An idea struck me today right out of the blue. So in D&D 3.5 everyone knows that characters get an extra attack for every 5 points of base attack bonus beyond +1 up to 20. We also know that these so-called iterative attacks are at -5 for each subsequent attack, such that a 16th-level fighter's fourth attack is penalized a full -15. A common criticism of the system in this respect is that the iterative attacks grant a diminishing return. Whereas the wizard continues to gain more powerful and higher level spells as he levels up, the fighter and his kin receive weaker and yet weaker attacks as they progress. That is hardly balanced and is often a central part of the argument that spell casters are far too powerful compared to fighting classes. In the past I have considered getting rid of this penalty to iterative attacks altogether and simply reducing the number of iterative attacks to three, granted at +8 and +16 respectively. But what about something more internally consistent?
Consider that monsters in 3.5 all have a primary attack which receives the full base attack bonus and secondary attacks which are all at a -5 penalty. Well this works well for monsters like dragons and trolls. Why couldn't it work for PCs too? At 6th-level the fighter gets a second attack at -5 and again at level 11 and level 16 he gains a third and fourth attack, but these are also at merely -5, instead of -10 and -15. This might go some of the way to ameliorating the imbalance between fighters and wizards. Obviously not a cure-all, but it is internally consistent with the way monsters work and also gives the fighter more reliable iterative attacks.
-Marionnen
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