[3.5 / Pathfinder] Damage Bonuses on a Single Attack?

[DragoonWraith]

So I'd like to make a melee character that doesn't focus on Full Attacks. Basically, I'm looking for sources of bonus damage that can be piled onto a single devastating stroke. The idea is a character that bides his time, gets his opponent to make a single mistake, and then capitalizes on it massively. There's Skirmish, which gets bonus damage for moving 10' (i.e. not Full Attacking, at least under normal circumstances), plus Improved Skirmish that adds another 2d6 if that distance is 20'. That's good. Sneak Attack, of course, can be made to apply, though it could apply almost as easily with every attack in a Full Attack, making it somewhat meaningless to not do so.

I don't expect to match a TWF Full Attacking Rogue in a Sneak Attack, but I want something that is better than a TWF Rogue who is Sneak Attacking without a Full Attack. Also, I want to have the added mobility serve some purpose, if at all possible.

This is in a Pathfinder game, though conversion of non-Pathfinder 3.5 sources should be mostly acceptable. Major exception: Tome of Battle. The DM is working on his own conversion of it, but until he finishes that, it's off limits. Feel free to mention things if you want, of course, but I'm looking ideally for non-Tome of Battle builds.

There are some Homebrew factors to be aware of. One, Rangers get some Skirmish damage (1d6 at level 3, 2d6 at 7, 3d6 at 13, 4d6 at 20) and AC bonus (+1 at 4, +2 at 10, +3 at 16). Further, there are a number of Critical Hit related feats, which add status effects to Criticals (I think these are likely a good way to do what I want, though it's hard to ignore the fact that I am far more likely to score a Critical if I am attacking more often...)

• Critical Focus: BAB +9 - +4 on Confirmation rolls
• Critical Mastery: Crit. Foc., any 2 Crit. feats, 14th level Fighter - may apply 2 Critical effects per Critical instead of 1.
• Bleeding Critical: Crit. Foc., BAB +11 - 2d6 damage per round, can be stopped with DC 15 Heal check or any source of hit point healing.
• Sickening Critical: Crit. Foc., BAB +11 - target becomes sickened for 1 minute
• Powerful Critical: Crit. Foc., Imp. Crit., BAB +13 - advance Crit. multiplier by 1, to a max of x4.
• Staggering Critical: Crit. Foc., BAB +13 - target is staggered for 1d4+1 rounds. DC 10+BAB Fort save to reduce duration to 1 round
• Tiring Critical: Crit. Foc., BAB +13 - target becomes Fatigued
• Deafening Critical: Crit. Foc., BAB +13 - target becomes permanently Deafened. DC 10+BAB Fort save to reduce duration to 1 round
• Exhausting Critical: Crit. Foc., Tiring Crit., BAB +15 - target becomes Exhausted.
• Stunning Critical: Crit. Foc., BAB +17 - target becomes stunned for 1d4+1 rounds. DC 10+BAB Fort save to reduce duration to 1 round

We're playing a series of one-shots of gradually increasing level. The first is at level 3; I doubt much can be done at that level. So feel free to do anything non-Epic, though the lower the level the better.

Thoughts?

[Thrawn183]

Psychic Warrior expending your psionic focus to make an attack as a touch attack and just PA'ing the ever-loving everything out of it?

[Olo Demonsbane]

For the love of all that is good and holy, USE TOME OF BATTLE! The martial classes get strikes; they are just as powerful as a full attack, and can be used as a standard action.

[Sinfire Titan]

Psychic Warrior expending your psionic focus to make an attack as a touch attack and just PA'ing the ever-loving everything out of it?

Pathfinder nerfed PA. It sucks even worse than it should. What they did was unreasonable and uncalled for, and it's something they (Jason) refuse(s) to change about the system.

For the love of all that is good and holy, USE TOME OF BATTLE! The martial classes get strikes; they are just as powerful as a full attack, and can be used as a standard action.

+1. I'll even have an expansion book ready for you sometime in the next 3 months or so.

[warrl]

For the love of all that is good and holy, USE TOME OF BATTLE! The martial classes get strikes; they are just as powerful as a full attack, and can be used as a standard action.

Too bad the OP specifically informed us that Tome of battle is out the window.

[DragoonWraith]

Some day, yes, Tome of Battle would be the ideal way to do this. Right now, doesn't work.

And Psionics... might also be a hard-ish sell. Not sure. Maybe on that one. Pathfinder doesn't touch them, so I'm not sure how well/easily they could be converted to work with Pathfinder.

I agree about Power Attack. Definitely some things good and some things not in Pathfinder.

[Epinephrine]

Power attack was bad in beta, but the character previews make it seem like they've fixed it a bit.
Barbarians get Powerful Blow, add your level in damage for 4 rage points?

At 11th level, a barbarian can have Overhand Chop, Backswing, and Devastating Blow, the rage power Powerful Blow (+11 damage as a swift action), and has +6 Str and Con in a rage. With a starting 20 Str (Human, choose Str as your bonus) and the stat advances (+2) you're looking at 28 Str in a rage with no gear. A mere +2 Str enhancement and you've got 4d12+108 damage on a Devastating Blow+Powerful Blow (before weapon enhancements, etc.).

The high-level Fighter power Weapon Mastery (bump the critical multiplier for your weapon by 1) would be ideal, but you need to take fighter all the way to get it, the 5x damage on the crit would be pretty awesome though, and the fighter weapon training bonuses and specializations could easily add another 8 damage per swing (or 40 damage, once multiplied up).

[Starbuck_II]

We're playing a series of one-shots of gradually increasing level. The first is at level 3; I doubt much can be done at that level. So feel free to do anything non-Epic, though the lower the level the better.

Thoughts?

Using Pathfinder:
Feats-
Destating Blow=hit is auto Critical (but mimimum 12 level to qualify/take).

Useable now:
Power Attack= Useful at low levels (only sucks at higher levels)
Overhand Chop= standard attack with 2 handed weapon, double Str bonus

The other feats help full round attcks.

Nothing in Psionics needs to be converted to my knowledge.

[Panda-s1]

Some day, yes, Tome of Battle would be the ideal way to do this. Right now, doesn't work.

I have to ask, why doesn't he allow ToB? And what changes is he making to make it usable? This seems like the perfect opportunity to playtest his changes

[DragoonWraith]

He wants me to play test his changes - once he's done with them. I don't know the details of them.

I also don't own Tome of Battle, which is an issue. That is something I'm strongly considering rectifying, but since I play pretty much only in PbP with some friends, and I don't think any of them have it, it seems somewhat unfair to do so, even though I think they'd let me.