Power Attack - Worth taking?

[Antheal]

Is it worth getting the Power Attack Feat on a Strength-based Dark Path Halfling Monk?

[Dragavon]

There are two feats EVERY melee character MUST have. Thougness and PA

[Kriogen]

You should not even ask that.

P.S:
This is sarcastic post, right?

[Visty]

do you plan on hitting mobs?
if the answer is yes, then take PA

[Antheal]

I guess with the multiple attacks that a Monk gets with the Flurry of Blows, that +5 damage per hit really begins to add up, right?

[DevilButcher]

you do plan on hitting mobs?
if the answer is yes, then take PA

Fixed that for you in red

[maha0201]

Is it worth getting the Power Attack Feat on a Strength-based Dark Path Halfling Monk?

Do you plan only using shurikens XD ?

[Visty]

Fixed that for you in red

actually, you made it worse cause the "?" doesnt make any sense now

[Jamma]

Is it worth getting the Power Attack Feat on a Strength-based Dark Path Halfling Monk?

by Grabthar's hammer... by the Sons of Warvan.. yes.

[Angellica]

Good character choice btw. I love my Str based Dark Halfling Monk. So much I TRed it for extra fist damage And yes, it has Power Attack

[Diyon]

Do you plan only using shurikens XD ?

For whatever reason, PA seems to work with thrown weapons.

[mediocresurgeon]

If you hit things in melee, use Power Attack. No exceptions.

[Odin's_Hugin]

My dex/wis monk doesnt have PA. I went and took Combat Expertise instead.

Since you cant have both active at the same time, and since both SHOULD be taken off to hit Epic better, I find it a waste of a feat.

[BlackRage]

My dex/wis monk doesnt have PA. I went and took Combat Expertise instead.

Since you cant have both active at the same time, and since both SHOULD be taken off to hit Epic better, I find it a waste of a feat.

+1
It is so refreshing to hear the voice of reason for a change.

Is PA good? In many situations yes - but as with all stances it is (currently) exclusive and there maybe times that it needs to be deactivated (or it would be decreasing DPS! )

As such, PA is a melee feat strongly worth considering, but there are sometimes better options.

[Aesop]

yes

[Antheal]

My dex/wis monk doesnt have PA. I went and took Combat Expertise instead.

Since you cant have both active at the same time, and since both SHOULD be taken off to hit Epic better, I find it a waste of a feat.

Is Combat Expertise the one that needs 13 Intelligence to take?

The Halfling I made only has 8 Intelligence, so Combat Expertise isn't an option.

If you were wondering, the Stats and Feats taken by Level 6 are as follows:

15 Strength (Inc. +1 Strength from Character Level 4)
18 Dex
14 Con
08 Int
14 Wis
08 Cha

(1) Toughness
(1) Power Attack
(2) Two Weapon Fighting
(3) Least Dragonmark of Healing
(3) Path of Inevitable Dominion
(6) Lesser Dragonmark of Healing
(6) Dodge

At Level 8 I will increase my Strength to 16 and at Level 9 I plan on taking the Greater Dragonmark of Healing.
I've not planned beyond that stage yet, other than expecting to continue with the Two Weapon Fighting Feats for 60% and 80% off-hand chance respectively while putting Level-Up stat points into Strength.

[Odin's_Hugin]

Is Combat Expertise the one that needs 13 Intelligence to take?

The Halfling I made only has 8 Intelligence, so Combat Expertise isn't an option.

If you were wondering, the Stats and Feats taken by Level 6 are as follows:

15 Strength (Inc. +1 Strength from Character Level 4)
18 Dex
14 Con
08 Int
14 Wis
08 Cha

(1) Toughness
(1) Power Attack
(2) Two Weapon Fighting
(3) Least Dragonmark of Healing
(3) Path of Inevitable Dominion
(6) Lesser Dragonmark of Healing
(6) Dodge

At Level 8 I will increase my Strength to 16 and at Level 9 I plan on taking the Greater Dragonmark of Healing.
I've not planned beyond that stage yet, other than expecting to continue with the Two Weapon Fighting Feats for 60% and 80% off-hand chance respectively while putting Level-Up stat points into Strength.

Doing a dragonmarked monk? It's very feat-consuming if you get them all. Maybe taking out Power Attack would help on getting more marks. And I dont see Stunning Fist in there... stun is 10x more useful than PA on 99% of the time.

I got combat expertise since I love high AC and the -4 dmg per attack, in my view, isnt that great of dps damage, and I have ToD anyways.

However Im planning into doing my second TR into a Light-path monk, and I'll have both high AC and better survivability on epics and Void Strikes. Sacrificing some DPS, though. But I wont go down easily, heh.

Im kinda farming for a +3 int tome though, so I can start with only 10 int. This life I got CE since I was drow, so I put 12 starting int.

[azrael4h]

actually, you made it worse cause the "?" doesnt make any sense now

Emphasize the 'Do', or add "Don't you" to the end. Makes perfect sense.

Early on, I've found that PA isn't as useful, as you don't have the BAB to cover it. Once you hit 8, you can grab a cheap +5 Handwrap and go to town. Since the +5 will actually give higher average damage than a +1d6 DPS wrap (like flaming, shock, etc), you'll hit for more damage, and not be as affected by the PA penalty. But 5 damage won't make or break a dps build; you just won't hit max dps possible. Also through the game, -5 To-hit can hurt, much more than the +5 damage can help. What does more damage, 1d10 +5 10x or 1d10 20x? There's a lot of DDO before hitting endgame.

I'm not sure Dodge is very useful in the long run, +1 AC to me isn't worth a feat. Maybe if it opened up some enhancements like Toughness does, but then I'm already struggling to find enough AP to fit what I want in. I've made this decision after already taking Dodge, so now I got to grind out for a feat respec. Not a huge issue due to the sheer number of fragments I have available, but still not an enjoyable process. I may just LR instead.

[Zachski]

Emphasize the 'Do', or add "Don't you" to the end. Makes perfect sense.

It was grammatically correct the first time, though.

[Azuarc]

Assuming you do actually miss more than just on a 1, power attack causes you to miss an additional 25% of the time. Going from hitting 95% to 70% is a loss of 26% of your DPS. Do you actually make up that much difference back with a paltry +5 damage?

70 (X+5) = 95 X...25X = 350...as long as your per-hit damage is already above fourteen, power attack is detrimental if it adds completely to your miss rate. That's also ignoring the possibility that you have other on-hit effects that you want to trigger that you would also be weakening.

Now, granted, if you're automatically connecting on everything that isn't a 1, that number goes up. If it adds three miss numbers, then 15X = 400, and you come out ahead if you hit for 26 or less on average. If it only adds one number, then you benefit on average hits under 90. Obviously if your attack bonus at a -5 is still above your opponent's AC, then there's no downside. So there are times when it's good, but it depends on how much you're hitting for and what your die roll needs to be. If you can still hit on a -3, then go for it. But if you need at least a 2 to hit, you might want to look at your damage output since a +5 flaming whatever with a strength of 16+ is probably averaging at least that 14 on a basic attack.