Another # of attacks question

[Tigg]

I am sorry to clutter the boards with another question along these lines but I cannot find the answer to this anywhere... I have been challenged to make a level 40 build and my question is very specific, it involves the ever-confusing monk attacks table.

If my build starts out as 10 monk/10 shadowdancer, then in epic levels becomes all the way to level 17 monk, will the # of attacks they get be what it says for 'level 17 monk'? Or will it be gimped somehow...? What is confusing to me is both, the effect of the shadowdancer levels pre-epic, and also if a monk can progress higher on the # of attacks chart during epic, if they have taken other class levels pre-epic. I know normally you cannot get more attacks after epic but monks seem to work different so I thought maybe.

So here is a chance for someone with a lot of knowledge to show it, and to help! I do appreciate, thank you

[AUman]

Well, I'm not the someone with a lot of knowledge, but what I'd do, if I were you, would be to go to another module that has a "level upper" (typically the arena ones work pretty well) and make a character there and level him up and see for yourself.

[liephus]

The number of attacks your character will have is based on his Attack Bonus at level 20.

A 10 monk / 10 shadowdancer would have a BAB of 14, thus would have 5 attacks: +14/+11/+8/+5/+2

Regardless of what classes you take after that, his base attack scheme at level 40 would be: +24/+21/+18/+15/+12

[Wraethrax]

Your base attack bonus cannot give you extra attacks once you hit Epic. This holds for any class. You can only continue to gain attacks from BAB in pre Epic levels. You can gain extra attacks from stuff like Improved Two Weapon Fighting or Rapid Shot though.

This should answer your question about gaining more attacks and going to 17th level monk.

Another tidbit about Monks and multiclasing is that the Monk unarmed attack progression is that they get an extra attack for every +4 BAB. Whereas Fighter/Ranger/Barbarians/Etc get an extra attack every +6 BAB, Cleric/Druid/Shadowdancer/Etc every +8 BAB.

This get a little wonky once you have monk levels, because your base for extra attacks stays at the monk value (increments of +4 BAB) even if you only have 1 level of monk.

Example.
I'm a 10th level human Fighter 10/Monk 1. My BAB is +10 and I get 4 attacks per round (unarmed). If I were an 11th level Monk, my BAB would only be +8 and I would get 3 attacks per round (unarmed). So you see, by taking one level of monk and the rest in a class that gets +1 BAB per level, you can really jack youe # of attacks per round. However, you don't get all the other cool monk Feats.

As for gaining more BAB in epic, you continue to gain BAB at the standard rate. All classes gain BAB at the same rate in Epic levels.

[Tigg]

thanks!

[tindertwiggy]

BAB wise I would take monk to level 12 or 16. That with 8 or 4 SD levels will keep a smooth BAB progression and net a BAB of +15 at level 20. The 10/10 build has a hiccup when you transfer to SD and will only get you +14.

[Tigg]

I totally agree, the challenge placed to me though is to come up with the best overall build that gets both Self Conceal 5 and Epic Dodge. What I was coming up with was something with assassin 18 and shadowdancer 5, and needing to have taken epic dodge at either 21, 24, or 27, and needing to have assassin 14 by 30 to get great dex bonus feat. Sticking with elf for the race so far, for awhile I was going ranger to start with which I think I may go back to for the higher AB and cat's grace, however I thought it would be nice maybe to get the free IKD and improved evasion too among other monk stuff. Who cares if you have IKD if you can't hit anything... hmm, could always go rogue-based but the HP and AB do suffer so...

Anyways I will stop spewing this babble now, heheh. I'm really not a PGer!! it is just a fun excercise, kind of like a NWN puzzle or something...