[3.5] Power Attack of Opportunity?

[Unusual Muse]

Can you Power Attack an Attack of Opportunity?

[Flickerdart]

Yes and no.

No: You may only activate Power Attack "on your action" (deprecated 3.0 language for your turn) before you make any other attack rolls for the round.

Yes: Power Attack benefits and penalties last the entire round, so if you activated Power Attack on your turn, and then someone provoked, you would get the same penalty to hit and bonus to damage on the AoO.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

If you chose to use Power Attack, the penalty applies for the entire round. Thus, a Fighter 6 who Power Attacked for -2 would, if given an AoO, take that same penalty on said AoO.

[dgnslyr]

If you've power attacked during your turn, the power attack modifiers remain in effect until your next turn, including any Attacks of Opportunity you decide to make.


On your action, before making attack rolls for a round, you may choose to subtract a number from all melee attack rolls and add the same number to all melee damage rolls. This number may not exceed your base attack bonus. The penalty on attacks and bonus on damage apply until your next turn.

Emphasis here is my own. The actual feat wording seems to imply you need to decide how hard you want to swing during your own turn.

Edit: Drat, ninja'd hard. I blame my internet for being slow-ish.