1) I would suggest adding the BAB of all Classes to their AC.
It just makes sense. Nothing more to say.
2) I would add BAB (or half of it) to all Weapon Damage rolls.
You can be a hell of a warrior and make hits with +20 above the AC, but if you don't roll a critical the damage is always the same.
3) Remove the confirmation rolls for criticals.
Less rolls, faster game, a gain for the game!
BAB to AC? That'd be fun... a Colossal Red Dragon with an AC of 81... before buff spells.
I think that this could have some serious unforeseen consequences in balancing encounters. Would this apply to touch AC as well? If so, then a Wizard v. lvl 20 Fighter will require the Wizard making a touch attack of 30+Dex/Armor/etc... with a BAB of 10+Dex... so the Wizard's touch attack will hit only on a natural 20?
A Fighter v. a Fighter... 20+Str+5 (wpn Enhancement) v. 30+... again, natural 20 to hit in all likelihood (with magic armor, ring of protection, natural armor, etc.). An epic duel to be sure...
As for adding BAB to damage... I've seen builds in action where dealing damage hasn't been a problem. And, actually, what you're talking about is Power Attack... so why not just leave it as the feat?
While you might be right with all your posts,
But a Wizard, trying to touch a Fighter in Melee IS and should be futile.
And if not adding BAB to AC, so should touch attacks (even with a "loaded" spell) be ruled like any unarmed attack.
But a Wizard, trying to touch a Fighter in Melee IS and should be futile.
But melee isn't the problem. Several Damage dealing spells require a Ranged Touch Attack roll (like rays).
While you might be right with all your posts,
But a Wizard, trying to touch a Fighter in Melee IS and should be futile.
And if not adding BAB to AC, so should touch attacks (even with a "loaded" spell) be ruled like any unarmed attack.
Personally, I think if a Wizard is dumb enough to get into melee, he deserves what's coming to him. But, in those cases where the Wizard does step up, the rules in 3.5 allow the Wizard to make an attack v. a Touch AC so they have a chance at hitting with various spell effects that aren't going to naturally be shrugged off by armor.
This suggestion will significantly alter the balance of a lot of encounters.
Apply this to monsters...
A Dire Bear, CR 7, has AC 17 (Touch AC 10), and a BAB of +9. With a successful hit he does 2d4+10.
Your modification has the bear doing 2d4+19 damage, and an AC of 26 (Touch AC 19).
At level 7...
A Fighter has 7d10 hp (35+Con, average... so 2 hits from the bear and that's it at 2d4+19); A BAB of 7... so between the d20, Str. and weapon enhancement, he needs a +19 to hit.
The Rogue... 7d6... 24hp + Con (again, 2 hits to go down). +5 BAB... so he needs +21 from strength, weapon enhancement and d20 to hit. Cleric is in the same boat.
The Wizard.. +3 BAB, needing 16 to hit from Dex and d20 w/ ranged attack or +16 to hit w/ strength and d20. Again, 2 hits and dead.
Seems to me, you've made this fight a lot more difficult. Harder for the characters to hit, and more likely that they'll go down if the bear hits them.
The Red Dragon is a CR 26 with a 41 AC and a 40 BAB. You start adding 40 damage per hit, and up the AC by 40, and this creature is untouchable by a group of level 20 characters. (Unless you're spending tons of time on the min-max boards to figure out how to get a character to have a +70 to his attack).
This feels like something that's much larger than a minor tweak to 3.5, and I seriously doubt that it would be particularly compatible with existing 3.5 supplements.