WhamBamSam
2015-01-12, 03:57 PM
So let's talk about one of my favorite feats. Here it is in all its glory.
Prerequisite
Power Attack (PH) , STR 19, Huge size,
Benefit
You can use your great size and strength to pick up a heavy object and attack an area as a standard action. Such an attack may consist of swinging a large log or smashing a door down on opponents' heads. The area affected is a half-circle with a radius equal to your reach. You deal damage to all creatures two or more size categories smaller than you within the area. The base damage dealt depends on your size category, as given on the table below. Add 1 1/2 times your Strength bonus to this base damage to determine the total damage for the attack. Size ------- Category Damage. Huge --------- 1d8. Gargantuan - 2d6. Colossal ----- 2d8. Though it can deal significant damage, this form of attack is awkward and unbalancing. You incur a -2 penalty to your Armor Class and on Reflex saves until your next action.
It's not really designed with PCs in mind, but why should anyone let that stop them? The feat is a thing that exists, and if you can get sufficiently jacked to qualify, you can put it toward any purposes for which it is suitable. So let's talk about those things, whichever side of the DM screen they might come down on.
Ways of getting the size to qualify:
Unfortunately for a feat with such brutish fluff, it's really hard to get up to Huge+ size without magic, but I'll start from what I see as the most mundane options and work my way up, just
Mountain Rage is (Ex) and therefore non-magical, so size increasing magic can be stacked on top of it. Some manner of Goliath Barbarian (possibly by way of Stoneblessed) could conceivably be Enlarged to Huge and need no more than a 1st level spell (and maybe a Permanency, though a Permanent Enlarged Person may not have the desired effect if you Rage with it already in effect). Of course, Rage generally prevents you from casting, so there may not be an actual winning combination here, unless Mountain Rage and a Permanent Enlarge Person will stack nicely. There are also a few Large races of reasonable ECL that might suit such a purpose.
Expansion can be augmented to get you two size categories, though this requires a relatively high ML. Psi-like abilities are automatically augmented up to their ML, and Psionic Duergar have Expansion as a PLA with a ML equal to their character level. You can get extra uses/day of said Expansion PLA with a feat. You can also boost ML for something like PsyWar using Practiced Manifester if you don't want that many Psychic Warrior levels.
A medium aberration like a Synad or Elan can springboard up to the Huge sized Wyste with two castings of Alter Self at CL 5+. It may not be suited to picking up things for the purposes of actually using Area Attack however (Gloves of Man maybe?).
For the most part though, getting that big probably means going with a caster build. Polymorph/Draconic Polymorph is an obvious way to go, and you can get up to Gargantuan size at a mere CL 10 with the Ibraldin from Monsters of Faerun. For something more exotic, Wu Jen could always use a bit more love, and Giant Size is pretty much exactly what the doctor ordered. Persistomancy is nice if you can squeeze it in.
But really, qualifying is the boring part. Let's talk about the ways one can and can't optimize Area Attack once you have it. It pretty clearly works on anything that specifies "attacking" or "physically attacking" with the way it's worded. "Melee attacking" is more of a grey area, since there's some evidence that's a defined game term that this feat doesn't quite fit into, and similarly I'm not sure whether the damage done counts as a "damage roll." Still, once you're wielding something as an improvised weapon, it should count as a "melee weapon" so while it might or might not be a "melee attack," it is an "attack with a melee weapon" and possibly and attack "in melee." I'm also not sure if the feat counts as "hitting" or "scoring a hit" against an enemy by the game rules, though it should count as a "successful attack" or the like. One of the things that is explicit about the feat is that it uses your reach to determine the radius of the half-circle attacked, so some reach-op shenanigans can certainly help you out.
My favorite Area Attack combo so far is to use it in conjunction with the Channel Spell ability of either Spellsword or Ordained Champion. The piece of junk you're wielding is a melee weapon so you can channel spells into it, and foes in the area hit by Area Attack have been successfully attacked by the weapon, so you should be able to channel your spell into all targets in your wake.
If you're doing damage "in melee" when you use Area Attack, and it seems like you ought to be, then you can use it to provoke Knock-down.
If it counts as hitting with a melee weapon, then it works for Improved Grab and you can use it to do the Ultimo Tarrasco thing.
You can add a number of nice weapon-like effects to the log or corpse or whatever you're Area Attacking with, though it takes a bit more doing than simply going to the local magic mart and buying the exact fancy sword you want. I'm personally partial to the Brilliant Blade spell (Sor/Wiz 6, Clr 7, Drd 7) so that you can ignore your own army of undead or constructs or whatever when bringing the pain otherwise indiscriminately. Blade of Blood (especially with Fell X metamagic) is also a fun one.
The Dracolich template's Paralyzing Touch is the only thing I know of that uses the phrasing "physical attack" (probably a good thing too, as it's ridiculously open-ended). Still, it's sort of nifty if you want to kick things up a notch from the size limitations on a Tail Sweep or are using some sort of base dragon that doesn't have one. It's also a standard action, and therefore usable on a Flyby Attack.
So yeah, anyone have any thoughts on Area Attack, from a rules adjudication perspective, in terms of combos I haven't thought of, builds using it that might be fun to play, or anything else regarding the feat? I love it to bits, but it really is a big hot mess of Savage Species through and through.
Prerequisite
Power Attack (PH) , STR 19, Huge size,
Benefit
You can use your great size and strength to pick up a heavy object and attack an area as a standard action. Such an attack may consist of swinging a large log or smashing a door down on opponents' heads. The area affected is a half-circle with a radius equal to your reach. You deal damage to all creatures two or more size categories smaller than you within the area. The base damage dealt depends on your size category, as given on the table below. Add 1 1/2 times your Strength bonus to this base damage to determine the total damage for the attack. Size ------- Category Damage. Huge --------- 1d8. Gargantuan - 2d6. Colossal ----- 2d8. Though it can deal significant damage, this form of attack is awkward and unbalancing. You incur a -2 penalty to your Armor Class and on Reflex saves until your next action.
It's not really designed with PCs in mind, but why should anyone let that stop them? The feat is a thing that exists, and if you can get sufficiently jacked to qualify, you can put it toward any purposes for which it is suitable. So let's talk about those things, whichever side of the DM screen they might come down on.
Ways of getting the size to qualify:
Unfortunately for a feat with such brutish fluff, it's really hard to get up to Huge+ size without magic, but I'll start from what I see as the most mundane options and work my way up, just
Mountain Rage is (Ex) and therefore non-magical, so size increasing magic can be stacked on top of it. Some manner of Goliath Barbarian (possibly by way of Stoneblessed) could conceivably be Enlarged to Huge and need no more than a 1st level spell (and maybe a Permanency, though a Permanent Enlarged Person may not have the desired effect if you Rage with it already in effect). Of course, Rage generally prevents you from casting, so there may not be an actual winning combination here, unless Mountain Rage and a Permanent Enlarge Person will stack nicely. There are also a few Large races of reasonable ECL that might suit such a purpose.
Expansion can be augmented to get you two size categories, though this requires a relatively high ML. Psi-like abilities are automatically augmented up to their ML, and Psionic Duergar have Expansion as a PLA with a ML equal to their character level. You can get extra uses/day of said Expansion PLA with a feat. You can also boost ML for something like PsyWar using Practiced Manifester if you don't want that many Psychic Warrior levels.
A medium aberration like a Synad or Elan can springboard up to the Huge sized Wyste with two castings of Alter Self at CL 5+. It may not be suited to picking up things for the purposes of actually using Area Attack however (Gloves of Man maybe?).
For the most part though, getting that big probably means going with a caster build. Polymorph/Draconic Polymorph is an obvious way to go, and you can get up to Gargantuan size at a mere CL 10 with the Ibraldin from Monsters of Faerun. For something more exotic, Wu Jen could always use a bit more love, and Giant Size is pretty much exactly what the doctor ordered. Persistomancy is nice if you can squeeze it in.
But really, qualifying is the boring part. Let's talk about the ways one can and can't optimize Area Attack once you have it. It pretty clearly works on anything that specifies "attacking" or "physically attacking" with the way it's worded. "Melee attacking" is more of a grey area, since there's some evidence that's a defined game term that this feat doesn't quite fit into, and similarly I'm not sure whether the damage done counts as a "damage roll." Still, once you're wielding something as an improvised weapon, it should count as a "melee weapon" so while it might or might not be a "melee attack," it is an "attack with a melee weapon" and possibly and attack "in melee." I'm also not sure if the feat counts as "hitting" or "scoring a hit" against an enemy by the game rules, though it should count as a "successful attack" or the like. One of the things that is explicit about the feat is that it uses your reach to determine the radius of the half-circle attacked, so some reach-op shenanigans can certainly help you out.
My favorite Area Attack combo so far is to use it in conjunction with the Channel Spell ability of either Spellsword or Ordained Champion. The piece of junk you're wielding is a melee weapon so you can channel spells into it, and foes in the area hit by Area Attack have been successfully attacked by the weapon, so you should be able to channel your spell into all targets in your wake.
If you're doing damage "in melee" when you use Area Attack, and it seems like you ought to be, then you can use it to provoke Knock-down.
If it counts as hitting with a melee weapon, then it works for Improved Grab and you can use it to do the Ultimo Tarrasco thing.
You can add a number of nice weapon-like effects to the log or corpse or whatever you're Area Attacking with, though it takes a bit more doing than simply going to the local magic mart and buying the exact fancy sword you want. I'm personally partial to the Brilliant Blade spell (Sor/Wiz 6, Clr 7, Drd 7) so that you can ignore your own army of undead or constructs or whatever when bringing the pain otherwise indiscriminately. Blade of Blood (especially with Fell X metamagic) is also a fun one.
The Dracolich template's Paralyzing Touch is the only thing I know of that uses the phrasing "physical attack" (probably a good thing too, as it's ridiculously open-ended). Still, it's sort of nifty if you want to kick things up a notch from the size limitations on a Tail Sweep or are using some sort of base dragon that doesn't have one. It's also a standard action, and therefore usable on a Flyby Attack.
So yeah, anyone have any thoughts on Area Attack, from a rules adjudication perspective, in terms of combos I haven't thought of, builds using it that might be fun to play, or anything else regarding the feat? I love it to bits, but it really is a big hot mess of Savage Species through and through.