Power Attack and Divine Power Bugs?

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by hugin7, Sep 3, 2017.

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  1. hugin7

    hugin7 Member

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    Power Attack is supposed to contribute to damage while sacrificing attack rolls. In my testing, the latter is not happening, so I am getting a free damage bonus. Is anyone experiencing the same issue?

    Please see the details of my test case below.

    Cleric, lvl 9.
    Weapon: longsword (plain sword received at the start of the game). No, I'm not using one of the "special" weapons that always hit.
    Buffs: Divine Favor, Divine Power, and Righteous Might.

    My Power Attack slider is at 9, maximum allowed for a lvl 9 Cleric with Divine Power. My offhand is free, so I'm getting double damage from Power Attack, as expected. I end up with +18 to my damage due to Power Attack, but my attack rolls are completely unaffected.

    It gets even uglier if I cast Divine Power multiple times. Surprisingly, it stacks with itself (is this really working as intended?), so 3 casts of divine power result in a BAB of 6 (base BAB for lvl 9 Cleric) + 3 * 3 (BAB buff to bring BAB in line with level from Divine Power) = 15. In this case, Power Attack contributes +30 to damage without reducing attack rolls.
     
  2. hugin7

    hugin7 Member

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    I did more testing with other weapons and the issues remain regardless of proficiency, enchantments, presence of shield, etc.
     
  3. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    From what I can tell the Power Attack occurs only with Righteous Might. Are you sure about Divine Power?
     
  4. hugin7

    hugin7 Member

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    After more experimentation, I see the following:

    1. Righteous Might is the cause of the Power Attack issue.
    2. Divine Power doesn't break Power Attack, but has a separate issue - it stacks with itself. When combined with Power Attack, your damage bonus can reach obscene levels.

    For #2, I am not the only one to see this issue. In fact, it is the first strategy listed in the Co8 "official" walkthrough for the game's final boss:

    http://www.co8.org/community/index....eight-modpack-new-content-edition.8742/page-2

    Search for "wasbear" to see the details. In my experience, the attack bonus does not scale as aggressively (patched?), but the crux of the strategy is to stack Divine Power to increase damage. I'm surprised this is featured in the walkthrough, since it relies on what comes across as a bug exploit.

    More details on the same approach can be found below:

    http://www.co8.org/community/index.php?threads/demons-and-demigods-solo.9442/
    http://www.co8.org/community/index.php?threads/toees-navarro-run.9443/

    Oddly enough, not a single response mentioned that this might be an exploit. I did, however, notice that Haste used to stack with itself in the past and Temple+ fixed this, so I suspect that it's a similar bug. The SRD suggests that the same buff shouldn't stack with itself:

    http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/castingSpells.htm

     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2017
  5. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    Alright I found the issue with Righteous Might- due to the size increase the game thought the weapon you were holding is a lihht weapon, in the to hit penalty section, and thus didn't apply the penalty. Fixed for nexy version. (Along the way I also noticed it failed to remove the reach increase - fixed that too).

    I'll look into Divine Power stacking next.
     
  6. hugin7

    hugin7 Member

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    It appears the Power Attack hit penalty should apply even for light weapons:

    http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#powerAttack

    If this wasn't the case, one could make an argument that the size increase should allow wielding medium weapons as if they are light, allowing for superb synergy between Power Attack and Righteous Might.

    Thank you for investigating and fixing.

     
  7. Sitra Achara

    Sitra Achara Senior Member

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    Ok the issue with Divine Power should be fixed next version.

    It was calculating Fighter BAB - Existing BAB, and adding the difference as a bonus.

    The bug was that it only did the subtraction if Existing BAB < Fighter BAB, so when they are equal (e.g. due to casting Divine Power twice or more) it'd add the full amount rather than the difference.
     
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  8. hugin7

    hugin7 Member

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    Excellent, thank you!

     
  9. Nightcanon

    Nightcanon Garrulous Halfling

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    Another bug/exploit with Divine Power is that the power attack slider doesn't automatically reset to your new (cleric) BAB when the spell wears off.
     
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