Suggestion: Customizable Base Attack Bonus

Terallis

So, I spent some time looking around for something like this already having been suggested, so decided to toss up one myself.

I've spent a long while considering that the lack of ability to directly customize base attack bonus on things in the toolset (whether the number itself or even customizing attacks per round). I wanted to put up the suggestion, if at all possible, to actually allow for something like this. Blackboxed, I know, but possibly something to look at.

I feel, especially, like this could open up a huge number of possibilities for building modules and especially allow for balancing creatures to be far more simple than it presently is. I know the toolset has long since been able to do much the same for things like AC and HP by adding to those on creatures in the toolset.

I know there are commands to increase BAB in the game itself (and ability to likely use scripting to boost that BAB on spawn and the like). But that in itself will generally also boost attacks per round to match, which makes some sense. But for creatures meant to spawn, not everyone has scripting knowledge to further boost the AB, or even want the extra attacks per round, simply just wanting to increase ability to hit.

Hoping this might be considered (and doable for that matter). Thanks!

sarevok57

one solution at this time could be with creature items

so if they are not using actual weapons but creature made weapons ( like natural attacks ) you can actually give them + to hit all the way up to 20 ( although i do not think it stacks with enhancement, but stacks with STR or DEX if you have weapon finesse )

now if they have an actual weapon, you would probably need to make 2 copies of it ( one that is dropable if you want the player to be able to pick up their weapon ) and then the other which has the extra "to hit" placed upon it, that the creature is actually using

Terallis

Thing about using creature items, weapons, or anything like that, is that it's a bonus, whether attack bonus or enhancement bonus, and applies for the sake of overcoming DR. This suggestion itself is for a way to more properly adjust the creature without making certain damage reduction become useless for something like a creature with +20 attack/enhancement bonus. Hell, most things above +7 will completely null and void almost any form of damage reduction magic, unless it's flat.

Modifying through STR or DEX can work, but it also has other affects as well, like increasing damage as well to numbers greater than wanting, or increasing AC in the case of DEX (for those with Weapon Finesse). Small workarounds in the DEX case, but can only go so far.

Prince_Raymond

I've always wondered what it would be like to create my own custom base class in NWN right down to setting what BAB that class would use. One time, while I was heavy into playing tabletop D&D 3rd Edition, I tried to recreate a class I had created using the custom class creation section in the AD&D 2nd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide. I dubbed the class, the Regulator, the name inspired by the movie, "Young Guns". I went so far as to design my own custom base attack bonus table specifically for my class. This would be the only attack table the Regulator would use, as the class is forsworn using any weapon except for Unarmed Strike.

Level BAB
1 +1
2 +2
3 +3
4 +4
5 +5/+1
6 +6/+2
7 +7/+3
8 +8/+4
9 +9/+5/+1
10 +10/+6/+2
11 +11/+7/+3
12 +12/+8/+4
13 +13/+9/+5/+1
14 +14/+10/+6/+2
15 +15/+11/+7/+3
16 +16/+12/+8/+4
17 +17/+13/+9/+5/+1
18 +18/+14/+10/+6/+2
19 +19/+15/+11/+7/+3
20 +20/+16/+12/+8/+4

Like the Monk class, the Regulator can also use Flurry of Blows, gaining 1 extra attack per round at its highest base attack bonus, but all its attacks suffer a -2 penalty. Thank you for reading, and happy (healthy) gaming to all.

FreshLemonBun

Of course you can change this and it's not particularly hardcoded. Using both 2da and scripting you can make a variety of changes such as a base class with a different progression schedule or perhaps an ability that increases attacks per round for some penalty.

I suppose that is not what is being asked here, rather it's more to do with changing monsters from a toolset menu. I think for such things it's sufficient to simply spoof changes. If the modder is not able to implement it with scripting or 2da changes then the module surely lacks much more important features. Rather than a slight against certain module creators I think it's simply a truth to accept. If all the more advanced features were exposed in simple menus then the menus would quickly cease to be simple. Although it would be useful to have and seems simple it would mean the blueprint would need to override the values applied from files that set these progression schedules. Fudging by increasing stats and reducing other things like AC to compensate is a fair and reasonable solution, like increase dex and reduce ac on the creature skin.

For more complex content and more accurate rules I think it's certainly worth setting some time aside to learn how to mod with haks (2da changes etc) and scripts. It is not terribly difficult but it is a time commitment and it opens up a lot more options.