Feat similar to Practiced Spellcaster, but for BAB?

[GnomeWorks]

I actually don't see anything wrong with this.

If a feat that allows you to boost your caster level by + 4, to a max of your HD, isn't broken, then surely a feat that boosts your BAB by + 4, to a max of your HD, can't be broken, by virtue of "linear fighters quadratic wizards."

This would even better enable gish concepts, by allowing the fighter/mage to take practiced spellcaster and "make your BAB viable."

 

[Kinak]

This doesn't work quite right because levels in other classes aren't quite dead for BAB.

But consider something like:
Practiced Warrior
Benefit: For the purposes of calculating Base Attack Bonus, you may reduce one of your classes' levels by up to four to increase the level of another class you possess by the same amount.

The wording is terrible and I'd never put it in a print product, but it should do what you want.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Greenfield]

How about, "Advance your BAB as if your best BAB class were 4 levels higher, up to a maximum of your character level." or something like that.

 

[Nezkrul]

so with Greenfield's suggestion would this be the result?

Wizard 6 / Fighter 2 takes the feat, which side gets the +4 levels? wizard is the "better" bab class with a +3 total, so it would get the boost, but only +2 for bab

however

Fighter 6 / Wizard 4 would end up with the BAB of Fighter 10 correct?

doesn't seem to help gishes as much as it would help dabblers get their attack bonus back

 

[nijineko]

Manifester Level (for psionic powers, which is what was not stated until after my statement) also doesn't increase the saving throw DC of powers; AUGMENTATIONS can increase the saving throw DC of powers.

augmentations are explicitly limited by the ML cap, therefore are a subset of ML. increasing ML explicitly allows more augmentation, thus directly affecting the DC of powers which so state in their description.

it would be most accurate for me to have said that increasing ML simultaneously increases the potential DC of all such powers.

 

[airwalkrr]

Practiced Spellcaster has a small caveat that it only adds to things that are dependent on your level (dice rolled, range, duration) but doesn't give you new spells. Would this feat give more iterative attacks?

I have no idea if that would be unbalanced or not. Just something I thought I'd bring up.

Good point here. A house-rule feat that grants you a +4 to your BAB bonus (up to the maximum for your level) without necessarily granting iterative attacks would be perfectly fine.

 

[JamesonCourage]

oh and Sek, CL doesn't increase your save DC's; ever.

Caster Level (meaning spells, which is what was stated and why I made my statement) never increases the saving throw DC of spells.

If you know of a power or feat or class ability that says "increase your saving throw DCs of Powers (or Spells) by your Manifester (or Caster) level" please enlighten me.

There's always the Poison spell. From the SRD:

Poison
Necromancy
Level: Clr 4, Drd 3
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Living creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes
Calling upon the venomous powers of natural predators, you infect the subject with a horrible poison by making a successful melee touch attack. The poison deals 1d10 points of temporary Constitution damage immediately and another 1d10 points of temporary Constitution damage 1 minute later. Each instance of damage can be negated by a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ your caster level + your Wis modifier).

I mean, it's only one spell in the PHB, but it always stood out to me as rather odd. But, regardless, +4 caster level would increase the save DC by 2 on this one spell. Why? I don't know. But CL increases the saving throw of at least this one spell. This doesn't negate your point, obviously, but I thought you might like the bit of trivia, as you were asking for exceptions. As always, play what you like

 

[Jackinthegreen]

The first thing I thought of when I saw this was the Skillful weapon enhancement in Complete Arcane which lets the character treat its BAB as 3/4 total HD, period. Might find abuse in epic like Divine Power sometimes does.

There's at least one other use for BAB besides attacks though: It's added to the character's Sense Motive check against an opponent that uses bluff to feint in combat. Even granting +4 to that doesn't come close to the +4 CL possibility.

For people like us who know that BAB and attacks rarely mean much, it'd probably work. With a group that thinks such classes as barbarian and fighter are balanced against cleric and druid? Not likely to happen.

 

[Nezkrul]

if you allow magic items that allow melee characters to trade swift actions for move or standard actions then full attacks happen more often and help the melee aspect

 

[Kinak]

There's always the Poison spell. From the SRD:

I mean, it's only one spell in the PHB, but it always stood out to me as rather odd. But, regardless, +4 caster level would increase the save DC by 2 on this one spell. Why? I don't know. But CL increases the saving throw of at least this one spell. This doesn't negate your point, obviously, but I thought you might like the bit of trivia, as you were asking for exceptions. As always, play what you like

Good question. I'd guess that's because it's modeled after monster poison abilities, which include 1/2 HD as part of the Save DC.

Cheers!
Kinak