Power attack kensai build help

[honorconner]

My goal is to wield a bastard sword in two hands, and do lots of power attack damage.I want to qualify kensai as early as possible, so full bab is needed. I was thinking
Fighter2/duskblade3/kensai
Duskblade for some versatility and true strike, but I'd like to go with something else
As well dipping into exotic weaponmaster for 2x stg on bastard sword
Feats: ewp bastard, wf bastard, power attack, leap attack, combat expertise (I would have 2 more)
Now with the way my group does point buy my strength could be at least 22 at level 8, the level when my plan comes into fruition.
With a 7 strength modifier and 8 bab I would leap into combat, use a free to activate power surge giving me another 8 points of damage, because the bastard sword is two handed I would take away 8 and add 16 to damage, which is tripled.
So 1d10+70
Any tips?

[Hal0Badger]

If you are going to wield Bastard Sword in 2 hands, you do not require the Exotic Proficiency for it. Bastard sword considered an exotic weapon only wielded in one hand.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Hmmm... so 30 strength for +20 to damage, and 8 Power Attack for +24-32 damage, and then 1d10 for the sword... I don't think you're going to get 1d10+70. Leap Attack and Power Attack don't stack that way. You're either getting 2x PA returns, for one-handed weapons (1x and 2x = 2x total) or 3x-4x, for two-handed weapons (2x and 3x stack to 4x, OR the feat overwrites the base 2x with 3x). I'm pretty sure it's never 6x, which would be the 48 damage you're thinking of. That doesn't matter very much, because you're still doing very nice damage.

Now, for your actual build. You're missing a level in spirit lion totem barbarian, which would allow you to make a full attack on a charge, and Shock Trooper, which would allow you to assign the Power Attack penalty to AC instead of attack bonus. For your remaining levels, I would go with warblade, primarily. Diamond Mind maneuvers work well with Kensai's Concentration-based abilities and allow you to get multipliers on damage even when not charging. White Raven has a few nice charge-based maneuvers.

I'd say: barbarian 1/fighter 2/warblade 2/kensai 2/exotic weapon master 1. Feats: Combat Expertise, Power Attack, Leap Attack, Weapon Focus (bastard sword), Improved Bull Rush, Shock Trooper.

Barbarian: Spirit Lion Totem ACF - Pounce. Can also get you useful stuff with other ACFs (Whirling Frenzy, Improved Unarmed Strike).
Fighter: Kensai class variant - Exotic Weapon Proficiency and +1 attack/damage with chosen weapon. Also Concentration in-class and Weapon Focus as bonus feat.
Warblade: Pick Sapphire Nightmare Blade, and later on Ruby Nightmare Blade and Diamond Nightmare Blade.

For further levels, I'd go with more warblade (rather than Kensai).

[Formless Entity]

Hmmm... so 30 strength for +20 to damage, and 8 Power Attack for +24-32 damage, and then 1d10 for the sword... I don't think you're going to get 1d10+70. Leap Attack and Power Attack don't stack that way. You're either getting 2x PA returns, for one-handed weapons (1x and 2x = 2x total) or 3x-4x, for two-handed weapons (2x and 3x stack to 4x, OR the feat overwrites the base 2x with 3x). I'm pretty sure it's never 6x, which would be the 48 damage you're thinking of. That doesn't matter very much, because you're still doing very nice damage.

Now, for your actual build. You're missing a level in spirit lion totem barbarian, which would allow you to make a full attack on a charge, and Shock Trooper, which would allow you to assign the Power Attack penalty to AC instead of attack bonus. For your remaining levels, I would go with warblade, primarily. Diamond Mind maneuvers work well with Kensai's Concentration-based abilities and allow you to get multipliers on damage even when not charging. White Raven has a few nice charge-based maneuvers.

I'd say: barbarian 1/fighter 2/warblade 2/kensai 2/exotic weapon master 1. Feats: Combat Expertise, Power Attack, Leap Attack, Weapon Focus (bastard sword), Improved Bull Rush, Shock Trooper.

Barbarian: Spirit Lion Totem ACF - Pounce. Can also get you useful stuff with other ACFs (Whirling Frenzy, Improved Unarmed Strike).
Fighter: Kensai class variant - Exotic Weapon Proficiency and +1 attack/damage with chosen weapon. Also Concentration in-class and Weapon Focus as bonus feat.
Warblade: Pick Sapphire Nightmare Blade, and later on Ruby Nightmare Blade and Diamond Nightmare Blade.

For further levels, I'd go with more warblade (rather than Kensai).

Why take a AC penalty for power attack if you can just cast true strike and then take an attack penalty?

[ExLibrisMortis]

Why take a AC penalty for power attack if you can just cast true strike and then take an attack penalty?
Because true strike is a standard action (or a 5th-level spell), and only works for one attack. If you're full attacking, as for pouncebarians, true strike just doesn't cut it. You can use persistent wraithstrike, though.