Power attack as fire damage

[Ramshack]

I read a feat somewhere that would let you convert your power attack damage into fire damage. But I can't remember it for the life of me.

Also is there a way to add a change to ignite or cause burning with fire damage effects/spells?

[Nettlekid]

This isn't exactly that, but Dragonfire Inspiration might be something you want. It's for dragonblooded Bards. It makes it so that when you use Inspire Courage, you can choose to instead of granting +X on attack and damage, deal +Xd6 extra fire damage with every attack. You can do things to change the type of energy, but fire is easiest to get.

Also the Tome of Battle boost Burning Brand extends your reach by 5ft, and all melee damage you deal is fire damage instead of normal weapon damage. That might be what you were looking for, as you can get it with a feat (Martial Study) or a one-level dip into Swordsage so long as you have 4 or more character levels already.

Again, not exactly what you're looking for, but there are several feats and spells that make breath weapons last. Entangling Exhalation or Lingering/Clinging Breath could be used with a fire breath to cause repeated burning over several turns. The spell Combust also does exactly what you would think, causing things to burst into flame. If you read the handbook for the Mailman, the high direct-damage Sorcerer, you'll see that Combust is a very effective base spell for causing high damage with lots of metamagic piled on. But make sure you grab Searing Spell or a few levels in Sanctified One of Kord to stop fire-immune creatures rendering you useless!

[gorfnab]

I read a feat somewhere that would let you convert your power attack damage into fire damage. But I can't remember it for the life of me.

Dragonfire Assault feat - Dragon Magic

[Nettlekid]

Oh wow, I can't believe I missed that.
Is there any way to turn that into holy fire or change it in some way to bypass fire-immune creatures? Methods like Searing Spell and the Holy Fire ability of the Sanctified One of Kord only work for spells.

[WhatBigTeeth]

Is there any way to turn that into holy fire or change it in some way to bypass fire-immune creatures? Methods like Searing Spell and the Holy Fire ability of the Sanctified One of Kord only work for spells.
Don't use the feat? :smalltongue:

[Jeff the Green]

If you have the Draconic Heritage feat or if you are a half-dragon, the extra damage is of the energy type (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic) that corresponds to your heritage or your draconic parent instead. II your feat or your parent is not associated with one of these energy types, this feat has no effect for you,

So grab Draconic Heritage (copper) or (whatever has sonic breath) and you're good to go for most enemies.

[Soranar]

Or , you know, don't grab the feat

power attack normally

and damage any creature normally?

Normal damage is surprisingly difficult to resist or be immune to. Especially with the right enchant bonus and material (like adamantine weapons)

The feat is more of a nerf than anything really

[nedz]

So grab Draconic Heritage (copper) or (whatever has sonic breath) and you're good to go for most enemies.

If your talking about Draconic Heritage in CArc: Whilst it does come in ten colours, none of them have the sonic flavour.
Three have Acid, two have Electricity, three Fire and two cold.

Maybe there are more flavours in other books ?

[Nettlekid]

There are others, I think either Races of the Dragon or Dragon Magic (maybe both) have a long list of various kinds of dragons, some of which have sonic as their type.

And true, normal damage works, but if you like the look of every strike exploding in fire then it would be fun to use that. And not have it be useless against a Red Dragon.

[TuggyNE]

Or , you know, don't grab the feat

power attack normally

and damage any creature normally?

Normal damage is surprisingly difficult to resist or be immune to. Especially with the right enchant bonus and material (like adamantine weapons)

The feat is more of a nerf than anything really

Yeah, on seeing the thread title I was thinking, "OK, cool, but why would anyone in their right mind turn nigh-unresistable physical damage into energy damage, and energy damage of the most commonly resisted type?"

And you get to pay a feat to do that, too.

(Now, I can imagine there are some niches where it would seem useful: if you fight cold subtype creatures; if you fight creatures with enough DR to actually cut into not only your weapon damage and Str bonus, but even power attack damage; if you're fighting trolls and don't have a flaming weapon; and so on. But in just about all those cases, money, spells, and/or different feats will solve the problem considerably better.)

[Jeff the Green]

There are others, I think either Races of the Dragon or Dragon Magic (maybe both) have a long list of various kinds of dragons, some of which have sonic as their type.

It's RotD, p. 103, and Battle, Emerald, Howling, and Pyroclastic give sonic.


(Now, I can imagine there are some niches where it would seem useful: if you fight cold subtype creatures; if you fight creatures with enough DR to actually cut into not only your weapon damage and Str bonus, but even power attack damage; if you're fighting trolls and don't have a flaming weapon; and so on. But in just about all those cases, money, spells, and/or different feats will solve the problem considerably better.)

The only other thing I can think of is fighting animated objects, who have hardness. Sonic damage could be handy then. Otherwise, you're two feats (and a level of sorcerer!) in the hole for no benefit.

[Gnome Alone]

Kinda sad when "kill it with fire" turns out to be a suboptimal choice.

I mean, y'know, it's fire.

[shadow_archmagi]

To be fair, that's just because in the D&D universe, "Kill it with fire" is the standard reaction for a lot of creatures, leading to many organisms building up a natural defence against fire.

Canny players, then, will kill it with sonic.

[Slipperychicken]

The only other thing I can think of is fighting animated objects, who have hardness. Sonic damage could be handy then. Otherwise, you're two feats (and a level of sorcerer!) in the hole for no benefit.

Awesome factor? Maybe you want to punch things out with searing hands.

[Curmudgeon]

If your talking about Draconic Heritage in CArc: ...
Draconic Heritage has been updated a couple of times since then. The most recent version is in Dragon Magic on page 17. There is a possibility — which is only available with explicit DM approval — to use an alternate dragon type from the list in Races of the Dragon on page 103. That route might allow picking up sonic damage (Howling dragon) or something even nastier.

[Gnome Alone]

That route might allow picking up sonic damage (Howling dragon) or something even nastier.
Oh, is there a draconic subtype that uses venereal damage?

[Yogibear41]

Radiant Dragon, for Light damage :D lol


Eat your heart out Mr. Paladin/Cleric



or Shadow Dragon for Negative Level Damage!! If only it worked lol

[Jeff the Green]

That route might allow picking up sonic damage (Howling dragon) or something even nastier.

Unfortunately, the feat only allows acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic, and the nastiest of those is sonic.

[nedz]

Draconic Heritage has been updated a couple of times since then. The most recent version is in Dragon Magic on page 17. There is a possibility — which is only available with explicit DM approval — to use an alternate dragon type from the list in Races of the Dragon on page 103. That route might allow picking up sonic damage (Howling dragon) or something even nastier.

Which is in a book I don't have — though I suspected that there might have been an update in one of the dragon books. The Gold standard would be Shadow Dragon of course :smallamused:

[danzibr]

Someone would want to do this... because it's so baddonkey!

I mean, you swing your weapon so damn hard you *burn* your opponent!

[Twilightwyrm]

Or , you know, don't grab the feat

power attack normally

and damage any creature normally?

Normal damage is surprisingly difficult to resist or be immune to. Especially with the right enchant bonus and material (like adamantine weapons)

The feat is more of a nerf than anything really

Well no, it's not strictly a nerf, since converting the damage is optional. What is is, I believe the phrase is "Awesome but Impractical".