Introduction
As characters grow in level, their Base Attack Bonus (BAB) increases. With higher BAB, characters gain additional attacks when making a full attack action. Fighter type classes with full BAB progression get their first iterative attack at 6th level. The addition of a second attack vastly improves the character’s effectiveness in combat, and can potentially double the character’s damage.
Using your iterative attacks typically requires a Full Attack action. If you need to move to reach your enemy, this means you must sacrifice your attacks in order to move. This tactical limitation is one of the biggest shortcomings of melee fighter characters.
Enter Vital Strike. Vital Strike allows you to forego additional attacks in favor of making a single attack with high damage. Because Vital Strike only multiplies the weapon’s base damage (just the dice; no enhancements), Vital Strike seems like a poor tactical option. However, with some focus, Vital Strike can be an excellent option around which to center your character.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Disclaimer
- Vital Strike Feats
- Benefits of Vital Strike
- Drawbacks of Vital Strike
- Weapon Size Chart
- Choosing Your Weapon
- Other Feats
- Spells
- Magic Items
- Class-Dependent Damage Dice
- Beyond the Pale
Disclaimer
We support a limited subset of Pathfinder’s rules content. If you would like help with Pathfinder options not covered here, please email me and I may be able to provide additional assistance.
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Vital Strike Feats
The Vital Strike feat tree is simple compared to feat-starved trees like Two-Weapon Fighting. At only 5 feats, any fighter character could make use of Vital Strike and still have room in their feat list for other interesting feats.
- : Double weapon damage.
- : Adds a nice way to handle invisible creatures to your attacks.
- : Great crowd control, but the uses per day are limited.
- : Triple
weapon damage.
- : Quadruple weapon damage.
- : This feat is severely
limited by the +6 damage bonus cap. If not for this limit, this
feat would be the most important feat in the Vital Strike chain. Still,
+6 damage with no penalty is pretty great. Note that bonus is only
on extra damage dice rolled, so make sure that you get at
least three extra damage dice as quickly as possible.
- : Critical hits are not a crucial part of Vital Strike, as your bonus critical damage will likely be dwarfed by your bonus damage dice. However, if you still want to build with critical hits in mind (and you will have the feats to do so), the +6 bonus is better than what you get from Critical Focus, and the bonuses stack. However, you’ll still need Critical Focus to pick up Critical Feats.
- : Fatigued is worthless, and the duration is pitiful, but it appears that you can stack the effect with itself to make creatures Exhausted. For this to work you need at least 14 Wisdom so that the duration will last long enough to overlap with itself. Even then, the Exhausted condition only lasts while two or more stacks of Winter’s Strike are applied. This isn’t a perfectly clear mechanic, but my post on the rules forum got mixed responses.
Benefits of Vital Strike
- Accuracy: You always attack at your full BAB, which means that you should rarely miss.
- Good Damage: You may need to buy more dice to construct the tower of d6s or d8s that you’re going to drop on your enemies. If you use miniatures at the table, I strongly encourage you to build towers of dice and then very deliberately topple them onto enemy miniatures when you roll for damage. Slightly impractical, but it really gets your point across.
- Mobile: You get to use your move action every round. Move around a bit. Pull something out of your pocket. Open a door. Enjoy yourself as a move action.
- Weapon Versatility: Is the BBEG flying out of range of your oversized sword? Switch to an oversized crossbow and shoot tent poles at him. You can use Vital Strike with melee and ranged weapons without investing additional feats.
Drawbacks of Vital Strike
- All or nothing: If you miss, you’re out of luck for the turn.
- Critical Hits are Boring: When you deal 16d8 damage, adding 4d8 won’t feel very exciting on a critical hit.
- No Charging: You can’t Vital Strike on a charge. If enemies are more than twice your speed away from you, Vital Strike with a javelin or something while you move up.
- Single Target: Your attacks are huge, but you can only kill one thing per turn.
Weapon Size Chart
This FAQ answer clarified (and arguably altered) the way weapon size affects weapon damage. The chart is also written to be very difficult to reference quickly, so I’ve included the below table to help figure out how your weapon’s damage dice change as your size changes.
| Example Weapon | Tiny | Small | Medium | Large | Huge | Gargantuan | Colossal | Colossal+1 | Colossal+2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Torch | 1 | 1d2 | 1d3 | 1d4 | 1d6 | 1d8 | 2d6 | 3d6 | 4d6 |
| Dagger | 1d2 | 1d3 | 1d4 | 1d6 | 1d8 | 2d6 | 3d6 | 4d6 | 6d6 |
| Shortsword | 1d4 | 1d4 | 1d6 | 1d8 | 2d6 | 3d6 | 4d6 | 6d6 | 8d6 |
| Longsword | 1d4 | 1d6 | 2d4/1d8 | 2d6 | 3d6 | 4d6 | 6d6 | 8d6 | 12d6 |
| Bastard Sword | 1d4 | 1d6 | 1d10 | 2d8 | 3d8 | 4d8 | 6d8 | 8d8 | 12d8 |
| Greatsword | 1d6 | 1d8 | 2d6/3d4/1d12 | 3d6 | 4d6 | 6d6 | 8d6 | 12d6 | 16d6 |
Because the new size rules we published after I initially wrote this article, it’s possible that I made some errors in the math below. If you spot anything, please email me so I can correct it.
Choosing Your Weapon
Because Vital Strike works based on your weapon’s damage die, you want to select a weapon with the biggest damage die possible, often at the expense of other considerations. Critical threat range and multipliers can generally be ignored, as the bulk of your damage will not be multiplied by Vital Strike.
Because weapon die is so critical to Vital Strike, it is not recommended for small creatures. All weapons below are assumed medium unless otherwise noted. Weapons at larger sizes are included to account for effects like Enlarge Person, Gravity Arrow, and Lead Blades. Keep in mind that Enlarge Person can be stacked with Gravity Arrow, Lead Blades, or the Impact weapon enhancement to do damage as though you were using a weapon two sizes larger than your character’s normal size, but Gravity Arrow, Lead Blades, and Impact do not stack with each other.
If you are already using a weapon one size larger than your character, you can effectively wield a one-handed weapon three sizes larger, and I encourage you to do so. It both looks and feels awesome.
Update NOTE: The table below has been updated from its original version to reflect the FAQ answer link above. As a result of errata and FAQ changes, the values in table below have changed from the version presented when I originally published this article.
| Weapon | Base | VS | VS+DS | IVS | IVS+DS | GVS | GVS+DS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2d8 (9) | 4d8 (18) | 4d8+4 (22) | 6d8 (27) | 6d8+6 (33) | 8d8 (36) | 8d8+6 (42) | |
| 3d8 (13.5) | 6d8 (27) | 6d8+6 (33) | 9d8 (40.5) | 9d8+6 (46.5) | 12d8 (54) | 12d8+6 (60) | |
| 4d8 (18) | 8d8 (36) | 8d8+6 (42) | 12d8 (54) | 12d8+6 (60) | 16d8 (72) | 16d8+6 (78) | |
| 1d8 (4.5) | 2d8 (9) | 2d8+2 (11) | 3d8 (13.5) | 3d8+4 (17.5) | 4d8 (18) | 4d8+6 (24) | |
| 2d6 (7) | 4d6 (14) | 4d6+4 (18) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (37) | 8d6 (28) | 8d6+6 (34) | |
| 3d6 (10.5) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 9d6 (31.5) | 9d6+6 (37.5) | 12d6 (42) | 12d6+6 (48) | |
| 4d6 (14) | 8d6 (28) | 8d6+6 (34) | 12d6 (42) | 12d6+6 (48) | 16d6 (56) | 16d6+6 (62) | |
| 1d10 (5.5) | 2d10 (11) | 2d10+2 (13) | 3d10 (14.5) | 3d10+4 (18.5) | 4d10 (22) | 4d10+6 (28) | |
| 2d8 (9) | 4d8 (18) | 4d8+4 (22) | 6d8 (27) | 6d8+6 (33) | 8d8 (36) | 8d8+6 (42) | |
| 3d8 (13.5) | 6d8 (27) | 6d8+6 (33) | 9d8 (40.5) | 9d8+18 (58.5) | 12d8 (54) | 12d8+6 (60) | |
| 4d8 (18) | 8d8 (36) | 8d8+6 (42) | 12d8 (54) | 12d8+6 (60) | 16d8 (72) | 16d8+6 (78) | |
| 1d10 (5.5) | 2d10 (11) | 2d10+2 (13) | 3d10 (16.5) | 3d10+4 (20.5) | 4d10 (22) | 4d10+6 (28) | |
| 2d8 (9) | 4d8 (18) | 4d8+4 (22) | 6d8 (27) | 6d8+6 (33) | 8d8 (36) | 8d8+6 (42) | |
| 3d8 (13.5) | 6d8 (27) | 6d8+6 (33) | 9d8 (40.5) | 9d8+6 (46.5) | 12d8 (54) | 12d8+6 (60) | |
| 2d4 (5) | 4d4 (10) | 4d4+4 (14) | 6d4 (15) | 6d4+6 (21) | 8d4 (20) | 8d4+6 (26) | |
| 2d6 (7) | 4d6 (14) | 4d6+4 (18) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 8d6 (28) | 8d6+6 (34) | |
| 3d6 (10.5) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 9d6 (31.5) | 9d6+6 (37.5) | 12d6 (42) | 12d6+6 (48) | |
| 1d12 (6.5) | 2d12 (13) | 2d12+2 (15) | 3d12 (19.5) | 3d12+4 (23.5) | 4d12 (26) | 4d12+6 (32) | |
| 3d6 (10.5) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 9d6 (31.5) | 9d6+6 (37.5) | 12d6 (42) | 12d6+6 (48) | |
| 4d6 (14) | 8d6 (28) | 8d6+6 (34) | 12d6 (42) | 12d6+6 (48) | 16d6 (56) | 16d6+6 (62) | |
| 2d6 (7) | 4d6 (14) | 4d6+4 (18) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 8d6 (28) | 8d6+6 (34) | |
| 3d6 (10.5) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 9d6 (31.5) | 9d6+6 (37.5) | 12d6 (42) | 12d6+6 (48) | |
| 4d6 (14) | 8d6 (28) | 8d6+6 (32) | 12d6 (42) | 12d6+6 (48) | 16d6 (56) | 16d6+6 (62) | |
| 2d6 (7) | 4d6 (14) | 4d6+4 (18) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 8d6 (28) | 8d6+6 (34) | |
| 3d6 (10.5) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 9d6 (31.5) | 9d6+6 (37.5) | 12d6 (42) | 12d6+6 (48) | |
| 4d6 (14) | 8d6 (28) | 8d6+6 (32) | 12d6 (42) | 12d6+6 (48) | 16d6 (56) | 16d6+6 (62) | |
| 1d8 (4.5) | 2d8 (9) | 2d8+2 (11) | 3d8 (13.5) | 3d8+4 (17.5) | 4d8 (18) | 4d8+6 (24) | |
| 2d6 (7) | 4d6 (14) | 4d6+4 (18) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 8d6 (28) | 8d6+6 (34) | |
| 3d6 (10.5) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 9d6 (31.5) | 9d6+6 (37.5) | 12d6 (42) | 12d6+6 (48) | |
| 1d6 (3.5) | 2d6 (7) | 2d6+2 (9) | 3d6 (10.5) | 3d6+4 (14.5) | 4d6 (14) | 4d6+6 (20) | |
| 1d8 (4.5) | 2d8 (9) | 2d8+2 (11) | 3d8 (13.5) | 3d8+4 (17.5) | 4d8 (18) | 4d8+6 (24) | |
| 2d6 (7) | 4d6 (14) | 4d6+4 (18) | 6d6 (21) | 6d6+6 (27) | 8d6 (28) | 8d6+6 (34) | |
| * – See “A note on Crossbows”, below. | |||||||
- : The Aklys was originally published with 1d8 damage, making it the most damaging light weapon in the game. That positioned it nicely for use with vital strike, making it among the most powerful options available. However, errata corrected the damage die to 1d6, placing it on par with other light weapons.
- : The gold standard of melee, the Large Bastard Sword is the biggest damage die that a medium creature can wield, at 2d8. The -2 size penalty to attack is annoying, but won’t matter much because you are always attacking at your full BAB. Medium size Bastard Swords are intentionally not listed.
- *: The Double Crossbow is an odd case. The damage from the second bolt isn’t multiplied, and without Crossbow Mastery the reload time is crippling. However, if you’re starting at high enough level to get Crossbow Mastery without cutting into more important feats, there’s room to make the Double Crossbow work. The smaller damage die means that the Double Crossbow’s single-bolt damage will lag behind the Heavy Crossbow, but if you have other non-precision damage bonuses (flaming weapon, Weapon Specialization, Deadly Aim, Weapon Training, Inspire Courage) you can make the Double Crossbow deal more damage than the Heavy Crossbow.
- *: With the exception of reload speed, the light crossbow is strictly worse than the heavy crossbow. Because Vital Strike only takes a Standard Action, Rapid Reload moves the Heavy Crossbow’s reload speed down to a move action, which means you can fire as frequently with a Heavy Crossbow as you can with a Light Crossbow.
- *: With the Rapid Reload feat, the Heavy Crossbow is strictly better than Light Crossbows. The difference in damage die size is negligible at low level, but the gap widens as you gain additional Vital Strike feats.
- : The Elven Curve blade is a step up from the Falchion. With a considerably better damage die, the damage is slightly better than the Falcion, even at Medium size. As you increase the effective size of your weapon, the damage gap becomes considerable. A better choice for comparison is the Katana. The Large Katana will deal more damage, but at a -2 penalty, while the Elven Curve Blade requires a feat. Because that -2 penalty is fairly gentle, the Katana is typically a better option if you want something with a large threat range for some reason. However, because the extra damage from Vital Strike is not multiplied on a critical hit, I don’t recommend going this route.
- : Because the base damage dice are so small, the Falchion doesn’t work well for Vital Strike. The threat range is great, but Vital Strike doesn’t work well with critical hits, and the damage gap between the Falchion and other weapons is immense.
- : Once you factor in effects like Enlarge Person and Impact, the Greataxe is functionally identical to the greatsword.
- : Good, but not as good as the Large Bastard Sword in most cases. The one exception is the Titan Mauler Barbarian, which can use a greatsword one size larger than they are. Coupled with Impact and Enlarge person, a human could use a greatsword that is effectively Gargantuan, dealing an impressive 6d6 base damage. This progression is omitted from the table above because it only applies to the Titan Mauler, and including it in the table would be confusing for everyone else.
- : A close competitor with the Large Bastard Sword, the Katana gets an increased critical threat range instead of bigger damage dice. At medium size, the damage gap is small, but when you Enlarge Person yourself, the damage will will grow larger. Medium size Katanas are intentionally not listed.
- : Because you can’t use a weapon larger than your size, the Longbow falls behind crossbows in damage.
- : Normally a terrible option for Vital Strike enthusiasts, rapiers are included here primarily as a reference for my other guides, and for exceptionally rare builds which might use Vital Strike one-handed.
A note on Crossbows
Depending on GM interpretation, you may or may not be able to use crossbows which are larger than your size. The Light and Heavy crossbows both say “you can shoot, but not load, a [light/heavy] crossbow with one hand at a [-2/-4] penalty on attack rolls.” Because you can fire them one-handed, it stands to reason that you could use a weapon one size larger at the normal -2 penalty, just as you can use a Large longsword at the same penalty.
Some GMs may rule than you can fire an oversized crossbow, but cannot reload it because it requires two hands to reload. I have always thought that you need two hands to reload a crossbow because you need to hold the crossbow while drawing back the string. This requirement isn’t changed by the weapon’s size relative to the player: you still need two hands to load a crossbow too small for you, so why should you need more than two hands to load a crossbow too large for you?
Two major problem with using crossbows (and any ranger weapon) are that Enlarge Person doesn’t affect projectiles, and that the Impact weapon property only applies to melee weapons. You may be able to convince your DM to allow an Impact-equivalent property based on the spell Gravity Arrows, and you can buy larger ammunition once permanently enlarged which you would need to do anyway since you’re likely not carrying an infinite supply of arrows when you first become permanently enlarged.
Other Feats
- : If you need AC, Combat Expertise can really help. You will always be attacking at your best BAB, so you will be very accurate, and you can afford to sacrifice attack bonus for defense.
- : Unfortunately, Vital Strike provides no benefit when making attacks of opportunity.
- : More AC certainly never hurts.
- : Because you have the
ability to move without losing damage output, you may find yourself
drawing attacks of opportunity. Mobility will help if you don’t have the
resources to devote to Acrobatics.
- : Vital strike specifically says “when you take the Attack action”. The “Attack” action is a Standard Action allowing you to make one attack. Spring Attack is a Full Round Action, so it can’t be used in conjunction with Vital Strike.
- : Because you have the
ability to move without losing damage output, you may find yourself
drawing attacks of opportunity. Mobility will help if you don’t have the
resources to devote to Acrobatics.
- : Essential. Because you are
always attacking at your full BAB, the penalty for Power Attack won’t hurt
you too much.
- : Can’t combine with Vital Strike.
- : Every attack is your first attack in a round, so you always ignore the attack penalty. Take this, and hit every time.
- : Still essential for reloading your heavy crossbow (normally a standard action).
- : More attack bonus never
hurts, but if you have more interesting feats in mind, don’t worry about
this too much.
- : This feat really only works if you get multiple attacks to apply the bonus with. 2 damage per turn is hardly worth the feat.
Spells
- : Get it permanent if you’re building for melee.
- : Stand-in until you can get an Impact weapon.
- : Stand-in until you can get an Impact weapon.
- : Technically not a size increase, so it stacks with Lead Blades. Unfortunately, you can’t use it on a magic weapon, so you can’t combine it with Impact weapon.
Magic Items
- (+2): Essential for any Vital Strike build. Tragically, it doesn’t work on ranged weapons, but you might be able to talk your DM into it.
Class-Dependent Damage Dice
Brawlers, Monks, and Warpriests all use their own damage die progressions in place of weapon damage. These progressions present some interesting math. When relying on weapons, your two damage-increasing factors are your weapon’s effective size and your best Vital Strike feat in the chain. Class-dependent damage scaling adds a third factor, dramatically complicating the math.
To summarize the information below: All of them are bad. Vital Strike becomes an occasionally amuzing mechanic that eats 3 or 4 feats with no meaningful payoff.
Brawler/Unchained Monk
Your best bet for Vital Strike and level-dependent scaling. Weapon users will get access to Enlarge Person and Impact weapons at roughly the same rate that you will, so unfortunately that means that you won’t match an oversized bastard sword until 16th level, and won’t exceed it until 8th. If you really need a meaningful way to spend Standard actions, Vital Strike is fine, but you can do better with style feats.
Monk
Don’t do this. Monks have 2/3 BAB so not only are you handicapped by getting Vital Strike feats late, but the Monk’s unarmed strike damage won’t match an oversized bastard sword until 16th level. Maybe someday we’ll see a monk archetype which trades out Flurry of Blows for Vital Strike and better unarmed strike damage, but I’m not holding my breath.
Warpriest
The warpriest’s damage progression is weird. It’s a little bit weaker than Monk, so you won’t match and oversized bastard sword until 20th level. The damage die is also dependent on your character’s size, not on the weapon’s size, so you can use one-handed weapons without sacrificing damage. Unfortunately, you need to compare your own damage output to a normal-sized bastard sword, which you won’t match until 10th level, and if you add Impact to that comparable bastard sword you won’t match it until 20th level. You can still elect to use the normal damage die of your weapon if you choose to do so, but you’ll fall behind the maximum damage output of Vital Strike.
Beyond the Pale
When you expand your options beyond my official SRD-only rule, Vital Strike becomes immediately problematic. Here’s just a small sampling of the things I’ve come across:
A 6th-level Vigilante can pick up the Vital Punishment talent gets you Vital Strike for free and allows you to use Vital Strike on attacks of opportunity. With damage output like that, you’ll easily put every other area control defender to shame.
Adventurer’s Armory 2 introduced the Butchering Axe. It’s a two-handed weapon that does 3d6 damage for a medium creature. The damage die charts are a bit unclear on the subject, but at a glance it likely means that with Greater Vital Strike, Impact Weapon, and Enlarge Person you’re looking at 20d6 damage.
If you open up 3.5 options (please don’t), things get even worse. Options like Monkey Grip and the Goliath race up your effective weapons size cap by several more steps, adding several additional dice to your theoretical maximum damage. While it’s fun to explore in theory, it also means that your damage output is so absurdly high that the game loses any hope of providing a meaningful challenge.
