BAB of Templates

[kender]

I was creating a yuan-ti vampire when a sudden question came to my mind:
"Do I have to set it's base BAB according to the starting moinster type or to the new one??"

Well I checked the other templates and it seems that they retain their previous BAB (the interesting examples are the celestial lion and the half/dragon) even though their monster type changed from Animal to Magical Beast and from Giant to Dragon.

It's quite weird as they are supposed to be born as "templated-creatures" and thus they would have all the new features.

How can you explain this??

P.S. I also checked the MMerrata and there's nothing about this.

 

[Archer]

You set it according to the base creature. Templates don't have any sort of advancement. Your stats are based on the original creature + class levels. Being a celestial lion doesn't give you outsider BAB and skills.

 

[kender]

You set it according to the base creature. Templates don't have any sort of advancement. Your stats are based on the original creature + class levels. Being a celestial lion doesn't give you outsider BAB and skills.

Though it seems to work this way I think is not wholly correct: I agree that if you change the monster type "during the monster's life" it should retain its previous BAB and skills and so on, but if there is a celestial lion born as a celestial lion and thus being a magical beast I don't understand why it shouldn't have all the features of a magical beast.

Just a further note... if you apply the celestial (or fiendish) template to an animal it cahnges its type to magical beast, not to outsider

 

[Voadam]

Almost all the templates are there from birth. Creatures are celestial, they are not made celestial at some point in their lives. The exception being undead and infected lycanthropes.

From a rules perspective you use the base creature for its BAB and other stats.

From a game implementation perspective this makes it easier to add the templates. You have to reverse engineer less and it is pretty easy to come up with the stat block of a summoned fiendish squid or what not.

You could create an "actually fiendish squid" and determine its stats from scratch as a magical beast instead of the animal ones, but then it is not an easy add on template creature.

 

[Artoomis]

Actually, each template has its own instructions for what to do. Generalizations do not work here.

To answer to specific question presented:

Vampire:

"Advancement: By character class"

The latter would include BAB.

 

[Voadam]

I don't think any of the standard ones affect your BAB except lycanthropes in animal form where they get the animal attacks.

Perhaps the WotC skeleton and zombie templates from their site?

I think my statement that Templates are supposed to be add ons in general is still valid and the cumbersome nature of recalculating instead of just adding bonsues or leaving as the base creature seems to support that as a design feature.