[3.5] Scout/Ranger Swift Hunter and earning 2nd/3rd attacks

[bandizzle]

So I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find anything on it.

Anyway, I'm DMing a campaign (my first one) and we are all pretty inexperienced with the rules, and we only have one physical set of the books so it's kinda impossible for more than one of us to do research between sessions.

I have a player that has taken levels in ranger and scout, and he is wondering when he gets his second attack for his full attack action. He knows taking a full attack action won't grant him skirmish, but this matters when fighting enemies he knows he can't skirmish anyway.

Ranger gets his second attack at his full bonus -5 at level 6. Scout gets the same attack at his full bonus -5 at level 8. This character is 4 ranger/4 scout and he is arguing that he should have his second attack by now. In my understanding, he doesn't get an extra attack until he is 6 ranger(regardless of scout level). And if he chooses to go back to scout (which he wants to next level, unless he can't get his attack from ranger until 6th) he won't get his extra attack from scout until 6th level(regardless of ranger level).

So correct me if I'm wrong, but if he stays ranger 4 and continues on to scout, he will not get his second attack til his character is level 12.

[Big Fau]

He's right, he has 2 attacks. BAB cares about the total for the purposes of iterative attack values, so Scout 4 (BAB +3)/Ranger 4 (BAB +4) would have the same BAB has a Ranger 7 (+7/+2).

Assuming he stays with Ranger for the rest of his career (Scout 4/Ranger 16) he should have a BAB of +19/+14/+9/+4 and 4 attacks at minimum.

Edit: If you are limited by books, the d20 SRD is available online (I prefer d20srd.org (http://d20srd.org) due to the way it's formatted, but any of them work since they should all contain the same information). It wouldn't contain the Scout class or Swift Hunter feat, but it would contain basic rules like how BAB works.

[bandizzle]

Wow, really? Thank you for the clarification.

Knowing this would have completely changed some of my past decisions, specifically a warrior/barb build I had a bit back ><

[jedipilot24]

BAB stacks for iterative attacks; so if he has BAB+6, then he will get a second iterative attack regardless of his class mix.
Edit: I see someone beat me to it.

[DarkSonic1337]

You are wrong.

Characters gain iterative attacks when their bab reaches +6, +11, and +16

A character's bab is the SUM of the babs of all racial HD or class levels the character has (relevant for characters who have racial hit die, as they would still get bab and saves from those. See the individual racial HD for how much.)

Your player would have a bab of +7. 4 bab from ranger levels, and 3 bab from scout levels. Therefor he would have one iterative attack on his full attack.

edit:Swordsaged

[bandizzle]

Thanks guys so much for the fast response. I have a room full of gamers yelling I told you so at me right now lol

mid game as we speak

[Big Fau]

Wow, really? Thank you for the clarification.

Knowing this would have completely changed some of my past decisions, specifically a warrior/barb build I had a bit back ><

Even with the BAB, he's going to have an extremely hard time using more than one attack/round if he wants Skirmish. The Spring Attack tree in PH2, the Greater Manyshot feat, and Travel Devotion are the only decent ways that a Swift Hunter can really use. there's a couple of other ways, but those three are the ones that stand out (and in Spring Attack's case it still limits him to 3 attacks at most).

[ddude987]

Or a one level dip into barbarian for lion totem to gain pounce. With that he can full attack on a charge and get skirmish

[Dusk Eclipse]

A 1 level dip in Spirit Lion (Cchamp) Totem Barbarian (whirling frenzy (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/classFeatureVariants.htm#rageVariantWhirlingFrenzy ) not that optional) is pretty good on melee swift hunters, sure there are still some issues (difficult terrain, what do you do once you are adjacent to an enemy, etc), but it is a relatively cheap investment over Spring Attack or even Travel Devotion (which requires either multiple iterations of the feat or a dip into cleric).

Greater Manyshot (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#greaterManyshot) is the go-to option for ranged Swift hunters, you can't get it before level 9 though.