Compare expected damage for each legal Power Attack penalty using Player's Handbook hit and critical rules. Adjust target AC, weapon averages, and attack bonuses to see which tradeoff wins.
Attacks: 2
| Power Attack | Target AC | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penalty | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| -0 | 12.18 | 11.34 | 10.50 | 9.66 | 8.82 | 7.98 | 7.14 | 6.30 | 5.46 | 4.62 | 3.78 |
| -1 | 12.76 | 11.81 | 10.87 | 9.92 | 8.98 | 8.03 | 7.09 | 6.14 | 5.20 | 4.25 | 3.31 |
| -2 | 13.13 | 12.07 | 11.03 | 9.97 | 8.93 | 7.88 | 6.82 | 5.78 | 4.72 | 3.67 | 3.15 |
| -3 | 13.28 | 12.13 | 10.97 | 9.82 | 8.66 | 7.51 | 6.35 | 5.20 | 4.04 | 3.47 | 2.89 |
| -4 | 13.23 | 11.97 | 10.71 | 9.45 | 8.19 | 6.93 | 5.67 | 4.41 | 3.78 | 3.15 | 2.52 |
| -5 | 12.97 | 11.60 | 10.24 | 8.87 | 7.51 | 6.14 | 4.78 | 4.09 | 3.41 | 2.73 | 2.05 |
| -6 | 12.49 | 11.02 | 9.55 | 8.09 | 6.62 | 5.15 | 4.41 | 3.67 | 2.94 | 2.21 | 1.47 |
On a melee attack, you may take a penalty on attack rolls up to your base attack bonus to gain the same amount as a bonus on damage. Two-handed weapons (or a one-handed weapon wielded in two hands) add twice the penalty to damage instead.
The table averages damage over a d20 attack roll, treating natural 1 as an automatic miss and natural 20 as a hit. Threatened rolls use confirm chance against target AC before applying the critical multiplier.
For each target AC column, the highlighted cell is the penalty with the highest expected damage. When two penalties tie, the smaller penalty is preferred.