Attack Bonus progression

I've gone ahead and charted out the attack bonus progression in a little table to compare and discuss what the proposed changes will mean to the game.  It's also important to remember that when attack bonuses pass  a multiple of 5 the character gets an extra attack so it really is a powerful metric for determining PC power levels. 

Attack Bonus progression by level

Currently Fighters get +1 to hit to start and +1 to hit every 3 levels.  This means by level 20 they will have a +27 to hit which is way too much I think.  When I was tweaking the Microlite class definitions this slipped by me obviously, however even Microlite has a huge +25 for Fighters at level 20.  That amounts to +21/+16/+11/+6/+1 or 5 attacks at level 21. As for the non-fighters - well they do even better when compared against their counterparts in other systems.

Compare these progressions to Pathfinder attack bonuses where the Fighter gets an attack bonus equal to his level (so +10 at level 10 and +20 at level 20) - this is what the magic users in Beacon and Microlite get.  And then spells on top of that.  The Pathfinder Sorcerer has to make due with half that amount (+5@10 and +10@20).  So you can see why I'm proposing the new progression in the middle of the chart.

Now all the additional feats and powers in other d20 systems might make the comparison a bit harder, and indeed this is the reason behind the steep increase in Microlite, however I think that the Microlite and the current Beacon progressions are much too steep even given this and that they give way too much innate attack power to non-fighter classes.  It's very tempting to take it even further and steal a page from Lamentations of the Flame Princess where non-fighters don't get any attack bonus increases at all.  However I think that jacking back on the increases as outlined here takes it far enough to make me happy.  You have to remember that there are still also a butt tonne of magical ways for players to bump up their dice rolls.

I'm still on the fence on whether Clerics should get +1 every two levels like the Rogue and Hunter or if they should get the same progression as the other magic wielding classes -  On the one hand I like the idea of the holy crusader smashing heads, however it certainly isn't necessary given that magic itself is a big benefit and clerics have ways to buff themselves up.  Perhaps a preferential bonus for a special holy weapon?  Erp! The complexity level is now rising, so I think I better give it some more thought.