New feat: Power shot

[treeplanter]

What would you guy thing of a counter part feat for power attack, but for archery?

like

Power shot:
pre-requise: Point blank shot
benefit: substract attack for damage while at point blank range.

 

[flatscan]

Hmm, but you only get to add Strength mods for Strength rated bows. So, would this feat only work with those bows?

 

[Teriudin]

Mechanically, it is probably fine.

However, with the way bows are in Conan, with str ratings and all, I just don't see how you can get a more powerful shot out of the same bow.

You may be better off with a feat that allows a character to use a higher str rating bow than they normally could but also get the damage bonus.

Feat: Mighy Bow Guy
Prereqs: Str 13, Point Blank Shot (maybe power attack?)
The archer can be considered a higher str bonus for bows than his str score shows. Using a bow with a higher str rating only creates a penalty to hit equal to the difference and the archer can ignore the -2 circumstance penalty.

 

[DooMJake]

Well perhaps with archery it wouldn't be a "Power shot" more like a "aim for the head" thingy. Reduce attack (its harder to hit the face for example) but increase the damage.

 

[treeplanter]

I guess the feat should only work for bow with strenght rating.

Again, I think Doomjake got it right. Conceptually It is more like you aim at a vital point so it's harder to hit, but does more damage, so it could work with any ranged attack, but the name could be more something like Vicious shot or Fatal shot or something like that.

other tough?

 

[David St-Michel]

How about giving the said feat the ability to do extra damage as per Power Attack, or to scale back the range penalties? I imagine Conan using a bossonian bow hurling his arrow MUCH further then an archer using the same type of weapon.

Just my thought.

 

[Teriudin]

You could just use the "Called Strike" combat manuever from the new book Warrior's Companiion if the goal is to hit specific areas and do more damage.

Of course, if the goal is to cause massive damage at range, (which, of course, is most always the goal of power attack) then I'd not allow that in my game.

 

[treeplanter]

what does this manveover exactly?

I guess i need to get the hand on warrior companion, seem there is lot of cool stuff in there

 

[Clovenhoof]

Logically, the "Called Shot" should already be covered by the Improved Precise Shot feat.
IPS enables you to ignore _anything but total cover_. So, taking it to the extreme, even if your target just sticks his little finger out from behind a wall, you would be entitled to shoot that finger with a regular Ranged Attack Roll with no penalty whatsoever (except for distance).

So consequently, if there is any unarmoured body part, IPS also entitles you to shoot that vulnerable part AT NO PENALTY.

Yeah, it's pretty much broken. So in my games I have rewritten IPS. It lets you ignore up to +4 Cover bonus and gives you a proper Ranged Finesse, in the sense that if your attack roll beats the defenders Dodge+DR, you bypass the armour.

 

[treeplanter]

hum, not bad

and do you get + 4 against armored opponent too?

somebody know what called strike do?

 

[David St-Michel]

hahaha.

I see the scene of a poor shmuck showing his little finger... Having it shot off. I see him holding the bloody hand with his free hand, to have those cleanly sliced off at the wrists...

The head pops out, screaming "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!?", only to receive a shaft in his left eye.

 

[Jotenbjorn]

I had that feat in my last campaign, I called it Pinpoint Accuracy. As was already pointed out, it's not really possible to gain more power from a bow. Its draw strength is what it was built to be.

 

[Spectator]

You could just use the "Called Strike" combat manuever from the new book Warrior's Companiion if the goal is to hit specific areas and do more damage.

Of course, if the goal is to cause massive damage at range, (which, of course, is most always the goal of power attack) then I'd not allow that in my game.

WHy not (OK, I know it sucks to have "BOSS" bad guy die from a single well placed shot, but in actuality, an arrow thorugh the Eye-Socket is a feasible way of insta-kill. IT has actually happend in a famous battle: The Battle of Hastings 1066, an arrow went through Harold, the King of England's, eyeball killing him instantly and changing the course of history to pave the way for a Norman England and the evenutality of a modern world.)?

Why can't well skilled archer's benefit from reducing their probality to hit for the countereffect of increasing damage?

If you are a skilled archer and have the ability to hit a dude in the eye, why not?

 

[zozotroll]

Two points...

One, Harold is not depiced as being slain by an arrow in the eye. Thats an old inturprtation that has been overturned long ago, but lingers on in popular circles.

2. Because called shot is so powerful, that you might as well scrap the existing combat system. You are taking an abstract combat system, and trying to add one specific poiint of reality. The inbalance from that makes every shot a called shot. And the bad guys should be doing the same.

 

[zozotroll]

A question, what part of your body are you cool with having an arrow or a sword rammed through?

You dont go, man I lucked out, he hit me in the hit points. If you want a system that uses hit locations, there are a number of them out there, but most are more complex than any D20 system. People have been comeing up with hit locations for every verion of DnD since before AD&D came out. And every time it replaces normal combat, and winds up annoying the players when it happens to them.

In a real fight, every shot is aimed at something. There is no, I am just working on his hit poiints, I will go for the head in a moment. Every swing or shot is meant to kill or cripple.

 

[Der Rote Baron]

In my campaign I use the Ranged Finesse Feat as a Maneuver that everybody can use - you just have to aim for a round. I also did away with the range limit - if your archer can see it and aim for it - go for it!

So far I am quite pleased with the result. That's the "aim for the vulnerable place"-thing one can try. Other than that I think that bows and the damage they do are fine as is. But if someone thinks that arrows should do more damage with the right Feats the Power Blow equivalent ("Shoot to kill" - "Lethal Archer" or whtayouwannacallit) seems fine.

Just don't think to much about the hows and whys the character is able to do more damage - theyre are hundreds of "real life"-options that could deliver the effect. Just think about game balance.