AB question

[hatter]

I've been told that after level 20, AB only increases every other level. So this raises a question of taking levels in a particular order. For simplicity, let's say someone takes 20 levels of mage, 20 of fighter. If they take the 20 levels of fighter first, then the 20 of mage, won't their final AB be higher than if they took them in the other order?

Is there any other trade off like this that I should be aware of?

[Yonwe]

Yep, that's right. BAB (base attack bonus) before 20th is different from EAP (epic attack bonus); the engine doesn't distinguish them on your character sheet, but once you hit 21st level, you get +1 EAB every other level for +10 at 40th. This means a fighter with +20 BAB will get +30 at 40th, while a sorcerer would get +10 BAB and +10 EAB.

Likewise, BAB is the only thing which determines the base number of attacks; a 20 fighter who takes 20 wizard will have four attacks a round, while a 20 wizard who takes 20 fighter will still only have two (BAB +10).

[JesterOI]

Don't forget that saves are calculated as +1/2 levels after 20 as well.
So balancing saves and bab in the first 20 is key.
You need to have atleast +16bab at level 20 to be able to get 4 attacks per round.

A great simple build that has good all round saves and 4 attacks per round is 16 or 12 warrior and 4 or 8 monk/bard.

Always do levels in the the first 20 in batches of 4.

Any build with 4 levels of a warrior class in it will be able to attain 4 attacks/round. Again, be sure to do levels in 4's.

[VagaStorm]

Why 4's? I thought youd get an xp penelty if a class where more than one off...

[JesterOI]

Not in this mod. Unless they've changed it.

Do them in 4's to make it easy to keep track of bab and base saves amounts.

[TheBestDeception]

Not in this mod. Unless they've changed it.

You get 10% of the xp needed for your next level when you level up if the class you chose is favored for your race.

Why 4's?

There are 3 types of BAB progression in NWN: full, 3/4, and 1/2. Jester was stating it in such a way that you wouldn't have to distinguish between the types. However, they are pretty obvious as to their divisions:

Code: Select all

FULL: Fighter, Ranger, BG... Light-buff, weapon users; tanks

3/4: Monk, Bard, Cleric, Assassin... Dex based or support caster; usually can buff themselves up to compensate for lower BAB

1/2: Wiz, Sorc, PM... Mages. Yeah.

This is the reason to take the middle class in groups of 4: NWN adds the progression as 0, 1, 1, 1 for each 4 levels of that class, meaning if you left it as 1, 2, or 3 levels (or 5, 6, 7 for that matter...), you are missing out on the solid 1 BAB of the fourth level.

For example: as far as BAB goes, a Bard 11 would be indifferent in taking his 12th level as either a Bard or Fighter; both will give him one more BAB. Yet at lvl 20, a Bard should have a multiple of 4 for his BAB, else he would essentially be losing one.

A Rogue 10 / Assassin 10 loses a BAB point by not taking either class in a group of 4. (14 total). A Rogue 20 has 15 total BAB.

A Fighter 15 / Ranger 5 still has the same 20 BAB at 20, since both are of the "Full" Progression

A Wizard 20 doesnt care about his BAB.

Hope this helped.