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<blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 2722483" data-attributes="member: 32164">Of course, the obvious answer is that BAB is not a &quot;skill&quot; per se because D&amp;D had BAB before it HAD skills. So back then, they created the only &quot;skill&quot; necessary to play the game as it had been conceived and built that skill (combat ability) in as a class feature.When skills were added to the game in an integrated way, they used the same mechanic (a d20 roll) that D&amp;D had been using (successfully) to resolve combat for decades. Thus was born the d20 system. So BAB is a skill. It's just a special category of skill that's tied to class. A spellcasting &quot;power check&quot; that's (d20 + caster level + Int modifier) is another version of the exact same kind of class-based skill.Some &quot;rules lite&quot; d20 games (like Castles &amp; Crusades) reduce all skills to this form. So basically, making certain skills a class feature is a combination of a design choice and a (god help us) sacred cow.In D&amp;D, BAB (even when it was called THAC0) has always been tied to class. It's just one of the things the designers haven't seen fit to change. And since combat is such a crucial part of the game, nobody should want to truly stink at it. Building combat ability into the classes is an acknowledgement that combat is a fundamental feature of the game. One that says a great deal about D&amp;D as a game.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JohnSnow, post: 2722483, member: 32164"] Of course, the obvious answer is that BAB is not a "skill" per se because D&D had BAB before it HAD skills. So back then, they created the only "skill" necessary to play the game [i]as it had been conceived[/i] and built that skill (combat ability) in as a class feature. When skills were added to the game in an integrated way, they used the same mechanic (a d20 roll) that D&D had been using (successfully) to resolve combat for decades. Thus was born the d20 system. So BAB is a skill. It's just a special category of skill that's tied to class. A spellcasting "power check" that's (d20 + caster level + Int modifier) is another version of the exact same kind of class-based skill. Some "rules lite" d20 games (like [i]Castles & Crusades[/i]) reduce all skills to this form. So basically, making certain skills a class feature is a combination of a design choice and a (god help us) sacred cow. In D&D, BAB (even when it was called THAC0) has always been tied to class. It's just one of the things the designers haven't seen fit to change. And since combat is such a crucial part of the game, nobody should want to truly stink at it. Building combat ability into the classes is an acknowledgement that combat is a fundamental feature of the game. One that says a great deal about D&D as a game. [/QUOTE]

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