Pathfinder Power Attack + Furious Focus? Broken?

[Chained Birds]

Currently I'm playing a Barbarian in Pathfinder. Now me and the DM have gotten into several augments on how Power Attack works with the Advanced Player's Guide's Furious Focus feat; my fellow players are also confused on if this feat-combo is broken or not.

Now, am I missing something, or does this mean that my lvl 4 Barbarian (Atk +13 for example while raging) could use Power Attack and dish out 36 Power Attack damage (with a two-handed weapon of course) and still attack at a +13.

A secondary question, if the wizard casts true strike (+20 on next attack) on the above barbarian, would he be able to do an ext 60 points of damage and still have a +33 to the attack? This is a lvl 4 Barbarian... Is this correct, or have I been looking at it wrong.

[Seerow]

Where are you getting +36 power attack damage?

Pathfinder power attack specifies how much of a penalty/damage you take/gain from power attack, and it's not enough to get that big of a bonus.

You take a -1 to hit, with an additional -1 per 4 points of BAB. So at 4th level barb, you take -2. In exchange you gain +4 to damage. If you wield a two handed weapon, you get +6 to damage.

Furious Focus lets you ignore the -2 to hit on your first attack of the round. So you make your attack at +13 for whatever +6 damage. All AoOs after that are at +11.



Edit: To be clear, your total attack bonus doesn't matter, at all, for power attacking. Only your base attack bonus you gain from class levels. So even with +60 to hit, if you only have 4 BAB, you only get -2 to hit from power attack. At 8 BAB, you get -3 and +9 damage. At 12 you get -4 to hit and +12 damage. At 16 you get -5 and +15. At 20 you get -6 and +20.

[navar100]

You are forgetting Pathfinder changed Power Attack. In Pathfinder, at level 4, to use Power Attack means you get -2 to hit for +6 damage using a two-handed weapon, +4 for one handed weapons. It is always -2 at level 4.

Even if you were using 3E's Power Attack, you wouldn't be getting +36 damage. 3E's Power Attack is maxed out at BAB. At level 4, you could only take max -4 to hit for +8 damage.

True Strike is irrelevant. Pathfinder's Power Attack provides a constant set amount of penalty to hit for extra damage that increases a little bit as the levels increase. 3E's Power Attack always has maximum of your BAB for whatever penalty you voluntarily take for extra damage.

[Chained Birds]

Okay.

But couldn't you take more than the minimal penalties. Like in 3.5 where you can take penalties up til your base attack?

[Seerow]

Okay.

But couldn't you take more than the minimal penalties. Like in 3.5 where you can take penalties up til your base attack?

No. Seriously read the damn feat. It tells you exactly how much you take, and says nothing about being able to take more or less. This is one of the major complaints most people have about pathfinder, as it's a nerf to what is typically one of the best options for melee, who needs the help most.


(As an aside, I think it's actually better with Pathfinder's way, and in a game where melee had a decent variety of options, the pathfinder power attack is much more balanced than the 3.5 version. Unfortunately, Pathfinder only nerfed power attack without giving the variety in options that a melee character needs to make up for that loss.)

[Chained Birds]

Thanks, my friend screwed me up with talk of dealing massive damage as the feat didn't say it had a cap or maximum or etc. But thanks for clearing that up for me.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Also, just a side note, but house rules aside the wizard couldn't cast true strike on the barbarian anyway. It's a personal spell.