airwalkrr
Adventurer
I've never been very fond of the way 3e did extra attacks for higher level characters. The penalty for extra attacks always seemed to make them worth less and less. Oftentimes players of high level characters don't even bother to calculate their attack totals for their last two or three attacks and just look for natural 20s because they realize how poor their chances are of hitting as they get progressively more attacks. So that's the "Why" of this thread.
I've worked for some years to come up with an alternative system. What do you think of this one?
When a character with a base attack bonus of +6 or higher makes an attack as a standard action, he can choose to make a second attack as a move action. This second attack uses the character's full base attack bonus and occurs after the first attack.
When a character with a base attack bonus of +11 or higher makes an attack as a standard action followed by an attack as a move action, he can choose to make a third attack as a swift action. This third attack uses the character's full base attack bonus and occurs after the second attack.
A character with a base attack bonus of +16 or higher can make an attack as an immediate action, but doing so forfeits his swift action on his following turn as normal. As usual, a character may make only one immediate action per turn.
As a companion house rule, taking a 5-foot step is a swift action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, but precludes the character from moving any further during his turn.
As another companion house rule, the haste spell, rather than granting an extra attack when you take a full round action to attack, allows you to determine your number of attacks per round as if your base attack bonus were 5 points higher. This plateaus hastes functionality at high levels since it grants no extra attacks to characters who have a base attack bonus of +16 or higher. Given the almost universally-held opinion that haste is a must-have spell for arcane characters, I don't feel this would be inappropriate.
Taken together, this gives high-level characters with high base attack bonuses some better tactical options for their extra attacks because they are more reliable. It also provides some balance to high base attack characters relative to spellcasters as it gives them a chance to interrupt spellcasting at high levels without requiring them to ready an action. I am thinking this rule favors archers over melee characters, but archers are already limited by heavy feat requirements as well as MAD (multiple ability dependency) to be effective.
Some might have a knee-jerk reaction to this as a nerf to high base attack bonus characters because it reduces them (and all other characters as well) to a maximum of 3 attacks per round (without Two-Weapon Fighting, etc.). But I think given the improved reliability of the extra attacks, the trade is at the very least a fair one. I would argue it is a favorable improvement based on my observations of high-level combat involving high base attack bonus characters.
What are your thoughts?
I've worked for some years to come up with an alternative system. What do you think of this one?
When a character with a base attack bonus of +6 or higher makes an attack as a standard action, he can choose to make a second attack as a move action. This second attack uses the character's full base attack bonus and occurs after the first attack.
When a character with a base attack bonus of +11 or higher makes an attack as a standard action followed by an attack as a move action, he can choose to make a third attack as a swift action. This third attack uses the character's full base attack bonus and occurs after the second attack.
A character with a base attack bonus of +16 or higher can make an attack as an immediate action, but doing so forfeits his swift action on his following turn as normal. As usual, a character may make only one immediate action per turn.
As a companion house rule, taking a 5-foot step is a swift action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, but precludes the character from moving any further during his turn.
As another companion house rule, the haste spell, rather than granting an extra attack when you take a full round action to attack, allows you to determine your number of attacks per round as if your base attack bonus were 5 points higher. This plateaus hastes functionality at high levels since it grants no extra attacks to characters who have a base attack bonus of +16 or higher. Given the almost universally-held opinion that haste is a must-have spell for arcane characters, I don't feel this would be inappropriate.
Taken together, this gives high-level characters with high base attack bonuses some better tactical options for their extra attacks because they are more reliable. It also provides some balance to high base attack characters relative to spellcasters as it gives them a chance to interrupt spellcasting at high levels without requiring them to ready an action. I am thinking this rule favors archers over melee characters, but archers are already limited by heavy feat requirements as well as MAD (multiple ability dependency) to be effective.
Some might have a knee-jerk reaction to this as a nerf to high base attack bonus characters because it reduces them (and all other characters as well) to a maximum of 3 attacks per round (without Two-Weapon Fighting, etc.). But I think given the improved reliability of the extra attacks, the trade is at the very least a fair one. I would argue it is a favorable improvement based on my observations of high-level combat involving high base attack bonus characters.
What are your thoughts?
