3 Arrows for the king

[Theocrat]

Hi all -
(reposted from the house rules forum)
I've got a question regarding the 3 Arrows for the King supplement by Jason M Parent and published by EN World.
The Archer class has a lvl 1 BAB of 0, but it's special ability is a Primary Weapon +2 benefit (it must be a bow). So at lvl 1 the BAB is 0 but Bow is +2.
At lvl 2, BAB is 1 and Primary Weapon is +2.
At lvl 4 the BAB is +3, yet the Primary Weapon is still +2 and doesn't increase to +3 until lvl 5.
So from this I am assuming that the BAB and Primary Weapon bonuses stack. Thus at lvl 4 the attack bonus with a bow is +5.
That's part of the quesiton, making sure I'm correct in allowing the BAB and Primary Weapon bonuses to stack.
Next, in the case of the Many Shot Feat, the required BAB is +6. But if I allow the BAB and Primary Weapon bonus to stack, could that be used as a attack bonus to qualify for the feat?
To get +6/+1 the archer would be 8th lvl, however, at 5th lvl the BAB is +3 and with the Primary Weapon at +3, the +6 attack bonus is met.
I can understand not being able to use this logic for a feat that didn't work with the primary weapon, but does my fuzzy logic work? Or only under a G.W. Bush scenario?
Thanks for your input.
Theocrat

 

[Marius Delphus]

The way I read it, no. Base Attack Bonus is separate from the class bonus the 3AFTK archer classes get for bows.

Personally, I don't think there's any harm in a house rule allowing the Archer and Archer-Ranger to qualify for archery feats (and weapon feats where the archer specifies a bow as the applicable weapon) *as if* class BAB was equal to class level.

 

[Morrus]

It's perfectly reasonable (as Marius says) to use both to qualify for feats. If we were to republish the book, we'd errata that bit to specify that they stack (otherwise the archer actually loses out because it has a worse BAB than the figher).

 

[Marius Delphus]

Well, the reason I put it the way I did instead of saying "stack" was that the archer ends up one level *ahead* of the fighter (at most levels) if they stack. Since I'm not convinced there's a reason to let another class qualify for weapon feats before the fighter can, I used the "as if" wording.

YMMV.

 

[Theocrat]

Thank you both for that clarifying status. With the many feats that are out there, it's easy to choose something else that works just fine, but this allows the PC to qualify for a PrC or something else entirely that otherwise would require another 3 or more levels.
I'm going to give the PC the "stack" when it comes to feats and PrC (if something were like the Arcane Archer) that required a BaB of +x so long as it related to the Bow and not another weapon.
Again, thank you both for posting, my WifeFIEND loves the book, and at the start of this campaign I said "ony WotC books" to which she countered "When you bought 3AFTK, you said I could Always use it" and others backed her up.
Theocrat Issak