Attack (3.5e Skill)
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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.
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 8 | One-Handed Weapon, Secondary Natural Weapon, Double Weapon, Bow (longbow and shortbow), repeating crossbows (light and heavy), or non-proficient Light weapon. |
| Weapon Speed 12 | Two-Handed Weapon, or non-proficient One-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.
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, you simply locate the weapon's Speed number and divide that into your total Attack bonus with that weapon (Accounting for enhancement bonuses and so on). If you have extra points left over, those are extra attacks, but with a penalty equal to the difference between the remaining bonus and the weapon's Weapon Speed.
- A small 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, plus his +2 Dexterity bonus). If Bob makes a full attack with a Dagger (Weapon speed 4), his attack sequence would look like this: +25/+21/+17/+13/+9/+5/+1. An astonishing flurry of 7 attacks, but for only 1d4 damage each. Th average of 4 is 2, so that's an average of 14 damage assuming all attacks hit.
- If Bob decided to use a Longsword (Weapon speed 8), his attack sequence would be: +25/+17/+9/+1. This is high on the high end and low on the low end, but is not dissimilar to the standard +20/+15/+10/+5 sequence seen normally. As you can see the rate of attack is cut in half, but the resulting damage remains roughly the same, with the average damage being 16, because the average of 8 is 4.
- If Bob decided to use a Greatsword (Weapon Speed 12) he would only get three attacks, as follows: +25/+13/+1. That's only three attacks, and the last one would likely miss; But at a whopping 2d6 damage per swing, the average damage ends up being 18.
- And if Bob decided to attack with a two-handed weapon he's not familiar with (Weapon speed 16), he would likely only get one attack at +21 (Due to the nonproficiency penalty). However, with 14 points left over, he could attempt a clumsy second attack at a -2 penalty.
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.
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 variants of +1 to +5. The strength of the enchantment is subtracted from the weapon's Speed; But this cannot reduce the weapon's Speed below half of its original value.
For example, a +1 Speed IV Longsword would have a Weapon Speed of 4 (Since 8-4=4). However, a Dagger with the same enhancement could only have its speed reduced to Weapon Speed 2.
Thus, Speed retains its usefulness on heavier weaponry and makes smaller weapons even scarier, since if Bob used a +1 Speed II dagger, he'd have 13 attacks per round (Since 26 / 2 = 13).
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 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.
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 weapon, and make Weapon Focus uses 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).
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. Have the Speed enhancement continue to do what it already does instead of reducing the Weapon Speed of the weapon (Since with the Attack Skill Weapon Speed variant, Speed II is as high as you'll ever go on a Dagger, but with increments of 3, all you'll ever be able to drawn benefit from is Speed I).
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