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I read about these in the manual but i dont understand how it works... It says for both something about "the changes to your attack rolls and ... last until your next action".

My question is where do you ... set this change and what does it mean
"last until your next action"?
does that mean you have to adjust everytime you take a new action?

how does both of these work?

"until your next action"...
Some feats are "always on", such as Dodge, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical, etc...
Other feats, such as Power Attack, Expertise and Rapid Shot have to be turned on - but are automatic, until you switch to another feat (the "next action"), or turn it off. You cannot have more than one of these feats on at the same time.

Every character has a bunch of quick icons. The right-most icon (after the 3 quick slots) is a 4 pointed star. This contains your special abilities (Turn Undead for clerics and paladins, innate spells, such as Faerie Fire for Drow, etc). It also contains the "semi-automatic" feats, such as Power Attack and Expertise.
When you select one of these two feats, it will open another set (the same icons) with little numbers in the corner - the maximum is equal to your base attack bonus. In addition, Expertise (as the manual says) will only go up to 5.

So, if you have a level 3 fighter (BAB = 3), then there will be 4 icons - one with no number (to turn the feat OFF) and 3 icons numbered 1-3. You can only choose up to Power Attack 3 OR Expertise 3. In this case, 3 will be subtracted from your attack bonus and added to damage or AC (depending on which feat you turn on).

Both Expertise and Power Attack are best used when you have a high attack bonus (high level character, +n weapon, buff spells like Aid, AB enhancing items). Also note that neither work when equipped with a ranged weapon (choose Rapid Shot instead!).

you said:
"u can only choose up to Power Attack 3 OR Expertise 3."

does that mean cant have both (or both actively) (you just cant have both for these, one at a time) on at the same time?
ex. Power attack to -1 and Expertise at the same time to -2

or you can only learn one?

which one should i pick then? both? one? none? (what are the benifits of having both, one, or none basicly...)

You cannot have both on at the same time. If you switch Power Attack on, then switch Expertise on, the game will automatically turn off Power Attack.

You can learn both if your have the prerequisites (STR 13+ and INT 13+), but you are better off "learning" one or the other - it depends on what you want your character to do.

You need Power Attack to get the Cleave feat (don't get Cleave 2!) - which gives you a "free" attack if:
1) surrounded by enemies (can happen a lot)
2) you kill one of them before the end of a round.
I think most people pick Power Attack purely for the Cleave feat (unless they have Tensor's Transformation and Mordenkainen's Sword spells - which both raise the attack bonus to ridiculous levels!)

Expertise, on the other hand is good for high AC builds, e.g. decoys (this character won't cause much damage, but will rarely get hit). Another use for Expertise is for your arcane spellcasters - who should be casting spells instead of hitting enemies with a sword/axe/etc...

To recap:
Power Attack = cause more damage in melee
Expertise = up to +25% protection from melee attacks

the character i was thinking of getting one or the other or both has right now 12 str and 12 int.

i think its not good for power attack since its not high damageing and it wont have of an high BAB later.

... but it does have an AC build... which is why i am thinking of expertise but... i dont know should i take any more BAB since it might not be as high in the first place.

You said these are best for those with high attack bonus, im guessing i shouldnt get either?

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take both, if your build goes mainly for melee, and then take cleave (but only cleave1!)!


Don't waste AB for PA, as this will reduce the AB for all your attacks!

And in my opinion it's much better to have a higher chance on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th attack to hit the enemy (as weapons do tons of damage in IWD2) then to get a few HP more damage via PA!


If your PC gets in trouble, change to max expertise (go in a defense position) until you get help (heal) from your divine caster, or until you have casted your self-buffs (MI, blur, blink, tensers) if your build is a spellsword!



For all non-melee builds (who have enough INT) maxed expertise is a must!!!

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Power Attack is good to take early if you want Cleave - the Power Attack feat itself is only best for high AB characters when it is turned on (or with those two spells).

It doesn't really matter for Expertise (I took it for my decoy at 6th level, after I got Weapon Finesse, Dodge and Simple Weapon Proficiency: Small Blade (2) - until then the character helped with the goblin/orc killing).

But as for choosing the feats, I suppose it depends on how you plan a party - I, for instance plan my party in advance. It allows me to order my spell and feat selection properly (e.g. when to pick Chromatic Orb (not first), the earliest level to select Improved Critical (I tend to multi-class, so I need to know when the BAB is 8+), Spell Focus feats when I get a certain often used spell, etc...). There is then room for making changes if required.