Here's an odd idea for a fighter ability - instead of the normal attack progression up to +20/+15/+10/+5, a fighter gets to use his full base attack for all his attacks, thus at 20th he would have +20/+20/+20/+20.
To keep this from being a 1-level dip into fighter, word it thusly:
Enhanced Attack: At 6th level, when making a full attack, a fighter's second attack equals his base attack bonus instead of being 5 points lower than his primary attack.
Improved Enhanced Attack: At 11th level, when making a full attack, a fighter's third attack equals his base attack bonus instead of being 10 points lower than his primary attack.
Greater Enhanced Attack: At 16th level, when making a full attack, a fighter's fourth attack equals his base attack bonus instead of being 15 points lower than his primary attack.
I know this doesn't come close to completely fixing the problems with the fighter, but I think it gives him considerable oomph to compete with the specialized abilities of the barbarian and paladin.
(Not that I'd really want to, but I guess this ability could be made a feat that *could* be taken by other classes, based on having a minimum BAB of +6, +11 and +16 respectively; the fighter would get these feats for free)
I'm not sure I agree with the idea, but I am interested. Here's my input.
Make it a function of fighter level and/or weapon specialization? Perhaps with weapon specialization, your second attack during a full attack receives a +5 competence bonus? There might be issues with two weapon fighting with that wording, but by restricting it to Weapon Specialization, it prevents level dip.
The only thing I actively dislike about this suggestion is that it ends up being another "two-hander:big bonus, two-weapon:bonus, swoard and board: no relative bonus". I've always been irked that its usually mathematically inferior to use a 1 handed weapon and a shield, unless you are prepared to invest greatly in the shield and sacrifice a lot of damage output.
I hate to bring a WoW reference, but I've found in most reasonable play, fighters need a "taunt" effect. I houseruled the feat from ComAdv "Goad" as a bonus feat at level 1, and man, does it see a lot of use. Otherwise, realistically, a fighter who does a good job will just be avoided by monsters as they rush the less armored enemies. And few fighters can control the battlefield enough or have enough attacks of opportunity to make that a costly move for the enemies.
Now, the Knight from PHB2 can do all that, and is awesome at it. Almost TOO awesome. Their ability to turn threatened squares into difficult terrain is amazingly powerful, and is actually topping my current list of "near broken" abilities.
I tangented, apologies. Back to the regular 20/20/20/20 thread.
Yeah, theres a glimmer of potential here, like a sparkle in the grass that may be a bottle-cap, or it may be a lost wedding ring. I'd like to see this further "brain-fed" if only because of my longstanding desire to see fighters actually be the best at being a fighter!
A thought: Multiattack reduces the penalty for multiple natural weapon attacks by 3, so if you want to go the route of adding a bonus, I'd go with at least +3.
The idea of a +5 bonus to iterative attacks with Weapon Specialization also sounds tempting to use.
On the matter of two-weapon fighting, I'm thinking that it shouldn't be touched and use its normal progression for TWF, ITWF, GTWF and PTWF.
And I'm not sure if I follow why two-handed fighting gets the best deal out of this - is it because of Power Attack?
PS: When it comes to sword & board, I think that's a seperate issue that needs to be addressed with a whole line of feats/abilities for that style of play. For one, I think shields should add to touch AC and be useful in Reflex saves (blocking a breath weapon, etc.)