Full BAB classes with Gather Information

[Lathund]

Hello good sirs and ladies. In the 3.5 campaign I'm currently in, one of my fellow players is plotting a new character. I'm helping him a bit. He wants to play a Justiciar, and to qualify he needs 5 ranks of Gather Information as well as +6 BAB. Are there any classes that have both full BAB and Gather Information?

NB: We've looked into the Thug fighter ACF, but for some reason, the DM won't allow that (no clue why btw, usually he's quite lenient).

As a side note, he also wants a good selection of skills. Most of his pre-justiciar levels will be Ranger levels.

[Spuddles]

Fairly certain urban ranger gets gather information and even uses it for urban tracking. On the SRD.

[RoyVG]

Confirming Urban ranger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#rangerVariantUrbanRang er)

[tiercel]

Problem with urban ranger: loses Survival as a class skill, also loses Track feat. (Justiciar prereqs include Track and 5 ranks of Survival as well as Gather Info, plus its 10th level ability is powered by Survival checks; you could burn a feat to get Track back but trading one skill problem for another doesn't really help.)

Easiest solution is if you can get the Cityscape web enhancement (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) in play, then the Skilled City-Dweller ACF allows you trade Handle Animal for Gather Info (as well as Ride for Tumble).

Note that ACF works for any class, so if your player wanted to dip Fighter or Barbarian he could trade their Handle Animal skill for Gather Info as well.

If that enhancement is in play, you can still get some of the other features of the urban ranger with the Rival Organization ACF (trade favored enemy for favored organization -- depends on your campaign/DM); you need Track anyway but taking Urban Tracking as a feat as well would fit the idea of a Justiciar. If you're not already using another ACF to trade away your animal companion, you should probably strongly consider Urban Companion ACF (basically gives you a familiar, whose HP and skills continue to advance even when you leave the ranger class).

I suppose there must be some full BAB PrC with Gather Info as a class skill, if you wanted to simply take 5 levels of vanilla ranger, then dip 1 level of PrC (which gives at least 5 skill points after Int mod/human bonus if applicable, dumping 5 points into Gather Info). Mechanically I don't think that Justiciar NEEDS Gather Info, especially if you have regular Track and not Urban Tracking, though it seems like something that would be nice to have, given you're hunting down criminals and get bonuses to the skill.

[Diovid]

Any class with Handle Animal as a class skill can trade it for Gather Information: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a

Edit: Swordsage'd.

[Telonius]

If the Cityscape swap isn't allowed, and if he's a Half-Orc, Menacing Brute (from Races of Destiny) gets Gather Information and full BAB. It has a +5 BAB requirement and gives 4+Int skill points, so he could take it right before Justicar. Fairly easy skill prereqs, especially if it's a Ranger entry.

[GeekGirl]

Unearthed Arcana has the Warrior class (Not to be confused with NPC) full BAB, bonus feats every other level (like fighter but not fighter feats only) and you get to pick the class skills.

[dysprosium]

Since it has not been mentioned yet, if he takes the Apprentice (criminal) feat from the DMG II het gets Gather Information (and Bluff) as class skills.

The fluff could be something like he was raised in a criminal family (actual or adopted)but decided that he was not going to follow in his family's footsteps.

It's a first level feat only though so take that into consideration.

[Urpriest]

Also note that even if you don't have Gather Information as a class skill, you're only delaying entry by one level.

[BowStreetRunner]

The City Slicker feat from Races of Destiny gives Disguise, Forgery, Gather Information, and Knowledge (local) as class skills.