Questions and Answers

Trodax

Mongoose
A long time ago there was a Rulesmasters forum on these boards, where questions could be posed to the Mongoose gurus. For reasons unknown, this was removed and replaced by the service that you can now send your questions to the Rulesmasters, and get answers by email. It's great that this exists, but its a bit unfortunate that the answers aren't saved in any form for all to see.
I've sent a couple of questions to the Rulesmasters and I thought I'd post them here as they might be of general interest (and also to make it easy to find them and link to them if the questions come up in the future).
If you have any questions that you've gotten an official answer to, please post them here as well.

Q: I'm unsure of how the feats Power Attack (PA) and Monster Slayer (MS) are supposed to work in conjunction with two-handed weapons. I've seen the entry about this in the Conan FAQ, but I'm still a bit unclear on it.

So, to the question; is the BAB-restriction of these feats on the attack roll or on the damage bonus?
In other words, what's the maximum usage I can get if I have both feats and a two-handed weapon?

I can see three scenarios, and I'm not sure of which is the right one:

1) It is only the attack penalty that is restricted by BAB. Therefore, if I for example have BAB +6, I could take a -6 attack penalty to get a +18 damage bonus (+12 from PA, +6 from MS).

2) It is the damage bonus that is restricted by BAB. With BAB +6, I could at a maximum go for a -2 attack penalty, giving me a +6 damage bonus (+4 from PA, +2 from MS).

3) The two feats (PA and MS) are different in regards to this. For PA, number 1 above is true (attack penalty is restricted), while for MS it is number 2 (damage bonus is restricted). This is actually the conclusion I would come to from a strict reading of the feat descriptions, but it seems very strange to me...

A: Option 2 is the correct option. Monster Slayer is not supposed to allow PCs to strike for mind-blowing amounts of damage against Large creatures - it is just supposed to increase a PCs effectiveness when using PA against these creatures.

For instance: A 6th-level soldier wielding a two-handed sword with PA and MS faces off against a Large ape. If he just uses a full PA, he can get a +12 damage bonus at the price of a -6 penalty to attack. Or, he can employ his MS feat and get only a +6 damage bonus - but suffer only a -2 penalty to attack.

Q: Is it the entire Reflex Save or just the Base Reflex Save that's added to Initiative? I understand that Dex bonus shouldn't be added twice, but am unsure as to whether things such as the feat Lightning Reflexes or the Shemite racial ability (-1 to saves) should affect Initiative.

A: Only the Base Reflex save from the class is added. No Reflex modifiers are applied.
(Note: This ruling differs from the stats in published books. Also, Vincent Darlage said in this thread that he includes Lightning Reflexes in Initiative. Personally, I think this makes sense as well.)

Q: If you wield a weapon in two hands, you get to add 1,5x your Strength bonus to damage. Do you also get to add 1,5x your Strength bonus to AP?

A: Yes.
 
Trodax said:
A: Option 2 is the correct option. Monster Slayer is not supposed to allow PCs to strike for mind-blowing amounts of damage against Large creatures - it is just supposed to increase a PCs effectiveness when using PA against these creatures.

For instance: A 6th-level soldier wielding a two-handed sword with PA and MS faces off against a Large ape. If he just uses a full PA, he can get a +12 damage bonus at the price of a -6 penalty to attack. Or, he can employ his MS feat and get only a +6 damage bonus - but suffer only a -2 penalty to attack.
[/quote][/quote]

So can't I use MS for -2 +6 damage and then regular power attack for -4 +8 damage giving me +14 damage for -6 attack?
 
ricardo440 said:
So can't I use MS for -2 +6 damage and then regular power attack for -4 +8 damage giving me +14 damage for -6 attack?
I thought about that too, but came to the conclusion that the answer should probably be no.

From the description of MS, I gather that it doesn't do anything on its own; it just makes your PA "better" (more cost-efficient, but it does also impose this maximum-damage=BAB restriction).
Therefore, when you're slamming your bardiche into the skull of that big brute of a Man-ape, you're still doing a PA. On top of that, you may or you may not use the benefits of MS.
Since you are making one PA, I'd say you have to decide if you want to use MS for that entire attack or not. IOW, it should be a 100%- or a 0%-thing.
It's not crystal-clear though, and you could of course chose to rule it as you like.

Oh, and welcome to the boards ricardo440! :)
 
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