Brutalising Strike [Feat]

[Amiel]

Brutalising Strike [General]

Prerequisite
Proficient with weapon, base attack bonus +10, Cleave, Improved Critical, Power Attack, Weapon Focus.

Benefit
You strike with such horrific force that your attack threatens to explode your opponent into bloody pieces. When you strike at an opponent with your melee weapon, your bloody stroke may force body disintegration. The attack forces a Fort DC 10 + Str modifier save to avoid limbs, the torso, and the head from being amputated, severed or decapitated; these are resolved as individual attacks. Success means that the opponent suffers 1d6 + 1 Con damage instead.
Each strike also forces exquisite fear to take root in the opponent. Your enemy must save against an additional Will DC 10 + Wis modifier to avoid feat status effects from frightful presence. On a failure, creatures with 4 or less HD become panicked for 4d6 rounds and those with 5 or more HD become shaken for 4d6 rounds.

Special
A fighter may select Brutalising Strike as one of his fighter bonus feats.

[Spiryt]

I don't want to look like douche, but I would say: meh.

Another feat that with quite expensive requirements allows you perform something that basically anyone with with machete can upon the unfortunate body of his fellow human. Cause gruesome mutilation of said body.

One must naturally assume that such things are simply one of possible effects of hit points lower than 0.

[herbe]

The attack forces a Fort DC 10 + Str modifier save to avoid limbs, the torso, and the head from being amputated, severed or decapitated; these are resolved as individual attacks. Success means that the opponent suffers 1d6 + 1 Con damage instead.

It is Overpowered,definitely. You lost a limb or 1d6+1 con damage(Con=0 mean dead). A level 10 fighter easily take this feat at his level. Only 4 hit (4d6+4 con damage) was deadly almost anyone at lvl 10. It should be an epic feat instead.

[peacenlove]

Either make it epic as suggested or make it a full round action to initiate. Lower the damage from a successful save to 1, and make a second feat that makes it an attack action and increases the constitution damage to 1d4.
However at 10th level or later i can see fighters making 50+ damage on attacks meaning the death from massive damage kicks in so that feat is not as overpowered as many make it to be, plus it allows the fighter to apply status effects on its target.

EDIT: fear is an area spell. in the second effect perhaps you meant frightened or panicked?

[Amiel]

Okay, there seems to be a gulf in opinion. On the one hand, the opinion is that the feat is wholly underpowered while on the other side of the spectrum, it is actually very overpowered.

An intent was to give fighters nice things so they could compete with their arcane and divine spell wielding peers. Even at 10th level, there will be many, varied and ingenious ways to protect against the damage dealt by this feat. Also, the save DCs should actually be quite easy to succeed against.
By epic level, a cause for concern is that the feat may not even do much; indeed, there may be no reason at all to take this feat once epic levels are reached.

I could drop the Con damage if it seems excessive, but fighters really need to be able to compete on an offensive (damage) level.

Thanks for the information on fear, I was probably thinking of the status effects attached to frightful presence; I'll go edit that in.

[Ashtagon]

Its both over and underpowered.

The save DC is low enough that it won't happen succeed that often (no level-based bonus on the save, and doesn't come into play until level 10). This is going to turn the attack into a dice-rolling festival (cf flurry of misses).

Random amounts of Con damage against monsters is annoying too, due to the need to double check whether he is left with an odd or even amount, in order to adjust the relevant ability modifiers.

otoh, Con damage is a very powerful ability, and one that really shouldn't be part of an at-will attack.

It's not clear to me if the Con damage replaces normal hp damage, or if it is in addition to it.

Unless you intend decapitation/amputation to be a specific game effect, it should be in the fluff paragraph at the top of the feat, not in the benefits paragraph.

A simpler version, maybe not as potent, but interesting in its own way...

Brutalising Strike [General]

You strike with such horrific force that your attack threatens to explode your opponent into bloody pieces. When you strike at an opponent with your melee weapon, your bloody stroke may force body disintegration.

Prerequisite
Proficient with weapon, base attack bonus +10, Cleave, Improved Critical, Power Attack, Weapon Focus.

Benefit
Any time you score a hit that threatens a critical (even if you don't actually confirm the critical), and deal at least 3 hp of damage per HD of your target, your attack also causes 2 points of Constitution damage.

Such a strike also forces exquisite fear to take root in the opponent. Your enemy must succeed on a Will save (DC 5 + 1/2 your character level + your Strength modifier) to avoid fear status effects, as if from frightful presence. On a failure, creatures with 4 or less HD become panicked for 4d6 rounds and those with 5 or more HD become shaken for 4d6 rounds.

Special
A fighter may select Brutalising Strike as one of his fighter bonus feats.