Topic: Power-Striking, is it worth it?

[kevinmccollum]

Does anyone here take the penalty to the adrenal skill if you are in melee?  In RM2, it was -20 to the skill itself, in RMSS I believe it is -30 to attempt the skill while in melee.

[providence13]

On page 18 of SoHk, bottom of Power Skills:
Casting a spell drains 1 Exh/2rnds.
Concentration drains 1 Exh/6rnds.

Paraphrased:
"If a character desires to maintain concentration for an extended time, he should develop meditation skill which allows you to concentrate without spending exhaustion points."

My group uses Meditation a lot. It's worth a lot of bonuses if you have time and a suitable environment for it.

Also, Elves require Meditation and therefore Meditation skill checks to enter or leave their trance state.. This is pretty funny when they have programmed their trance state for a few hours, but they need to jump awake at once. Sure they get a +25 to Meditation, but they still mess up a roll sometimes.
"OK, we fought off the Orc surprise attack thanks to the Ranger keeping watch all night. Now somebody smack the Elf (+25 to leave trance) and let's break camp."

[markc]

Elven Trance (sleep): I do not let Elves leave their 4 hour sleep period.
MDC

[jaranka]

Another consideration is that you can only do one Adrenal Maneuver per round, so using Power Striking allows you to use an Adrenal skill other than the Strength version at the same time.

Per the MAC p.79:
"Preparation Actions
Certain types of skills require a preparation action during the round. A preparation action requires a great deal of focus and concentration and as a result, a character is limited to one preparation action per round."

I can't think of where this was stated so clearly outside the MAC, but it always seemed to me that this was the way it was meant to be.  Forget one "Adrenal" per round (and the confusion around that).  Of course, MAC rules are optional and if this is really the only place this is mentioned I guess you could call this an optional rule.  Not that all rules aren't optional anyway..  But the section of the MAC this was taken from was a "brief overview" of the core rules before they get into other rules regarding martial arts specifically. I would definitely consider this core RAW.