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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ValhallaGH" data-source="post: 3555980" data-attributes="member: 41187">Okay.  So this raises two points for me.1) Why can't you see BAB as a class's combat skill, only they choose to buy it up so that it increases at the indicated rate?  I.e. the choice to improve it is so central to the class's concept that it's automatically invested in.2) What's to stop a DM from deleting the BAB column and replacing it with extra skill points per level (+4 for full, +3 for 3/4 and +2 for 1/2 or something similar)?  Then you create a ratio for buying BAB.  (With my previous numbers, it would be 4 points for each +1, with the ability to buy fractions just like skill ranks.)  This would create the oddity of making Intelligence even more important for combat characters, since too low an Int would eat up their BAB points but I doubt that's really a concern.I advocate a higher cost because it's a much more "guaranteed" skill.  Simply, if you participate in combat then you will use BAB (see below).But combat skill and the various knowledge skills aren't on par.  Combat skills are used every single fight, every single attack, where as a particular knowledge may not be used at all during an entire series of puzzle, role play, or investigatory encounters.If you grouped all knowledge skills into one category (Knowledge or Academics) then they could be on par because then the knowledge skill would be used just as frequently for its relevant areas as the combat skill.Similarly, you'd have to group all of the athletic abilities (balance, climb, jump, swim and tumble) into one category to keep them on par with combat skill.  All are feats of athleticism, but a series of athletic trials is likely to exclude one or more of them, making them inferior compared to combat skill.So, what's my point?  That you'll either need to a) rewrite the entire skill system to bring all the other skills on par with combat or b) you'll need to impose a special cost on combat skill to make it about as pricey as improving a different general area (social, academic, athletic, etc.) or c) you'll need to break up combat skill just as thoroughly as the other skills are divided (at that point, a general improvement in combat ability has the same cost as mastering all social or academic or larcenous areas).</blockquote>

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