Attack (3.5e Skill)

Author: Zhenra-Khal (talk) Date Created: 4/25/2017 Status: Complete Editing: Clarity edits only please

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Attack ( Dex)

A skill meant to replace the Base Attack Bonus. The Attack skill is meant to be used with a variant rule that uses Primary and Secondary class skills (and cross-class skills) rather than just class and cross-class skills.

It's Dexterity based since to hit something, you need fair accuracy. Strength would affect damage, not necessarily how good you are at hitting the thing you're trying to damage in the first place. Plus it made little since to make it Strength-based since it's silly to make an attack with a Crossbow - That doesn't normally utilize your Strength score at all - Using Strength.

Check

DC	Examples
Target's total AC	Attacking a foe with a normal attack.
Target's Touch AC	Attacking a foe with a touch attack
Target's Flat-Footed AC	Attacking a flat-footed foe with a normal attack

Action

The skill usually takes a standard action to make a single attack, a full-round action to carry out a full attack and an immediate action to make an attack of opportunity.

Try Again

Not normally, though special circumstances, such a spells and reroll abilities, do apply to this rule.

Synergy

For every 5 ranks in Attack, you gain a +1 Dodge bonus to AC, as well as increasing the Max Dex Bonus of the armor you're wearing by 1. This is known as the Veteran Bonus, and reflects that combat training would mean you're using to avoiding blows and getting the most out of your armor, as well as compensating for making this a Dexterity-based skill rather than Strength-based.

Untrained

An untrained Attack skill check is simply a Dexterity check. You likely won't hit much of anything, but you can still try.

Weapon Speed

This Attack skill also brings back to life an old variant rule from 2nd Edition - Weapon Speed. In this case Weapon Speed is the number divided into your Attack bonus to determine how many attacks per round you can make with the weapon, and at what bonus.

Average weapon speeds are as follows. Non-repeating crossbows have their own special attack rate, so these are not listed.

Weapon Speed	Examples
Weapon Speed 4	Light Weapon, Unarmed Strike or Primary Natural Weapon.
Weapon Speed 6	Finessable One-Handed Weapon, Shortbow.
Weapon Speed 8	One-Handed Weapon, Secondary Natural Weapon, Double Weapon, Longbow, Light Repeating Crossbow, or non-proficient Light weapon.
Weapon Speed 10	Finessable Two-Handed Weapon, Heavy Repeating Crossbow.
Weapon Speed 12	Two-Handed Weapon, or non-proficient One-handed or Double weapon.
Weapon Speed 14	Finessable non-proficient two-handed weapon
Weapon Speed 16	Non-proficient Two-Handed Weapon.

Some weapons - Mainly ranged ones - Are not listed here; Such as the Sling or most Throwing weapons. If it's not on the list, assume it fits into Weapon Speed 8, or discuss it with your DM.

If the weapon is a non-Light Finesse weapon (A non-ranged weapon that specifically states that you can, in the core rules, use your Dexterity to hit instead of Strength when using that weapon), such as a Rapier or Spiked Chain, its weapon speed is reduced by half the difference between its category and the next-highest category - So a Rapier would have a Weapon Speed of 6, instead of 8; And likewise, a Spiked Chain you are proficient with would have a Weapon Speed of 10, not 12.

This system evens out the issue with weapon damage versus number of attacks. I know I, for one, cannot swing a Greatsword at the same rate at which I can swing a Dagger.

With this system, when you make a full attack, you simply locate the weapon's Speed number and divide that into your ranks in Attack. This is how many attacks you can make with that weapon on a full attack. Each of these attack is made at a penalty equal to the weapon's Speed. Other bonuses to attack rolls - Dexterity, enchantments, spells, and etc. - Are added to each attack individually.

After this division is done, if there is a remainder, and that remainder is equal to or higher than 1/2 the weapon's Weapon Speed, you can choose to make an extra attack. However, this extra attack suffers a penalty equal to the difference between the remaining ranks in Attack and the weapon's Weapon Speed. Likewise, if your ranks in Attack are less than your weapon's Speed, you take the difference as a penalty on attack rolls made with the weapon.

When you make a standard attack, the penalty on the attack roll due to Weapon Speed is halved - with 23 ranks in Attack, a Standard attack with a Greatsword (WS 12) would be at a +17 bonus (23 ranks, -6 speed). If you get more than one standard attack in a round, the penalty is instead normal - So the Greatsword attacks would both be at +11 (23 ranks, -12 speed).

• An example would be a 20th-level Fighter with somewhat average Dexterity (14, a +2 bonus); We'll call this fighter Bob. Bob has maxed his ranks in Attack (Which gives him 23 ranks in attack). If Bob makes a full attack with a Dagger (Weapon speed 4), he would have 5 attacks, each with +21 to the attack roll (23 for ranks, -4 for weapon speed, +2 for Dexterity). Using the remaining +3 ranks in Attack, he could make an additional dagger attack, using only a +20 bonus to the attack roll (Since 4 - 3 = 1, this is at a -1 penalty from his normal attacks).

• If Bob decided to use a Longsword (Weapon speed 8), he would have two attacks, each at a +17 bonus (23 ranks, -8 speed penalty, +2 Dex). Using the remainder, 7, he could make an additional attack at a +16 bonus.

• If Bob decided to use a Greatsword (Weapon Speed 12) he would only get two attacks, each at a +13 bonus (23 ranks, -12 speed, +2 Dex). He could use the remainder of 11 ranks to make a second attack at a +12 bonus.

• And if Bob decided to attack with a two-handed weapon he's not familiar with, such as a Dire Flail (Weapon speed 16), he would likely only get one attack - At a +9 bonus (23 ranks, -16 speed, +2 Dex). The remainder, 7, Is less than half of the weapon's speed, so he doesn't get the option of an additional attack.

• If Bob had only 14 ranks in Attack, his attack sequences would look more like this:

Dagger: +12/+12/+12/+10

Longsword: +8/+6

Greatsword: +4

Dire Flail: -2

Taking Enchantment bonuses to Attack rolls into consideration is important. With a higher Attack bonus, this adds room for extra attacks as the weapon is lighter, more well-balanced and so forth.

Flurry abilities and attacks from the Haste spell and similar effects are not changed by this variant skill; They add additional attacks at the same bonus.

The Speed Enhancement

As you know, there is a weapon enchantment called the Speed enchantment. It normally allows you to make an extra attack (As per the Haste spell) with that weapon.

However, with this variant, non-epic Speed weapons come in three variants - Lesser Speed, Speed, and Greater Speed, each at +1, +3 and +5 equivalents in cost. Lesser Speed reduces the weapon's Speed value by one category, to a minimum of Light (So from Two-Handed to Finessable Two-Handed), while Speed and Greater Speed reduce it by 2 and 3 categories, respectively.

For example, a +1 Lesser Speed Longsword would have a Weapon Speed of 6, while a Greater Speed Dagger would have a Speed of 3.

Thus, Speed retains its usefulness on heavier weaponry and makes smaller weapons even scarier.

Special Cases

Attack Skill: Skill Focus vs. Weapon Focus

As getting a +3 bonus on all attack rolls made and potentially additional attacks, allowing there to be a Skill Focus: Attack feat would be rather absurd. Weapon Focus would accomplish the task with fewer headaches (Or simply make it so that Skill Focus: Attack would only apply to attacks with a certain specific weapon (Such as the Longsword), and make Weapon Focus use groups of weapons such as Light Blades, Heavy Blades, Maces, Hammers, Axes, Polearms and so forth, giving a small bonus to a group of weapons or a larger bonus to a single weapon).

Attack Skill: Skill Bonus Enhancements Vs. Attack Bonus Enhancements

Similar to the previous entry, getting a +30 bonus on attack rolls with a skill-bonus magic item is stupid. As Attack is an essential skill, don't allow custom magic items that give a high bonus to it like with other skills, unless you want your game to be broken.

Weapon Speed Without The Attack Skill

The Weapon Speed rule can be used with the normal Base Attack Bonus method; Simply reduce the Weapon Speed to increments of 3 rather than increments of 4, and have the Speed enhancement continue to do what it already does instead of reducing the Weapon Speed of the weapon. This makes Finesse a more complicated mechanic, but it can be accomplished nonetheless by rounding down the half-numbers.

Weapon Speed Using BAB	Examples
Weapon Speed 3	Light Weapon, Unarmed Strike or Primary Natural Weapon.
Weapon Speed 4	Finessable One-Handed Weapon.
Weapon Speed 6	One-Handed Weapon, Secondary Natural Weapon, Double Weapon, Bow (longbow and shortbow), repeating crossbows (light and heavy), or non-proficient Light weapon.
Weapon Speed 7	Finessable Two-Handed Weapon.
Weapon Speed 9	Two-Handed Weapon, or non-proficient One-handed or Double weapon.
Weapon Speed 10	Finessable non-proficient two-handed weapon
Weapon Speed 12	Non-proficient Two-Handed Weapon.

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