Damage Bonus Based on BAB?

[Winding Road]

I'm strongly leaning toward the idea of having a three-tiered damage bonus progression.

The table looks balanced enough to me. But how do you judge multiclass characters? Say you've got a fighter 6/rogue 4. Which tier does he use?

 

[mosaic]

I'm considering adding an house rule that rules that melee & ranged weapons cause the listed damage plus 1 point of damage per BAB of the attacker.

I like the simplicity of this. It's easy to calculate and easy to remember. ANd by basing it on BAB, it is already adjusted for fighters, rogues, wizards, etc. Nice.

 

[WhatGravitas]

...You know that already exists, right? It's called the Power Attack feat. :\

Or 'full attack'' - there are the level-dependant damage bonuses. But adding BAB to damage sounds good, but then, you should remove full attacks.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Is there a better way to do it? Are there any reasons not to do it?

Star Wars Saga has a very interesting take on it, which comprises two parts

a) remove iterative attacks
b) add half class level to damage with all attacks

They say that this maintains the average damage compared to iterative attacks, while reducing complexity and dice rolling.

Plus it means that there will be far fewer "full attacks" and thus greater mobility amongst combatants.

(monsters and creatures with multiple attacks instead of iterative attacks don't get this bonus, those with iterative attacks do).

It sounds like it might work for you.

Cheers

 

[Baby Samurai]

(monsters and creatures with multiple attacks instead of iterative attacks don't get this bonus, those with iterative attacks do)

I believe monsters with just natural attacks also get half CL as bonus to damage in Saga.

 

[Blue]

Extra damage on an attack favors more attacks. Since those with high BAB already get more attacks, I don't think you need to break up the damage bonus more with different progression.

By the same token, ways to get extra attacks like TWF would really dominate if it was a straight bonus, so I'd suggest something more like Str or Power attack in regards to weapons.

This does invalidate Weapon Specialization, and probably a few other things. Well, makes it nigh meaningless. The BAB 20 character with Weapon Spec only gets a small relative bonus over the straight BAB 20 character. Other bonuses to damage, like sneak attack, are also made slightly less important as a ratio of total damage done. And the few spells that increase BAB like Tenser's Transformation and Divine Power become a bit more powerful. Tenser's was a bit on the weak side, it might be okay. Just think of the ripples of this.

If you're using armor as DR, are you using defense bonus or something to offset the lowered ACs, or are people just hitting more? If it is the latter, maybe force a 1:1 power attack on everyone (even ranged). So a BAB 10 character has +5 to hit, +5 to damage (with a 1h weapon). This helps hitting so often and rewards high BAB with higher damage. It also brings the low BAB characters into hitting the low percentage of the time that they should. Make the power attack let the character specify, so they can do more damage or even chose less damage if they want accuracy. That would keep it some value.

Whatever you do, you may want to consider it precision damage like sneak attack and skirmish. Doesn't work again foes with no weak points (immune to crit), only applies on the first hit of manyshot and things like that, etc. That uses the rules to have the flavor that high BAB gives you the ability to know how to better place your blows, but against that plant creature there really isn't such a place.

Good luck,
=Blue(23)

 

[Terraism]

They say that this maintains the average damage compared to iterative attacks, while reducing complexity and dice rolling.

I've been using a system like this for a while - since before Saga edition, so that change there amused me quite a bit - but my numbers show that it actually takes the full +BAB for it to compare, on average, to having iteratives. I've got a fairly complex spreadsheet showing that (accounting for variable, dice-based damage as well as static modifiers, then comparing the set up in both core and no-iterative+BAB-style) at home, if anyone cares to take a look at it. Holler, and I'll post it when I'm off this evening.

 

[Baby Samurai]

if anyone cares to take a look at it. Holler, and I'll post it when I'm off this evening.

I'd be very interested in checking that out.

 

[Dragonblade275]

Re: Multi-Classed Characters

The table looks balanced enough to me. But how do you judge multiclass characters? Say you've got a fighter 6/rogue 4. Which tier does he use?

He would use the fighter 6 value plus the rogue 4 value.

Fighter 6 would be +5 and rogue 4 would be +2 for a total of +7 damage.

 

[Dragonblade275]

Whatever you do, you may want to consider it precision damage like sneak attack and skirmish. Doesn't work again foes with no weak points (immune to crit), only applies on the first hit of manyshot and things like that, etc. That uses the rules to have the flavor that high BAB gives you the ability to know how to better place your blows, but against that plant creature there really isn't such a place.

Thanks, Blue. I've actually been thinking about treating it like critical, sneak attack, or precision damage. Creatures that are immune to criticals, etc... wouldn't be affected by the extra damage.