Standard Sources of AB

[Learn34]

So as part of trying to understand how to actually play a martial in 3.5 (as opposed to just Move/Full attack and hope for the best), I need to learn some of the basics. In this case, i would like to ask what sources of Attack Bonus exist beyond BAB, Ability Mods, and Weapon Enhancement bonuses. Alternatively, ways to increase those. Alot of the lvl 20 martial builds I see claim an AB of ~41, but I can only see getting to 31-38, depending on Ability Mod & Enchancement. Everybody says the Wpn Focus/Specialization feats are a waste, but they're the only thing I can think of to fill the gap.

[Karl Aegis]

Morale: Inspire Courage, Aid, Heroism, Knight's Challenge
Luck: Divine Favor
Circumstance: Higher Ground
Sacred: Law Devotion
Insight: Precognitive Visions, Pact Augmentation
Competence: Bracers of Archery, Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone
Untyped: Charge

[Allanimal]

Morale: Inspire Courage, Aid, Heroism, Knight's Challenge
Luck: Divine Favor
Circumstance: Higher Ground
Sacred: Law Devotion
Insight: Precognitive Visions, Pact Augmentation
Competence: Bracers of Archery, Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone
Untyped: Charge

Good list. There’s also bonuses from flanking and from aid another. Haste gives an untyped +1.
I’m sure there are more. Definitely lots of spells.

[tyckspoon]

Baseline:
20 levels in full BAB classes, +20
Str 30 (Some combination of base stats and racial bonus, up to +5 points from leveling up, +6 Enhancement items, +5 Inherent), +10
Weapon Enhancement, +5
Pale Green Ioun Stone, +1 (Competence)

That totals up at +36. You can go higher, certainly - That's a fairly lowball Strength estimate, for example, and could be 4 to 6 points higher without too much sacrifice made by optimizing racial selection for Strength or finding some unusual bonus types to add to it.

Conditional, but condition should be easy to achieve most of the time:
Hasted, +1 - either buy Boots of Speed, be a gish and cast it yourself, or have a party member cast it. It's a keystone spell just for the extra attack anyways.
Flanked enemy, +2
Making a Charge, +2 (most of the time you'll probably either have Charged or benefit from Flanking.)

That gets you to +39 that you can expect to use in most every fight. After that you're looking at either getting spell support, going book-diving for more obscure magic items with rarer bonus types to stack, or being a class with decent features. (Note - if you're a Fighter 20 you can actually do a lot worse than taking Weapon Focus - Weapon Specialization - Melee Weapon Mastery [DMG2], for a total of +3 to hit and +4 damage. Greater Weapon Focus/Weapon Spec probably still not worth it, depending on how many more of your feats you need to pull off your chosen shtick.) Barbarians can Rage for as much as +8 Str for another +4 to hit, bringing them easily over the +40 mark. Paladins can self-buff with spells (Battle Blessing feat makes all their spells Quickened, so they can drop a Divine Favor or similar before charging in) or Turn Undead-fueled Devotion feats like Law or Animal Devotion. Gishes get the usual self-buff spells, and arcane ones can use the Arcane Strike feat to transfer spell slots directly into +to-hit and damage.

[Telonius]

Size (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/movementPositionAndDistance.htm#bigandLittleCreatu resInCombat) bonus is one that can make a difference, if your build doesn't care about Strength for your attack bonus. (Small characters with Weapon Finesse, for example).

[ViperMagnum357]

(Note - if you're a Fighter 20 you can actually do a lot worse than taking Weapon Focus - Weapon Specialization - Melee Weapon Mastery [DMG2], for a total of +3 to hit and +4 damage. Greater Weapon Focus/Weapon Spec probably still not worth it, depending on how many more of your feats you need to pull off your chosen shtick.) Barbarians can Rage for as much as +8 Str for another +4 to hit, bringing them easily over the +40 mark. Paladins can self-buff with spells (Battle Blessing feat makes all their spells Quickened, so they can drop a Divine Favor or similar before charging in) or Turn Undead-fueled Devotion feats like Law or Animal Devotion. Gishes get the usual self-buff spells, and arcane ones can use the Arcane Strike feat to transfer spell slots directly into +to-hit and damage.

If you are seriously considering straight Fighter, like as one side in a gestalt, you can look at the Kensai variant from Dragon #310. You trade away your first level Bonus Feat along with most of your proficiencies, but you get to specialize in one martial or exotic weapon (and gain proficiency). At level 1, you get +1 to attack and damage rolls with that weapon, increasing to +2 at Fighter 5 and increasing by +1 every five Fighter levels thereafter, reaching +5 at level 20. That stacks with the Weapon Focus/Specialization line and Melee Weapon Mastery; if you took all 5 feats, that is +4/+6 added to +5/+5 for a total of +9 attack/+11 damage at level 20. Not much for a Charger, but hell on wheels for a TWF/MWF build scrounging for every point of damage and AB.

[Nifft]

So as part of trying to understand how to actually play a martial in 3.5 (as opposed to just Move/Full attack and hope for the best), I need to learn some of the basics. In this case, i would like to ask what sources of Attack Bonus exist beyond BAB, Ability Mods, and Weapon Enhancement bonuses. Alternatively, ways to increase those. Alot of the lvl 20 martial builds I see claim an AB of ~41, but I can only see getting to 31-38, depending on Ability Mod & Enchancement. Everybody says the Wpn Focus/Specialization feats are a waste, but they're the only thing I can think of to fill the gap. Weapon Focus can be a valid choice, given how much hitting matters, and given how flexible and efficient Power Attack is at converting to-hit bonus into damage bonus.

Weapon Specialization isn't worth taking, unless you need it to unlock something better.


Size (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/movementPositionAndDistance.htm#bigandLittleCreatu resInCombat) bonus is one that can make a difference, if your build doesn't care about Strength for your attack bonus. (Small characters with Weapon Finesse, for example).

I remember seeing a halfling psychic warrior spiked chain tripper at least once. This guy used the +1 from Dex and +1 from Size to get +4 damage (Power Attack) which more than compensated for the -1.5 Str damage and -1 weapon size damage penalties.

Plus he could just not power attack when he preferred hitting right now over amortized DPR.