Hello, all. I haven't played D&D since, well, many years ago, but I am trying to figure out the rules for the 3.5 game. I am a bit confused on base attack bonus progression. Can one of you tell me if I have the basic idea?
1) At level 20, a fighter has +20/+15/+10/+5 (this one is in the player's handbook)
2) At epic levels, the rules change: +1 BAB every odd-numbered level
3) At level 21, the same fighter would be at 21/16/11/6/1 --- adding a fifth attack (which seems silly. I can't imagine that would ever hit anything unless you got extremely lucky and rolled a 20).
4) At level 29, the same fighter would be at 25/20/15/10/5
Am I doing that correctly? I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a fifth attack, though, because the rules change once the epic levels start coming.
Pretty much everything is correct, save Base Attack Bonus progression actually stops at level 20, and at all levels beyond 20 gets exchanged for something called Epic Attack Bonus, or EAB. Epic Attack Bonus functions exactly as Base Attack Bonus in all respects save for one; it does not provide iterative attacks, therefore the fighter would not get a fifth attack at level 21, and indeed would gain no more attacks from Epic Attack Bonus, even if he got to level 10,000 or something like that. That doesn't mean that it isn't possible to gain extra attacks through stuff like haste though. Just EAB doesn't provide extra attacks.
Thank you for your prompt reply and for the clarification. A lot of things are different from when I used to play; it's nice to know there is a forum for my confusion 
Just curious, are you planning to start at 21st level? That is about the worst place to start a 3.5 game for new players, and it is very confusing. I'd recomend against it, but I'll also encourgae you to post lots of questions here so that we can help as much as possible.
Keep in mind that if you're using the Epic Level Handbook, that's a 3.0 product, and so requires only a small degree of work to convert to 3.5, but it's still kind of a hassle.
What Krusk said is also true. If your group isn't familiar with 3.x, I don't recommend starting at epic. Lower levels are a great place to get your feet wet and familiarize yourself with how the more important basic elements work. If your group is fairly familiar with 3.x, then go for it. In any case, post lots of questions. Any that you or your players have.
Hi, fellas.
We certainly don't plan to start a 3.5 game at a high level. In fact, we're thinking of recreating our favorite characters from Level 1 as a way of re-living some of the grandest adventures of all time. I first considered taking our AD&D characters and converting them as we did from the original D&D system (some of these characters have been around for many, many years now and are, as a result, quite formidable), but we also recognize the quite steep learning curve from the old system to 3.5--it's much more complex and detailed than what we're used to.
My question was simply to make sure I had an understanding of how the progression works. So far i'm really enjoying the 3.5 stuff, though it may be a tad more convoluted and rules-heavy than we'll adhere to. For example, a small thing like determining if another party member is strong enough to pack out an unconscious player. In our game, things like that will just be assumed.
And I'm very happy to have the invitation to ask questions. Thank you for the warm welcome and the offer for advice. One thing we never had with the old system was a public forum for questions because the internet had not been invented yet. Your advice and your insights are quite valuable, and I appreciate you all taking your time to help me out.
Scott
Yes, 3.5e and even 4e are far more codified than previous versions. But all that means is that rules exist, your group does not HAVE to follow them. The point is that if a question arises, there is probably a "rule" in some book somewhere that answers it. This takes some of the adjudication responsibilities out of the DM's hands.
Taking your example of hauling an unconscious character, under the "rules as written" or RAW you are correct that a character without sufficient carrying capacity cannot shoulder a comrade and carry him/her out of a dungeon. But some here will ask the question, "what's the scenario that makes carrying that fallen comrade 'dramatic'?" If there is no dramatic question to be answered, no tension to get the task accomplished, then the task is mundane and just happens: it may take the scrawny wizard three hours to haul his fallen 300 pound and in full plate armor fighter buddy out of the dungeon but if the dungeon is clear of monsters and poses no danger, then those three hours pass, and the wizard accomplishes the goal.
The inverse is also true... if you are inexperienced level 1 may seem super deadly. I usually recomend groups start at level 3 so they have a couple of HP to survive occasional lucky blow. Although if you are used to older editions, you may be OK with that sort of thing, depending on your playstyle.
Krusk wrote:
Armor as DR increases lethality quite a bit. I don't recomend it at all if you want to make people live longer.
Krusk wrote: