leap attack, Pounce, Shock trooper, improved initiative.
His AC drops to 4 (!!!) and even a child can hit him...
but after the first round ... only thing left is.... body members... scattered around... brrrr :smallbiggrin:... so there is no one left to fight him.:smalltongue:
Try adding Karmic Strike and/or Robilar's Gambit, plus Combat Reflexes. Anyone who dares to try avenging the smear on the wall gets splattered too. And then you make it a Wrathful Healing weapon (+3 property from Enemies and Allies), and any damage the would-be avenger did gets negated by the fact that you just healed for half a splattering after his attack.

[Person_Man]

I don't know the optimization level of your group so maybe shock trooper is no big deal, heck there's a good chance it's the same feat your DM suggested, but if it isn't what he meant then be forewarned.

That could be true.

But keep in mind that by 6th level an un-optimized core only Wizard 6 has access to spells like Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Deep Slumber, Hold Person, Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Fly, Summon Monster III, etc. In many cases his enemy gets 1 roll (a Saving Throw) and if that roll fails he is dead or helpless. Weaker enemies will often die in large groups regardless of what they roll.

A semi-optimized Lion Totem Barbarian 2/Fighter 4 gets 2-4 attacks per round. When he Charges (requiring a minimum of 10 feet in a strait line) with maxed out Power Attack an Shock Trooper, he must roll to hit his enemy's AC (which is generally higher then his enemy's Saving Throw). He then deals 2d6ish + 8ish + 12 damage per attack that hits (average 27ish). And he takes -6 to his AC, making counter attacks much easier.

So unless his full BAB class is a Warblade or intends to stack other damage multipliers on top of the basic PA + Shock Trooper combo, then Shock Trooper is a generally good and not game breaking choice.

[Seerow]

Try adding Karmic Strike and/or Robilar's Gambit, plus Combat Reflexes. Anyone who dares to try avenging the smear on the wall gets splattered too. And then you make it a Wrathful Healing weapon (+3 property from Enemies and Allies), and any damage the would-be avenger did gets negated by the fact that you just healed for half a splattering after his attack.

How is it I never heard of this Enemies and Allies book?

[Urpriest]

How is it I never heard of this Enemies and Allies book?

It's an obscure 3e paperback. It's fun though, with lots of pre-statted guards and such that can come in quite handy when players decide to go where you don't expect them.

[FMArthur]

The Ronin class in CW has a second-level ability that also lets you subtract from AC to deal more damage on a charge. Banzai Charge, I think it's called. Stacks with Shock Trooper in case you want to magnetize attacks against you.

[Douglas]

The Ronin class in CW has a second-level ability that also lets you subtract from AC to deal more damage on a charge. Banzai Charge, I think it's called. Stacks with Shock Trooper in case you want to magnetize attacks against you.
How low does your AC need to get before someone can shoot an arrow at a right angle from you and still hit you?:smalltongue:

Seriously, I've seen anti-optimization efforts get something like -60 AC on a normal-size person. How does that even work, and what would it look like?

[FMArthur]

You are so clumsy that you just appear to have incredible skill and dexterity for catching attacks with your body. You look like you are actively trying to die and you display superhuman talent to do so.

[gkathellar]

I maintain that it basically works like this (http://vbox7.com/play:b2c4e3f8) or this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6nVIwg01YE). Not only do you give up on defense to harm the enemy —*you decide that the best way to harm your enemy is to dive directly into their attacks, trying your very best to get hit so that they're too busy pulling their sword out of you to defend themself.

[Socratov]

I maintain that it basically works like this (http://vbox7.com/play:b2c4e3f8) or this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6nVIwg01YE). Not only do you give up on defense to harm the enemy —*you decide that the best way to harm your enemy is to dive directly into their attacks, trying your very best to get hit so that they're too busy pulling their sword out of you to defend themself.

may I thank you for the second of your links? This is just awesome music, like a certain sought after sensation, but just for the eardrums...

on topic: as intended it was just to signify the fact that you become more reckless (like when charging) to be able to deal more damage... However, with an AC in the -(w/e) is indeed as bescribed like FMArthur did... I doubt any sane DM would allow that, then again, DM's always hope for those well timed nat 1's to wipe that wsilly grin off their face before ruling it :smallamused: