chambordini wrote:The crit damage of NH can be addressed with massive criticals as I have said before but QC deemed it too mucho, amigo.
And it was shown with math why.
Northlander Hewing already does very comparable damage to IPA while saving a feat. In addition, NH is a great option for weapons that only crit on 20. IMO the best weapon for NH is Great Axe or Halberd. Basically when you do crit, your crit will do ~19.5 average damage from weapon rolls (~6.5*3) and on a non-crit you will do 12. Always you will gain the extra damage from STR. The other weapon that works great for NH is Dwarven Waraxe which allow you to use a shield while getting 10 damage plus the bonus from STR. Even with Great Axe or Halberd, NH makes Monkey Grip an option since using the weapon with two hands offers no benefit to NH (The bonus STR modifier to damage is static regardless of one hand or two).
Basically Northlander Hewing is one of the better custom feats out there as it currently does exactly what a custom feat should do. It offers an option that is better in some circumstances, worse in others over Power Attack/IPA. I would say overall it is very slightly better than IPA because it costs one feat instead of two. In the end Power Attack/IPA is a bit better for Two-handers and/or builds that include Frenzied Berserker for Enhanced IPA. Otherwise NH is the better choice. Giving even more crit damage would imbalance it to the point where the APR would have to be reduced back to half your attacks being lost or possibly more.
Edit: To give a relatively simple example where NH is clearly superior, let's take a warrior build stripped down to nuts and bolts...Not considering any feats (besides NH or IPA), just BAB, STR, EB +4 Great Axe and either NH or IPA...
Against enemy with AC=40, both PC's using a Great Axe in two hands.
BAB: 30 + 12 (34 STR) + 4 (EB) = 46 AB before NH/IPA.
NH: 46-2 = 44 AB.
Atk 1: 95% hit; damage = 12+18+12+4 = 46*.95= 43.7, crit damage= ~19.5+54+12+12= 97.5
Atk 2: 95% hit; damage = 46*.95= 43.7
Atk 3: 70% hit; damage = 46*.70= 32.2
Atk 4: 45% hit; damage = 46*.45= 20.7
Damage for the round is ~140.3 (goes up if a crit is landed)
IPA: 46-6 = 40 AB
Atk 1: 95% hit; damage = ~6.5+18+12+4 = 40.5*.95= 38.475, crit damage= ~19.5+54+36+12= 121.5
Atk 2: 75% hit; damage = 40.5*.75= 30.375
Atk 3: 50% hit; damage = 40.5*.5 = 20.25
Atk 4: 25% hit; damage = 40.5*.25 = 10.125
Atk 5: 5% hit; damage = 40.5*.05 = 2.025
Atk 6: 5% hit; damage = 40.5*.05 = 2.025
Damage for round is ~103.275 (increases more than NH if crit is landed)
Now, as AC goes down, damage will increase for both, but once you get to ~35 AC IPA will begin showing marked increases. In this case of this 34 STR build NH is obviously superior. Now, if you add in Enhanced IPA and/or Weapon Master IPA will become the better option. It should also be noted that NH PC will have 2 less AC. However, same PC can utilize a shield at cost of 6 damage per hit and will still be at more dpr than the IPA with no shield.
Now, if we are facing an enemy with 34 AC (Or an enemy that has had two instances of Expose Weakness applied for instance). NH damage only goes up to ~165.6 (not including EW bleed). Meanwhile, IPA increases to (95/95/80/55/30/5% hit chances or 38.475+38.475+32.4+22.275+12.15+2.025 = 145.8. As you can see, IPA is now within ~20 damage per round of IPA, even a single crit in a round for both of them makes the damage equal. However, the IPA user spent two feats to get the damage which is less per round than the NH user who only spent one feat.
As I stated, unless you have Frenzied Berserker or Weapon Master you are better off with Northlander Hewing. However, in order to maximize the benefit you need to look to use a weapon with high top end damage (d12 or d10 is better than 2d4) and low crit range (only crit on 20 is ideal). You will STILL do more damage on a crit because of the x3 modifier, but if you use a weapon like falchion with 2d4 damage and x2 modifier your crits will often be no different than non-crits. Thus a Great Axe or Halberd is your best bet. Dwarven Waraxe or Battle Axe if you want to use a shield without penalty.