House rules on Iterative attacks
The basic idea is that characters will gain bonus dice to their damage rolls based on their base attack bonus instead of multiple attacks. The rules are still in the try out phase so they might be somewhat unbalanced.
Damage increases by base attack
Bab/Bonus dice primary attack/Bonus dice secondary attacks
+4/+1/-
+8/+2/+1
+12/+3/+1
+16/+4/+2
+20/+5/+2
The base weapon damage die or dice increases as a characters combat skill improves. The primary attack is the first attack made by a character each round, all other attacks are considered secondary. This goes for monsters with natural attacks as well. Monsters use their base damage dice as a guide to which dice to use for increased damage.
Example: A character with +12 base attack bonus wielding a greatsword would deal 8d6 damage plus bonuses for strength magic etc. with each successful attack. Another example a character with +5 base attack bonus and the rapid shot feat wielding a longbow will deal 2d8 damage with his first attack and 1d8 damage with his second attack.
Fighter favored weapon bonuses
A fighter can choose a favored weapon at level 3, 7, 11, 15 and 19. For bonus damage with favored weapons the fighter uses the table below. When a fighter gains the weapon mastery ability at level 20 he must choose one of his favored weapons to gain mastery in.
Bab/Bonus dice primary attack/Bonus dice secondary attacks
+3/+1/-
+6/+2/+1
+9/+3/+1
+12/+4/+2
+15/+5/+2
+18/+6/+3
A note on Two weapon fighting
The feat now grants one additional off hand attack at the normal penalties as a full round action, with Improved two weapon fighting you can attack with both weapons as a standard action allowing you to move before after or between attacks, with Greater two weapon fighting you can use both these attacks without penalty to hit or damage and use the primary damage bonus for both attacks. The requirement for these feats does not change.
Critical hits
A weapon that deals a critical hit will deal maximum damage. If the weapon has a multiplier greater than x2 it will deal its maximum base weapon damage one additional time for each multiplier above x2.
I don't like the first ones, but the last one is just what I will use too.
On thing I always hated/found disappointing was to roll a crit and then a 1 on the damage roll:
Great I crit for... 4 points of damage, yuhu!
As for iterative attacks, I'll get rid of those too.
I will try to make a mix of SAGA and True20.
(Something like +BAB on unarmed/weapon damage rolls)
I like this suggestion, mostly because I hate the fact that after 6th level everyone tries to stand still and fight all the time. Fights are much more interesting if people keep moving around which full-round attacks discourage.
I'm not sure this is the right implementation of the idea, but it is a great starting point for discussion. +6d6 damage seems excessive with a greatsword at 12th level since that +6d6 is much more likely to be delivered than the original 3 attacks (additional attacks at -5 and -10 respectively). I'd be more inclined to go with a flat +1d6 bonus to damage at each iterative attack level. So the twelve level fighter would be doing 4d6 with his great sword (+1d6 at BAB 6, +2d6 at BAB 12). Crits max out the base damage dice (the 2d6 for the great sword), +1d6 for each additional multiplier, so a great axe maxes 12 pts, plus 6 with a BAB of 6+. If you had a BAB of 12+ you would roll the additional dice normally.
Rapid shot would give +1d6 damage and I like your TWF tree.
Nice thinking.
This would change the power of DR in combat. Taking 5 points off each attack and taking it off one is a big difference.
I just thought cleave would be a lot more popular feat with this system.
This would change the power of DR in combat. Taking 5 points off each attack and taking it off one is a big difference.
This came up during our playtest of these rules, and i agree that the damage may be a bit excessive, reducing it to one die increase each time you would gain an iterative attack seems like a good idea, and this was in fact my original plan, except that some of my players thought it was low.
My players love to roll lots of dice that's why I went with this option instead of going the SW Saga route of adding half your level to damage.
I was thinking of having damage reduction remove dice from the damage roll instead of just damage, one dice for each 5 points of reduction and in addition lowering any remaining damage by the usual damage reduction number.
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I tried starting a new thread with another iterative attack idea, but I think it got eaten.
How about this, for another alternate idea:
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Iterative Attacks have always felt weird and clunky to me. The forced -5, -10, and -15 makes those later iterations almost pointless; they rarely hit.
What if, instead of stacking a -5 on each extra iteration, after each five you can take a -2 on all attacks, similar to the way rapid shot works for ranged weapons, and get extra attacks?
So after BAB 6, you can either make a regular attack, or take a -2 on both. After 11, you can do one at full, two at -2, or three at -4.
Thoughts?
Getting rid of iterative attacks my house rules (Slightly complicated)
To get rid of ... then scrap it ...
This following one is different from 3.5 to help playability. We have always been uncomfortable with iterative attacks because they slow-down and “rollify” a lot the game. A good alternative for us is to replace it by a feat which allow a double (or triple and so on ) attack with a –5 cumulative malus.
Each time you want to increase your multiplier you have to buy the feat. Each time you want to use the feat you deal with the malus. When you deliver more than one attack on the same target you roll once with the appropriate malus and you multiply your damages in case you hit. For more than one opponent you combine at your will. This rule would have also the very good side effect to help the Fighter to emphasize his class difference.
The DR point above is not so important with that system because the multiply bonus is balanced by a -5 malus to hit.
Be creative
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Everyone who talks about iterative attacks only seems to look at Barbarians and Fighters while forgetting about the Rogue. For the rogue, number of hits is far more important than the damage from one hit. It's the difference between 10d6 sneak attack and 30d6 (not counting off hand attacks!).
If you want fights to be more mobile, I'd just recommend allowing people to move up to half their base speed and still make a full attack action.