How can we balance Level 1 - 40?

[Sadrik]

BAB = 1/2 plus a bonus depending on your class works well.

Warrior type +5
Cleric or rogue type +3
Wizard type +1

This is something that I have been messing around with in the past. Then multiclassing you average all of your classes together to get you actual BAB.

A 5/5 fighter/rogue would get 5x5=25 + 3x5=15 = 40/10 = +4 BAB + their level bonus of +1/2 level (+5) equals a total of +9 BAB for a 10th level fighter rogue.

It gives a big bonus early but it keeps all the classes within a certain range of combat effectiveness.

Cleric and rogue could be moved to +2 and wizard +0, to make sure that warrior types are bad ass when fighting.

 

[Kerrick]

Kerrick, I'm going to have all classes as either 1/2 or 3/4 BAB. Those classes that would have full 1/1 bab get dropped down to 3/4 and get some other funk in its place. Maybe a feat or an aura or "martial" maneuver & stance advancement (combat "spells").

If the best BAB is 3/4, you can reduce ACs to account for it - that's no problem.

LEVEL___1/2BAB____3/4BAB___DIFFERENCE
1...........0...............0.............0
6...........3...............4.............1
11..........5...............8.............3
16..........8...............12...........4
21..........10..............15...........5
26..........13..............19...........6
31..........15..............23...........8
36..........18..............27...........9

I can live with those difference, Kerrick.

I dunno... 9 points is a lot, especially if you're going to add combat stances, magic items, feats, and whatnot on top of it - you'll be looking at somewhere around 15 points of difference, in actuality. And, like I said, even a 3/4 BAB scales faster than ACs. I had an analysis of all this when I was working on an epic rules revision, but I can't find it now (must've deleted it). The best I can do is some advice someone gave me:

Consider, for AC, all of the things PCs get that add to their bonus to hit:

BAB: 1/1 BAB goes a long way

Stats: Either Dex or Strength come from Stat ups (~+1 to hit every 8 levels, if thats all that matters to the character)

Item Stat Boost: +1/5 levels (or really 1/6 for non-epic or non focused)

Weapon bonus: +1 per ~ 5 levels. (with about an equal amount of other powers) (Actually, total plus level/2.8~, half for plus, but really)

Feats: +1 to hit could be as often as +1/3 levels. These can really vary.

If you truly want a math equation to take all this into account:

Y = X + (X/8) + (X/6) + (X/2.8/2) + 10

Should give AC (Y) appropriate for a full-bab fightertype of level (X) to hit on a 10. (Not taking into account feats, so adjusting that +10 at the end might help if you want true accuracy; Also assumes a fairly melee focused build)

AC = 10 + ((any CR up to 20)*1.5) + (CR-20, if CR > 20)

 

[Bladesinger_Boy]

Kerrick, think of the current BAB situation from non-epic into epic for a full +20 BAB fighter type. A consistent 3/4BAB w/o any "into epic" chance is not much different than +20BAB then epic caps everything to 1/2. Time for a new table...
...........................X..........................Y.......................Y-X = Z
LEVEL___3/4BAB always___1/1BAB> Epic 1/2__DIFFERENCE
1.........................0..........................1...................1
6.........................4..........................6...................2
11.......................8..........................11..................3
16.......................12........................16..................4
21.......................15........................21..................6
26.......................19........................23..................4
31.......................23........................26..................3
36.......................27........................28..................1

The difference peaks at 21st level, and then 3/4BAB starts gaining faster and closing that gap. However, they won't be matched until 40th level; where both 3/4BAB and Full>Epic BAB hit +30. So, if our game was going beyond 40th level, I'd agree with you. But I think I'm the only one even close to believing that things can be heavily rebalanced to work up to 40th level.

If your comment is about mage-types keeping up with fighter types, I'm much less sympathetic here. They can grant themselves many different bonuses or make touch attack with different spells or cast spells that require a save as compared to at attack roll. That 1/4 level difference is worth all the junk a full spellcaster gets.